"...One of the most helpful tools yet to come along for the aspiring romance novelist". -- Mesa Tribune To be successful, aspiring romance writers need more than a raging passion. They need the professional know-how, found in this book, that puts them on the inside track of the romance novel industry

"If you fall in love with a monster, remember he'll always be vicious."I met a boy in the dead of the night and hoped he would save me from the dark.When I lost the last person that cared for me, I ran straight into the arms of his family.The Italian Mob.It was no place for a naïve girl. I grew up and earned my place. Everyone within the family accepted me quickly-all except him.To him, I didn't belong.And he made that clear by being the monster everyone knew him to be:Cruel, ruthless, and cold.My gut told me to leave, but my soul wanted to stay. I gravitated toward the man no one seemed to understand because no one understood me either.I handed my heart to a monster, and he ripped it apart.

Long before clinch covers and bodice rippers, romance novels had a bad reputation as the lowbrow lit of desperate housewives and hopeless spinsters. But why were these books-the escape and entertainment of choice for millions of women-singled out for scorn and shame? Dangerous Books for Girls examines the secret history of the genre's bad reputation-from the "damned mob of scribbling women" in the nineteenth century to the sexy mass-market paperbacks of the twentieth century-and shows how romance novels have inspired and empowered generations of women to dream big, refuse to settle, and believe they're worth it. For every woman who has ever hidden the cover of a romance-and every woman who has been curious about those "Fabio books"-Dangerous Books For Girls shows why there's no room for guilt when reading for pleasure.

Takes the budding romance novelist through the entire process of developing story ideas, editing, finding publishers, and marketing.

School and public libraries often provide programs and activities for children in preschool through the sixth grade, but there is little available to young adults. For them, libraries become a place for work—the place to research an assignment or find a book for a report—but the thought of the library as a place for enjoyment is lost. So how do librarians recapture the interest of teenagers? This just might be the answer. Here you will find theme-based units (such as Cartoon Cavalcade, Log On at the Library, Go in Style, Cruising the Mall, Space Shots, Teens on TV, and 44 others) that are designed for young adults. Each includes a display idea, suggestions for local sponsorship of prizes, a program game to encourage participation, 10 theme-related activities, curriculum tie-in activities, sample questions for use in trivia games or scavenger hunts, ideas for activity sheets, a bibliography of related works, and a list of theme-related films. The units are highly flexible, allowing any public or school library to adapt them to their particular needs.

In this work, Kay Mussell and Johanna Tu n collect essays by contemporary North American romance authors who have come to prominence, directly or indirectly, as a result of the huge change in the field of romance writing which started in the early 1980s. New publishing houses began to compete with Harlequin, and the North American romance novel came into its own as a genre. In their essays on their own work, each of the writers in this volume describes her own "take" on the romance novel today and how she has adapted the form to accommodate her own voice and concerns. Collectively, these writers have used the romance genre to address a broad range of social issues and problems. Presenting these essays together provides a window into the creativity and originality of some of the best writers in the field.

ENHANCE YOUR CHANCES OF GETTING YOUR NOVEL PUBLISHED WITH THIS ONE-OF-A-KIND GUIDE Writers often spend years perfecting their first novel—then hit a dead end when it comes to getting it published. Learning to market your novel will make it stand out from the thousands of other books clamoring for the attention of an ever shrinking number of publishers. In this book, Elizabeth Lyon offers the wisdom of more than twenty years of experience as an author, book editor, writing instructor, and marketing consultant. Step-by-step, she details what editors want, what questions to ask them, and how to develop a marketing strategy. You will learn: · How to categorize your novel, and the sixteen ways of describing it · Nine ways of selling your novel · Descriptions of the jobs of literary agent, editor, and writer · Examples of actual story synopses, and successful query letters—in all the genres · How to prepare sample chapters · Thirty questions a writer needs to ask a prospective agent