NYT and USAT bestselling author and screenwriter, Cindy Dees, brings her formidable skills as a master storyteller and master writing teacher to this encyclopedic series analyzing the major tropes used in modern commercial fiction. In this volume, Cindy explores 33 iconic internal romance tropes, the stories of personal affliction, wounds, fears, and personality traits that form obstacles to love inside the hearts and minds of your characters. Written by a working writer for working writers, this is a comprehensive reference guide and brainstorming tool to help you quickly generate ideas, create characters and plot, revise and edit, brand and market your story. You’ll write faster, cleaner, and deliver your audience a story they’ll recognize and love. If you’re writing a novel, script, play, comic, graphic novel, video game script, or any other story format, this book is for you. If you’re writing a love story specifically, or you’re writing any genre of fiction in which you’d like to include a romantic relationship, this book is for you. Each trope entry includes: · a detailed definition and analysis · descriptions of all obligatory scenes necessary to structure this trope correctly · lists of additional key scenes important to this trope · an extensive list of questions to think about when writing this trope · an extensive list of traps to avoid when writing this trope · reasons why audiences love this trope · a list of similar tropes · a list of examples of each trope in action taken from television, film, and novels …every kind of writer in every genre of fiction is going to want these guides in their go-to reference books… …a tour de force how-to on creating stories audiences adore… …the books every writer has been waiting for—a comprehensive walk-through by an industry pro of everything to think about when building a story of pretty much any kind…

Don't miss this classic romance by New York Times bestselling author Penny Jordan! She would not be seduced! A pretty woman with no head for business? Christa Bellingham had worked hard to banish this image of herself. Did that mean that she now came across as too outspoken particularly about men? She had learned the hard way that men were not to be trusted. And Daniel Geshard’s line of business attracted the worst of deceivers. He said Christa’s cynicism was a disguise and he could teach her to trust. Daniel seemed so genuine, but didn’t he have a lot to gain if he could win her over? Originally published in 1995

Rayna Thompson’s entire life is a lie. She avoids relationships as if they were the plague – mainly because the people who get close to her wind up dead. And yet her newest next door neighbor, the sexy, stoic Jack Stone, is making her want to break all her rules. The problem is, he’s a cop, and she doesn’t know how long it will take before her past catches up to her and all her secrets are revealed. Jack believes in law and order. He keeps his work life separate from his personal life. Not that he has much of a personal life as a Detective with the Jackson Hole Police Department; most of it is relegated to the private lifestyle club where he is a member. However, during his latest assignment, he begins to blur the lines between professional and personal. Rayna pushes each of his boundaries and makes him question everything he knows about the law and what he’s willing to do for love. Will their newfound relationship survive when her past comes back to haunt them? Publisher’s Note: This steamy, suspense-filled contemporary romance contains themes of power exchange. While it is part of the best-selling Cuffs & Spurs series, it can be read and enjoyed as a standalone.

Talking pancreases, fake superhero trials , God-like insurance salesmen, teenaged congressgirls, bovine genealogists, sausage lore, the forgotten history of the American canine electorate, and gynecological street gangs all guest star in this ode to the vortex of weird that we call twenty-first century America. Bowen Craig, author of Keeping Away From the Joneses, explores the stranger aspects of modern life through the lens of an aging pirate. Four out of five mental patients agree that A Look To The Future Through The Eyes of an Eighty Year Old Pirate is a ...book...read...good.

A candid autobiography of the great rock diva of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship, revealing her wild life at the forefront of the Sixties and Seventies counterculture. She has been called rock and roll's original female outlaw, as famous for her bad behavior as for her haunting singing voice. In her 25-year career as a musician, Grace Slick charted dozens of hits and sold millions of albums. From "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love" to "Sarah" and "Miracles", the songs she performed became the anthems of a generation. Whether describing her antics at the White House with Abbie Hoffman or the unforgettable experience that was Woodstock, Slick's recollections have the same rich imagery found in her lyrics. In this provocative narrative, readers will discover the many sides of Grace Slick: as artistic pioneer; she records songs with Jerry Garcia and David Crosby; as practitioner of freedom and rebellion; she sleeps with Jim Morrison and gets arrested for DUI on three separate occasions (without actually being in a car); and as a loving mother to actress China Kantner, she tries to balance casual friendship with parental wisdom. Slick offers a revealing self-portrait of the complex woman behind the rock-outlaw image, and delivers a behind-the-scenes, no-holds-barred view of the people and spirit that defined a quarter-century of American pop culture. Wildly funny, candid, and evocative, Somebody to Love?tells what it was really like during, and after, the Summer of Love-and how one remarkable woman survived it all to remain today as vibrant and rebellious as ever.