#InkRipples~Genres~ ROMANCE

Welcome back to another week of #InkRipples. This month, we’re talking genres, and with Valentine’s Day tomorrow, what better genre to start with than Romance?

When you pick up a romance novel, you know that when you get to the end of the book, no matter what challenges the couple faces throughout the story, that they will end up together (at least for now.) Romances are all about the relationship. Even the sub genres, and there are many, have the relationship as the main plot line.

Romantic mystery, romantic suspense, romantic intrigue, contemporary romance, historical romance are all sub genres of the romance category. The key is that first word—

Sure, there could be a mystery to solve, a plot to foil, a king to save, or a store to open, but those all take a back seat to the relationship building between the two main characters. If the relationship is not the main story line, then it isn’t actually a romance…even if there is a relationship component to the story.

Nora Roberts is a romance author, but her books written as JD Robb, while they contain relationship components you would find in a romance, are not romances. They are actually suspense, or if you want to put in a sub genre, suspense romance (notice that romance is now the second word, meaning the suspense part takes the main storyline.)

This is how I knew that The Boyfriend Project was a romance, and that Faery Marked belonged in fantasy. Both contain romantic story lines, but the main story line in Faery Marked wasn’t the relationship, it was magic and the Faery realm. 

What are your thoughts? Is this too simple a way to look at genre? Share in the comments below. 

Be sure to stop back next week for a look at what makes a book a mystery.

#InkRipples is a themed meme hosted by Katie L. Carroll, Kai Strand, and me, Mary Waibel. We post on the first Monday of every month. If you would like to participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, include any of the images displayed on the #InkRipples tab above, and link back to our three blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #InkRipples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation.

This year's topics are:

February: Genres
March: Tropes
April: Revision
May: Fairy Tales
June: Blurbs
July: Heroes/Villains
August: Author Options in Publishing
September: World Building
October: Career vs Hobby
November: Finishing that Book!
December: Goals

GHOST TOUCH Exclusive!!

Today is a special day on the blog. I have been asked to host an exclusive, sneak peek at the new cover for LA Dragoni's Ghost Touch. 

If you love romance, especially with a ghostly paranormal bent, then this is the book for you. Scroll on past the curtain for the gorgeous cover and an excerpt to whet your appetite for more!!

For fifteen minutes each night a portal opens in Tamara’s barn and a horde of ghosts spills into her yard. She and Dex work together to find a way to help Cal and the thousands of spirits stuck in the void to cross over. When she learns she has the ghost touch—the ability to touch the ghosts as if they were corporeal—and she accidentally helps a little boy cross, she believes it might be possible. But not all the spirits play nice and when they learn they can sip energy from her ghost touch, they become greedy putting her life at risk.

Each time Cal has to pull her from the mass of ghosts, her touch restores him more and more until he is at danger of being stuck on earth—forever, which is very enticing to Tamara the better she knows him. Will she and Dex figure out how to help the spirits cross and if they do, will she be able to let Cal go?

This new adult paranormal romance is available in ebook, and audiobook from Amazon, and now available in print!

Also available on Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iTunes, and other e-tailers.

Excerpt:

      The newest face in Tamara’s latest nightmare was about to be revealed when a loud SLAM woke her. Still anxious from the events of the night before, Tamara had slept lightly all night. She pulled the shotgun from where she’d tucked it under her bed, slipped into a pair of sneakers and headed out to the barn. The hairs on the back of her neck rose when she found Ruff cowering and whimpering in front of the doors where he’d sat menacingly the night before. She hesitated as she drew up next to him. A faint blue light seeped through the crack between the large doors. There were no windows on the front of the building, so there was no way she could know who was in there or where they were. Even though it would be embarrassing, she decided to call the police again.
     As she turned toward the house, the large barn doors swung open. Her heart kicked into high gear. She leveled the shotgun, pointing it straight at the doors as they glided open on their own accord, hoping the sight of the gun would be enough to scare the intruder away.
     An unnatural blue-white light spilled outward, making her squint. Blinding bright in the center, it faded to murky shadows in the corners. Tamara’s heart all but stopped when shapes developed within the bright center. A crowd of people surged forward, scattering in all directions across her yard.
     There were so many. Panic filled Tamara while she tried to figure out what to do, how to defend herself against so many. Who were all these people? Why had they been in her barn? Why is that man digging?
     “Hey, stop!” she yelled.
     A woman in a torn red dress stumbled up the hill reminding Tamara of herself in last night’s dream. The woman’s long blond hair streamed behind her in the windless night. She continually glanced over her shoulder, a terrified expression gnarling her beautiful face, though no one pursued her.
    Then a single man sauntered forward, his attention intent on Tamara. The bright light behind him made it impossible for her to make out any detail, but his manner seemed equal parts commanding and relaxed. Her heart fluttered madly, and she felt the muzzle of the rifle dip toward the ground as she considered fleeing. A flat, wide-brimmed cowboy hat sat straight on his head. Well-worn leather chaps covered his bowed legs. Strange clicking noises accompanied him across the lawn. As he drew closer his image sharpened. When Tamara saw his face, she lowered the gun barrel. “Sheesh, I am dreaming.”
     She looked into the skinless face of her latest nightmare.
     “Ma’am, I can assure you, this is no dream.”

Reviews:

LA Dragoni weaves several interesting and unique premises about the afterlife into this story -- and the love triangle is only two parts living! The story has eerie, vivid descriptions of the ghosts, and the emotional turmoil of all three of the main characters is very well defined. Dragoni provides an awesome villain to hate and then masterfully manages to change the reader's opinion of the villain.

There are several twists and surprises in the plot, and the ending is satisfying but absolutely leaves questions that hopefully will be answered in a subsequent novel.

-Hall Ways blog

About the author: LA Dragoni isn’t too particular about who falls in love or where they fall in love. She simply considers it her job to capture the story about their love. Whether it’s paranormal, mythical, or time travel, LA will be there to divine their story for you. She lives in Central Oregon with her husband and children, but haunts ghost towns and cemeteries up and down the west, in search of the next adventure to sift through her storytelling brain. Follow LA on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to her mailing list and learn more about LA and her work at www.ladragoni.com

#InkRipples~Genres

This month #InkRipples is tackling the topic of genres. After an author has written their novel, they need to decide what genre it belongs in.

Sometimes choosing the correct genre can seem confusing, especially if the story contains elements from more than one genre. Let’s take a look at the genre possibilities.

According to Wikipedia, the main classical genres of writing are:

• Fiction
• Comedy
• Drama
• Horror
• Non-fiction
• Realistic fiction
• Romance 
• Satire
• Tragedy
• Tragicomedy
• Fantasy

That’s quite a list!

My writing and reading preferences tend to fall into three genres. They are:

• Romance
• Mystery
• Fantasy

So, how do I know where my story belongs? Throughout the month, we’ll take a look at these three genres to see why a story belongs there. Come join me next week for a look at romance!!

Don't forget to check out Katie L. Carroll, Kai Strand and the other #InkRipples posters (follow the tag on Twitter and Facebook!) Want to join in? Keep reading for more information.

Ripples in the Inkwell is a themed meme hosted by Katie L. Carroll, Kai Strand, and me, Mary Waibel. We post on the first Monday of every month. If you would like to participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, include any of the images displayed on the #InkRipples tab above, and link back to our three blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #InkRipples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation.

This year's topics are:

February: Genres
March: Tropes
April: Revision
May: Fairy Tales
June: Blurbs
July: Heroes/Villains
August: Author Options in Publishing
September: World Building
October: Career vs Hobby
November: Finishing that Book!
December: Goals

#InkRipples~Book covers

Happy New Year!!!! 

I drifted away from posting during 2016, but am back and looking forward to sharing my thoughts again in 2017.

And what better post for the first of the year than an #Inkripples post.

Today's topic: Book covers.

Book covers are more complicated than you may realize. After all, one glance must not only catch the eye of a prospective reader and entice them to pick up the book to read, but it must also reveal the genre and a subtle hint of the story.

If you're looking for a thriller, you aren't going to pick up a book with flowery script and a picture of a man in a suit and top hat with a woman in a belle of the ball gown, are you? No, because the cover is revealing that you're holding a romance (and most likely, a period romance.)

Color, font, and images are all used to help a reader know at a glance what the book they are looking at is going to be about. 

This was an important thing for me to learn when I worked with the cover artist for my first book. I answered a series of questions about my book, about what I'd like to see on the cover, and some covers that I liked that were in the same genre as I was writing.

I had always thought that book covers needed to represent a specific scene from the story, but that isn't true. A great book cover will capture the essence of the story through the colors, font, and images the cover artist uses. And it is much harder to do this than you think!

Do you agree that book covers are more complicated than they first appear? What are some of your favorite covers and why? Share in the comments below!  

Ripples in the Inkwell is a themed meme hosted by Katie L. Carroll, Kai Strand, and me, Mary Waibel. We post on the first Monday of every month. If you would like to participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, include any of the images displayed on the #InkRipples tab above, and link back to our three blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #inkripples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation.

This year's topics are:

January: Book covers
February: Genres
March: Tropes
April: Revision
May: Fairy Tales
June: Blurbs
July: Heroes/Villains
August: Author Options in Publishing
September: World Building
October: Career vs Hobby
November: Finishing that Book!
December: Goals

#InkRipples~Cookies

Wow!  It's hard to believe I've been away from the blog for FOUR MONTHS!!! What have I been doing? Spending lots of time with my family and doing a lot of nothing. Catching up on some TV shows, a little reading, and lots of just hanging around. In other words, I was taking a much needed break.  But, now it's time to get back into the swing of things.

Katie, Kai, and I have been talking about #Inkripples topics for 2017, and I realized how much I've missed posting these last few months. I'm very excited about the upcoming topics, and hope you will be too!

But, before we get there, we have the last 2016 topic to tackle. Cookies.

Cookies are great! In fact, I indulged in two at work today (a wonderful and unexpected gift from a hockey-mom friend). Another great thing about cookies? Recipe swaps. One of the things I always enjoyed on my early twenties was getting the holiday themed romance book collection (3-5 stories in one book) with recipes from the authors. And if the food (cookie or pie or cake) was worked into the story, even better.

While I haven't worked a cookie recipe into a book (although there is a loose mac and cheese recipe in The Boyfriend Project) I thought I'd share a couple of holiday go to's for me.

Buckeyes:
This recipe has been passed down through my family and are a yearly favorite.  You may know them better as Peanut Butter Balls.

1/4 cup margerine
 2 cups confectioner's sugar
 2 cups peanut butter
 2 cups rice crispies
 Almond bark (or chocolate chips and wax), melted

Cream first three ingredients.  Add rice crispies.  Mix well.  Roll into balls.  Refrigerate 2 hours.  Dip in melted chocolate and set on wax paper.  Store in refrigerator. Notes:  When dipping them in the chocolate, we always stab the peanut butter ball in the center with a toothpick and dip it in the chocolate, leaving a small circular area uncovered- it makes it kind of look like an eye (hence the name).

Snickerdoodles
 My son recently mentioned that this is his favorite cookie, so I see a batch of these in the near future! This recipe is from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book.

1 cup shortening (part butter or margarine)          
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 1/2 cups sugar  
1 tsp. baking soda
 2 eggs
1/4 tsp. salt 
2 3/4 cups flour
2 Tbsp. sugar  
2 tsp. cinnamon

Heat oven to 400.  Mix shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, and eggs thoroughly.  Blend flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.  Stir in.  Shape dough in 1" balls.  Roll in mixture of cinnamon and sugar.  Place 2" apart on ungreased baking sheet.  Bake 8-10 minutes.  These cookies puff up at first, then flatten out.  Makes 6 dozen cookies.

 What are your favorite cookie recipes? Share in the comments below!! Be sure to check out Katie and Kai's posts. And stay tuned for the 2017 #Inkripple topics!!

Ripples in the Inkwell is a themed meme hosted by Katie L. Carroll, Kai Strand, and me, Mary Waibel. We post on the first Monday of every month. If you would like to participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, include any of the images displayed on the #InkRipples tab above, and link back to our three blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #inkripples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation.