Philosophy of Romance

Announcing: “Philosophy of Romance” Book of the Year for 2011:

2012-01-17T10:51:00.002-06:00

"The Officer’s Secret" -- an ‘Ideal Romantic Suspense Novel’!

One of the Best Love Inspired Suspense Romances I've Ever Read!

"The Officer’s Secret"

Debby Giusti

Steeple Hill Love Inspired Suspense

Miniseries: Military Investigations Book 1
May, 2011, 224 pages

(Book 2 "The Captian's Mission" now Available
Read Review of "The Captian's Mission")

"The Officer’s Secret" was an easy standout choice for the Philosophy of Romance “Book of the Year” Award. When I first wrote my review, back in May, I called it the "Best Love Inspired Suspense Romance I’ve ever read. I’m still as enthusiastic about the book today as I was back then. I have been watching this author since I read her Christmas novella, "Yule Die" in the "Christmas Peril" , December 2009, Love Inspired romance. I thought "Yule Die" was the perfect novella and I have been using it as a model for my own novellas.

The Philosophy of Romance “Book of the Year” is not awarded simply because I liked the book better than any of the other books I’ve reviewed during the past year. There’s more to it. The winner of our “Book of the Year” must be demonstrably excellent! In other words, there must be many praiseworthy elements of the book that I can point to as proof of the book's excellence.

Excellence at Every Level!

“The Officer’s Secret” is a paradigm Romantic Suspense novel. It does everything it should do and it does it well. The story was strong enough to sell the publisher on the multibook Military Investigations series. That is very strong in today's competitive publishing market.

I can say this with enthusiasm because ‘The Officer’s Secret” is outstanding on three different levels: it’s an intriguing mystery, a breathtaking suspense story and a compelling romance. This is very unusual because normally there is not enough time in a suspense story to develop a satisfying romance. (Love Inspired Suspense Romances tend to be short format and take place over a few days.) In a suspense story the suspense action normally gets center stage. Moreover, there often is not a mystery to solve in a suspense. The 'suspense' often involves whether the hero and heroine will survive the threat that is causing the suspense.

The Tension Never Lets Up

“The Officer’s Secret” is a very good suspense story because there is the constant threat of death right up to the last page. To add even more suspense, the heroine’s dead sister warned her not to trust any of the authorities including the military police. Even the weather threatens to kill the hero and heroine! This story is about as suspenseful as a suspense gets!

There's a Real Mystery

The mystery is intricate and well plotted providing ample red herrings and logical twists and turns. I doubt that even hardened mystery fans will figure out ‘who done it’. I’m good at solving mysteries and I couldn’t do it. The romance also works well because both the hero and heroine are at turning points in their lives and both have suffered similar traumatic experiences. The hero and heroine are ideally suited for each other and it is enjoyable to watch them come to this realization in the story given all the trust issues and secrets they have. How could they fall in love in a few days? Because they are perfect for each other.

The Story:

The heroine, Maggie Bennett, finds her sister, a major in the Army, dead in the sister's attic -- an apparent suicide. Before she died she called her sister to come to the Army post and help her out of some problem. She was also told not to trust the authorities.

The hero, Nate Patterson, is a militarily policeman in the CID, criminal investigations division. Everyone seems convinced the sister’s death was a suicide. All evidence leans that way. However, Maggie is convinced it was murder and she tries her best to get Nate to investigate it as a murder. There's a problem however, because Maggie cannot trust the military police (who might be involved in a smuggling cover-up). As such, she can’t give Nate all the reasons for believing it might not be a suicide. Since Nate suspects that Maggie is holding back information, he has trust issues with her as well. If she is innocent why is she holding back information? Could Maggie be involved in the killing? Is that why she is really at the Army post?

Of course, if it is not a suicide, then there is a murder (or group of murders) out there with a good reason to kill anyone who might try and show the death was a murder. This puts both the hero and heroine under constant danger of death.

This is the first book in the author’s “Military Ingestions” series, (the Army version of NCIS). Actually, I liked this story better than the NCIS TV show and I used to be in the military police. The author was an 'Army brat' with excellent current military advisors in the family so she has all her military details down pat.

Don’t Miss This "Philosophy of Romance" Book of the Year Thriller Mystery!

5-Star Military Suspense!

"The Spy Who Loved Me" -- A MetaRomance

2012-01-15T14:55:00.011-06:00

This Post Is Currently Being Edited.

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2012-01-08T21:12:00.000-06:00

"Surely whoever speaks to me in the right voice
Him or her I shall follow."
Walt Whitman, Voices, Leaves of Grass

I'll Be Guest Blogging at Seekerville Friday, January 6th, 2012!

2012-01-04T16:44:00.002-06:00

Come Join The Fun at Seekerville Friday -- All Day!

The Topic Is:

"A Guy Writing Romance…

What’s So Funny About That"?

When I think of a guy writing romances it reminds me of the story of Dr. Johnson’s dog who could walk on his hind legs. As Dr. Johnson said: "It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."

This is actually a serious post about what women should want in a hero and what kind of behavior they should find romantic -- all from the point of view of natural selection and survival of the species.

Conslusion: women want exactaly what they should want in a hero from the point of view of natural selection and women also seek the kind of romantic behaviour that has the strongest survival value. Are women actually understandable? Read and find out!

‘Cognitive dissidence’:

An Alpha male

using an AlphaSmart

to write a Blaze

in a Blizzard.

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-30T08:23:00.000-06:00

“In an age of political correctness, media bias, and the prostitution of science, the truth is most likely to be found in the tabloids.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-29T07:49:00.000-06:00

“Authors who offer only style must be in want of patrons and academic sinecures.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-28T08:10:00.000-06:00

“One day in the future ten million Savonarolas will be dragged from their pulpits in academia and the fires that consume them will bring an end to the current dark age ushering in the second enlightenment.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-27T08:59:00.000-06:00

“It makes more sense to argue about the number of angels who can fit on the head of a pin than to go gaga over a four hundred word sentence.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-26T08:11:00.000-06:00

“When style is everything, content is nothing.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-25T09:43:00.000-06:00

“The post-modernists, with their love of four hundred word sentences and their three dozen individually named sentence structures have replaced substance with form and art with artifice. Literary writing today is a rococo art awaiting a return to substance.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-23T08:09:00.001-06:00

“A synopsis is like Don Quixote’s mirror: it forces the writer to face the reality of the story’s merit.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-22T08:20:00.000-06:00

“It is fantasy that gives reality its meaning.”

Vince Mooney

Is ‘Flirting with Italian’ the Most Sensuous Liz Fielding Romance Ever?

2011-12-21T12:26:00.001-06:00

US and NA Cover

Earthy, Vibrant, Sizzling: a Romance You Can Feel, Smell, Taste, Hear and Savor!

Harlequin Romance
Dec 2011
Classic Romance
Paperback & Kindle

“Flirting with Italian” is one of my three all time favorite Liz Fielding romances. The others are: “Wedding at Leopard Tree Lodge” and “City Girl in Training”.

"Flirting with Italian" offers wit, charm and passion!

I must say I’ve been a Liz Fielding fan for a long time – even before I thought she wrote, “Bridget’s Jones’s Diary”. (It took me a long time to learn how to field* my Fieldings. There’s Joy, there’s Helen, there’s Liz and there’s Henry. I like them all!)

In “Flirting with Italian” all five senses seem to vibrate right off the page. At times I felt like I was reading Henry Fielding’s “Tom Jones” -- especially the sensuous eating scene so well depicted in the movie!

Indeed, if you are allergic to the outdoors or spicy foods, “Flirting in Italian” might make you sneeze! So by 'sensuous' I mean that the story appeals to the senses.

Here's a sample of the author's sensuous writing:

‘A grape?’

She laughed. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed as much.

‘No,’ she declared. ‘Not even a grape.’ But, refusing to take no for an answer, Matteo reached up and plucked a huge drak grape from a bunch growing above his head. Held it close enough to her lips for her to smell the sweetness.

‘Resistance is futile’, he said and she felt herself sliging into temptation.

Everying today had been about the senses.

Vivid colour, the scent of herbs and the sun-baked earth. The touch of a man’s lips for the first time in months.

Languorous in the still heat of the early afternoon, lulled by the faint hum of drowsy insects, mesmerized by Matteo’s dark eyes gleaming softly in the shade, urging her to this one last pleasure, she leaned forward the inch required to take the grape, closing her lips around it. Around the tips of his fingers.

The grape exploded on her tongue, the juice dribbling over her lips, over his fingers. And it seemed the most natural thing in the world to lick it up…”

Writing like this is just unfair to other writers! Readers might come to expect great writing like this and not every author can do it! I object but I’m going to go ‘to school’ on this passage anyway!

The Story:

The heroine, Sarah Gratton, is an English high school history teacher who was dropped like a hot potato when her lover, Tom, sees a sumptuous new hire. For him it was love at first sight. The problem for Sarah is that Tom is a much beloved winning coach of the school athletic program and he feels he must leave the school after his betrayal of Sarah.

To complicate the situation, their place of employment, Maybridge High School, is one of the best teaching positions in the country. Sarah could not expect to get a better job if she left. But leave she feels she must.

Sarah applies for a job in Rome teaching at the school for foreign students which is taught in English. Her school was so happy to have her leave (and keep their coach) that she got an excellent report and was hired.

Sarah goes to Rome. She is advised by her great-grandfather, Lex, to have a meaningless affair with a handsome Italian as soon as possible to get Tom out of her system.

There is a back story here. Lex was saved during WWII by an Italian woman who risked her life to nurse him back to health and hide him from the Germans. This story echoes a real story reported by the English flyer, Eric Newby in his book “Love and War in theApennines”. The irony here is that in the real life story the hero returns to Italy after the war and marries the Italian girl and the story has a very happy ending. In the romance the hero loses tack of the heroine in the fog of war and they do not get married! (Tell that to the critics who don’t like the HEA in romances!)

Sarah knows about her great-grandfather’s lost love and decides to see if the woman is still alive. She even goes to the location where a photo was taken of her grandfather and the Italian heroine. It is here where Sarah is confronted by the hero, Matteo, who is the current owner of the estate! He is a rich Count! He's also drop-dead handsome and he speaks English.

From here the story really gets interesting!

“Flirting with Italian” is a wonderful 5-Star romance that I am sure will win some very important romance awards in the next year!

Australian Edition

UK edition

Note: Only the US and NA edition 'says' Italy in the cover art. It is by far the best cover.

* 'Field' is an American baseball term which means catching the baseball without making an error.

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-21T08:00:00.000-06:00

“When a story is ready, the writer will appear.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-20T08:11:00.000-06:00

“Writing allows the soul to bare the writer.”

Vince Mooney

“Secret Wedding” -- a Compelling Romance About A Romance Writer!

2011-12-19T15:59:00.000-06:00

“Secret Wedding” – How to Write A Novella About a Romance Writer, Complete with Romance Writing Tips, All Without Alienating the Reader!

“Secret Wedding”

A novella by

Liz Fielding

Amazon Kindle

Liz Fielding likes to experiment in her writing. She never wants to write the same book twice. In “Secret Wedding” she writes a romance about a romance writer who is giving a romance writing workshop.

This is very hard to do because when the author writes about a romance writer it reminds the reader that she is reading a romance. This has a tendency to pull the reader out of the story ruining the vicarious enjoyment of the reading experience. Almost no writers will attempt do this. (Liz has written over 60 books so she gets a little more leeway.)

“Secret Wedding” works well without alienating the reader because it is well grounded in fact. All the story events have an ample foundation and each character's actions necessarily flow from the initial state of the story. This is because there are romance writers in the real world who do give romance writing workshops. All the author has to do is make the story seem real enough to the reader so that the reader can still vicariously identify with the heroine. Liz Fielding did this to perfection.

This triumph over alienation is a great reason for other writers to read “Secret Wedding”; however, the romance fan will want to read this story because it is a first rate enjoyable romance!

Please note: “Secret Wedding” is a genuine novella. That it, it is a ‘little novel’ and not just a long ‘short-story’. It has eight chapters, tells a complete love story and could have easily been expanded into a full novel if the author wanted to make it a novel.

Each chapter starts with a romance writing tip. The first chapter starts like this:

Chapter One

“Begin your story at the moment of crisis, a point in time when you character’s life is about to change forever.”

Mollie Blake’s Writing Workshop Notes

I’ve heard Donna Alward say this many times on her blog and I also follow this advice in my own writing. If you do this as an author you have automatically set the stage for conflict and for providing a basis for character growth.

The Story:

I can’t give too much of the plot away because the unfolding plot provides much of the reading enjoyment. Let me just say that the heroine, Mollie Blake, is a reclusive romance writer who is forced by her publisher into giving a writing workshop. She does not want to do it.

The hero, Tom Garrick, is a best selling author of adventure books favored by men. His publisher forces him to go to the romance writing workshop so that he can get in touch with his 'feminine side'. Hopefully this will help his books also appeal to women. The publisher wants to increase the sales of Tom’s books. Of course, Tom thinks the whole idea is nonsense.

Here’s the fun part: when hero and heroine first meet, they find out something that should amaze the reader as much as it did the characters! That’s all I’m going to say. This book is only 99 cents on Amazon and I can’t think of a value that offers more enjoyment per ounce than this deal! Read it and enjoy. If you are a writer, it’s worth many times the price!

Secret Wedding – A 5 ‘Starlet’ Romance – About a Romance Writer!

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-19T09:35:00.000-06:00

“Great stories say far more than they actually say and they say it without preaching and without being stilted.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-18T08:49:00.000-06:00

“If you can’t do it, write about it.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-17T07:35:00.001-06:00

“Stories written in sand often end before they they are over.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-16T08:38:00.001-06:00

Here is the 'black-moment'.

“Even the best of writing is only an X-ray.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-15T08:45:00.001-06:00

“There’s ‘character-driven’ and there’s ‘plot-drive’ but, for myself, I prefer my novels to be ‘inspiration-driven’.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-14T09:16:00.000-06:00

“Just as the written word killed the oral tradition, the written word will be killed by speech recognition.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-13T11:09:00.000-06:00

“Stories written in stone are unlikely to find a home.”
Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-12T09:33:00.000-06:00

“Writing by itself will not teach us very much about writing… only writing to a purpose will do that.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-11T09:03:00.000-06:00

“Great writing is about finding the universal in the singular, the significant in the insignificant and the meaningful in the meaningless.” Vince Mooney

`Ripped from the Headlines' - "Yuletide Hearts" is another "Men of Allegany County" Winner!,

2011-12-10T11:17:00.000-06:00

“YuletideHearts”

Ruth LoganHerne

Love Inspired

On sale date: Nov 1, 2011

Publication date: Dec 1, 2011

Miniseries: Men of Allegany County

Category: Inspirational Romance

Also available on Kindle for $3.82

"Yuletide Hearts" is a heartwarming story of rejection and acceptance. I'd be tempted to say it's also about redemption but these people didn't fall. They were dumped. The heroine, Callie Burdick, was dumped by her ex-husband for not being feminine enough. They were both in the Army together which should have given him some indication that she was not a girly-girl. Callie is a first class roofer!

The hero, Matt Cavanaugh, was dumped by his stepfather while the heroine's son, Jake, was dumped by his father.

How these three wounded but worthy people find their way to happiness as a family provides the heartwarming path to their Christmas renewal.

The backdrop to the story is the national housing crisis. The heroine's father had a successful home construction business for decades but lost everything to the bank when the housing market fell apart. The hero returns home from the Marines to re-establish himself in the construction business. He buys the half-built housing development from the bank and hires the hero's family to help finish the project. The heroine's family needs the money and her father despartely wants to see his dream fulfilled even if it belongs to someone else. There are some very noble Christian characters in this story which enhances the enjoyment and inspirational impact.

"Yuletide Hearts" is especially enjoyable if you have read the other books in the series. Ruth Logan Herne has a very eclectic style which makes each book a new discovery. "Yuletide Hearts" is the most `normal' of the lot. Maybe the author is mellowing with age. We shall see in the next books. The author is what I call a significant romance writer.

Please Note: I purchased my copy of "Yuletide Hearts" on eHarlequin so that I could get it a month earlier. However, reading on a Kindle is ten times better than my Sony.

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-10T09:18:00.000-06:00

“Even the best writing shows us only the shadows projected on the wall of Plato’s cave.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-09T08:52:00.001-06:00

“Like moon to sun: even the most brilliant writing derives its illumination from the power the reader brings to the page.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-08T08:36:00.001-06:00

“Writing transforms the spoken word back into thought.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-07T08:40:00.000-06:00

“Writing hasn’t been about writing since Shakespeare wrote Hamlet.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-06T08:33:00.000-06:00

“In fiction, cause and effect work both ways.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-05T08:41:00.000-06:00

“My editor is the most experienced in the business. She edited the writing on the wall.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Quote of the Day

2011-12-04T20:56:00.001-06:00

“Stories written in the stars are destined to be read in heaven.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-02T09:15:00.000-06:00

“Many writers write in black and white without even knowing it.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-12-01T09:11:00.000-06:00

“The simplest story can address the most complex issues with a clarity unknown to reason.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-30T08:23:00.000-06:00

“Character growth is good. Reader growth is better.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-29T11:00:00.000-06:00

“Writing gives our mind a chance to look in a mirror.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-28T09:04:00.000-06:00

“Every story has an emotional soundtrack which provides the real reason why readers read the book.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-27T09:42:00.000-06:00

“The writer’s voice is but a siren call capable of capturing the affections of the innocent reader but, if truth be told, it is the writer’s taste and after-taste, wherein the writer’s heart is exposed.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-26T11:36:00.001-06:00

“Beautiful writing is only skin deep.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-22T10:09:00.001-06:00

“Writing a story starts like a block of granite. The story is already inside us. All we have to do it chip away the nonessentials.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-19T09:21:00.000-06:00

Anais Nin 1903 - 1977

"There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person."-Anais Nin

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-17T10:56:00.000-06:00

"You have my character
all wrong!"

“I don’t psychoanalyze my characters. I just give them the proper motivation and they necessarily do what the story calls for.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-16T11:17:00.000-06:00

Doing Makes It So

“I almost never feel like writing until after I start writing. The spirit doesn’t move me. I move the spirit.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-15T11:32:00.000-06:00

This is the POV center

“An example of great fiction is the idea that there is such a thing as the ‘writing life’.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-14T10:42:00.000-06:00

“I just wish ‘method’ writers, (those who have to be depressed in order to write about a depressed person), would learn how to write and make life easier for themselves and everyone else around them.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-13T13:58:00.000-06:00

“Rules for writing are like rules for thinking freely.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-12T10:49:00.000-06:00

“The working title of all my books, which appears at the top of every page, is always: “Why Would Anyone Pay Money To Read This?” Vince Mooney

Veteran’s Day Blog Appearance at “Seasons of Humility”

2011-11-11T14:07:00.000-06:00

I’ll Be Blogging Today at “Seasons of Humility” on the Topic of “What I Wish Romance Writers Knew About the Military”.

If You Can Drop By, Please Say Hello. “Seasons of Humility” is a Very Military-Friendly Site.

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-11T12:03:00.000-06:00

“Even in little stories, writers should write about something bigger than themselves.”

Vince Mooney

This Year’s #1 Feel Good Christmas Book! Next Year it Should be on TV!

2011-11-10T17:41:00.005-06:00

What if “The Gift of the Magi” Could have had a gloriously happy ending?

What if the roots of the story ran so deep that it read like a 19^th century midwestern farm family diary?

That would make it, “The Sweetest Gift!”

Where O. Henry was after irony, O! Connealy delivers “The Sweetest Gift” – a feel good Christmas tale that will make you smile clear through the Holidays.

Frankly, I’m Christmas-green with envy! First, I would not have dared to challenge this classic theme and second, if I did, I wouldn’t have figured out how to do it and still produce such a happy ending!

I think Mary Connealy is an author too creative for her genre. She writes Americana and would be right at home working besides Mark Twain. This novella does a hundred things extremely well. The motivation is amazing.

In just a few pages I found it totally believable that Graham and Addie would have agreed to their sight-unseen marriage of convenience. The motiation comes from all sides and every direction. All the rustic details are so vivid the reader can only conclude that the author is a Nebraska farm wife herself. (Which she is). Indeed, many of the incidents in the story are part of her family heritage.

All this only explains the 19^th Century realism, however; it doesn’t explain the creativity! That’s just something that happens. Can one explain Mark Twain, James Thurber, or Will Rogers? I can’t. But I can sure enjoy their work.

"The Sweetest Gift" is a novella. It’s really a short novel with ten fully developed chapters and a very pleasing Epilogue. The story takes place in 1899, mostly on a Nebraska farm. The heroine is a somewhat spoiled, college educated, world traveler, who is an accomplished pianist with a Master’s degree and a job as a librarian. She is also a shade away from spinsterhood! The arranged husband is a Nebraskan farmer with an eight grade education – (back when an eight grade education meant something.)

The plot is so well motivated and researched that the story seems to be inevitably true rather than being fanciful fiction. You 'll just have to read it. I'd say this is the best Christmas book of the year for other writers to read! Learning has never been so entertaining.

“The Sweetest Gift” is part of a dual Novella eBook. The second story, “A Christmas Angel”, is by Robin Lee Hatcher. I have read it too is a 5-star Christmas feel good joy. The cost for both is only .99! That's Amazing!

This Year’s #1 Feel Good Christmas Book! Next Year it Should be on TV!

I can rope, too!

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-10T09:53:00.000-06:00

The key is OIR:

Objective -Incentive - Resistance

"I don’t expect writing workshops to teach me anything I don't already know. What I expect is something to happen that causes me to think in new and different ways."

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-09T10:11:00.000-06:00

“Romance is the poetry of events.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-05T11:35:00.000-05:00

"Use the 'Black Moment'
as a call to action."

“I’ve noticed that one of the problems with romance novels is that too many young women think they are 'how-to' books.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-04T10:37:00.000-05:00

"It was a bright and sunny day."

“It’s much easier to teach a storyteller how to write than it is to teach a writer how to be a storyteller.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-03T09:39:00.000-05:00

“Romance writing trends are a flashy distraction. While trends often change with the capricious winds, ninety percent of Romance sales always come from the same ‘bread and butter’ sources. Like a great river, the bulk of sales will forever flow with the main current.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-02T12:29:00.000-05:00

“Readers will forgive a lot if they like the story and little if they don’t.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-02T12:25:00.000-05:00

“Books of the heart are the most likely to be written and the least likely to be published.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-02T12:22:00.000-05:00

“Writing well does not sell books. Writing saleable stories, does.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-11-01T09:29:00.000-05:00

That's fast!

“Today novels are written in a month, e-published in a fortnight, downloaded in a heartbeat, read in an afternoon and forgotten in an hour.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-31T16:43:00.001-05:00

How crass.

“Writing is not the hard part. What’s hard is writing something other people are willing to pay to read.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-31T16:31:00.000-05:00

SOTP UFO

“Too many writers see themselves as seat-of-the-pants pilots when in reality they are seat-of-the-pants aircraft designers.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-31T11:00:00.000-05:00

Take out this reference to Teller.

“A critique group reaches ‘critical mass’ when it can squeeze all the life out of any manuscript”.
Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-31T10:05:00.001-05:00

"I could write a better
book than this".

“Books on 'How to Write' always leave out the chapter on talent.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-31T09:59:00.001-05:00

"I write the songs..."

“Knowing how to write is like knowing how to use your voice: by itself it won’t make you a singer.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-31T09:54:00.001-05:00

Writing is conflict.

“I don’t think anyone ever really learns how to write. The best you can hope for is to stop making enough mistakes to get published.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-30T17:55:00.000-05:00

"I write because of where I am and inspite of where I am."

“If all you have is the desire to ‘have written’, then your motivation will have to come from the outside and be strong enough to pull a heavy burden; however, if you have the ‘desire to write’ itself, then your very nature will act to push you toward your goals.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-30T17:18:00.000-05:00

It's about POV.

“Writing is only 10% about writing and 90% about life.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-30T17:13:00.001-05:00

What sagging middle?

“If writing was only about writing it wouldn’t be so darn difficult.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-30T14:18:00.000-05:00

“No amount of reading prepares you for writing.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-30T14:04:00.000-05:00

“It’s not what a book says that makes it famous; it’s what's said about it.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-30T13:57:00.000-05:00

“A Christmas romance doubles the HEA – happily ever after.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-30T13:52:00.000-05:00

Thumbs Down

Wow!

“Reviewers are like ‘stop and go’ traffic cops while analytic critics are like 3-D glasses which allow books to be viewed in full dimension and viewed in such a way as to never be seen in the same light again.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-30T12:48:00.001-05:00

“Some of the most profound insights found in the greatest works of literature were not put there by their authors.” Vince Mooney

“When the Student is Ready, the Teacher Will Appear.”

2011-10-30T12:39:00.002-05:00

The gift of 'discerning spirits'.

A Wisp of ‘Learning the Unknowable’

As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to the realization that there are some things we cannot learn until we are ready…and there is no certainty that we will ever be ready.

This is more than having the prerequisites to learn a science as in taking Chemistry 101 before you take course 102. This has more to do with being able to see something that is there in front of you to see but which you have no possibility of seeing.

It’s like a poem or an abstract painting that you will never understand until you have experienced x, y and z. It’s like a feeling you can only have if no one points it out. It’s like the feeling you get when someone you care about says “I love you” with sincerity and without being asked. This is not a feeling you can get by asking for it. These are not things you can see by looking for them.

Yesterday I just happened to write about this phenomena. It was a post about learning things that are unknowable and how that can change a person and a person’s writing.

In a true mystic experience the individual loses the ‘I-think’ (ego) that centers all his thoughts and makes him an individual and makes his thought, his thoughts. The individual dissolves and becomes one with the universe (or one with the experience).

The problem for mystics is trying to describe this experience which is beyond the realm of possible individual human experience. By definition the individual did not exist at the time of the experience so his ability to communicate that experience is not a logical possibility in rational terms. This is why mystics turn to poetry and why mystic poetry from all cultures and ages tends to read the same.

Yesterday morning I wrote the “Learning the Unknowable” post. Last night I read an acknowledgement in Mary Nealy’s “Ten X Plagues” which expressed something very close to the ineffable message I was trying convey in that post. It seemed such a good example of the Eastern belief that “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear” that I will quote from Mary’s acknowledgement to "Ten X Plagues” below:

“When an idea comes to me while reading my Bible, I try to pay very careful attention to that, because I believe God sometimes speaks to us in a voice so still and small that it amounts to not so much a voice as an idea. From this idea (the gift of discerning spirits*) a book was born. I’m dedicating this book to the God who gives me ideas.”

As much as I’ve read the Bible, the phrase ‘gift of discerning spirits’ from Corinthians 12:8-10,* never registered with me. I was never ready to entertain what those words meant. At some point Mary Nealy was ready to explore this 'gift' . After reading just four pages of "Ten X Plagues” , I am totally captivated with the story.

(You can read the first pages here.)

*"To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another various kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:" Corinthians 12:10

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-29T09:48:00.000-05:00

“When you have little to say, write a long book.” Vince Mooney

Learning the Unknowable…

2011-10-29T09:36:00.000-05:00

There are things about writing that you don’t know that you don’t know and which you would not expect to be knowable in the first place.

No one directly teaches these unknowable things because no one knows that they are knowable in a teachable way.

These unknowable insights occur as you learn unrelated things that shift your understanding of the writing process. They come in little mind-quakes that can happen while you are listening to writing lectures in the background while doing something else. Occasionally you will hear isolated ideas that stand out. The gaps between these good ideas can be bridged by a flash of insight that will leave you changed in an inexplicable way.

These insights are acquired without the ability to explain what they are but with the ability to use them to enrich your writing. It’s like knowing what radio waves were before there were any radios.

This is the writing equivalent of mysticism.

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-28T10:08:00.000-05:00

“A plot should flow like a wild mountain stream with unexpected twists and turns but with complete naturalness.”

Vince Mooney

Scenes I’d Like to See in a Romance #19

2011-10-27T10:58:00.002-05:00

Such a sweet girl

The hero, John, is talking to his mother, Martha, about the girl, Mary, he brought home to dinner.

"Well, what do you think, mom?”

“Are you serious about her?”

“I think so but I want to know what you think first.”

“I love her. We could be best girlfriends. I like everything about her.”

“I hear a ‘but’ in there.”

“She’s too much like me. If I was younger we would look like sisters.”

“You know the old song, ‘I want a girl just like the girl who married dead old dad.’”

“That’s just the problem.”

“What?”

“I drove your father to distraction for 35 years. I wouldn’t want that to happen to you.”

“Really?”

“He was a saint, poor soul.”

“So you’re saying I should choose a woman you can’t get along with?”

“Exactly.”

“Let me see what I can do.”

The End.

See all the Scenes Here

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-27T10:11:00.000-05:00

“I felt so guilty about how badly I treat my characters, that I wrote myself into a story and let one of my character’s kill me.”

Vince Mooney

“One Imperfect Christmas” – Now a Free Kindle Book!

2011-10-26T11:26:00.002-05:00

“One Imperfect Christmas”

A Perfect Reading Experience!

“It’s Like Watching a Hallmark Hall of Fame Movie”
By Myra Johnson
Abingdon Press, 272 pages, copyright 2009

Read the Review Here

Get Free Kindle Version Here

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-26T10:08:00.000-05:00

“Beginning right is an art but ending right is a necessity.”

Vince Mooney

Scenes I’d Like to See in a Romance #18

2011-10-25T11:41:00.003-05:00

Baby Pat

John, the hero, is helping his new bride, Mary, the heroine, deliver her baby. John has attended all the Lamaze classes and is so in love with Mary that he married her even though she was pregnant with another man’s baby. (The father is a no account handsome devil.)

“Just concentrate on your breathing, darling.”

“Let’s switch places. I like that idea even better.”

“This training was very good in theory but I feel very dizzy.” John begins to think about his new daughter. Her first day at school. Trying out for cheerleader. College graduation. Giving her away!

The midwife gently taps John on the shoulder. “Congratulations, you have a healthy bounding boy.”

“No that can’t be true! The ultrasound showed she was a girl. No doubt about it.”

“Sometimes a doctor will read the ultrasound pictures incorrectly. The important thing is that you have a fine healthy boy. He has an apgar score of 10.”

“You don’t understand! It’s never a boy when you marry a woman who is pregnant with another man’s baby. Never, never, never. One hundred percent of the time it is a girl.”

“Sir, I think you’re hallucinating. Please sit down.”

“This will not stand! A little girl will look like her mother – a woman I dearly love. But a little boy will look like his worthless father. I will be reminded of that jerk every day of my life. Besides, the other man’s son will always be smarter, more handsome and win more scholarships than my own children.”

“Sir, that’s all speculation.”

“What are you? A midwife or a lawyer? I tell you this will not stand. I’m making a call right now.” John pulls out his cell phone.

“Who are you calling, Sir?”

“I’m calling the editor. This outcome was not the original deal.”

“You can’t call the editor! That’s alienation. That reminds the reader she is reading a romance. It’s not allowed.”

“Alienation? You want alienation – that’s me. I'm alienated and I tell you that it never happens that the child is a boy. Never! So why is it happening to me?”

“John, John wake up,” Mary said.

“What’s going on?”

“You passed out during the delivery. I thought you were made of sterner stuff.”

“What do you mean ‘sterner stuff’? Why do you think men don’t have babies?”

“Take a look at, Patricia, our beautiful new daughter.”

“Daughter?”

“Of course, daughter. We’ve known she was a girl since the ultrasound pictures.”

“Mary, I love you so much. I’ll be the best father for our child that I can possibly be.”

John looks up at the ceiling and offers a prayer of relief, “Thank you Melissa, thank you.”

“Melissa? Who’s Melissa?” Mary says looking at John with very narrowed eyes.

“Melissa…Melissa…Oh, yes, she’s the ancient Greek Goddess of happy births and happy endings.”

“Are you sure?” Mary’s eyes are just slits.

“Absolutely. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”

The End.

See all the scenes here.

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-25T09:23:00.000-05:00

“If you are highly intuitive and cultivate the focus of a mystic, you can actually observe a book reading you.”

Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-23T16:15:00.000-05:00

I think Huck Finn
is an adult book.

“Writing a good children’s book is like writing two different books: one for children to enjoy and one that speaks seriously to adults.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-23T14:53:00.000-05:00

"Mid-grade readers don’t have short attention spans, they just have low boredom tolerance."
Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-22T12:02:00.000-05:00

"Wow"!

Vince Mooney

The Will Rogers Adventure!

2011-10-22T11:34:00.000-05:00

Tina, Vince, Ruth
(Mary took Picture)

Romance Fans are Very Fortunate!

Romance authors are very approachable. Especially Christian fiction writers. Yesterday I spent an afternoon with three Academy Award quality authors, Tina Radcliffe, Ruth Logan Herne, and Mary Connealy, touring the Will Rogers Museum in Claremore, Oklahoma. Now when would that ever happen with movie actors?

I must say all three ladies are more beautiful in person than any picture can capture. I think Christian romance authors have a glow about them which radiates warmth and sincerity. The setting made me think that these three ladies exemplified the very spirit of Will Rogers.

Here are a few photos. We looked and talked so much there were very few pictures taken.

Tina Taking a Picture of Ruth in Distance

Tina in front of Will Rogers Mural

Ruth looking at Will Rogers Tomb

Mary After Seeing Everything!

I wish that every fan will someday have the opportunity I enjoyed yesterday.

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-21T11:33:00.000-05:00

“You don’t write down to YA readers because they probably know a great deal more about what's going on than their parents.”

Vince Mooney

The “Price of Victory” – The Romancing of Life Itself!

2011-10-20T14:58:00.001-05:00

“The Price of Victory” -- A Winning Avalon Debut Novel – 5 Stars -- The Romancing of Life Itself!

“The Price of Victory”

Sandra Leesmith

Hardcover: 192 pages

Publisher: Avalon Books

A Lesson in Life…A Lesson in Love

“The Price of Victory” is a love story about finding and living your dreams. As the story opens, the hero, Sterling Wade, and heroine, Debra Valenzuela, are at major turning points in their lives. Sterling is a veteran professional bicycle racer on the verge of career burnout. Sterling is looking for more in life than winning races. He feels he has achieved his racing goals and is now at that stage in life when some carefree bachelors feel it is time to find a wife and start a family.

Debra, on the other hand, is just beginning her career as a bicycle racer. A relationship with a man is the last thing she wants at this point in her life.

Debra is a decade younger than Sterling. She has just quit college in order to follow her dreams. She is very talented for her age and she trains very hard. Debra longs to go on the European tour, see the world, and impress her father who is upset that she is the only one of many siblings to quit college! He sees her as a failure who is wasting her time on an impossible dream – a dream he sees little value in pursuing. Debra has a learning disability that makes college level work impossible. The bicycle dream is possible.

Simply Fascinating!

If you love bicycle racing or if you’re just interested in learning about the sport, you’ll love reading “The Price of Victory”. The author, Sandra Leesmith, is writing about what she well knows. Just reading the details of racing is fascinating in it’s own right.

It’s Not About the Bike

“The Price of Victory” is about life. It’s about finding your dreams and knowing yourself. It’s about a mentor relationship. About the older man who has been there and the young student he loves who is about to embark on the same journey. It’s a love story more about 'being the right person' than about 'finding the right person'.

Like Falling Snow Flakes

The love story in “The Price of Victory” falls into place so gently, in so many different acts of kindness, that it is like watching fluffy snow flakes falling one-by-one silently upon the ground. I just loved reading this book. There is ample surface action with racing excitement to command the reader’s attention. Then, just below the surface, there is a deeply moving love story. I’m sure this is why the book is with Avalon. It’s like a Hallmark Hall of Fame production. Just wonderful!

An Inspiration Sample:

Debra thinks she cannot love Sterling and still have a racing career. She is young and single minded. From the book:

“Being with me is right. Continuing your training is right. You’re trying to put logic into what your heart feels. That’s why you feel disoriented. What you need is to bring your heart into your mind.”

He brushed away her tear with a corner of her towel.

She looked deeply into his eyes, searching for the truth he always seemed to have at his fingertips. “I don’t understand.”

His smile warmed the chill inside. He guided her off the trainer and began walking with her around the room. “Tell me what you don’t understand.”

“How do you know all these things? How can you be so patient?”

“I’ve lived my dream. I’ve accomplished what I wanted to in racing. So I’m ready for other things.” He paused and pulled her around to face him. “You are just beginning. You must follow your own dreams. I understand that.”

“I know. Basically, that’s what I have been doing.”

“So what’s the problem.”

“What is it you truly desire? That is what you need to focus on.”

And when Debra is still hung up on winning her father’s love, Sterling answers:

“There is no satisfaction in seeking approval from man. Contentment comes from within you.” He continued walking. “Discover who you really are, and you won’t have to worry about your parents’ love and respect.”

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Your peace and contentment will rub off onto others. You don’t need a trophy to buy respect. You earn it by proving you can meet life head on and handle it.”

Finding and fighting for your dreams and dreaming for the right things for the right reasons."

A Book Well Worth Reading

“The Price of Victory” is a book well worth reading. I would say it is very good for a person to read this book. I see it as an ideal Christmas present or a warm welcome to someone in a hospital.

Sandra Leesmith is a gifted Inspirational author. She also writes children’s books. I believe that it is her writing experience that makes “The Price of Victory” so refreshingly different. Highest Recommendation.

“The Price of Victory” – Highest Recommendation!

Scenes I’d Like to See in a Romance #17

2011-10-20T13:35:00.000-05:00

The hero and heroine have just shared their first kiss and are in the glow of shared intimacy.

John holds Mary in his arms. It’s as if everything that is precious and desirable is encircled between his hands. Mary’s head comes up to just under John’s chin. He presses her closer so he can feel her heart beating ever faster.

Mary moves. John readjusts his embrace. They both move again and again. More readjustments. Then comes the realization.

“Mary, we don’t fit together very well at all.”

“I noticed that. I’m either too short or you’re too tall.”

“It could be a combination of both.”

“I am so sorry that we don’t fit together as if we were made only for each other.”

“I am too. I’ve never experienced such a bad fit with a woman before.”

“What could have been.”

“Yes, what could have been.”

The End.

Read all the Scenes here.

Cassandra: Alive and Well

2011-10-20T13:10:00.000-05:00

“America will be the first great civilization to analyze and chronicle its own decline and fall in real time. Even ten thousand Cassandras will not be believed as long as there is a national media determined to deceive.”

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-20T11:45:00.000-05:00

Actually Man is an Island

“If stranded on a deserted island readers would choose favorite books to read but writers would choose blank books in which to write.” Vince Mooney

The Mission is Romance – 5 Star Military Suspense!

2011-10-19T17:11:00.002-05:00

Romance Takes Center Stage in Book Two of this Military Suspense Mystery Series!

"The Captain’s Mission"

Debby Giusti

Love Inspired Suspense

Oct 2011

Miniseries: Military Investigations Book II

Category: Inspirational Romance

Paperback

If you like a lot of romance in your suspense stories, The Captain’sMission” is made to order! The story is a suspense-thriller because the bad guys are trying to kill to hero and heroine. It’s a mystery because the heroine, Kelly McQueen, is a CID special agent assigned to find out who the killer is. And it’s a great love story because Debby Giusti does a masterful job of showing the hero and heroine fall in love, step-by-step and little-by-little when falling in love is the last thing either one of them wants to do. I find this both usual and welcome in a suspense story.

Being a suspense story, the action never lags. There are enough suspects to keep the mystery interesting and , of course, this is a very authentic military romance by an author from a military family.

Story set-up:

I love military stories. As a former air policeman, I particularly like the CID theme of this story. For those without a military background here's something the reader should know to make the story more enriching:

The heroine, Kelly, McQueen, is a warrant officer, special agent, for the CID. That’s the criminal investigation division. Kelly is like a civilian gold shield detective. A warrant officer in the Army is a specialist or expert who will probably stay in the same field for her entire career. Helicopter pilots and CID agents are usually warrant officers. A warrant office ranks higher than the highest enlisted man but lower than the lowest commissioned officer. (For example: a second lieutenant). While warrant officers have uniforms, the CID special agents often wear civilian clothes on the job.

Captain 0-3

The hero, Phil Thibodeaux, is a Captain who ranks higher than a 2^nd and 1^st Lieutenant but no other commissioned officers.

The hero outranks the heroine.The heroine usually wears civilian clothes. While hero is called “Captain”, Kelly is called “Special Agent”. All Warrant officers above the rank of W1 are called Chief.

The Story:

The location is the same as the first book, “The Officer's Secret", Fort Rickman in south Georgia. The hero is just back from a tour of duty in Afghanistan with his company. It was a successful tour of duty in which none of his men were killed. The hero drives his men very hard and at the end of a many day exercise he conducts a dangerous live fire exercise in which a man is killed. As company commander, Phil is most likely going to be blamed for the accident if it was an accident. He was in charge and he may have drove his men too hard.

The CID Special Agent called in to investigate what happened is the heroine Kelly McQueen (also called the Ice McQueen by the men). The Post Commander wants the situation cleared up ASAP. The possibility that it was not an accident is not welcome because it will slow the investigation down and keep the bad publicity in the newspapers for months. Kelly could be Phil's worse enemy! This is the perfect situation for a fiery and dangerous romance.

"The Captain's Mission -- 5-Star Romantic Suspense!"

Book 1 Review

Be Sure to Read Book 1 --"The Officer's Secret" -- One of the Best Romantic Suspense Mysteries Ever!

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-19T09:03:00.000-05:00

“Nonfiction is about communication. Fiction is about saying something without saying it.”
Vince Mooney

Kate Hardy’s Opening is So Good I Just Wanted to Scream!

2011-10-18T17:50:00.000-05:00

It’s Not Fair to Write a Book This Good! I Believe “Italian Doctor, NoStrings Attached” Would Win Every Writing Contest it Entered!

“Italian Doctor, No StringsAttached”

Kate Hardy

Harlequin Medical Romance

On sale date: Oct 1, 2011

Publication date: Oct 1, 2011

Category: Classic Romance

No Heroine Was Ever Treated Better!

Here’s how the book starts:

"FACE the fear.

Sydney faced the fear every single day of her life. Every day she made life-or-death decisions. Abseiling* down the tower of the London Victoria hospital, to raise funds for specialist equipment for the emergency department, should be a breeze. She had a sheet full of sponsor signatures, with a large amount of money at stake. There was no question that she wouldn’t do it. How could she possiblty back out now?

But then she looked down. Over the edge. There was a white stone cornice and then…nothing.

For two hundered and fifty feet.

Back in the department, two months ago, this had seemed like a brilliant idea. Right here and now, she knew it was the most stupid, ridiculous thing she’d ever done. She sneaked another look at the edge, hoping that her fairy godmother was passing with some sparkly dust and the drop would look a bit less scary.

It didn’t.

And there was no way that she could make herself walk backwards over the edge."

* British for rappelling.

But then the hero, ER doctor, Marco Ranieri, whom the heroine has not met before, calmly sings her over the edge. A miracle!

Thus begins an instantaneous whirlwind love affair that spans London and Italy. This is the ideal romance in which to vicariously be the heroine. Sydney is wined, dinned, and treated like a queen. She is truly loved. Never was a hero more worthy, more honorable, more loving. The conflict does not come from the hero and heroine arguing with each other as in many romances. The conflict comes from the heroine’s medical condition. The medical components of this story are excellent. It's a great story.

I don’t have to say much about this story because the opening is as good as it gets, the hero is ideal, the heroine totally sympathetic, and the level of reading enjoyment is off the charts. Just read it! (If you’re an aspiring writer: just read it and weep. : ))

Ladies: You’ll Want to be this Heroine! 5-Star Everything!

Historic Book Signing in Tulsa October 22nd!

2011-10-18T13:31:00.000-05:00

Order here

Tulsa’s ‘Florence Nightingale’, Tina Radcliffe, & ‘America’s Female Mark Twain’, Mary Connealy, are Coming to Tulsa October 22^nd for a Joint Book Signing at Steve’s Sundry --1 pm to 3 pm!

2612 S. Harvard

Tina Radcliffe is a nurse who served many years in Tulsa. Her two inspirational romance books actually take place in Tulsa. You can read reviews of her “Oklahoma Reunion" and “The Rancer's Reunion" here and here. This is a homecoming her many friends will want to celebrate!

Mary Connealy writes romantic comedy with award winning inspriation. Her many works have been compared to MarkTwain’s and her first editions are collectable. Don’t miss meeting Mary.

Read the notice in the Tulsa World

Saturday --1 pm to 3 pm -- October 22nd, Steve's Sundry on Harvard!

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-18T09:57:00.001-05:00

“Showing and telling are surface things. More important is what an author reveals.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-17T09:50:00.000-05:00

“Writing a novel is like trying to solve a very long mathematical equation. Changing anything can change everything else.” Vince Mooney

Famous Writing Quote of the Day

2011-10-16T15:18:00.002-05:00

"Tell me more."

“I have an escalator pitch. My opening sentence tells who, what, where, when, and how. Each additional sentence expands on the first. I can stop speaking at any point and still have made a complete pitch. Given the listener's reaction, I can go with the flow, talk it up or talk it down. By doing this I can insure that my pitch always makes maximum use of the opportunity provided. Regardless of the time I'm afforded, I know that I can deliver my strongest possible presentation.”

Vince Mooney