Emotions motivate people. As a romance writer, I’m tapping into emotions, seeking empathy and engagement from my readers for my characters. Increasingly, in writing about love and equal partnerships, I feel like I’m in a zero sum game where themes of revenge, anger, punishment, hate and anger get more traction than cooperation and encouraging mutualContinue reading “Factual, reliable, verifiable-it matters”
Tag Archives: writing
I have a confession to make …
I am advert/promo blind. From the time I was a small child, my gaze would skate across ads, looking for the actual stories. I can hypothesise that we couldn’t afford many luxuries when I was a child. Being sucked in by ads was bound to end in heartache, so I trained my brain not to see. Whatever.Continue reading “I have a confession to make …”
Kiss N’ Tell
Spark your dreams, Fan your passion, Ignite your story was the motto for the Romance Writers of New Zealand 2026 Conference. And it was a fabulous affair. Unfortunately I missed the Friday workshops, but the reports I heard were glowing. Jennifer Hilt, author and creator of The Trope Thesaurus: An Author Resource on The Emotional Blueprint: How Tropes Create Character,Continue reading “Kiss N’ Tell”
The spark for Finding Cleo
I can’t remember where I was, or when it was, that I learned about the unsolved 1986 assassination of Olof Palme, Sweden’s Social Democrat Prime Minister. But it was in the early to mid teens of this century. Olof Palme, PM, was murdered walking home from a Stockholm cinema with his wife at around 10Continue reading “The spark for Finding Cleo”
The Power of Words
Lots of people have lots to say about the power of words. And there are words everywhere—in our message groups, on our social media feeds and on our screens. That’s before you add books, journals, magazines and the steady stream of printed words we encounter wherever we turn. I’m also thinking of romance because that’sContinue reading “The Power of Words”
