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That Pivotal Moment in Every Love Story

Karin Kallmaker Craft of Writing, Stepping Stone

One of the challenges of writing romance novels is using a tried-and-true formula. Some theorists might suggest that makes writing them easier, but I disagree. If I wanted to write the same romance novel over and over, it might be simpler, but I want every novel to have fresh characters, a new setting, a unique (to me at least) underlying premise of conflict, and characters who have choices that previous characters haven’t faced. Read More

coffee biscotti while women discuss books

Sharing Passion in Public

Karin Kallmaker Cheers & Chocolate

A new guilty pleasure has entered my life: The Best Thing I Ever Ate. This half-hour food orgy showed up on the Food Network recently, and I’m hooked. The basic format is familiar stars like Bobby Flay, Cat Cora, and Rachel Ray choosing dishes within a theme, like “fried,” and discussing where they had the best item ever in that category. Sometimes the star is at the restaurant and a little featurette shows how the item was made. Read More

blonde and black-haired women drinking coffee as they chat and walk on urban street

Talking to Selena

Karin Kallmaker Stepping Stone

Finally! A post back to the subject nearest my heart, writing. I didn’t actually set out to spend this past weekend on books and nothing but. However, the muse decided to poke at me a bit and since I’m behind on my deadline, this was not to be ignored. The focus continued to today, where I segued from writing only to the issues of marketing books and tomorrow will roll up my sleeves and tackle a veritable mountain of work that is bottle-necked on my desk. Read More

A Persona is No Substitute for Work

Karin Kallmaker Craft of Writing

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It’s not an outrageous assumption that entertainment is going to be entertaining. When selecting shows to see in Las Vegas this past week, we had to balance the likes and dislikes of our family of four. Sure-fire winner was Blue Man Group. We all loved it. Two hours of pure fun, thought-provoking imagery and clever wit that transcended language. It had energy, great live music and laugh-out-loud visuals. Read More