The Difference Between Writing Fantasy and Writing Contemporary Romance

{Google Search Terms}

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
"airplane seating plane"
"most embarrassing situations"
"most romantic date ideas"
"university orientation"

FANTASY
"mythological creatures"
"list of supernatural abilities"
"types of weapons"
"traditional fae lore"

__________________________

{Playlists}

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

Free Fallin' - John Mayer

Memoriam - Toya Delazy

What Makes You Beautiful - One Direction

Dead in the Water - Ellie Goulding

FANTASY

The Best of Epic Music 2012

Main Theme from Edward Scissorhands

Black - Sarah McLachlan

This Night - Black Lab

_________________________


{What's At Stake}

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
Main character's love life / friendships / career.

FANTASY
The fate of the world.

_________________________

Writing fantasy and writing contemporary romance have been quite different experiences.
I thought contemporary would be easier, but honestly, it hasn't been.
They both have different challenges. And I've enjoyed them both :-)
It's good to have a break from one genre and try out another.
What do you think? Are you a writer who hops between genres?
A reader who hops between genres?

RISE UP (VOLUME ONE & TWO) - A Benefit Collection - Indie Authors Against Cancer

“We all know how fragile life is, especially when faced with a life threatening illness.” ~Nic, Flirty and Dirty Book Blog.

Fiction introduced us. Reality binds us together.

Stephenie Thomas—co-founder of The Indie Bookshelf—has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer called glioblastoma. Stephenie isn’t only a blogger; she’s a loving wife, and mother to three young boys.

In the independent author community, we have an extraordinary network of fellow authors and readers. A special group of people who bridge this gap—helping authors connect with readers—is book bloggers. These men and women dedicate hours upon hours to reading and reviewing our works, and spreading the word to help us reach new readers.

Now, one of these women needs our help.

100% of the proceeds of the Rise Up anthology (volumes one and two) will go directly to Stephenie and her family to help them on this unexpected leg of their journey together. Inside the pages of this collection, you’ll find amazing works of fiction. But please remember the reality, and help support Stephenie and her family.

Included in this collection are the following novels:

What Happens Tomorrow - Elle Michaels

Insipid - Christine Brae

Bouquet Toss - Melissa Brown

Can't Go Home - Angelisa Stone

Point of Submission - Remy Landon

Breakaway - Lindsay Paige and Mary Smith

A Love by Any Measure - Killian McRae

Discovering Lucy - Laura Dunaway

Something's Come Up - Andrea Randall and Michelle Pace

By A Thread - RL Griffin

Honest Love - CM Hutton

Serendipity - Stacey Bentley

Haven from the Storm - Sarah Dosher

Damaged - Nina D'Angelo

PURCHASE ON AMAZON

PURCHASE ON iBOOKS
PURCHASE ON KOBO
PURCHASE ON GOOGLE PLAY

Included in this collection are the following novels:

Always There – Carol Ann Albright-Eastman 

Republic – Charles Sheehan-Miles 

Seeds of Hate – Melissa Perea 

In The Fields – Willow Aster 

Bar Crawl – Andrea Randall 

Totaled – Stacey Grice 

Running from Forever – Ashley Wilcox 

Crossing Paths – Melanie Stinnet 

Going Home – Rhonda Dennis 

Never Goodbye – Kerri Williams 

Without Boundaries – CJ Azevedo 

Binds – Rebecca Espinoza 

The Forgotten Ones – Laura Howard

PURCHASE ON AMAZON

PURCHASE ON iBOOKS

PURCHASE ON KOBO

PURCHASE ON GOOGLE PLAY

Rebranding the Author Brand: "Let Your Imagination Take Flight"

Last week I blogged about what the author brand is and shared some examples of logos and taglines I found for other authors online. I mentioned that I was trying to figure out the core element of MY brand. Why I write, who I am, what my books are about ... and these were the things that came to mind:

escaping reality 

imagination without limits 

breaking free from real-world constraints 

unforgettable characters

I initially wanted my tagline to be this:

"escaping reality one book at a time"

Essentially, that is EXACTLY why I have always loved stories. Loved reading and writing. Purely to escape reality. But I thought that "escaping reality" might (MIGHT) have a slightly negative connotation. Escaping reality isn't always a healthy thing. That whole ostrich-burying-its-head mentality isn't seen as a good thing! And while getting lost in a good book isn't always about denial, "escaping reality" may sometimes be seen as just that.

So onto the next idea: Imagination. No limits. You open a book and your mind is free to soar across worlds, real or fantastical. So ... I needed an image and a tagline that would fit together and depict this idea. Soaring ... flying ... a bird! Which goes perfectly with:

"let your imagination take flight"

So I started doodling and came up with this bird:

Cool. I liked it. I really liked it. But I wanted it to be in nice, neat vector format. So ... I opened up a program I've owned for more than a year but have never been brave enough to use! Adobe Illustrator. After a few basic tutorials, and several hours (yes, hours. Don't laugh. It was my first time!), I had my bird!

Then I just needed to add my name in a clean, simple non-serif font (and I spent a while looking through various options), plus the tagline in a font slightly more whimsical...

And there we have it :-)

~  ~  ~

GIVEAWAY WINNER

The giveaway for anyone who left a review of The Trouble with Flying ended today,

and the winner, picked at random by Rafflectoper, is Sally!

Congrats, Sally! You've been emailed :-)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

New Releases from Authors RaShelle Workman, Susan Kaye Quinn, and Lee Strauss

Three new releases by three fantastic authors!

1. A Beauty So Beastly, by RaShelle Workman

2. Second Daughter, by Susan Kaye Quinn

3. Heart & Soul, by Lee Strauss

Add the book on Goodreads

Buy the book on Amazon

Enter the giveaway here

This is the second book in The Dharian Affairs Trilogy!

Buy Second Daughter on Amazon

The first book, Third Daughter, is on sale!

Enter the giveaway here

Read the full release day post here

Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iTunes

Enter the giveaway here

PS - I had a FAR more detailed post with info for each of these books, and somehow in editing it, the entire darn thing got WIPED OUT! (Even though I closed the post without saving any changes.) So, basically, AAAAARRRRGGHHH, and the post you see now is what I had time to put together!

The Author Brand: What It Is and Some Examples

I've been told about this author branding thing for years. I've even tried to do it. Sort of. I never had my own logo or a tagline, but I've tried various "looks" and then created blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc headers all based on the same image (like what you can currently see at the top of my blog). But I've never fully liked any of the ideas I've come up with. Basically, I want a neat little logo/tagline combo that can represent my brand anywhere on the internet. Something that's easy to print on business cards or bookmarks or, basically, any swag. Something I can do in different colours for different situations, but that no one can doubt is mine. So ... how do I do this?

It's difficult when you write more than one genre. A fantasy author could go with an image / font / logo that shouts YOU'RE ENTERING THE FANTASY REALM NOW! A chick lit author could go with an image / font / logo that shouts I'M CUTE, I'M ROMANCE, I'M CHICK LIT! But if you write in multiple genres, like me, how do you show that?

So I'm left trying to find a thread common to ALL the books I write, no matter what genre they're in. I'm left looking at ME as an author--who am I and why I write--because, ultimately, for indie authors it's all about creating a brand around YOU, THE AUTHOR rather than around any of your books specifically, right?

So here's what reading and writing are about for me:

escaping reality

imagination without limits

breaking free from real-world constraints
unforgettable characters

I'm still boiling that down to one core "thing" and working on how to represent it, but I've got one idea I really, really like, and I'm sitting on it for a little while to see if I still like it tomorrow, the next day, next week!

For now, here are some cool examples I found online: