Another Great Review!

Thanks so much to Sheila at "Why Not? Because I Said So." If you'd like to read her review of "Aglow," go check out her blog.

http://whynotbecauseisaidso.blogspot.com/2011/12/review-of-aglow-by-michelle-pennington.html

Hunky and Human

Let's face it...creating the perfect leading man is not easy. You would think it would be, wouldn't you? I mean, the recipe seems pretty standard. Mix together a tall man, broad, shoulders, a glinting smile, and speaking eyes. Add a dash of humor, sensitivity, and intelligence. Dimples are optional, but generally appreciated. Combine this mixture with muscles, good kissing techniques, and more than his fair share of good looks. Voila! Place in story and allow to steam for at least 150 pages.

If you want to stay in the category of standard and cliche, go for it. The tricky part begins when you want him to not be perfect. I want my heroes to be human and still be swoon-worthy. However, it's our failings, our struggles, and needing to grow into something better that makes us human. So how do you give your hero faults? Many go with the whole bad boy thing. It works, but it's almost cliche too. Plus, I don't personally admire a bad boy. I might find him charming and alluring, but not someone I could respect and build a life with. (Unless, of course, he changes completely through his desire to be worthy of my love.)

You could make him shy, vulnerable, tortured, or unavailable. You can make him arrogant, quiet, immature, or driven. I've seen them all done successfully. However, you should never make him lazy, stupid, boorish or oblivious. In the same vein, you should probably avoid having him fart, belch, pick his nose, or chew with his mouth open. Don't give him too big of a nose ( though hawk noses seem popular in 70's harlequins for some reason), squinty eyes, a spare tire or man boobs. (hope I don't offend.)

Why? Many men have some (though I hope not all) of these less than desirable attributes, and they find love. Shoot, I love my husband more than life itself, and there are often less than desirable sounds and smells in our bedroom. Let's face it - real love and real life mean waking up to see your loved one's face and quickly diving under the covers to avoid his/her morning breath. But that's just it. A romance novel isn't real life. It's fantasy. When people read romance, they're looking for something a little more perfect, a little more sublime.

Yet to connect with it and believe the story, they have to feel that it's real. They have to miss the characters like they know them, and they need to believe that they might run into them at the mall someday. It's a conundrum to say the least. But the most important thing to keep in mind when you're creating Mr. Right, is who he needs to be right for. He needs to be right for the reader, but mostly for your heroine. Now you just need to hope you didn't screw her up. But that discussion is for another day.

Peanut Butter goes with Jelly like Writing goes with...

Some things just go well together. Bubble baths and candles work. I gag every time I see chocolate covered potato chips on pinterst, however. Here are somethings that I feel work with a writing career, and some that don't.

Book Review: Once Upon a Christmas by Nancy Lawrence

A sparkling Christmas romance set in Regency England.

Miss Nerissa Raleigh isn't interested in finding a husband, but she's in desperate need of a hero! She has written a Gothic romance and it's her dearest Christmas wish to see her book published. If she can support herself as an authoress, she'll be saved from having to make a loveless marriage as her sisters have before her. But the publisher won't buy her book until she makes the story's hero more dashing, daring, and fearless. Nerissa needs a real-life example, a patterncard of a hero. But where can she find such a man in the beau monde?

She finds him driving his curricle in a neck-or-nothing fashion through the streets of London. Handsome Breck Davenant is a wealthy, undisputed leader of fashion and a confirmed bachelor. Breck has no intention of serving as the model for Nerissa's romance nor is he willing to listen to her absurd notions of heroes and love. When Nerissa assures him she's interested only in his hero-like qualities and not at all in him as a man, he's appalled . . . and intrigued.

Before long, Breck is driving his curricle at hair-raising speeds through London with Nerissa by his side. In a Yule season filled with festivities, Breck's amusement over Nerissa's romantic notions slowly turns to love. He wants her for his wife, but first he'll have to prove himself a real hero by capturing her heart. http://www.amazon.com/Once-Upon-A-Christmas-ebook/dp/B003PDN7EK

I'm always looking for a good, clean regency novel. This time of year, I especially enjoy a Christmas themed one. Overall, I enjoyed this romance and thought that the characters were developed well and changed over the story. At first I thought that Nerissa was too naive, which I thought the author used to explain some of the rules of society. She grew on me throughout the book however, and I kind of liked that she was so young and oblivious. Though I have to say, I get it already! Breck is a hero. I didn't need to be hit over the head with it. I liked Breck, and looked forward to his interactions with Nerissa. I also enjoyed his sister and wished she'd made more appearances in the story. This author needs to learn not to head hop though. The POV changed rapidly from one paragraph to another and it was very distracting. There were some typos but nothing that bothered me too much, and some flaunting of society's rules that I thought unfortunate and improbable, but nothing like I've seen in other stories. In general a good story. For my own blog, where I can do what I want, I'll give it 3.5 stars, but on Amazon, I'll round it up to 4 to encourage the author to keep writing.

My Twelve Months of Christmas

January – I hit the clearance sales. Since there wasn’t enough room to put up all of our decorations (and only two tubs of them left unused in the garage) I know I need to buy more. Luckily they’re all super cheap in January. Wrapping paper is also an important purchase because you can never have too much wrapping paper. I’m so glad my kids don’t mind if their birthday presents are wrapped in reindeer and santa prints.

February - My kids generally break about half of our precious, memory rich ornaments and decorations every year. I put them in a basket and spend January thinking about gluing them back together. By February, I usually get tired enough of looking at them to sit down and do it.

March – Now that everything is glued back together, I can pack up all the decorations that have been dumped in the garage. If I find anything else broken at this point, it stays that way till next year. I also buy another tub or two for the new purchases I made in January.

April – Time to get down the Easter decorations. While my husband’s up in the attic, I ask him to put up the Christmas decorations. He takes one look at the massive stack, mentally measures it, and replies, “Look, let’s do that later. We’re not doing anything next Saturday.”

May – I decide to have a garage sale and push all the Christmas decorations aside. I cover them with a sheet and a sign saying “Not for sale.” Sometime into the morning, I turn around and both the sheet and sign have mysteriously disappeared. So has my husband, I realize, as I try to explain that there’s been a mistake and I’m not selling my stuff.

June – My kids go into the garage to get their bikes and find the Christmas decorations. I find them later in a jumble of garland, ornaments, and singing reindeer. I chase them outside. Gather up the mess, dump it in a box, and try to forget about all the things they’ve re-broken.

July – Stepping outside is like walking into an oven. Nothing sounds better than a winter wonderland. I start playing Christmas carols full blast get out my balsam and pine candles. Sure the neighborhood kids think I’m nuts, but they don’t seem to mind. They run around singing along to Jingle Bells in their swimming suits while eating popsicles with my kids.

August – I make my gift list far in advance. Browsing the wonderful array of tutorials for homemade gifts, I carefully decide which treasure to craft for each person on your list. For a blissful moment, I’m on top of things.

September- Losing weight becomes imperative. I know I’ll put on a good five pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas. If I lose five pounds before the holidays, I break even. I also decide that at this point, there’s not much point in putting the Christmas decorations up in the attic.

October – While decorating for Halloween, I always reflect on how weird I am. I hang ghosts from my trees and lay out my Barbie Zombie Graveyard while listening to Christmas music. Deciding that I should give it a break for a while, I switch to something else. This usually only lasts a couple of weeks.

November- I start to freak out a little bit. The stores are decorated for Christmas, festive merchandise is everywhere, and the new toys are coming out. It’s finally almost here. Wait, I haven’t started all those homemade gifts yet! I haven’t sewn a single candy cane striped pot holder or spent any quality time making kid friends decorations with my children yet. Hurry!

December – I rush out and buy all my presents (homemade is over-rated), throw up as many decorations as I can, spin into a crazy frenzy of trying to get everything done. Then I panic that Christmas is practically here and I haven’t enjoyed the season yet. I realize abruptly that I am not in the mood. I’m not sensing the magic. I need to feel jolly. Help!

And this is why I wrote Aglow. I focused all my Christmas yearning into one sweet, festive romance. Now when I need a dose of Christmas spirit, it’s there waiting for me. I hope it will work the same magic on you – even if you aren’t crazy like me.

Is there an Organization Expert in the house?

That's right. It only took eight hours to clean this mess. Every minute of it, I was wishing that I hadn't let it get like this. Why hadn't I kept it clean that last time I'd cleaned it? The truth is that I'm a creative person, not an organized person. Luckily, I know how to organize, I just don't automatically do it.

What does this have to do with writing? EVERYTHING! Sorry. I know that I yelled, but I'm a little high strung right now. With my first novel, Aglow, I learned a hard lesson. Creativity isn't enough to make story work. After months of rewrite, I sent it to my editors and they bravely informed me that I didn't have enough conflict to drive the plot or keep the readers interested. What? How did that happen? To fix it, I went back to the basics and diagrammed my story. Sure enough, the rising conflict only rose a couple of inches on the chart, nowhere near the climatic peak. I had to start from scratch.

Well, I've learned my lesson from that story and this garage episode. Don't wait till everything is in a tangled, hopeless mess to wish you'd been more organized. To that purpose I have a giant story chart on my bedroom wall and recipe cards spelling out the important points. I'm diagramming my next story so that I can look at it everyday and plan it all out. Now, when I sit down to be creative, I will have a clear road map to follow and no regrets down the road. I won't be heading into a fourth rewrite thinking, "What the heck is wrong with me?"

Coming Soon

Complete Guide to the LDS Lingo!