A New Beginning...

Welcome to the re-designed blog for the Mid-Willamette Valley Romance* Writers!

We're embarking on a new adventure — striking out on our own, without the backing of any "official" writing organization.

The writers of Mid-Willamette Valley Romance* Writers came together because of a mutual love of writing Romance.

Over the years, our interests have widened — hence our updated name. The asterisk (*) signifies that we don't just write Romance; we write in a wide variety of genres.

One thing hasn't changed, however. We still share a love of the Romance genre.

You never know what you'll find with the fun and witty Mid-Willamette Valley Romance* Writers. So sit back, settle in, and join in the lively discussion; we're a pretty friendly bunch!

A Little Light Housekeeping

Just want to take a moment and welcome new blogger and fellow MWV member, Christine young to the blog!

Born in Medford, Oregon, novelist Christine Young has lived in Oregon all of her life. After graduating from Oregon State University with a BS in science, she spent another year at Southern Oregon State University working on her teaching certificate, and a few years later received her Master's degree in secondary education and counseling. Now the long, hot days of summer provide the perfect setting for creating romance. She sold her first book, Dakota's Bride, the summer of 1998 and her second book, My Angel to Kensington. Each fall, Christine returns to the classroom - and the pool - as a math teacher and high school swimming coach. Her teaching and writing careers have intertwined with raising three children. Yet summer still seems to be lucky for romance,. Awe-struck e-books will release another of Christine's historical romances in April 2009, Allura. She is now finishing Forever His which follows The Locket which is a sequel to My Angel and Dakota's Bride. Christine and her husband of 30 years live in Salem, Oregon, where she is currently working on another novel.

You can find out more about Christine and her books by visiting her website.

Christine's first post will be this coming Friday. Welcome, Christine!

To Do Tuesdays: Chapter on the Move

Welcome to the first "To-do Tuesday." This is the space where we'll be sharing news of the chapter: speakers, events, and general RWA goings-on. On Thursday, we'll be sharing "Tooting Our Horn Thursday" with news of individual chapter members and their successes. (Of course, if you've got a better name for these columns, please share it!). My e-mail folder of blog news has tumbleweeds roaming around, so please send me your news! It doesn't have to be pretty or even in complete sentences. Heck, just send me a link if you please and I'll do the rest.

First up today: Our next chapter meeting is a week from today! We meet at the Salem Public Library at 7:00 p.m., where the marvelous Christine Scheel will be sharing her thoughts about the craft of writing. Christine is a long-time chapter member, but she's a new Oregonian. Christine is in the process of finishing her much-anticipated move to the Oregon Coast. A multi-published author, Christine's most recent book, The Tiger's Lady, arrived on shelves last month. She has written numerous other Regency and Historical Romances, and has been active in the Beau Monde chapter. We're pretty sure Christine will be leaving her period costumes at home, but her talk promises to be entertaining and informative!

Next up: Buy your tickets now for the 2007 Portland Reader's Luncheon on Saturday, April 28th. This annual event is sponsored by the Portland RWA chapter and the keynote speech will be given by bestselling author, Sherrilyn Kenyon. This event is geared not just towards writers, but towards all readers and lovers of romantic fiction. The cost of the luncheon is $35, but in addition to great food at the Governor's Hotel, you also get admission to the book signing, book fair, chances at door prizes. Many authors will also have "goody baskets" up for raffle. From our chapter, Paty Jager, Chris Young, and Alice Sharpe plan to attend. Any others that I've missed?

I'm hoping to get more information before the 28th from these authors about what their goody baskets will contain, which new releases they'll be signing, and which authors they'll be lining up to get a book from! If I get these juicy tidbits, I'll post them in an another edition of To-Do Tuesdays, or they can share in the comments. Who else is planning to attend? Anyone been to prior luncheons? Anyone have suggestions for what our authors could put in their baskets?

I hope you enjoyed this first installment of To-Do Tuesday!

Show Us Your Best Side

First up . . . Best side of the blog. Ch-Ch-Changes are in store for the blog. You should have already gotten an email from me on the Chapter Loop. Starting in the next week or so, every Tuesday and Thursday, I'll be sharing Chapter news and News from our MWVRWA members. (Not an MWVRWA member??? It's easy! Go to our chapter site!) I'll be sharing news of latest releases, award wins, author profiles and other fun stuff. If you want me to share your news, I'll happily post it for you.

This gives you. the loyal readers, new content everyday, but it gives our member bloggers a bit more of a break between posts. We'll try this format out and see whether it works or not--please feel free to post your opinions as the new changes unfold!

So, as exciting as it is, a post just about blog changes would be b-o-r-i-n-g, and a bit of a downer following the always amazing Alice. Never fear! I have more to talk about!
____________________________________________________________________

In the latest issue of RWR, there's a great article about contests. The article has great tips for picking contests, what to expect from them, and how to run them. However, the article only briefly touches on one of my contest pet-peeves--First Chapter Overload. Nearly every contest focuses on the first few pages or first chapter(s). Now, I understand the reasoning behind this--it's hard to read something out of order, editors and agents typically look at the first chapters, and you need to hook your reader quickly. However, this type of contest tends to reward the meet-cute and/or the dead body in the middle of the room type of formulaic openings. Which is great--I LOVE to read this type of book, and I love a good meet-cute and/or obvious danger as well as any other romance lover, BUT it's not the only opening style.

Of course, I can be prickly about this point because my books typically take a little bit more to establish the true meat of the romance. I'm working on improving my hooks (all Danita's great hook posts helped!) but I still long for more variety among contests. So imagine my delight when I scanned the list of contests in the back of RWR and discovered several non-traditional contests lurking out there!

• 14th Annual Ignite the Flame Contest--First Meeting of Hero and Heroine (big plus for those who don't have them meet in the first 10 pages!).
  
• Enter, Win, and Sell--Another First Meeting Contest
  
• Happily Ever After--Last Chapter of the Manuscript! Yay! A contest that rewards great endings.
  
• Write Hook Contest--A contest for Query Letters

In other months, I have seen contests for best love scenes, best banter, and other non-traditional contests. I'd like to see these contests flourish (obviously, I'm biased) so I'm highlighting them.

But, I think the deeper issue this raises for me, is how we each have our own strengths and weaknesses. Every author has the part of the book that she feels the most confident. For me, that part comes some where around Chapter Six-through the middle of the book. (Now whether that says that my first six chapters should be axed is a whole different post). I feel that my strength is in dialog, and it takes a few chapters to get the characters and plot underway so that the individual scenes take on a life of their own. I'm also pretty confident about my love scenes and my endings--I enjoy writing these, so that increases my faith in these sections.

What would your IDEAL contest showcase? What part of your books are you the most confident about? What parts do you love to write? What parts make you the most nervous? Do traditional contests show your book in its best light? Share your thoughts!