My critique group is known as the Soapbox Divas. Why? Because it doesn't take much to get one or all of us on our soapbox. Sometimes separately. Sometimes all at once.
I can't imagine life without my girls. They pick you up when you're down, they help you out when you're stuck. We've learned together, and we've struggled together. We've laughed together, we've supported each other, and we've done stuff together that we'd never have done on our own.
The biggest challenge is research. Imagine going by yourself, pen and pad in hand, to a store to take notes on sex toys. Deep down, you know that saleslady doesn't believe you're a writer doing research for a book.
So you ask a critique partner to go. Because it's much more believable to have two giggling, grown women with notebooks and measuring tapes. Using fake names.
Meet Melissa Mayhue. She writes paranormal romance and her website can be found at
www.melissamayhue.com. An amazing writer of feel-good romance, you know the kind. The book that's a "keeper." The one you see on your bookshelf and remember, that was such a good book. I'm going to read it again. I loved that feel-good, happily ever after, feeling you have after you read it. Melissa's the first one of us to publish, her work is available through Pocket Books in the Spring of 2007. Her first book is my absolute favorite, a time travel sure to appeal to historical readers. The series is called Daughters of the Glen, and the first book is Thirty Nights with a Highland Husband. Now don't get me wrong. I love her second one too, but she's got the creepiest little kid in it.
Kirsten writes contemporary romance with a kick. Her unique style of writing is unlike any other I've ever read. We've tried to insert her work into a certain genre, but the best way to describe it is a new spin on contemporary romance. Find her work at
www.KirstenRichard.com. Both of her books are wonderful, but my favorite is her second, called Try, Try Again. Now don't get me wrong. I love the first, but.Try makes me sigh.
Vi Redding writes contemporary and erotic romance. She writes awesome stories, and we knew she'd fit right in from the first moment we heard her read her stuff!
Little old me? Rena Marks, and I write paranormal romance - very different from Melissa's - and contemporary romance with a light blend of comedy and suspense - very different from Kirsten's. I'm now published in erotica, yet it's very unlike Vi's. Which of my books do the girls favor? Why, that's easy. Melissa favors my paranormal book. Kirsten favors my contemporary. Vi favors my erotica.
It appears we'll need to stop adding Soapbox Divas. For every time we add one, I find myself writing a new genre.
And our honorary critique member, Kally Jo Surbeck, who lives all the way in Timbuctoo, gave me this quote. Isn't it the truth?
"Embellished friends is how fiction works. Embellished men is how romance works."
