Category Archives: Pintip Dunn

Why We Write Romance

Alethea Kontis, Dana Rodgers, Denny S. Bryce, Diana Belchase, Kerri Carpenter, Kimberly MacCarron, Masha Levinson, mermaids, Pintip Dunn, Susan Jeffery, , , ,

Valentines-day-valentines-day-22236757-2560-1600-300x187Happy Valentine’s Day from the Waterworld Mermaids!!!

We love Valentine’s Day so much that we are celebrating all week long. Ever curious about why the Mermaids write romance novels? Today we decided to share our answers to the question: What made you start writing romance?

Come back tomorrow when we turn the tables on industry professionals with their very own question. Our celebration will wrap on Thursday with a gift card giveaway. Leave a comment today and tomorrow for extra chances to be entered in the giveaway on Thursday.

Enjoy and smoochies!

What made you start writing romance?

Alethea

This should come as no surprise to anyone: Fairy Tales are the reason I started writing romance. Fairy tales are full of fantasy, adventure, magic, mystery, blood, and death…but the tales I always found most interesting were the ones that involved true love. This love might end tragically (The Little Mermaid) or wonderfully (Rapunzel) or coincidentally (Briar Rose) or with a heaping spoonful of vengeance (Snow White/The Goose Girl), but the meeting of two soul mates in these unlikely settings gave me hope that I was not destined to be alone in this lonely world.

Carlene

So the story goes that it was 2008 and I was knee deep into my brand new fascination with Sherrilyn Kenyon and the romance genre. I think it was around her thirteenth or fourteenth Dark Hunter book I’d read when I realized no matter how horrifying or dark the stories became, the couples always clawed their way back out to a happy ending. The stories were so compelling that it honestly took me that many reads to finally figure out that they would all end on a happy note. It also struck a deep chord with me that many of her characters needed redemption and how their path to that came by way of new-found responsibilities toward the person they now loved. I thought about several real-life people I knew and cared about, people with good hearts but who had missed out on that perfect happy ending. I figured out that I could give them that through my stories. I love reading and writing romance! Wishing you all the best on this Valentine’s Day! Fishy Kisses, Carlene Mermaid

Dana

Once upon a time, I was on a preschool board and I became friends with another board member, Anita Clenney. Anita is one of the nicest people on the planet and we kept in contact for years after our preschool days were over. One day we were talking and she said something along the lines of, “Oh I have so much to do. I really need to get back to my manuscript.” Intrigued, I asked loads of questions about her manuscript and discovered that Anita was an up and coming romance writer. As an avid reader with an eye for detail, I was thrilled when she asked me to be a beta reader. What she got back was way more than what I think she was expecting – actually closer to line edits than your typical overall impressions.

I have been working with Anita ever since. I can’t express how excited and proud I was when Anita signed a three book contract later that year. And I couldn’t have been more thrilled for my friend when her first book made the USA Today and New York Times bestseller’s lists.

Being a good friend, it didn’t take long until Anita suggested I put some of my great ideas into a manuscript of my very own. It took several months of her prodding, but now I’m so happy she did. I love the outlet writing gives me and I now understand why I’ve had this constantly running loop of ideas and images floating through my brain all of these years… Writing was what I was meant to do.

Denny

My journey to writing romance started because of a television show. Yep. I fell in love with an old show named Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and no, not Buffy), but the character Spike—but not because of what he was on screen as much as what was missing from Spike’s tortured existence—romance. At the time, I read horror, mostly, and lots of paranormal, but not necessarily romance, except maybe gothic romance and tragic love stories (always liked to sob with my heroines:). But then I discovered fan fiction (which since 50 Shades of Grey, I no longer need to explain:). Fanfiction writers in the Buffy fandom wore obsessive romantics. I read thousands of pages of fan fiction, and wrote 500,000 words of fan fiction myself (and no it wasn’t all one book:). And through fan fiction, I met a writer named Alicia Rasley (I won’t share her Live Journal name here though:), and she introduced me to RWA, and the idea of writing original romantic fiction. That was quite a few years ago, and I had SO much to learn (which I’m still learning), but that’s who and what started my journey in romance. Buffy, Spike, and Alicia Rasley (http://www.aliciarasley.com/).

Diana

I write what I love, and I also write the books I cannot find and would like to see on shelves. The inspiration of strong women who find more than love — they find love with the right guy — proves such men are out there. When they find their happily ever after, it makes me happy. I guess I write because I’d like to spread the happiness around.

Kerri

The summer before my senior year of college, my mom handed me Nora Roberts’ Sea Swept to read. A couple pages in, I was hooked. That summer I read all about the Quinn’s, the Calhoun sisters and the MacGregor’s, and I haven’t stopped reading romance since. I’d always been a writer but I guess I had never found my niche. What really struck me about romance novels was that everyone got a happy ending. For a twenty-one year old about to enter the very scary and unsure “real world,” nothing sounded better than escaping to a place where dreams come true.

Kim

I write young adult romances because I want girls to read about boys who treat them with respect.  I want them to EXPECT that.  To have those high expectations of boys who will grow into men of good character.  To hold out for love.

It’s not that I ever expected my relationships in high school to pan out into a golden anniversary, but those innocent romances helped me discover what I expected from an adult relationship.  And really, when you come to think of it, they’re the same.  I think the only difference is that we become more jaded and insecure as adults, so teen romances are probably the most pure and real ones out there.  When everything is fresh and new and even heartbreakingly real.  I write teen romances because I still remember those feelings quite vividly.  It’s the promise of something special…something magical…something unforgettable.

Pintip

I cannot imagine writing a young adult novel without including some element of romance. I believe first love is integral to the teenage experience. An essential part of understanding who we are is discovering who we can be as a result of another person — a person who brings out the best in us, a person who inspires us to be the best version of ourselves. That, to me, is the definition of true love.

Susan

I’ve loved reading romance since my early teens, when my family made its annual trek to Georgia and visited family. My grandmother lived with two sisters and me-oh-my, they had half a garage PACKED with grocery bags full of Harlequin books from their shared subscription. Unlimited access to these tiny miracles not only kept me quiet, it gave me my early training. Since I never really stopped reading them, I’ve also never stopped wanting to tell my own stories.

 

Your turn. Tell us in the comments why you *read* romance novels?

So Grateful To Be Joyful

Health, mermaids, Pintip Dunn, ,

Following up on Alethea’s post about Famous Jammies yesterday, I’d like to talk about another short video (also 3 minutes, 45 seconds!) I found on YouTube rpintipecently. This one features Dr. Brené Brown, professor and renowned vulnerability researcher. She is perhaps best known for her TED talks on vulnerability and shame, but in this clip she talks about the connection between gratitude and joy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IjSHUc7TXM&feature=youtu.be

Namely, in her 11,000 interviews, Dr. Brown found that every single person who described his or her life as “joyful” or “joyous” also “practiced” gratitude.

By practicing gratitude, Dr. Brown doesn’t mean feeling or being grateful; rather she’s talking about a very specific and tangible gratitude exercise — keeping a gratitude journal, for example, or articulating something for which you are grateful at a certain time each day.

This relationship between joy and gratitude surprised her. She had gone into the research thinking, “If you are joyful, then you should be grateful.”
She found, instead, that “practicing gratitude invites joy into our lives.”

It surprised me, too. For the last several months, I’ve been keeping a gratitude journal, where I write down five things for which I am grateful about that day. I have to admit, some days are harder than others, and sometimes, if I’m having a bad day or am feeling physically unwell, I skip the journal altogether.

I would think: “Well, that was a crap day. It’s not that I don’t have anything to be grateful for; I just don’t have the energy or the inclination to come up with five specific things right now. Tomorrow, when I’m feeling better, I’ll try again.”

Now, Dr. Brown’s insights make me wonder if I’ve been thinking about this all wrong. Maybe the very fact that I choose NOT to practice gratitude contributes to my bad day. Maybe the times when I  need my gratitude journal the MOST are the tough days, not the joyous ones.

So, instead of avoiding my gratitude journal, I’m going to make a point of writing in it when I’m feeling my worst. In addition, per Dr. Brown’s suggestion, my family and I now practice a gratitude exercise every evening, where we light a candle and go around the circle saying what we are each grateful for. It is another source of joy in my life to see what my kids come up with every day.

We’ll see if Dr. Brown is right. I suspect she is. 🙂

What about you? Do you practice any gratitude exercises? Do you agree with Dr. Brown? What do you believe is the connection between gratitude and joy? What are you grateful for today?

 

My Beloved Smart Phone

mermaids, Pintip Dunn

Many things can transform a writer’s life. Finding a great critique partner. Joining a community of supportive writers. Taking an eye-opening class on craft.

All of these things have happened to me in the last year or two. But one of the biggest differences in my writing life, from a decade ago to now, lies in a technological advance. That’s right: the smart phone.

Some of you may know that I can’t type away at a keyboard the way a regular writer does. Writing longhand with pen and paper is even a stretch. The only option that used to be available to me was voice recognition.

Until last year, when I started writing on my smart phone. More specifically, I send email messages to myself. Each message contains a scene or chapter, and I save it as a “draft” until I’m happy with the section. Then, I send the message to myself and transfer the section to Microsoft Word, which is the only time I touch my laptop these days.

I also lock the keyboard in “portrait” position. Believe it or not, the keys on an iPad or even in an iPhone “landscape” position are too far apart for me to handle without considerable pain.

This new method has Changed. My. Life.

Here’s why:

1. More time to write.

No more waiting for the moments when my house is completely silent. Even the sound of the shower running used to interfere with my speech recognition program. Okay, maybe that just means my shower was way too loud, but still.

Now, I can whip out my phone and write anywhere. Waiting in line, taking public transportation, lying under the sunshade at the beach. Those five minutes here and there really add up.

2. Convenience.

No more lugging around that laptop while I travel. This summer, I went on a two-week trip across the country and ocean. This fall, I’ve gone on several weekend trips in the States. My poor shoulders really couldn’t handle the heavy laptop bag. So I didn’t bring it.

Instead, I saved every chapter of my manuscript as a separate document on a word pad app on my iPhone, and I was able to continue revising my story as normal. I didn’t have to worry about leaving the laptop in my hotel room. And there were no issues with crowding my fellow passengers on the airplane.

3. Increased productivity.

Alethea-mermaid had a post this summer about how she feels less pressure to get it “right” when she’s scribbling in a notebook. Same idea here. What can be less intimidating than drafting an email? Especially an email to myself? Instead of wasting time worrying if I have the right words, I just write. And I don’t even have to carry around notebooks or loose pages or paper napkins.

My smart phone was particularly useful this past month, when I participated in — and won –NaNoWriMo for the first time. I rank my phone right up there with writing sprints and supportive mermaid sisters in helping me “write with abandon.”

4. “I’m a writer!”

The biggest advantage of the iPhone method is that it makes me feel like a writer. Yes, I got used to voice recognition. I became proficient at linking my brain to my mouth. But I never became truly comfortable with dictating my crappy first draft words OUT LOUD, even if there was no one else in the room.

Some writers are auditory learners. They prefer to hear the words rather than read them. Others don’t mind dictating their thoughts.

Not me. I love the written word. I love to sit in a moment of quiet contemplation, with the text on the page as my only company. Now, with my iPhone, I can finally write the way I’ve always wanted.

If you’ve never tried writing via smart phone, I urge you to give it a try. You might just fall in love.

I’ve written my last two novels this way. With the continual advance in technology, who knows  how I’ll write future novels?

What is your favorite way to write? In what ways has the smart phone changed your life? Who else desperately wants the iPhone 5 as a present this holiday season?