Gina Ardito

So the same old reds and greens are giving you the blues. You want to make your settings more vibrant, but you just don't know where to start. Wake up, and open your eyes.

Color is everywhere, and it's the easiest way to add a little pizzazz to an otherwise bland description.

A query letter is your sales pitch to the editor or agent of your choice. It's the equivalent of a golden key, the Yellow Brick Road, and a foot in the door of the publishing industry.

A synopsis is nothing more than a book report for adults. No wonder we all hate writing one! It brings back memories of cringing at our desks when a teacher would say, "And over the vacation I expect you to read these eighteen tomes and write a detailed report on each."

When an agent or an editor requests a synopsis, our minds revert to those days and we freeze. Well, I believe you can satisfy the teacher and the editor by answering ten basic questions. Trust me. Once you've answered them for your own work, the Ghost of Book Reports Past will no longer darken your door. You'll find writing a synopsis isn't so bad after all.

From the day I first discovered her lurking in my head, my muse, Gertrude, and I shared a terrific relationship. That is, until recently.

After five blissful years and seven and a half completed manuscripts, Gertrude took an unapproved vacation. No warning, no disagreement to precipitate her departure. One day she was there, the next she'd disappeared. Ideas no longer flowed from my brain to my fingertips. I spent weeks staring at a blank page in my Word document. Day and night, regardless of where I was--the supermarket, my son's baseball game, in bed--a voice echoed: "What happens next?" And for the first time in my writing life, no answer came to me.

Whenever anyone finds out I'm a romance writer, there are two questions that invariably pop up. One: "Where do you get your ideas?" and two: "Do you ever base your characters on real people?" I can as easily answer the first question as explain where aluminum comes from. But the second can be confirmed with a resounding, "Yes!"

Heroes and heroines don't just exist in our heads or on the pages of our favorite romance novels. If you look around at the people you know, you might discover real heroes and heroines share your life everyday.

"I wish I could do that!"

"Were you funny as a child?"

"Where do you come up with your ideas?"

I hear those comments every time someone learns I write romantic comedies. These are my stock answers:

Some people do it face-to-face; others prefer doing it online. Let's talk critiques.

Ah, February. The shortest month of the year. Yet, its twenty-eight days are chock-full of events. There are groundhogs, cupids, and presidents to celebrate. February is Black History Month, Children’s Dental Health Month, Library Lovers’ Month, and yes, even Grapefruit Month. Within its mere four weeks, you can celebrate Burn Awareness Week, Consumer Protection Week, Friendship Week, Cardiac Rehabilitation Week, and Pancake Week. Even the days are special: Kosciuszko Day is February 4th , Super Bowl Sunday on the 5th in 2006, Clean Out Your Computer Day on the 15th (must write that one down’), and Banana Bread Day on the 23rd .

There’s a lesson for writers in all those events. How do you give your reader all the information necessary, in the shortest amount of space, without garbling your prose?