Lisa Paitz Spindler, Danger Gal

My latest post is up at the Writers At Play blog and today I’m talking about the nature of heroines in Paranormal Romances, specifically how rare they are. Once in a while a blog post or comment takes on a life of its own. A while back I responded to a comment by Diana Peterfreund on the Dear Author post “My Paranormal Malaise”:

Diana Peterfreund said:

The other day, I heard someone refer to the pararom/UF market as the “vampire boyfriend” genre. Which is really interesting and not necessarily inaccurate because so many stories seem to be able to be described as “girl falls in love with [insert paranormal creature here.]”

An apt description, and partly why I’m much more interested these days in SFR rather than Paranormal. Why is it the paranormal character is so often the hero and not the heroine?

Love Romance Passion responded with the a very enlightening post “6 Reasons Why the Paranormal Character is Always Male” and The Galaxy Express responded with “The Romance Heroine is Not a Side Dish.”

Read more…

I’m blogging today over at my group blog, Writers At Play, about the wackiness on the web this week. Stay tuned for a reboot of my weekly roundup posts here on my home blog too.

What’s nutty this week? Goths in hot weather, Darth Kindle and Luke iPod, and Snachismo. Oh my.

I’m blogging today over at Writers At Play about food with a post called The Spice of Life. Specifically I’m talking about all those comfort foods we come back to in times of stress. Mine is Chicken Paprikash.

I’m blogging today over at Writers At Play about experiencing an Inspiration Point — the role setting plays in a story. Whether you’re a writer finding inspiration in the most unlikeliest of places or a reader who just adores great world-building, please stop on over and chime in the discussion. An excerpt:

I’m probably dating myself here, but do you remember watching “Happy Days” and hearing about Inspiration Point? Back when Ron Howard still had hair, he played Richie Cunningham, middle child of the Cunninghams from the slice of life of 1950s Americana that aired 1974-1984. Inspiration Point was the middle of nowhere place teens went to make-out, but I always think of the title when I’m somewhere that inspires my writing. (And you thought I was going to talk about making out?)

I’m blogging today over at Writers At Play about how the Romance genre is like ABBA’s music, to quote Salon:

[ABBA’s appeal is] it’s the potent cocktail of the subliminally spiritual mixed with the flat-out libidinous…Despite the clothes, the awkward choreography, the often nonsensical lyrics, ABBA endure because there’s something spiritual and sexual and just plain sweet in their harmonies, something playfully innocent and disarmingly sophisticated.

Like ABBA, people have been for years shy about admitting that they like Romance. Come join us and chime in with your own cheesy musical favorites.

Me, I’m going to be singing Neil Diamond in my head all day.

I’m interviewing Science Fiction Romance author Susan Grant today over at my group blog, Writers At Play.

RITA award winner, New York Times best-selling author, USAF veteran, 747 airline pilot, and mom Susan Grant loves writing about what she knows: flying, adventure, and the often unpredictable interaction between men and women!

If you’re a regular reader here at Danger Gal HQ, you may already know that two of Susan Grant’s heroines have been profiled as Danger Gal Fridays:

• Banzai Maguire from The Legend of Banzai Maguire
• Brit Bandar from Moonstruck

I’ve also talked at length about the many facets of Science Fiction Romance. Please stop by and chime in the comments over at Writers At Play.

I’m blogging today over at my group writers blog, Writers At Play, about the nexus point of Geeks and Romance Alpha Heroes. Bring your Star Wars action figures and come play (I call Chewie!).

Over the next few days I hope to post some of the highlights of the workshops I attended at the RWA National Conference last week.

To kick off the highlights posts, here is a photo from Saturday night’s Awards Ceremony of myself and a couple of my pals from Writers at Play.

From left to right, me, author Stacey Kayne and author Leslie Dicken. I’ll try to post some additional photos as time allows, but for now Janice Lynn has a few nice photos up on her blog and Tawny Weber chronicles our “legs” photos from years past.

Some of the sessions I attended include:

• • Successful Rewriting:Paring Down and Fleshing Out by Lisa Gardner
  • Emotion, Emotion, Emotion: Writing Romance with Global Appeal by authors Barbara Hannay, Barbara McMahon, Jessica Hart and Harlequin editor Lucy Brown
  • How to Stay Sane in Publishing by agent Steven Axelrod
  • The Great Agent Hunt by authors Christie Craig and Faye Hughes and agents Jessica Faust and Caren Johnson
  • Writing Crossover Fiction with authors Ann Aguirre, Catherine Asaro, Robin Owens and Ace/Berkley Sensation editor Cindy Hwang
  • Writing in a Hybrid Genre with Dorchester editor Leah Hultenschmidt
  • The Lessons of Firefly: Learning From the Works of Joss Whedon by author Jacqui Jacoby

I’m blogging today over at my group blog Writers At Play about how writers conferences and the Romance genre in general can inspire our creativity.

There’s also a leggy photo essay of my Playpals here (and yes, I’m in those photos). Evidently I look a bit like Edie Falco these days.

I’m posting over at my group writer’s blog Writers At Play this weekend on Finding the Right Spot. Y’know, the perfect spot to read that next great book.

What spot did you think I was talking about?