historical

Writers' Wednesday with Novelist Tracy Garrett

Novelist Tracy GarrettIt's Writers' Wednesday once again over at the blog of our very own Barbara Bettis!

TRACY GARRETT Tracy is an award-winning multi-published author, who says she always loved to disappear into the worlds created within the pages of a book. An accomplished musician, she merged her need for creativity, her love of history, and her passion for reading when she began writing western historical romance. An active member of Romance Writers of America, Ozarks Romance Authors, and Dallas Area Romance Authors, Tracy now resides in Missouri with her husband and their fuzzy pal, Wrigley.

Tracy's debut novel, "Touch of Texas," is available HERE, and "Touched by Love" is available HERE.

Visit Tracy online by clicking HERE.

BARBARA BETTIS Barbara Bettis is an award-winning author of historical fiction, and a long-time instructor of English and journalism at the college level.

She lives in the Missouri Ozarks and is active in several writers’ groups in the area, including Ozarks Romance Authors.

Visit Barb’s blog by clicking HERE. Her main web site is HERE.

Be sure to check Barb’s blog for future Writers’ Wednesday features! Novelist Tracy Garrett is featured on Writers' Wednesday

May 7, 2011 - Mia Marlow

Novelist Mia Marlowe is scheduled to present "What a Novel Idea!" at our May 7, 2011, meeting. This topic will teach us about something vital -- story structure.

How can a writer be sure her story isn’t full of holes or missed opportunities? Listen to the voices of the ancient bards. For centuries, story-tellers have been perfecting the craft of weaving tales. We can stand on their shoulders.

Based on Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey, Mia explains the mythic structures that form plot points your readers are already pre-programmed to respond to. WHAT A NOVEL IDEA will help writers be certain their plots will hit all the readers’ (and editors’) hot-buttons.

Following her presentation at our meeting, she will be signing books at Half Price Books of the Ozarks, a fabulous book store in the Plaza Shopping Center, 1950 S. Glenstone, Suite O. We will be there from 3:00 - 5:00 p.m., so stop by and say hello.

We're so excited for the talented Diana Groe (who writes as Emily Bryan and Mia Marlowe) to return to the Ozarks! She is a native of West Plains, but is now based near Boston, Massachusetts.

Mia learned much of what she knows about storytelling from singing. A classically trained soprano, she won the District Metropolitan Opera Auditions and has shared a stage with Placido Domingo. As she prepared for operatic roles, she devised back stories for her characters. Since she’s worn a real corset, and had to sing high C’s in one, she empathizes with the trials of her fictional heroines. But in Mia’s stories, they don’t die in a Parisian garret. They get to live and keep the hero!

Now an award-winning author, she writes historical romance for multiple publishing houses. Her debut title received advance ovations from romance luminaries. #1 New York Times bestseller Victoria Alexander says Mia’s Touch of a Thief has "adventure and heat and everything I want in a great story!" UK’s BooksMonthly has crowned Mia Marlowe “the queen of saucy historical romance.”

You can visit her at any of the following places: Facebook, Twitter, or her website.

Ozarks Romance Authors, a non-profit group for writers of all genres founded in 1987, holds its meetings the first Saturday of each month at The Library Station, 2535 N. Kansas Expressway, in Springfield, Missouri.

Join us for critique group at 10:00 a.m., lunch at noon, and our meeting/guest speaker at 1:00 p.m.

Visitors are welcome. Your first three visits are free.

Our annual conference will be held July 23, 2011, at The Clarion Hotel and Conference Center. To learn more about the amazing lineup of speakers and workshops, visit our conference page.

If you have questions about the group, please email us at OzarksRomanceAuthors@gmail.com.

NOTE: When the first Saturday of the month falls on a holiday weekend, we often reschedule. If you’re thinking of visiting and it’s a holiday weekend, please email us to find out if we have rescheduled.

Barbara Bettis launches Writers' Wednesday feature on her blog, with V.L. Gregory as her first guest!

Virginia Pohlenz, who writes as V.L. GregoryBarbara Bettis, a long-time member of Ozarks Romance Authors, has launched a great feature on her blog called Writers' Wednesday. Each week, she will spotlight a writing tip from authors, both those published and those on the journey to publication.

This week, Barb is interviewing another long-time member of Ozarks Romance Authors -- Virginia Pohlenz, who writes as V.L. Gregory.

VIRGINIA POHLENZ / V.L. GREGORY Virginia Pohlenz spent three years as Book Talk Representative for the Gateway Region of Scholastic and uses that experience to inform her ‘written’ storytelling. An avid fan of Dr. Suess, she says, “My greatest writing thrill was winning Random House’s 'Ham It Up' Contest. The $100 gift certificate and $50 Seuss library were worth the effort. However, my pride and joy is the original Green Eggs and Ham serigraph that I won from the estate of Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss).”

Virginia writes Young Adult westerns and western poetry.

Visit her online by clicking HERE.

BARBARA BETTIS Barbara Bettis is an award-winning author of historical fiction, and a long-time instructor of English and journalism at the college level.

She lives in the Missouri Ozarks and is active in several writers’ groups in the area, including Ozarks Romance Authors.

Visit Barb’s blog by clicking HERE. Her main web site is HERE.

Be sure to check Barb’s blog for future Writers’ Wednesday features! Virginia Pohlenz, who writes as V.L. Gregory, is the guest today at Writers' Wednesday on Barbara Bettis' blog.

Pitch your book in person to a literary agent or big publishing house's editor at Missouri writers' group's annual conference

Literary Agent Louise Fury and Avalon Books Editor Lia Brown will take one-on-one pitches from writers attending the 2011 Ozarks Romance Authors conference July 23, 2011, in Springfield, Missouri. SPRINGFIELD, MO -- A conference for fiction writers is scheduled for 8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. July 23, 2011. The annual event will feature agent and editor pitch sessions, workshops, panel discussions, break-out sessions, and networking, and will be held at the Clarion Hotel Conference Center, 3333 S. Glenstone Ave., Springfield, Missouri.

Tickets are $60 prior to July 1, or $65 after July 1 or at the door, payable online via secure server by visiting http://ozarks-romance-authors.com/2011-annual-conference or via check.

The conference, open to all who write fiction, is sponsored by Ozarks Romance Authors, a multi-genre non-profit group founded in 1987.

Attendees can pre-schedule one-on-one meetings to pitch their completed manuscripts with Louise Fury, literary agent with the L. Perkins Agency, or Lia Brown, editor with Avalon Books.

Featured guests and speakers will be novelists Leigh Michaels, Shannon Vannatter, Eliza Lloyd, and Shannon Butcher.

Topics include revision and self-editing, plotting, pacing, backstory, transitions, dialogue, character development, and the publishing industry.

Winners of the annual Weta Nichols Fiction Contest, named in honor of the group’s late founder, will be announced to conclude the day.

A discount on sleeping rooms at The Clarion is available.

Ozarks Romance Authors is a non-profit organization for writers in the southwest Missouri region. Monthly speakers help writers of all genres hone their skills and explore writing opportunities.

Meetings are held the first Saturday of each month at The Library Station in Springfield. Visitors are welcome, and more information is available by calling (417) 597-4716 or by visiting www.Ozarks-Romance-Authors.com.

Become a fan on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/OzarksRomanceAuthors and follow the group on Twitter http://www.Twitter.com/OzarksRomance.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

LOUISE FURY http://lperkinsagency.com http://louisefury.blogspot.com Literary Agent Louise Fury Louise Fury, literary agent with the L. Perkins Agency, will be taking pitch sessions from authors at the conference.

Louise believes in the power of marketing and is constantly on the lookout for authors who know how to promote themselves.

She is seeking well written, teen sci-fi and young adult horror. She is also on the hunt for fun, imaginative and engaging middle grade fiction--think humor, adventure and mystery. The characters must be authentic and original. Louise is a huge adult horrror fan, but also loves romance (especially Regency and Victorian) and is looking for paranormal and steampunk romance novels with series potential. (No memoirs or erotica.)

LIA BROWN http://avalonauthors.blogspot.com/2010/04/introducing-new-editor-lia-brown.html Avalon Editor Lia Brown Lia Brown, editor at Avalon Books in New York City, will be taking author/editor appointments at the conference. She is currently looking for single title, category, contemporary, and historical.

Brown started her career in publishing at Starlog magazine as a high school intern, fell in love with editing and the creative process, and hasn’t wanted to do anything else since. During the last twenty years she has worked on a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction topics and genres at several publishing houses including, Marvel Comics, HarperCollins, St. Martin’s Press, Oxford University Press, and Random House Children’s Books.

LEIGH MICHAELS http://www.leighmichaels.com Leigh Michaels Leigh Michaels is the author of nearly 100 books, including 80 contemporary novels, three historical romance novels, and more than a dozen non-fiction books. More than 35 million copies of her romance novels have been published. Six of her books have been finalists for Best Traditional Romance novel in the RITA contest sponsored by Romance Writers of America. She has received two Reviewer’s Choice awards from Romantic Times.

Her work has been translated and published in 120 countries in more than 25 languages, including Japanese, Korean, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Czech, Bulgarian, Russian, Turkish, Hebrew, Greek, Swedish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Africaans, Arabic, Indonesian, and Chinese.

She is the 2003 recipient of the Johnson Brigham Award presented by the Iowa Library Association to an Iowa author for outstanding contributions to literature.

She teaches romance writing on the Internet at Gotham Writers’ Workshop. Men and women from around the world have participated in her workshops, and a number of them have gone on to publish their own romance novels with commercial publishers. She is currently an adjunct professor in the School of Communications at the University of Iowa.

She wrote her first romance novel when she was a teenager and burned it, then wrote and burned five more complete manuscripts before submitting to a publisher. Her first submission was accepted and published by Harlequin Books, the first publisher to look at it.

SHANNON VANNATTER http://www.ShannonVannatter.com Shannon Vannatter Central Arkansas author Shannon Taylor Vannatter is a stay-at-home mom/pastor’s wife who writes inspirational romance fiction. She recently signed a three-book contract for her contemporary inspirational romance series set in Romance and Rose Bud, Arkansas.

It took Vannatter nine years to get published in the traditional market. Like Janette Oke, she views her work as a ministry and her books as paper missionaries. Vannatter hopes to entertain Christian women and plant seeds in the non-believer’s heart as her characters struggle with real-life issues. Their journeys, from ordinary lives to extraordinary romance through Christ-centered relationships, demonstrate that love doesn’t conquer all; Jesus does.

Her short stories appeared in Mature Living and The Writers’ Journal in 2009. Her first novel was published in 2001. She’s received several awards including second place in the Romance Writers of America 2007 Touched By Love and 2008 Where the Magic Begins Contests, and an Honorable Mention in The 2007 Writer’s Journal Romance Contest.

SHANNON BUTCHER http://www.shannonkbutcher.com 'Shannon K. Butcher Shannon Butcher is the wife of fantasy and sci-fi author Jim Butcher. She learned to write in an effort to help him improve his own work and as soon as she discovered that writing was more a learned skill than a natural talent, she knew she had to give it a try. She couldn’t resist the challenge of taking the pieces of a story apart and putting them back together again.

She thought she would write the same kind of thing Jim did, but then she picked up her first romance novel in 1998 and was hooked. Somehow, stories about how two people come to love each other made everything else seem shallow in comparison, she said.

ELIZA LLOYD http://www.elizalloyd.blogspot.com Eliza Lloyd Eliza Lloyd currently has three novels published with Ellora’s Cave in their 19th Century/Legend line of historicals.

Eliza thinks romance writing is nearly as good as the real thing. Given her choice of professions, she would have preferred to be a 19th century archeologist, but she is perfectly happy living in the 21st century and comfortably writing about such romantic but inconceivably inconvenient times instead.

She also writes contemporaries, romantic suspense and the occasional sci-fi.

# # #