Rochelle Bradley Author

Good news! I received an email last week that made me smile. It still does. I'm attending a Romance Writers of America conference at the end of May, and they offer a writing contest. I considered entering but was intimidated. I'd never entered a romance writing contest before. I decided to try the category of romantic suspense. Dusting off an old NaNoWriMo Novel (from Nano 2012), I reviewed the manuscript. I found my courage and asked my critique group and a couple writer friends to view my edits. A few final tweaks and I sent it in. Low and behold, I'm now 1 of 3 finalists in the romantic suspense category. Yay! The Fire & Ice Finalist List The story, Against the Laws, is about  a woman trying to evade the clutches of her abusive husband and his hired thugs, who will stop at nothing to get her back under his control. For two years, she’s traveled the country, living small town to small town, and successfully flying under the radar—until a blundering bank ro...

I went to Panera this week to meet with a few other writers. I sat with my netbook open and my current WIP on screen in Scrivner . We happened to be talking over a characterization problem when a blond woman plopped her mammoth laptop on the table next to me. She was slender with long hair. Her eyes had mild crows feet but, by no means, was she old. As I studied her face, I wondered how I knew her. She smiled as she said, "This won't work. Can you get it to connect?" Okay. I'm not a computer genius but connecting to Wi-Fi I can do. Sometimes the Panera Wi-Fi is stubborn. She has the Yahoo homepage open and Scott Trade in the search bar but it's not searching. I check her Wi-Fi icon for connectivity (makes me sound tech savvy-huh?) The internet access icon had a ! next to it. Who knows why the connection was wonky but I disconnected and reconnected. I asked the lady if I could open a new internet window and the Yahoo homepage popped up again. She becam...

  I've been playing around with fonts and images trying to create something that represents me and my writing. When I find myself not in the mood to write I like to play with book cover designs and imagery. It's relaxing and it spurs my creative juices. What do you like to do when you're not writing?

What Comes Next? So you took the challenge of writing 50,000 words, whether or not you made that goal, it is time to decide how to proceed. 1. Finish the novel. You've got the momentum, ride it out. Get the story out of your head. Once "The End" is on the page, you can say you've written a book. You're now an author! 2. Take a breather. That's right, give your story a rest. A month or two is good then you'll be able to look at it with fresh eyes. During the waiting period read up on craft, journal story ideas or make an outline and start writing another manuscript. 3. Join a critiquing group or enroll in a writing/editing seminar. Whether local or online. It helps to have others to bounce things off of and give helpful hints to improve your work. It's nice to talk with people who are going through the same process and can relate. If you Google "critique groups" several sites will come up like Critique Circle and Roses Colored Glasses...

Daily Snippets #30, November 30, 2015    The month is almost over. We're down to the home stretch. Can you make the 50,000 goal. Usually  my novel is not finished when I reach 50k but it's close. The Writer Leopard. Going to miss him.  You know you're a writer when...  

Daily Snippets #29, November 29, 2015 Two days left to make 50,000 words! Can you do it? Have you done it, then go validate your novel. You know you're a writer when... and Writer Leopard.  

Daily Snippets #28, November 28, 2015 I am behind on my word count, though I'm hovering around right on par. So close. Not quite to the freak level but getting there.  Writer Leopard and You know you're a writer when...