Cleveland Rocks Romance

This past weekend my niece and I attended NEORWA Writers Conference. It was a blast and I learned so much about the do's and don't's of writing queries. The one thing they really liked was when the author's voice came through in their query letter.

Which leads me to finding your voice. What is your voice? Your voice is a blend of beliefs, passion and your theme that runs throughout your stories. So, how do you discover this? Speaker LuAnn McLane gave the following advice.

1. Make a list of your strengths.


2. Dare to be different (Take something that's been done before and put your spin on it. MAKE IT FRESH!


3. Please yourself first.


4. Creating your brand. (Start Now! You don't have to wait to be published.) Create your tag line: Something that will resonate with your readers, editors and agents. That special ingredient that is you.

For instance LuAnn's tag line is Romantic Comedy with a Southern Kick. Jamie Denton's tag line is Discover Hot & Steamy Romance. Linore Rose Burkhard's tag line is Inspirational Romance to Warm the Soul.

So, how do you define yourself and what you write? I am trying to define mine. I know I write dark in almost everything I write. When it doesn't have a dark twist then I probably had to struggle to write the piece. So, now to come up with a catch phrase that people will remember... If I wrote romance, I'd say darkly delicious.., but I don't. So, now it's time to put on the old thinking cap. I'll let you know what I come up with.