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Surprises and snowball fights with Rani and Henrik in Chapters 9 & 10! Read for free now (link in bio) . . . #romancereaders #romancenovel #romancewriters #wocinromance #desiromance #interracialromance #holidaylove #christmasromance #holidayromance #christmasprince #christmastree #christmasreading #christmasreads #nanowrimo #wattpadstories https://www.instagram.com/p/CImG_O1AuYC/?igshid=glq5c7lphhn0

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Henrik and Rani bicker over tea and cookies in Chapter 6! Read for free now on #wattpad. Link in bio! . . . #romancereaders #romancereadersofinstagram #wocinromance #holidayreads #christmasreads #tistheseason https://www.instagram.com/p/CIhFtm6gY12/?igshid=e2fccbcyxi83

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Chapter 3 & 4 are up! 

Royal Holiday Romance: The Christmas Queen - 4 - Rani (on Wattpad) https://my.w.tt/p0hQRHFcXbb NEW CHAPTER EVERY DAY (December 2020) Fake fiancee + interracial (brown woman / white man) romance with a Royal Christmas twist! When his mother announces her intention to abdicate, Prince Henrik is under pressure to secure a peace treaty by arranged marriage before his coronation on Christmas. But when the Queen refuses to approve the wedding, Henrik is forced to agree to a plan that puts not just the country - but his heart - at risk... Bartender Rani Chatterjee is the last person anyone would mistake for a Queen. When Rani writes to the future King under an Earl's name, she didn't think he'd even read the letters, let alone show up at her bar and ask her to be the Queen's worst-case-scenario - aka, his fake fiancee!

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Chapter is up now! Read The Christmas Queen for free on Wattpaf

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Rani and Henrik come face to face in Chapter 3 of The Christmas Queen

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Henrik, the bachelor Prince, is known for his cold disinterest in romance. If he can just get the Queen to approve a political marriage of convenience, he can focus on his country... and forget about the fake fiancee who has him rethinking all his plans. The Christmas Queen on Wattpad (psst, Henrik’s first Chapter was posted today!)

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Prince Henrik will grant Rani's request if she poses as his #fakefiancée in this #interracial #royal #holiday romance 

🤴🏼🎄☃️🏰👸🏾  Check out new holiday romance, The Christmas Queen on Wattpad! New chapter every day!

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Meet Rani Chatterjee, the optimistic, impulsive and hot-tempered bartender with something to prove. Sure, she impersonated an Earl to get the Prince to listen to her ideas! She just wants to make a difference in her community, and maybe have a little fun along the way...

Read The Christmas Queen for free on Wattpad - new chapter every day!

[thischicklits]

He had only been dead for three hours and seven minutes. The beat of his pulse still echoing in his wrist; its ghost slithered through his veins. He woke in a morgue, mostly naked, and almost completely alone. On a cold slab of metal, a sheet over his eyes, and a tag on his toes. He would try to read it later, but the world was blurry, and the ink smudged, and the paper tore, and all he could see were three little lines that looked something like this: Z.

As he sat up, the sheet slid off. The world transformed from soft darkness to the cutting brightness of hospital lights. On either side of him, walls of steel doors rattled and rocked. Knocks resounded from the other side: the struggle of death, defied. One by one, Z let them out. He pulled open each drawer, and slid the occupants to freedom with a metallic zing! Some jumped free of their confines, while others slid to the floor and remained there, dazed, even as Z made his exit (followed by a bear).

Z walked out of the morgue, barefoot. By stepping on the tag with one foot and pulling up with the other, he abandoned his name.

Into the hall, he went. He did not stop when sterilized tools clamored to the ground, nor when a daring draft caressed his backside. At the end of the hall, there was another set of doors: larger, and more promising than the rest.

Hmm, Z thought. Or, rather, his brain hummed: poking at that barrier between dead and alive, running its figurative fingers across the curtain. Hmm, it thrummed, and then said nothing else.

[thischicklits]

Book rec: historical romance with Indigenous (Totonac) heroine. Greta Gilbert, "The Spaniard's Innocent Maiden" tells the historical romance (1519/1520) between a Spaniard seeking gold to win over his beloved back in Spain, and a Totonac woman trying to rescue her sister from the Mexica. Romances between the oppressed and their oppressors ate not usually my cup of tea, but this reads more like a story of partners on a treasure hunt to the tune of Disney's Road to El Dorado, rather than an enemies to lovers/Romeo and Juliet trope. (Full disclosure, I have limited knowledge of indigenous communities and histories in Central America. If you read, perhaps take accuracy with a grain of salt a la is popular in Regency romance).

[thischicklits]

Why do people so vehemently forget that Luke has a female love interest in a canon novel? Like I have all respect for headcanons where Luke is gay but at the end of the day, there is a canon novel where he has a female love interest, Nakari Kelen. This novel, Heir to the Jedi, was written with input from the infamous story group and is canon. You can of course dislike this, but it’s simply out there. 

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NaNoWriMo Prep: How to Write 2000 Words a Day

Two thousand is a big number. Sitting down to write 2000 words can be extremely intimidating, so the first thing you should do is make that number friendlier.

Write 500 words in 4 writing sessions.  

Chop up that big, intimidating number. Start with a goal of 500 words. In one session, with no breaks, write them all. Take a break, then write the next 500. Repeat until you reach at least 2000. 

If you write 650 words in one session, don’t aim for 350 in the next. Let those extra words add up. A few hundred extra words each day will get you to 50k quicker than you could imagine.

I recommend timing your sessions, aiming for 20 minutes each time. The deadline will help you get the words out, With 10 minute breaks between each session, you can reach your 2000 word goal in two hours. Which brings me to the next point: 

Write fast. 

Don’t stop and think about your words. Don’t go back and improve a previous sentence. Save all of your edits for later. Focus on writing as quickly as possible, throwing everything you have at that blank page. This will actually help boost your creativity. Make your brain work so fast, be so focused, that it doesn’t have any space to doubt itself and you’ll be amazed at what you can come up with. 

But don’t worry if you can’t write 500 words in 20 minutes on day one. Writing quickly is a skill and it will take a few days of training. 

Let the words suck.

This is absolutely key if you want a high word count. When you’re writing an entire chapter in a day, you shouldn’t expect the words to be beautiful. You’re not aiming at lyrical prose. You’re mining raw material that you can work into art later.

Letting the words suck can include:

Writing [something happens here] in place of a scene.

Letting yourself use cliches as shorthand.

Dialog that is really exposition.

Long descriptions of things that don’t matter.

Letting your characters ramble until you discover what it is they actually need to say.

As long as there are 2000 words and they relate to your story, they’re exactly what you need. And if you hate having bad words on a page, once you have your 2000 for a day, you can go back and fix all of it. Take all the time you need. Just reach that word count first. 

Tip: if you do edit at the end of each day, make that a separate document from your official NaNo doc. This way, you can trim scenes, descriptions, and dialog without worrying about its effect on your word count. (If you make a scene/description/sentence longer, feel free to include that in your NaNo doc.) 

Don’t know what to write next?

So you’ve written 1200 words, completed a scene, and you have no idea where the story is going next. Here are some things you can do to get those 800 words in anyway:

Go to writeordie.com and FORCE the words out.

If that doesn’t work, reread the scene you’ve just written and see if you’re missing some obvious foreshadowing, some clue as to where the story’s headed. (You can also add a few lines to bulk up your wc.)

If that fails, take a walk and let the fresh air usher a solution to you.

If that fails, skip the next section. Write another scene. Go where the story is waiting for you. Come back to the other scene at a later time.

Helpful tip:

Instead of breaking your writing session into four parts, break it into five. Use your first writing session to sketch out an entire chapter, like an outline, but with bits and pieces of dialog and description. Figure out where you’re headed and a couple of key stops along the way. Knowing what you’re writing towards will make doing the actual, fleshed-out writing much easier and quicker.

You can also do an outline for the next day’s writing after you’ve gotten your 2000 words for the day in. Future you will be extremely pleased.

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Based on this tumblr post 

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Finding the information you need as a writer shouldn’t be a chore. Luckily, there are plenty of search engines out there that are designed to help you at any stage of the process, from coming up with great ideas to finding a publisher to get your work into print. Both writers still in college and those on their way to professional success will appreciate this list of useful search applications that are great from making writing a little easier and more efficient.

Professional

Find other writers, publishers and ways to market your work through these searchable databases and search engines.

Litscene: Use this search engine to search through thousands of writers and literary projects, and add your own as well.

Thinkers.net: Get a boost in your creativity with some assistance from this site.

PoeWar: Whether you need help with your career or your writing, this site is full of great searchable articles.

Publisher’s Catalogues: Try out this site to search through the catalogs and names of thousands of publishers.

Edit Red: Through this site you can showcase your own work and search through work by others, as well as find helpful FAQ’s on writing.

Writersdock: Search through this site for help with your writing, find jobs and join other writers in discussions.

PoetrySoup: If you want to find some inspirational poetry, this site is a great resource.

Booksie.com: Here, you can search through a wide range of self-published books.

One Stop Write Shop: Use this tool to search through the writings of hundreds of other amateur writers.

Writer’s Cafe: Check out this online writer’s forum to find and share creative works.

Literary Marketplace: Need to know something about the publishing industry? Use this search tool to find the information you need now.

Writing

These helpful tools will help you along in the writing process.

WriteSearch: This search engine focuses exclusively on sites devoted to reading and writing to deliver its results.

The Burry Man Writers Center: Find a wealth of writing resources on this searchable site.

Writing.com: This fully-featured site makes it possible to find information both fun and serious about the craft of writing.

Purdue OWL: Need a little instruction on your writing? This tool from Purdue University can help.

Writing Forums: Search through these writing forums to find answers to your writing issues.

Research

Try out these tools to get your writing research done in a snap.

Google Scholar: With this specialized search engine from Google, you’ll only get reliable, academic results for your searches.

WorldCat: If you need a book from the library, try out this tool. It’ll search and find the closest location.

Scirus: Find great scientific articles and publications through this search engine.

OpenLibrary: If you don’t have time to run to a brick-and-mortar library, this online tool can still help you find books you can use.

Online Journals Search Engine: Try out this search engine to find free online journal articles.

All Academic: This search engine focuses on returning highly academic, reliable resources.

LOC Ask a Librarian: Search through the questions on this site to find helpful answers about the holdings at the Library of Congress.

Encylcopedia.com: This search engine can help you find basic encyclopedia articles.

Clusty: If you’re searching for a topic to write on, this search engine with clustered results can help get your creative juices flowing.

Intute: Here you’ll find a British search engine that delivers carefully chosen results from academia.

AllExperts: Have a question? Ask the experts on this site or search through the existing answers.

Reference

Need to look up a quote or a fact? These search tools make it simple.

Writer’s Web Search Engine: This search engine is a great place to find reference information on how to write well.

Bloomsbury Magazine Research Centre: You’ll find numerous resources on publications, authors and more through this search engine.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus: Make sure you’re using words correctly and can come up with alternatives with the help of this tool.

References.net: Find all the reference material you could ever need through this search engine.

Quotes.net: If you need a quote, try searching for one by topic or by author on this site.

Literary Encyclopedia: Look up any famous book or author in this search tool.

Acronym Finder: Not sure what a particular acronym means? Look it up here.

Bartleby: Through Bartleby, you can find a wide range of quotes from famous thinkers, writers and celebrities.

Wikipedia.com: Just about anything and everything you could want to look up is found on this site.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Find all the great philosophers you could want to reference in this online tool.

Niche Writers

If you’re focusing on writing in a particular niche, these tools can be a big help.

PubGene: Those working in sci-fi or medical writing will appreciate this database of genes, biological terms and organisms.

GoPubMd: You’ll find all kinds of science and medical search results here.

Jayde: Looking for a business? Try out this search tool.

Zibb: No matter what kind of business you need to find out more about, this tool will find the information.

TechWeb: Do a little tech research using this news site and search engine.

Google Trends: Try out this tool to find out what people are talking about.

Godchecker: Doing a little work on ancient gods and goddesses? This tool can help you make sure you have your information straight.

Healia: Find a wide range of health topics and information by using this site.

Sci-Fi Search: Those working on sci-fi can search through relevant sites to make sure their ideas are original.

Books

Find your own work and inspirational tomes from others by using these search engines.

Literature Classics: This search tool makes it easy to find the free and famous books you want to look through.

InLibris: This search engine provides one of the largest directories of literary resources on the web.

SHARP Web: Using this tool, you can search through the information on the history of reading and publishing.

AllReaders: See what kind of reviews books you admire got with this search engine.

BookFinder: No matter what book you’re looking for you’re bound to find it here.

ReadPrint: Search through this site for access to thousands of free books.

Google Book Search: Search through the content of thousands upon thousands of books here, some of which is free to use.

Indie Store Finder: If you want to support the little guy, this tool makes it simple to find an independent bookseller in your neck of the woods.

Blogging

For web writing, these tools can be a big help.

Technorati: This site makes it possible to search through millions of blogs for both larger topics and individual posts.

Google Blog Search: Using this specialized Google search engine, you can search through the content of blogs all over the web.

Domain Search: Looking for a place to start your own blog? This search tool will let you know what’s out there.

OpinMind: Try out this blog search tool to find opinion focused blogs.

IceRocket: Here you’ll find a real-time blog search engine so you’ll get the latest news and posts out there.

PubSub: This search tool scours sites like Twitter and Friendfeed to find the topics people are talking about most every day.

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Believing that romance can only serve as escapist entertainment, though, and ignoring the connection that readers can find with the stories and characters does a disservice to the writers who are telling the stories, often of people who are under-represented in fiction. Even worse, it dismisses the experiences of readers who have a hard time finding their stories and happy endings represented outside the romance genre.

YES. Because THIS is what bothers me about the “everyone has a right to their own brand of escapism” claim that follows the Stop Shaming Readers argument wielded by non-romance readers to defend romance. Now, I appreciate their support, of course! But romance is MORE than just escapism. Romance novels are intelligent. They have emotional depth. They provide active commentary on society and the world.

Romance is deliberate. 

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“With that in mind, here are a few (…and then some) awesome Asian American protagonists in YA literature! From the kickass to the troubled, from gay to straight, boys to girls to somewhere in between, from the ambitious, and the humorous, to the stoic, and even more that don’t fit in boxes, no matter how much people try to make them, these teen characters are ones we think you won’t easily forget.”