Sonja Foust, Romance Author

It’s the thing that holds a book together or causes it to fall apart. It’s the thing that writers will tell you is the essential piece to making your characters realistic. In my opinion, it’s one of the hardest things in the world to get right.

It’s motivation.

“Excuse me, excuse me. What’s MY motivation?” The characters in your books (not unlike those high-maintenance diva-like actors) need motivation in order to be true and convincing. We need to know what’s causing them to be happy, or seek revenge, or act petty, or have sex.

Some motivations are simple: I am hungry, therefore, I will eat my supper.

Some motivations are not simple, and those are the ones with which I am most concerned. Let me give you an example from real life. (more…)

I’m not having a State of the Union watch party… Mostly because I don’t expect it to be much of a party atmosphere, heh. But if I were having a State of the Union watch party, here are the recipes I would be serving my politically-minded guests:

Split-Party Soup

Ok, it’s really split pea soup, but let’s split the peas and not the hairs, people.

EconoMeat

Take a can of meat chili and a block of Velveta and melt those suckers in a bowl in the microwave. Serve it with chips and call it delicious.

Super Majority Good-bye Kisses

59 Hershey kisses and 41 Hershey hugs in a big Senate-shaped bowl

Heath Care Reform

Mash up some Heath bars. Get some vanilla ice cream. Let your partiers go to town, but hopefully in a way that allows bipartisanship, huh?

What are you serving at your State of the Union watch party?

I recently gave a romance novel to a friend who doesn’t really read romance novels. I told her that she didn’t read them because she’d never tried one, and once she did, she’d love them forever. Since she is a good and open-minded friend, she gave it a try.

Today we went on a trip to Barnes & Noble to buy her more romance novels. Victory.

So here are my top 5 reasons why you should try reading a romance novel: (more…)

Ok, I know there are some of you out there that don’t love shoes… you mutants. By and large, though, most women I meet love shoes. Why? It’s just an article of clothing– it shouldn’t be any different than a coat or a bag or a skirt, right?

Here’s my theory:

Shoes are universal. There are the odd feet out, but most of the time, if you see a cute shoe, chances are it’s going to look cute on your foot. This shoe will not make your butt look fat. This shoe will not fit your hips but not your boobs. The color of this shoe will not make your face look sick or sad or tired. Cute shoes are just cute shoes.

So, what’s your theory? Are you a shoe person? A bag person? A coat person? Does some other article of clothing get you going? Tell me in the comments.

This weekend, we finally got around to putting away all the Christmas stuff (and me pretty much kicking and screaming). I never like to put away Christmas stuff, but this year was worse– It’s not just laziness, it’s the emotional impact of it. Christmas guarantees you time with friends and family, and a few days off to take care of things, and the hope of a brand new year. Once you put away the Christmas stuff, it feels like all that goes away, too.

So, to cheer myself up, I’m looking for decorating ideas. I have a big square shelf where the Christmas village was that I need something for. We used to have a fountain there (kind of like the one to the right, except way prettier, and pink quartz), which I loved, but it’s broken and probably won’t make a comeback anytime soon. Could do a plant, but that’s kind of boring, right? So shoot me some ideas. Stacks of pretty books? Piles of different-sized picture frames? Some kind of other fountain or statue or other big nifty conversation piece? (more…)