RomanceEverAfter

Romance & You (Articles)

Author Booksignings

Laurie Brown & Myrna Mackenzie
Thursday, October 21, 2004 (7:30 p.m.)

We had a delightful evening at "Let’s Talk Romance" meeting with Laurie Brown and Myrna Mackenzie. These ladies always provide both an educational and entertaining discussion. Maureen Greene commenced the evening with a warm welcome. After a short round of introductions of guests, the authors began their presentation.

Laurie Brown

Writers living in the Chicagoland area would have been excited to hear about the writing classes Laurie is teaching at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She shared details about her class "How to write romance" and her upcoming class in spring 2005 entitled, "How to write genre fiction." Laurie also told us about a workshop she will be conducting on how to write humor.

(left to right) Laurie Brown, Myrna Mackenzie)

We had a chance to see Laurie’s "teaching hat" in action as she shared a myriad of interesting trivia and lifestyle details from the Victorian period. (In fact, a gentleman sitting on the other side of the Café ease dropped and spoke with Laurie after the booksigningJ). Some of what we heard included the origin of Christmas cards, Christmas Trees, plum pudding, and even the complicated process of seating at a formal dinner party! Laurie had marvelously set the stage so readers were ready to dive into her new release The Christmas Wedding.

Myrna Mackenzie

We discovered this talented writer just sold her 28^th book! Having written for over 11 years with Silhouette, she is expanding her genre into Romantic Suspense. It was great fun listening to how Myrna found her way to writing her single title romantic suspense "Morning Beauty, Midnight Beast". It all began when she wrote her first "continuity", which consisted of suspense elements.

Myrna shared why writing romantic suspense is fun. Since romantic suspense contains elements of danger, a wider range of characters provides a better environment in which to keep her hero and heroine guessing. In addition, romantic suspense is fast paced, allows for cliffhangers, and great villains. "I love writing villains," said Myrna.

So…An Evening Ends

As usual, the evening came to an end all too quickly. Closing with a question and answer period, Laurie and Myrna took a few minutes to sign their books. Of course, we took the opportunity to snap a couple of photos, too!

A special thanks to the authors who give of their time and Maureen Greene’s boundless enthusiasm. Let’s Talk Romance is a great time to step away and enjoy a chuckle, a smile, and terrific books.

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