Would you like to cross another item off this list today?" "I should like that very much. Which do you propose?" "I think it's time to try riding astride". "You can't mean..." "Oh, but I do, indeed, mean, Empress. Sarah MacLean More Quotes by Sarah MacLean More Quotes From Sarah MacLean As winter approaches - bringing cold weather and family drama - we crave page-turners, books made for long nights and tryptophan-induced sloth. Sarah MacLean family winter weather long Of all the myriad ways we define love, there is perhaps none more honest and powerful than this: Great love is rooted in great partnership. Sarah MacLean great powerful love-is love I'm so thrilled to have won the RITA. The award is particularly special because it is given by other romance authors. It's deeply rewarding and not a little humbling to be honored by such a talented tribe of writers. Sarah MacLean tribe award honored special The trick to great romance is in overcoming adversity. In realizing that love is worth some uphill climbs. Sarah MacLean great adversity love-is love I want to wake up one morning and know how to write page one, or page 10, or page 250. But I never seem to know how to do it. Every book is different and takes a different structure, style, process, etc. And relearning how to write is where the insanity comes from. Sarah MacLean wake-up style morning book As a romance novelist, I have a rather skewed view of babies. You see, they don't typically fit into the classic structure of the romance novel - romance is about two people finding each other and falling in love against insurmountable odds. Babies... well... babies are complicated. Sarah MacLean view you love people Like so many others, I came to romance during the golden age of it - Judith McNaught, Julie Garwood, Johanna Lindsey and Jude Deveraux were at the height of their historical domination. Without those women, I wouldn't be a romance novelist. Sarah MacLean like height women age For the most part, my characters don't talk to me. I like to lord over them like some kind of benevolent deity. And, for the most part, my characters go along with it. I write intense character sketches and long, play-like conversations between me and them, but they stay out of the book writing itself. Sarah MacLean me character long book As for the zone, I always find the zone immediately after I am sure I will never ever find the zone again because it has left me for some other, better writer. Sarah MacLean i-am better never me If you think back to your time as a teenager, everything was dramatic. Sarah MacLean back think you time I think we can all agree that Colin Firth falls into the George Clooney category of 'Men Who Age Like Fine Wine.' Sarah MacLean think wine age men 'A Rogue by Any Other Name' is the first book in the 'Rules of Scoundrels' series, centered on a legendary pre-Victorian casino and her four scandalous aristocratic owners. Sarah MacLean her name rules book Teenagers are asking, 'Who am I?' and 'How do I fit in?' in every aspect of their lives, and the best YA romances appreciate that there is more to a teen's life than finding love. Sarah MacLean teen best love life By the time I was 10 or 12, I had discovered the lure of the romance genre - and the dusty copy of 'The Thorn Birds' on my parents' bookshelf. Sarah MacLean copy birds parents time There is a whole generation of romance readers and writers who suffer from what I like to think of as 'Thorn Birds' Fever. Sarah MacLean birds generation think fever I never met Colleen McCullough; if I had, I probably would have cried and made a fool of myself. Sarah MacLean never myself fool made No matter how troubled a character's history, romance novels tell us, love can be built upon it, and happily-ever-after can result. What's more, the darker the past, the brighter the future - and the better the read. Sarah MacLean future love character history Boring heroines are, in my opinion, the most common romance mistake. We loathe hanging out with women who define themselves purely through their relationships... why would we want to read about them? Sarah MacLean women boring opinion mistake In real life, I'd say that your commitment-phobe/narcissist/bad boy boyfriend is a lost cause, but romance is shelved in fiction for a reason. Sarah MacLean boy your real life There is perhaps no more rewarding romance heroine than she who is not expected to find love. The archetype comes in many disguises - the wallflower, the spinster, the governess, the single mom - but always with one sad claim: Love is not in her cards. Sarah MacLean sad mom love-is love
