Welcome back to Wednesday Links! (Is it Wednesday?)
To be frank, I’m damn exhausted. I’ve been so tired lately. Can we get to fall yet? I find the crisp New England air to be energizing.
On Friday mornings, a friend and I have a Zoom writing sesh for an hour. it’s been going well and I’ve been working on a fantasy romance. However, yesterday I was hit with a new idea for something contemporary and I can’t stop thinking about it. I may switch gears.
I was telling my partner that fantasy writing takes some extra brain power if you’re creating a completely fictional world. Naming things is the bane of my existence. And right now, I don’t have a ton of brain power to spare.
If you have any helpful tips and tricks for naming things, I’m all ears!
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So many of you sent us the Fabio flowchart. Sarah and I had a good time keeping track of all the emails that came in. You can find the flowchart at #15 on this list from Ask A Manager.
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Harper’s Bazaar has a piece on how audiences don’t want romcoms, they want romantic horror. It’s an interesting opinion, but one I don’t agree with fully. I don’t think the audiences have shifted. People still want romcoms. It’s just that media companies (and I’m including publishing here) do not seem to know what a romcom is and the label has diluted so much that it means nothing. In my humble opinion.
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This link comes from Kim D., who shared this interview with a cover model, who retired in 2019, on how he preps for a cover shoot.
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From Kael: I thought you all might like to know she got a mention in the new Princess Weekes video on Enemies to Lovers! (the exact timestamp is 23:15, it’s about Sarah’sresponse to For Such A Time)
It’s a super interesting watch and would definitely recommend it to the folks here who don’t mind a crunchy conversation.
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Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
Books, Inc. in San Francisco is hosting a Bookstore Romance Day on Saturday, August 9. As far as I can tell, all their stores are participating: https://booksinc.net/bookstore-romance-day
Please, please tell me that no one actually uses the portmanteau romhor.
@Amanda I don’t have tips for actual, final naming, but placeholder names help me work around the issue until I’m ready to deal with it (or there’s nothing else left to do). I’ll often just put their role in brackets instead of using a real name for the placeholder.
Ilona Andrews on their blog periodically give insights into the writing process. I believe they have addressed the topic of naming, and referred to some sources/tools they use.
@Amanda, I will let you in on my secret to alien names: word search puzzles. They are random letters placed in random order. As you solve the puzzle, sound out the letters in the order they appear. When you find a sequence that sounds right, or esthetically pleasing, to your ear, write it down. One puzzle book gave me hundreds of names, which I refer to to this day.
@C: Horrom?
@Amanda Yes to this:
It’s just that media companies (and I’m including publishing here) do not seem to know what a romcom is and the label has diluted so much that it means nothing. In my humble opinion.
This Jason Baca interview isn’t behind a paywall: https://people.com/meet-the-model-on-over-600-romance-book-covers-8699377