Author Archives: Elena Greene

About Elena Greene

Elena Greene grew up reading anything she could lay her hands on, including her mother's Georgette Heyer novels. She also enjoyed writing but decided to pursue a more practical career in software engineering. Fate intervened when she was sent on a three year international assignment to England, where she was inspired to start writing romances set in the Regency. Her books have won the National Readers' Choice Award, the Desert Rose Golden Quill and the Colorado Romance Writers' Award of Excellence. Her Super Regency, LADY DEARING'S MASQUERADE, won RT Book Club's award for Best Regency Romance of 2005 and made the Kindle Top 100 list in 2011. When not writing, Elena enjoys swimming, cooking, meditation, playing the piano, volunteer work and craft projects. She lives in upstate New York with her two daughters and more yarn, wire and beads than she would like to admit.

Good Conflict

Updated on February 19, 2011 by Elena Greene

I’m working on a fight between the hero and heroine in the balloonist story. I’m pretty happy with it so far and looking forward to the makeup sex that comes next. 🙂

But I realized while writing this that I don’t often write this sort of scene. IMHO one has to be careful with arguments and fights and use them only where they make sense.

I’m not a fan of stories in which the characters are constantly squaring off, unless there’s a really good reason. I have trouble imagining a happy ending when people can’t work anything out. There’s an idea out there that there are couples who constantly fight and make up and it makes things exciting. But the one couple I know in real life who are like that (and I was told early on that this was “just their way”) are fighting more bitterly as they get older. They are afraid to separate and yet neither is willing to compromise, apologize or forgive. It is not romantic. It is tragic. I want better for my heroes and heroines!

I also like story setups in which the hero and heroine are thrown together and try to get along toward some common goal, while there is some other problem that they have to solve before they can be together. Conflict doesn’t always have to be adversarial.

Anyway, what do you think makes a conflict work well? Do you sometimes enjoy a good fight (fictional, of course)?

Elena

Collages

Updated on February 12, 2011 by Elena Greene

I remember making collages in school, but haven’t done it again until recently.

In January, I attended workshops at our church on various spiritual practices: meditation, the Zen of drawing, and also one based on the book SOULCOLLAGE by Seena Frost. According to the SoulCollage® website, it is a process for “accessing your intuition and creating an incredible deck of cards with deep personal meaning that will help you with life’s questions and transitions.” I am a control freak but I managed to let go and enjoy this process. I hope to find time to make more cards like this, maybe at a retreat sometime.

And this week, I made my first story collage. I first read about this process in an RWR article by Jennifer Crusie, “Picture This: Collage as Prewriting and Inspiration” also available here. I was curious about the process, knowing that it worked for authors I admire including Crusie, Jo Beverley and others. Although it is designed for prewriting, I thought it might help me to reconnect with my balloonist story, which has been sitting half-finished for over two years now.

It was fun. I used all the images I’d already been collecting to inspire the characters and the setting. Browsing through craft stores, I came up with some cool finds: the perfect brilliant blue silk, cloud patterned paper. As I was cutting the black fabric for the lower part, my scissors snagged and created a jagged pattern, like clouds of smoke, and I decided to keep it that way.

While I didn’t get any new ideas, making the collage reminded me that I do have a real story to tell. I will definitely try this again the next time I start a new story.

Have any of you tried collage as a creative and/or spiritual process? Did it work for you? Are there other processes you use to tap into your intuition?

Elena

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged collage, Jennifer Crusie, Jo Beverley, Seena Frost, SoulCollage | 9 Replies

The More, the Merrier

Updated on February 5, 2011 by Elena Greene

I’m in the middle of a two week writer’s challenge with my local writing buddies. Unlike National Novel Writing Month, which has a 50,000 word goal, or Book in a Week, we set our own individual goals. It could be a word count, it could be dedicating a certain number of hours per day to writing, or it could be something specific like finishing an outline. We email back and forth with our daily goals and progress, pulling out cyber-champagne or wet noodles as needed.

It’s going well, despite the several snow days we’ve had. Although we’ve had to deal with our beloved offspring more than we planned, all of us have soldiered on and gotten more done than we would have otherwise.

The idea of group challenges isn’t unique to writing. I haven’t done Weight Watchers but I think they use the same concept. My husband is making continued progress on his stroke recovery through a group water exercise class at the YMCA.

I think there are at least two reasons that this sort of group challenge can work.

Accountability. It helps to declare a goal and have friends who will know if you achieved it, or at least gave it a good shot.
Camaraderie. It’s great to have someone to bitch to when it gets difficult, to share tips and tricks and to celebrate achievements.

What do my writer buddies and I get out of it? Increased productivity and bragging rights. Oh yeah, Mimosas and cake at our next meeting. 🙂

Do you participate in any group activities or challenges? Do you feel you get a boost out of them?
Elena

Posted in Risky Regencies | Tagged Uncategorized | 6 Replies

Backstory, Info Dumps and Character Intros

Updated on January 29, 2011 by Elena Greene

I recently edited the beginning of my mess-in-progress, pruning out some backstory that didn’t need to be in the first scene.

When I first joined RWA, the standard advice for newbies was to avoid the Dreaded Info Dump in the first chapter and just trickle in details from the characters’ past as needed. And I generally follow this advice, as I did this time.

But I never became No-Info-Dump Purist (or a Goal-Motivation-and-Conflict Purist, or a H/H-Must-Meet-On-First-Page Purist) or really bought into any of the hard and fast rules beloved by some critique groups. The reason is early in my RWA education I also read some amazing books that broke rules. Intelligently, of course.

On one end of the backstory spectrum is Loretta Chase’s LORD OF SCOUNDRELS. It starts with a summary of the hero’s life from birth onwards. I have heard NID Purists protest—maybe they are just jealous. Readers in general and the judges of the 1995 RITA didn’t care. I think the beginning works because 1) it’s fast-paced and entertainingly written and 2) it really does help prepare the reader for Dain’s beastly behavior.

I found the opposite extreme in another favorite, Laura Kinsale’s FOR MY LADY’S HEART. The most heartwrenching details of the heroine’s backstory are held back until near the end of the book. Readers who love this book sense that there is something tragic that caused the heroine to develop such strong and sometimes sinister defenses. When it is revealed, it makes for a very powerful scene.

Anyway, how do you like your backstory served up? Any favorite rule-breaking stories?

Posted in Risky Regencies | Tagged Uncategorized | 10 Replies

Happy Birthday to Amanda and Period Furniture Obsessions

Updated on January 15, 2011 by Elena Greene

First, let’s all lift a glass of pink bubbly and have a slice of virtual cake in honor of Amanda’s birthday. Wishing you a year of health, happiness, and much reading and writing!

Now to my post…

Ever since I started looking at decorating magazines and histories of furniture, I’ve been drawn to certain styles of furniture. I used to think I ought to like Victorian furniture, but although some items are pretty, some get too fussy for me. Later, when I started studying Regency styles, I realized that was what I like best.

One item that appeals to me especially is shield back chairs. Here is an illustration of late 18th century shield back chairs designed by Sheraton or Hepplewhite. I love the shape, though I’m not sure why. At a conference, I met a psychic who said historical romance authors were trying to relive past lives. If so, perhaps I was once very happy in a house with shield back chairs. I know that once I’d seen one, I wanted a set.

Of course, I cannot afford the Real Thing, nor would I feel comfortable sitting on anything so valuable! But my husband and I saw these early 20th century reproduction chairs at an antique show. We discovered that they were both less expensive and better made than the new dining room furniture we had been looking at. So we snapped them up and have been happy with them ever since.

Another period furniture obsession is the chaise longue. I’ve just written my second scene with characters misbehaving on one. There is something I find sexy about all those elegant curves. Here is an example dating from 1810. Sadly, I do not own one even a reproduction. Maybe someday…