It's Friday, September 7, 2012 Announcements

Welcome to Romance Reviews Submitted by Authors. We're glad you're here.

We're still searching for GLORIA, our $250 cash/weekend getaway winner.  Another winner will be chosen in the coming weeks if Gloria doesn't step up and claim her prizes. If any of you know the mysterious "GLORIA" please tell her to stop by and claim her prize as soon as possible. You can find her comment or comments from posts left on August 10, 2012 which may help you, help us.

Our traffic continues to increase thanks to many of you spreading the word about Romance Reviews Submitted by Authors. This site is a labor of love and a true opportunity for authors to receive a fair share of additional promotion above and beyond the advertising spaces purchased.

We continue to look for author-reviewers willing to review, but ask for serious inquiries only. Several books were sent out for review without a review returned. When this happens, we don't send out another free copy, we purchase the book because the advertising author didn't provide a free copy for review and instruct us to send out their PDFs like a free-for-all.

With the aforementioned, we understand things happen, schedules change, and very often it's tough to review a book when deadlines loom. Still, if you have some free time, we'd love to offer you the opportunity to review one of our books in exchange for the PR our reviews receive via Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites. Just drop a line to: reviewsforallauthors@gmail.com. Additionally, we’re looking for one author to interview our advertising authors. Please inquire direct to destinyblaine@yahoo.com.

A limited number of author showcases are available. Link ads are still available as well. We don't have cover ad spots open at this time. However, since we are a first-come-first-serve site, we will hold spaces for advertising beginning November 1st. Reviews only post after advertisement term begins. Currently, we’re taking care of our backlog first.

I'll be out of town this weekend, but will return on Monday to answer any questions you may have about the site. My daughter will release the reviews set for today. I have a feeling you'll enjoy many of them. ;)

Thank you for joining us. Have a great weekend!

Destiny Blaine

Welcome Back to Romance Reviews Submitted by Authors

Welcome to Romance Reviews Submitted by Authors
It's Friday, August 24, 2012

It is after midnight here in East Tennessee so we’ll kick off by posting the first of our Friday reviews a little earlier than usual. Too Close for Comfort by author Adriana Kraft is a short novella guaranteed to please those of you who love reading a hot and spicy novella right before bedtime.

The review for Adriana is coming right up. In the meantime, take a look around. Read our past reviews and articles. Give us your feedback anytime. 

Leave a comment and let your favorite authors know you're reading their reviews. We’d love to hear from you!

Be sure to tell your friends to stop by and visit us, too. We enjoy entertaining new readers and authors from around the world.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. It's great seeing you in our neck of the woods. ;)

Destiny Blaine

Point of View in Romance Books – What’s the Point? Written by Adriana Kraft

Point of View in Romance Books – What’s the Point?

~Written by Adriana Kraft~

We authors hear a lot about “point of view” in romance books – do you ever wonder what’s the point of it all? How did it get started, anyway, and why bother paying attention to it?

It wasn’t always so. In the era of Jane Austen – regarded by many as a founder of what we now know as romance books – authors could insert themselves into the story, could convey information to the reader that none of the characters could know, and generally could write from what is known as the “omniscient” perspective.

Fast forward to the contemporary romance novel, any time in the last half century: Romance books are now primarily written in what is known as “third person limited” point of view. In any given scene or chapter, the story is being told from a specific character’s perspective. Readers are in that character’s “head” for the duration of the scene, and can only be told what that character could know and observe, would think, or would experience.

Typically, in standard romance books, readers are allowed to experience two such perspectives: the hero and the heroine. The point of this limitation is to help readers identify with the characters. As readers, when we spend a lengthy scene feeling what the heroine feels, seeing what she sees, understanding what she’s thinking and immersing ourselves in her moment-by-moment lived experience, we want to be her. Our engagement in the story is deepened and we find ourselves pulled to turn the page, and the next, and the next.

Longer novels and more complex plots may give us more than the standard two points of view, but the principle of increasing reader involvement with the characters remains: one scene, one point of view/perspective. Readers have come to expect this. They want to know whose thoughts and feelings they’re being asked to experience. This helps them stay grounded in the story.

This means several things for authors. First, we must decide whose perspective best tells the story or scene. Typically, we’ll want to select the character who is most impacted by what’s going on. Sometimes we’ll have other reasons, perhaps to keep variety in P.O.V., or to provide the reader with information only a particular character would know.

Second, we must establish that perspective in a manner easy for the reader to follow. Near the beginning of each new scene, we’ll want to be sure to convey what our P.O.V. character is feeling or thinking, and not just the facts of what they’re observing.

Then comes the tough part. We have to stick to it – we have to avoid the dreaded “head hopping,” until the scene is over and we can switch to a different character’s point of view.

How do we do this? We don’t say or reveal anything our P.O.V. character couldn’t know. For example, our character cannot know what is going on in another character’s head – what they’re thinking, or feeling, or deciding. Our character can only observe expressions and make deductions about the thoughts of others.

But there’s more. We don’t convey anything our character wouldn’t be thinking, even if it’s something we know they know. Sure, we’d love to let the reader know that our heroine’s eyes, which she felt widen when she was startled, are green and sparkling. But she won’t be having that thought, not when she’s newly startled, and if we want the reader to know that, we have to wait for a scene in another character’s point of view and have that character observe it.

If we succeed in all of the above, we’ll be dropping our romance book readers into ever fuller opportunities to experience the lives of our characters, in all their depth and nuanced detail.

About Author Adriana Kraft:

Adriana Kraft is the pen name for a happily married pair of hopeless romantics who love to read and write hot sex. By day, we’re serious academics with backgrounds in social science and human services. At night? Possibilities seem endless and we love coming out to play. Our erotic romance novels celebrate more than consensual mind-blowing sex—we feature strong story lines, heroes and heroines you’ll fall in love with, passion and profound connectedness.

Our specialty is bisexual heroines. Our stories lift up the dilemmas faced by women who deeply want it both ways, but won’t be denied the right to commitment, true love and a happy ending, sometimes with more than one special partner. While that may sound serious, it also permits us to get into swinging, voyeurism and ménage, great opportunities for being playful. It’s rather challenging at times to describe all the possible entanglements.

 

Visit Adriana Kraft on the web or shop for her bestselling books at eXtasy Books