Raine Balkera - Romance Author

Hi! Welcome to Week 17 of the MFRW Author Blog's 52-Week Blog Challenge . This week's topic of discussion is: Favorite Romance Genre to Read or Write To Read I love to read a variety of Romance novel genres as long as they are entertaining, thoughtful, and have a REAL romance to the story. I enjoy the escapism involved with paranormal and fantasy, and I like the world-building aspect of Science Fiction romance. But, my very favorite sub-genre of Romance is Historical, though I can't quite commit to one historical time period over another. I lean towards Regency, but Victorian, Highlander, and Medieval romance are great as well if the above-mentioned aspects are there, that is. If the historical content is there and written in a way that educates/informs, and if the plot isn't in a saturated context (reads like a hundred other such novels), and if there actually IS a romance involved, then I am going to enjoy every second of that read. Sadly, thi...

Hi, everyone! This is now Week 48 of the MFRW Author Blog 52-Week Blog Challenge, and today's topic is: 5 Things on my Bucket List Starting with honesty (as usual), I don't particularly possess a Bucket List and I don't really care for the term Bucket List. It sounds ugly. I get what it means, though, but think it is a stupid choice of words is all. Now I need to keep thinking about what to say in 5 different ways to be able to participate. Outlandish 5. Winning the Lottery 4. Traveling the Globe 3. Owning my Own Island 2. Being a Best-Seller 1. Staying Healthy until at least 70 (so I can keep writing) Realistic 5. Being in Alaska on December 21 to see a 24 hour night and again in June for the 24 hour day 4. Publishing a Novel that a lot of People really enjoy Reading 3. Building my Dream Writing Space 2. Swimming in Lake Ontario (the only Great Lake I have yet to set foot in) 1. Spending New Years Eve in NYC Hope this wasn't too bor...

Hello! This is week 46 of the 52-Week MFRW Author Blog Challenge, and the topic today is: Let Me Brag for a Minute... Sorry to say this, but as a Catholic, this particular personality trait was beaten and shamed out of me from an extremely early age. I do remember one time during a job interview for a Bank, I had to drive downtown (Detroit) and had the sadly mistaken impression that it would be where I'd be working... in that building, in downtown Detroit -- two things that super-appealed to me at that time. I was upbeat, excited, and eager to impress (I think), and while I don't remember anything I said, I will always remember the interviewer smiling at me and saying, "Wonderful! I love the way you beat your own drum to such a down-to-earth rhythm!" Now, as mentioned above, my initial reaction was, "OMG, I just blew it! She thinks I'm bragging!" Because, as stated, bragging has always been a bad thing to my rigidly molded mind....

Hello, again. Sorry about missing last week's challenge (Favorite Novel Quotes) AND not being able to read or comment on the posts from the week before! I don't know what happened, but not only couldn't I open the MFRW Author Blog page to find the links, the links refused to appear on my blog, so I had no way of joining the hop and was very upset. Last week's challenge was not something I would have been able to participate in since I'm not one to quote anything... because I can't remember what "I" said ten minutes ago, much less what I read ten years or months or hours ago. MY total recall is along the photographic line; not the literary. My son can watch a movie ONCE and then verbatim quote it for years after, leaving his mother in awe of such a skillful talent! And here's me, trying to remember the movie title and who starred. What I recall most from both books and movies that I truly enjoyed is the setting that evolved in my ...

(In case you haven't noticed, I spent a few days revamping my Blog. The color scheme never seems quite right to me, and if there is something about the whole thing that sets you off, jars your senses, or makes you want to look away, I'd really like to know!) Hi everyone, and welcome to another installment of the MFRW.org 52-Week Blog Challenge. Week 28 here, and this time we are asked to talk about any Life Lessons in My Novels . Um... This is a bit like asking if I believe violent video games promote violence. Or if I agree that rap music is morally and ethically unstable. That wearing a seat belt is the law for a reason . All of which are valid points to ponder but none of your business and certainly not worth arguing about or berating someone for not agreeing with your opinion on. And, I'm beginning to suspect that whoever came up with these weekly challenges left my personality out of the equation. (sad face) Here is a cool pic I took of a s...

This is Week #9 of the Challenge and I am late to the party so am not included in the Blog Hop list below. Which is fine (I hope?) I actually don't care for the word WORDS (werdz) because it just sounds weird. However, As writers (so I'm told) we're supposed to love all (the) words. Not me! As linguists, we're also supposed to love (but especially accept) all (the) words. Uh-uh , says moi ! This is one of those slippery slope occasions where someone is bound to get their knickers in a bunch and cry foul at least once, but yeah-no , I'm still game! As a READER, words are more powerful than they are as a WRITER, and here's why. I'll begin with the obvious and work my way down to personal pet peeves , but all BOLD words are included in my list of ICK words. What is likely to be #1 on nearly everyone's list of hated, moist-hated words and I'm one of them is... MOIST   It conjures up so much disgusting, reviling, squir...