Raine Balkera - Romance Author

Transition Week With my 2003 Hyundai Elantra finally repaired, insured, and road-worthy after nearly two years sitting idle in the driveway, I am once again a Road Warrior as well as a Weekend Writing one. And with that awesome fix comes new job opportunities. I started a new ParaPro assignment at another Preschool, but this time the students are not special needs so... no biting, kicking, punching, random screams to induce heart attacks, and no child's general lack of social engagement. However, one of the three educators I help has a very bad attitude toward the parents of these At-Risk preschoolers, which is sad, but I'm learning how to ignore negative vibes. New News I have a new camera (Nikon), so on overcast days I'll be back to my old habit of hunting down the ideal images to shoot, and with Fall in full swing now, this should be an exciting and (hopefully) impressive endeavor. Also acquired a new work space. Which isn't nearly as clunky...

THE WEATHER It's raining here in SE Michigan, and after a severe drought that began in late May and lasted until late August, RAIN is a welcome weather occurrence. Except when it lasts for days (like it has) and causes flooding (which it is). please ignore the word EPIC The clouds are rolling in not from the West but the East to bring Atlantic moisture, which means heavy downpours (since Wednesday). It also means clean, fresh air that smells semi-tropical, and I love that. Of course, this puts a "damper" on my nightly sky viewing pleasure, and it's also being reported that the Northern Lights (aurora) may be visible as far south as here for the next few nights. In other words, once this Low moves off to the east in a few days, the sky will clear and the Aurora sightings will have passed. It's a bucket list item, and one of these days I'm going to head WAY up north with camera in tow, hopeful about catching a glimpse of ...

If you are a regular to my blog, you know that for months now I've been reviewing-for-research Book Reviews of Romance novels. More often than should be occurring, I find reviews that make me wonder what the reviewer read or if they actually read at all. Sometimes the review makes me wonder why that person chose to post a review, and other times, they compel me to share their review with you. Here are three that made the cut and deserve to be poked fun at here. #1 The Agenda Reader To be fair, Amazon Customer has a point. However , the premise of the novel had to do with an abused housewife who then sets out on her own to fulfill a dream and eventually find real love. #2 The Confused Reader Why is this person reading Romance Novels? One-star, mind you. This is thoughtless and cruel. However , nothing says cruel like ... #3 The Clueless Reader This occurs far more frequently than you might believe. 1 comment   beat me to the pu...

As mentioned in another post about outlining, plotting, and analyzing prior to actually writing my next novel, it is time to get down to business and begin work on story #3. And, as predicted, the endeavor to chart a course this time around isn't panning out as well as I had hoped. It is too much like work, which is precisely why I'm not digging it. However, outlining still has it's appeal and so hope to proceed because I am an overly curious person and want to discover just how much of a difference (good or bad) plotting makes in my craft. To begin with, I'm supposed to search online for 'famous' people who somewhat resemble my cast of characters and then display them somewhere -- like, on my den wall in front of me here, and in a blog post for posterity. Fun stuff, I must say, and I did spend a majority of last evening doing just that. Since I'm not a huge fan of Hollywood, their movies, or their stars, I'm not familiar with most of ...

This is both easy and difficult to answer, as there is more than one answer involved. I'll start from the very beginning and say  The House on East 88th Street by Bernard Waber, published back in 1962. It is 48 pages of cute! This delightful story arrived via my mother's book club and is one of the very first books I could read by myself. I read, re-read, and then read to my children this sweet tale about a family who move into a really cool brownstone in New York and find a talented crocodile in their bathtub. The drawings were as captivating as the story. In the second grade, making that first-ever trip to the library was a milestone and memorable moment I will never forget. We had twenty minutes to browse, find, and check out a book, and I'll never forget walking up to the check-out counter with too many books in both hands. After I set them down on the counter, my heart racing and my face smarting from the permanent smile, I was...