Raine Balkera - Romance Author

2018, 1-16 Meteorite over SE Michigan Well, it's been an Up/Down start to my 2018, let me tell you. While I felt that 2017 was probably one of my better years, a lot of people claim otherwise. 2018, for me, is starting out on a pretty rocky road, and I'm not comfortable with it, either. For starters, my birthday falls on the 1st of January, so every year I get to celebrate the notion of getting older, which comes with its share of fear, dread, and "This can't be happening to me!" thoughts. I was alone on New Year's Eve and forgot to buy a bottle of champagne, so to have to believe that I'll be lonely and bored for the rest of the year is a bit daunting (if you or I believe in such nonsense, that is). But, then my eldest and his girlfriend announced their engagement just a week later, and it was happy time for a while. Selfishly, the joy ended when I realized it meant that when their wedding rolls around, I am going to be forced to have t...

(EDIT: an hours-long power outage left this author in a pinch, so #ThursdayThoughts is now a FridayThoughts) Since I plan to be extremely busy this weekend, I thought Today would be as good a day as any to Wrap Up the Week. And, it was a surprisingly eventful one, indeed. First , I'd like to share a few bits of awful news on the personal home front. My daughter witnessed her first deadly car crash the other day, and I am very worried about her frame of mind right now. Ma and I sat down with her last night to let her vent, share her feelings, and ask a lot of questions, which I hope helped her some. I think what made it worse was that when she finally arrived at work, one of her co-workers was weeping on her cell phone, and as it turned out, it had been a family friend who had died in that same crash. Second , a rash of vandalism and theft have occurred in our neighborhood. Several weeks ago, my vehicle and my son's (both parked in the driveway and locked --...

I'll jump right in on this one because it's been on my mind for a while now and today encountered another 'trigger' instance that pushed me to write about it. I'm talking about Romance Reader / Reviewer reviews again. It's obvious (to me) that there are quite a few Romance readers (perhaps readers of other genres, too) who are very narrow-minded and live in-the-moment so as not to be taken seriously. However, when they under-rate a novel based on that way of thinking/believing, it does the author no justice -- which is why I've decided to speak my mind on the topic. If you follow me (lol) then you're aware of my having read a number of novels in a variety of genres. However, my favorite remains Romance novels, and I write Contemporary. On a daily basis, I browse this category in search of new reading material and will habitually scroll down to the reviews section and read them. I'll admit that most reviewers are honest when they...

Because I Want To It is true that I read a variety of fiction and non-fiction books, but the only genre that interests me enough to want to write my own versions is Romance. www.zazzle.com Because I Love to Read  I've enjoyed reading Romance novels since I fell in love with them at age fourteen, which was around the time I began to notice boys and my head became filled with silly, zany things like appearance, body contours, eyes, mannerisms, and sex. Because I Want to Experience True Love While romance itself has managed to elude me all these years, I still find the topic fascinating and want to pursue the fantasy versions via my imagination and the ability to write. Because I Need This Outlet I still beat myself up for not pursuing this dream much earlier in life, but that I let too many outside sources dictate my life is neither here nor there anymore. One day I decided to stop the unhappy merry-go-round and take back what I'd let s...

Thursday is almost done with, and I'm just now getting around to blogging. The big Holiday's are over now, and at my age, the whirlwind continues to increase as far as 'my, how time flies' goes. It was a wonderful time, though, and a first for me in a very long time, too, so that is a nice report for my readers! Last week , I received an e-mail from someone who commented on an old post from an old blog and said that she misses me and my writing.  I was so touched by this that I decided to visit the old site and get it up and running again. For my one fan out there. So, from now on, my Asian Drama posts will be at my Asian Drama Queen blog here on blogger. And, with all of the episodes for Oh, My, Venus   finally uploaded, my fan can look forward to a review about it very soon! Normally, I don't do resolutions . I learned decades ago that they lead to just one thing: disappointment. Yet, I had a bit of fun reading the many and varie...

So, today is #WIPWednesday, and even though I've not been all that attentive to my writing of late, I still thought it would be a nice idea to update here with my turtle-paced progress. Where Things Stand Inigo and Linley have met, clashed a few times, and then separated on a bad note. She flees her up-north retreat and returns to her downtown apartment in Detroit a twice-bitten woman, again reminding herself about men in general and that it is best to stick with what she knows -- what she's best at -- and not to tempt fate anymore. Upon her return, she learns via a phone message that her stepsister has been arrested on drug trafficking charges and is currently in the Wayne County Jail with bond set high enough that only someone of Linley's means would be capable of handling -- which is what the phone call is about -- her estranged stepmother asking for that cash. Issues In the rough draft, I didn't go into any flash-back details about her awful childho...