Monthly Archives: March 2022

March 20, 2022 Meeting – Adding Tension to your Romance with Victorine Lieske

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Our March 20, 2022 monthly meeting will start at 1:00 P.M. with a workshop presented by New York Times best-selling author Victorine Lieske on Adding Tension to your Romance, which will be followed by our monthly business and social meeting.

Headshot of author Victorine LieskeWorkshop Description: Tension is one of the most important things in a romance novel. Agents and genre experts often say lack of tension is the number one reason why a book is rejected. In this class we will talk about how to increase the tension in your stories. With easy to understand examples we will explore how to keep readers hanging on every word.

Bio: Victorine Lieske self-published her first book, Not What She Seems, in April of 2010. In March of 2011, Not What She Seems began its 6-week run on the New York Times best selling eBook list. By May 2011 she had sold over 100,000 copies. Victorine’s first romantic comedy novel hit the USA Today bestselling books list in January 2015.

Victorine and her husband live in Nebraska with their four children and two cats. She loves all things romance and watches While You Were Sleeping about once every six months. When she’s not writing, she’s designing book covers for authors or making something with her extensive yarn collection.

Victorine and her husband have raised their four children in Nebraska. Victorine also does graphic design work in the publishing industry.

February 20, 2022 Meeting – Story Structure Influenced by TV with Ines Johnson

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Our February 20, 2022 monthly meeting will start at 1:00 P.M. with a workshop presented by author and television writer Ines Johnson on Story Structure Influenced by TV, which will be followed by our monthly business and social meeting.

Headshot of author Ines JohnsonWorkshop Description: Traditional episodic television writers are skilled in keeping viewers in their seats during commercial breaks. They’re also adept at keeping viewers talking and guessing in the seven days between each episode. Learn the tips and tricks show runners use to hold tension and attention so that you can keep readers in their seats as you write your novel or serial! Let veteran television writer, Ines Johnson teach you her twelve-point method to structure each episode of your serial, or chapter of your novel as well as techniques to tease, lead, and hook readers.

Bio: Lover of fairytales, folklore, and mythology, Ines Johnson spends her days reimagining the stories of old in a modern world. She writes books where damsels cause the distress, princesses wield swords, and moms save the world.

Ines writes books for strong women who suck at love. If you rocked out to the twisted triangle of Jem, Jericha, and Rio as a girl; if you were slayed by vampires with souls alongside Buffy; if you need your scandalous fix from Olivia Pope each week, then you’ll love her books!

Aside from being a writer, professional reader, and teacher, Ines is a very bad Buddhist. She sits in sangha each week, and while others are meditating and getting their zen on, she’s contemplating how to use the teachings to strengthen her plots and character motivations.

Ines lives outside Washington, DC with her two little sidekicks who are growing up way too fast.