Asa Maria Bradley

I’m hanging out on Bark today, discussing Esther Honig’s amazing social experiment “Before and After.” She sent a picture of herself without makeup and with her hair pulled back to graphic designers all over the world with the simple request: “make me beautiful.” The images she received in return are astonishing and allowed her to examine how beauty standards varies across cultures and countries. Here’s an example from Germany, to the right of the original picture: Kamagra Pills increase energy purchase levitra during an intimacy and achieve complete satisfaction during an intimacy. Challenges The discount brand viagra robertrobb.com first and greatest challenge …

It’s been a while since the last one, so it’s about time for another Free Book Day! I’m still on an adrenaline high after selling my first books to Sourcebooks. It’s such an incredible honor to work with a company who publishes some of my favorite writers. Among them is Shana Galen and to celebrate my new contract, I’m giving away a signed copy of her The Rogue Pirate’s Bride. Here’s the blurb from Ms. Galen’s website: The Marquis de Valère escaped certain death in the French Revolution and is now an infamous privateer. Out to avenge the death of his mentor, Bastien discovers himself …

No matter what Jim Hanas says about writers being caught up in the lottery of “rejection porn,” I love reading about successful writers who made it after a gazillion rejections. I’m a sucker for lists that tells me how many times authors like J.K. Rowling, Louis L’Amour, Dan Brown, and C.S. Lewis were rejected. Why? Because knowing others found success after rejections is what kept me submitting my manuscript even though I gained a total of forty-seven forty-nine rejections. (Update: after I sold, I received 2 more rejections from retracted queries.) Fifteen of those were on full requests. And, to make things worse, …

One of the things that continuously amazes me about the romance writing community is the support and encouragement the writers give other writers. Meganame bestselling authors take the time to mentor wanna-be-newbies. Peers congratulate the competition when they receive an award or win a contest. This is not what I experience when I go to non-romance writing conferences. Sure, I see established writers encourage new writers there too, but the ego-less, unselfish, genuine support romance writers give each other is unique. I couldn’t write without the help I receive from friends and family. And it would be a drudgery, uphill, …

The Romance Writers of America sponsors two incredibly prestigious writing awards: the RITA® for published writers and the Golden Heart® for unpublished writers. This year I was one of the lucky finalists who got “the call,” letting me know that my VALHALLA’S KING manuscript was a finalist in the paranormal category of the Golden Heart. Around 1,200 romance manuscripts are entered in the Golden Heart each year. The project has to be completed and longer than 20 000 words. The preliminary judging is done by RWA members and those entries who earn a 90% or more advance to the final …