Autumn has well and truly arrived. Here in Las Vegas, we’re expecting a brisk 76 degrees Farenheit today. Brrr! Better break out the fuzzy sweaters and mittens.

Time once again for my monthly visit to the Insecure Writers’ Support Group, a place where I find solace, advice, and thought-provoking questions from other authors in the writing trenches. The first Wednesday of the month, we meet here: https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html, and I always learn something new from our monthly discussions. Join us!

Join the IWSG monthly blog hop here: http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

The awesome co-hosts for the November 3 posting of the IWSG are Kim Lajevardi, Victoria Marie Lees, Joylene Nowell Butler, Erika Beebe, and Lee Lowery!

No doubt, many in our group are writing about their NaNoWriMo projects. That’s National Novel Writing Month, for non-initiates. I’m not NaNo-ing this year because I’ve got a Nov. 7 deadline to turn in my current WIP (Work in Progess) to my editor, then I’ll spend all of next week at the 20Books Vegas Writers’ Conference, my first live author event since fall of 2019! I’m all aflutter as I pack my bags for the author signing on Friday in Bally’s Convention Center on the Vegas Strip. If you’re in town on November 12th, I hope you’ll join us! 300 authors in all genres want to meet you. For a list of participating authors, go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vegasauthorsigning2021

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This month’s question: What’s harder to do, coming up with your book title or writing the blurb?

At the end of my first novel, I’d have picked writing the blurb, for sure. But now, about to launch my seventh, blurbs are, if not a piece of cake, at least not so intimidating. For what it’s worth, a few tips to help you write the dreaded blurb.

Caveat: I write romance novels and novellas, so not all these tips will apply to your story.

• Pop over to your favorite online bookstore, brick and motor bookstore, or library. Read the back cover blurbs on books in your subgenre that are selling well. Focus on recently published books, as blurb trends change.
• Keep in mind that your blurb makes a promise to the reader. Breaking that promise invites lousy reviews.
• Make sure your blurb reflects your writing style.
• A blurb is not a synopsis. It’s a teaser, meant to whet the reader’s appetite. Don’t serve the full menu on your back cover.
• Keep it short and tight: 100-300 words. “But how do I boil a 300+ page book into 300 words?” you wail. You don’t. See above. How? This takes me several days. I write the blurb, set it aside, and the next day I see words I can cut, phrases I can tighten. Repeat until you truly can’t cut anything else, then…
• Run it by some writer friends who write in your genre. If you don’t have any, try writers’ groups on Facebook, such as the IWSG group. You might get good advice from authors outside your genre, but they don’t necessarily know reader expectations for your type of books.
• While I write my romance novels in 3^rd person past tense (Anna saw…she ran…), I write the blurb in first person (Anna wants… She needs…). This seems to be industry standard, at least in romance.
• Start with a tagline: a short, snappy sentence that sums up the book’s appeal. Examples from movies: Alien (1979) In space, no one can hear you scream. Platoon (1986) The first casualty of war is innocence.
• Paragraph 1: Intro main character #1, what they want/need, the inciting incident, and how it impacts them.
• Paragraph 2: Intro main character #2 (again, I write romance), what they want/need, and introduce the story conflict.
• Paragraph 3: Connect them both to the main story question/struggle, and tell what’s at stake for both.
• Paragraph 4 (optional): A teaser or call to action.

Here’s the back-cover blurb for my current project, Delicious Heat: Bangers Tavern Romance 3, launching Jan. 4, 2022.

Cupid has lousy timing.

After kicking her cheating husband to the curb, nurse Anna Khoury discovers she’s pregnant. When Bangers Tavern’s hunky chef makes heart eyes at her, she dismisses that delicious thrill as the last thing she needs. Single motherhood will take all her strength and focus. Anna’s battered heart can’t take another blow.

Chef Diego Vargas is aiming higher than burgers and tater tots. His dream—his own food truck, the Empanada Angel, but he’ll need his family’s support to pull it off. Meeting Anna leaves him thunderstruck, even though his attraction to her threatens all his plans. Call it fate, call him crazy, but he’s determined to prove he’s in it for keeps.

With a belligerent ex-husband and two overprotective families set on breaking them up, Anna and Diego will need more than red-hot passion to pull them through. His career and her baby’s future are on the line.

Come back to Bangers Tavern for a spicy tale of forbidden love that will warm your heart…and other parts…and make you hungry for empanadas!

Pre-order your copy today! https://books2read.com/u/mZrk5e

Thanks for reading. And to those doing NaNoWriMo, may your words flow like a refreshing mountain stream, may your writerly brain swim with brilliant ideas, and my your pet stay off your keyboard.

Happy November!