Linnea has posted on Beauty, the standards of Beauty and what causes us to be attracted to percieved Beauty. Of course all the poets, philosophers and even scientists studying animal mating habits have gnawed on this problem of beauty and attraction longer than Romance Writers! (??? maybe???)Honest, folks, we didn't put our heads together and concoct these two Astrology posts to come between her po...

Talking about technology and world building prodded this thought: how did (or would) people judge beauty if there was no mass media (or access to mass media) dictating what's beautiful and what's not?I'm sure most of you are familiar with the fact that actress Marilyn Monroe--once touted as a hallmark a female beauty--would be too fat for today's "standards." She was a size 12, I believe. Death kne...

It's hard being an alien. Really, I'm not, but my perspective is that of someone transplanted, and I'm acutely aware of the potential for giving offense. On the other hand, I hope it's good fertilizer for my alien romances.It would probably be a splendid idea if Prince Thor-quentin were to visit America in a future book. Take rain.Where I grew up (an island that relies on collected rainwater, a res...

I've been reading UNDEAD AND UNWORTHY, MaryJanice Davidson's latest novel in her Betsy, Vampire Queen series. The book made me think about that elusive quality called "voice." All writers have a unique voice, we're told, and we should strive to let our own shine. Some authors have highly recognizable (and easily parodied) voices: Hemingway's spare, short sentences; Lovecraft's elaborate prose, eldr...

Geps Morris, a writer on LinkedIn asked:Can anyone who believes in Astrology offer any hypothesis for how it might 'work'?I'm going to post the answer here because this does relate to writing about relationships - especially relationships across vast cultural gulfs.To get an "alien" mindset across to human readers, you must first establish a connection between the alien and the human.The comments p...