It’s a brave new world out there and there are more resources and opportunities for romance writers than ever before. Here are five great sites you may not have known about, but which could help launch your career:

• Romance Divas. This website is command central for many romance writers. Founded and frequented by many published authors, Romance Divas offers free workshops, a very active forum, and a chat room in which writing challenges are the order of the day. (I confess that without this chat room and the writers there who egged me on, I might not have finished my last novel for HQN’s Silhouette Nocturne line.) While a popular hangout for published authors, it’s also a very welcoming place for the aspiring author and readers too. Just this month, several Romance Divas (including yours truly) offered up a virtual anthology of free stories in honor of Valentine’s Day.
• Dear Author This review site can be funny enough to make you spit-take, but it also strives to be fair to the romance community. Thoughtful discussions on the future of the industry take place regularly here and the cross-section of opinions from readers and authors alike is valuable for the professional writer.
• eHarlequin.com. It may seem a little dodgy for me to recommend my own publisher’s website, but in spite of the recent self-publishing debacle, eHarlequin remains one of the most active romance communities on the net. Readers not only buy books there and subscribe to category lines, but they also hang out and chat with authors. I’ve had more than a few readers tell me that they’ve picked up my books simply because I participate in the forums.What’s more, there are many resources for the aspiring writer–including virtual pitch sessions with editors.
• Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. Sometimes the snark factor at “The Bitchery” can be a little much, but the site is a wonderful hodgepodge of all things Romance, great and small. Sometimes it’s a quest to expose plagiarism, other times it’s a quest to find the title of a book that a reader once read but can’t remember. What’s more? Nora Roberts shows up in the comments section all the time, as if she were a mere mortal.
• Romance Wiki. I didn’t even know this site existed until a fan wrote to me to ask me for a list of every Silhouette Nocturne ever written. I had no idea, but Romance Wiki came to the rescue. The resource page alone is worth its weight in gold.
• Romance in the Backseat. I had the pleasure of meeting Terry Kate at RWA Nationals last year. She was the first friendly face I saw, and she carries her enthusiasm to her website where she offers interviews and promotional opportunities for authors. She even sponsors virtual writing conventions!

Okay, so that’s really six great sites for romance writers, not five. But instead of contemplating my abysmal math skills, get online and make the most of the opportunities available!

Author Holly Lisle just proceeded to annoy me–purposefully so–then grabbed me by the metaphorical lapels and shook me. She did this in her newsletter, and then said:

If you’re looking for a way to write a story that doesn’t step on toes, just pick up your toys and go home. You’re trying to play dead on paper. It can’t be done, you won’t do it, and if you try you’ll end up writing meaningless drivel.

If you are a writer, you give conflict a voice. If you fear conflict, you can’t be a writer—fiction is the art of pushing creative conflict to meaningful resolution through the actions of compelling characters in exciting places.

If you’re a writer, you’re giving a voice to the people who have struggled all their lives to give words to the same thoughts you think.

Her advice, though more lengthy than I can or should reproduce here, boiled down to: To be a good writer, it’s important to piss someone off.

It was sort of shocking advice for me. Given that I’m opinionated and argumentative, you’d think I would enjoy conflict more. But I don’t. It’s one of the reasons I left the legal profession. I could never find a way to leave any argument at work–it always followed me home and festered.

Conflict stresses me out because I get a little too passionate about everything. I prefer to be unstressed, and I also like to get along with people. Hence, a career change. I never think of myself as a provocateur, but given my recent reflections on why I write dark fiction, maybe I am. And I guess Holly Lisle would probably think that’s a good thing. Holly gives out a lot of good advice, so you might want to check her out.

If so, Carina Press is interested in your work. Check out this submission call. It made me a little giddy.

Carina Press’s acquisitions team and editors have begged me to find more historical fiction and romance, so I’m putting out the call. If you have a completed historical manuscript, 15,000 words and up, Carina Press would love to see it. We’re looking for both historical romance and historical fiction (with or without the romance subplot) of any steam level (including none, none at all). Historical Victorian, Regency, Western, turn of the century or whatever other time period you’ve chosen to write in, we’re interested in publishing some amazing historical work. Our submissions guidelines can be found at www.carinapress.com/submission-guidelines and we’re working through submissions very quickly, due to the large number of us reading them, so you won’t be waiting until summer (or next year) for an answer!

Names have power, so I choose them carefully and over time, I’ve developed a system and I’m happy to share it.

1. Compile a long list of ethnically appropriate names
The first thing I take into account when choosing a name is the ethnicity of the character. Cultural heritage comes with a lot of cues and expectations. Sometimes that’s good, sometimes that’s bad, but either way, it’s something to exploit as a writer. If I can give the impression that my hero is a hot-tempered Hispanic man simply by naming him Antonio, an impression is formed in the reader’s mind before I write another word. If my Russian hero is named Antonio–my readers aren’t likely to take that at face value. They’re going to want to know what the story is behind that name. Was his mother a fan of Spanish bullfighting? Did he grow up in South America? That’s because a name either tells a story or begs for one.

2. Weed out names that are too hard to spell or pronounce unless you have a good nickname in mind
My characters for my modern mythology series all share an ancient mediterranean heritage, so I’ve picked Greek, Latin or Egyptian names. But just snapping up a name from a certain culture isn’t as easy as it might sound. Because I write for a largely American audience, I try to pick ethnic names with cross-over appeal. For example, when choosing a name for the dryad in my novella, WILD TETHERED BOUND, Arethusa or Eiluned might have been more historically appropriate, but I went with Dessa because it’s easy to pronounce, easier to spell, and more familiar while still retaining its Greek Chic.

3. Whittle down list, using the emotions the name evokes for you
At this point, a lot of experts say to narrow down the choices based on the sound of the name. They say that hard consonants are for badass heroes, and so on. I’m certainly not saying that they’re wrong, but for me, how other people perceive a name isn’t as important as how I feel about it. After all, I’m the one who will have to live with this character longer than anyone else. So once I’ve made a long list of names that are appropriate to the ethnicity of my character, I start narrowing this list down by thinking about what these names evoke for me personally. If my character is snooty, I will search for names that sound snooty to me. If my character is ageless, I’ll search for names that have a timeless quality about them. Important in this step is also my emotional reaction to a name. That immediately rules out the names of jerky ex-boyfriends and high-school mean girls. I also shy away from the names of friends and family members, unless the name is so common that I have many associations with it.

4. Say the name out loud. A few times.
After I’ve narrowed down the list in this way, I say each name outloud and gauge my reaction to it. When it comes to heroines, I have to feel as if this could be the name of someone I’d want to be friends with. Does the name sound like something I could say into the phone when drunk dialing? When it comes to heroes, I have to feel as if this could be the name of a man I’d want to sleep with. Does the name sound like something I could scream during orgasm? And if it’s a villain, it has to be the name of someone I might be afraid of. Does the name sound like something I could utter with loathing and terror? My reactions to these names aren’t necessarily going to be the same as everyone else’s, but that’s where the magic of writing comes in. I have the unique opportunity to fashion a character so strong that he or she overcomes all preconceived notions.

5. Find out what your favorite names mean
Once I’ve narrowed down my list of names by emotional reaction, I’m usually still left with a few to pick from. That’s when the meaning of the names themselves become important. For my novella MIDNIGHT MEDUSA, I was torn between two names for my Bosnian heroin. In the end, I chose Renata because it meant “born again” and she had survived the tragedy of war to be reborn as a modern day gorgon. I like to think that readers appreciate those detailed touches, but even if they don’t ever know the meaning of the names I choose, I like to think that it helps to anchor a character in my mind as I write.

So that’s the method. Use it, love it, or leave it. Happy writing either way!