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!

Are you an aspiring paranormal romance author? Harlequin’s Silhouette Nocturne line is one of the best markets out there for innovative speculative fiction and here are the top five tips I’ve learned writing for HQN:

1. Nocturne Heroes Don’t Cry

Editor Tara Gavin once shared with me that she rejects many books for Nocturne because the heroes are too soft. Nocturne readers are looking for an unrepentantly alpha hero. Now, as a writer, I know that showing a hero’s heroism is tricky when he’s not the type to show the chinks in his armor, but there are ways to delve into his emotions without letting him get weepy. By way of example, in my Nocturne Bite WILD, TETHERED, BOUND, my hero is a wounded soldier and a gambler. He doesn’t know how to say romantic things, so he explains to the heroine how much he loves her by using casino metaphors instead.

2. Exposition Should be Tightly Woven Throughout

In category fiction, you don’t have a lot of room to both build your world and tell your story, especially when it comes to the novella length Nocturne Bites. Don’t think you’ll save space by dropping a big info dump at the start of your story–you’ll only slow down the pace. Better to draw your world-building through the story with expert exposition, making use of every opportunity to let the mystery of your paranormal world unfold.

3. Settings Should be Atmospheric

It’s always been my belief that a reader wants to be swept away, someplace interesting and exotic, even if that place is simply the wooded lot behind her own house. A writer should exploit the lushness of the setting, conveying the sights, sounds, scents, textures and even the tastes. In my first Nocturne Bite, MIDNIGHT MEDUSA, the Greek god of fury kidnaps the heroine and takes her on a whirlwind journey across the world. My editor seemed to appreciate the small but telling details I included about Asia and Scandinavia, and I have noticed a definite Nocturne trend towards stories that are set in exotic or unusual locations.

4. Avoid Episodic Structure

As an author of much shorter stories, my first instinct is to let the reader infer anything that doesn’t need to be stated outright. As I was told by one of the Nocturne editors, however, readers of romance novellas prefer more grounding. Ideally, each scene should give cues to where and when it is occurring sooner, rather than later.

5. Don’t be Afraid to Color Outside the Lines

There’s been a transgressive element in everything that I’ve written for Nocturne. In MIDNIGHT MEDUSA, I made the unconventional choice to tell a story about love and war crimes; that story ended up being my first sale to Nocturne. In WILD, TETHERED, BOUND, I felt compelled by the divided nature of my hero to write a foursome, and my editor didn’t bat an eyelash. In fact, she asked me for an additional sex scene. In my forthcoming novel about an arms dealer and the knife-wielding nymph of the underworld who is intent upon killing him, I proposed a story about profound identity betrayal, and it was met with an enthusiastic offer. So if your story is good and it speaks to you, don’t hold back. Let your freak flag fly. It might just land you a contract.