essays
Pop Culture
- “Dating Death”
- Essay on the romance of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- “The Assassination of Cordelia Chase”
- Essay on how the writers of Angel ruined a perfectly good character by writing her into a coma, which was probably the only way she could get away from them.
Publishing
- “Hello, I'm Your New PRO Columnist: Reflections on the Columns I'm Not Going To Be Writing”
- Basic publishing questions.
- “The Impossible Dream: How To Find Your Perfect Agent”
- Finding an agent.
- “It's All About You: The First Step in Finding An Agent”
- Career planning.
- “Rats with Islands: How To Survive Your Publishing Career”
- Coping strategy for a publishing career.
- “Stalking the Wild Editor: How to Get Published, Maybe”
- Finding and submitting material to an editor.
- "A Writer Without A Publisher Is Like A Fish Without a Bicycle: Writer's Liberation and You"
- Setting achievable goals.
Romance Genre
- "Defeating the Critics: What We Can Do About the Anti-Romance Bias."
- Analysis of anti-romance bias.
- “Emotionally Speaking: Romance Fiction in the Twenty-First Century”
- Explanation of modern romance fiction.
- “Glee and Sympathy”
- Defense of romance fiction.
- “I Know What It Is When I Read It: Defining the Romance Genre”
- Definition of romance genre.
- "Let Us Now Praise Scribbling Women."
- Romance fiction as an anti-toxin to patriarchal literature.
- "Romancing Reality: The Power of Romance Fiction to Reinforce and Re-Vision the Real"
- Romance fiction is not unrealistic.
- "Romantic Comedy, the No-Calorie Godiva"
- Power of romantic comedy for women.
- "So, Bill, I Hear You Write Those Little Poems: A Plea for Category Romance"
- Defence of category romance fiction.
- "This Is Not Your Mother's Cinderella: The Romance Novel as Feminist Fairy Tale"
- Romance fiction as a revision of patriarchal fairy tales.
- "Why I Sometimes Think About Not Writing Romance Fiction/Why I'll Write Romance Fiction Until They Pry My Cold Dead Fingers from Around My Keyboard"
- Rant about writing romance.
- "You Go, Romance Writer: Changing Public Opinion"
- Dealing with the media.
RWA
- "Faxes and Loathing in San Antonio: Jenny Goes To A Board Meeting"
- Proposed changes in RWA bylaws in 1998.
- "I'm Unpublished, You're Published, I Don't Care How Many Books She Has Out, She's a Twit: Labeling RWA"
- Divisions within RWA.
- "With a Little Help from Our Friends: What Local Chapters Can Do For Published Members"
- Role of chapter PAN rep.
Writing Craft:
- "Don't Do This At Home: The Four Biggest Mistakes in Contest Entries"
- Mistakes beginning writers make.
- "The Five Things I've Learned About Writing Romance from TV"
- Writing love stories.
- "Happily Ever Laughter: Writing Romantic Comedy for Women"
- Writing romantic comedy.
- "Picture This: Collage as Prewriting and Inspiration"
- Brainstorming with collage.
Writing Life:
- "Green Is Not Your Color: Professional Jealousy and the Professional Writer"
- Dealing with Jealousy.
- "I'd Give It a Nine, but It's Hard To Dance To: Ritas, Reviews, and Other Nightmares."
- Column on dealing with evaluation and criticism.
- "Taking Out the Garbage: How to Protect Your Work and Get Your Life."
- Column on priorities.