In the wake of marathoning 20 episodes of NBC’s Good Girls in two days, I’m thinking a lot about dark romance/romantic suspense worldbuilding and how character dynamics are incredibly important when it comes to pulling off love stories (or at least root-for stories) with antiheroes and criminals. Why does a pairing like that of suburban soccer… Read More Good Girls, Bad Boys, and the Worlds They Live In
Folks, I think April was the best reading month I have ever had. So many excellent titles by so many excellent authors. From Samira Ahmed’s gut-wrenching and timely Internment—-one of the most impactful, important, books of 2019–to deliciously delightful contemporary romances like Jen DeLuca’s brilliant debut Well Met, Alyssa Cole’s best Reluctant Royals book yet… Read More Mala’s April 2019 Hot Reads
I more than made up for some reading slumps in March—I actually finished 11 books! That’s an accomplishment! Especially since I got my grabby little hands on things like S.A. Chakraborty’s second Daevabad novel, The Kingdom of Copper, Uzma Jalaluddin’s charming Pride and Prejudice retelling Ayesha At Last, and Helen Hoang’s highly anticipated follow-up to The Kiss… Read More Mala’s March 2019 Hot Reads
February began as a “maintenance month” for me — I had to read several books for contest judging, so that left less time for knocking books off my personal TBR — but I rallied in the last two weeks of the month, rewarding myself with titles like Angie Thomas’ stunning follow-up to The Hate U… Read More Mala’s February 2019 Hot Reads
They say everyone loves a bad boy, but judging by the pop culture zeitgeist, bad boys might just be getting worse. We have serial killers as romantic heroes on Days of our Lives and General Hospital. Former Gossip Girl star Penn Badgley has had to push back against fans gushing over his murderous protagonist on Netflix’s You.… Read More Mad, Bad, and Way Too Dangerous to Know
I started out the month, and the year, SO strong—ready to make up for losing steam in December—but then found myself fumbling once again. The Polar Vortex struggle is real. I DNFed a few things, read a book for the RWA RITA Awards that I can’t name for obvious reasons (I still have six more… Read More Mala’s January 2019 Hot Reads
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about characterization and plotting on soaps—as kind of an expansion on a Twitter thread I wrote back in 2017. When it comes to most kinds of fiction writing, there are “plotters” and there are “pantsers.” A plotter outlines and diagrams every beat, every decision, that goes into creating a… Read More Soap Writing 101: Plotting, Pantsing, and Pretty Little Liars
