I'm getting ready to read the very end of Laura Kinsale's fabulous Shadowheart which I read immediately after her equally fabulous For My Lady's Heart and for the first time in a while, writing feels, for lack of a better word, right. Call it kindred spirits, or inspiration, or divine intervention but it gave me the shot in the arm I needed.

Which was especially nice after a long meander through the local Barnes & Noble, with a peek at the new Romance Writing for Dummies book. I didn't get it (yet) but gave it a thorough perusal, and it will come home as soon as the budget can take it. (Hey, I have a library book sale coming up this weekend, and I live for those)

This may drive me to ferret out some old keepers from my vaults. Nothing resonates with me more than a hero and heroine who fit into one cohesive whole, who could never have lived in any time or place but the one they inhabit, and it has to be this man and this woman or dash it all. I like to use the phrase one man, one woman, one lifetime. Especially when the two together are stronger than either apart, and they take on the world as a team.

Plus real danger. Not "will never be allowed at (insert society party/place here) again" but "may die," or "country may lose war" or "home may be destroyed" or "may spend rest of life with wrong person." Or a combination of above. Something that will have a deep and lasting impact. I want to make my couples work for that HEA.