I had the extreme pleasure of listening to Mari Carr speak at this month's Virginia Romance Writer's conference. If you are not familiar with her yet, you are missing out. Here's her bio from her website:

Writing a book was number one on Mari Carr’s bucket list and on her thirty-fourth birthday, she set out to see that goal achieved. Too many years later, her computer is jammed full of stories — novels, novellas, short stories and dead-ends, and she has nearly a hundred published works, including her popular Wild Irish and Compass books, along with the Trinity Masters series she writes with Lila Dubois.

Virginia native Mari Carr is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller of contemporary erotic romance novels. With over one million copies of her books sold, Mari was the winner of the Romance Writers of America’s Passionate Plume award for her novella, Erotic Research.

What her bio doesn't tell you is that she is utterly hilarious and very down to earth. Mari shared her experiences in publishing and offered suggestions for finding opportunities for writers to collaborate. With over eighty titles under her belt, Mari has a story about almost everything in publishing and a book for nearly everyone. To browse and purchase her books click here.

During her presentation, Mari spoke about boxed sets and collaboration with other authors. She also played a fun little game with us that got the inspiration rolling. After compiling a list of tropes, Mari cut them all into strips and had us each draw three, after which we free wrote a plot based on those tropes. I drew first responder, cowboy, and suspense. Sounds great! I had a whole plot outlined when I left, which conveniently fit into a future series I've imagined in my head.

If you're interested in playing the same game, here are some lists of tropes:

Go ahead and give it a try! Pick three, the first three your eye lands on, then jot down what happens. Who knows? Maybe one day I'll be reading your book!

Onward,

Kathryn