Client News, Line Editing Need-to-Knows, and Last Call for Romance...!

Happy Spring, writer friends! This season has started off beautifully for the Book Genie family. So much to share! Clients with amazing projects and publications, workshops and events filling the calendar… I hope you have some great work on your desk to keep you inspired and writing!

Conference Appearance

At the end of March, I attended The AWP Conference here in Los Angeles with the UCLA Extension staff and some of my fellow instructors. I connected with future students and was thrilled to run into some past students as well! One student in particular,

Pamela Hines

, has completed her studies and is building an amazing editing practice—and she’s on Substack! Thank you so much to Pam for stopping by to reconnect and prove that changing your life (and your career) is a dream come true if you have the passion and commitment.

New Release Alert!

In other happy news, just this week Noel Stark (@noelstarkauthor) has released her debut romance Love, Camera, Action with Penguin Random House! (If you want to support alternatives to Amazon, you can buy at the link in this post.) I read an early version of the novel and knew Noel had an amazing author career ahead of her. Congratulations, Noel!! I can’t wait to hug you and get my copy signed!

A scrappy TV director lands her big break only to go head-to-head with the surly yet sexy director of photography, in this page-turning romance perfect for fans of Ava Wilder and Tessa Bailey.

Up-and-coming TV director Cali Daniels knows sex. Well, okay, she knows how to shoot sex scenes, and she’s been hired to direct a highly anticipated steamy episode of the popular series The Demon. This job is her chance at a big-time career in the film and television industry—all she has to do is deliver an unparalleled show using her hard-knock know-how and ample creativity.

If only the director of photography—effortlessly sexy Jory Blair—would stop shutting her ideas down at every turn. Jory has spent years cultivating his career as an A-list director of photography, but a recent health scare has him rethinking his life and craving the director spot. Now this creative newbie, who he can’t get out of his mind, wants to change the look of his show. Even worse, the friction between them is sparking into blistering chemistry.

As collaborating takes on a whole new meaning, and the show’s producer not-so-subtly suggests that Jory sabotage Cali in order to achieve his own goals, they’ll have to decide if chasing their dream jobs is worth losing the dream of a future together.

Fans of How to Fake It in Hollywood and Plot Twist will devour this steamy, enemies to lovers, workplace, debut romance.

Line Editing Tip: Why Passive Voice Isn’t Always a Bad Thing

I’m teaching a big crop of aspiring editors this spring, and one of the issues that routinely pops up is a question about the use of active and passive voice. While copyediting focuses on technical edits—correcting grammar, punctuation, and formatting—line editing is far more subjective.

One aspect of line editing, which I sometimes lovingly refer to as low-hanging fruit, is revising passive voice to active voice. You probably know passive voice when you see it; a big clue that a sentence is written in passive voice is the use of a to-be verb. Technically, passive voice structures a sentence so the actor, or the focus, of the sentence is the object of the verb instead of the subject. A simple example of passive voice is: The ball was thrown by Tom. Revising this sentence would mean changing the sentence so Tom is the actor rather than the object of the verb. Easy peasey: Tom threw the ball.

But I call passive voice low-hanging fruit because, yes, it’s easy enough for a line editor to pick out passive voice. Look for those to-be verbs and swap them out. Job done, right? Well, yes. But are there times when passive voice is not only intentional but effective?

Absolutely, yes.

Consider this example: The library, like almost every community space, lost its funding in the last round of budget cuts. Unlike some of the other impacted facilities, the library is heavily relied upon by senior citizens and students—two populations proven to suffer when freely accessible public services are cut.

I chatted with an editor recently about changing the passive verb phrase is relied upon to an active verb. The editor suggested that the sentence could be stronger if the verb phrase was changed.

This is why I call passive voice low-hanging fruit. If you’re looking for changes to make, sure. You could point the finger at “is relied upon” and think it would be simple and effective to change that to relies upon. But consider the context. First, we can’t just change the subject of the sentence to senior citizens and students; we would create a new error! Here’s why:

Unlike some of the other impacted facilities, senior citizens and students heavily rely upon the library—two populations proven to suffer when freely accessible public services are cut.

See what happens when we just change the passive verb to active? Now we have not one but two dangling modifiers! The clause that begins with unlike no longer modifies the noun that it’s supposed to provide information about—the library! And the adjective clause that should modify the populations is now close to the library, not the populations.

Unlike some of the other impacted facilities, senior citizens and students heavily rely upon the library—two populations proven to suffer when freely accessible public services are cut.

In this case, context, message, and the overall construction matters. Yes, Line Editing 101 wants to find and improve on passive voice. But only when passive voice weakens the impact or damages the meaning of the sentence! The ball was thrown by Tom is an inversion of logic. We expect an actor to perform an action, much like we expect to see a cause before the effect. That’s why passive voice in Tom’s case is less impactful and more distracting than simply saying Tom threw the ball, which is simple, clear, and unambiguous.

When you’re writing, it may make more sense and result in better self-editing if you look at your sentences with that cause-effect or which comes first anaylsis. Characters should open doors before they walk through them; Tom should throw the ball. But don’t fall into the trap of picking low-hanging fruit and changing all the use of passive voice while inadvertently making other mistakes or creating other problems in meaning! Sometimes, passive voice is the right choice!

Courses, Workshops, and Book Genie Doings

You can find me all over the place in the coming months! I’m just about to start a private 11-week romance writing workshop. I only have 1-2 more spots open, so if you’re interested, please fill out of the form below and I’ll save your space.

I’ll be teaching editing classes at UCLA Extension and romance writing at Stanford Continuing Studies this summer. Enrollment for summer term opens in May and my romance-writing class filled up 48 hours after enrollment went live for winter session, so if you’d like to join me at Stanford this summer (virtually, of course!) please make sure you enroll early.

I’ve been added to the permanent staff in the Novel Certificate Program at Stanford Continuing Studies, so every winter I’ll be teaching Novel IV to students completing their last course before graduating with their certificate. I’m beyond excited to work with students writing in all genres, including literary fiction at Stanford. It was a ton of work this past winter, but so much fun to see such diverse authors pursuing their dreams.

My private client roster has a few openings left for summer-fall, and I have to say I’ve been fortunate to take on some of the most interesting projects this year. Romance, of course, which has my heart and soul, but I’m working on a scholarly project right now that relies on the Oxford English Dictionary instead of American spellings. It’s a true labor of love—emphasis on the love and not the labor! Other clients are writing thrillers, upmarket historical fiction, and upmarket book club fiction—genres I adore and work that keeps me (happily!) up late reading.

I’m also copy writing for a client in an industry that is somewhat new to me. I’m having a blast learning AND writing something that isn’t fiction! How are you? What’s got you excited and writing this spring? Thanks so much for reading! Let me know what craft-focused articles you’d like to see in the future. I’m thinking about going a bit deeper into line editing as a self-editing skill. Let me know what you think!

And since no update would be complete without a humiliating picture, here’s me at the Sloomoo (a slime adventure experience) at The Grove in Los Angeles with my nieces on their Spring Break. Yes, I got slimed. And yes, I loved it! That insane smile is genuine!