Just in case your New Year's resolutions had something to do with reading, too, here's a title for anyone who loves a good, suspenseful yarn involving creepy old houses, mistaken identities, and ghosts from high school past. In NEVER TELL A LIE, Ivy and David Rose seem to have the perfect life--a Victorian fixer-upper, a happy marriage, a first baby on the way--until a woman who claims to know them shows up at their yard sale. She introduces herself as Melinda White, but she looks and acts...

• Tracy Grant The Beekeeper's Apprentice
• Meg Cabot Now and Then
• Kerry Reichs And Then We Came to the End

Develop, Exercise, and Protect Your Voice

As a storyteller, never forget that although your me­dium may be printed words on a page, you are never­theless telling your story. Your voice shines through in how you assemble your words—your sentence struc­ture, paragraphing, use of different types of words—the cadence of your literary speech, so to speak. It is the quality that makes each storyteller unique, and is your strongest selling point. Successful authors, whether deliberately or instinctively, nurture and develop their voice. Pick up any major best-seller and you will find a distinctive voice.

So be aware of and strengthen your voice—don’t al­low the well-meaning advice of others to weaken it, influence it, or alter it. All too often allowing others to microedit your work will homogenize your voice. In terms of establishing a career as a storyteller, your voice is your greatest asset.

Stephanie Laurens, author of It Happened One Night

• 10/2/2008 The Post and the Courier covers Romance

  Charleston newspaper's article Georgian...

• 10/2/2008 Carol Alt on GMA

  Author of Next Year's Model on GMA

• 9/15/2008 Lois Greiman at RWA

  Romance author Lois Greiman answers...

• 9/9/2008 Carol Alt on The Today Show

  Author of This Year's Novel on The...