Guest Post with Becca Dale

About the Author: Becca Dale

Born and raised in rural South Dakota, Becca Dale represents the girl next door personified. The open prairies and quiet, pine-covered hills of the Upper Midwest feed her creativity and keep her work grounded in reality while the stoic, can-do attitude and twisted sarcasm of her family and friends provide endless inspiration. A farmer’s daughter, an engineer’s wife, and a high school teacher, she brings a hint of the common woman to her writing. Although her characters, especially the paranormal ones, sometimes reflect the ordinary on steroids, there remains a sense of reality.

As a multi-published author Becca strives to walk the line of romantic erotica—venturing into the wild while never forgetting that the main focus should always be love. Her work has received top reviews world wide, and she loves to hear from fans and critics alike.  

You can Find Becca at:

Becca Dale Website | Becca Dale Blog | Twitter | Facebook 

The Importance of You

by Becca Dale

I often say how much I appreciate hearing from readers-positive and negative-because feedback helps me grow. However, until I attended the Romantic Times Convention in Los Angeles this past week, I did not realize how many authors feel the same way. The hotel halls were filled with writers (published and unpublished), agents, publishers, editors, and readers. Although I enjoyed meeting and learning from fellow authors and others in the industry, the readers fascinated me. They had come from all over the country, some even from across the world, to meet and visit with their favorite romance writers. The entire experience blew my mind. I expected the hotel to overflow with people behind the pages, people I assumed had a financial or at least an emotional interest in the selling of books, so to meet so many on the other end, amazed me.

Meeting readers opened my eyes to how many are shifting to eBooks. Whether full length or shorts, the public seems to be rapidly embracing the virtual book. In fact, the Expo was devoted to helping authors connect to that particular group of readers while the book fair offered more traditional paperbacks. Either type of reading material requires an audience to appreciate it and bring it to life. And come to life it did in the excited whispers and bright eyes of fans as they stood in line to get a signature from their favorite writer.

One thing saddened me though. In the halls I occasionally heard, “I don't want to bother her,” or “She's too busy to talk to me.” While I am certain the week tired most of us and exhausted the most popular among the authors, I am also positive that the writers wanted to hear from the readers. We are a complex group by nature. It takes a certain confidence, at times bordering on arrogance, to send our work out into the world to be judged by acquisition readers, agents, editors and finally, the most important critics, readers. However, one cannot put him/herself on the line again and again without developing a need for praise or recognition of some kind--some sort of positive reinforcement that we have some a about what we are doing, that perhaps what we write might bring a smile or a moment of joy to someone. Such thoughts make the four a.m. writing secessions and the hours of running on coffee and chocolate to meet a deadline all worth it.

While I am not well-known enough yet to have much of a following, I do know others who crave feedback. So, if you have an opportunity to meet or greet your favorite authors, on the rare occasion they leave the warm glow of their computers, please take a moment to pat them on the back or offer an encouraging smile. Or send them an email or even a snail mail note saying what you did or did not like. I beg you, do not allow them to go unappreciated or they may cease to offer your favorite escape, and the world will be a quieter but far less romantic or adventurous place to hang out. How sad a day that would be.

If you would like to support Becca and offer up your own feedback and reviews for her writing, be sure to check out her latest novel, Untamable!

Now available at:

Amazon | The Wild Rose Press

You can my review of Untamable here.