Dallas Area Romance Authors

09/12/2026

The Dallas Area Romance Authors invites you to join us for an in-person presentation from Dawn Alexander
Location: Vickery Park Branch Library, 8333 Park Lane, Dallas TX

Date: Saturday, Sep 26, 2026

Time: Social starts at 9:00am, business meeting at 9:30 & our speaker starts at 10am (Central)

Can't make it in person? Let's get virtual! Please visit our website at https://www.dallasarearomanceauthors.com for information on tuning in.

Speaker: Dawn Alexander

Subject: From Cardboard Cutouts to Compelling Characters: Using Authentic Action to Bring Life to Your Story

What can movement reveal to the reader about a character's personality, emotional turmoil, or deep feelings? How do body language and action beats round out a character? How do you transform your characters from action figures and puppets to engaging, believable beings? In this workshop, we’ll actually walk through scenes to show how actions and reactions can enrich your characterization. You'll learn to ensure every movement—from the way a character holds a coffee cup to how they throw a punch—is intentional and authentic.

Dawn Alexander is a developmental editor and story coach who collaborates with both emerging writers and accomplished authors to strengthen their stories and refine their voices. Her clients have appeared on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists, as well as the Amazon Top 100. Leveraging her two decades of experience in education, she designs and teaches writing courses that offer comprehensive insights and practical strategies that can be applied across genres to create compelling plots and authentic characters. She's been a featured speaker at Inkers Con, Pike’s Peak Writers Conference, as well as local writing chapters, in addition to providing one-on-one coaching to numerous successful authors. When she's not analyzing plot structures or crafting characters, you can find her spending time with her two college-age kids or off-roading in her Jeep Wrangler with her husband and their dog, Teddy.

Welcome to the online home of DARA, the Dallas Area Romance Authors, RWA chapter 56. We are a non-profit, voluntary association of writers dedicated to raising and maintaining quality in the romance genre and its sub genres. DARA works to accomplish this through advocating high professional standard...

07/24/2026

Come say Hi this Sunday, 7/26/26, at Half Price Books Dallas, TX

07/12/2026

Ever met a mercenary librarian? Want to learn how to create an online presence? In July you can do both!

The Dallas Area Romance Authors invites you to join us for a Zoom presentation from Lisa Rabey

Join Zoom Meeting – If you are interested in joining this session, please visit our website at https://www.dallasarearomanceauthors.com

Date: Saturday, July 25, 2026
Time: Social starts at 9:00am, business meeting at 9:30 & our speaker starts at 10am (Central)


Speaker: Lisa Rabey
Subject: Telling Your Story: Introduction to Websites, Newsletters, and Blogs
Synopsis: Building your online presence is scary. Most of us are familiar with social media, but having a website? Getting a newsletter? Even starting a blog? There are too many options, and it can be overwhelming. Telling Your Story will introduce you to the world of websites, newsletters, and blogs in easy-to-understand terms and relatable examples.

Takeaways

• Introduction to websites, newsletters, and blogs and whether you need them (Yes, yes, and maybe!)
• Defining your voice and audience
• Creating a content strategy and calendar
• What kind of content to post, when, and where
• Maintenance of your website, newsletter, and blogs

Lisa Rabey is a mercenary librarian, writer, researcher, and instructor, to name a few job titles. She watches trashy TV, reads heaving bosom books, and is working her way through Paul Hollywood's cookbooks. Nerd Girl Industries is Lisa's side-hustle where she empowers people to manage their digital presence via workshops, tools, and personalized instruction. You can find out more about NGI at https://nerdgirl.net and Lisa at https://lisarabey.com

Welcome to the online home of DARA, the Dallas Area Romance Authors, RWA chapter 56. We are a non-profit, voluntary association of writers dedicated to raising and maintaining quality in the romance genre and its sub genres. DARA works to accomplish this through advocating high professional standard...

06/13/2026

The Dallas Area Romance Authors invites you to join us for a in-person presentation with Alex Langley.
Date: Saturday, June 27, 2026
Time: Social starts at 9:00am, business meeting at 9:30 & our speaker starts at 10am (Central)
Location: Vickery Branch Library - 8333 Park Ln, Dallas, TX 75231

If you prefer to join the Zoom Meeting, please visit our website at https://www.dallasarearomanceauthors.com/

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Speaker: Alex Langley
Subject: Workshop title: The Alex Langley Amazing, Spectacular, Uncanny Guide to Being a Professional Writer & Nerd
Author, Psychologist, and lifelong nerd Alex Langley presents a guide to finding your voice as a writer, expanding your writer’s toolbox with an analysis of genres, platforms, and mediums, and the many different paths to (and types of) success as a creative person.

Bio: Alex is an author and psychologist, dual-wielding both professions to do his best to write in ways which connect with the reader and reveal useful truths about the human condition. He's the author of Make a Nerdy Living, by Sterling Publications, The Geek Handbook, The Geek Handbook 2.0, Geek Lust, and The 100 Greatest Graphic Novels, all by Penguin/Random House, co-editor/co-author of Spider-Man Psychology: Untangling Webs, and a co-contributor to Stranger Things Psychology: Life Upside Down, Star Wars Psychology: Dark Side of the Mind, and Captain America vs. Iron Man: Freedom, Security, Psychology. He is the writer/creator of the young adult graphic novel Kill the Freshman. Thousands follow his work online, and he’s been a speaker and celebrated guest at fan conventions, including Wonder-Con, Galaxy Con, and San Diego Comic-Con International. His published works also include academic papers, and he thinks you’re doing great.

06/12/2026

The Dallas Area Romance Authors invites you to join us for a in-person presentation with Alex Langley.
Date: Saturday, June 27, 2026
Time: Social starts at 9:00am, business meeting at 9:30 & our speaker starts at 10am (Central)
Location: Vickery Branch Library - 8333 Park Ln, Dallas, TX 75231
A Zoom meeting link is also available. If you are interested in joining this session, please visit our website at https://www.dallasarearomanceauthors.com/
***************
Speaker: Alex Langley
Subject: Workshop title: The Alex Langley Amazing, Spectacular, Uncanny Guide to Being a Professional Writer & Nerd
Author, Psychologist, and lifelong nerd Alex Langley presents a guide to finding your voice as a writer, expanding your writer’s toolbox with an analysis of genres, platforms, and mediums, and the many different paths to (and types of) success as a creative person.

Bio: Alex is an author and psychologist, dual-wielding both professions to do his best to write in ways which connect with the reader and reveal useful truths about the human condition. He's the author of Make a Nerdy Living, by Sterling Publications, The Geek Handbook, The Geek Handbook 2.0, Geek Lust, and The 100 Greatest Graphic Novels, all by Penguin/Random House, co-editor/co-author of Spider-Man Psychology: Untangling Webs, and a co-contributor to Stranger Things Psychology: Life Upside Down, Star Wars Psychology: Dark Side of the Mind, and Captain America vs. Iron Man: Freedom, Security, Psychology. He is the writer/creator of the young adult graphic novel Kill the Freshman. Thousands follow his work online, and he’s been a speaker and celebrated guest at fan conventions, including Wonder-Con, Galaxy Con, and San Diego Comic-Con International. His published works also include academic papers, and he thinks you’re doing great.

05/18/2026

Want to Create a Compelling Reader Magnet?

The Dallas Area Romance Authors invites you to join us for a Zoom presentation from Michelle Miles

Date: Saturday, May 23, 2026

Time: Social starts at 9:00am, business meeting at 9:30 & our speaker starts at 10am (Central)

Join Zoom Meeting – If you are interested in joining this session, please visit our website at https://www.dallasarearomanceauthors.com/

Reader Magnet to Read-Through: Build a Funnel That Helps Sell the Next Book

A free reader magnet can grow your email list—but if it stops there, it is not doing enough work for your author business. In this practical workshop, indie authors will learn how to create a simple funnel that starts with a reader magnet and guides subscribers toward the next book, stronger read-through, and more intentional sales.

Attendees will learn how to choose a reader magnet that fits their books and brand, map the reader journey from signup to purchase, avoid common funnel mistakes, and create a purposeful welcome sequence. They’ll leave with a reader magnet decision framework, a simple funnel map, a 5-email welcome sequence outline, and an implementation checklist.

Michelle Miles writes fantasy, paranormal, and young adult adventures where magic crackles, danger prowls, and love refuses to back down. From fairy-tale retellings to angels and demons to Fae, elves, and time travelers, she builds big-hearted worlds full of quests, curses, kisses, and chaos—often in that order. When she’s not plotting her next emotional ambush, Michelle hosts Miles Beyond the Page, a podcast spotlighting writers’ real journeys.

03/14/2026

Have you ever struggled with conveying the way you see your characters to your readers? Writing, deleting, re-writing facets, characteristics, and what you hope are awesome cues for them to pick up on?

Have we got the workshop for you!

The Dallas Area Romance Authors invites you to join us for an in-person workshop with Elizabeth Essex

If you can't join in person, we'll also broadcast on our Zoom channel! – If you are interested in joining this session, please visit our website at https://www.dallasarearomanceauthors.com/

Date: Saturday, March 28, 2026
Location: Vickery Park Branch Library – 8333 Park Ln, Dallas
Time: Social starts at 9:00am, business meeting at 9:30 & our speaker starts at 10am (Central)
Speaker: Elizabeth Essex
Subject: Toolkit for Character: Using Character-themed Words to Power Up your Manuscript

All authors want to create characters that ‘leap’ off the page and become vibrantly alive for their readers. But how? Using examples from best-selling and award-winning commercial fiction authors, Toolkit for Character will examine six different ways to bring characters out of the author’s head and vividly to life on the page, and will demonstrate the difference between “describing a character” and “revealing character.”

Bio: Elizabeth Hobbs is a New Englander born and bred, who spent her childhood roaming the woods and shoreline, making up stories about characters who live far more exciting lives than she. It wasn’t always so—long before she ever set pen to paper, Elizabeth graduated from Hollins College with a B.A. in Classics and Art History, and then earned her M.A. in Nautical Archaeology from Texas A & M University. While she loved the life of an underwater archaeologist, she has found her true calling writing historical mysteries full of wit, wickedness and adventure. MISERY HATES COMPANY is the first book in her Marigold Manners Mysteries series. The second, MURDER MADE HER WICKED will be released in 2025, with the third MERIDIAN OF MALICE to follow in 2026.

Elizabeth also writes as USA Today Bestselling author of Romance, Elizabeth Essex. Her critically-acclaimed and award-winning Reckless Brides and Highland Brides historical romance series have been nominated for numerous awards, including the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award, and RWA's prestigious RITA Award, and have made Top-Ten lists from Romantic Times, The Romance Reviews and Affaire de Coeur Magazine. Her fifth book, A BREATH OF SCANDAL, was awarded Best Historical in the Reader's Crown 2013.

Elizabeth loves to travel from her home in Texas, where she lives with her husband, the Indispensable Mr. Hobbs, and her darling dogs, Ghillie and Brogue, in an empty nest of an old house filled to the brim with bicycles and books.

01/27/2026

I've added the newsletter page to DARA's website.
https://www.dallasarearomanceauthors.com/

01/15/2026

Interested in learning how to succeed as an Indie Author? Join DARA on Saturday, Jan 24, for an informative workshop featuring Mark Lefebvre of Draft2Digital

If you are interested in joining this meeting, please visit our website at https://www.dallasarearomanceauthors.com/

The Dallas Area Romance Authors invites you to join us for a Zoom presentation with Mark Leslie Lefebvre

Date: January 24, 2026
Time: Social starts at 9:00am, business meeting at 9:30 & our speaker starts at 10am (Central)


Speaker: Mark Leslie Lefebvre
Subject: Find Success with Indie Publishing
Synopsis: Indie Publishing offers authors freedom in how they choose to pursue their writing career, but with so many options at your disposal, how do you make the most of your author opportunities? Mark Leslie Lefebvre offers his career experience as a publishing industry insider to share some best practices for authors looking to find success through indie publishing.
Bio: Mark Leslie Lefebvre has spent his career helping authors and continues this work as the Director of Business Development at Draft2Digital. He is the author of more than twenty books that include fiction and thrillers, and paranormal non-fiction explorations. He has also edited numerous anthologies, With three decades of experience in bookselling and publishing, Mark is a seasoned and trusted book industry professional who embraces both traditional and indie publishing options.

08/15/2025

The Dallas Area Romance Authors invites you to join us for a Zoom presentation with Susan Gable

Join Zoom Meeting – If you are interested in joining this session, please visit our website at https://www.dallasarearomanceauthors.com/

Date: Saturday, August 23, 2025
Time: Social starts at 9:00am, business meeting at 9:30 & our speaker starts at 10am (Central)

Subject: Catchphrase to Page-Turner: Using Mottos to Power Story

Want to create characters that feel real—and stories readers can’t put down? In this interactive workshop, USA Today bestselling author Susan Gable shares her Motto Method, a powerful tool for crafting three-dimensional characters who come alive on the page. Learn how to craft meaningful mottos that reveal your characters’ core beliefs and use them to shape plot, deepen setting, intensify conflict, and add emotional punch. Whether you're plotting a new story or revising a draft, this technique will help you bring out what matters most to your characters…and to your readers.

Susan Gable is a USA Today bestselling author known for her emotionally layered, character-driven romance novels. With experience in both traditional and indie publishing, Susan brings a deep understanding of story craft to her workshops. She’s passionate about helping writers create 3-D characters that come alive and drive the plot, setting, and emotional heart of the story—because compelling characters keep readers coming back for more. If she’s not writing or teaching, she’s probably geeking out over story structure, tech tools, or the perfect opening line