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Monthly Archives: March 2011


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An Auction for Fatin

I’ve been feeling kinda low and sorry for myself all week. 

The usual blah of Real Life, work, family, feeling life is passing me by and I’m not achieving my dreams. The everyday struggle to stay positive in the face of the relentlessness of all those little grains of sand that can grind us down if we let them.

Life’s like that for so many of us. The daily ups and downs.  Then something happens that stops everything. A random tragedy that makes those little things seem nothing at all.

Huge impersonal tragedies like the tsunami in Japan, where all we can do is donate to the Red Cross and pray. Or personal tragedies that touch lives closer to ours, where maybe we can do more to help. Like Fatin’s.

Fatin has been an integral part of the romance community for years – she owns and runs the RR@H Novel Thoughts and Book Talk blog, is an administrator of the WriteMinded loop, an author assistant and a tireless advocate for romance novels. On Tuesday, March 8th, she lost her husband in a senseless act of violence, leaving her alone with four children. You can read more about the tragedy here: http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/9233067/

The romance community, proof of the power of love in action, are helping with an auction to raise money for Fatin and her four daughters.
Operation Auction

Here’s the link to the ebay shop. The auction goes live today. Donated books, critiques, and other romance writing related items are being auctioned in three batches over the next few weeks.

It’s a cause worth supporting.

And makes my self-pity seem mighty small.


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Can fifty be the new thirty?

Cross posting today with the group blog, Seven Sassy Sisters.

Yeah, I just copied my post from there to here! I’m off work with a bizarre virus that is slowly taking us out of work in our office, one by one. Feel veeeery strange and semi-functional. That’s my excuse for laziness in not doing an original post for this blog and I’m sticking to it.

It does have the merit of being true!

Anyway, this is what I wrote for the group blog-

Writing is hard work. It eats up huge amounts of time and energy. And when we get rejections , are dealing with long waits, or the wonkiness-in-process just isn’t working out, it can be sooooo tempting to question why we keep doing this to ourselves.

Those days when we think even WTF Press will reject us, when we feel like complete eejits to even think we can write, when everyone else but us seems to be getting The Call or at least revise and resubmit letters, it’s easy to get disheartened.

Especially for those of who are older. I’m not going to give away anyone’s secrets, but I’ll just whisper quietly that at least one of the Sassies is over forty. I turn fifty-one this year. Fifty-fricking-one!

Age can seem like a sentence sometimes, as those self-imposed milestones come and go without reaching  our goals- published by thirty, published by forty, published by fifty. And we hear the editors say they are looking for fresh new (read young?) voices, compare ourselves to wunderkind like our Maisey with her Call at 23, and wonder if it’s too late for us.

Wonder if it’s worth bothering, if we have anything to offer a genre full of heroines in their twenties. Wonder if the dream of giving up the day job and being a full-time writer is something we can only have once we’re over sixty-five and retired? And then no-one will want to read us unless we switch from writing hot romances to cosy mysteries about retired ladies solving murders while tending their rose gardens?

I need to laugh at myself for that one! Sure, it’s good to start young, but loads of romance writers (and writers of any genre) keep writing long past regular retirement age. Sometimes it’s possible from their style to tell they are an older writer, sometimes there’s no way of knowing if they are twenty-five, forty-five, or sixty-five. It’s all in the attitude, all in the voice.

I do actually think I write more traditional style romances. Maybe instead of targeting Harlequin Mills &  Boon I should be aiming at the publishers who do the large print romances for the libraries! But I know other writers older than me who write as sassy as a seventeen year old would, with the added benefit of all that wisdom and life experience.

Forget age.

It really doesn’t matter.

I read here that in the US, the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity is in the 55-64 age group. The 20-34 age bracket, surprisingly, has the lowest rate. Entrepreneurs have a lot in common with writers. Creativity. Thinking differently. A willingness to take risks and face challenges head on.

I’ve seen it said that creativity and imagination drop off after forty. Crap!

There’s good evidence from business and inventions that breakthroughs today come at older ages than they did a century ago, that the older person’s breadth and depth of life experience actually give them more chance of being innovative and original.

Certainly, instead of doubting ourselves because of our age, we should be celebrating what we have to offer.

I did some research, and came up with a long list of writers first published in their forties or later (in some cases, far later!). Many of these went on to have hugely successful careers, not just one book wonders.

Here are a few of them-

  • Penelope Fitzgerald- UK Booker prize winner, first novel published at 60
  • Laura Ingalls Wilder- wrote a weekly local newspaper column from age 44, but didn’t publish the first of her hugely successful series of autobiographical children’s books until age 55
  • Norman McClean published his first book “A River Runs Through It” at 74
  • Mary Wesley published 3 children’s books in her late 50′s, then her first adult novel aged 71. She then went on to sell millions of copies of her next nine books
  • Karl Marlantes took 35 years writing his acclaimed Vietnam novel, published in his 60′s in 2010
  • Harriet Doerr started writing at age 67, her first novel published age 74 was made into a film, Stones of Ibarra. She had two more books published.
  • Helen Hooven Santmyer, 88 when her breakout novel, “And the Ladies of the Club” published.
  • Richard Adams, 54 when he was first published with Watership Down, and finally was able to become a full-time writer 2 years later.
  • Mary Higgins Clark, 48 when her first successful novel was published (after one flop in her early 40′s)
  • L M Boston (who lived and wrote in the same village my mother-in-law lives in, in the gorgeous Manor House on the river) ”She was also a natural born writer. It just took her a little time to get her thoughts in order.” Her first book, The Children of Green Knowe, was published at 64. She then had fifteen more books published and huge sales.
  • A lot more authors with their first novel published after 40 here- 41 over 40

I couldn’t track down any examples of late blooming romance writers, but they must exist!

Robert Mc Crum in The Guardian says that older writers tend to write best about love-

On the very short list of timeless themes, “love” must come near the top. Experience, plus maturity, mixed with love, can sometimes achieve the most astonishing results.

That’s what I want from my writing, astonishing results. Though some days, even half-decent results would do!

Joe Wallace whose first novel Diamond Ruby was published at 54 wrote- 

It took a lot of growing up–and the developmen­t of a lot more nerve than I used to have–for me to be able to write a book from the perspectiv­e of a teenager. I needed the distance, the experience­, the time to write to my ability.

I like that quote. Some of us do need time to truly write to our ability. Some of us need time to grow into the confidence to write the authentic and honest stories we want to write, rather than the stories we think will get us published.

Maisey (I hope she doesn’t mind me using it here, she has a lot more direct experience with editors and publishing than I do yet!) says

The simple truth is this: In this business, like any, there are factors we can control, and factors we can’t. An editor may reject us because of age, or they don’t like our blogs, or our face, or the fact that we use run on sentences as a style choice. (that would be me) They’re human, and while I don’t think it’s rampant, it’s possible for them to have prejudices.
THE ONLY THING we can control is when we write, when we submit, and what we choose to do with successes and setbacks.

I’m going to remind myself of that when the insecurity hits, when those “You’re too old,” and “There’s not enough time left for you to build a career so why bother,” nasty sneaky little voices start to whine in my ear. Ultimately, it’s up to me. Up to me to keep writing. Up to me to keep submitting. Up to me to decide to either rewrite or resub somewhere else when a story gets rejected.

I’m also going to remind myself that “Anything worth doing, is worth doing poorly at first.”

That’s for first drafting and for wild loose rewrites. That’s for when I need reminding not to control the writing, not to overplan and second guess and follow the rules too tightly. When I need to remember that in first drafts and first rewrites anything goes, anything has to go, if I want my authentic, creative, and life-experienced voice to shine through!

I sure hope fifty can be the new thirty.

I think I have at least thirty years of productive writing life ahead of me, and fifty years of valuable life experience to mine behind me! One of the things I noticed reading about these older writers was for so many of them, what interesting lives they lived. Maybe that’s the number one thing we can all do for our writing.

Live deep. Live wide. Live emotionally. Live with love.

Then use that, when we come to that blank page.


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Proactive heroine needed- oh sh*t!

This isn’t the post I planned to write today. I wanted to write a happy upbeat little post about staying positive and reaching goals and all that lovely sweet fluffy stuff. That post will come, but today isn’t the day!

Because I’m stuck. I’ve hit a wall. I’ve gone from being ahead on my targets to waaaay behind. Underachievment, your name is Autumn.

Started with winning the weekly five page critique on the SuperRomance Authors blog.

Now that should be a good thing, and it is.

I kinda had a feeling I might get my name pulled out of that particular hat soon. It will be brilliant to get some feedback from an author writing for the line I’m targeting. My CPs are great, but none of them are aiming for the same line, and there’s an element of being nice to the class dunce too. The criticism is tempered by ”Poor Autumn, she’s just not getting it but let’s be nice to her so she doesn’t feel bad.” In other words, it’s not criticism. Plus I can be stubborn and pig headed on certain issues, like drastically shortening but still hanging on to the Prologue that all my CPs said to ditch.

Now an anonymous Super author won’t have the same constraints. She’ll tell it like it is. It she thinks what I’ve written is total crap, that I’ve missed the mark by a mile, oh and BTW, get rid of the Prologue, she’ll tell me straight. In a kind, constructive, supportive way, of course. And that’s what I want. Someone who doesn’t know me, who doesn’t feel the need to be  nice to me, telling it how it is.

But oh my, is that scary! Somehow editing and sending off those five pages felt more of a big thing than subbing. I didn’t do any writing for a few days, madly procrastinating so I didn’t have to deal with it. I knew I was avoiding it, and that made it even worse. Self-awareness can be a curse at times!

Eventually on Tuesday I did it. Chopped around the first five pages, like you won’t believe, and emailed it off before I had a chance to think about it too much.

Chapter One looks like a jigsaw puzzle now, with a bit cut out from here and a bit cut out from there. I tried to reduce the infodump, internal monologue, and exposition, but there’s still waaaay too much of it there. And the blessed Prologue stayed too. I’m at the stage now (version 7 of the rewrite of the chapter!) where I have no idea if I’m editing the life out of it or making it stronger.

Anyway, that’s not what I want to write about today. I want to write about what happened next. LOL, no wonder I overwrite in my stories so badly, I do it here too!

What happened next was, with that out the way, I needed to get on with writing Chapter 3. And I do not have an idea what happens in chapter three. It’s a kinda critical chapter. I want to end the partial on a hook, have the editor wanting to read more. It’s also a crucial point in the story structure.

End of chapter 3 is where things change, permanently. The first act is over, the second act begins next. In Save the Cat, it’s Break Into Two. In the Hero’s Journey, it’s Crossing the Threshold. Either way, it’s that no-turning-back point, where a decision on the part of the character propels them forward into a new world. The character’s life will be different, from now on.

Technically, in a longer story like a Super, this would happen in Chapter 4, purely based on word count. But it makes sense to me to get into the core of the story quicker, and use those lovely extra words on exploring the middle more. Also, I kinda feel the editors make a partial 3 chapters for a reason- that’s where they should be seeing things really start to happen.

My problem is, the heroine isn’t the one instigating things any more. She started it, she proactively went out and found the hero and asked for what she needed from him. But now he’s come back with an ultimatum of his own, and is about to deliver an even bigger one. She feels weak, like she’s been pushed around and lost control (something that’s very important to her). It’s an uncomfortable place for her to be, and it’s uncomfortable for me to write. So I’ve stalled, wondering if this is how it should be, if I’m on the right track.

I hadn’t fully realised this till this morning when I read a post (very late!) on our group blog Seven Sassy Sisters, by the fabulous Maisey.

Maisey says-

There was a day when the doormat heroine was the norm. Not just in romance, but in a lot of different mediums. Women who simply reacted to the situations they were in. (sometimes by screaming…or breaking their ankles while running…or both)
But that day is not today. Those aren’t the women we want to read about. We don’t want to see a woman who just lets everyone in her life take advantage of her. We don’t want a heroine who doesn’t seem to have existed until the hero walks into her life. A woman with goals, ambition, drive, talents, something! We want a proactive heroine, not one that’s simply reacting.
You need a heroine who can stand on her own two feet and give as good as she gets. Of course, she still has to have softness and she has to be relatable, flawed but likable. Easy, right? Ha.
But it is possible!

So, with that summary…The Proactive Heroine: (note, it doesn’t mean she does these things all the time, but these are signs you might have a proactive heroine!)
1. Makes decisions, doesn’t just get dragged along for the ride (even if she does end up in a situation she’s not entirely happy with!)
2. Initiates. Conversation, sex, a marriage of convenience…she’s not afraid to get what she wants.
3. Speaks her mind/doesn’t take no crap. (In a recent MS the hero asks my heroine how many men she’s slept with, to which she responded: how many women have YOU slept with?)
4. She can still be vulnerable. Strength doesn’t mean being unemotional at all times, it’s at her core. It doesn’t mean she can’t cry, or feel lost, or like she’s done the wrong thing. It doesn’t mean she can’t be unsure and insecure when in a situation that she isn’t accustomed to. Just like a real live woman!

Now go forth, and write some awesome heroines!

Now, that got me thinking. I hate those old films where the monster or the bad guys are after the hero and heroine and of course she sprains her ankle so he has to carry her and it’s just, oh purleese, give us something original! How about a heroine who can solve her own problems, thank you very much.

I realised what was stopping me writing was feeling I was doing much the same to my heroine. Because she’s going through the motions and smiling and not giving us any hint how much she hates this. How out of control she feels the situation is spiralling. How this is so not how she wanted it to be. How to get her original goal, she’s going to have to give up a lot of other stuff that’s important to her.

Maybe that’s exactly how it’s supposed to be.

She has to do what she doesn’t want to do, give over some control to the hero, but that doesn’t make her a wimp. That makes her a woman who’s making personal sacrifices in pursuit of her high stakes goal. 

What’s wrong with my chapter isn’t that she’s doing that, it’s that she’s not fighting it! That’s why she feels like a wimp. She’s given in too easy. And I just realised- I missed a stage in the Save the Cat beatsheet- Debate. That’s what chapter 3 is all about.

I defined it as -

The hero or heroine must decide what to do. This tells the reader a lot about them and what’s important to them, and their decision making process shows their beliefs. By here, all the key characters should be introduced, and the reader should have been shown six things about the hero, heroine, and their worlds that need to be changed.

The key word there of course, is “shown”. Not “told”.

So by the end of chapter 3, Cady has made her decision. She’s not happy with it, but she’s not fighting it any more either. It’s not what she wants, but she’s going to live with her decision and make the best of it. I skipped that whole section. I thought as I started chapter 3 with her doing what Lock asked, the decision was made. Wrong!

I was worried showing that would slow the story down even more, that things wouldn’t really start happening until too much of the word count was gone. But it doesn’t have to be like that. Things can be happening, but she’s still emotionally resisting, fighting, going along with things on the surface but beneath that she’s conflicted, she hasn’t at all committed to this course of action yet.

Sheesh, I have no idea how to write that, but at least I have some sense of direction, better than stumbling around in the dark!

I love this quote from author Robyn Carr, taken from her Harlequin bio-

I’m naturally drawn to strong, capable female characters, and when I begin a story I ask myself, ‘What is she up against?’ I try to write about issues that every woman faces at some point in her life, without ever losing sight of the basic sense of humor that helps us all through hard times.

Thinking about this, about who my heroine is, I’m also starting to feel I simplified the story too much. I took out a big part of Cady’s emotional issues, to see if the story still stood without it, and I think I went too far. I took out a key issue she’s faced bravely for years. She’s tough, a survivor, an odd mix of rebel and conformist. But without that past history, she’s a rebel without a cause.

And I’m a writer without a clue!


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Analysing what works

Okay, so I went back and started to re-read Nikki Logan’s wonderful Mills and Boon Romance, “Their Newborn Gift.”

This time as a writer, not a reader, to see how she did it, and did it so well! Not to copy Nikki, but to get more insight into what makes a good story work, so hopefully I can infuse those same elements into my own writing.

Three pages of notes later, I finished chapter one! Analysing the entire book will take some time! It’s well worth it though as I got some excellent insights.

So here are my notes on the fourteen pages of chapter one-

• Opens with Lea and Molly in car, playing I spy. Shown it’s been a long drive and hints of their characters- they’ve been playing for three hours.
• Emotional tug immediately- they are playing a game and laughing, but Molly’s illness is evident, though we are not told what is wrong with her. Her illness, Lea’s concern for her daughter, and her courage in facing her illness are sketched in a few words- “As if every kid coughed when she laughed.”
• Very little exposition as they arrive at their destination- place described through the filter of Lea’s feelings- “The homestead seemed to grow towards them like something from a nightmare. Large, expensive, and looming.”
• Key theme stated- “A house like that had to have a family in it.” The story to me is about family, and Lea and Reilly overcoming their wounds from their families of origin to be able to make their own family. A strong, universal theme.
• Insight into her state of mind, sentence above, continues “More obstacles. More people to judge her.” So here, two pages in, is one of her core emotional issues, feeling judged, an outsider, unlovable.
• Her visceral reactions- “Lea swallowed hard.”  “Her fingers started to tremble on the steering wheel”, “Lea held her breath.”
• Single sentence drips of backstory- like when she sees Reilly- “Last time she’d seen him he’d been sprawled naked across the motel bed…”
• Shift in POV to hero in middle of page three. Distinct change of voice.
• Use of imagery to fit the character– “hoof to the belly”, a memory burned into his brain like his brand into his horses’ flesh
• Two pages of internal monologue and his observation of her actions give key backstory, description of Lea, some of his history. Doesn’t feel like infodump because his thoughts are mixed in with the present action
• His key emotional issue of low self-worth given straight away in his internal monologue and memories of their previous encounter- “she’d been a painful reminder of what he was really worth.” Excellent showing not telling here!
• Visceral reaction to her- “heart hammered against his moleskin shirt”, “swallowing carefully past a dry tongue”
• Shown she is special- “he’d never in his life been so ensnared by a woman..” “She’d been worth it.”
• Then mostly dialogue for two pages. No more than three lines from each character. No more than two sentences of dialogue tags or reactions between speech. Lots of white space on the page.
• Molly appears again six pages in. “Somewhere deep in his gut a vortex opened up. He knew those eyes. His pulse began to hammer…” One page of his reaction in internal monologue, interspersed with action (going inside, getting a glass of water).
• Hints of problems- tests, “possibilities he’d though lost to him forever”
• Physical reaction- “He kept his heart rate under control by pouring two glasses of ice cold water in the kitchen, and then he shakily tossed one back himself before steeling himself to return.”
• More intense dialogue, again fast pace, lots of white space.
• His emotional response to Lea shown – “he wanted the truth from her almost as much as he wanted to smell her.”
• More physical reaction- “his chest constricted, bright light exploding behind his eyes”
• Two pages of angry conversation shows their feelings for each other, especially that Reilly felt a connection to Lea and was angry when she ran out on him, their key issues, more backstory. Again, mostly dialogue, minimal internalising, lots of white space to keep it pacy. Need to get more of that anger, the digs and flashes at each other, the hints of how they feel for each other, into Lock and Cady’s interaction in Chapter One
• Even Reilly’s observations of her use horse terms- “Her nostrils flared and she tossed her thick hair back.”
• Then Reilly brings the focus back onto Molly. His daughter. And why Lea is here.
• Reilly’s key issue again- he thinks Lea is after his money, that was the only reason she slept with him. Maybe Lock can feel Cady used him to get rid of her inconvenient virginity before she moved on to who she really wanted to be with. Need to convey that sense of being used, that no-one would love him for himself, because Lock’s core issue is similar to Reilly’s, though the reason is very different.
• Tenth page- Lea tells him the real reason she’s there. Molly is dying and she wants him to get her pregnant again. Highest possible stakes- to save the life of a child. I’ve been wondering if Cady’s stakes are not high enough. Lock’s kidney will improve Josh’s quality of life hugely now his home dialysis isn’t working so well but it isn’t as dramatic. He’s not going to die without the kidney transplant, just face a future spent half in hospital, with needles which he’s terrified of, messed up schooling, reduced growth, anaemia…  Okay, maybe the stakes are high enough, but maybe I need to spell them out more too. Also, my pace is too slow. I take two chapters to get through what Nikki does in one!
• Reilly’s hunger to be loved shown- “When had anyone looked at him like that? Ever?”
• Page 11- switch back to Lea’s POV as she observes Reilly’s physical reaction
• Emotion-  her observation of his emotion shows how she feels about him.
• A page of explaining the medical stuff, in dialogue. Doesn’t feel at all infodumpy! Lea has a clear, strongly motivated goal. 
• Conflict/upping the emotional tension- he tells her she’s trying to blackmail him
• Paragraph of Lea’s backstory in internal monologue- why she slept with Reilly before. Need to make sure I show this with Lock and Cady. The old feelings for each other, the reasons they slept together, to hints of the old feelings still there but overlaid with all the anger and resentment at what happened since. My handling of this feels quite clumsy in comparison
• More of Lea’s key emotional issues- her bad relationship with her father, her shame at using him, at acting out of character, her guilt, her feeling that maybe her actions made Molly sick, that she’s being punished in some way. I knew all along that Cady feels that guilt as well, blames herself for Josh’s illness. That was the first major similarity that struck me when I started reading Nikki’s story, besides the biggie,  secret-baby-now-sick-so-the-secret-is-revealed basic scenario
• Her plan fails- Reilly tells her he can’t help her. Her reaction shown in dialogue and her physical reactions- gripping his shirt front, clenching icy fingers. Minimal internalising, makes it even more powerful because there’s absolutely NO “telling”. Chapter ends on that sense of crushing defeat, made  worse by her memories of the man she though he was  being betrayed.
• I’m feeling this is all one scene, yet it can’t be. Maybe when Reilly retreats into the kitchen after first seeing Molly that’s a very brief sequel before he goes back out to them again. Or is it? In fact I think we might see the sequel when POV switches. For example, first words after the switch back to Lea’s POV are “Lea had never seen someone shrink like that right before her eyes.” That to my mind is Reilly’s sequel, being shown in Lea’s POV, not told in an internal monologue from Reilly. That’s how I do it, but this is so much better!
• Skilled use of POV change- POV switches twice in the chapter. Either switching in the middle of scenes, or seeing the sequel through the other characters POV, I think! I didn’t know that could be done that way, but it works! Switches are necessary so the character with most at stake has POV. Initially, it’s Lea with most at stake, overcoming her shame and need for independence to approach Reilly. Then Reilly has most at stake, as he realises Molly is his child. Then the switch back to Lea’s POV as she asks the all important question- will he father another child to save Molly? Each character has POV when the events are most significant for them as individuals. Also, if Reilly had POV when she asks the question, the tension around whether he will agree and why he says no would be gone immediately. Okay, I think maybe I have the POV wrong for Lock and Cady. Or only part right. Maybe it would be more powerful to switch to his POV sooner when she reveals they have a child, then back to hers when she asks her question. Hmm. Needs some thought. May be worth trying that scene again with the POV switched to see what works better.
• Wish I could see Nikki’s first draft!

I also wish I had a battered old paper copy (even then, something in me cringes at the idea of vandalising a book!), or even better a Word file of the chapter, so I could use the highlighter way of looking at a story that Shirley Jump recommends. I can’t find any way of marking up the epub file I’m reading the story in.

Anyway, Shirley recommends using different colours, one for dialogue, one for action, one for exposition, one for internal monologue, to see what the balance is. I’m planning on doing Margie Lawson’s Deep Edits course in May, which uses a highlighter system and goes even deeper. I think this would be especially helpful on those pages in Nikki’s that look at first glance like they could be a big slab of internal monologue, but actually aren’t, because she’s sprinkled in a significant amount of present action too, as Reilly observes Lea. This keeps it pacy, keeps it easy to read, keeps the reader turning those pages. Sadly, I’m almost certain in my story it is just a big lump of undiluted internal monologue!

The place where the highlighter method wouldn’t work on Nikki’s stories are those places that do double or even triple duty. The description that also gives an insight into how the POV character is feeling for example. I’m thinking how I can make more use of that in my story, and a couple of places come to mind immediately.

 So I gained a huge amount from taking the time to look deeper at Nikki’s story yesterday before I dive into another round of chapter one edits today. I won a critique of the first five pages from a SuperRomance author, so I want them to be gleaming shiny bright, the best I can get them, before I send them off.

I can highly recommend giving this a go! See what you get out of analysing what works in a story you love that’s similar to yours. The only element I need to include in mine, as it’s aimed at SuperRomance, is a little more of a sense of community, though not at the expense of introducing the main characters, their goals, and their conflict, which I think I have.

Does anyone else who’s read Nikki’s story have anything to add that I missed?


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Aiming high, or shooting myself in the foot?

Not much writing today. I’m still trying to get my new laptop set up after a virus completely trashed my much loved previous one. Instead of doing what I should be doing, thinking about where my characters need to be by the end of chapter three, I’ve been catching up with all the discussion groups and forums I missed with no internet access for a week!

I got sidetracked by an interesting question posed on the Harlequin Subcare forum . Christine Bell opened up a whole discussion about where to target- epubs or Harlequin. Something I’d been wondering about too.

I set myself the goal of getting published (or at least having a story accepted for publication) by the end of this year. I estimate my chances of this happening at Harlequin as being roughly equivalent to a rat’s chance of surviving at a pest controller’s conference.

For any aspiring romance writer, Harlequin is really where we want to get published. The number one selling publisher of women’s fiction is the place to be. But it’s highly competitive. More than 99% of submissions are rejected. And  it can be sloooooow. 

I’ll be sending a partial off to the slush pile at the end of the month. Then I can wait for six months or so to hear if that’s rejected or if they want to see the full. Then possibly another year to hear if that’s rejected or if I’m lucky enough to get a revise and resubmit.  Then more waiting on that. Of course, eventually the Call makes the waiting all worth while! And the whole sub/reject/sub something else cycle is a great learning experience. 

But I do wonder if I might learn faster subbing to epubs, maybe getting the opportunity to work with an editor there. I know in my secret heart it’s very, very unlikely I’ll crack it at Harlequin with this one. I still have more to learn about writing romance well enough. Insisting I’ll only sub to Harlequin because that’s my dream goal could be shooting myself in the foot and reducing my chances of being happily published. The health scare made me realise there’s a lot to be said for instant gratification and not putting things off. And as I’ll be writing anyway, if Harlequin reject it, why not try elsewhere?

I’ve been trying to decide with my current story whether to sub to the Harlequin line I really want to write for, when chances are so high I’ll get another R, or try straight for an epublisher, with more chance of getting a revision request, or at least some feedback I can use. But wonderful though many epubs are, that’s giving up on any chance of getting the story published by Harlequin, and the things I’ll learn will be good, but not what I need to get me nearer to writing SuperRomance.

Maybe the right answer is compartmentalizing my writing, having some things specifically aimed at a Harlequin line, sent off with a kiss and a prayer; and stories aimed at epubs that can be written during the wait.

My current story is targeted at Supers, and first of a series set in the same community. I really would rather not sub that elsewhere, even though I am almost certain I’ll get another R rather than a revise and resub on it. The next story I want to write once this one is sent off (the rejected SYTYCW chapter) crosses series lines and would best be aimed straight to epub, while I’m waiting to hear back on the other partial. Though part of me keeps whispering it could also work well as a Super.

I’m feeling that splitting the two series off might just be the way to play it. The other story is also potentially a start of a series, another one set in a small community, but with different storylines and possibly heat levels to what I would want to sub to Supers, and in a different country too!

The idea of working on both targets at the same time seems good. And nothing changes the central issues, that I still need to learn to write as well as I possibly can, and that thinking about writing is not the same as writing!

It seems silly to worry about this now, before either story is anywhere near finished.  Actually, it’s relevant,especailly now when I’m close to a turning point in the story and need to decide what happens next. I’d possibly make different choices in story direction if I knew I was subbing to Wild Rose Press rather than SuperRomance.

I need to get on with the writing. Instant decision- Lock and Cady will go to SuperRomance first, then to epub if they are rejected. Steph and Mason will go straight to an epublisher.

Now I just need more hours in the day to do it all in, and I’ll be fine!

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