romance writing | Finding home, finding love - writing romance, making clothes, growing food, and growing up

April 21, 2013
by Autumn Macarthur 1 Comment

Fast Draft – finally!

So, after a month of research and planning, I finally started the first draft of my convict ship Love Inspired Historical yesterday. Phew!

Perfect timing, Candace Havens offered another of her Fast Draft workshops, that I’ve heard so many good things about. I wasn’t quite finished the planning, but the opportunity seemed too good to miss.

So far, I have over 9,000 words of story, so it seems to be working!

I don’t know what it is about Blaze writers. I’ve planned the story using Cathy Yardley’s Rock Your Plot , because with such a big complex story I knew I needed to do something different to what I normally do; I’m writing it using Candace’s Fast Draft; and I’m also doing a Category workshop with Tawny Weber at Savvy Authors. All Blaze authors, all awesome teachers, but I’m writing inspy! And yes, I am a workshop tart!

Hopefully, I’ll report back in after ten days with a completed first draft. The finished story needs to be 70 – 75k, but I know I’ll add 25-30% in edits so I’m aiming for 55k in the first draft. I want that finished well before the online pitch to a Love Inspired editor on May 8. At 5k + a day, it will be done.

But wish me luck, persistence, and motivation, just in case!

February 7, 2013
by Autumn Macarthur 8 Comments

Resistance, fear of criticism, and hitting the wall

So this is my first official week of writing full time, and today, I’m struggling. I’ve hit a wall.

It felt so liberating giving myself this freedom from a “normal job”. Now though my nagging inner parent is busy telling me I should look for another job and I should be working harder. That nagging voice is right on one thing. I need to work harder. I’m can only support us out of savings for a year so by the end of that year I need to have some income in place. To get some income, I need to submit stories to publishers, or self-publish.

And that’s the problem.

The more I tell myself I need to work harder, the less I write. I’m terrified of actually publishing my writing. Opening myself up to be seen and to be criticized. Some people are brutal with reviews. I know I need to be tough and believe in myself and just get stuff out there, but part of me feels like it will wither and die when I get bad reviews.

Of course, inevitably, I will. It’s not necessarily a judgement on the writing. All books get bad reviews eventually, unless no-one reads then except the writer’s friends and family who have to say nice things or else!

So I’m keeping myself safe. I’m doing a neat form of self-sabotage, where it looks like I’m doing the work but in fact I jump from project to project to project and never finish anything so I never have to put anything out there either. Instead of completing a short 10 k novella to self-publish fast, like I planned, I’ve started work on a big 85 k story that will take two months just to first draft, let alone get ready to publish.

I seriously need to work on my fear and my resistance. I know it won’t get easier. I know I have to break through this wall.

But right now, I just don’t know how. Today just disappeared. I opened the novella, not the single title, and I struggled to dredge up 1000 crappy words of story. I’m nearly midnight and I’m exhausted. It feels like the fear and resistance is winning.

But maybe it won’t win tomorrow. I’m not stopping. I’m not giving in to this stupid crazy thing that every writer feels, and every published writer needs to overcome.

Actually, I won today. Every word of those 1027 story words I wrote was a little win, a tiny triumph.

How many wins did you make today?

January 29, 2013
by Autumn Macarthur 12 Comments

(Unofficially) I’m a full time writer!

Officially, I don’t finish at the Day Job until Friday. Unofficially, because they owed me leave, my last working day was the Friday before last, the 18th.

The first week off work had some unexpected challenges, like the snow! Yes, I did still get out in my writing shed and write, though I needed to rug up before going out there as if I was planning a trip to Antarctica, not the other side of the garden, and my little heater in there worked overtime.

I didn’t get as many words written as I would have liked, true. But that’s okay. I played with the idea of letting myself treat the two weeks until I officially left work as a holiday, no writing apart from Morning pages required. Instead, I decided to use it as “practice time”. No word count pressures, but time to get everything ready to start seriously writing on February 2nd. Time to make sure I got the shed all prepared and ready to go. Time to do some story planning. Time to practice and prepare for the real thing.

And that’s what I did.

I got the pieced blackout and insulating blind for the shed finished. It’s not perfect, but I like it, it gives exactly the look I wanted and cost next to nothing for materials (cute Cath Kidson style cotton tea towels from the Pound Shop, gingham from a 50p charity shop shirt and stripes from another, and the cheapest polka dot polycotton I could find on ebay).

I planned the rewrite of one story I wrote years ago and totally bungled at the time, wrote the first thousand words, and submitted them to the ITV/ Mills and Boon Racy Reads contest under my racier pseudonym Sienna Lachlan. I’ll have fun finishing rewriting that story some time!

I have several new ideas for novellas, but I’ve just written a few notes for those so far.

I have started setting up a whole new health related business, to keep my hand in at nursing too, but that can’t be allowed to take up more than one day a week.

Best of all, I started a new Haven Bay story, my series set in a small coastal town south of Sydney. I love it. My characters even have GMC for once! There’s lots of built in conflict and it’s obvious right from the start. I began this on Sunday and already have 6 k first drafted, and a bit of a plan for the next couple of chapters.

So my unofficial start at being a full time writer has started off pretty well. I still have the trainer wheels on, I’m still not as productive as I want to be when I really get going. But it’s a good beginning.

January 20, 2013
by Autumn Macarthur 2 Comments

Best writing advice ever?

I loved this short but to the point video by the delightful Jenny Colgan! May just be the best writing advice ever.

I’m also strongly considering entering the Racy Reads contest. Not that what I write could remotely be considered racy (well, maybe by a very, very sheltered nun or similar), but then neither do Jenny Colgan or Cecelia Ahern, who are two authors they featured. But then I read somewhere else they are looking for erotica. Sigh!

This may be one for my naughtier alter ego Sienna.

December 16, 2012
by Autumn Macarthur 2 Comments

Wonderful romance writing opportunity- call for submissions

If you’re a romance writer with a Winter/ Holiday themed novella length story with that touch of magic, here’s a fabulous opportunity, but you’ll need to act fast!

World Weaver Press editor Eileen Wiedbrauk has a Call for Submissions closing 31 December 2012, and needs more stories. If you can’t quite make that deadline, she’s also looking for sci-fi or fantasy romances for next year.

She says-

A Very Merry Submission Call

I love the somewhat cheesy Christmas romance movies that flood the airwaves this time of year. Love em. The one where near strangers agree to share a convertible that they won in a Christmas raffle. The cop who takes the witness he’s protecting home to his family for the holidays. The one where the businessman rents a Christmas and hires his factory manager and her son to play his wife and child when the corporate big wig comes to visit – a big wig who’s really a Christmas angel. The Love Actually’s and While You Were Sleeping’s of the world. And of course there’s the many, many Christmasy renditions of Groundhog Day. I love em. Love em all.

I’ve been searching for them in printed form. But my “Christmas collection” searches tend to yield erotica or horror-for-the-holidays, when what I really want to gobble down are Christmas romance novels, or compilations of romance novellas like the first romance that I ever read, The Christmas Cat. I didn’t actually realize there were four romances tucked between the covers when I picked it up, and neither did my mother. She just thought it was a book of cat stories when she bought it for her twelve-year-old daughter. She was thinking James Harriet, not Julie Beard, Jo Beverley, Barbara Bretton, and Lynn Kurland. I loved that book. The cats managed their own magic, usually connected to forcing together unlikely couples and then trapping them together regardless of the usual workings of space and time.

So it’s only natural that I’m editing A Winter’s Enchantment, an anthology of winter romance novellas for World Weaver Press, searching for the kind of stories that I love to publish them in a 3-6 story compilation. And since World Weaver Press is a publisher of speculative fiction, these winter romances are striving to capture the magic of the season – acts of time travel, portals into alternate lives, paranormal beings whether ghosts, or angels, or Santa’s elves, or mistletoe wearing werewolves (oh my!).

Incorporating speculative elements into the story is something that romance writers do all the time, often without having readers blink an eye. How many times have I happily finished a Nora Roberts novel only to realize afterward that there was a touch of fairy magic, a supernatural quest, or the matchmaking hand of a ghost like in her recent Inn Boonsboro books, which defined the premise of the entire series.

I know many writers say that one of the best parts of writing is creating the kind of stories that they love. For me, I get that same pleasure from editing, from finding that submission that I just can’t wait to read and publishing the kind of fiction I just can’t get enough of. Which is why World Weaver Press is not only planning A Winter’s Enchantment, but when our regular submissions for novels opens again in May, we’re hoping to see more sci-fi romance mixed in with the straight science fiction and more PNR mixed in with the urban fantasy. We’re already gravitating that way in our accepted titles from the 2012 open submission period. Fantasy + romance, or magic + romance, or paranormal + romance are like a buffet of gorgeous desserts – you can’t expect a girl to not want them all!

A Winter’s Enchantment is taking submissions of winter romances with elements of magic etc., until December 31. Length: 20,000-40,000 words (flexible). Pays royalties. More information at: http://worldweaverpress.com/submissions/calls-for-anthologies

October 4, 2012
by Autumn Macarthur 4 Comments

Fab new romance writing opportunity!

I heard today about a great opportunity for romance writers seeking publication!

Small but growing publisher World Weaver Press is looking for winter holiday romances with a touch of the extraordinary. I’ve known Eileen Wiedbrauk, the editor-in-chief, on the internet for a few years now, ever since I got back into seriously writing. We did a JanNo at the same time (like NaNo but in January, with no pesky holidays messing up the writing time).

I wrote a confused mess of a comic thriller/ romance/ women’s fiction, about twin sisters and mistaken identity. I claim to have finished the story, but the truth is at 50,000 words I was so fed up with it I had the heroine decide after the black moment that she was better off without the jerk of a hero and would go on into her life a stronger, more confident woman who’d never be messed around by a jerk again.Uh, that would NOT be a romance then!

Eileen wrote a very accomplished fantasy with strong romantic elements. Since then, she’s completed her MFA, and had stories published. She achieves so much I get tired just reading what she’s been up to. No wonder she needs coffee! She’s a fabulous writer and a skilled editor, with unsurpassed attention to detail. I just know she’d be a joy to work with, though I’m betting she’ll challenge her authors to dig deeper than they thought possible to pull out their best work.

So when she emailed me World Weaver Press’ latest call for submissions, I really wanted to share it. They publish in both paper book and ebook format, and the covers are beautiful. Do go to the WWP website to check them out!

Attention romance writers! Do you have a novella that captures the magic of the holiday season? We want to see it!

We’re looking for winter romances with a speculative element — supernatural beings, magic, doors to other worlds, inexplicable serendipity, etc. — at the novella length. Submissions accepted Dec. 1-31, 2012, for publication during the 2013 holiday season part of a 3-6 novella anthology (ebook and print editions) and additionally as individual titles (ebook edition only). Anthology is tentatively titled A Winter’s Enchantment.

Stories must have a winter element. Preference for stories where the winter holidays play an important role in the story: Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s, Chinese New Year, winter solstice, yule, other winter holidays (real or invented).

Will consider contemporary or historical settings as well as second-world fantasy settings (sometimes called “high fantasy” or fairy tale realms). No fan fiction.

We have no specific guidelines on “heat level.” But whether or not characters tumble into the bedroom, these stories should be primarily romances with HEAs or implied HEAs; if you want to get explicit between the sheets, go for it! — but stories need to be more plot than sex. This is not an erotica anthology.

Novella length: 20,000 – 45,000 words

Submissions period: December 1-31, 2012 — do not query before or after this period or your submission will not be read!

Rights and compensation: Seeking first world rights in English and exclusive rights to publish in print and electronic format for twelve months after publication date after which publisher retains nonexclusive right to continue to publish. Novellas will be published in a 3-6 story anthology and individually; writer will receive royalty on both anthology (% split among contributors) and individual publication (39%). No advances. Previously unpublished stories preferred; Reprints will be considered.

Submission method: Query letter + first 5,000 words of the novella (paste both into email). Email query to submissions[at]worldweaverpress.com with the subject line “Winter Romance, story title.” Query letter should contain your name, story’s title, approximate word count, and a pitch/brief description of your novella. If story has been previously published, please tell us that you’re seeking a reprint. Then paste the first 5,000 words of the novella in the body of the email following your letter. Please make it very clear where paragraphs break — this means if your email doesn’t let you indent paragraphs, you’ll need to put an extra space between each paragraph for submission purposes. Do not send unrequested attachments.

Simultaneous submissions = okay. Multiple submissions = no.

If you have a suitable story, polish it up and send it off on December 1. If you don’t, you have time to write. What a fabulous writing prompt!

September 26, 2012
by Autumn Macarthur 8 Comments

Self publishing – why?

Photo by tEdits

I’m becoming increasingly committed to the idea of self-publishing my stories.

Not because I have anything against the publishers. I don’t. I know some self-publishers treat the mainstream publishing houses as the enemy. Not me.

I’m seeing many writers I know who’ve been working on their writing for about the same length of time as me (though probably working a lot harder than I have!) getting accepted at major romance publishers. I love sharing the excitement of their Call Stories and seeing their books on the shelf in shiny pretty covers. At one time, my biggest writing goal was to be published there too.

But it’s unlikely my stories will be accepted by a traditional publisher or a bigger e-publisher. They just don’t fit. Too long, too short, too sweet, too sexy, wrong country, hero not rich enough, pace not fast enough. I don’t naturally write stories that work for any of the publishers’ lines, and when I try the stories are unnatural and stilted. I twist them so much to fit what’s needed, and my writing isn’t authentic. Or even readable, at times, like my last story I mangled so badly to fit word count!

It would be lovely to get The Call, but I’m not sure keeping on trying will be worth it for me.

On the self-publishing side, there are the huge massively publicised success stories like John Locke (despite the recent controversy, he DID sell a lot of books to a lot of readers who love him – but this in no way condones faking reviews!), Amanda Hocking, and Fifty Shades. Plus, in romance, multiple NYT bestseller Bella Andre. There are also many, many poor quality self-published books which are unlikely to sell more than a handful of copies. Some are so bad the writers have trouble getting readers to take a free copy, the blurbs are warning enough (dear God, don’t let my books be in that category!) .

We hear less about the quietly successful self-publishers. The writers who keep steadily writing and releasing books and build up a readership over time. The writers who happily quit their Day Jobs thanks to self-publishing stories that have a reader base, but may not sell enough to attract a print publisher. These are the voices I want to listen to, and I want to track down. I’ve read and enjoyed many self-published books. Now I want to find the forums where the successful self-published writers hang out.

We need to each decide what “success” as a writer means for us. Is it a traditional contract? Is it ten five star reviews on Amazon? Is it selling so many thousand books? Is it being able to quit the Day Job? Is it getting emails from readers who loved our story?

If a writer really and truly knows only that traditional contract will do it for her, that’s where her efforts need to focus. But a good story well self-published can potentially achieve all the rest.

I need to earn some income from writing, AND I want as many happy readers as I can. Getting published traditionally is less important to me if I can have those two things. I’m thinking more and more lately that self-publishing may be right for me. Not as a way to get a traditional publishing contract, but as a end in itself.

The thought of being completely responsible for all aspects of the finished product is massively scary but also exhilarating. I’m 99% sure that’s where I’m headed.

I read articles like this report on self- publishing from the Romance Writers of America conference Published Author’s Network keynote speech. I feel like I might have a chance. Then I reality check myself by remembering that over half of self-published authors don’t even make $500 a year from their writing. Actually, the comments section of that Guardian article was more interesting than the article, despite the inevitable descent into arguments between commenters. And it appears the survet may not be that valid, according to Kristine Kathryn Rusch, though whether that means the average self-published writer earns more or less I’m not sure!

Anyway, I’m considering (again!) quitting the Day Job. The part time hours aren’t working out, it seems I have the same amount of work to do in half the time, and I’m increasingly unhappy there. The idea of not having any income is scary. But we can manage easily without digging too deep into savings, with a little frugality. I’m tired. I want a break. I want to be able to focus on writing. My job seems to eat half my brain even when I’m not at work. Life’s too short for this crap.

I also feel I need to spend more time with the mother-in-law. I cope with her better than my husband.

That’s the reason I’ll give my manager, anyway, if I do decide to resign!

September 24, 2012
by Autumn Macarthur 4 Comments

Searching for zen clam, or calm even

Photo by Tom Swift

After yesterday’s post I decided what I needed was a bit of zen calm. Except with my typing snarly-uppy-wordiness, it always comes out clam.

So, I found zen clam instead. That clam looks very zen.

What else I found was a plan for my writing. I need deadlines, I need a story that I really truly want to write, and I need motivation. Looks like all three may have collided and hopefully a beautiful mess will result.

No new story, I need to finish what I have. I’ve gone back to one of my favourite old stories, Lock and Cady’s story from the Haven Bay series. I mind mapped the series today, and I have some new ideas that excite me. I hope I’ve finally found my way with the story in what will be its fourth incarnation.

First, a messy first draft written for a Book in a Week course. , with waaaay too much external conflict. Second, a revised partial that’s probably one of the best things I’ve written at sentence and word choice level, but oh so wrong at the goal and motivation level, quite rightly collecting a very kind rejection from a Harlequin SuperRomance editor. Third incarnation finally had a strong goal and motivation, high stakes for both hero and heroine, but that partial needed a lot more work before it would be ready to sub. Where that version came unstuck was winning a five page critique from a SuperRomance author. It didn’t seem sensible to keep working on the story while waiting on the critique (what if I still had it all wrong?) so I started working on a new story. The critique somehow got lost on its way back to me, then I found I wouldn’t be able to enter the story for New Voices and needed to work on another story for that, and the result is it’s taken me over a year and a lot of other stories to come back to this one.

I love the setting, Haven Bay, and I love these characters. With each incarnation, I get to know them better and go deeper and deeper into their emotions. It all feels so real to me now!

I hope I can get that out when I try to write their story again. Writing a new first draft, then editing, and possibly even rewriting. Whatever it takes to make their story the best I can get it. I’ve given myself deadlines for planning, first drafting, then editing.

I’m looking forward to this!

August 21, 2012
by Autumn Macarthur Leave a comment

Little Yellow Writing and Crafting Shed- progress report!

Progress report on my writing and crafting shed- almost all the timber is up!

It’s now completely panelled in spruce tongue and groove, painted white, and all that’s left to do is add a couple more pieces of woodwork to finish the window surround and get that painted white too.

My husband loves the zen simplicity of the white space. He thinks I should just have one cushion and a single polished pebble in there. That idea does have a certain appeal, though it won’t be as much use for writing or crafting that way! He’s right about one thing. It’s a very small space for the amount I hope to fit in there. I’m trying to imagine how it will look with a wide full length desk at one end and full length shelves lining the long walls.

Smaller. A lot smaller, even though they’ll all be white too.

And smaller again when I add in all the stuff I want to put on the shelves and the windows and the doors and the walls. Lots of books. Big brightly coloured patterned bags holding my fabric stash and clothes for restyling. Boxes and bottles of buttons and threads and other sewing bits and pieces. My sewing machine. My overlocker. My big laptop. My Alphasmart. A heater for winter. A fabric covered pinboard over the desk and on the door. Patchwork cushions on the chair. A matching patchworked blackout blind on the window.

It will be quite cluttered and busy, but hopefully in a good creative way!

Anyway, unfortunately progress has now halted. I managed to break a tiny bone in my foot on Saturday night, a one of those stupid, clumsy, ridiculous accidents. I’d been standing on a chair putting up a new lampshade in the living room (just one of those lovely cheap big round bamboo and paper ones) and as I stepped down, my foot landed on the side of one of my shoes. I twisted my foot sideways as I fell.

Instant pain and swelling and bruising. The result is, I’m now in a fair bit of pain and have to wear an ugly clumpy walking boot for at least a couple of weeks. And I need to sit with my foot up as much as I can.

Stupidly, because we’re short-staffed, I went in to the Day Job yesterday. That was a mistake. I managed okay, taking plenty of pain relief, but by the time I got home from work the foot was hugely swollen and bruised. This morning the swelling has gone done a lot, but it’s more painful. I couldn’t have gone to work on it today without going through hell. Not so much the actual job, there are two separate nursing roles in the office and one is fairly sedentary, most phone and email work. It’s the two hour each way commute that’s the killer. Walk then train then walk then bus then walk, and the same in reverse going home. No other way to do it, short of taking a cab from the train to work, which pretty much wipes out the day’s pay! Luckily it’s not too busy right now, despite the short staffing, so I’ll stay home tomorrow as well.

But it’s so frustrating to sit inside all day itching to work on the shed and not be able to! I just need those few extra pieces of wood for the window surround, a door sill, and something for the centre of the ceiling. Then once those are painted, I can get the carpet down. A lucky find on Saturday morning in a car park- boxes and boxes of used but good condition carpet tiles in the rubbish at the back of the carpet shop. I so want to get them down, then I can get the desk up.

And I can’t get the last few bits and pieces of the building work done!

I can’t even start on the sewing for the cushions and blind because that involves standing, too, measuring up and cutting out, even though the sewing part will be sitting.

Well, I can get lots of reading done, which is a good thing. I could even read my rejected Christmas story and start making notes for the re-write. I’m strangely reluctant to do so, probably because I don’t want to have to see all the ways that my story is crap. And I don’rt want to get full of ideas then not be able to write because I’m back at work, or working on the shed. I’m obsessed with getting the shed finished. It’s like my subconscious has made a deal with itself- no more writing until the shed is done.

I wonder how I can convince it to unmake that deal?

August 8, 2012
by Autumn Macarthur 7 Comments

Persevering through rejections- guest post from the fabulous Robyn Thomas

I’ve been a slack blogger.

I can make all sorts of excuses about being busy, and they’d even be true, but the deeper truth is, I’ve been low. I blog more when I feel good, full of energy, when things are going right in my life. when I’m feeling bleah, just getting through what I have to feels like a hard enough slog, without adding pressure to blog too! Part post-rejection-downer. Part frustration with how expensive and slow the writing shed transformation has – it’s stopped being fun and become hard slog- especially now I’ve added a deadline for completion to the mix. Part dealing with sick cat/ MiL 45 minutes drive away with health issues/ Dad 10,000 miles away with health issues. Part resentment at having to lose (hopefully only temporarily) my lovely part-time Day Job situation so soon after I experienced how wonderful it is, because they haven’t been able to replace a colleague at work who leaves next week.

Anyway, all that’s another blog post. Today’s post is by my amazing critique partner and debut Entangled author, Robyn Thomas. We can learn so much about perseverance, never giving up, and dealing with rejection from her example. Robyn is not only a wonderful person, she writes wonderfully, and has a very different writing process to mine. She’s one of those perfectionist writers who works hard at getting it right first time. She won’t move on until she’s happy with what she has, so she produces beautifully polished first draft. I loved her first published story, His Unexpected Family, when I read it in its original version. I know just how much time and effort it. That story was worth publishing, I thought, as it was. I couldn’t see how it could be better. Yet to read the final published version, I’m blown away. It’s awesome. Somehow, she made an already beautiful story even better, by sticking with it through rejections and three and a half rounds of edits.

When I feel like giving up, I think of her. How hard she works. How she writes in fragments of time snatched from her busy family life. And how worth it the results are.

So it’s over to Robyn-

Thanks so much to my dear Sassy Sister, Autumn, for inviting me here today to talk about rejections and perseverance.

I’m a huge believer in getting back on the horse after you’ve been thrown off, but there are times when it’s beneficial to stop and think before you leap back into action. Very few people have a smooth journey to publication, and most writers will be faced with one rejection after another at some point. The thing to remember is that it’s normal, and no matter how overwhelming it seems, other writers WILL understand. They’ll offer advice and support, and do what they can to help you find your feet again, but the big decision – quit or continue – is yours alone.

The possibility of giving up altogether usually looks good in the initial phase of a rejection. It’s easy, doable, and will get you off the rollercoaster. But it will also cost you your dream. To paraphrase a line from Matt Damon’s character in The Adjustment Bureau: “It’s not whether or not you get knocked down; it’s what you do when you get back up.”

Deciding to stick with writing and try again is the difficult choice because it means you’ll be vulnerable to more rejections in the future. Don’t dwell on it, but do what you can to minimise the risks. Try to see not just where you went wrong, but also what you got right. In my opinion it’s just as important to build on your strengths as it is to remedy your weaknesses.

Looking back at my own journey to publication, I can see that I made some awful (purely emotional) decisions after rejections. At one time or another I tried almost everything you could think of to put rejections into perspective, to learn from them, ignore them or embrace them. I went from taking every word to heart, to taking the liberty of rejecting-the-rejection (in spirit only.) I stuffed things in the bottom drawer, mortified that I ever thought they had merit, and I sent others straight back out to another publisher without changing a word. I rewrote projects from scratch in the hope of bringing them back from the dead, and I moved on to shiny new projects instead. I built myself up, cut myself down, believed, doubted, and struggled to find a workable balance between carrying on immediately and pausing long enough to take stock and avoid repeating my mistakes.

Writing is tough sometimes and rewarding other times, but if you love what you do then you’ll find a way to reconcile the ups and downs. If you don’t give up, and if you’re willing to learn, you’ll prevail against rejections. I know this for sure because I’ve tested the theory. I’m happy to report that I now have three books contracted with Entangled.

Do you have any tricks to help you through rejections? I like to start with as many of the following at once as I can possibly manage: a bubble bath, fragrant candles, chocolate, sappy music, a cream cake, a favourite movie on DVD, and a glass of wine. That combo inevitably leads to an early night, and things generally appear brighter the next day.

Sometimes you have to take the leap…again.

Newly widowed with a new baby, Ren Jamieson is putting her life back together after her thrill-seeking husband’s death. But when she’s called to show a high-end property to a prospective client—a commission she desperately needs—she meets a man who makes her pulse pound like nothing she’s ever known…

Cole Matthews is more than he seems. Real estate is only part of the reason he’s in Australia – the other is to see Ren, and make amends somehow for the life lost. The last thing Cole expects is a woman whose humor, sweetness and sexiness give him a rush greater than any he’s ever experienced…

Torn between her growing feelings for Cole and the risks of loving yet another adventurer, Ren will have to choose between keeping her feet on the ground…and taking the most dangerous leap of her life.

Read the first chapter free: http://www.entangledpublishing.com/his-unexpected-family/

Buy links: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/his-unexpected-family-robyn-thomas/1112199079

http://www.amazon.com/His-Unexpected-Family-ebook/dp/B008NXI3H8

Robyn’s Bio:

Robyn believes that romance and fairytales are the best ingredients to work with because they go with absolutely everything. Inspiration is everywhere she looks. She remembers making the decision to write her first book, but since then writing has become more of a compulsion than a choice. It’s less about having complete silence, a gorgeous work space, a free hour or two, and a steaming hot coffee, and more about getting her fingers to the keyboard any chance she gets. The coffee does help, though.

She lives in Melbourne with her wonderful husband and two sons. Writing romance helps to balance the effects of living in an all-male household. She loves to cook, hates to clean up, and keeps very odd hours. Her writing days used to be solitary, but they’re not anymore. Now she has Seven Sassy Sisters online, and their friendship and support is invaluable.

Contact Robyn:

http://www.robynthomasromance.com/

@robynsromance

http://www.facebook.com/#!/robyn.thomas.376

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