Can you FEEL THE HEAT?!!

Oh my GOODNESS!!!

Yesterday I'd all but given up any hope of placing in the Mills & Boon Feel The Heat contest at Iheart Presents, but this morning I woke up to an email from Joanne Carr, editor of Modern Heat.

I'm not THE WINNER but I am one of the Runners Up, which is such an exciting prize in itself. I've won an editorial critique with Lucy Gilmore. I cannot profess how ecstatic I am to have won this prize. I was going to throw myself back into this mss after a month off working on another submission, but now I'm gonna enjoy a few days break away with the family and wait until I've spoken to Lucy before continuing.

Hopefully with Lucy's editorial wisdom and insight, I'll be able to make this mss my best one yet!!

Now I really wish I could drink some champers!!!

Submitting to Super

This is an exciting post for me 'cos I'm here to tell you, I've just printed off my first ever requested full mss. 

For Love or Ratings is Declan and Maddie's story of finding love through a reality tv show and it'll be landing on the Superromance editors' desk in the next week or so. Wish I could just beam it there quickly. 

Although I like this story, I'm not holding my breath as it was my first ever attempt at category romance and I hope I've learnt a lot in the last couple of years. However, I've spent the last month rewriting and polishing the full, hopefully improving it with the knowlege I've gleaned. I feel like I've spent so long with this mss that I'm not longer able to look at it subjectively - I really don't know if it's bad, mediaocre or good enough for a revisions request. 

So... guess all I can do now is hope, pray and wait, oh and start on the next submission!!! 

And yes, the bubbly pic is because I'm celebrating - not really drinking as I'm far too pregnant - but this is the furthest I've ever got with a submission, so whatever the outcome... I'm stoked! 

A Brand New Me!!!

So if you're reading this I guess you made your way over... welcome to the blog of Rachael Johns, aspiring romance writer of quirky characters and plots.

After discussions with various people of note, I've decided that WHEN (yes, that's right, I'm thinking with the positive part of my brain) I get published, I'd like to write under the pen name of Rachael Johns.

There are a number of reasons why people choose to write under a pen name and I'm not gonna broadcast mine here but will tell you that I've chosen it for a reason. I think I'd find it too confusing to go by anything other than Rachael, so I'm sticking with my first name. I tossed up with a number of options for a second - hubby's middle name, his real surname (long story), my maiden name and my dad's surname (another long story) but in the end, they either didn't sound like a romance writer :) or they didn't look good as a .com and let's face it, in this day and age, you want a sexy looking .com

I went with Johns because John was my grandpa's name - he died just before I started writing category romance and was my all time hero. My granny was one lucky lady. I also dedicated one of my stories to him as he was a magician (in his spare time) and I created a magician hero thanks to his inspiration. So, I think Johns is fitting and http://www.rachaeljohns.com/ wasn't taken and looked good. I've now bought the domain name so am a step further to setting up a website! One day...

So aside from fantasing about getting published enough to decide on a pen name, what have I been up to these last few weeks?

I've just finished the final (hopefully) rewrite of ''For Love Or Ratings'', the full mss requested by Harlequin Superromance. I'm letting it sit for a week and will then give it one more read through and proof before sending it off.

I've giving myself a little break before getting stuck straight back into my current wip, a mss aimed at M&B Modern Heat. I've just subbed the partial of this to M&B but have polishing to do in case they request the full. Fingers crossed.

I've also entered the Romance Writers of Australia High Five contest and the ''Feel The Heat'' contest on the iheartpresents site.

Phew... and have just hit the third trimester of my pregnancy and am feeling all those fatigue hormones taking over my body again. Even typing all this was tiring.

I'm gonna be fixing up the settings on this blog over the next week or so, so please forgive me if you're not on the blogroll yet and know you should be... I promise to get there.

So... leave a comment and let me know you made it over! Welcome!