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!