I have a title

I'm having a crazy day today but just had to make time to tell all you lovely peeps that I HAVE A TITLE for my debut novel!

ONE PERFECT NIGHT will be a Dec 11 release from Carina Press.

In the end the marketing team decided that they didn't want a Christmas title, despite the story being Christmas themed. I understand the reason behind this is that having a Christmas title limits the shelf life.

The story is also about the hero's sleep struggles, so I'm glad they've gone for a title which relates a little to his night time woes and how the heroine heals them :)

Auto-buys!

I want to know what your AUTO-BUYS are? The authors you have to buy despite having a To Be Read pile already bigger than yourself in height, no money in the purse, the credit card maxed to the limit etc.

In Single Title mine are:

• Dorothy Koomson - that woman should be on your MUST-BUY list too.
• Lisa Jewell - have loved her since Ralph's Party
• Jenny Crusie - never laugh so hard as when I'm reading a Crusie novel.
• Marian Keyes & Jodi Picoult (although I haven't read their last two books as I'm not reading nearly as much as I'd like at the moment).

In Category romance mine are:

• Heidi Rice - nuff said :)
• Kelly Hunter - I bow down!
• Bronwyn Jameson - always a keeper.
• Sarah Mayberry - GOLD
• Anna Cleary - unputdownable!

Titles!

Some people love em, some people loathe em! Thinking up titles that is.

I must admit that with most of my stories, I started with a title. I'm one of those writers who wasn't really able to start until I had a title I was happy with. Of course I knew that if I was ever lucky (cos it is a lot of luck) enough to get published, I would more than likely have to change the title. But I still needed one to start.

The story I recently sold to Carina, originally started it's life as The Maverick Millionaire's Christmas Fairy. Maverick told me a lot about the hero and the Christmas Fairy, the heroine. After revs with M&B I had to change the title because it was no longer a Christmas story, so it because Maverick Millionaire, Musical Mistress. I liked both these titles but I changed the title again when I subbed to Carina (for a few reasons). It became HIS CHRISTMAS FAIRY.

But now, I have to brainstorm some ideas for a new title because Carina want to call it something different again. I'm not sure yet if they have any direction I need to follow so at the moment, I've been brainstorming with friends a list of titles I can send to my editor (will NEVER get tired of writing that) for consideration.

I'd love some help. So far (with the help of a couple of writing pals) I've come up with the list below:

One Night Before Christmas

The Night Before Christmas

Mistletoe Mix-Up

The Boss’s Christmas Fairy

His Christmas Dream

Her Christmas Wish

A Crash, A Fairy and A Christmas Baby

Yule Be Mine

I've ''bolded'' my favourites but would love some more suggestions, if anyone has any they'd like to add. It's a Christmas story about a boss and employee coming together after a one night stand involving a little bit of a mix-up. So, if you have any ideas, please comment.

Before I go though, the prize for most cringeworthy title so far goes to my lovely friend Nikki Logan who suggested ''Family Reception, Christmas Conception.'' BAHAHHAHAHA!

Thanks and call story!

While I was having the busiest day ever yesterday and then sleeping, so many of you stopped by and left me gorgeous congratulations for my good news! and I want to thank you all. Loads of you have been my blog friends for a long time and you were the first people I wanted to share this awesome news with.

Aideen hinted in her comments that she might like a bit more of the ''story'' to how this came about, so I'm going to post the call story below that I just whipped up for the RWA Australia e-loop.

Thanks again to everyone! I love you all. xox

CALL STORY

I fell in love with category romance in 2006 when a writing friend of mine and I decided we weren’t getting anywhere with our proper writing and could easily write an M&B! I’d never read one in my life – hah!! I still recall my first read ever was Barbara Hannay’s “Having The Boss’s Babies’’ and I fell in love with category romance. Since that day on I targeted Mills & Boon not because I thought it was easy – hah – but because I genuinely loved reading it.

I had some success with contests and good, encouraging R’s from eds. Then in 2008 I came runner-up in the M&B Feel The Heat contest. This led me to working one-on-one with an editor and although they didn’t want the contest book, they asked for more. In early 2009 I started “The Maverick Millionaire’s Christmas Fairy”. This partial got a fabulous response from the ed but she didn’t think that it worked as a Christmas story.

Aiming to please I did revs on the partial and rewrote the story to take out the Christmas, boss/employee hook and big family elements. I was stoked when I got revs on the full! Surely THIS was FINALLY it. Alas, I just didn’t hit the sensuality levels for Modern Heat/Riva (which I was targeting). The eventual R was nice and said nothing about not nailing the conflict, characters, etc, which gave me hope. I went back to my original version – Christmas, big family, boss and employee – and subbed the one which I believe was truly MINE to Carina.

I was stoked to get a letter from Carina saying they liked the story and would like to read it again after revs. I did the revs and then my lovely mate Fiona Lowe offered to read it. Unfortunately she didn’t say “yay, this is fabulous” like I imagined (hoped) she would. She said, it’s absolutely great to chap five but everything past that needs to be rewritten. ARGH!!! I was moving house, buying a business, how was I to do this. But somehow I did. I got so sick of the story by the end of it but I sent it off and then got on with something else.

On April Fools Day I woke up to an email from Angela James offering to BUY MY BOOK! I am so happy that Carina want to publish the story that was MINE! And I hope that many of you will enjoy reading my debut – a Christmas story about fairy costumes, night terrors and a boss-employee mix-up that becomes their HEA...

SOLD

Remember my Christmas Fairy story from WAY back!? The one with the taunted hero and his gorgeous but damaged employee?

CARINA PRESS want to PUBLISH IT!!

OH MY GOODNESS!!!

Excited is an understatement.

I loved writing this story and can't wait to share more about it and my journey to its publication as it happens. I don't have many details as yet, just that it will be released this December!!

Thanks to all the lovely people who read my blog for being so supportive in the past and keeping me going when things got tough.

xox

Rach!