So you think you can WRITE?

Hot on the heels of the NEW VOICES excitment comes something from across the seas and the people at HArlequin (US).

My good friend Fiona Lowe sent me the link this morning. So You Think You Can Write!

From what I can see its a whole week of editor and authors posts about how to write for Harlequin Romance. There'll also be writing challenges, which I'm guessing will have prizes (whether they'll be books or critiques who knows)! It's not a contest as far as I can tell but it does say there'll be opportunities for submitting your story. Pity all my complete stories are currently already subbed :(

But just thought I'd share the news in case you haven't already heard it - which in the current cyber climate, is probably HIGHLY UNLIKELY!!!

x

Wish me luck....

That's right, I need it BIG TIME! Have just sent off a requested partial and synopsis to the ed I've been working with at Mills & Boon, so I'm NTAI again! It's the story I entered in the New Voices contest and I'm so hoping I get the chance to submit the rest of it!

And on another aside, I have a little confession to make. I kept something TOP secret from everyone (even my hubby and closest writing friends) I knew last month - I subbed a mss to Carina Press. I don't really know why I didn't tell anyone but I just wanted something for ME!

I loved this mss and although it was R'd by M&B, it wasn't for major things like conflict, character or plot. I just didn't seem to be able to get the sensuality spot-on for Modern Heat.

Well, yesterday I received a revise and resubmit letter from a lovely editor at Carina, so I'm very excited to be getting on with that now.

So... what exciting news have you had lately!?

NEWS!!!

Ha... that got you to come visit didn't it!? I figured if I wrote NO NEWS, you wouldn't bother reading... which is really the truth of this post :)

Sorry if you feel conned!!!

Anyway now for the NO NEWS!

I DIDN'T final in NEW VOICES (as you all know by now) but I wasn't really surprised. Whether my chap was good enough or not, I'll never know but I had a feeling they wouldn't pick a past finalist from one of their contests.

I DIDN'T meet my goal of writing another 20k on my Single Title in September - I barely made 2000k!

I DIDN'T sub anything but am planning to really soon. Have been battling it out with my synopsis for One Rogue, One Damsel for almost a week now (school hols here so NOTHING is happening fast) and have almost got it to a point I'm vaguely happy with. The BM and the ending have caused me REAL issues. I'm basically a pantser - I work out conflicts and some key scenes, usually a title too, and then I just go for it. Problem is that this time, I'm subbing a partial before having a complete mss (for a number of reasons) and so I can't write the synopsis checking back on what actually happened in the full. Thanks to fabulous CPs and writing buddies (you know who you are!), I've got it a lot better than I would have on my own :) And I think I'll send it off this week, unless I get chosen to be one of the NV extra 10 crits, in that case I'll wait till that feedback.

Although I didn't final in NV, I enjoyed reading the other entries (I unfortunately didn't read nearly as many as Susan Wilson) and am stoked for my fabulous writing friend and fellow sandgroper (someone who lives in WA) Leah Ashton who DID final. I've had a sneak peak of her second chap too and you won't be disappointed! However probably the highlight of NV for me was Heidi Rice's comments on my entry and her advice on how to tighten it up and improve the internal conflicts. Oh and the fact that she mentioned me as one of her faves on her blog was almost as good as Top Tenning it for me!

So... that's where I'm at. Not really any further than I was in September but then again there's lots of other things going on in my life at the moment. Our house is on the market, we've just bought a supermarket and are moving to a new country town early next year... so at the moment, ANY writing is a bonus!

Hopefully I'll be back soon with more riveting writing news or craft chat.

Until then....

xox

Ratings!!!

So... is anyone else getting paranoid about their ratings on the New Voices website?

Actually it's not so much the fact that my entry is rapidly dropping down the popularity scale that's bugging me, it's the fact that people are obviously rating it badly for it to be dropping and yet they are not leaving comments!!!

I understand that not everyone will like my writing - such is life - but it would be nice to have some insight into why!?

I guess the solution would be to stop checking the site every five minutes, but hey... with my obsessive compulsive nature, that's unlikely to happen :)

The use of the "Ordinary World" in category romance

Since the RWA Oz conf, I've been thinking on the stages of the Hero's Journey, which Deb Dixon spoke about during her Friday workshop. She discussed Joseph Campbell's famous Hero's Journey, which has 12 different stages the protagonist/s must take during the course of a novel.

The first stage is the ''ORDINARY WORLD." In this stage, the writer is supposed to show a glimpse of the world where the h/H starts the story. It's supposed to give context for the story, establish a mundane/ordinary life, which can then be compared and contrasted to the new world (which begins in the "CALL TO ADVENTURE" section. The idea is to establish this ordinary world as quickly as possible, but apparently you can take as long as you want - lol! I think the taking as long as you want bit really only applies to Single Title.

But this got me thinking about the many category books I read and how more often than not there is NO or only a tinsy glimpse of the h/H's ORDINARY WORLD.

In my New Voices entry, ONE ROGUE, ONE DAMSEL, I've completely missed out the heroine's ordinary world. The first sentence of the story launches her straight out of her comfort zone but the reader doesn't actually know then what her comfort zone (ORDINARY WORLD) is.

In the other wip, the first chap starts in the heroine's ORDINARY WORLD (a mundane place she's come back to after bad experiences overseas).

Both these stories are category novels aimed at Harlequin Mills & Boon, so what I'm interested in is how you see the ORDINARY WORLD applying in short category novels.

Do you think setting up an ORDINARY WORLD only to wretch the hero or heroine straight out of it is necessary or do you think slightly different rules apply in category?!

Have I made any sense at all!?

If you know anything about Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, I'd love your thoughts on how it fits category romance!!

On another issue all together, how fun is the New Voices contest? I'm surprised that they've only got 250-ish entries at the moment. I thought there'd be a lot more but am wondering if some people will upload at the very last minute so they don't have to subject themselves to public comment? Will be interesting to see how the contest pans out. There's plenty of really fabulous entries up there so far but I'm never one to second guess what an editor likes, so I reckon, it's anyone's game!!!

Check out my GROOVY badge!

I'm like a teenage girl with a new iPod cover (do they even make them? LOL). I've got a NEW BADGE! See on the left hand side of my blog for my New Voices Entrant badge - better still, if you click on it, it'll take you straight to my entry.

Have you entered?

Do you want one too?

Then head on over to Lacey Devlin's blog where you can pick one up for free - she's made them out of the goodness of her heart cos she is so damn cool! Thanks Lacey! You rock!

Promise I'll be back in the next few days with some craft posts. I have a few things I've been mulling over since the RWA Oz conf and I'd like to get your thoughts too!

Until then....

x

Totally ADDICTED!

That's me! I'm hooked on reading entries on the Mills & Boon New Voices contest website.

Hubby is snoring beside me, I have a headache cos I'm so tired and a massive few days ahead of me, but can I stop? Nope.

I'll just read one more entry and then I'll go to bed....

Promise :)

PS. I entered! Was gonna leave it longer but in the end, I just wanted it out there. Good luck to everyone else who's entering!