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!

The Next Best Thing!

Okay, I admit it, I would LOVE to get THE CALL! But 2010 wasn't the best year for writing, which made that a pretty much an impossible dream. I'll gonna try my best in 2011 to work towards this but in the meantime I'm experiencing...

THE NEXT BEST THING!

Experiencing the joys of really good writing friends getting THE CALL and having their book babies published.

At the end of last year my dear friend Cathryn Brunet signed with Penguin and I can't WAIT for her book, Promises, to be out in July!

Towards the end of last year, I also got to know better (online) the delightful Scarlet Wilson and was lucky enough to read the full of her CALL BOOK. Her book, It Started With A Pregnancy is coming out in September! Wohoo!!

And then yesterday, my dear dear friend Leah Ashton called me to tell me about her CALL. Unfortunately I didn't hear my mobile so read her news first on ROMAUS (the RWA Oz e-loop) but then I rang her and there was lots of happy chatting!!! No news of her title or release date yet but this is a brilliant book and I'm sure it'll be released by M&B very, very soon.

I may not be published yet (or even close) but I figure the more friends who get signed, the closer I must be, right?!!

Doubt demon!

Isn't he gorgeous!?

HUGE thanks to my gorgeous CP Becca J Heath for this lovely gift I received in today's post. At the moment, I don't have a lot of time to doubt (our new business is going extremely well) but I'm sure when I get back into some sort of normality, the doubt demon (where my writing is concerned) will return with vengence.

So thanks Bec for my beautiful new mascot!!! I'll be bringing him to conf and hoping he's a good luck charm!

Now... I know Jackie Ashenden has Hoo and so I'm wondering what other writing mascots are out there? Do tell...

Do you believe in signs?

Life is crazy at the moment and with so much supermarket stuff to focus on, writing has been taking a back seat :( But I got the best writing boost the other day when I found out I placed second in the Romance Writers of Australia Single Title and Loving It contest.

I was actually gob-smacked cos this story is what I call pseudo Aussie rural romance and therefore I thought it was miles away from what Diane Moggy (final judge and high up person in Harlequin) would like. But she obviously thought it had something worthy in it :)

Anyway this placing got me thinking. I've had a bad run with my category attempts lately.

*Rejection after full with revs.

*Rejection after partial and direction to sub via slush pile again

*Not placing after finalling in the RWA Oz High Five (at category aimed) contest

*Not placing after finalling in the RWA Selling Synopsis with my category aimed wip

Yet, I got great feedback from all the first round judges for the Single Title contest and lovely feedback and a fab placing from the final judge.

IS THIS A SIGN?

Is it the universe's way of telling me I should focus on my contemporary single title and let my category attempts take a back seat for a while? I'm not sure!

So I'd love your thoughts... do you believe in signs!?

x

Rach!

Defeating Self-Defeating Behaviours

January 2nd and so far I'm pretty happy with how I'm going with my goals. Have exercised ever day this year - lol - and also devoted at least an hour to my writing dream. I didn't actually mention but I do have ONE resolution this year and that is to write for at least ONE hour EVERY day!

In an aim to kick-start these habits, I've signed up for a Margie Lawson online class to try and help me beat some of the demons that are stopping me achieving my writing goals.

I'd say my two biggest demons are:

1) Self-doubt

2) Procrastination

Self-doubt stops me finishing my Single Title because I worry I don't have a BIG enough story. Self-doubt makes me fuss too much over first drafts when I should just worry about finishing the damn book.

Procrastination means I waste valuable time online when I could be writing.

Hopefully Margie's course will give me some ammunition to deal with these demons and others I may not yet have recognized as being a problem.

I'll keep you updated as I participate in the course. Is anyone else taking this class?

PS. Don't forget to read my last posts about books read in 2010 cos I'd love to know which was YOUR best book!?