Books Read in Twenty-Ten

Every year I keep a list of all the books I've read! This year the list is really surprising cos by no means did I think I'd managed to read this many books.

List is below - I've put an * next to my favourite ones :)

Shadowfae – Erica Hayes

A Night With The Society Playboy – Ally Blake

Heaven Can Wait - Cally Taylor *

Marriage Reunited, Baby on the Way - Sharon Archer *

Vision in White - Nora Roberts

Road to Paradise - Paullina Simons

Conflict of Interest - Anna Adams

Zombie Queen of Newbury High - Amanda Ashby

Mistress: At What Price? - Anne Oliver

Fired Waitress, Hired Mistress - Robyn Grady

Border Watch - Helene Young

To Love, Honour and Disobey - Natalie Anderson

Good Girl or Gold Digger? - Kate Hardy

Claiming His Bought Bride - Rachel Bailey

Her Secret Fling - Sarah Mayberry *

She's Got It Bad - Sarah Mayberry *

Wedding Night With a Stranger - Anna Cleary *

Once Upon a Wedding - Stacy Connoly

Wild Fling and a Wedding Ring - Mira Lyn Kelly *

Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts - Lucy Dillon *

After The Party - Lisa Jewell

Bed of Roses - Nora Roberts

Unfinished Business With The Duke - Heidi Rice

The Newborn Gift - Nikki Logan

What Kate Did Next - Lisa Heidke

Propositioned By The Billionaire - Lucy King

The Carrie Diaries - Candace Bushnell

The Cattleman's Runaway Bride - Karlene Blackmore

Oh-So-Sensible Secretary - Jessica Hart *

Red-Hot Renegade - Kelly Hunter

Vegas Pregnancy Surprise - Shirley Jump

Saving Cinderella - Myrna Mackenzie

A Wedding At Leopard Tree Lodge - Liz Fielding

Three Times a Bridesmaid - Nicola Marsh

Savour The Moment - Nora Roberts

Seven Day Love Story - Nkki Logan

Home Is Where The Bark Is - Kandy Shephard

Red Dust - Fleur McDonald.

Inconveniently Wed - Jackie Braun

Her Brooding Italian Surgeon - Fiona Lowe

Her Bridemaid's Secret - Fiona Harper

Three Over Par - Cathryn Brunet *

The Truth About Melody Browne - Lisa Jewell

His Virgin Acquisition - Maisey Yates

Hopetown Wives - Fran Cusworth

Tipping The Waitress With Diamonds - Nina Harrington

Wedding Date With The Best Man - Melissa McClone

The Surgeon - Tess Gerritsen

The Most Magical Gift of All - Fiona Lowe *

Maybe This Time - Jenny Crusie

A Mistake, A Prince and A Pregnancy - Maisey Yates

Surf, Sea and a Sexy Stranger - Heidi Rice

Desire - Louise Bagshawe.

Alli's Playground - Bec Sampson :) *

Her Best Friend - Sarah Mayberry *

Juggling Briefcase and Baby - Jessica Hart

An Independent Midwife - Susan Wilson *

Tabloid Affair, Secretly Pregnant - Mira Lyn Kelly

The Distant Hours - Kate Morton

Happy Ever After - Nora Roberts

Christmas on the Children's Ward - Carol Marinelli

With This Fling - Kelly Hunter

Every Girl's Secret Fantasy - Robyn Grady

2011 Goals

I make goals... not resolutions. Sometimes I keep them, sometimes I don't. But I still think it's good to sit down and list what you'd like to achieve in a year. Kinda like a road map to where you wanna be by the end of the following year.

So my goals for 2011 are as follows (not all writing related):

*Finish my revisions for Carina Press on ''His Christmas Fairy'' and sub it.

*Finish my single title.

*Write one category novel.

*Enter a couple of contests.

*Attend Romance Writers of Australia conf in Melbourne.

*Read lots and analyse the books as I go.

*Join the gym again and tone up.

*Spend some more quality time with my hubby.

So that's me. What are your goals for 2011? If you've done a goal post, make sure to remind me to check your blog!

All I want for Christmas...

IS A BIG FAT REJECTION!!

Well, actually I can think of a zillion things I'd rather have but I was lucky enough to get one of these today.

Lucky you might think is a strange word. You'd probably be right.

But let me try and explain!

I'll start at the beginning. In 2006 I decided I wanted to write Mills and Boon category romance. I read as many as I could get my hands on and fell in love with them. I joined RWA Australia and fell in love with the brilliant people that are also members. I've made so many really good friends through my writing. In 2008, I came runner-up in the Mills & Boon Feel The Heat contest and got to work with and submit directly to an editor. Since subbing my first story, I've had two full requests, revisions and never a form R.

I've worked as hard as I could in between having two babies and working a part time job. I've held onto the dream...

I've consistently failed in getting good internal conflict on the page. I've done a darn good job of making my stories contrived - even though I'm still struggling to see this myself. I've thought that I've come up with original story lines and likeable characters but I keep being told that I'm rehasing plot points I've already read. I HONESTLY don't see this and I figure if I can't work out where I'm going wrong, then how the hell am I gonna get it right.

This business isn't easy and only the persistent make it. I'm not feeling very persistent at the moment, I'm bawling my eyes out in fact. Hey,... see... I can do emotional! The worst thing about this R is that I've been working with an editor for almost two years now and today, she sent me back to the slush pile. That kicks!

But if there's one thing an R makes me realise, it's what I do have in life. I'm so damn blessed in all the other areas of my life that who am I to spend too much time wallowing on something like this.

I have a roof over my head.

My family are healthy and happy.

I have a loving, caring, hard-working and devoted husband.

I have three adorable but cheeky healthy boys.

I have a mother who would do absolutely anything for me and my family.

I have friends. Good ones.

I have food in my fridge and clean water coming out of my tap.

If I want something, I can generally buy it.

So I want to take this time to thank God for the good things in my life and to focus on what matters.

I'm coming into a really busy time. I don't know what this means for my writing or where I'm going to go after this latest R, but I want to thank you all who read my blog for always being so supportive and fantastic.

I want to wish you all a fantastic Christmas and a very happy 2011.

xox

Rach!

I've been a BAD, BAD... Blogger!

You may not have noticed my absence but I've been away for a while. And sadly, not blogging has corresponded to not writing much either.

The supermarket buying has overtaken pretty much everything in our life at the moment, but hopefully once we're settled next year and hubby is slaving away in the shop, I'll have more time again to devote to my writing.

Now every year I do a few posts at the end of the year/beginning of the next. I usually do one of all the books I've read - yep, I keep a list. It's about the only organised thing I do. And then I usually do one about my goals for the year and whether I achieved them. Then there's another post about what my goals for the new year are.

So as well as wishing all you wonderful Blog Friends a very brilliant Christmas and a contract-filled new year, I thought I'd take today to do my round up of 2010, which I'm not expecting was as productive as I'd intended.

Here's my goals for 2010 and how I went with them:

Goal #1:

Finish revisions on the partial of 'Maverick Millionaire, Musical Mistress' and sub to the editor I'm working with. - I did this. Eventually got an R on the full but with the request to sub a new partial. I then subbed this mss to Carina and currently have revs from them on the full.

Goal #2:

Read more! - I didn't think I'd read that much but when I look at my list, I've actually churned through quite a few books. Always room for more though :)

Goal #3:

Finish 'OHHN' and sub to Superromance. - FAIL!! I actually realised that this book failed epic-ly in the conflict department, so I've filed it in that metaphorical bottom drawer for now :(

Goal #4:

Enter the eharlequin Superromance pitch - decided against this in the end as I didn't have a full mss because I'd been working on mss for Modern Heat instead.

Goal #5:

Attend 'Romancing The West' and the 'Romance Writers of Australia conference' in Coogee. - check! And they were both awesome!

Goal #6:

Rewrite 'Falling For His Magic' and sub to Modern Heat. - Oh dear... did I actually want to do that!? Maybe one day...

Non-writing goals

Goal #1:

Lose another six kilos! Yeah baby!!! - Epic FAIL. Last year was a much better diet year than this one :(

Goal #2:

Finish Trouble's baby photo scrapbook and make a start on His Lordship's! - FAIL AGAIN!!!

Things I achieved that weren't on my list but I'm happy about:

*Finalled in THREE RWA Oz contests.

*Wrote a new partial for M&B and subbed to the ed I've been working with.

*Started a Single Title.

*Started a new category idea.

*Went back to teaching one day a week.

*Kept my kids alive!!

Hope other people are doing reflection posts as I love to read how far people have come in a year. In the next few days I'll do a post about the books I read this year :)

Spread the LOVE!

The fabulous Marcy has issued a feel-good Christmas Challenge! I'm IN!

See the details below and pledge your committment on Marcy's blog.

So this holiday season I'm committing to doing one good deed, no matter how big or small, every day until Christmas. But that's not all. I'd like to spread the word, to see how many people I can get to join me in this challenge.

This doesn't have to be time consuming or expensive. Your deeds could be as simple of letting someone else take the coveted choice parking spot at the mall, returning a lost glove to an owner, or maybe baking cookies for a neighbour you know could use some cheering up. No matter what it is, it's sure to put a smile on someone's face. And chances are they'll be a little bit nicer to the next person they meet, and so on and so on...

So what do you say? Are you up for the challenge? Let's make this season the merriest it can be!

Pass it on...

Back in the saddle...

I've had to admit - it's part of who I am!

WRITING that is.

I try to take breaks occasionally - when life gets in the way - but then something happens to give me the boost I need to throw myself back on the mercy of my computer keyboard. I don't know whether it was the good news of my contest finals last week or the fact that I know this week will be slightly less crazy than the last and that hubby will be away the following week, so I'll have more time to write but something has got me back into it this weekend.

I've almost written 3k new words on the mss I'm revising for Carina. After realising I wasn't ready to sub, I'd decided to reassess my deadline and told the editor that I'd get it to her early next year, but now I'm hoping that somehow I can finish this rewrite before Christmas. Saying that, this rewriting business is VERY scary because I'm changing quite a bit but in doing so I'm scared that I might be losing some of the stuff that made Carina request revisions in the first place.

Anyone else been in this pickle before? Got any good advice... or do I just have to plod on and follow my gut!?

x

TRIFECTA

Not sure TRIFECTA is exactly correct cos I've just looked it up and apparently it's to do with horse races and betting which horses will come first, second and third in correct order but I liked the sound of it.

Now I haven't come first, second and third in anything in any order but I have finalled in THREE Romance Writers of Australia contests in the last week.

With my experiment in ST, I finalled in the STALI contest - Single Title and Loving It.

With my New Voices entry, I finalled in the High Five - a contest in which you enter the first five pages of a category mss.

With the New Voices entry again, I finalled in the Selling Synopsis contest - which is exactly as it sounds, a synopsis competition.

All entries are currently with really fabulous editor/agent judges and I have my fingers crossed that more good news comes from them. But whatever happens, this was a MUCH-NEEDED boost for my writing at the moment.

People have mixed opinions about contests. They can be great for one's writing mojo if you score well and get positively constructive comments but they can also be really damaging if you let them.

I LOVE the thrill of entering contests and I've had luck in some and have placed dismally in others. But they are SO subjective. What one judge/contest loves another might hate.

An interesting tidbit - my mss which came Runner-Up in Mills & Boon Feel The Heat contest a few years back, placed really low to the bottom of the rankings in an RWA contest the same year. So don't let contests weigh you down and stop you reaching for those writing STARS!

HUGE congrats to the fab Jackie Ashenden who also finalled in the High Five.