Hump Day Kick Start

Song of the day: Move by Thousand Foot Krutch

Here’s a little inspiration to get your Muse excited.

What kind of hero would you make him out to be? What story does he have to tell? Maybe he’s the villain. Come on, let your imagination soar.

I’d love to hear what you would do with him. <tee hee>

Writer’s Inspiration: Miranda Neville

 by Marie-Claude Bourque

Hello everyone,

Today I am delighted to host historical author Miranda Neville. Her second book, The Wild Marquis, was published by Avon this month. It is the first of a four book series featuring Regency era book collectors.

You can learn more about Miranda from her website www.mirandaneville.com And please don’t forget to leave her a comment for your chance to win a copy of  The Wild Marquis.

 

Why you will eventually BE happy your book hasn’t sold

Marie-Claude sold* her first completed manuscript. Well, whoopy-doo. I didn’t, and nor do most. I’ve spoken to many writers and the number of unpublished books ranges from one to forty-two. And each one of us, as we make the final revisions and send out queries, feels our book is good and worthy of publication. The sad truth is, we are very likely wrong.

My own story goes like this. After years of reading historical romance, I thought it would be fun to write one. My favorite writer was Georgette Heyer, but I’d learned that modern romance contained sex (a good thing). I read somewhere that books needed to have 100,000 words, so that’s how many I wrote. 100K of traditional Regency with a couple of rather unlikely sex scenes thrown in. My characters exchanged lots of witty dialogue and almost nothing happened (except for that sex).  This is pretty good, I thought. Now all I have to do is find a publisher. Easy. I had a couple of contacts so out the manuscript went. (Are you all laughing yet?)

Then I joined the local RWA chapter and found a critique group. By the time my manuscript was thrown back at me, I had learned that 10,000 words of back story in the first three chapters was a bad idea. I revised it and sent out more queries, entered a few contests, wrote half a sequel. Two things changed my career. The first was getting a lousy score in a contest, along with a detailed critique from the judge. She told me how terrible my plot and characters were, but that she liked my writing. I emailed her a thank you and learned she was an NYT bestselling author. Then I bought a critique at an auction from another successful writer. I sent her the beginning of my second book and got almost the identical reaction. I took a long walk and thought about it. Spent the weekend thinking about it.

On Monday I ditched the WIP and started over. Six months later I finished the book. Entered some more contests, sent out bundles of query letters, got a few requests. Finally I signed with an agent and three weeks later Avon bought my first book, NEVER RESIST TEMPTATION.

But wait, the story isn’t over yet. No HEA. By the time my book sold I’d almost finished its sequel. I assumed that would sell too. But no. It was set in the world of opera and the heroine was a singer. My editor didn’t like it, said the subject wouldn’t sell. So that manuscript went into the “under the bed” section of my hard drive along with books one and one-and-a-half.

So what about those half forgotten stories upon which we once lavished such love? (This is where the analogy of our novels as children breaks down. We stop loving the old “child” so much once the new one comes along.) I asked my good friend and fellow Avon author Anna Campbell. Anna is famous for writing for twenty years before she sold, at which point she scored two RITA nominations in her first year. With her customary generosity she gave me these words of wisdom:

“There’s a lot to be said for making your mistakes in the privacy of your own home. None of my early manuscripts were publication standard although with every single one of them, I learned more about how to put a book together. And every single one of them, without exception, felt like a bestseller when I finished it. But when I went back to them later, it was very clear that I was insane to think that! I served a long apprenticeship before I was published and I look back on those years with gratitude now because they taught me a lot about writing and perhaps even more important, they taught me a lot about how I as an individual write. So when I hit the crazy rollercoaster ride that is being a published writer, I had all that experience behind me to help me make decisions.”

Hard as it was to accept, I am now glad my first book never sold. It just isn’t that good. But setting aside what I learned from writing it, the story still has its uses. I regard it as a “parts car” from which I can steal at will. I took one plot element and used it in a free short story I posted on my website this winter. I loved the hero’s best friend and always intended to write his story. Tarquin retained his name and character but acquired a new best friend. I am writing his story now, under contract for Avon.

*Well deserved, by the way!

Thanks you so much Miranda for dropping by. That was great inspiration! We learn so much from writing and writing some more. I was very fortunate to find an editor who was willing to overlook the flaws of my first manuscript and help me craft it to standart. I noticed a huge improvement in my subsequent manuscripts! It never gets easy.

And please everyone, leave Miranda a comment for your chance to win a copy of The Wild Marquis which sounds fabulous. Read more about it at www.mirandaneville.com

Jitters, Gerard, and Golden Heart®

Song of the Day: St Elmo’s Fire by John Parr

Eek!

It’s that time of year again. The blurry vision, the twitching, the anxious pill-popping, no, it’s not pollen induced allergies brought on by the first kiss of spring. It’s time for Romance Writers of America to announce the 2010 Rita® and Golden Heart® finalists.

Bling for the unpubbed.

Tomorrow, in fact.

Tomorrow, many of us will either pace the floor by the phone waiting, praying, willing for it to ring with our ever-powerful mind control or go about our day blissfully pretending not to notice it’s the morning calls go out.

Tomorrow, for better of worse, we will be put out of our miseries. The months long wait will be over.

Sure, there’ll be crying.  Tears of defeat or tears of blubbering joy, it doesn’t matter. Just keep the Kleenex handy.

Please don't eat me!

This year will be hard for me. As a finalist last year, I wonder if lightning will strike twice. Do I have a better chance winning the lottery or being eaten alive by a great white shark than obtaining the coveted Golden Heart® distinction? Probably. But a girl can hope, right? And I can hope Gerard Butler will shower me with his undying devotion.

I digress.

As they say on the many cereal box contests, ‘many will enter, few will win’. There are up to 1200 entrants and only a handful, eight, possibly nine per category, will walk away finalists. Your momma is right – we are all winners. But some of the judges might not agree. And so we must remember the golden rule…say it with me class…it’s all subjective.

This is what I call women's porn. A naked movie star doing my laundry. And I cropped it!

Some will hate an entry and want to use it to line their kid’s hamster cage. Others will think it’s the next best thing since women’s porn. Move over Nora, Linda or <insert famous author’s name here>. This entry smokes! But the reality is it’s the luck of the draw.

Did I get the right batch of judges willing to decree me into the 2010 GH knighthood? Oh dear. I don’t want to think about it. I might take up drinking – more heavily.

Now if YOU final, I have a few suggestions.

First, celebrate! This really IS a big deal!

Second, connect with the other 2010 finalists. These are the ladies whom with you will share a special bond. Together you will create a major support system. We 2009 Golden Heart gals came together and formed the Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood. We delighted in getting to know one another and trumpeted our sisters’ successes. Your new pals will grow, nurture and do a cheerleader pyramid of encouragement. You will swap advice, prepare for RWA® Nationals in Nashville and build lifelong friendships. You may even shop together. Anyone at last year’s conference in D.C. could spot a Ruby Sister. We wore red heels and Ruby Slipper pins.  And get hooked up with The Golden Network, an RWA® chapter devoted to Golden Heart® finalists and winners, past and present.

Next, polish your manuscript and query it within an inch of its life. Get it in front of as many agents and editors as you can. Don’t be afraid to mention your new title. Cue music – 2010 Golden Heart® finalist! Wear it proudly. Scream it loud enough and long enough and people will begin to take notice. Note: I do not recommend doing this in state or federal buildings or airports. You may find yourself in a cell lined with iron bars or soft padding.

"There's no place like the best sellers lists. There's no place like the best sellers list."

I raise a cyber glass of champagne to my fellow 2009 Golden Heart® finalists, the Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood. Our reign has come to a bittersweet end. Wow! What a ride.

And I welcome the new Golden Heart® elite. Your journey has just begun.

Good luck to all who entered!

A Standard Operating Procedure: The Plan

by Marie-Claude Bourque

SOP: I got the term from author Bob Mayer who is a former green-beret.

All it means is, from thought to finish product, what are the steps you use to to write your novel? What is your standard operating procedure?

Don’t let the phrase scare you. We all have one, even if it’s just to turn on the computer and start writing.

It helps to define our style of writing though, especially for such pesky things as schedules and deadlines. And since I was writing down mine last week, I thought I’d share it with you.

1) Prep Time (2 weeks)
This is when I think and plan the story. I am a plotter so I do use various techniques to lay out the story and generate a scene list. I do a little research here but leave most of it for later.

2) Writing Time (3 – 6 months)
I still think of the plot here, but this is where I try to stay in a “dream state” and write fast, at least one scene a day. Of course, life happens (I sleep in!) I produce about 60,000 words at this stage.

3) Deep Editing (3 months)
After taking Margie Lawson’s class and reading a bunch of books on editing, this is where I do the hardest work. This stage has it’s own SOP or checklist. It’s also where I do research where it is needed. I end up with about 90,000 words after this stage.

4) Feedback (2 weeks)
This is where I send the manuscript to my three trusted writing partners and Mustrackers John, Jenn and Candi. This is a good time for me to work on something else and stay away from
the story.

5) Revise (1 month)
I first go through the story like a reader and note how I feel about things. Then I look at my WP comments. I fix that and revise for style.

6) Submit (1 week)
Submitting is different depending where you are in your writing career. At first I submitted to contest, then to agents. For that I also need to write a synopsis and blurb. I’m about to submit a proposal to my editor. This means I did step 3 – 5 only for the first three chapters. Submitting sounds like a given but you’d be surprised how many people are too scared to send their work out. Don’t! Get your work out! I know you can get rejected but what if you don’t? You never know until you try!

Does your own SOP looks like mine?

Éirinn go Brách

Song of the Day: Where the Streets Have No Name by U2

Sometimes we need a little reminder of how simple and of how powerful words can be. I fell in love with this poem. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Jenn!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

An Irish Poem

Author: Unknown

I and Pangur Ban my cat,

Tis a like task we are at:

Hunting mice is his delight,

Hunting words I sit all night.

‘Tis a merry thing to see

At our tasks how glad are we,

When at home we sit and find

Entertainment to our mind.

‘Gainst the wall he sets his eye,

Full and fierce and sharp and sly;

‘Gainst the wall of knowledge I

All my little wisdom try.

So in peace our task we ply,

Pangur Ban my cat and I;

In our arts we find our bliss,

I have mine and he has his.

12 results from my RWA contests experiment!

by Marie-Claude Bourque

Contests, no contests? Are they worth it?

When I finished writing Ancient Whispers, I asked myself just that. So, since I am a scientist, I did a little experiement and entered my manuscript the same enrty in about 20 RWA contest. These are my “results”.

It may or not be useful to you, but before reading, please keep in mind that this is the entry that was chosen by a Dorchester editor to compete in the American Title which is what got me my first publishing contract.

So here we go:

(1) I got scores ranging from 40% to 100%

(2) I got an judge who said my story was way too cliche and she was tired of vampires, werewolf, sorcerer and evil mages (she was judging paranormal)

(3) lots of people said that my relationship was weak (and so said a few agents and my editor later – all fixed now)

(4) lots of people said that my beginning was slow (and so did my editor — all fixed now)

(5) a judge called my writing a terrific lyrical tone another called it too “British”.

(6) some found it sexy, one said it read almost like a rape scene (my editor loves all the love scene I wrote, no changes needed)

(7) some circled all my “ly” words and my “was”, said I was too passive, too much telling.

(8) when I had a prologue, judges said ditch the prologue, when I took it out, judges were confused. (my editor kept the prologue – no changes)

(9) I got advice on getting grammar books and GMC books and other books on writing.

(10) most said my heroine was too weak (and so did my editor – all fixed now)

(11) I got the best and most useful comments from published authors and Golden Heart finalists as judges. They skipped the small stuff and commented on the overall story, how it read and where it sagged and mentionned the 3 things that my editor made me change.

(12) and like many, I was also told “this will never sell” but also “let me know when it sells.”

(Unscientific) conclusion and thoughts:

(1)In the end, I can step back and see that I did get reccuring comments and if I had not sold I would have fixed the long beginning and work on the relationship, weak heroine and resubmit. And I learned tons for my next manuscript.

(2) It cost me about $500 to learn that. My plan for the next story was instead to first pay an editor (I got two authors recommendation) about $250 to get a 3 chapter edit/synopsis evaluation.

(3) For newbies in contest, remember that there are contest addicts out there that polish the same thing over and over and keep sending it back, so that it makes it harder to final when you start out.

(4) my 3 WPs (guess who?) all entered contests, they all finaled and won (one got a GH final), all got requests for partials and fulls from major agents and NY houses within one year of entering. They are very close and I know they will get the call very soon.

(5) I was told that a wide range in scores may mean that you have a strong voice, which is a good thing,

That is just my experience, hope it can help

Got Alpha? Femme Fatale

Got Alpha? Femme Fatale

Song of the Day: Beautiful by The Dreaming

The Alpha female.

In the animal kingdom she is more feared than the Alpha male. Intelligent and cunning, a leader, she is a survivor. From the meerkat to the elephant, the strong endure – and boy is she strong.

Some say she doesn’t exist, not in the human world anyway.

I say the Alpha female does exist. But she is a rare find; more so if she is a heroine.

What makes an Alpha female the bad ass that she is? She is extraordinarily confident, smart and a take charge kind of girl. Step back because she will steam roll over anyone who would be stupid enough to challenge her. Appearance is important. How she looks is vital in manipulating others. She uses her appearance as a tool bringing men to their knees with her sex appeal or reducing another woman to a puddle of insecurities. She enjoys her sexuality immensely and works it to an art form. Folks, she’s no Mona Lisa. Now don’t look for her sipping margaritas and gossiping at the Karaoke bar with the girls. She is neither well liked nor admired by other woman. Let’s face it, she’s a bitch. Unafraid and inviting trouble, she is a great contender for a villain. Just think of the havoc she could wreck.

Don’t confuse the Alpha female with a strong heroine. There is a distinct difference. Mainly that the heroine will ultimately end up with her happily ever after. Keep in mind I am speaking mostly in terms of the romance genre.

Let’s compare the other differences of these two.

The heroine finds herself in a relationship, regardless of want, need and/or chance. The Alpha female is solitary. Pffsh. A man would only slow her down.

The heroine is a nurturer. She cultivates and cares for those dear to her and those she lets into her heart, although often she is cautious whom she lets in. The Alpha female is missing that compassionate gene. Keep an eye on your children and small pets; she may eat them. And bunnies may end up in a pot of boiling water.

The heroine gives of herself. The Alpha female is take, take, and take.

The heroine considers others. The Alpha female will do what it takes to further herself, leaving a wake of destruction and bodies.

For the heroine, sex, no matter how sweet or how dirty, becomes the first blush of love. The naughty Alpha female just wants to throw down and then she’s out the door before her victim – er- partner can catch a breath. Bump, hump, thank you chump!

It’s simply hard to write a likable Alpha female. It’s not impossible though. It may take a great deal of internal thought and a noble motivation to relay why she behaves badly. The challenge is to focus on traits and make them work for her in a way the reader will relate positively. This is where subtle details can be strummed to create that perfect pitch of badass intertwined with the female psyche. Take a woman cleaning a really big gun, for instance. An author can portray her as sexy and terrifying just by how she caresses the gun with smooth delicate strokes, lamenting that the gun once belonged to her dead brother and reveling how she will use it to take out his killer. Maybe she kisses the bullet before she slides it in the chamber.

Just as the antagonist and the villain, she will have a weakness. Will it come by way of her final vindication? Or maybe in a fatal vice? Maybe she meets her match in an Alpha male, settles down and has a litter of Alpha children? Or did she simply run out of ammunition?

Authors beware. The Alpha female is as elusive as she is tough.

Can you name a notable Alpha chick? I’d love to hear from you.

Writer Inspiration: Scott Nicholson

by Marie-Claude Bourque

 

 

My guest today is thriller author Scott Nicholson whose journey reminds me that what matters really is our love and passion for the written words and telling stories. When we tried all we could, sometimes we must take the publication of our work in our own hands. Here is one reason and success story of self-publishing after being mass-market published for a while.

 

Magic is its own reward

by Scott Nicholson

 

 

I had a fortunate start to my writing career, after about 400 or so rejections–I sold a novel through the slush pile. The Red Church sold more than 90 percent of the copies that went out to stores and was an alternate selection of the Mystery Guild Book Club. Five mass-market thrillers later, it looked like I was on the threshold of a lasting career. What I didn’t know was various forces were conspiring to hold me back–including not being aware of my own failures and limitations.

Sales of the later books were slipping, and all the acclaim and momentum from my first novel dissipated over the years. My agent lost interest and couldn’t keep track of the new projects I was sending in. A divorce and subsequent despair left me doubting my own abilities. The magic, whatever it was, seemed lost.

 

I eventually divorced my agent, too, though a bit more amicably, and spent a couple of years engaged in side ventures–running comic shows and paranormal conferences, writing comic books and screenplays–yet I was also working on new novels. I suspected they were better than the ones I’d written earlier, but had no outside evidence, because agents said “no” and the few editors looking at unagented submissions also said “No” or else never responded at all.

 

I looked into my heart–quit? Nah. That wasn’t ever an option. But what I had done was gradually confuse the creation with the reward, forgetting the magic was in the writing, not in the sales or recognition. Newly inspired, I put that first novel out as an ebook. To my surprise, it rapidly developed an entirely new audience. On March 1, I released an original novel, The Skull Ring–I never in a million years thought I’d self-publish, much less put one of my babies out there in the cold without a blanket. 

On the day of its official release, it reached under #700 in the Kindle rankings, not bad when you consider there are 420,000 Kindle books on Amazon. This suspense thriller that my agent could never be troubled to send out actually connected with some people, in that odd ESP know as “story.” Now with a handful of ebooks out and making steady sales, I have a foundation from which to rebuild my career. I’m a long way from quitting the day job, but taking action based on belief in my work has been one of the most satisfying periods of my writing career.

 

 

 

And guess what? The morning after The Skull Ring released, I got an email from a major agent…

 

 

Don’t let anyone ever talk you out of being a writer. Don’t ever doubt your own ability to deliver a truth and a fiction that only you can summon, from your unique perspective. The wildest dreams are the only dreams worth having. Aim for spectacular failure instead of mediocre success. Be it.

—

 

Scott Nicholson is the author of seven novels, 60 short stories, and three comics series. He’s also a freelance editor and editor of the writing download Write Good or Die. His blog is http://hauntedcomputer.blogspot.com

 

Thank you Scott for reminding us why it’s all about the magic! To everyone, if you leave us a comment, you can win a free download of The Skull Ring which you can also buy here on Amazon as a Kindle download.

 

Tell us, did you ever had a moment when you wanted to quit but didn’t?

Writer Inspiration: Amanda Forester

by Marie-Claude Bourque

Sometimes, all it takes to reach your dream is to take that first step. For us writers, it means finishing that book.  This is why Cherry Adair has started her “Write the Damn Book Challenge”. Skeptical?  Debut author Amanda Forester shows that everything is possible if you just take that first step!

Don’t forget to leave her a comment for your chance to win a copy of her debut release: Highlander’s Sword.

You CAN Get There From Here

by Amanda Forester

When I was a kid my family took a long vacation in Maine. One phrase I still remember from driving around the back roads of Maine was, “You can’t get there from here” (said with a New England drawl). This comment was frequently made when giving directions to denote the impossibility to travel a direct route due to numerous landscape hazards (like ill-placed lakes) and a circuitous system of roads that were probably based on old rabbit trails rather than a straight line between point A and B.

Trying to get published or stay published can be a lot like driving in Maine, you can’t get there from here. It seems so impossible. The odds are not in your favor. I was told you had to have good connections to make that first sale. I was told no one sells their first manuscript. I was told the chances of ever selling a manuscript were the same as being attacked by a swarm of bees (heard that from an agent). You can’t get there from here.

For me, this motto fits nicely into my pessimistic mindset. The power of positive thinking? I don’t know anything about that. I know about the protective power of negative thinking. Expect the worst and you’ll never be surprised – right? Wrong! Let me tell you how my pessimistic world view got irretrievably shattered.

It all started about a year ago. I was planning to go to the Emerald City Writers Conference, and I got sick, of course. Doesn’t that always happen when you plan a trip? Well, I figured I might as well cancel. Sure, there were going to be opportunities to meet with editors and agents at the conference, but no one ever sells from one of those appointments – right?

I was at the point of cancelling, but I had actually finished my first manuscript. I had taken Cherry Adair’s “Write the Damn Book” challenge the year before. She gives this challenge every year and hands out certificates to those who finish their book (and I suspect kicks the butts of those who don’t). Well, I had finished my manuscript and by golly I wanted that certificate (it’s framed now in my office).

At the conference, I pitched my manuscript to editor Deb Werksman from Sourcebooks and agent Barbara Poelle from the Irene Goodman Agency. They were excited when I said I had a Scottish medieval and both asked for a full manuscript. Wow! Shockingly, I actually had that full manuscript to send (thanks Cherry!).

I revised the manuscript one more time and sent it in, fully expecting the obligatory letter, you know the one that starts, “Unfortunately we have to pass on a lot of good projects…” but instead, Barbara Poelle called me and offered representation. Oh wow! I mean, oh WOW! I’m pretty sure she said some other stuff too, but that’s all I heard. Surprised? Oh yeah, I was surprised, my pessimistic mindset left me completely unprepared.

A few days later I woke up and found I had missed a call on my cell phone. It was from Barbara Poelle. My heart sank. Barbara must have realized her mistake. No doubt she was calling to say she had accidentally offered me representation, she had meant to call that other Scottish medieval writer. An honest mistake. “Oh sure,” I would say. “I understand.”

I made the call dreading the inevitable let down. Barbara at first apologized for calling so early, she called on my cell phone so as not to wake me (ever considerate is she not?). No problem, I said. Here it comes. Get the ice cream ready. I may need two cartons… for breakfast. Barbara said she had just talked to Deb Werksman at Sourcebooks and had sold the novel to them. Oh sure, I under…wait, what? What did you say? My novel sold?! Sourcebooks was going to publish it!

I was completely unprepared, utterly shocked, and totally stunned, but for all that it was pretty darn good! That’s the trouble with pessimism, when good things happen it leaves you gaping like a cod fish. As a devoted pessimist, I struggled to find a down side… hmmm, maybe I need to try that optimism thing.

So maybe… you CAN get there from here. Even in Maine, if you keep on going, eventually you get to somewhere you want to be. The key is persistence, and probably not listening to all the stuff you’re not supposed to be able to do.

I’m so excited about the release of THE HIGHLANDER’S SWORD this week!! To celebrate I’ll be giving away a copy of the book to a randomly selected commenter on this post. Also, be sure to visit me on facebook or at www.amandaforester.com. And I’m wondering… are you an optimist or a pessimist?

Thank you so much for visiting today. Yes you can get there!

Please everyone, don’t forget to comment for your chance to get a copy of Amanda’s historical, Doesn’t it look awesome?

Writer Inspiration: Rose Lerner

by Marie-Claude Bourque

I am delighted to host Regency debut author Rose Lerner. I am very excited to read her book because Regency is my favorite genre when I need to kick back and the excerpts I read so far really want to make me get my hands on this book as soon as I can!

When we look at authors that make it into publishing, we forget sometimes that behind the name on the spine is a real life.  Yes, it is wonderful to finally get published but there are also the real life of a person with its joy and pain behind that name. We all have our reasons to write and our own challenges while keeping at it.

AND THE WINNER IS… PAISLEY KIRKPATRICK!!! CONGRATS!!

When Marie-Claude asked me to write a post that would help inspire unpublished authors, I knew immediately what I wanted to talk about. And then I put off writing the post for weeks. Because the three years between when I started writing In for a Penny and when I sold it were the three worst years of my writing life, hands down. Possibly the three worst years of my life, period, except I think junior year of high school still has that honor (and yes, I know that’s only one year, but it felt longer).

I started writing In for a Penny in mid-January 2006. By mid-March I’d written a hundred pages. Things were going great, the book was flowing, I felt confident that this would be the one that would sell. My goal was to finish the book by Rosh Hashanah of that year (the holiday falls in early to mid-September), and I thought I could do it.

At the end of March I found out my mom was dying.

She’d been diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the fall of ’03, and she’d been on chemo almost continually since then. Her remissions never lasted. In February and March she was in and out of the hospital with inexplicable digestive problems. I still wasn’t prepared.

I spent the next two months living in my parents’ house. She died on May 24th.

Sometimes I see a writer say that they write just for themselves. That if no one else ever read anything they wrote, that would be okay, because the important thing is the writing. I am really, really not that person. For me, the heart of writing is communication, sharing the story in my head with someone else. I write with my audience in mind. And ever since my first romance manuscript, back when I was seventeen, my mom had been my imagined audience. Knowing that she would enjoy the story, that she would like this scene or laugh at that joke or hate this villain, was what motivated me to write. There are still several lines in In for a Penny that were in-jokes for the two of us, and probably no one else will ever get them, but I left them in anyway.

Knowing that she would never read In for a Penny, I didn’t feel like writing it. Between the end of March and the beginning of October, when I went to the Emerald City Writers’ Conference, I’d written maybe thirty-five pages. At the conference, I went to a goals workshop, got my ass in gear, and entered Cherry Adair’s Finish the Damn Book challenge. I outlined, I plotted, I came up with a complicated goals system, and I forced myself to write that book. It was a miserable, grueling process. It felt like a death march. I still didn’t feel good about my writing, I didn’t really believe I’d ever be a published author, but I sat down at my computer every day and churned out words. I didn’t meet my deadline, but I did have a rough draft by the time the ECWC rolled around in October 2007. And when I say “rough,” I mean rough. This thing was 500 pages long and a mess. And I hated it. I never wanted to look at it again, ever.

I made myself a promise. I would pitch the book at the ECWC, but I didn’t have to revise it unless I got a request for a full. Well, one of the people I pitched to at that conference was Leah Hultenschmidt, from Dorchester. She asked for a partial. I sent it off, and I didn’t hear from her and I didn’t hear from her and man, was I relieved. I took it easy, and I didn’t think about In for a Penny. I didn’t revise, I didn’t send out queries, I didn’t start my next book.

The funny thing is, I didn’t stop writing. I just started writing short stories and sharing them with my friends online. I wrote lots of them. Because the thing was, I could write a story, put it up, and right away people would leave me feedback. I knew that someone was going to read what I wrote and love it, and I just didn’t have that confidence with historical romance anymore. I started to worry that me and historical romance were over, that I’d lost the spark and I was never getting it back, and I still couldn’t bring myself to try again. Then, in June, Leah sent me a request for a full manuscript.

I panicked. Full-on panicked. I sent whiny e-mails to all my friends about how I was going to spend weeks revising this story I hated and then I was just going to get rejected. I had no idea if I could turn this 500-page mess into something even remotely presentable.

But I opened up the file and started reading, and…I liked it. It was actually kind of good. Rambling and unfocused and there were a couple of minor characters that didn’t really need to be there, but I loved my hero and heroine and hey, there were some pretty funny jokes in there that I’d completely forgotten about. I dived in, working for hours every day. It was stressful, but I enjoyed it. Just the hint of the possibility of publication and people actually reading the story was enough to get me moving again. At the end of the month I sent it off. I didn’t hear, and I didn’t hear, and I figured that was that. But even so, that little hint was enough to get me working on another book. And then in February of last year, I got the call from Leah asking to buy In for a Penny.

The rest is history. In for a Penny is out this month, and my next book, Lily Among Thorns, will be out next January. I still struggle with motivation and time management, but who doesn’t? My imaginary audience now is my critique group, a couple of my friends, and, you know, I still sometimes put in a joke I know my mom would have laughed at.

But most of all, my imaginary audience now is you. I know someone’s going to be reading my stories, and it feels fantastic. I am so, so excited to get reader feedback on In for a Penny, I can’t tell you.

I don’t know what the moral of this story is. I’m not, actually, just telling you to buck up and write no matter how awful you feel. Writing this book was really unpleasant and it almost killed my love for writing historical romance. But…in the end, it did pay off. By a combination of work, incredible support and patience from my friends, and amazing luck, I got where I always wanted to be. So I guess the moral is just that–it can pay off. It’s not silly to hope. No matter how awful you feel, you don’t know what’s around the next corner. I hope you all are as lucky as I was.

Aaaaand, now I’m going to sign off before I start full-on crying. Thanks so much for having me! I’ll be giving a signed copy of In for a Penny to a randomly-chosen commenter on this post.

I’m also running a contest on my site–five signed copies, plus a package of ten of my favorite
Regency-set novels, here:

http://roselerner.com/contest.html

Thank you so much for your inpirational post Rose. Congratulation on this debut book. I am so glad that a second one is coming soon.

To everyone, you can find more about In for a Penny at http://www.roselerner.com/bookshelf/inforapenny.html and don’t forget to leave us a comment to win a copy of Rose’s novel. I am curious, have you ever have time when writing was harder due to life’s hardships?