Getting ready to hit send?

I just saw this on Nicola Marsh's blog.


The Mills and Boon UK team are fast-tracking submissions for Harlequin Romance!

"...we’ll be launching a fast track submission period! Anyone who sends us their first chapter and synopsis between 14th March and 23rd April will hear back from us less than ONE MONTH after the closing date, before the 18th May.


"The email address to send your submission to is romancefasttrack@hqnuk.co.uk. 

"Please attach your first chapter and short synopsis to the email as well as a short query letter, letting us know how much of the manuscript is complete. Please note, we’ll be looking at only one submission per person." 


I'm still out of action but that doesn't mean you have to be! Go on, finish those next few chapters, write your synopsis and query letter and hit send!!

Not a Winner...but still a pursuer

Well i didn't win the harlequin presents competition or place as a runner up but big congratulations to the 4 ladies who did! Wow what a feeling that must be.
Really looking forward to the feedback - i hope - that is coming by the 18th December.
I really hope i didn't commit the seven sins detailed on the ihearts site:

not enough dialogue - this may have been a problem as i do love internal dialogue!
dire dialogue - stilted and unrealistic? I hope not - i do struggle with it but i did try to make it 'real'
well-worn plots and characters - could very possibly be a sin (sheepishly duck head)
random meetings and meandering action - Billie and Cooper didn't meet at random in chapter one as they already knew each other so i definately didn't commit this one!
inappropriate first kisses sexual premises - mine did not lack emotional underpining so i don't think i committed this one!
unattractive heroes - I think Cooper is hot and he definately isn't nasty or too aggressive, but i'm not a judge.

If no detailed feedback then i will still finish Billie's and Cooper's story. And i will by no means stop writing. It is my first competition and i have many many ideas still milling around in my head (maybe that's why i have all the headaches? you could be right Karina!)

In fact i am going to put out there right now my writing goals for 2010. So they are written in stone for all to see so i can't change them.

Ten Nights Only will be finished by March 31. and submitted through normal lines.

Logan's Angel will be finished by June 30. and submitted through normal lines

Secrets and Lies will be reworked and edited and finished by December 31st.

Of course any other ideas will be drafted and filed and if they simply must be written then they will be, but the others will not be pushed aside in favour, they will have to wait patiently. yeah right.

544

That is the number of entries in the Harlequin competition this year!
544! Talk about competition. This would be the biggest competition i have ever entered.
By far the most nerve racking competition i've ever entered and i'm not even in my togs standing on the diving board exposed in front of a crowd ;).
I only hope i have made some impression and get even a small feedback. Over on the i heart presents website they have said they won't be able to give feedback to all entrants and i don't blame them, but how i wish to make a small impression and be one to get a gem of recognition.
I guess that is any writer's dream.
Also. My friend has sent me an email with her critique feedback of my competition submission and i am really hesitant to open it. I do and don't want to read it. I desperately want to know where i need to better my writing and want to know what i have done well. Just opening it though is the hard part. I will wait a few days. Wait for it to shout at me and break down my wall of nerves. My first real direct feedback. Scary.

Second Thoughts

Just recently i've been having second thoughts about my first chapter for the harlequin competition. I have begun to feel i am not starting in the right place, and perhaps the right place is in fact to start in the middle when my hero comes back into my heroines life and makes his demands. This will make him more alpha and also the story, i think, will be more compelling to read making the reader want to keep reading to find out what has happened to get them here, and whatever is going to happen next?!
To get through this confusing little thought i am just going to have to write this new beginning and then compare their individual merits and see which has the better hook to draw the reader - and the judges! - into wanting more and to find out why.
I'm sure writers have this problem all the time, and once this is done and depending if the second thought is going to be the better option - which i think it must be - i'll then have to use all my energy into weaving the backstory in through the conversation of the H&h and hopefully it won't sound too boring or awkward.
Well, nothing like a new challenge, on top of an existing challenge that it!

Writing what you know

Okay so my novel has been put on the back burner while i work on a story for the Harlequin competition. The dilemma i now have is writing what i don't know. All the experts say you should write what you know, but what if i don't know that much?

In particular my characters are going to go somewhere for a weekend. The somewhere i have chosen i have never been so don't really know about it. Do you think it would matter that i haven't experienced it but do tonnes of research?

I guess as long as it comes across as new and exciting and beleivable in the story it shouldn't matter. It would make it easier if i had been there though, i wonder if all writers have this problem, surely we can't all have gone everywhere we want our characters to go?

So researching is my new vein, and working on a great plot. Hopefully this will all come together and next week (should have my glasses by then and can get into some serious computer work!) i can get stuck into writing my first draft of my first chapter.

My aim is to have the chapter and synopsis ready by end of August so then i can just polish polish polish and then send it all in for November 2.