Serendipity

Ever since I was a little girl, I've adored fairy tales. I once owned two volumes of encyclopedia-sized fairy stories and would dip in and out of them as the mood took me, right through to late adolescence. One of the biggest regrets of my life was giving them, at the age of nineteen, to some neighbour's kids, along with my enormous collection of Enid Blyton and Sweet Valley High books. I wish I had just let the kids borrow them until they grew out of them and then had them returned to me. Still, never mind - we live and learn.

Yet no matter how much I adored those stories and books, from as far back as I can remember I used to wish those princesses and fair maidens weren't quite so... wimpy. I had the same problem with my Enid Blyton books - if ever you find an old battered Famous Five and discover various scrawled insults to Julian inside them of the 'sexist pig' variety, it's safe to assume that book once probably belonged to me. But I digress.

At the weekend I had reached the dreaded middle section of my wip. As I am still waiting to hear from my editor at M&B, I was reluctant to write my way out of the impasse because, for all I know, I might be heading in completely the wrong direction. I was also still waiting to have an editor assigned to me at Entangled (I have to say, Entangled Publishing are an absolute joy to work with and I sincerely hope that Tempted by Trouble is only the first of many books I publish with them). Then I saw a call-out on Twitter - Entangled were after Halloween novellas. And one of the call-outs were, specifically, for fairy tales with a zombie twist. As soon as I looked into their requirements in more detail I became so excited I was bouncing around the house. At last, I had it in my power to take one of my beloved fairy tales and turn my princess into a heroine with balls! And thus, what I call my 'Kickass Cinderella Zombie Killer' was born. I don't think I've ever had so much fun writing anything - I'm having an absolute blast. And the fact that it's a novella means that I should, hopefully, be able to write it around my edits when I get them, and my M&B story when I hear back from my ed there.

And now comes the serendipitous moment. A couple of days ago I received an email from Entangled confirming who my editor would be - I had been assigned to Adrien-Luc, the very same editor who had done the Halloween call-out, the very same editor that Kickass Cinderella Zombie Killer will be winging its way to when it's all done and dusted. There then ensued some more bouncing!

Obviously this does not mean my Halloween novella will be deemed suitable or good enough but I'm not too bothered by that - I'm writing this one for me.

Thanks for reading, and take care all xxx

Published!!!!!

In my last post I put in a little teaser about my rejected MS.

Well tease no more - I can now confirm that my book, the book I dedicated a whole heap of blood, sweat and tears to, is going to be published by Entangled Publishing.

I've been sitting on this for weeks (they requested I keep my big mouth shut until the contract was signed). I don't know about anyone else but I am terrible at keeping my own secrets. But now I can shout it to the world and tell those of you who are interested how it all came about.

I had a feeling in my gut that M&B were going to give it the thumbs down, so I started researching alternate publishers. Entangled were my first choice (I've got a different full ms with them that was the result of a pitch challenge, and no, I haven't heard about it lol). The impact they've made and the authors they've signed and the editors who are working for them... well, it was a no-brainer really. As a contingency I selected two other publishers. When the big 'no' came, I queried one of the others, who shall remain nameless, who got back to me straight away with a request for the full. Being nice and obliging, I submitted it. Twenty four hours later, less than a week after my R, I got an offer to publish. I was delighted, but...

But I had my heart set on Entangled. I emailed Liz at Entangled, who had had the other MS (I hadn't sent them the new book by this point because I know protocol states one at a time) and explained the situation. I honestly thought it would take months to hear from the other publisher and by then I was hoping to have an answer on the other MS with Liz. By the way, is everyone keeping up? It's jolly confusing, especially for me! Anyhoo, Liz referred me to the wonderful Alethea who read it and decided she wanted it. Except being a bit green, it took me a couple of weeks to realise that she did actually want it - I had to email her for clarification, doh. Since then, we've been sorting out the contract and today I signed it.

Anyway, I'm going to sign off from this post now - my lovely hubby's finally brought us a bottle of champagne to celebrate and I want to drink it!

I just want to thank all my followers for your wonderful support. The romance community is the best!

xxx

Partial Gone

I sent the first three chapters off to my editor yesterday, so now it's inbox stalking time! I finished drafting it last Wednesday but it wasn't until I was halfway through re-reading it that I realised what had been niggling at me. When we were bouncing ideas around for this story, there were two possible routes available for the hero and heroine's back story. In the grand scheme of things these routes were very minor threads to the actual storyline and the editor was happy for me to choose which particular path to follow. I chose what I thought was the most suitable for the characters. Oops. And then I realised I had taken the wrong route and this 'minor' thread turned out to be a major. It involved a complete re-write. Doh.
The main thing is, I am very happy with it and very happy with the direction it is going (jeeze, I sound like a talking map). I can only hope the editor feels the same way but I am preparing myself to be shot down in flames!

In other news, I hope to be able to give an update on the progress of the 'rejected' book in the near future... That is all.

Thanks for reading, and take care xxx