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

Update

I didn't want to write another post until I knew what was happening and thus has something to talk about, but today I received an email from my ed (yes, I am allowed to call her my ed, squeal) giving me the go-ahead on my new idea. And yes, it is a Saturday!
As she had promised, she phoned me a couple of weeks ago (less than a week after sending me the rejection email), and we chatted for forty minutes, discussing a whole range of things. I'd sent her three story proposals and there was one particular aspect of one that caught her attention. We talked some more and eventually came to an agreement of what the trope for the new book would be and discussed ideas to make it more twenty first century. She encouraged me to write character sheets for the h/h and I can honestly say they were a revelation to me (something for another post). Anyway, having sorted out my characters and the background of the story, I emailed her my main idea... and it was shot down in flames! There was little old me nibbling at the invisible barriers of the Presents/Modern line and the ed wants me to smash the barriers with a sledge hammer! Ok, maybe I've exagerated a little...
As usual, she was full of excellent suggestions which sparked further ideas in my brain. This time when I sat down to write the background to their relationship, I was buzzing and could see the h/h and their complexities with perfect clarity.
So, today, I got the go-ahead and a couple of pointers on aspects that could be a potential problem with regards to the h/h's motivations. She's taking a week off now and has asked me to get the first three chapters to her for when she returns and then she is going to call me that week to discuss my progress. As I get extremely angsty if I go for any length of time without writing, ie three hours, I had already made a start (figuring if this version was shot down in flames too, I would simply scrap it and start again) so that gives me plenty of time to finish the third chapter. I can then sit down and make sure that my h/h are coming across on paper as I envisage them in my head.

Thanks for reading, and take care all xxx

Rejection but no Dejection

Last night I finally received an email from the editor with my full - they're passing on the book. Both the ed and the senior ed love my voice and writing style but unfortunately they felt the hero wasn't fully fleshed out and the heroine had a tendency to come across on occasion  as immature. The good news is, they want to work with me on a new story putting into practise everything I have learnt. And, through the three rounds of revisions, I have learnt so much - when I wrote this book (well over two years ago!) my focus was very much on the heroine - in a way, the hero was merely a foil. Since I started the revision process, I have learnt that the hero deserves as much care and attention as the heroine, and right from the very beginning of the story. I can't just plonk a big alpha male in the story and expect him to bring himself to life - that's my job! Luckily, I have written a further two and a half books with heroes that, at least in my own head, are fully formed. I know them as intimately as I know the heroines.
The editor wants to call me after Easter to discuss ideas and deadlines and has asked if I have any material she can look at in the meantime. I have duly emailed back with a brief synopsis of the two and a half books, so hopefully she will tell me which she likes the idea of the most and we can take it from there.
At some point over the next week I'll get a synopsis of the rejected book done and start subbing it elsewhere. I also have a full with Entangled (I won a pitch competition in February and they requested the full) which I am waiting to hear back from so it's by no means all doom and gloom. If anything, I feel surprisingly cheerful (was a bit down last night but hey ho, you have to take the knocks).
Thanks for all the wonderful support you have given me during this - it really is appreciated.

Take care all xxx

Eleven Things About Me

The brilliant Aimee Duffy http://aimeexdx.blogspot.co.uk has tagged me in her blog. I've got to answer eleven questions about myself, so here goes:

1) What is your favourite kind of romance and why?

A big thing for me is humour. I love books that have the ability to make me laugh as well as making me cry. I love feisty heroines. I love big alpha men that have a real human side  (Maisey Yates and Sarah Morgan always manage to strike this balance perfectly). More than anything, I love a book that pulls me into its world and where I feel every emotion - for me, a good romance makes me ache (and not always in a pervy way!)

2) If you were stranded on a desert island, who would you want there?

Easy-peasy - my husband.

3) What is the last thing that made you feel all warm and fuzzy?

That was a couple of hours ago when my hubby and two boys brought me breakfast in bed and the Sunday papers. Believe me, this is by no means a regular occurrence! I keep waiting for it to back-fire into an April Fool.

4) If you could read minds, whose thoughts would you want to listen to and why?

I would love to read the mind of the editor who has my book! And maybe use some mind-bendy stuff to prod her into getting in touch!

5) If you could be someone else for a day, who would you be?

As above! If I could be the editor for a day I would definitely give me a rolling four-book contract ha ha ha.

6) What's your favourite holiday destination?

The Seychelles. I went there for a wedding last year and it's the most beautiful place on Earth.

7) Who is your idol?

In a literary sense it would be Stephen King. I adore his books, especially the stuff he has produced over the last decade or so. There is so much heart in them and, for all the 'out-there' stuff, a great deal of love.
In a personal sense it would be my sister (but don't tell her in case she gets a big head). I'm just so proud of her and everything she has achieved.

8) What is your bravest act in life so far?

I wish I could put something down like climbing Mount Everest or doing a trek through the Amazon, but I'm the biggest wuss in the world (although I have done a bungee jump). I would say that getting married at twenty-one was probably the bravest because I married knowing everyone thought I was too young and too wild and expected us to divorce within a year. But if there is one thing guaranteed to make me do something it is when someone tells me that I can't or that I shouldn't! We've just celebrated our fourteenth anniversary so yah-boo to all the doubters!

9) Your favourite pet?

We had two dogs when I was growing up called Brandy and Sheba, and I adored them. I would love to have a dog and am slowly talking my husband round to the idea.

10) What is your favourite fairy tale and why?

I used to have a giant book of fairy tales and my favourite was one about a princess and her maid. They were travelling to the princes house when the maid overpowered the princess and forced them to swap roles so that the maid could marry the prince. I remember how angry I would get reading it but then how happy I would be that the prince, able to see past her new lowly status and recognise the goodness inherent in her, fell in love with the real princess anyway. I just wish I could remember its name - it was something along the lines of the Goose Princess if there is anyone out there who can confirm it for me?

11) Morals. What does that mean to you?

People should be free to live their lives as they choose, so long as they are not directly hurting someone else through their actions. I truly believe that if everyone treated each other as they would wish to be treated, the world would be a much better place. Live and let live, that's my motto.

Apparantly I'm supposed to ask eleven questions too but its Sunday and I want to get back to the papers. Instead, all blog readers are invited to answer the same questions Aimee posted to me - please let me know if you do!

All the best xxx

And Send...

Last night I pressed the dreaded 'send' button, After two weeks spent hunkering down in the revisions cave I was finally happy with them. Of all the revisions, these, the third set, have been the most challenging. After mulling over the ed's revisions, I sent her an email with how I wanted to incorporate her suggestions and, luckily, she went with it. She also had a few more of her own which were genius.
I didn't have to change the story or its running order but from around chapter seven virtually every conversation between the hero and heroine had to be altered, along with their reactions. The hero's conflict was upped dramatically and I was given free-rein to make the heroine's back-story even more of a car-crash (think Linsday Lohan without the freckles or the jewellery stealing) and these filtered throughout the story.
And now I am happy with it. Really happy with it. Whether or not the ed will be too is another matter. After all, I was happy after finishing my first revisions. And my second...
Before I sign off I want to thank, in alphabetical order, Aimee Duffy, Catherine Coles and Sri Pammi for all their generous help, encouragement and support while I've been doing these revisions. Before I started interacting with other wannabe romance authors I had no idea how incredibly friendly and supportive the romance community could be and these three in particular have made all the difference.
So now for the dreaded wait. Someone pass the silver bucket!
Take care all
xxx

More Revisions!!!!!

Last night I received an email from the editor (she must work crazy hours) with the latest batch of revisions for me. As you may recall I had an email from her a couple of weeks ago promising she would be in touch 'next week' but what I never mentioned was that she also told me it had been passed on to the Senior Editor for Modern (Presents) and it would be the senior ed's thoughts she would be passing on as well as few of her own. To say I was cacking myself would be an understatement - what if the senior ed hated it???? Luckily she didn't. She said I have 'great potential', a 'very readable voice' and 'a sexy story'.
When I saw the actual revisions they wanted though, my heart sank. It went on for so long it felt as if I had taken a step backwards. But then I reread them this morning and I realised they were not as bad as I first feared. Basically, my hero needs a lot more fleshing out - there are times when he's coming across as cruel and the underlying motivation behind it isn't coming through. As the ed said, by the halfway point in the book, the reader does not really know him. Also, my heroine, at a few points, comes across as a walkover. There was then a list of fourteen specific examples highlighting these points, and a couple of suggestions as to the hero's motivation.
Now, in the (very) cold light of day, I can see exactly where they're coming from.  They've asked if I can get it to them by the end of the month which is completely doable. My ed also said: 'If you have any queries please just let me know - I'm here to help you do the best job possible and would love to see you bring this all together.' Methinks she might regret that when I start bombarding her!
I already know how I'm going to fix it but what I don't know is if I'm going to be able to pull it off. I have a feeling that this time, the revisions are a case of do or die.
I shall be heading off to the revisions cave now, and will let you know when I've got them done.
Take care all xxx

Crossing the River

The good news is that I haven't ditched my wip. I nearly did. Until last Sunday I had completed nineteen thousand words. From Monday to Friday I managed a grand total of three thousand (actually I probably wrote double that but I kept ditching chunks). My problem, at the time, was what I often refer to as the 'river crossing' - I can see the other side of the river, I need to cross it, but there's no bridge in sight. In this case, I had completed the first section of the story and I knew what my characters needed to do next but - and here's the big but - they needed to get there in as natural a fashion as possible. It's like the river analogy: in an imaginary world I could have a giant bird offer me a lift to the other side but, because I want to keep my fiction as plausible if not realistic as I can, that would be cheating. So I spent the week tapping out random words and far-fetched scenarios whilst waiting for the bridge to show itself. And guess what? It did. In fact, the bridge had been there all along, right beneath my eyes. I could kick myself. It involved having to rewrite parts of the first completed section (and ditching another couple of thousand words) but I am much happier for it. Now I can plough on into the 'other side' and see where the journey takes me.
So I suppose you're waiting impatiently for me tell you my bad news. Well there isn't any (yet). A week ago last Friday the ed with my full had emailed in response to me chasing to say she would be in touch 'next week'. She never actually clarified which next week so I tried to keep my disappointment to a minimum when Friday came and went with an empty inbox. I say empty but the spammers were having a wonderful time bombarding it. I say tried to keep my disappointment to a minimum and I really did try. And I really did try not checking my inbox every couple of minutes. I know she will get back to me as soon as she can and all I can do is be patient. Unfortunately, as I tweeted just a few days ago, if patience is a virtue then my virtue must be shot!
Take care all xxx