Seven Sassy Sisters

That’s After Publication.

Thought I would spend some time sharing what I’ve learned since getting The Call waaaaay back on December 1st of 2009. (heh)

It’s been absolutely amazing, and sort of whirlwindy! A couple days after getting The Call, I was given my title and release date, that was big awesome woohoo moment! (since then, it’s sometimes taken a couple of months after selling a book to get titles and release dates…and it’s always a woohoo moment.)

Then a couple of weeks after that I got my final corrections to do.The MS is sent as a numbered PDF with each line assigned a number. That makes it easier to specify where you need the changes made. (pg6 ln 10) By this point, the book has been copy edited and line edited and it’s my job to go through and make final changes. Usually, this just means me changing a word I’ve repeated twice on the page so that I don’t have the repetition, or clarifying some bad wording. Sometimes there will be typo or two left and then I ask them to fix that too!

Then there’s the AFS (art fact sheet). Sometimes my editor fills them out, sometimes an assistant, and last time…I did! We fill in character descriptions, scenes that can be used as cover inspiration and a synopsis for the book.

Then there’s the biggie…writing another book. It’s helpful if you have one done. I was offered a two book contract after selling His Virgin Acquisition, so book two was discussed in the same Call. That’s why I always say it’s good to keep writing during wait times! Because it’s not just about selling one book, it’s about selling books!

Revisions…they don’t get easier. In fact, I’ve found my editor is much harder on me now. First of all, she knows what I can handle…and second of all…she’s pushing me to be better. And that’s hard! But I’m glad she does it.

I think that’s one reason almost every published author I’ve met, no matter how successful, doesn’t have the attitude that they’d “made it”. Because you’ve jumped a huge hurdle, HUGE, but I think the minute you think you’ve made it, you stop striving to be better. It’s almost two separate worlds…the world where you have books on the shelves (surreal!) and the world where you’re still just kicking your own butt to write the best MS you possibly can. (of course, I’m not gonna lie…it’s easier to do that when you have a contract! No question!)

The strangest thing AP is the time warp. I sold His Virgin Acquisition nine months ago, and have written (almost) four books since. So part of my brain is firmly devoted to my current WIP, and another is doing promo and checking Amazon rankings. (it’s a trap!!) So you have to rewind and get your head back in the book you’re promoting, but also keep your head in the WIP, if that makes sense!

It’s all fantastic…even the hard work. Well, especially the hard work. It’s the work I love to do! First Amazon posting, covers, cover blurbs, holding your real live book in your hand, the first day the books hit the M&B and eharl site…the first day they hit shelves! (I’ve yet to see one of my books on the shelves…but it’s coming up!)

BTW, I may not have seen my books on the shelf, but look Hoo has…

All in all, it’s a crazy ride…one that hasn’t slowed down since that first day. And I like it this way! I feel incredibly blessed to have the best job on the planet, that is so much more than a job in so many ways. It’s my passion, and it’s just awesome to get to share what I love with people. (realizing people are ((hopefully)) paying to read your work is another crazy thing!)

Also, a reminder (speaking of crazy!) HIS VIRGIN ACQUISITION hits US shelves in October and is available now on eharlequin and A MISTAKE, A PRINCE AND A PREGNANCY hits UK shelves in October as well, and is available on the Mills and Boon site! (His Virgin Acquisition is still there too!)

Okay, I’m excited because not only am I doing POTW again, but it is my first non sci-fi peek.

And, let me say, it was not easy for me to find someone who wasn’t related to science fiction in some way.

So, a few years ago, I fell in love with this show called Journeyman. It was about this man who travelled through time — unwillingly — while changing history but also in search of his one lost love.

Not only was the lead actor cute, but the show was smart. The plot lines kept you asking questions. Of course, the show was cancelled after one season.

Fortunately, the lead found another top role and I’m sure when you see him, you’ll recognize him from a current hit TV show.

Photo: Mitch Haaseth

Meet Kevin McKidd
aka Dan Vassar of Journeyman
aka The Doc hotter than McDreamy on Grey’s Anatomy.

It was really hard to find any appropriately hot pictures of McKidd for my post, so if you have one of him in a kilt, please pass it along . . .

Abbi

My second book, A Mistake, A Prince and A Pregnancy will be hitting the M&B site on September first! I’m extremely excited about this book, partly because of the gorgeous cover, and partly because it was just so much fun to write!

When my editor and I were talking on the phone, during The Call, she said they were offering me a two book contract. Great! So before the buzz of selling my first book had even faded I had to start thinking about book number two.

I pulled out a MS I had written during my wait and submitted the partial. My ed liked the premise, she didn’t like the execution. And that meant…a rewrite.

I got the revisions on Christmas Eve, I had my daughter on December 30th, and I sold the book six weeks later.

That was a big relief. Because of course, the first thing you think is…what if I can’t do it again? Am I a One Book Wonder? So I’ll always love this book just for it helping me jump that hurdle!

The rewrite of it ended up going very quickly, because I had two characters very eager to share their stories.

Alison and Maximo are two good people, thrown into an impossible situation. Both of them want to do the right thing…although, they disagree about what the right thing is!

Alison Whitman, is a planner. She has everything in her life planned down to the smallest detail…including when and how she’ll have a baby. Alison opts to be artifically inseminated, rather than going the ‘traditional’ route.

Of course, every one of her well-ordered plans is upended by the revelation that she’s received the wrong donor sperm…in fact, the man in question didn’t intend to be a donor!

Prince Maximo Rossi and his wife tried for years to have children, and after her death, he’s given up on the hope of ever having a child. And then Alison, a woman he’s never met, comes to tell him she’s pregnant with his child.

Of course, it’s complicated since this baby is Maximo’s heir…and in order for his heir to inherit, he has to be legitimate.

So much for all of Alison’s carefully laid plans…

She’s given him a baby….

An IVF clinic mix-up means eternally single Alison Whitman is now carrying the child – no, the royal heir – of Maximo Rossi, Prince of Turan!

Now he’ll take her for his wife!

Maximo gave up on the hope of fatherhood a long time ago, but now the ruthless ruler will seize this surprise second chance.  However, tradition is high on the Prince’s agenda, and he’ll never stand for an illegitimate heir…

Alison is about to find out that royal marriage is a command, not a choice!

Sorry guys, this is meant to be a book review, but I didn’t get time to read anything to review. My posts are always more like ”learn from my mistakes”. This is another one!

It’s been an “interesting” week.

Now “interesting” can mean good or bad, can’t it. If you’d asked me on Thursday evening, I’d have said bad, horrendously bad. Today, looking back, it’s pretty darned good.

On Thursday, I got a rejection, my third, from the Mills & Boon London office, on a submission for the August Medical Fast Track.

What could be good about that? Has Jane finally lost the few remaining marbles in the rattly tin can that passes as her brain?

When I got home from work and read that email, saw the horrible impersonal words of the form R, I could have cried. I didn’t. I swallowed the tears with a strawberry milkshake and a big piece of banana bread (still being a good girl and sticking to my diet- it was my home made high protein lower carb version of comfort food!), and pretended I was okay. I wasn’t. It hurt worse than a hard kick in the guts.

I’d had my doubts about subbing. Medical wasn’t a line I’d seriously thought about writing for. I’m a  nurse, and I think it’s harder for people with a real medical background to write a Medical. Nurses have the medical knowledge and know the reality of working in a big hospital or a GP surgery, but that’s not what a Medical romance is about. It’s about the romance! But still, it was a good opportunity to get feedback fast from a Mills and Boon editor. I had a story idea and characters I knew well with a situation that I thought could be Medicalised. Once I got the Superromance partial I’d been working on subbed, I started on this one.

 I wasn’t happy with it. Even Tuesday morning (last day for Fast Track submissions), I wasn’t going to sub. I didn’t want to let my characters down by sending them in too soon. Then Tuesday evening I though what the heck, what have I got to lose, I might get some useful feedback. Though I knew I’d thrown together the chapter in a hurry and it wasn’t my best writing, though I knew my characters and situation probably didn’t fit the line, I still hoped to get some comments, something I could use. The form R at first seemed worse than useless.

Whilst we appreciate the care and attention that has gone into the preparation of your submission, regrettably we feel that your story and characters are not sufficiently developed for publication in any of our publishing programmes.

 Here are our top tips to bear in mind for your next submission:

1.  Ensure that your story and conflict are character-driven.
2. Focus on the internal emotional conflict of your characters
3. Use secondary characters to add richness and depth to your central romance but don’t let them take over!
4. Target your work to a particular series – this means you need to read current books in the series you are aiming for and understand what that series delivers to the reader.

 We are pleased to have had the opportunity to see your work, and thank you for thinking of Harlequin Mills & Boon.

Arrgghh! It feels like no feedback at all. Feels like I’ve gone backwards, when my first rejection had some personalised feedback and a compliments slip, and the last two have been pure form. Impersonal, nothing directly relating to my actual submission. Feels like all it’s telling me is “Give up, now, your writing sucks.” And yes, that was my first instinctive reaction- I should give up and save myself the pain.

The second thought (once the ouch of it stopped stinging so much) was “I’m not going to stop writing. I’ll still keep doing it anyway no matter what. I’m not going to let this make me give up on romance for years like I did before. So what can I possibly learn from that about how to improve my writing and give myself a better chance next time I sub?”

Turns out, plenty! I was so wrong after my last form R to see it as no feedback. It was feedback, just not the feedback I wanted.

I might think that my characters and story are well developed, my story is character driven, my secondary characters don’t take over at all,and my story does so fit the line, but if that doesn’t come across to the editor reading my submission, I haven’t done my job properly.

I took a step back from the hurt feeling and looked at what I’d sent in. Oh. My. Goodness. So much wrong with it! It’s a wonder the editor (Anna Boatman, BTW) was kind enough to send a form R. She should have just sent back the shortest rejection ever- “WTF?”  Okay, there are a few bits here and there that I like, reading it back there are several things that make me smile, but overall, it’s baaaaaad. Breaks all the rules, and not in a good way!

Here, in the spirit of being a salutary lesson in what not to do in your submissions (I’m sure none of you will commit all these sins in the same sub like I did!), are all the mistakes I made-

• Hero and heroine don’t meet soon enough- started with a four page prologue with the heroine and her best friend talking in an office. The hero is talked about. Then I go on to write another four pages in hero POV before he and the heroine meet, briefly, and hardly talk. He is by himself for those four pages and the two that follow. Then I have the heroine by herself thinking about the meeting with the hero while she’s doing other things for four pages. Finally, on the last page of chapter one, the hero and heroine meet properly. When I rewrite, they’ll be together from page 1!
• Infodump central- any time characters are by themselves thinking, even if they’re doing things at the same time, the risk of dumping in backstory is high. I sure did. I thought I was being subtle about it, but no, it’s still infodump. I need to drip this in, keep some things back. The characters don’t need to tell us all about themselves in chapter one.
• Not enough dialogue- The characters are by themselves for too much of the chapter. When they do talk, it’s mainly to other people. There’s a total of four lines of dialogue between the hero and heroine in the whole chapter. Getting the heroine and heroine together faster will fix this too.
• Characters seem unsympathetic- I know these characters inside out, so I know they are good strong likeable people. That didn’t come across at all in my first chapter. All that internal monologue made them seem self-centred, whiny, and weak. Especially my hero, who is a wounded Warrior, battling with survivor guilt and finding his place in the world. It can be tough to make a hero like that Alpha enough for the lines that need an Alpha hero. Best not to make the readers first view of him be sitting around feeling sorry for himself!  He needs to be shown as damaged, yet strong.  I didn’t do the heroine any favours either. She’s a dedicated nurse, on call 24/7 for her small community. Having the first thing she’s shown doing as taking the afternoon off to go skinny dipping in the creek wasn’t the best idea! The reader will understand and accept that later, when they see how hard she works and how much she cares for her patients, but not at first meeting. And especially not in the Medical line, where medical staff who care for their patients beyong anything realistic is part of the promise. Which leads me to…
• Not fitting the line- I have a hero who isn’t a doctor. One strike. I have a hero who’s not really Alpha- two strikes. I have an unusual setting that I’ve never seen used in a Medical before. Three strikes, I’m out. A fourth isn’t needed, but I had another one- nothing “medical” in the first chapter to set the scene properly and give the medical setting that will be the backdrop to the unfolding romance. This story is not a Medical. I tried to Medicalise it so I had something for the Fast Track, and it didn’t work. I should know that trying to write something to fit a line that’s not right for me because it’s “Too good an opportunity to miss”, isn’t a good idea. I tried it with the Presents contests, but I didn’t learn and went and did it again. Oops! Still, I’m kinda glad I did, because I learned so much from it, from all those failed attempts. It’s not a failure if I walk away nodding thinking, yeah, I learned something there I can use, something valuable.
• Not enough focus on the relationship and internal conflicts- okay, that’s obvious in chapter one. The characters weren’t together long enough! But the seeds of the internal conflict are there, aren’t they?  And I thought I’d brought the developing relationship and the emotional conflicts out well in my synopsis, hadn’t I? Wrong! On both counts. The seeds of the internal conflict are there, sure, but in internal monologue infodumps. Without the characters together on the page, it doesn’t mean anything that the heroine tells us she is wary of getting involved again after the last disastrous relationship, and the hero tells us he feels guilty about his best frind dying in the incident that seriously wounded him. Conflict only works when each character’s issues are triggered by the other main character. It’s dynamic, not static. The synopsis deserves a section of it’s own…
• Synopsis is a list of external events- oh dear. I really thought I had this one right. I hoped that showing I had a good story in my synopsis would encourage the editor to overlook the flaws in my first chapter and ask for more, with some revision suggestions of course. Only when I asked the other Sisters to look at it did I realise I’d left out the most important part- the relationship issues. Not completely, it’s there, but I just haven’t made it clearly focused enough. This was a major lightbulb moment for me.  My synopsis makes it look like the external stuff is what catalyses the change in the characters and the relationship. Which jumps to another of the form R’s points…
• Story not character driven- I couldn’t see how this applied to my story. It was all about the characters and their issues. But what I sent off didn’t show that. The chapter showed stuff happening and the characters thinking about it. The synopsis just showed stuff happening. What I wasn’t showing and hadn’t fully realised myself was- the external events reflect and symbolise the internal situation, but they don’t make it happen. The character’s internal shifts are what makes it happen. I can have exactly the same story and have it internally driven not externally driven. This is big, because it changes not just how I approach my synopsis but the whole story. I knew on one level that all these external events symbolised internal shifts, but it just clicked on a much deeper level what that means when I’m writing. It’s about what drives the story, what makes things happen, what comes first, the internal shift or the external event.  Here’s an example.- there’s a country ball in the story, and the heroine’s friend plays Fairy Godmother and makes her over for the Ball. The synopsis reads that the friend pushes her into it. Nope. How it needs to happen is that the heroine is ready to change, has already decided she wants to let the hero see who she really can be, and asks her friend for help.  
• Secondary characters- this story has a lot of secondary characters. It’s set in a small community, and the heroine works with them all. I want and need those secondary characters in the story, but they need  to be kept secondary, and not get in the way of the focus on the central realtionship. They won’t in the completed story, but in the synopsis a secondary character gets a whole paragraph, and in  the first chapter the heroine spends more time with two other secondary characters than with the hero. They are all good, colourful, interesting secondary characters, but that’s not how it works in category romance! The other thing I see myself doing is thinking “Series”, adding in secondary characters not because they are necessary to this story but because I want to write their story to in another book.
• Worst mistake of all- not honouring my own best way to write. I know I write my way into stories. I know the best way for me to write is to do a quick first draft so I really know the characters and the story, then throw most of it away in the rewrite. I know my first draft first chapter is going to be absolute crap and nothing like the first chapter in the finished version. So why the hell did I go against that completely and try to write a first chapter and synopsis in two weeks when I know that’s not how I write? I guess so I would have this fab learning experience and be able to write a rambling blog post about it!

So who’s brave enough to share what they’ve learned from their rejection letters?

Oh, and just so it’s not all doom and gloom and because you deserve a reward if you’ve read this far, here’s a half-naked man for you- the inspiration for my hero!

In addition to my six sisters here, I have another biological sister. Like most genetically-challenged sisters, she’s made my life a living hell at times and she’s pointed me in some good directions other times.

This week’s Peek of the Week is dedicated to the good direction my “other” sister has given me.

About a year ago, she urged me to watch a sci-fi show called Supernatural. Mind you, it can be a pretty violent and scary show, but there is some nice eye candy.

Like this guy:

Words that come to mind: innocent, fresh, Days of Our Lives. Yes, he played one of Marlena and John’s kids on DOOL.

Jensen was also on Dawson’s Creek and Smallville.

Has anyone seen Supernatural? Does Jensen fill the boot for sci-fi POTW?

Abbi

Is there anything more exciting than a first?  There is something life changing, so exhilarating that it leaves you tingling and giddy.  First kiss, first love, first RWAus conference…

Ok, so the last may not be as earth shatteringly momentous as the first two, but it certainly ranks highly.  I’ve been a member of the Romance Writers of Australia for over a year now but when I wasn’t able to make conference last year I was devastated.  When I found out that this year’s conference was being held in Sydney, my home city, nothing, not even an earthquake, erupting volcano or typhoon would stop me from attending.

Although the conference officially kicked off on Friday (or Thursday for the pubbed authors), I dined on Thursday night with my too wonderful CP’s Rachael Johns and Jackie Ashenden, who was accompanied by the world famous and extremely well travelled Hoo.  I met Rach last year when I attended the Perth Roadshow when she took pity on the very lonely out-of-towner and I was lucky enough to catch up with her earlier this year, but it was the first time I’d met Jackie (and Hoo!).

Originally, Jackie befriended me via the eharlequin subcare forum and immediately struck me as one cool chickie, but how would she measure up in real life?  Well ladies (and any fine gentlemen) can I just say, when I met her, I instantly fell in love with this wonderful and very sage woman.  She is as lovely, wise and dazzling as she is in cyberspace, and Hoo is no slouch either, he’s a very charming blue octopus! (See photo 1 for evidence of him living it up with us at dinner).  I am indeed very lucky to have two wonderful CP’s that just happen to live equidistant apart from me and that is a major downer, but this weekend, the conference was wonderful on so many levels, none more so than the opportunity to spend time with these wonderful chickies.

Right, so umm, better get on with the actual conference stuff…  Due to family obligations, I wasn’t able to attend the Friday workshop Book in a Day by Debra Dixon but the lovely Rachael Johns has her fab notes on her blog page so scoot over to have a read of them.  But I was able to attend the Harlequin cocktail party that night, photo two shows Jackie, Rach and me in the middle all dressed up and ready to party.

My conference started on the Saturday morning with two plenary sessions, News from Harlequin with Dianne Moggy (VP Overseas Editorial Strategy &Development) which included some interesting information on the direction that Harlequin is heading and some new categories (teen romance) that they were exploring.  Plenary session two was conducted by Blaze and ST author Vicki Lewis Thompson who led us on a humorous journey of her writing career in her talk How to be an Overnight Success in Twenty Five years or Less.

Before we broke off into our selected workshops, we were treated to a power panel of a plethora of editors and agents giving us the rundown of the state of the romance and women’s fiction market.  The verdict: while the market seems to be tight (globally), there still is a need and want for romance, that is, romance is not dead! (hmm, that sounds familiar…)

My two Saturday workshops were:

From Bin to a Bestseller – How to Rescue Your Writing and Lift it to a Publishable Standard with Presents author Melanie Milburne.

Melanie’s workshop was based on Robert McKee’s story structure in which he describes a story having five parts:

1. The inciting incident (which must radically upset the balance of life)
2. Progressive complications
3. Crisis
4. Climax
5. Resolution

What I loved about Melanie’s workshop was the cleaver way she used the classic (and IMHO, one of the BEST movies of all time) Pretty Woman to demonstrate and take us through the story structure.

Second I attended a wonderfully entertaining session An Illustrated A-Z Survival Guide for Romance Writers by Romance author Jessica Hart.  I called this my ‘brain break’ session and it was one of the things I loved about my conference experience.  While I was there to learn, absorb the craft and wait for light bulbs to go off, I was also there to enjoy, have fun and laugh.  Jessica’s session gave me all of the above through an insightful view into the life of a romance writer and it was refreshing to be able to have the chance to sit back and enjoy a presentation and not worry if I was frying my brain with information overload.

The afternoon wrapped up with an author panel chat.  Of course I attended the category romance chat that boasted a Harlequin Mills & Boon star studded line up that included Kelly Hunter, Trish Morey, Annie West, Sarah Mayberry, Vicki Lewis Thompson (just to name a few).  These wonderful women imparted their wisdom and candidly answered questions from us aspiring authors.

When the sun went down, the evening heated up with the awards dinner.  It was a chance to frock up and celebrates all those fabulously talented girls who placed/won in a competition over the past 12 months.  The talent in the room was staggering and on our table we had two of those stars – Leah Ashton (winner of the First Kiss contest) and Bec Sampson (2^nd place in the Emerald).  What an honour!

Sunday morning kicked off with more plenary sessions that included an inspiring talk from New York Times Bestseller Nalini Singh.  My favourite part of Nalini’s session was her describing the day she found out she’d hit the NYT bestseller list she’d gone shopping, and the irony was, she’s no shopper.  It was wonderful to hear how Nalini wrote her first single title while living in a small Japanese village and working as a teacher.

My highlight Sunday workshop The Writer and the Editor was held by Mills and Boon royalty, Valarie Parv and Pan MacMillan editor Alex Nahlous.  What I found interesting about this session was hearing the dual perspective on things from both a very experienced writer and an editor of a major publishing house.  Alex also imparted some fantastic tips on the top ten things a writer should be aware of.

1. Repetition:  Be wary if you overuse crutch words or sentences.
2. Flat writing:  Always think about how a scene helps your plot, character development.  Is it interesting?  Or is it just a filler?
3. Empty verbs:  Crowd and inhibit writing.  Some examples include actually, totally, hopefully, completely.
4. Too much dialogue:  You need to strike a balance.  Too much is a hindrance, narration is needed to move the story along; the dialogue should up the action.  For category romance as opposed to single title, dialogue is needed to pick up the pace, but still, the writer needs to remember to have the right balance.
5. Not enough dialogue:  Again the balance rule applies.  People need to talk.  The editor gave an example where she’d read a resent submission that was beautifully written but hardly contained any dialogue in the first fifty pages.
6. Overuse of metaphors:  Metaphors a beautiful devices, but don’t use a metaphor within a metaphor.  Ask yourself – will using it do me any favours, or will it appear that I’m trying too hard?
7. Need to show not tell:  What is telling?  When a writer tells the reader what to think rather than allowing the reader to work things out for themselves.
8. Very short sentences:  Too many jolt the reader as they stop/start the story/scene too often.  A good analogy was used.  Too many short sentences are like taking frequent short car trips, they become annoying.  Key word is balance.
9. Very long sentences:  Too many colons semi colons confuse the reader.  Again the magic word is balance.

10.  Corridor of death:  Imparting too much information/background in the beginning.  This kills your story. Need to drip feed details, provides snippets not word dumps.  Use narrative and flashbacks.

I loved furthering my learning, gaining an insight of life after selling and I absolutely loved being surrounded by like minded individuals who totally ‘got’ me and spoke my language – the language of romance writing, but as the weekend wrapped up with the announcement of the next conference and then, it seemed my very first conference experience was over just as it was starting.  If ever there was a dual conflicting feeling of being fulfilled and utterly crestfallen at the same time – this was it.

2011 will mark the 20^th anniversary of RWAus and something tells me this milestone will be much celebrated.  I cannot wait.  Having lost my conference virginity, I look forward to doing it all again, my only gripe being 12 months is a long time to wait to do it (pardon the pun) all again.

Oh and an interesting side tid bit – there was ONE lone male at the conference (yes a member, not a partner!)  The local rag thought it was pretty interesting –they featured him in a story about him and the conference.  Here’s the link to check it out if you’re interested.

www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/daniel-puts-the-man-in-romance-20100815-1253f.html

Janette, Jackie (and Hoo!), Rach

Jackie (aka Blondie); Janette, Rach

And the winner of the Irish Goody Bag is…Joni!! Joni, send us your details so we can send you your loot!

I’m here today for a couple of reasons, the first being that I want to take this opportunity to say a HUGE thank you. A few weeks back, the adorable Maisey posted on her blog about a rough time in my life as my son battled yet another ‘obstacle’ on his journey with Cystic Fibrosis. She didn’t say much, only what mattered, but she did ask for prayers. And boy did we get them. So many of you replied, offering support and prayers and well wishes for Ben that I was reduced to tears on more than one occasion. I felt special, reassured and humbled all at once to know that people I’ve never met had my son’s wellbeing in their hearts and so I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of mine.

Long live the romance writing community.

This post is not about my son, or CF for that matter, but I’m really happy to report, with a big idiot grin (expression courtesy of Chelsea), that Ben is doing fantastic and his doctor could not be happier with him. Ok, he probably could be happier if Ben actually made his job a little easier but hey, that’s my boy, fighting everything AND everyone in his way!

Long live the Alpha male.

The second reason I’m here is to explain that I’m not just a shallow person, happy to clock up countless hours on the internet googling ridiculously hot half naked men. I do, but I do other stuff too. Take for instance the amount of time I spend pondering the Rubix Cube that is romance writing. How do you write a romance novel? Where do you start? How do you finish? How do you know when your characters are ready for a little loving’? How do you know when to start dropping hints about the conflict that will eventually become your Black Moment? How do you decide how much back story is necessary? How do you combine goals, motivation, conflict, emotion, sexual tension, wonderfully flawed 3D characters and a whole truck load of other stuff to pen the kind of story an editor will want to buy? If you’re expecting an answer in here somewhere, let me apologise in advance. I’ve got nothing, zilch, nada.

What I do have though, and what all of you ladies have too is Intuition. The dictionary tells us that intuition is instinctive knowledge or insight without conscious reasoning. Sums it up pretty well I think. But a quote I remember from years ago sums it up even better AND makes me smile. ‘Intuition is the strange instinct that tells a woman she’s right, whether she is or not’. Brilliant and mostly true. The way I see it, as women writing romance, we’re always right, even we’re wrong. Ok, bear with me. Technically there is no right or wrong when it comes to writing the stories in our heart. We write as best we can and we hope it works. There are guidelines out there, certain ‘rules’ to be adhered to but at the end of the day how we write is entirely up to us and to do this we usually have to trust our instincts.

We try this POV, we try the other one. We plot our characters misfortunes against a dramatic backdrop of tangled emotions and blistering chemistry. We search for the right action to convey every thought. Whatever way we approach our story, we’re right until proven otherwise. Intuition helps us along the way, guiding our every step because we know when something’s working, just as we know when something’s not. When it’s not working, the intuition of our cp’s comes into play and we have a whole new set of ideas to fiddle around with. Maybe you’ve received an R lately, maybe your confidence has been pulverised, along with the dream of seeing your name on a brand new shiny cover. Well fear not. Your intuition will see you through. It didn’t necessarily let you down the last time; perhaps you just veered a little in the wrong direction.

Asked lately of one of the editors at M&B what exactly it is they are looking for in a manuscript, the reply was ‘…we’ll know when we see it…!’ Now, how’s that for intuition? And what’s good enough for those ladies, is plenty good enough for me. Get out there and trust your instincts ladies. Write YOUR story YOUR way and give the editors something to talk about.

Alright, for anyone still awake, I’d love to hear your opinions on intuition and one lucky lady will receive an Aideen style goody bag in the post. (It will not include pictures of semi naked men). Oh, and if anyone wants to comment, purely to disagree with me, go right ahead. Cos I’ll still be right, even if I’m wrong!

Aideen

We are dreadfully behind on a announcing winners…but you don’t mind. Because we’re cute! see —> (cute!)

all righty…

The WINNER of Susan Sey’s Money, Honey is….WENDY MARCUS!! *crowd roars*

And the WINNER of Victoria Dahls’ A Little Bit Wild is….JESSICA LEMMON!!!

*wildness in the stands*

So if you ladies could click our little contact thingy and send us info so you can get your books, that would be fab!

If anyone is sad about the results…my husband, Haven, drew them out of a hat, direct your hate mail at him.

*runs away*

*runs back*

Tomorrow Sassy Aideen will be doing a Random Post and a goody bacg giveaway! So, if you weren’t a winner today, you might be one tomorrow. And you’ll always be a winner to me.

So…I’m not usually a bit fan of shows with gratuitous violence. Or gratuitous anything, really. But…I got hooked on Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

And here’s why:

Spartacus, AKA Andy Whitfield, has served as inspiration for not one, but two of my heroes (most notable The Land Stud).

He’s alpha, he’s a warrior, and nothing in the world means more to him than the love of his wife. When he loses his wife, he’s devestated and weeps without shame. Then he plots bloody, horrible revenge.

Do NOT mess of with Spartacus, and above all else, do NOT kill his woman. Uh-uh. No no.

Of course…he cleans up pretty well too!

Oh, and more!!

I may have given more than a peek this week. Hope you can all forgive me!

Maisey, who did not just have these pics saved to her hard drive or anything…nope. nope nope nope.