Wednesday Writing Romp

Welcome to Wednesday's Writing Romp!
Each week a new chapter written by a different author will be posted (stay tuned for Chapter nine--that's mine). The story, entitled Chocolate Flirtations, is a romance about a gal who doesn't like chocolate (crazy, I know). Check out the Introduction written by Cole Reising, and then come back every Wednesday for another taste written by one of the talented authors listed below.

Hope you enjoy!

Contributing Authors:
Kristi Ahlers
Marcy Bassett-Kennedy
Kendra Clark
Julia Clark
Bronwen Cleathero
Meagan Hatfield
Debbi Phillips
Nicole Reising
Andrea Shuman
Rita Trevalyan

Six Word Novel...C'mon and Vote!

Take a swing by Julie Cohen's blog today and vote for your favourite six word novel. You may even want to vote for number 4 because...ahem...well, I wrote. Okay this is a blantant attempt to scrounge up some votes for my entry.

You can't blame me for trying.

Someone was on my side today

Totally unrelated to writing, but today we had my daughter's birthday party, and miracle of miracles...it didn't rain. The forecast had been calling for rain all week, but it never materialized! Hallelujah! We were able to keep all ten kids (and all their mess) outside for the entire party. Everyone had a great time playing Ariel themed games and playing on the slide and swing set. All in all, very successful.

Now before I pass out from exhaustion, I've posted some pics of the Ariel cake I made (I'm quite proud of myself).

Crossroads

I've hit a cross roads with my ms. Despite my voice being more suited for the Modern Extra line, I think my characters are better suited for the Romance line. What do I do???

There has been lots of great discussion on the topic of sex in the Modern X line over at Natalie Anderson's blog, and it helped me to see that I can't just add in the sexuality required for the line--my characters have to want it. And they don't. At least not as badly as characters from other Modern X books do. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that they want it but aren't forward enough to take it...not right away at least.

So that leaves me with the task of tweaking my voice so it fits better in the Romance line. Not a small feat given that I'm not quite sure how to do that. In the end I guess all I can do is try to revise it to the best of my ability while still staying true to my overall voice as a writer. I like the way I write and don't want to stray too far from it. If an editor sees promise in my writing, I gotta hope that she'll work with me to make it perfect for the line rather than saying "forget it...it's not perfect for the line".

I can hope anyway.

Romance Writers Rock!

I can't believe how helpful everyone in the writing community can be!

As a newbie writer I have A LOT of questions, and I am constantly amazed at the lengths to which published authors will go to help. On top of their writing schedules, their blogging/website obligations, their own personal lives, they find the time to help someone they've never met before.

Are romance writers the nicest people, or what?

Me and Modern Extra?

I recently had some very good advice from a very reliable source that my voice may be better suited for the Modern Extra line than for the Romance line. The only thing missing from my current ms? S-e-x! Well, maybe not the only thing, but the most prevalent thing. So what does this mean? Simply, I won't be submitting any time soon.

As disappointed as I am by this, I definitely don't want to waste the one chance I get to submit this ms to Harlequin by submitting to the wrong line. I want to do it right. So that means going back over my ms, tweaking the hero's conflict to better reflect the line and adding in some juicy sex scenes. I don't have a problem with the last piece. I was actually a little upset that I wasn't able to include any sex scenes when subbing to the Romance line. They're so much fun to write...

...and even more fun to research!

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope all of the mothers reading this post are having a wonderful mother's day. My dh just took the kids out to give me some time to myself. Yay! I got some wonderful gifts from my kids including some lovely homemade cards and such.

My most favourite gift was an interview that my daughter's JK teacher did with her asking her questions about me. The first question was how old is your mother. My daughter's response...14! Gotta love it.

My husband also made a video card of the kids wishing me happy mother's day with my youngest blowing kisses. So cute.

Wishing all of you a happy and relaxing mother's day!

Baby Steps

I just submitted a non-fiction piece to Woman's World magazine! It's an article that I wrote two years ago and have yet to find a home for, but I love it. It's the story of my wedding day and the ways in which I became convinced that my father, who had passed away two years earlier, was with me on that special day. It's a story that moves me to tears whenever I read it, and I hope Woman's World finds it as touching.

Although this isn't as big as submitting my romance novel, it's a step in the right direction.

Baby steps, I keep telling myself. Baby steps.

Marcy