In need of inspiration

I'm hoping to get some help from my cyber-friends. I'm having trouble coming up with a heroine inspiration for my WIP. She is brunette, cute, natural looking, more comfortable in workout pants and t-shirt with her hair in a pony tail. She's in shape, and as a rock climbing instructor she's pretty tough. Any actresses coming to mind?

My initial though was Hilary Swank, but I'm rethinking that. She not quite cute enough for my mental image (I'm picturing brown doe eyes and a smattering of freckles--but the freckles are negotiable). Here is a picture of the hero, if that helps.

I'd love to hear any thoughts you have. I hope that once I have a clear visual of my heroine, my muse might just start working again.

Winner!

No, I didn't win a writing contest, but I did win a contest run by Harlequin Romance authors Jennie Adams and Donna Alward. The prize...hardcover copies of both of their new releases! Yippee! I always get such a thrill from adding new books to my growing library and reading them will be an even bigger thrill. Thanks, ladies!

On the writing front, the winners of the Instant Seduction contest have been chosen and will be notified before Easter! Since there were over 600 entries, I'm not expecting to be one of them, but I am excited to read the winning entries. Good luck to everyone who entered. It would be so exciting if someone from the eHarlequin community won!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In case I don't make it back here on Monday, wanted to wish you all a happy St. Patricks Day. I'll be working and then going to a memorial service for my Romance Writing teacher who passed away last week, so have a frosty mug of green beer for me!

Something New!

I just knocked off another short story for Woman's World, and I LOVE it. It's got the feel good emotion that I think my last story was missing. And the thing I like most about it...it's believable. I can actually see this scene unfolding...somewhere. And since it involves a couple on the brink of divorce, I think there are many women who will be able to relate to it. The idea just hit me one day, and I wrote it in a few hours. It's funny how quickly things can move along when you love what you're writing.

Hopefully I'll get it in the mail tomorrow. And then it's back to the waiting game. Last time it took 5 months for a response. But at least when I'm waiting I feel like a real writer instead of a 'wanna be' who talks about writing but never really does it.

Maybe this one will be the charm. WW is a tough nut to crack, but I'm determined to do it!

P.S. What do you think of the new blog template? Wanted to change things up a bit but not sure that I love it.

Sad

I had some very sad news yesterday. The man who taught me my first Romance Writing course, the man who got me excited about the genre and made me feel as if I really could make it in the industry, passed away yesterday.

His name was Tom Torrance, and he was a wonderful teacher. At 57 years old, he taught many writing classes at my local college: Romance, Writing for Publication, Grammar for Writing, Writing Children's Stories...and the list goes on. He was so knowledgeable and a wonderful man personally as well. He was always the first to cheer you on when you submitted somewhere and to encourage you to try again if you received a R.

His death is a tremendous loss.
I'll miss him.

Subs and progress

I'll be subbing something tomorrow. Yay! It's a non-fiction article for a woman's mag, not romance, but the thrill is the same. I get such a rush from putting my words on paper for someone else to read and hopefully love. This story is very close to me since it's the tale of the events that convinced me that my father (who'd passed away 2 years earlier) was with me on my wedding day--a topic that never fails to bring tears to my eyes. I'll let you know how it goes.

On the romance writing front, I've started my new wip and I'm finding that there is still so much I need to nail down about my characters. I know I'll continue learning things as the ms progresses, so I'm just trying to make notes as I go so I can answer the questions early on in the process. Don't want too many surprises later.

Hope your writing is going well too.

Rejection and new hope.

Got a rejection last week for a short story that I subbed to a woman's magazine back in September. At least it was a good R...said that it was nicely written but too close to something they've already published. So I'm determined to find a unique angle.

But on the plus side I'm working on 2 new projects.

The first is another short story. It's rough right now, but I'm just trying to get it all down now. I'll polish it up later.

I'm also very pumped about my new ms. I've been doing a lot of work on understanding who my characters are--something I didn't do enough of with my first ms. And given the R it received, that's probably what was wrong with it. Needless to say I can't wait to get writing.

So much to do, so little time.

I made it!

The deadline for the Instant Seduction contest through Mills and Boon was yesterday, and I made it...just. I was still making revisions a few minutes before I hit the send button. But I think I do my best work under pressure, so we'll see how it goes.

I'm sure the competition for the contest is pretty steep, so I'm not holding my breath. But at least I know I gave it my best shot. Not much more I can do.

Good luck to all those who entered.

Tagging myself

How lame is that?

Saw this on Judy Jarvie's blog and thought I'd share six non-important things/habits/quirks about myself with all of you. So here goes:

1. I LOVE candy. Any kind of candy. I'm not picky. If I buy a bag I can't stop till it's gone. In honour of Vanetine's day, I'm currently enjoying a whole bag of cinnamon hearts. Spicy!
2. I cry easily. Give me an emotional situation, and I have a very hard time keeping my eyes dry. Sometimes I really hate it.
3. I'm a pack rat. Love to keep things for unknown reasons. But what if I need it one day...
4. I hate jumping in the shower first thing in the morning, although I have to do it 5 days a week. Heaven to me is lounging in my pj's with a hot cup of coffee. Drives DH crazy! He's a get up and go kinda guy.
5. In university, I was so afraid to flunk out that I barely went out the entire first year. Then I woke up, LOL.
6. I hate putting away laundry. Don't mind sorting it, washing it, folding it, but hate putting it away.

Okay, it's your turn to post six interesting/quirky things about yourself. C'mon, we wantta know...

The worm is growing...

No, this is not a reference to an erotic romance (ha, ha).

Take a look at the right side panel...see my new word meter? And it's got words in it! I'm making progress!

This is the story for the Instant Seduction contest, but isn't the one I originally started with. Given how long I'll end up spending with the story, I figured I better love it. I didn't, so I moved on.

This new story is based on a short story that I wrote for a contest and loved. It's coming along nicely, but I better put my butt in gear. The contest deadline is Feb 14.

Eek! Only two weeks?
Gotta go...

My baby is growing up

Last night I took my oldest daughter to get her first real haircut...and she's five years old! She had a little trim before, but this time she had her hair really cut...11 inches cut! Yikes.

The reason? She's donating her hair to an organization that makes wigs for children that have lost their hair due to sickness or injury and can't afford to buy them. I have to admit I did shed a few tears before the actual cutting. I feel like like I'm saying goodbye to my baby and welcoming a little lady...and it's a little hard for a mother to take.

But once I saw it done, she looked so beautiful and grown-up that I wondered why we hadn't done it sooner.

And it makes me feel really good to know that someone will be getting some use out of my baby's beautiful hair.

Excuse me while I go hug the pony tail one last time.

Time for reflection

Here I am on new year's eve--alone. Well not alone...I have my kids, but they'll be in bed long before the strike of midnight, so I'll be ringing in the new year alone. DH has to work tonight, as he has for the past 3 years, but usually I have somewhere to go. But the flu bug has invaded our house, so I'm assuming that we're not welcome at other people's houses (I don't blame them...it's a nasty bug that I would want to spread to anyone).

So all this alone time has left me with time for reflection, time to contemplate what I've accomplished this year and want to accomplish in 2008:

2007

• Started the year receiving a year's worth of free books from Harlequin after winning the Ultimate Reunion contest. What an ego boost! And let me tell you, my TBR pile is ready to topple!


• Entered Harlequin's Ultimate Secret contest and won an Honourable Mention and a free book. Nothing to sneeze at.


• Submitted my novel Her Client's Wishes to Mills and Boon/Harlequin Romance. It was rejected in November, but I did it! I wrote a book!


• Wrote and submitted a romantic short story to a woman's magazine. I'm still waiting to hear on that one.


• Started a new wip (Taking Care of Business) aimed at the Mills and Boon Modern Heat imprint and specifically the Instant Seduction contest for which the prize is an editor for a year! What could be better? I feel really good about this story. I learned a lot writing my first novel and won't make the same mistakes twice.

2008

• Finish and polish the first chapter and synopsis of my new wip for the Instant Seduction contest (deadline of mid February)


• Finish and submit my wip to M&B. They can't buy it if I don't submit!


• Get published in short fiction. Writing short fiction allows me to feel as though I'm accomplishing something since sometimes the length of a novel can seem beastly and beyond reach.

There. That wasn't so bad. I can do all of those things in a year, can't I? Well with my spare time tonight I guess there's no better time to start than the present.

Have a happy new year everyone, and most importantly...happy writing!

Tis the season

Tis the season to get all warm and squishy about everything that you're grateful for in your life, so here I go...

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing my oldest daughter perform in her Christmas concert. So there's my baby--the little girl who was so shy she pulled her skirt up on stage last year--singing her heart out in the front row doing all the actions like a pro. I was so proud of her. I think we have have an actress on our hands. That thought makes my husband cringe since he's worked in the entertainment industry for way too long and worked with way too many spoiled actresses, but I keep telling him that our daughter would be different because, of course, she's perfect!

And then today as I watched my two girls having so much fun playing in the bath together, laughing and squealing with delight, I realized how truly blessed I am. I really can't ask for more.

OK, warm squishy stuff is over.

Needless to say I haven't gotten much writing done. Tis also the season for procrastination. I'm hoping that once my shopping is done, the baking is complete, and all the get togethers are over, I'll have some time to sit down and write.

Here's hoping its not February before that happens.

Merry Christmas to everyone. Hope you have a joyous holiday!

Moving On

I've started working on a new story, and you know what...it feels good. Fresh characters, fresh story--it's exciting.

Have all of you read about the new Presents contest? It's sounds like a great opportunity to get noticed, so I think I'll aim this WIP in that direction (more of a Modern Heat vs traditional Presents). What the heck. It's time to mix things up.

Are any of you planning on entering?

Yuck

After 4 months of waiting, I got the dreaded R from M&B today. Yuck. And to make matters worse, it was a form R. So I have no idea what I did wrong. How can I be sure that I don't do the same thing again?

On the plus side, at least I can finally put this story to bed and move on to something new. I've been working on one story for far too long. Maybe that was part of the problem--maybe it had gotten stale.

So onward and upward.

Still sucks though.

It's Over

No, I'm not referring to my writing career, at least not yet (LOL).

My long awaited trip to Disney World is officially over, and I'm having some trouble adjusting to a reality that is not sugar coated and sprinkled with images of Mickey Mouse and Tinker Bell. Disney knows how to do it right. Everything about the parks is perfect, including the service. You really can't ask for more. My daughter had the pleasure of having her hair styled like a princess in the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique and everyone in the salon played their parts to perfection. They treated her like a real princess from the moment we walked through the door (maybe a little too much since I had to remind her later in the day that she wasn't really a princess, and I wasn't really her servant, LOL). Here is a picture of my two perfect princesses with someone you might recognize.

Needless to say, I was sad to leave such a wonderful place. Although I wasn't sad to see my own bed and to sit down for more than five consecutive minutes. I think I need a vacation from my vacation!

Crazy for Disney!

Our upcoming trip to Disney has me totally obsessed with everything Disney related...hence the vampire Mickey pumpkin.

The anticipation of our trip is definitely making the waiting more tolerable. I'd almost forgotten that my response from Harlequin could be winging it's way across the Atlantic as we speak.

*gulp*

Frozen

And no, I don't mean the weather.

I've reached the final scene, the point where it all comes together, the H and h realize that they were meant to be together and they finally get their HEA. So you'd think I'd be chomping at the bit to get it finished...

Nope. I'm frozen. Can't seem to find any words that would be sum up what they'd be feeling at this point. So I've avoided the computer. Um, correction...I've avoided writing on the computer but have embraced blog hopping and Disney researching whole heartedly. Not very productive, I know.

On the eHarlequin boards one person posted that she hasn't yet heard back on her partial sent to M&B back in May. I sent mine in July, so I think I have a bit more time to polish this off.

Senseless rationalization, I know.

In the home stretch

I only have one more chapter to go in my revisions! Yay! The problem is that I find the end the hardest part to write. All the loose ends have to be tied, the emotion at its strongest, and above all else it has to be fulfilling for the reader. Not an easy order to fill.

I'm pushing myself to have this done before I leave on my Disney trip. I don't want to have that hanging over my head. If there is anything left to do, I want it to be minimal, so that when I get home from my trip to find a revision request in my mail box (the power of positive thinking), I'll be ready to mail it within a week or two.

As my own form of motivation, I've added some photos of my hero and heroine, Owen and Tess (quite a hot couple, huh?).

Enjoy.

Disney...here we come!

Now that we've spilled the beans about our upcoming trip to our kids, I can post as many pictures as I like. Yay! Although my oldest daughter wasn't quite as excited as I thought she'd be, I think that has more to do with her not truly understanding what it means to go to Disney. And my youngest doesn't understand any of it, but I know she'll love it just the same.

The only time I've been to Disney was when I was 6, and I still remember it as being a truly magical experience. I can't wait to share it with my kids! We're having breakfast with Cinderella, and she is getting her hair done up like a princess at the Bipitty Bopitty Boutique (my youngest doesn't have enough hair for that *g*). It's going to be soooo much fun! *squee*

All I have to do now is hope that I don't get a big fat R right before our trip.

Keep your fingers crossed...