Black Friday, Cyber Monday and other things to keep me from thinking about the contest

Only a few more weeks left before the results of the Harlequin Presents contest are announced. The editors posted generic feedback as to the biggest problems they are seeing the most frequently among appropriate contest entries (that is, they're not counting the entries that are off base content-wise). And the resulting list of "sins" was a real downer. I can't tell which I might have toed the line on and which times I definitely sinned. It's so much easier to do penance when there's a priest in the confessional.

Meanwhile Americans are gearing up for the big Turkey Day and then Black Friday Sales. I have a friend who said she wasn't going to spend money, but she was more than willing to stay up all night with anyone who wanted to go. I paled a little at the thought of shopping for anything at 4:00 AM.

I'll be working in a retail shop (it's the only way I get near a store the Friday after Thanksgiving) so I won't be buying anything. I will likely be contributing to the more recent "Cyber Monday" phenomenon by making internet purchases this weekend that will get processed and tabulated Monday of next week and add that much needed revenue bump online retailers are looking for.

I haven't heard this year's predictions about whether Black Friday really will put anyone back in the black (last year they predicted it wouldn't) but everything is cautiously rosy this year so who knows. Maybe it'll be a good weekend, and maybe I didn't commit as many writing sins as I thought I did--cautiously rosy.

When Life Hands You Lemons (and other ubiquitous phrases)

Tonight I sit in bed with a glass of wine and a nice smutty book because what I need to do is relax and that would seem the best way to do it.

Sometimes there are just things in life that happen that you can't control. Sometimes they're things you can fix (or try to fix) like a stranger charging several hundred dollars on your credit card, but the process is slow. You find out, you get angry, you try to fix it, you think you've fixed it, two months go by and you find out that it hasn't been fixed. You get angry again. You contact them again. You mail them a letter this time because when you called them last time around you could barely understand the operator and the operator didn't have a fucking clue. You write the letter, proof read the letter, delete the paragraph where you talk about how pissed off you are, write a new, improved paragraph about how pissed off you are, then mail the letter.

If you haven't guessed, I'm talking about myself.

I've got to lower my blood pressure and calm down (there's no point in staying angry until they call or reply) . I could spend days in this bad mood, I know I did when I first found out. Instead I'm going to read one of the two ebooks I found lurking on my hard drive that I haven't yet read. Kate Hardy's Hotly Bedded, Conveniently Wedded and Margaret Mayo's Bought for Marriage. I prefer the actual paperback book to the ebooks (I usually have a headache by the time I'm done reading a book on the computer) but I've just now order paperbacks and they won't be here in time for my self pampering, blood pressure lowering reading needs.

All I can say is that thankfully Harlequin doesn't ask for my credit card because right now I'm not feeling like giving that number out to anyone ever again.

Holiday Season and Getting Ready

Tuesday was only the third day of November but already I had people (students) reminding me of how close we were to Christmas. And -- eep! -- we are.

I'm am NOT one of those people who thinks Christmas should be celebrated (promoted) as early as possible, but I am partial to Christmas beginning (slowly) anytime after Halloween. Face it, day light savings time has ended and it's dark outside before you even leave home, you would totally love some decorative lights blinking around outside as you walk or drive.

If you're like me and you spend your holidays (all of them) bouncing around from one house to another and never have any of the events at your own place, you start to wonder when it'll be best to decorate. There's a certain date that if you pass it it hardly seems worth the effort to decorate. I'm thinking that next weekend (not this coming one but the one after) I'll do some decorating. It'll be about mid-month and that'll be a good time to start. Not with all my decorations at once, but maybe I'll buy some greens like a wreath or a garland and hang them without any decorations on them. I'll get around to the baubles and knickknacks later. In the meantime I need to start putting together my Christmas card list. I'll need to get those out early if I'd like to see any responses.

There are so many things to do this month to keep my mind off the fact that I'm waiting to hear back from Harlequin.

Hit SEND, baby, and call it done!

I took *most* of the advice of my critiquer ... I should have probably followed more of her suggestions, I just didn't have the time or imagination to work in everything so I decided that I might need to leave some flaws in there in order to not make big, glaring plot holes that I couldn't fill in a day.

I'm amazed by Harlequin's proposed turn around time on the contest: Deadline on Nov. 2 and winner's announced Nov. 30. I'm a teacher and I feel like I'd never get that much grading done in that time frame. Then again, they're not trying to teach the entrants they're just accessing the writing ... and they're getting paid a lot more ... and they can have a team of editors instead of just one poor teacher up in front of the room ... and they can put aside some projects to read the entries and they don't have to come up with lesson plans day to day ... and ... dang it, why aren't I an editor and not a teacher?

Oh, yes: because I want to be a writer.

Here's me (and several other hundred women) keeping my fingers crossed that I'll get a request for a partial ... or full ... or win. :)

Synopsis Done!

I haven't finished working on my first chapter for the Harlequin Presents new writer contest, but I have finished my synopsis! It's EXACTLY two pages double spaced. And no, I did not play with the font or the margins: they are standard.

The first chapter is just under 3000 words (the max allowed is 5000 words) and I'm wondering if I want to end the chapter where I think I should end it or if I want to keep going and add another section to it.

I was really thankful for Waiting for the Call's advice that the synopsis shouldn't be plot as much as it's character and conflict. I went through and wrote it out the first time through as plot (kept that version to help me write the full novel) and then went back and edited it so that it only had character and conflict to make the synopsis.

I also had an "aha!" moment earlier this week when I realized that I had an extra character tucked away in my early scenes to facilitate the action between the hero and heroine. In real life I'm certain this assistant/solicitor type character really would have been the person to contact the heroine on the hero's behalf (given the situation) but now he's just bogging down the story. I have to get him into the scene, flesh him out as a character and get him out of the scene again (and then never bring him back after chapter four) and that's just not a tight enough focus for a 50,000 word novel. So he's gone, gone gone!

October? Already?

Where, oh where did September go? You know what this means. It means the leaves are about to change round abouts where I live. It means allergy season's over and flu season's about to begin. It means only one more month until my PRESENTS contest entry has to be turned in!

The good news and the bad? There's only one tree from my window that's starting to turn yellow, I think I'm coming down with something, and I'm more confused then ever as to which story I'm submitting.

I should just pick one and go with it, right? (Or at least that's the advice that I think I would give me if I were reading this.) But what I think my fundamental issue comes down to is the decision between Presents Modern and Modern Heat.

I've read the blogs and the interviews that tell aspiring authors not to worry over much about the distinction between Modern and MH because that's something the editors can figure out for you. But what I'm feeling is the struggle inside of me not the struggle inside of my story. My stories know which line they want to fall into ... I just have to decide what kind of woman I am and pick between them.

I like the idea of MH. At least, I like it on paper. But when I find myself reading both Modern and MH I always end up liking the Moderns better. What's a girl to do?

I love the notion of savvy, sassy, career girls with gorgeous Alpha males ... and so I always try to make my heroines capable women not damsels in distress. And maybe that's the tension I'm feeling in the MH novels I'm reading: the supposedly capable woman is being turned into a damsel in dsitress. Maybe that's what's causing dischord.

So overwhelmed

Life has caught up with me. I'm a teacher, I've gone back to grad school, and I really, really, really want to enter a chapter and synopsis in the Harlequin Presents Contest which ends November 2.

Good news? I found a great new cheap red wine (something to get me through this process). Nice and smooth for a great low price. I'll tell you about that tomorrow.

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Over the weekend I read The Billionaire's Bride of Vengeance by Miranda Lee (which was great except the ending felt a little too pat--if they'd only give the author another 50 pages I think she could have solved that problem) and then I read the transcript from the live chat with Presents editors regarding the competition. One of the things editor Joanne Grant talks about caught my attention and interest:

An author on the Romance Writers of Australia mentioned today that her editor reminded her of the need to write to a line’s core themes because that was what the readers where after. Could you tell us what such core themes are for MH and Presents?

JG: Core themes for the line are alpha males, glamourous international settings, a variety of heroes: Greek, Italian, Sheikhs… The Cinderella fantasy e.g. housekeepers, boss/secretary stories, secret babies, marriage of conveniences, accidental pregnancies… Wow — there is a lot! I would say by taking a look at the series, even by reading the back cover for a couple of months you can see the types of themes.

So. Interesting position I find myself in. This Q&A has really helped me think past my previous notion of "secret babies" and "marriages of convenience." I used to think they were too trite for me to write (but I'd gladly read them!) but now it's all about spinning it into something new.

Actually, what's helpful for me to see is the Cinderella fantasy beneath all of these themes. Because the Presents Line isn't just about two people falling in love it's about falling in love and feeling like Cinderella. It's not just that love has transformed your life but that all the trappings of your world have changed, thus the emphasis on very rich men and very exotic locals. It's all about the heroine (or hero) feeling like a fish out of water as the world she is used to gets challenged and tested.

Now that I can see that core structure underneath the often whirlwind and materialistic actions in the stories I think I know better how to write a Presents romance and not just a romance.

... if only all this eye opening chose a story for me! In fact, all it's done is give me a marriage of convenience plot idea!

Flip Floppping

As soon as I think I have one idea going another one bonks me on the head.

I had two notions of what I might do for the PRESENTS 2009 contest, one more Modern Heat one more Presents. I started working on the Presents story. Thought it was going to be my entry. Now, now I'm thinking of going back to the Modern Heat story because it has more humor and potentially a little more punchy plot conflict.

Unfortunately, it might be old school conflict. Is the ex-lover showing up too old school romance? I Heart Presents recently posted on the cliches of romance. Am I doing it? Am I trapped? Am I over thinking things? Probably the latter. I need to write it all out first before I can fix it.

Two months and only two months left before that contest runs out. My life is about to get busier with the school year starting and I'm still stalling and flip flopping.

Ack.