Hello.....

....welcome to my blog on writing, reading and living in London ......

Thursday 30 September 2010

New Voices results

Rats! I didn't get placed in the comp, in fact I didn't get anywhere, not a whisker of success. Still with 800-odd entries and some really terrific ones at that I have to admit defeat gracefully. Well, not defeat exactly as we all live to fight another day. I still have a partial with M&B and we can all submit again through the normal channels. It's just so nice to have a quick response rather than have to wait. Nevertheless, Romance HQ have taken pity on us all and offered a further ten entrants the chance of having their chapters critiqued. All you have to do to enter the draw is to go on the New Voices website and log in your request to be included - they will then pull names from the hat. So, guys, it's not all over. Good luck yet again!

Wednesday 22 September 2010

New Voices - finally, I posted my entry......

Phew!!!! After ages of writing, re-writing, throwing what I'd done in the bin and starting again I have finally posted an entry on to Mills and Boon's New Voices competition site.

It's incredibly difficult knowing how one's writing will be out there for all the world to see. Strange really, as I have a number of things published with My Weekly and People's Friend but of course these have been passed by an editor and purchased. That gives you faith in yourself. But to put something up that no editor has read and approved as worth having is an entirely different matter. Anyhow my cheesily titled entry is 'Cougar Mum, Cub Dad.' Yes I know it's an awful title but it does what it says on the tin. I wanted to do something different and thought the idea of an older woman and younger man might buck the trend a bit although of course that is a trend that is happening in spadefuls in real life. Mills and Boon are pretty good at keeping up with trends which is one of the things that makes them so successful. So, if you fancy going to have a read of my entry, it's at romanceisnotdead.com and you just have to put my name or that cheesy title into the search box for it to come up.

It's been great looking at the entries although I have been so busy with other things I didn't have nearly enough time to read as many as I wanted or to post comments but I have looked at a couple of really excellent ones, far better than mine. The M&B dream is not dead, just slumbering....... Good luck to all the entrants and hurrah to everyone for making it such an interesting comp.

Thursday 2 September 2010

New opportunities at Embrace

One of the really good bits of news for all of us romance writers and readers is the opening of opportunities with Embrace, a new imprint of Salt Publishing. At a time when there is a lot of gloom around about supermarkets grabbing book sales and dominating the market, e-publishing is really coming into its own. Embrace have two different 'heat' lines and have just acquired their first manuscripts. They offer useful tips for new writers on their website at embracebooks.co.uk and are not afraid to look at innovative and adventurous romance. I'm sure we all wish them the best of luck with a really exciting new venture.