The appeal of fantasy

In real life, I want responsible behavior from others, well-adjusted children, a considerate mate, and good books. I also want perfect weather, reasonable prices for the commodities I buy, and high quality television programming. But reality doesn’t work like that, which has a great deal to do with why I need good books.

The funny part is what makes a great life is dull fiction. In the Lord of the Rings there comes a point in the journey when the weary travels stop with the elven people for bit and all is pleasant and serene. The author sums up this part of the story with a few words, saying there’s little to tell of happy times. The drama we avoid in real life makes fiction compelling. Conflict is the heart of entertaining stories.

My enjoyable reads are far from reality. I love submarine stories. Patrick Robinson and James H. Cobb both have series, which deserve to be better known. I know nothing about submarines, warfare, or any aspect of their story worlds. I know nothing about secret agents, which only adds to the appeal of James Bond adventure. The special world of regency romance is guaranteed to charm me. Favorite stories are always far from my everyday life and far from the stories that I write. This makes them ideal for escaping into an alternate reality.

Bad boys part two

Bad boys taught me about sex - of course. Who else?

They taught me some real useful stuff too. How to drive. How to hotwire a car, pick a lock, siphon gas, play poker, hunt, fish, maintain a car, clean, and cook. Some of these basic survival skills I don’t use much any more. Some I’ve refined--mainly the cooking and cleaning.

What is it that makes bad boys sooo irresistible? They’re smart, strong, the very best of men but wild and uncivilized. They appeal to the healer/nurturer side of good women. It’s not sensible, it’s not safe, it’s not even sane. But there it is--the lure of being the one woman who could heal his wounds and tame him.

The appeal of the bad boy is exactly the same as the appeal of the wild stallion (usually black) that only the little girl has a magical connection with and can ride.

I have a soft spot for bad boys, no doubt about it. I even married one. What makes a bad boy marriage material? An honorable core. Deep down underneath all that smoldering attitude is a nice guy. Early on when I was just learning about men and life I wasn’t any good at seeing past the exterior, which made trying to tame bad boys a dangerous game.

It was sheer luck, finding a bad boy who was at heart a wonderful man.

Publication Quest

Made it through the first pass of the current story. There are still scenes to add--but only a couple and they are at least sketched in. Setting, details, lots of stuff still needs work but the big changes are in place. The story is alive in my head again. The niggling formatting issues are cleaned up since I know what publisher gets this story is going and I have their style sheet! Already pitched the lovely editor and she said go for it.

Current year's goals updated

1) Continue to study and learn the craft of writing.
2) Three submissions – done – follow up with a sequels* to each-- two sequels in progress!
3) In roads into the TBR shelves

Progress report

1) Reading craft stuff -- Painless Grammer-- very elemental makes me feel smart!

2) Six submissions sent! Two novels, one novella x two, and one short x two

Status:

One sale – three rejections – two waiting to hear from the publishers

Timeline:

Number one: resting (revisions next year?)

Number two: Sold! Tasteful acquiring editor explained it will be months before an editor is assigned to work with me ... actual release date? Some time next year is my best guess.

Number three: Resubmitted--new estimated response time--four to six weeks

Number four: Resubmitted – new estimated response time – five weeks--eleven months one week **

TBR shelves are substantially cleaned up-culled never to be read titles, and read a couple. Didn’t buy any books all week! I realize it’s only one week but I need to celebrate the little steps.

*Yes, I do admit this is an insane plan, but I need to stay busy. If I have idle time I become even more neurotic and imagine unpleasant things. Far better to put my twisted mind to work developing more dangerously sexy stories.

** Tasteful review editor wrote that she liked it and moved it to acquiring editor’s inbox. Sadly, acquiring editor’s inbox is overflowing

Bad boys part one

So the other day, I was thinking about how to become Myspace famous, well sort of … what I was really trying to do what figure out how to promote my book. The experts tell me that it’s like planning a wedding--a year of lead-time is perfect. I dunno know if I even have a year. But now seems like a good time to get interested in marketing.

For starters, I looked around at the top bloggers. What an odd assortment of content and styles! Going by Myspace blog rankings poetry is making an amazing comeback. Has anyone alerted the big publishing houses? Naked chicks, or nearly naked chicks with tattoos and piercings are very big. Hmmm, no help so far.

So I looked at The Super Jabs blogs (http://www.superjabs.com/ ) because he’s parlayed Myspace success into a sponsored website with advertisers--very impressive. Based strictly on reading a few entries in his blog, he’s funny and opinionated and underneath that rough bad boy exterior lurks the heart of a really sweet guy.

I will continue to study at the Mighty Ball Sack institution of higher education. After all I learned everything I need to know from bad boys.

It’s true. Well bad boys and good books but that’s for another blog. Maybe that’s just how life is--maybe it’s just me. My cousins, bad boys--every single one of them, told me about sex. I didn’t believe them. I was six and admittedly naïve. But I knew they were wrong about Santa Claus and they were wrong about this. After all, I knew how much they liked to tease.

To give them credit, there was a certain logic to their explanation of the mysteries of life. However, I weighed their reputation for honesty (non-existent) against the whopper they’d just told me. Also, I considered the likelihood of their version of human reproduction as applied to what the Queen and her consort would do in order to ensure the continuity of the royal line. I laughed in my cousins’ smug faces, telling them I wasn’t so stupid as to fall for it.

A few weeks later, I interrupted my parents in flagrante delicto, forcing me to admit, just this once, shocking as the whole concept was--the bad boys told the truth.

Talent

I have few talents--come to think of it I don’t have talents. Not the singing, dancing, or artistic kind at least. Everything I do reasonably well, I worked my butt off to learn. Sometimes all the effort in the world doesn't help. Singing is like that for me. I love music and I enjoy singing. Pity. I know better than to subject others to my lack of musicality. But puttering around the house or garden when there is no one around to offend--why not?

The dog before the current spoiled puppy sang with me. In fact, I taught her to sing for a treat. If I sang then she would tip back her head and howl--sirens always got her going too. So I tried to teach holy terror puppy the same trick. I started the howling and she trotted over with a worried look on her face to give me kisses, obviously believing I was suffering serious pain. I decided to cancel her singing lessons and stick with obedience basics for now.

Yesterday, I was working in the yard and began to sing, Night and Day. The pup came trotting over, looking very concerned, and then began licking my face. I stopped singing and she wandered off to chase butterflies. I started singing and she ran over to make it all better with more dog kisses. No more singing in the garden.

Book dumping

The other day I took a serious look at my TBR (to be read) shelves. Yeah, you read that right--shelves. I’m an addicted reader with a serious book habit and fickle tastes. Or maybe just evolving--books and me go way back. To the days of reading forbidden books, like Gone With The Wind by flashlight under the bedcovers. Over the years, what impresses me has changed several times.

Because I read a lot, print titles pile up, despite using the library. They don’t stock everything. Plus there’s the comfort factor of having a nice stash of books on hand. Barnes and Noble stays open till eleven in my neighborhood and I have made late night runs, due to a reading emergency. Emergency defined as not owning the next book in a series when I’d just finished the last one and had an hour till bedtime.

Writing my own stories has curtailed the read habit but not cured it. In fact, it has led to a new problem for the first few years of writing I continued to acquire books at the old pace while my reading time decreased dramatically. This led to the groaning shelves where there used to be a manageable stack.

So yesterday I culled. There’s no resale market--I checked. There was no interest in these titles even on the free book exchange list. The books went into the recycle bin. To discard a book, even a mediocre title with no viable market seems like a sacrilege. Then I read about the mass dumping of books here http://www.romancingtheblog.com/blog/2007/07/19/filling-the-landfills-with-new-books/. Strangely, it made me feel better. It’s not just me.

Myspace collisions with the real world

Background for those of you not part of Myspace--it is a popular social networking site with 190+ million users. All of them functionally literate with regular access to computers. Like the internet itself, the question isn't if the connections you want are there--the question is how to find them.


Yesterday I stopped by the Captains Blog (Josie Majestic) way too often--riveted by the drama of hurt feelings and angry responses among the hoi polloi of the Myspace bloggers.

The Captain was hurt by Jabs endorsement of a poser. The Captain made a valid point--there are real people behind even the most outrageous blogs. Myspace is not real life. The internet is not real life. Some of it is much more entertaining.

Since the last thing I want to do is offend Myspace friends, I need to go make my profile plainer. The pictures I use in my profile are not me. They are images of my story people. Someday when I have cover art, I’ll use that as my avatar. I’m a writer. I write steamy romantic suspense. I write erotica. I write sexy fantasies. I’m here for networking, for entertainment--yours and mine. I’m not looking for real life relationships--just readers and fun.

In real life, I have a husband, children, pets, house, garden, and a passion to create good stories.

Unlike some of the glamorous bloggers who live exciting lives in the 3-D world I don’t. Despite my mundane existence, I’m over-committed. I’m a workaholic and I have no desire to change. I’m obsessive, often cranky, and irrational about a great many things--mainly relating to the amount of things, which are possible to accomplish in any given length of time.

Currently, I’m spending lots of time trying to figure out an effective no-cost marketing plan. Remember that girl Emily? With her billboards and blog? Very effective in terms of generating interest and buzz. Did it translate to viewers for the show? I don’t know. I do know that I want to attract readers who will enjoy the kind of stories I write. Sounds simple, huh?

Lessons from the closet

I don’t know about you but I’m a shoe and purse kind of girl. Yes, it is shallow and materialistic and a total cliché. No, I don’t sniff them. But the cat and dog do. The cat sniffing is relatively harmless. He bats any dangling bits around for a while, and then wanders off to look for a snack.

If the dog gets within sniffing range of unprotected shoes or purses--kiss them goodbye. She acts like a rabid terrier with vermin, ripping and shaking viciously. This mayhem continues until there are no recognizable pieces left. Very sad. Hence the baby gates and hyper-vigilance.

With a decent assortment of shoes and purses available, I still always have a favorite. The most adored selection surprises me. Currently, the number one purse is a squishy oversized tote in valentine red with silver hardware. I almost didn’t buy that purse. It was extravagant, especially considering the color. I didn’t think I’d use it that often. Wrong. Red goes with everything I own. The practical black purses never make it out of the closet any more. It isn’t just the color. There’s a fuchsia tote that rests most of the time and a blue suede bag that never goes anywhere. They simply don’t compare to the red.

For years, my favorite coat was a purple wool concoction I almost passed on when I tried it on in the store. Yes, it fit perfectly. Yes, it felt wonderful and looked better. Yes, it too was extravagant and certainly not very practical. A purple coat--come on. How often would I wear a purple coat? All the time.

The heart soars for reasons of its own. Maybe that’s what I need to learn--love has nothing to do with practicality.

Publication Quest

A big part of success in getting published is finding a good match between your story and the publisher. This is why you hear, right editor, right day so often in writers’ loops. There’s truth to it, timing is a big factor. But here’s what all editors are looking for--stories that will sell well. That’s the editor’s job to acquire the best stories she can for her publisher.

This is why the already successful author has a big edge. So what is an aspiring writer to do? I suspect we each have to find our own answer to this question.

Here’s what I do. Work on becoming a better writer--not a goal but an endless journey and look at which publishers, and or editors I like. No two writers are alike but you can probably come up with a few that are sort of like you that you admire and enjoy, Who publishes them? Who edits them? Who represents them? They might like you too. If you’re pitching to an editor who is looking for your kind of story you’re miles ahead of the game.

BTW, despite what the word meter says I’m making progress on the revising. I may not have a lot more words but many more the current words are the right ones.

This week brought another rejection, I’d almost forgotten it. They’re still not fun mind you. But when I submit to a line that I know has it’s pick of brand name authors, then I’m prepared for the thanks-for-thinking-of-us letter.


Current year's goals updated

1) Continue to study and learn the craft of writing.

2) Three submissions – done – follow up with a sequels* to each-- two sequels in progress!

3) In roads into the TBR shelves


Progress report

1) Reading craft stuff -- character related

Six submissions sent! Two novels, one novella x two, and one short x two

Status: One sale – three rejections – two waiting to hear from the publishers

Timeline:

Number one: resting (revisions next year?)

Number two: Sold! Tasteful acquiring editor explained it will be months before an editor is assigned to work with me ... actual release date? Some time next year is my best guess.

Number three: Resubmitted--new estimated response time--five to seven weeks

Number four: Resubmitted – new estimated response time – six weeks--eleven months two weeks **

TBR shelves is even (as long as I don’t count the virtual shelf, which is growing) – reading two books (one print, one virtual - very slowly) I may as well admit I cheated to keep the stack even I took three books that I’m never going to read off the TBR shelves since I sent away for three, okay four, books that I’m positive I want to read.

*Yes, I do admit this is an insane plan, but I need to stay busy. If I have idle time I become even more neurotic and imagine unpleasant things. Far better to put my twisted mind to work developing more dangerously sexy stories.

** Tasteful review editor wrote that she liked it and moved it on to acquiring editor’s inbox. Sadly, acquiring editor’s inbox is overflowing

Life

Usually on Wednesdays, I blather on about writing craft. But at the moment, something else is on my mind. Apparently, I‘m a bad influence. Until recently, I didn’t realize just how bad.

I was aware that I have a hoodlum cat. He sneaks out of the house night after night, crawling in during the wee hours of morning reeking of smoke, alcohol, and odors best left uninvestigated. He routinely deposits dead bodies in the dining room. This isn’t the kind of behavior that even the most rosy-eyed optimist can spin into adorable antics.

I know the dog is an obnoxious spoiled brat. Lord help me, I’m the one who spoiled her. She believes she’s the center of the universe and carries on until she gets whatever it is she wants. If I foolishly fail to secure a baby gate or door she will dash into the room and empty the wastebasket first then head for the drawers. Laundry is a special treat. She particularly favors my previously worn underwear. Considering her penchant for munching on cat poop, I hesitated even mentioning the part about wearing my underwear on her head. But you have a right to know the whole sordid truth.

Now things have gotten worse. I have corrupt cookies. Even the cyber world has succumbed to my evil influence. Really, it is the last straw. I never meant to ruin them. I had no idea the computer lacked moral fiber. How did I corrupt the cookies? Was it the careless explicative when the computer locked up? Surely, it takes more than a bit of swearing. I washed its little mouth out several times--virtually speaking. But now that I’m aware of the menace, can I ever trust it to surf again?

Reading report

Yesterday I took a day off, and finished reading Tami Hoag's Dark Horse she's an amazing talent. Great plotting combined with great characterization and lovely writing. Highly recommended to those who enjoy nail-biting suspense.

Ms.Hoag is one of those authors who is still improving, based on my limited sampling of her titles. The first book of hers I read was Kill The Messenger even more powerful than Dark Horse or Ashes to Ashes - IMHO. The three titles mentioned include romance as a minor subplot, if at all.

Writing life

Like every other newbie writer, I'm trying to figure out promotion. What works, what's worth my time and money .... Dunno.

Conventional wisdom says I must at least have bookmarks. Hmmm, okay I'm new and I'm sometimes absolutely thick but what the heck am I gonna do with bookmarks? Aside from admiring them, paying for them, and finding a place for the box that holds them?

Hello, e-published book relates to paper bookmark--how?

Now here's something I think would be truly worthwhile--an e-book mark. Ideally a small program that I can give to readers that works with either PDF or HTM or Doc (pick your format) files and holds the reader's place. Graphics,tag lines, and URLs when you move it or roll over it. When not in use it would stay on screen off to the side of the virtual page. Click and drag of course.

This opportunity free to any ambitious programmers out there. Though, it would be nice if you gave me free lifetime bookmarks .... Seriously there's an unmet need for virtual bookmarks - I read e-books and I have to write the page number I left off at on a sticky note. Gotta be a better way.

Publication Quest

Word count on the current story went backwards (down from 64k to 62k), darn! I knew it would happen. As I work with the previously written story--cutting and writing fresh parts--the cutting goes much faster than the writing. The story people are reshaping in my head and more slowly on the screen as I struggle for the right words to convey their characters. One of the tools that helps with this process are pictures of the characters.

Another good tool for me is understanding the mythical aspects of the romance and why these stories are so endlessly appealing. Real life is filled with frustrations and stories that don’t end well. Justice is not always served, bad things do happen to good people. All genre fiction offers an escape into a story world that makes more sense the real life. It also affirms our core values.

Readers are intelligent--they know the difference between a story and real life. They are not shirking responsibility by reading a romance any more than the baseball fan is blowing off the real world to watch a game of subtle strategy and obscure rules (or so they seems to me). It’s simply a way to take a break and refresh the spirit via entertainment.


Current year's goals updated

1) Continue to study and learn the craft of writing.

2) Three submissions – done – follow up with a sequels* to each-- two sequels in progress!

3) In roads into the TBR shelves


Progress report

1) Reading craft stuff -- character related

Six submissions sent! Two novels, one novella x two, and one short x two

Status: One sale – two rejections – three waiting to hear from the publishers

Timeline:

Number one: resting (revisions next year?)

Number two: Sold! Tasteful acquiring editor explained it will be months before an editor is assigned to work with me ... actual release date? Some time next year is my best guess.

Number three: Resubmitted--new estimated response time--six to eight weeks

Number four: Resubmitted – new estimated response time – one month three weeks--eleven months three weeks **


TBR stack is even (as long as I don’t count the virtual shelf) – reading two books (one print, one virtual - very slowly)

*Yes, I do admit this is an insane plan, but I need to stay busy. If I have idle time I become even more neurotic and imagine unpleasant things. Far better to put my twisted mind to work developing more dangerously sexy stories.

** Tasteful review editor wrote that she liked it and moved it on to acquiring editor’s inbox. Sadly, acquiring editor’s inbox is overflowing

Writing craft

The story I'm working on at the moment is mostly written, alas not all of the words are the right words. I'm struggling to wrap my head around what needs changed. The hero is wrong in almost every appearance. The heroine needs fine tuning. Setting needs to be strengthened. The plot requires changes.

When I think about how to accomplishing these revisions, I considered making multiple passes fixing each thread, and then weaving those all together in a final polishing pass. Not to be confused with the final editing pass. I may still do it that way. But first I need to print it out even with all it's mismatched bits and gaping plot holes. I need to work on paper. Especially when revising.

Thankfully, paper is a renewable resource.

Reading and writing

I've been nibbling away at Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women. Sadly, I had to set down the fiction books. They're good. Too good, I find their stories coming alive in mind and my little brain can only handle one story at a time. It needs to be the one I'm writing.

The hero in my current story is unhappy - nothing wrong with a moody, wounded hero. But this one is irritatingly unhappy. Then late last night his primary defect popped into my head. When I first started this particular book, I was trying to write a more modern, politically correct kind of hero. The kind of guy we want in real life--sensitive, considerate, nice sense of humor, supportive. Great--boyfriend material but not my idea of romantic hero.

I know the Beta boys and Gamma guys have their fans. But the only fantasy I can write well is one I believe in and it has nothing to do with real life. The hero is an Alpha, arrogant, smart, strong, and unreasonable. Frequently, he comes moody, hot-tempered, or down right mean. Of course he has a heart of pure gold buried under all that surly rippling maleness, but unlocking that heart requires a woman of great honor and courage. Since the current heroine is a warrior princess in her own right, she needs an even stronger hero. Not a sensitive soul--best friend kind of guy.

Back to making my namby-pamby dude into an irresistible man.

Writing life

Back to the good stuff! As everyone else runs off to the Romance Writers of American conference, I work away on re-plotting, revising, and reformatting an earlier story.

Not for the first time, I wish I was smart enough to write the perfect words the first time. Not happening. For now I have to content myself with writing less of a disastrous first draft or second, or...

BTW the amazing progress on the top word meter is due for set back soon. True all of those words are written, but I know for a fact many of them are the wrong words. Which means either very slow forward progress or big whacks backwards...

Publication Quest

Big week in the virtual mail box--two letters from tasteful editors!

From the lovely New Concepts Editor, gracious answers to nervous newbie questions. Basically saying we’re busy, we’ll let you know about revisions when an editor is assigned to your book. Meanwhile she sent me a style sheet and formatting samples which kept me busy making my document conform. The author liasion is very nice. He not only answers questions, but volunteers helpful information.

From the discriminating Ellora’s Cave editor a cheering note to let me know she enjoyed my pirate novella and has passed it on to acquiring editor. Woo hoo! She included a warning that they are very busy. It could be a long wait.

Despite having two word meters up, I’m not really writing two books at once. Just coordinating some key points in the continuity. Book two should be done by mid-August then a break for another short story before polishing book two and submitting mid-September. Then who knows perhaps another pirate story before wrapping my head around the final dangerous book.

Current year's goals updated

1) Continue to study and learn the craft of writing.

2) Three submissions – done – follow up with a sequels* to each-- two sequels in progress!

3) In roads into the TBR shelves


Progress report

1) Reading craft stuff –

Six submissions sent! Two novels, one novella x two, and one short x two

Status: One sale – two rejections – two waiting to hear from the publishers **

Timeline:

Number Two: Sold!

Number three: Resubmitted--new estimated response time--seven to nine weeks

Number four: Resubmitted – new estimated response time – two --twelve months


TBR stack is down (as long as I don’t count the virtual shelf) – reading three books (two print, one virtual)

*Yes, I do admit this is an insane plan, but I need to stay busy. If I have idle time I become even more neurotic and imagine unpleasant things. Far better to put my twisted mind to work developing more dangerously sexy stories.

** Tasteful review editor wrote that she liked it and moved it on to acquiring editor’s inbox. Sadly, acquiring editor’s inbox is overflowing - estimated response two--twelve months.

Writing life

So here I am writing away on my new Dangerous story. When a couple of things rattle around in my head and I realize the ending is wrong. Why is my lovely, already envisioned, ending wrong? Because I'm writing book three of the trilogy. The plotted final chapter belongs to book two but the rest of this story needs to be the final book.

Whenever I create a story and populate it with people, the deeper I get into the story world the more real everything becomes, at least in my own rather overtaxed brain. More depth of character means more backstory for me. Most of this never makes it on to the finished page. All this lovely detail is filed away and pretty soon one story becomes a series.

So far, I've only written two stand alone stories and one of those could easily become book two in series. The other is a true stand alone. I'm sure with a little thought it too could bloom into one of group. Why? I have no idea. It is simply the way my head works. My favorites have always been series both as a reader and as a writer. One book is never enough for characters and a story world I adore.

Writing craft

In between writing, reading, and real life, I continue to squeeze studying craft. Because I want to tell an even better story. Because there is so much to learn. Because so many writers share their hard-won wisdom.

Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women is a compilation of essays put together by Jayne Ann Krentz. I checked it out from the library twice before I broke down and bought a copy of my own. But it is a book I need to read and re-read. It is dense with information and rich with with the secrets of the romance sisterhood.

Perhaps it is because I discovered the romance genre late, or maybe it's that I'm simply not very romantic, but the fact is the romance part doesn't come easy to me. Worse, some times it is very hard for me to understand the appeal of popular stories. This is not a good thing when I want a career writing romance.

Most of the women who write romance, edit romance, and publish romance have not struggled with their relationship with the genre. Or if they have they've wisely kept this ambivalence to themselves. For those who want or need to learn more about the timeless appeal of romance novels. This volume offers many answers.

Reading report

I'm reading two books again ..., yes, and it gets worse. Yesterday one of the books called to me and I weakened. Great for the author--bad for me. I'm comforting myself for the lack of discipline with the thought I'm learning from a master. Justification is a great thing - kind of like motivation for characters. If I really work on it I can absolve my self from just about anything.

The book did not pull me in from page one, but it led me gently into the story world effectively enough so I kept reading--pleased with my choice. A character based story conflict (my favorite kind), likable characters, a story world that is exotic to me (Virginia fox hunting estates), and, of course, lovely writing. Even with all these elements going for Fox River, I found it easy to resist reading until my words were done, making the book suitable as a nightly reward.

However, as the story went on my investment in the characters increased making it more and more difficult to put down. Will I read Ms.Richards again? Certainly. But I will save her next title for a reward read. One I open only when the current project is completed.

Publication Quest

I'm going to have to rename this thread eventually. :) Strangely enough I'm not in a big rush for the first book to be released. I'm sure the day will come quickly enough. Meanwhile I've got lots to keep me busy.

Those women (and there are a lot of them) who produce a whole slew of stories each year have my deepest admiration and a bit of envy. They must think and type much faster than I do. Actually, it's the thinking part that really slows me down. As slow and poky as the first draft is - even as I make the key strokes I know it will require another draft and another. Practice improves speed, yet there is still so much to learn and I learn slowly.

Current year's goals updated

1) Continue to study and learn the craft of writing.

2) Three submissions – done – follow up with a sequels* to each-- first sequel in progress!

3) In roads into the TBR shelves


Progress report

1) Reading craft stuff –

Six submissions sent! Two novels, one novella x two, and one short x two

Status: One sale – two rejections – two waiting to hear from the publishers--yes I realize this doesn't add up--one story has been submitted to two publishers--living on the edge here ;)

Timeline:

Number Two: Sold!

Number three: Resubmitted--new estimated response time--eight to ten weeks

Number four: Rejected and resubmitted – new estimated response time – one month

*Yes, I do admit this is an insane plan, but I need to stay busy. If I have idle time I become even more neurotic and imagine unpleasant things. Far better to put my twisted mind to work developing more dangerously sexy stories.

TBR stack is down (as long as I don’t count the virtual shelf) – read a couple of print books