I haven’t done one of these in a while…
That was one loooooooonggggggg weekend. Youngest Son arrived Thursday morning, and we just dropped him off at the airport again last night. Had a wonderful visit, and Thanksgiving dinner at my parents’ Sunday went off without a hitch. Now it’s back to work! I’m happy to report that (I think) I’m finally getting a grasp on the revisions for my single title. My mind really struggled with them all of last week. It’s nice what good a little break can do.
I also entered Penny’s December ’09 Secrets novella, KISS ME AT MIDNIGHT, in the RITA yesterday. The RITA was open to entries from major-a.k.a.-RWA-eligible publishers for the last three weeks, but just opened up to entries from non-vanity/non-subsidy-but-otherwise-non-RWA-eligible-publishers yesterday (ie. mainly e-pubs, which includes Red Sage now even though the Secrets print anthologies have been around for years and were always considered RWA-eligible or whatever the vernacular was at the time, until Red Sage opened an epub division and had to bow out of RWA-eligible status because of the whole low-advance thingie for the ebooks). I had no clue when I went to enter if the RITA was full up yet or not. So I was glad to get in. Not that Penny’s novellas tend to do well in the RITAs. They don’t. They get good (dare I say great, like 4 stars from Romantic Times?) reviews and my readers seem to enjoy them, but all that hot sex…that’s my excuse for them not doing well in RITA, and I’m sticking to it, LOL.
KISS ME AT MIDNIGHT began life as a sexy novella targeted to the now dearly departed Legendary Editor of Kensington Brava. In the first version, the sexual relationship between the hero and heroine didn’t begin until about 75% through the story, although there were lots of sparks. When that sale…didn’t occur (I won’t go into details other than that the editor no longer felt the love for the hero and the story concept)…I submitted the story as was to my first Secrets editor. She told me she loved it and was sending it up the line for approval—just when she was leaving her position to focus on her own writing career. Somehow, the submission went…awry…I was assigned a new editor and told to re-sub the story. I did, and received a form rejection. What a blow! After my first editor wanted to buy it, that set me back. So I emailed the new editor and asked for details, upon which she informed me that it needed to pack a lot more heat for her tastes, but that I could revise and resubmit if I wished.
I decided to do that, but first I wanted to try a new novella with her to make sure I knew from the get-go what she wanted. I wrote and submitted (and sold) the story that became Penny’s second sale and appeared in Secrets 26 last December. Then I finally submitted the revised version of KISS ME AT MIDNIGHT to my new (second) Red Sage editor. And then she left the house, LOL. Finally, I was assigned to the new Managing Editor, who bought the revised version of the story with one minor change to an early scene. So it was a long, hard battle to get that story onto the shelves. And it just goes to show how subjective publishing is, especially when you consider the difference in response between Secrets editor #1 and #2.
Why am I telling you all this, you ask? It’s my convoluted way of getting back to the subject of the RITAs. I have hope that KISS ME AT MIDNIGHT will do better in the contest than either of Penny’s first two novellas, because the H/h hold off on consummating their relationship until the 40% point. Erotic novellas don’t often final in the RITAs, and KISS ME AT MIDNIGHT is the least erotic of all three novellas Penny has sold thus far. Therefore, regardless of whether it finals or not, I expect it to fare better overall. Now watch, just because I came out and said that, it’ll do the worst of all three!
Well, I’m just glad the contest was still open to entries and that I made it in to have another kick at the can.
How about you? How’s your week faring? Any accomplishments or setbacks to report? (I know of someone with a major accomplishment, but I won’t out her as I understand she has some…paperwork to do first).