Rejected!

Say it loud say it proud ladies! Open the champagne and drink to my successful failure! My AMSS query letter and synopsis result came back as a standard R form and while Miss Disappointment has reared her head demanding I wallow I’m resisting. Sure a lot of work went into the MS but the rejection's based on only a QL and synopsis which is unfortunately all that is requested for the first stage of submission to Silhouette Desire in NY and they're probably not my strong point. Of course it could also mean that my writing and ideas are horrendous but I prefer Option A for obvious reasons :-) Still, I completed a MS, submitted and someone in that office read my work (and hated it, lol!) and that's a little success all by itself.

For anyone waiting to hear, it took about two months from submission for the letter to find its way back to me.

On a more positive note I am writing again but only one MS which is hard for me because there’s a competition deadline and if I get stuck or blocked I don’t really have the luxury of switching between stories. We’ll just have to see how this one goes!

Reading Addiction

I have a reading addiction.

It’s quite harmful really. Eye strain. Procrastination. I could live under a rock with a pile of books and that would be just fine… so I guess my socialization skills are going down the toilet too?

I don’t know a single writer who doesn’t like to read. I buy books before clothes, shoes and bags, which should say something since I really do love clothes, shoes and bags. I can spend hours reading but my FAVORITE moment is that second you close the back cover of a book and realize you’ve discovered a new author that you L.O.V.E!

All of a sudden you desperately have to read all of his/her books.

Enter Ebay.

Yes. I am also an Ebay-aholic because, let’s face it, it has cut book buying costs in half, you can ALWAYS find the book you want (eventually) and usually at a price that doesn’t make you buy beans for the rest of the month.

I love books that wrench your emotions and that have you climbing the walls alongside your characters. I love emotional conflict. That being said, EC is also the bane of my life. It’s not something that just spontaneously appears in all of my work. Sometimes I have to work for it. Sometimes I have to bleed for it. Sometimes I have to gain a couple of pounds from eating chocolate for it.

I just posted a query letter and synopsis for the Australian Magnate’s Secretive Secretary (AMSS) to NY and I’m feeling good, even while holding my breath, trying not to talk myself into a premature rejection grave or eat all my hair. But I’ve also read that the most common rejection response is that a piece of work is missing those two little words: emotional conflict.

AHHH!

May your work never lack emotional conflict.

Have you submitted a piece of work lately? Are you engaged in wrestling match with emotional conflict? Have you discovered a new author everyone should read?