A Time For Everything

 

 

It's been a long time coming -- but Finders Keepers will finally be released.

When I flew to Oregon in March of 2022 to take care of my mom, I left this book in the lurch. It was probably 50% done at the time, but my time, attention, and energy was focused on Mom, the rest of my family, and our IT/MSP business. There was little left over at the end of the day for creative pursuits requiring brain power. I could (and did) read books. But write them...not a chance.

Once Mom passed, it took another two-an-a-half years for me to be interested in picking up where I left off. For a while there, as some of you may remember, I wasn't even sure I'd get back to writing at all.

But here I am, blessed with more creative ideas than ever and very excited to, at long last, have Nate and Wesley's romance done and ready to go out into the world.

That will happen November 17 -- eight years to the day that my very first book, For the Love of Scott, was published.

 * * * * *

Some things aren’t lost… Just waiting to be found.

When Nate Hennessy finds a battered stranger in the back seat, his first instinct is to pass the responsibility off to someone else. He’s spent years shouldering burdens that were never his to bear.

Nate convinces Wesley to go to a local hospital, fully intending to walk away, but fate steps in, turning a single good deed into something more.

Wesley Byerly never imagined his life would intersect with that of a professional hockey player's—let alone find a guardian angel in the Omaha Locomotives’ newest goalie.

What starts as a simple act of compassion soon spirals into something neither man expected.

Nate has valid reasons to avoid attachments. Wesley learned to never want more.

But the lines between temporary and forever start to blur, and soon they’ll have to choose between continuing their solitary lives or risking the callings that define them to keep what they've found.

 

Not going to bore with the changes in my life again. At least, not today.

Today, I'm going to talk a little bit about the changes to the publishing industry as they pertain to the romance genre and to me.

The publishing world has never been more author friendly than it is right now. Authors finally have some power. With the growth and advancements of the Internet, authors can self-publish their books with just the click of a button. An aspiring author no longer has to pay their dues, if you will, writing book after book all the while honing their craft and learning the industry until they can get their work in front of a gatekeeper, also known as an agent or editor. Although, if they're smart and realistic, they will take their time to learn their craft.

When I first joined RWA in 2003, one of the largest writing/genre specific organizations in the world, an aspiring author entered contest after contest getting feedback on their work, learning from those who had gone before. If they were good enough, perhaps that final round editor or agent requested a partial or full manuscript for consideration. If they were super lucky, they got a contract and became a published author.


Sadly, many people think they can write a good book. It's not really as easy as it looks, at least not for most people. Sure, the stars align for some authors and they can bang out nearly perfect prose in a single try, but most writers require critique partners, editors, and several rounds of revisions for the end product to be fit for public consumption.

And while the changes in the industry are mostly a good thing in general and for authors as a whole, I think something's been lost.

Since aspiring authors can become published authors on a whim (this is what fan fiction is for, people!), the plethora of bad books out in cyberspace is a sad commentary on just how easy it is. Since pretty much all the books I read are free, I don't feel sad or guilty about not finishing a book should it not live up to my standards.

Am I too picky? Are my standards too high? Am I fighting a losing battle? The answer may well be yes to all these questions, but my time is limited and I'm not wasting any more of it than necessary on reading badly written books. But I digress.


I generally judge two contests a year, including ours. It used to be that decent first chapters were the norm, and I'd come across a truly awful entry every other year or so. The rest were okay, showcasing various levels of experience and proficiency both in a sub-genre and with grammar, spelling, and punctuation in general. Now, the awful entries are the norm and the even the decent ones only come along once in a great while.

The impetus for this post was the awful contest entry I judged this weekend. It was sad. When I read entries like this, I really want to ask: DON'T YOU READ ROMANCE NOVELS??? Of course with the glut of so many bad books available, maybe they do. And this is the result.

Last post, I mentioned the new Wii Fit and the three pounds I committed to lose by 2-22.

Well, last night, the kids and I got on the Wii. I was pleased to find that I've already lost 1.7 pounds. All I did was switch to water and get one trip around the block. I walked again this morning, this time fighting my excited dog who wanted to check out every sound and smell. That oughtta burn some calories!

I'm feeling a bit better, not so much physically as mentally. My outlook seems just a bit more up.

On another note, I received back my entry times three from the contest I entered. I say times three because you enter one story and it is judged by three judges--so I get three sets of feedback.

But contests are so subjective--all three judges gave me great feedback. I got helpful comments from all, but I had to laugh because one really liked my heroine, but felt she didn't know much about my hero. Another liked my hero, but felt she didn't know much about the heroine. The other loved it and and would have requested it had she been an editor.

I had been feeling a bit unsure about continuing my quest for publication, thinking my true talent lie elsewhere. But even the worst of my three sets of feedback showed me that I can do this thing. So I will continue on as best I can. I think I'm going to research contests, looking for ones that have editors from my targeted publisher, Harlequin. Meanwhile, I'll continue to work on my MS, editing, revising, and polishing the prose till it shines.