A Man of His Word

Eleanore Gray Update

Before we get to today’s blog, I want to let everyone know (who doesn’t already) that my book Indian Princess will be released in March of 2012–just one year away! It’ll have a new title by then, but the countdown has officially begun!

Now, back to this blog in progress.

Remember this blog from last April on my grandmother Goldie’s book, Eleanore Gray? Well, it’s almost done!

Here’s what’s been happening. I expanded the ending. When I got to the original ending, it glossed over the happily ever after in favor of a recap of the local townsfolk. To me, it felt like it was not only cheating the readers out of closure, but that Eleanore deserved better. The poor woman had suffered a great deal–she deserved a little happiness, too. Upon conferring with my Uncle Jim, Mom, and Dad, we also added a section about how Eleanore’s children were a vital part of the happily ever after, too.

I made some editing changes, too. I am one of those obnoxious people who believes you need a comma before the ‘and’ in a list of three things. I believe it’s called an Oxford comma. Goldie did not subscribe to the Oxford comma theory. I added a lot of commas before Dad also told me he didn’t like those commas, to which I told him, ‘It’s too late. I’m not taking them back out.” We’re in a tense, comma-based détente.

I also took out a few ‘historical’ terms for African Americans. Times have changed since Goldie was working on this book. Let’s just leave it at that.

Beyond that, though, the major addition to this book is what I’m calling “The Collective Biography of Goldie Lucas.” You see, people who remember important things about Goldie, like where she was born and how old she was when she married my grandfather, are harder and harder to come by. I asked Dad to do an ‘About the Author’ for me, and he only had so much to work with. And with three of Goldie’s children already passed on, tracking down stories was a challenge, to say the least.

So we dug deeper. Mom found a folder labelled ‘Reminisces’ that my Uncle Luke, the oldest of the nine kids, had typed up four months before he died. Mom and I emailed various cousins in an attempt to find other memories. It took months to track something for everyone, but in the end, we had each of Goldie’s nine children represented. I added my own part about working on this book, too.

After that, it went through line edits, where the Lovely Mary, Grammar Goddess, read the whole thing with a red pen in hand. I missed a lot of commas, and while I don’t mess up ‘which’ and ‘that’ in my own writing too much, I missed it in this book entirely. Plus, I will never, ever get the hang of ‘toward’ versus ‘towards.’ The Lovely Mary has explained this to me several times–with increasing levels of firmness–and I still blow it. Every time.

Up to now, this has been a project where I’ve been familiar with all the steps. But with the text now edited and finished, I’m about to head right on over to ‘clueless.’ Yes. It’s time to actually publish this baby!

I’ve got a cover image picked out, and the back cover text ready to go. I’m hiring my dear friend Leah Hanlin of Blue Sky Design to format the book into trade paperback size and get the cover set up for me. One of the problems I’ve seen with self-published books is that the 8 1/2 x 11 inch Word Document page gets shrunk down to fit whatever page size the author chooses, leading to a 7 point font. Needless to say, 7 point fonts are not going to win the hearts and minds of seniors, who would be my target audience (esp. those to whom I am related).

After we get the formatting done and the cover finalized, I’m going to run Eleanore Gray through Amazon’s self-publishing arm, CreateSpace. I’ll also have it up as a Kindle e-book, so any time you want to get a copy of it, it’ll be there.

In a few weeks, I’ll tell you more about the actual book–who these people are, who would enjoy reading it, etc. But, like all good things, you have to wait for it!

We Have a Winner!

Big News!

I WON!! Not only that, but I also took Second and Third!!

Maybe I need to back up.

Way back on October 14th, back when there was no snow on the ground, the trees were clinging to the last of their leaves, and I could send The Kid and The Dogs outside for the entire afternoon without being deemed a poor mother, I was notified Indian Princess had finaled in the Golden Rose, which I wrote about here. The next week, I got word that both Indian Princess and The Wannabe Cowboy had finaled in the Hot Prospect contest, which I’m sure you read all about here.

So, I just bet you were wondering how that turned out, huh?

I found out that Princess had gotten second in the Golden Rose a few weeks ago. No one-of-a-kind, handcrafted gold rose pendant; no gold-plated rose. Not even an editor request. I consoled myself with the fact that I had actually sold this book a week before the announcement. Oddly enough, this fact was quite consoling. I took my second place and called it a day.

I was going to blog about it, because I know that you, loyal reader(s), like to, as my mother says, “Wallow in the good news.” (Or maybe that’s just her?) I had every intent of blogging–but I was going to wait until I got the Hot Prospect results.

Sadly, this little thing called ‘the holidays’ happened, derailing contest announcements until everyone had gotten tipsy off of eggnog (seriously, who drinks that stuff?) and finished the panicked last-minute stuffing of Christmas Cards with the wrong year on them (not that I did that!) (Okay, maybe I did. I’m, uh, wishing you holiday greetings a year in advance!).

Finally, last week, word came down: Indian Princess had not only won its category, but it had been named the Grand Prize Winner! I get STUFF! A book trailer, active banner, and static banner from Firebird Web Designs! I’ll be talking with Carol of Firebird some time today (assuming that The Kid having a snow day doesn’t derail my every waking thought, because very little writing happens with The Kid spinning in my office chair).  Leanne Morgena of Wild Rose Press invited me to send in a partial, but again–I’ve already sold this book. I’ll have to pass.

I don’t want Wannabe Cowboy to feel bad–it did get third, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Actually, I kind of like being able to say I got First, Second, and Third!

Next up is the Golden Heart, which is the national contest through the Romance Writers of America. I sent both Princess and Wannabe off, as well as my single-title book, Mystic Cowboy.

I’m even more excited about this at the moment because I just got my judging packet in the mail today, and the first entry was pretty good. In every contest I’ve judged, I’ve had a finalist entry–Elizabeth Essex and Heather Snow. Both sold soon after. I’ve become friends with both. It’s exciting to think there might be another kindred spirit in my packet, just waiting to be read. Or that someone else has my stuff and is thinking the same thing.

Will I final in the Golden Heart? With which book? Will the dress I’m going to be wearing for my sister Leah’s wedding work for the reception ceremony? Will I have a winner? Will any of my friends be finalists with me? (You know who you are, Laurel and Rebecca!)

Can I wait the three months to find out about finaling? And the six month to the awards ceremony???

What was that New Year’s Resolution? Oh, yeah.

Patience.

A Preview of 2011

Hi! How was your break? Crazy? Mine, too! It’s been a while, so let’s do a super-fast recap of 2010 so you, loyal reader(s), are all caught up.

1. I sold my novel, Indian Princess, to Stacy Boyd at Harlequin. It’ll be out sometime in 2012.
2. She’d like me to do three or four books a year.
3. I’m going to be busy.

Yes, it was a wild n’ wacky Authorial year around here. In other Mom news:

4. The Kid started kindergarten and lost three teeth two weeks before Christmas. I think he grew about four inches, developed a serious fascination with art (and an artistic flair for drama), and discovered superheroes in a big, bad way.
5. My sister Leah got pregnant and is due in three months; my sister Hannah got her adoption paperwork approved. The Kid is ecstatic about forthcoming babies he can play with.
6. My husband’s company relocated ‘global headquarters’ to Philadelphia. We spent about a month wondering if that meant we would have to relocate, too. The answer appears to be no. For now.
7. Jake the Three Legged Wonder Weiner got older. He’s now on regular medications to keep his poor little three legs working. Beat the alternative, though.
8. Gater the Four Legged Mutt got mellow(er). Things get chewed in our house at a significantly reduced rate.

Yes, 2010 was a special kind of crazy. Will 2011 be any different? A Preview:

1. The Kid will struggle and resist learning to read and write. And after the hysterics have passed, he’ll demand I read him a story. He will also refuse to learn to tie his shoes or ride a bike without training wheels. No word on if he’ll figure out how to use his inside voice while actually inside. He will, however, master memorization and the use of gauche as a medium. He’s weird like that.
2. I’ll go to lots of baby showers and hopefully meet multiple babies. My sister Leah will also get married to a swell guy. The family parties will be loud and fun, and Thanksgiving next year will be a whole new world.
3. The whole family will load up in the car for a road-trip to New York City for a family vacation/RWA Conference. I hope, hope, hope to be a finalist in the Golden Heart Contest, which will give me the chance to wear my bridesmaid dress a second time (see #2 above).
4. I’ll write at least two more books for Stacy Boyd. Maybe three.

So, as you can see, 2011 will be its own special kind of crazy. Part of what makes it fun is people like you. I hope you’ll keep making this journey with me!

My Editor

I blush to even say that out loud.

My.

Editor.

*chills*

The following is a super-condensed version of the conversation I had with the lovely Stacy Boyd, Senior Editor of the Harlequin Desire line. Super-condensed, that is, because it happened two weeks ago, and I had enough turkey during the course of the last week to render some parts of my brain permanently soporific. Plus, the parts of my brain that are not in a continuing turkey-coma are toting up a to-do list that is stunning–as in, I keep walking around with a stunned, I-can’t-believe-it’s-almost-December, do-you-have-any-idea-how-much-crap-I-have-to-do? look on my face. Do they make a concealer for that?

Whoops. Just realized that what followed “The following” in the previous sentence was not actually the super-condensed conversation with My Editor. Did I mention the soporific stunnedness going on over here? My apologies. Onward to the highlights!

1. Stacy said, and I quote, “If I don’t write it down, I don’t remember it,” as she worked her way down the long list of things she had to tell me. This is the exact moment when I knew Stacy and I were going to work together well, because I say that about once a week.

2. Stacy needed a list that long because she’s used to working with published authors. I’m the first ‘new’ author she’s signed in some time, and there’s a lot to know.

3. She was going to pitch Indian Princess to a different line at Harlequin–but on the second read, decided to keep it for herself.

4. It won’t be called Indian Princess for a lot of really good reasons, including but not limited to the fact that there’s no actual princess in it. The title will be determined by a lot of factors, most of them out of my control.

5. Indian Princess won’t be out until 2012. This is an eternity to anyone not familiar with the publishing world, but here’s the two main reasons–it takes time to get a book ready for publication (I could be off, but I counted about seven hands/departments it’s got to pass through), and they already have the 2011 releases lined up.

6. The Wannabe Cowboy is a great concept–but wrong for the Desire line (because my hero is dirt-poor). Stacy wants to build me up as a Desire author first, so the Wannabes are going to have to wait a few years before they make it to the great wide world.

7. If I can do it, she’d like to release two books from me in 2012.

8. Since she liked the ideas I’d been kicking around for two weeks, maybe I could plan on three books for 2012.

9. I should go ahead and send her the first three chapters and a synopsis for the next book.

We talked about a lot of stuff–over an hour of me pacing and her going down her list–but those are the highlights. I’ll have more details as I either remember them or as they crop up.

Now excuse me, but I’ve got some chapters to crank out.

Thanks

Yes, this is a week early, but Thanksgiving week is kind of crazy around the ol’ Authorial Household, so HAPPY THANKSGIVING a week early!

Thanksgivings are a time of comfortable, familiar traditions. For instance, if you read my blog from last Thanksgiving here, or the one before it here, you’d know exactly what I am and continue to be thankful for.

This year, I’m going to flesh out the list of things I’m thankful for a little more:

1. Patience. Not so much in me, of course–patience is one of my revolving New Year’s Resolutions, something I always need to work on. No, I’m more thankful for other people’s patience. I’m thankful for my husband’s patience when I babble on about imaginary people’s lives at dinner. I’m thankful for the Lovely Mary’s (Grammar Goddess) patience to put up with me at work, and willingness to read every single book. I’m thankful for my family’s patience (and willingness to bite their tongues) when I do something they think is stupid–but they support me anyway. And I can’t begin to tell you how thankful I am that The Kid has a wise, patient kindergarten teacher. Patience. It’s a wonderful thing.

2. Those who are here. Gram is now officially 95 1/2. Every year we get with her is another year to be thankful for. Similarly, my great-aunt just broke her hip at age 90–but is improving every day. I didn’t go to a single funeral this year. In a time filled with war, terror, and random acts of violence, I’m thankful that my family has been spared from tragedy.

3. Those who aren’t. A large part of my free time (HA!) recently has been spent on my other grandmother’s manuscript. I never knew her, but she raised my father and his eight (count ’em) brothers and sisters. After living with her written words for so long, I feel closer to her now than I ever have. Similarly, I’ve been talking about Gram’s husband, my grandfather, to The Kid a lot recently (he likes the pictures of Grandpa holding all the fish on the wall). Even though these people and others have gone on before me, I’m thankful for them nonetheless. They make me more whole as a person.

4. Those who are coming. This upcoming year, I figure to be an aunt, twice over. The Kid is dying to be a ‘big brother,’ and cannot wait to meet his future ‘little bears.’ (We read a lot of Berenstein Bears.) He’s got big plans for those babies, just as soon as they can sit upright. I think racing Hot Wheels and trains figures prominently into his plans.

So, remember–there’s a holiday that comes between Halloween and Christmas, and that holiday is called Thanksgiving. Make sure you stop and give thanks.

The Call

I got The Call! Here’s how it went down:

Thursday, approximately 1 p.m.: Laurie McLean emailed me to say that she had a phone appointment with Stacy Boyd, Senior Editor at Harlequin Desire, scheduled for Friday, and when would be a good time for Laurie to call me?

Thursday, approximately 1:15 p.m.: Screaming and dancing occurs. Gater participates with barking.

Approximately 1:17: I suddenly become paranoid that I’m counting my chickens before they hatch, and therefore jinxing the whole thing. Maybe Stacy just wants to say ‘hi’ to Laurie, check on the weather in San Fran.

1:19: I start emailing people. I call my mother. Various levels of screaming and dancing occur with me in the background yelling, “don’t jinx it!”

1:27: I email Laurie back that I’ll be home from work and picking up my son at 3:15.

Thursday Evening: I spend the rest of the night not counting my chickens, fighting a massive sinus infection, and trying not to panic.

Friday morning: Wake up going “Today’s the DAY!” Sing loudly until my head tries to explode. Spend rest of morning trying to get The Kid to STOP singing loudly. Fail.

Side Note: Sinus infections are a mixed blessing for those of us who are a little OCD. I spend the day getting really excited, really nervous–then getting really tired and puny for half an hour or so. Once I rest up a little bit, I get really excited, really nervous–and then puny again. This semi-vicious cycle goes on all day long.

Friday, 2:57 p.m.: Leave work, race to get The Kid from school.

3:02: Inform any mom within listening distance that Today’s the Day! The mother of one of my Kindergarten Mom friends goes home and tells her daughter (that would be my mom friend) that I’m “cute.”

3:07: Inform the kindergarten teacher that while I’d love to chat, I have to get home to get a call from my agent about one of my books. The lovely woman latches onto my arm, demands to know what I write, and when I tell her I’ve GOT to go for a call–The Call–she hugs me. That woman is getting a hell of a Christmas present.

3:09: Buckle in The Kid. Just as I get in the car, my cell phone rings. The Kid blithely informs me my phone is ringing. (You may well wonder why this matters–well, I’m a luddite who rarely uses my cell for anything. I don’t even text. The fact that it rang and scared the heck out of me was entertainment for a good five minutes for The Kid.)

It’s Laurie–but I’m driving. Here’s a ‘fun fact’ about me (and by ‘fun,’ I mean ‘weird’)–if I’m nervous and I have to talk on the phone, I simply must pace. Not operate a several-ton vehicle with my son in the backseat and a audio book blaring on the radio. I tell Laurie I must go home and will call her back.

3:11: Arrive home. Of course, I now have to let the jumpy dogs out, get The Kid a snack and get the heat going in his toy room so that he will leave me be for 20 minutes, and–this is important–change my shoes. I was still in my cowboy boots. No sane person paces on hardwood in cowboy boots. It’s just not done, darling.

3:14: Call Laurie back. Commence pacing.

Laurie has great news! Stacy Boyd is going to buy The Indian Princess! Plus, she’d like to build a career for me. She wants me to write four books a year–two for her in the Desire line, and maybe two for the Special Edition line.

I have to be honest–Laurie said a lot of stuff, but my brain and my mouth completely disconnected–I’m not sure what my ears were doing. All I said for maybe 15 minutes was, “O-okay. Um, o-okay. O-okay.” At some point, Laurie realized I’d apparently checked out and asked if I’d like her send a sum-up message. To which, of course, I said, “O-okay.”

3:27: Stand in stunned silence for a moment, until The Kid demands more pretzel sticks. Realize I need to do a load of laundry, and that the dishwasher is full. Do two minutes of mom stuff.

3:29: Commence calling people. My mom (Hi, Mom!) starts crying; I’m still in a stunned, non-functional moment. Pacing re-commences. Alternate between cell phone and land line. Drop land line when cell phone rings again. The Kid laughs. Again.

At some point, I start crying. I think I was on the phone with my husband at the moment.

7:00: The Kid’s first Slumber Party (see last week’s blog) begins. Thankfully, The Kid’s guest, The Friend, his mom Leah and I go way back. Thankfully, I say, because this is the kind of emotional sort of day that can often overwhelm humans from Mars but that humans from Venus love. Spend the rest of the evening babbling at top speed (another side-effect of excitement).

8:40: Remember all that puny sinus stuff from earlier? It finally catches up to me, and I almost fall asleep standing up. Plug in a movie for The Kids and collapse.

So that’s it. That’s the whole story. The sinus infection has dampened my ability to celebrate, and, like all newly famous authors, I spent the whole weekend scrubbing very old, very stinky goo off of our bedroom floor so that we could walk around barefoot again.

But never fear, I’m going to celebrate today! A la Heather Snow, I’m going to go get a celebratory manicure and pedicure!

And then? Then I’m going to get to writing.

Double-Finalist

So, a while back, I decided that, in addition to entering The Indian Princess into a couple of contests, I was going to trot out the latest book I’d finished, The Wannabe Cowboy. It had only been through my mom (Hi, Mom!), Mary the Grammar Goddess, and my critique partner, the Lovely Laurel–no one else had read it. But hey, it’s contest season, and I wanted to see if it got enough positive feedback that I could feel good about entering it into the granddaddy of all contests, the Golden Heart (more on that later).

When I first started this crazy journey, I entered a whole bunch of contests without a whole lot of thought. (This, if you’re just joining this career in process, is how I pretty much went about everything back at the beginning–the throw a bunch of stuff against a wall and see if it sticks method.) And I got a whole lot of helpful comments–and a whole lot of really bad scores. But those contests were good for me–all those judges who suffered through that first book of mine really helped me see where the (major) holes in my work were.

I didn’t enter another contest for a year, and when I did, I took second in the Chicago-North RWA’s Fire and Ice contest for a book no one actually liked, Warrior, Lawyer. (It’s on a shelf somewhere, gathering serious dust.) They were so nice to me that I wound up joining their chapter.

I then got it into my head that I was going to sell a book VERY SOON–and stopped entering contests for another year and a half. I also didn’t sell a book in that year and a half.

Which brings us back to the present. I decided I needed some independent readers, and hey–being able to say “Finalist” wouldn’t hurt, either. This time, however, there was a method to my madness. This time, I’ve learned the secret to entering contests. It’s not the contest so much, but who’s judging it.

As you may (or may not) remember, The Indian Princess was a finalist in the Golden Rose contest a few weeks back. I entered the Golden Rose because the judge is an editor for Special Edition–one of possibly four lines where my books would fit at Harlequin. I’ve already entered Princess in the Golden Heart–and had an editor express interest in it.

I picked the Hot Prospect contest from the Valley of the Sun RWA chapter because the judge is an editor for Harlequin American, which specializes in American-set stories–and features a lot of good-looking men in cowboy hats on the covers. So when Linda Andrews from Valley of the Sun called and told me I’d finalled, I assumed she meant Princess.

But I was wrong. She meant both.

So, if you’ll excuse me, I must now go forth and dance around the house with The Kid and the dogs (Gater loves to dance!) and then do a little bit of revision before I send Wannabe back for the finalist judges–and off to the Golden Heart.

I’m feeling lucky.

All At Once

Wow.

So, on Monday, I received a phone call from a lovely lady named Paula Gill, who was with the Rose City Romance Writers (up yonder in Portland). In a delightful conversation, Paula informed me that my book Indian Princess had been named a finalist in the series category in their writing contest, the Golden Rose.

I have to tell you, it’s been months, if not longer, since the last bit of Authorial Good News. But suddenly, I’m a finalist with a decent shot of not only winning a one-of-a-kind handcrafted rose pendant for being first in my category, but also winning a real gilded rose if I’m the top scorer. Top it off–an editor for Harlequin will read my entry.

Needless to say (but I shall say it anyway), I was thrilled. Hyper thrilled. Dancing around the house with The Kid thrilled. After a long, demoralizing drought of nothing happening–the kind of drought that makes a girl question what she’s doing and why she’s doing it and if maybe she wouldn’t be better off doing something else–I suddenly felt Authorial again. I am a real author, and I write real books. People–three judges, to be specific–said so. One judge, God bless the woman, gave me a 149 out of 150 and her comment was that the book was “ready for the bookshelf!” I love that woman, whoever judge #16 was. LOVE HER.

So that was exciting. I felt better about the world and my Authorial place in it. Then, unexpectedly on Tuesday, I got an email from Laurie McLean of Larsen/Pomada. She’d gotten Indian Princess in front of an editor–and miracles of miracles, this editor loved it. She totally got my story.

After a year and a half of searching and sending and hoping and praying, an editor gets it. I had to call the neighbors and apologize for all the screaming coming out of the house.

Nothing is set in stone right now–nothing. The editor wants me to make a few changes–nothing so major as killing a character or moving the sex scene to page two or anything–but she wants to see how I handle the revisions, both personally and in terms of writing. Then, if she likes what she sees, she’ll present my book to a senior editor with the intent of selling it–and maybe more. Laurie is handling this negotiation, obviously.

So, right now, I’m revising (and I mean that in a literal, time-based sense). This offer could fall through; it could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Part of what happens next depends on me and my ability to revise and handle myself in a professional manner (which means, basically, that I have to stop jumping around and yelling at the top of my lungs long enough to do some rewriting). Part of it is out of my control–the senior editor could pass. (But I hope she doesn’t.)

It was, hands down, one of the more insane, eventful, action-packed 18 hours of my life.

Now, I know–this is Thursday, where I normally blog about the Mom part of the Authorial Mom, so to tide you all over until my head comes down out of the clouds, I am including a photo of Pooh Bear, wearing his Halloween costume–he’s dressed as ‘Alvin the Munk’–while he plays battleship with The Kid:

There. That’s better!

Pitch or Publish?

So, I’m almost done reading my grandmother Goldie’s manuscript for Eleanore Gray. And I’m not sure what to do with it. It’s a lovely book, about 83,000 words. In book language, we call that ‘single title.’ Goldie captures the poetic beauty of the world in sentence form in ways that make me jealous. For example:


“The leaves that had ornamented the hillside with inspiring jewel colors faded and dropped to the ground, spent and weary from artistic labors.”

Wow. That’s just beautiful. This isn’t really surprising–Goldie was a nationally recognized poet. Still, when I reach a sentence like that one, I’m floored by it.


The plot is a little slow to develop, and the characters don’t have much internal monologue. My first question is, How much should I change it? Should I edit to make all point-of-views consistent? Should I try to speed up the plot developments? Should I get into each character’s heads more during the emotional turning points?At what point do they stop being Goldie’s words and start being mine? It’s not a romance novel–if I start adding things, will it come out as overly-romantic, since that’s my strength?


Regardless, it’s a beautiful book, and I’m going to publish it. The next question is, How? Eleanore goes to the Ozark hill country and in her quiet, Christian way, works to save some of her neighbors. I don’t know if I should take the time to pitch this to an inspirational, Christian publisher, like Barbour Publishers, or just go ahead and do it myself.


I’m open to suggestions here. What do you think?

The Golden Rose

I got an email from my agent the other day, saying, “Feel like entering a contest?”

When your agent suggests entering a contest, it’s probably a pretty good idea to break out the ol’ credit card.

So I’ve entered The Indian Princess into the Contemporary Series category of the Golden Rose contest, brought to you by the Rose City Romance Writers chapter of the RWA, based in Portland, Orgeon. The final judge for that category is Susan Litman, an editor at Harlequin.

If I win, in addition to having a Harlequin editor reading the first 50 pages of my book, I’ll also get a “one-of-a-kind handcrafted rose pendant necklace” and a free membership to the Rose City chapter. When I told my husband I was entering, he said, “Do you get money?” I told him about the necklace, and I actually think he liked that better.

I haven’t entered a contest in almost two years. The last contest I did enter was the Chicago-North RWA’s Fire and Ice, where I took second place for Warrior, Lawyer–a book that died on the shelf shortly thereafter because no one actually liked it. This time, everyone–including my agent–likes The Indian Princess (now with a new and improved ending!).

In a few months, I’ll be entering the Big One, the Golden Heart. The Golden Heart is the nationwide contest for unpublished romance authors. I skipped it last year, and pretty much spent the rest of the year kicking myself, especially since they just handed out the awards last Saturday.

The contest deadline for the Golden Rose is August 7th, if you’re interested, with finalists announced on October 11th and winners announced on December 6th.

Wish me luck!