Monday, April 21, 2008

TALK TO AN EDITOR & GET AN INSIDE LOOK AT ROMANCE PUBLISHING

Mark your calendar and don't miss a unique opportunity to chat about romance publishing or the editing process with acquiring Steeple Hill editor, Melissa Endlich. For loads of editor insights into all the Harlequin lines, book giveaways and fun, visit: Writers At Play

I'll be dropping in along with lots of other Love Inspired Historical authors. There'll be drawings for our books if you leave a comment. There'll also be a grand prize.

If you are interested in writing your own romance, this is your opportunity to ask an editor what she looks for in a manuscript.
When: Thursday - May 1, 2008
Who: Steeple Hill Editor Melissa Endlich & loads of Steeple Hill Love Inspired Historical authors
Time: All day
See you there!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Spring


Don't you just love daffodils?
There are masses of them planted along the roadsides here in Almere, the Netherlands. Right now, they're at their peak.

Grape hyacinths with their little purple clusters are also in full bloom at the moment.

I think my stories are influenced by the seasons I write them in. My current WIP begins in spring but is now inching into summer. These nice (rare) sunny days we're enjoying this week are certainly helping.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Congratulations on book drawing!

Congratulations to Renee & Debby for winning copies of my latest books on fellow author, Linda Ford's, blog.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Scavenger Hunt Resumed!

Our February Scavenger Hunt--and a chance to win one of the 6 autographed books below--will officially end this Friday, April 11 at 3 p.m. EST. So, you still have a chance to enter!

Playing is easy. Get the list of clues at www.ChristianReviewofBooks.com. Then visit the links below to learn about the authors and their books—you’ll find the answers to the clues in the Q&A posted there! Once you have all 18 answers, send an email to review@ChristianReviewofBooks.com to be entered to win:

Six autographed books!

A Whisper of Freedom by Tricia Goyer

The Lady of Milkweed Manor by Julie Klassen

A Passion Most Pure by Julie Lessman

The Sovereign’s Daughter by Susan K. Downs & Susan May Warren

The Rogue’s Redemption by Ruth Axtell Morren

On Sparrow Hill by Maureen Lang

***

My own story:

Tell us a little about your road to publication.

It was a long road! I started to write a historical romance (the kind of book I liked to read) way back in my 20s with a college friend. The writing team kind of petered out, but I kept writing and completed the manuscript. About that time, I discovered RWA and began learning the craft. Needless to say, that first manuscript was rejected, but my second placed in the 1994 Golden Heart contest. I was ecstatic, thinking this is it!

By that time, my husband I had moved overseas to Holland and begun a family. I felt really out of the loop, not being able to join writers’ groups or have critique partners. But I kept plugging away, between having babies, and managed to complete 3 manuscripts. Which kept getting rejected!

Six years after we’d moved to Holland, we decided to move back to the U.S. The Lord also started dealing with me then on a spiritual level. I began developing a deeper hunger for Him and gradually began receiving a conviction to write Christian romances.

We moved to Maine, and I wrote my first full-length inspirational historical romance. In the meantime, however, the Lord was asking something of me far more difficult than just writing Christian fiction.

Was I willing to put my writing on the “altar,” and hand this desire of mine completely over to Him, even if it meant never pursuing publication again? I received a clear answer to put aside all writing, even researching ideas, for two years.

At the end of those two years, though, I woke up with a dream, which became the inspiration for my first published book, Winter Is Past. After researching and writing that historical romance, which took another 2 years, and entering it in a couple of contests, I got a call from the conference coordinator of the second contest, telling me Melissa Endlich, the judge, was interested in seeing the entire manuscript because she thought it might fit the new line of women’s fiction they were starting up.

A few weeks later, I was offered a 3-book contract, and the rest is history!

Where did you get the idea for this book?

While I was writing the book before it, Dawn in my Heart, I had a bad guy. In one of the last scenes of the book, I suddenly realized this guy, Garrit, whom I hadn’t paid much attention to beforehand, other than making him a schmuck, was redeemable. I suddenly wanted to tell his story.

Visit these sites for the rest of the clues!

www.triciagoyer.blogspot.com
www.novelinspirations.com/blog
www.julielessman.com
http://sovereignsdaughter.blogspot.com
http://ruthaxtellmorren.blogspot.com
www.maureenlang.com

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Chance to Win Either of My Latest Books!



Fellow Love Inspired Historical author, Linda Ford, recently interviewed me and posted it on her blog http://www.lindaford.org/blog/

Stop by and enter a comment and you might win a copy of either The Rogue's Redemption, my single title regency, or Hearts in the Highlands, my first Love Inspired Historical which is just out this month.

Hurry on over; the drawing is for Wed. April 9!

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

line edits

Here's a bit of spring from my front door in the Netherlands.

Today I finished a line edit of my Oct. 08 release, A Man Most Worthy, my second Love Inspired Historical. I finished this manuscript just before Christmas after laboring over the ending. Now, a few months later, and with my wonderful editor's suggestions (more for the beginning than for the ending), I read it over, and wonder of wonders, it actually works. Methinks, it's not bad! A little more tweaking, the addition of an epilogue, and I've sent it in.
Now, I have to return to the galleys of my Aug. book and then back to my current WIP. I've left that hero and heroine at a very critical moment.