Good news, conference countdown and costumes!

Linley (on right) and I at Sydney 2007

This time next week I'll be at the Romance Writers of Australia Conference in Sydney. I absolutely adore the RWA conferences, and am very excited. This will be my fourth conference, and one of my favourite parts of each conference is the Harlequin Cocktail Party, which is on the Friday night. Each year I've had great fun coming up with a costume, urged on by my costume queen room mate, Linley Maroney. At my first conference in 2007, the cocktail party theme was Venetian Carnivale.  My costume involved a $29 wedding dress (bargain of the century), a brocade doona cover, some ribbon, lace and my fabulous mum's sewing skills. Linley's dress was absolutely spectacular, as you can see!

Paula Roe and I in 2008

In 2008 we were in Melbourne, and for the One Enchanted Century theme (for 100 years of Mills & Boon) I made a dress that consisted of laminated Mills & Boon covers, both present day and very old. I loved how it turned out, and I even won a prize :) (books, yay!). The photo is of me and Paula Roe (with her fabulous mermaid costume).

Last year the theme was Arabian Nights. I had a costume made while I was in Vietnam a few months earlier, so went in an I Dream of Jeannie costume. The photo (below) is of me and Paula, again - believe it or not! The photo is of Saddam and I recreating the classic "climbing the man tree" romance novel cover pose :)  However, as much as I liked that costume, about half of the party-goers had the same idea. This year I'm determined to have a "different" costume, and as I type this, I'm surrounded by the finishing touches of my costume. This year the theme is "Fantasy Island", but I'll keep my costume a surprise for now ;)

And now... for the good news!

Climbing the man tree, 2009

I woke up this morning to an email from The Golden Acorn Contest coordinator. I won my category!! This was a massive shock after my 5th placing, and no request, for The Great Beginnings contest.

And... the best bit (by far), is that this Harlequin editor's feedback was just lovely, and she has requested my partial. Hurrah!!!!!! Favourite bit of feedback: "We felt there was real promise in this voice".


Yippee!


So I guess what I've learnt from this is that even if one editor doesn't like my manuscript enough to request it (like with the Great Beginnings), it isn't necessarily the death of the manuscript.

Which is a relief :)

Back to earth with a THUD

In the past week I've had a rather severe writing reality check. My multi-page rejection and then the win in the First Kiss (which I'd thrown together a few days prior to the closing date) had me in a rather arrogant state of mind. Surely finalling in contests and subsequent requests was now merely a formality?

Well, as it turns out - no it's isn't :) Is started off well - I've finalled in all the contests I've entered this year until the Clendon. And then I didn't final in the Clendon.

Or get Highly Commended.
Or even Commended.
(BTW approx 25 people either finalled, were highly commended or commended)

I haven't come any less than 8th in a competition since 2007, so to not even be in the top 50% was a serious blow to my ego. It hurt. I also seriously regretted my Clendon posts - I mean, now blogland knows I failed! I suck, and my book sucks.

Fortunately, I got over that sookiness pretty quickly (thank you to my writing friends who dealt with my sookfest).

Then I found out my placing in a contest (that hasn't been formally announced yet). I didn't place - but that wasn't the problem. I didn't get a request :( So, this new book that has finalled in everything it's entered (okay, 3 contests, but "everything" sounds more impressive!) isn't worthy of even a request for a partial. Ouch.

But - I have a new plan:

1. FINALLY finish partial and submit (I do have a request for it from the FK comp -I'll need to do a considerable re-write)
2. Start something new and enter Romance Is Not Dead

Romance Is Not Dead terrifies me. I am a softie at the best of times, and potential public humiliation does not appeal. But - it will push me to write something new, and gives me a reward for finishing that damn partial.

With my new Humble Leah hat on, I don't expect to even final - I have no doubt that the competition will be huge and of a very high quality.

But still - worth a shot, right?

Great beginnings...

Hello from Sarawak, Malaysia! My work trip is going very well (and I bought so many clothes and shoes in KL!), but I'm looking forward to getting home. I fly to Singapore tomorrow, only for two nights, but will have time on Thursday night after work for some last minute shopping. And to think I'm not really a big shopper!

The best thing about being on a busy work trip, and the frantic panic that immediately precedes it, is that you forget about stuff that would otherwise be super important. Like guess-timating when the finalists for a writing competition that you desperately want to do well in will be announced.

Consequently I innocently checked my email a few days ago, and there it was: An email telling me I'm a finalist in the RWNZ Great Beginnings contest! I can't believe it - especially after the luke warm feedback I received from the Golden Acorn (it's the same chapter that was judged). There were 54 entries this year, so I'm feeling particularly thrilled. Congratulations to the other finalists - Diana Holmes (x2!), Sandii Manning, Judith Nolan, Rebecca Skrabl and Suzanne Webb.

Based on the feedback from both contests, I've revised my chapter and synopsis and today hit send on both of my entries. So now I get to sit back and try hard not to think about it! I've been doing some serious second guessing and have had moments of OMG IT IS CRAP, but it's done now, so all I can do is wait :)

Anyway. I feel like all my posts are terribly self absorbed bragfests... but I can't help it! I need to tell someone other than my boyfriend :)

Hello from Kuala Lumpur

I'm currently in KL for work, I have the most amazing view from my hotel room window - see!

I received some good news last week, I finalled in the Golden Acorn contest, my first US contest. Unfortunately the thrill of finalling didn't last long once I read the judge's comments. One judge pretty much hated the hero, heroine and story. Another judge was just a bit "meh" about my chapter, while the third judge was very positive. I actually don't know how I finalled, given only one decent score! But, regardless, much of the feedback is useful, and I have until Monday to make changes before it is submitted to HMB in London for final judging.

Will be difficult to focus on editing when I could be out shopping this weekend! Does anyone have any shopping or eating recommendations in KL?

(I know, Bad Leah. Need to write!)

Yaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Remember how I finalled in the RWA First Kiss Competition? Well, I'm absolutely thrilled to say that I won! Cristien Hickey came second, and Alli Withers, third.

I received the phone call yesterday from the lovely organiser, Cath Evans. I was at work at the time, so had to run out of my open plan office to be quietly excited in the hallway :)

And, in even more exciting news, the HMB Editor who judged the fnalists has requested my partial and synopsis (and Cristien's, too). I'm really excited about this, and am madly writing and polishing this weekend.

I also hadn't realised that while there were six finalists, there were only three place getters. So my assumption from my earlier post - that I'd get to collect my certificate at the RWA Conference Dinner - was seriously premature! Oh dear.

I also received some feedback from the judging editor. There was some lovely comments about my writing, but it started off with "Despite a contrived set up" - ouch! So definitely something I need to work on. I trap my hero/heroine together on an island during a cyclone, which I suspect is the contrived bit. They are both on the island for a very good reason (driven by their separate individual internal conflicts), is that enough? Or is the cyclone too convenient?

I keep thinking of my rejection letter - where coincidences and contrived situations were a big problem. Any thoughts?

Counting words and synopses

I've just added a couple of word count meter things to my blog - over there -->

Book 2's word count is rather pathetic - but that does include deleting a lot of Book 2 last week (but, let's be honest, I'm talking 1000s, not tens of thousands of words... I have been a bit slack).

The good news is that I do now have a synopsis for Book 2! I entered my first ever US contest, and a synopsis was needed. It's a rubbish synopsis in as far as how it is written (it's unjudged in this competition) but I'm pretty happy with the story. And amazed I managed to wrestle it down from nearly 3000 words to 1200 to meet the contest requirements :)

I still need to work with it a LOT more, and I'm sure it will evolve as the story is written, but it's so exciting to have a road map. For years I thought I was a pantser, but I failed dismally at that. Sadly while I can pants cute scenes, I certainly can't pants compelling, emotional, believable motivations and conflicts. Damn!

So plotting it is for me. For Book 1, it wasn't until I wrote the synopsis (after it had taken me nearly two years to write the first 5 chapters) that I was able to actually finish the book - and then it only took a couple of months. Knowing exactly what is coming next seems to help strangle my ever present doubt demons.

So - what are you - plotter or pantser? And is there anyone else out there who - like me - finds the dreaded synopsis actually (gasp!) helpful?

Hooray!

I received a most unexpected phone call this morning - my entry has finalled in the Romance Writers of Australia First Kiss Competition! I'm absolutely thrilled. The final judge is Sally Williamson at HMB.

It's the first competition I've entered with my new manuscript, and just the confidence boost I needed after tying myself in knots second guessing and doubting myself (rather than just writing!) after my R.

I'm particularly thrilled that this means I get to erase my fashion faux pas of the RWAus Awards Dinner in 2007 where I accepted my First Chapter Competition win wearing jeans (<-- there I am). I'd had no idea what a big, formal do the awards night was (*blushes*). It was my first conference... but still!

Good luck to the other finalists - Christien Hickey, Bec Sampson (TWICE!) Rebecca Skrabl and Alli Withers.

I've got a few other entries in contests floating around at the moment - since the 2007 award I'd only entered one competition (had a big break from writing), but having contest deadlines is really helping my motivation

I've had mixed results in competitions - but I figure it's a great way to get in front of editors. Have you entered competitions? Do you find them useful?

So much to learn...

I was reading Rach's latest blog post, and one sentence kind of freaked me out:

I've learnt that he needs a goal that would still be there if I removed the heroine from the equation.

It freaked me out, because just as I thought I was starting to get the whole GMC thing, here's something else I had no idea about. I have the same problem - my hero's goal is connected to the heroine. Sure, I could add in a bigger goal, but it would add a new thread that needs to be weaved into the book, and therefore add even more complexity. I'm not convinced the book needs it.

I'm not doing the online course that Rach is doing at the moment, so can anyone shed any light on the "hero needs a goal unrelated to the heroine" thing? What do you think about this rule? Do I ignore it at my own peril?