Sunday Report Card...Ooo! Shiny!

A running joke between my mother and me is "shiny". We both distract easily. We aren't sure if it's a sign of age or if it's just part of our nature. We see something "shiny" and we forget what we started out to do and go off on a tangent.

Well, I did a "shiny" this week. I made progress but on a completely new project and in a different direction.

Harlequin Medical Romance is fast tracking new submissions. Senior Editor Sheila Hodgson had announced it on the Harlequin blog on July 26th. I heard about it early this past week. It seems their slush pile dried up and they need submissions and fast. They've set up a special email address and guidelines for fast tracking submissions from new authors.

The evil day job kept me busy all week, as normal for the first week of the month, but my weekend was devoted to writing! All things writing! Yay!

I met with Cynthia D'Alba on Saturday to brainstorm story ideas for the Medical Romance line. Since I hadn't read any from the line in a while, I bought a couple of ebooks off eHarlequin's website and read them Friday and Saturday night, just to see if they've changed since I read them. The answer is not much. I'll probably get several more over the next week.

Medical Romance is short--50-55k--so they don't take much time to read. Unfortunately, they aren't sold in stores in the US so it's ebook or wait for the mail. I love ebooks but I don't have an ereader. Since I've gone back to work, it's not easy to read them on my computer. I sit in front of a computer all day for work. Trying to do it in the evening as well doesn't work.

Cyndi and I spent a good part of Saturday brainstorming two stories then Heather, a book reviewer we know, stopped by to say hi. We had a great chat then all headed our separate ways.

I spent the evening expanding on the basic idea for my book. Today, I tightened up the storyline in a loose synopsis and started working on chapter one. Between the two days, I ended up with almost 1600 words. I probably wrote more like 3k but I delete and revise a lot when plotting a new story. But 1600 words is 600 more than my 1k goal! Yay! Progress!

I don't know if I'll make the fast track deadline of August 24. The guidelines request a synopsis and first chapter of a completed manuscript. Although Ms. Hodgson did make a comment later indicating the manuscript didn't have to be finished. But I don't know if she was speaking directly to the person she was answering. I'd rather go by the official guidelines. However, I can always send something to the slush pile after that date. Can't be any worse than sitting in Intrigue's slush pile! LOL

Oh, speaking of Intrigue... The proposal I submitted four months ago must have gone astray. A friend of mine put me in contact with her editor to inquire on the status. The editor was a doll and had me email her the proposal. So now I know it's in the system. More waiting time.

Unfortunately, some of my waiting time ended in a rejection from Carina Press. Although I didn't receive any editorial feedback, I want to read through it before I submit it elsewhere. It's been four months since I submitted it. A fresh look might reveal issues I need to correct. I'll probably leave it on the back burner until I finish with the Medical Romance idea.

So this week's goals?

1) Finish chapter one at least. I have a couple of people available to critique it. I'll be looking at theirs as well.
2) Read entries in a contest I'm judging.
3) Survive the heat... Although we're only supposed to kiss the 100 degree mark this week. Not run all over it like last week. One day we hit 107F. Absolutely nuts...

That's a lot of goals for the week considering my two days off this week are already scheduled with Momma and Granny stuff. Tomorrow is Granny stuff. Probably won't get home til late afternoon so I doubt I'll get much done. Thursday, Momma has a doc appointment in the afternoon so I should be able to get some writing done in the morning. But anything is progress! Just gotta keep pushin'!

Have a fab week and stay cool!
Shayla