All Quiet on the Southern Front

I would love to say that my life has been as quiet as this blog, but in fact the last three weeks have been an emotional roller coaster ride.

So much for thinking that my manuscript was done ... my on-line crit group picked up some major flaws in my final three chapters and I've had to dig deep and do some difficult re-writing. At last it looks like it might just be strong enough to withstand the RNA reader's scrutiny, but any hope I had of sending it off well in advance of the deadline is now well and truly shattered. But as one of my crit partners wisely said, it's better to be at the back of a long queue with a better novel than rush a weaker novel to the front of the queue.

These last few weeks have been difficult for me on the personal front, but I am truly humbled by the realisation that when you make hard decisions and experience tough times, life hands out unexpected gifts to help you cope. In my case, the unexpected gifts were courtesy of Nina Harrington and Wild Rose Press.

Nina Harrington (http://ninaharrington.wordpress.com) is Harlequin Romance's debut author. I entered a launch contest on her blog and actually won something! The bonus is that I really enjoyed her novel. Her heroine is different from the norm, with a whole life lived before her story even starts. If you enjoy Harlequin Romance, check out Always the Bridesmaid.

A couple of blog posts back I mentioned that I sent off an historical short story to Vintage Rose. I hadn't received the expected automated response, so I emailed again last week to check if it had been received. Almost immediately, I received a lovely email requesting that I re-submit - and just one day after I resubmitted, I received a request for the full manuscript.

I'm floating on air - not just because they're interested in Let's Misbehave, but also because of the charm with which they replied to me. I'm really happy I chose this publisher, if they treat all queries with the same promptness and enthusiasm.