CALL STORY/Chara
Last year, 2012 I entered
the Harlequin Fast Track contest when the editors read and respond within a
couple of weeks instead of three months or longer. Everybody had gotten their
response from the editors, but I, and a couple of others hadn’t.
I waited, one week, two
weeks, three weeks…when I still didn’t hear anything, I emailed one of the
editor’s, and she was surprised I hadn’t heard because they’d requested a
partial of Manhattan Millionaire’s
Cinderella. So, I sent it in. I waited some more. Then, it was time for the Harlequin global
contest, SoYouThinkYouCanWrite ’12, where writers from around the world
participate; the prize is a publishing contract with Harlequin…yes it can
change a life for the good! J Readers, editors, and the public got to vote
online for these entries. I got the second most votes and likes in the contest,
but still the editors had the final say.
Out of 700 entries they
chose the top 28 finalists…I made it on this list with Manhattan Millionaire’s Cinderella. Yay! Then it went to the top 3
(which I didn’t get to), then to the one winner, the lovely Jennifer
Hayward! However, the editors were
scouting for manuscripts and a bunch were bought from across the contest, but not
necessarily from the top 28. I hadn’t
heard about mine so I went online to the Harlequin Forums and asked on the
Editor thread if they could trace my submission, because I hadn’t heard either
from the Fast Track nor the SYTYCW contest. (Through all this I had a good
feeling about Manhattan…)
I got a nice email from an
editorial assistant saying that Charlotte/editor loved the story, voice etc.
and she was looking at it. I waited some
more. Finally, I heard from another editor that my SYTYCW top 28 entry was
turned down, something about it had too much story. (what?!) But hey, I roll with the punches! Shortly after, I heard that my Fast Track
entry (same ms, as in sytycw), the one that Charlotte loved, was also turned
down. But I could send them another story.
I sent them another partial and this too was turned down, but I could
still send another. Hmm! It didn’t feel right somehow (what I didn’t
know at the time was that Charlotte had left Harlequin, and Manhattan... must’ve got lost in the
shuffle for both Fast Track and SYTYCW’12), but I continued on…
One day about mid July, 2013
I was on the Harlequin forums, and I came across Lori Connelly’s post that
she’d just sold her western historical romance to another publisher, but
because it was a Harlequin forum she couldn’t name the other publisher; but we
could go on her blog to read her
‘call story’. I read that the
editor who bought Lori’s story was Charlotte, the
same editor who had expressed interest in Manhattan Millionaire’s
Cinderella.
But where did Charlotte go?!
Lori wrote that another writer on the Harlequin forums, Bronwyn had suggested
that she try to track down the editor/Charlotte who liked her work and find out
where she went. Lori did, sent in her story,
Charlotte remembered her, and offered her a two-book deal. Yay, Lori! And thank you, Bronwyn!
Aha!!! Do I, don’t I? I figured okay, I’ll send Manhattan Millionaire’s Cinderella to Charlotte at Harper Impulse, the
digital branch in the UK for Harper Collins, one of the big five pubs. Maybe she’ll remember me, and if not, it’s
worth a go anyway. Charlotte did
remember, called 8:00 a.m. July 25th/Christmas in July! offered me a
three book contract, and then she spoke words of wonder: 'I
really feel it's meant to come to me having picked you out of SYTYCW!' I thought, wow!
Manhattan Millionaire's
Cinderella - available from Amazon and all other e-retailers. Coming soon in POD. http://tinyurl.com/kv5f5ok
Sun
Chara'pure passion...global thrills'
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