I have a confession. When I was in high school, I fell passionately in love with Regency romances, those sweet, silly, virgin-finds-a-man-in-the-early-1800’s novels that have fallen out of favor in recent years. I’m not sad that they’re gone. Historical romances set in the Regency or during the slightly longer period covered by the Napoleonic Wars have taken their place, and deliver a more realistic, grown-up view of the world that I find far more satisfying now that I’m thirty-six instead of sixteen.

God. Twenty years.

Back then, one of my favorite authors, one of the authors whose books lined my bookshelves, whose books I read over and over, whose books my best friend Doug would take down and use to test me by reading the description to see if I could name the title and author - one of those authors was April Kihlstrom.

She wrote books with titles like “An Improper Companion,” “Captain Rogue” and “The Nabob’s Widow.” I can still picture the demure heroines and buttoned-up gentlemen drawn in bright, comforting colors on the covers. No breasts or mussed hair or windswept landscapes on those covers, no sir. Just genteel women, descending from tidy barouches with one gloved hand barely touching a gentleman’s hand.

Luckily for me, though Regency romances, as such, have since disappeared, April Kihlstrom has not. In fact, she’s a member of my local RWA chapter, and I’ve actually met her and had the chance to hear her speak.

April’s an inspiring speaker, and one of her workshops, Book In A Week, made a particular impression on me. The idea is, you devote yourself to writing for a week. You still have your normal life - you go to work, eat, sleep, all that - but you spend every minute possible, writing. All forward, no back - no revisions, no pausing, no tweaking to make it better, just writing writing writing in order to get a draft done.

Of course most people don’t actually finish a draft, but no matter what, you end up writing a lot more than normal. There’s a technique to it, and a lot of tips and tricks that April shares which makes it more possible than im-, but them’s the basics. Write, write, write. For a week.

I’ve done it once before and wrote ~70 pages in a time period that would normally have yielded less than 20 at best.

It’s time to go again.

Yep. I’m a glutton for hurt. Despite the whinings of my earlier post, I’ve pushed on, revised, and sent the damned thing off to two more contests.

In these I included an “optional set-up page.” I used the opportunity to describe the manuscript as a whole and get down with ye olde marketing-speak. I’m still cringing after reading it over a few dozen times, but while I still have it open, here it is for your amusement. I will not be revisiting this anytime soon.

Ellie Chandler has found her groove as part-owner and hidden talent behind Graphic/Love, the hot graphic-novel-style personals service that’s resulted in more L.A. hookups than two-buck Cosmo night. As a chick who’s sworn off sex and plans to leave love on the cutting room floor, she has no man-drama – then beach-bum Jonas, the one-night stand she swore she’d never see again, shows up on her doorstep wanting into her life and into her short-shorts.

Female personals advertisers start falling ill en masse, someone’s pressuring her to write a book about her jailbird parents, venture capitalists swirl like buzzards around Graphic/Love and her business partner’s bent on seducing a cop. Persistent, delicious Jonas starts to feel like the one reliable hunk in her universe. But is he what he seems? And can she trust herself enough to let go and find out?

My good friend Heather recently finaled in the Four Seasons contest, meaning that her submission is going to be read by an editor at Harlequin — hooray! Getting a partial read by an editor is a prize in and of itself, potentially leading to her manuscript being published and fame and fortune and all the other good things that follow. I’m so excited for her I can barely contain it. I’m sure she’s going to be published this year - she’s been working hard and her story’s great, so it only follows that the World Must Know. And heap praise and cash upon her, of course.

I myself had not entered any contests, feeling totally unable to put my manuscript out there for review - but Heather has inspired me. Contests, here I come! Yesterday I saw an opportunity to submit to the Central Ohio Fiction Writers’ “Ignite the Flame” contest, so I dived in and sent off my first 10+ pages.

And I felt good. I felt damned good. I went to sleep happy and optimistic and filled with excitement about all the other contests I’d wake up this morning and enter.

Yikes.

Can there be anything more depressing than re-reading your work the morning after you’ve sent off multiple printed hard copies to a contest? What was I thinking? The urge to revise is overpowering. The urge to call up the nice contest ladies and tell them to toss the envelope unopened on a bonfire dedicated to the Goddess of Lousy Prose comes in a close second.

I suppress both urges by writing a blog post, but this is just putting off the inevitable. I’m going to have to send this in again and again! I’m going to be rejected, again and again!

Rejection’s not a puppy. I don’t think it’s cute and I do feel the urge to kick it.

I am in love.

I was rolling around the internet last night before rolling into bed, and stumbled across the marvellous LibraryThing.com, a site which allows users to catalog their books - for free - and share their catalogs with others. I’m addicted.

Check out my library and let me know what you think! I’ve added most of my writing books and a bit of poetry so far.

I’m just getting this blog / site set up, and it’s taking longer than expected, so I don’t have much time to write yet. One day soon I’ll stop futzing with the technology and get down to the actual point.