The Proposal Plan's Release Day!!

Today is a super special happy day for me because my first-ever submission is being published (albeit in a small way - it's available in the UK only and via Mills & Boon's Direct to Consumer programme. To buy from Amazon UK, click the sidebar link).

I still find it hard to believe that my little story has finally made it out of the stack of notebooks in my wardrobe!

I would love to see it get a wider outing at some point down the line, but we will have to wait and see. In the meantime...

The Blurb...

How do you get the wedding you've always wanted?

Lucy Telford knows all about heartache - her teenage crush on her friend Gabriel Blake was a crash course in unrequited love - but these days she's determined to make her own happy ending. If her boyfriend won't get down on one knee, she'll just have to ask him herself!

Step one is enlisting Gabriel's help - as an absolute woman-magnet, surely he can give her some tips on becoming irresistible? But Lucy's perfect plan goes awry when she starts wondering if she's asking the right man to walk her down the aisle...

And the Excerpt...

'I've had it up to here!' She indicated a level somewhere above her head. 'I obviously attract commitment-phobic men. And that's why I've come to get your help.'

He stopped in his tracks, halfway to the door, and looked back at her dubiously.

'What do you mean, my help? What can I do?'

'You have loads of girlfriends, right? And you're the most commitment-shy person I know.'

'Well yes...I mean no.' He tried to work out if there was a compliment or an insult in there and decided there was probably both. 'How is this relevant?'

'I've decided to take matters into my own hands,' she said firmly. 'There's no point hanging around waiting for Ed to get his act together. You can advise me on all this kind of thing.'

He raised his eyebrows at her quizzically.

'Where I'm going wrong, of course. Why he isn't falling over himself to get a ring on my finger.' She warmed to her subject. 'You must have a wealth of experience just waiting to be tapped. You can show me how to be totally irresistible to him.'

He thought for a moment she might actually be going mad. Hangover forgotten, he barged into the kitchen behind her. She'd had some crazy ideas in her time, but this...

'No. Absolutely no way.'

Unexpected Happy News!

I received a set of revisions this week on the first three chapters of 'The Date Pool'. Not too bad thankfully, and as usual all the suggestions are wish-I'd-thought-of-that brilliant. I know they will make the story much stronger. I've already started on them and hope to get them out of the way this week, then I move on to writing chapters 4-6 and submit to my editor again at the half-way point.

I wanted to discuss one of the revision points before I got stuck in and emailed my editor to let her know, so when I got a phone call from her later in the day I naturally expected it to be about that. I was absolutely floored when instead she offered to buy my very first MS, the one I submitted via slush back in summer 2010, which went through two rounds of revisions under her supervision and was eventually rejected.

I am thrilled to announce that 'The Proposal Plan' (as I called it, the name may yet be changed) will be published by Mills & Boon RIVA in the UK only, in Spring of 2013!

Following the relaunch of RIVA in the UK and the introduction of the KISS line in North America, the intention is that titles will be simultaneously released in both lines from the middle of next year. In order to line the releases up in this way, there will be a short period early next year where a slot is available for a UK-only release. 'The Proposal Plan' will take up one of these slots.

I am absolutely over the moon that this story - which really was my baby - will finally see the light of day. I started it twenty-odd years ago, stuck it in the wardrobe when life and kids took over and only finished it when I stopped work to have the small one. With the encouragement of DH I finished it and sent it off, thinking that it might be rubbish but at least it wouldn't be rubbish cluttering up my cupboard anymore. The revisions were tough. The final third of the book was total cliche *toes curl as I remember*, and had to be completely rewritten, I had to cut one of the characters out and there were some major scene changes. But I loved the end result and I was so disappointed when it was rejected. I always hoped if I got published that I might be able to rework it one day and get it out there. I just didn't expect it to be anytime in this decade!

I am waiting to hear about the title and release details, and in the meantime I am cracking on with 'The Date Pool' with renewed enthusiasm.

So my message of the week is: never give up hope on those rejected MS's. They might make it out there one day!