There must have been a fire under my chair, or this was truly a story that needed to be told. All in all, I only spent nine days writing it and it's about 15k words.
I finished the actual writing of the story last night, or very early this morning around 1:00am. I've already e-mailed my editor and told her that I've finished the writing and will take a 2 day break before I start edits on Wednesday night or early Thursday.
The Harvest Queen's Tutor is a contemporary romance that takes place in Barbeque Creek, North Carolina. In real life, I live a township called Barbeque. (We southerners love our southern barbeque by the way. The more vinegar the better!) A neighboring town of ours is Anderson Creek, so I merged the two together in this novel to really give you a glimpse of country town living.
Duke University is well known throughout the country for its Medical Programs and our heroine, Sophie Carmichael, is deep in her first semester there, pre-med.
NC State University is approximately 30 minutes from Duke and hosts an excellent engineering program. Our hero, Michael "Mic" Shover, is currently studying locally at a community college online and hopes to transfer to NC State in the Spring.
I have lived in North Carolina all my life, except the four and a half years I was in the Navy, and I have to agree with Dorthy in The Wizard of Oz, "There's no place like home."
I'm starting on a new story today, a very short story of about 5,000 words, and I hope to have it completed by Friday as well. It's more for fun then anything, but if I can make the deadline, it will have a chance for publication at another publishing house.
Wish me luck!
Lisa A. Adams
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Sunday, July 29, 2012
A busy writing life!
It will be two weeks tomorrow that I received my initial offer for a contract, and things have really flown from there. I sat down last night with my journal calendar and started writing in events as they happened, and things that were coming up. I was so amazed at all the news and events, that I had to share them with you.
July 16th, offered a contract for "The Legionnaire's Prize."
July 17th, received Author's-to-do list for self promotion and guidelines
July 18th, contacted author friend Lorraine Nelson and set up a blog tour stop on this site in August.
July 20th, received formal online contract for "The Legionnaire's Prize"
July 23rd, After reading EVERY aspect and cross referencing terms and conditions, signed contract.
July 24th, Edited 25 pages of second story.
July 25th, wrote 1,225 more words to next story.
July 26th, e-mailed editor about release times and new novella.
July 27th, received e-mail from editor excited about new novella and wants to see it ASAP. Also received Pre-edit checklist for "The Legionnaire's Prize"
July 27th, (cont.) spent four hours reviewing and applying editing checklist to "The Legionnaire's Prize"
July 28th, received e-mail from editor that 2nd story needs to be completed by next Friday, in order to possibly complete by November time frame. (No guarantees on submission acceptance, just interested.) I can live with possibilities :-)
July 28th, wrote another 1,778 words on second story.
Editor has already confirmed that IF second story is picked up, then we will be doing nothing but edits on 2nd story, which would come out before "The Legionnaire's Prize," the month of August. Three rounds of edits in a month! I'm so ready for it, and yet wondering how all this is really happening to me!
All that in two weeks! Now, I know that it may not seem much to some of you, but when you've been writing for six years with no one buying, it's rather extraordinary to have a contract and a possibility of a second contract in a matter of only a couple weeks. I'm utterly astounded.
I'm so enjoying this writing life, and I hope that you will stay with me through this. I will be hosting some author's on the site for their blog tours when their newest releases come out.
Well, back to writing. Five days to deadline!
Lisa A. Adams
July 16th, offered a contract for "The Legionnaire's Prize."
July 17th, received Author's-to-do list for self promotion and guidelines
July 18th, contacted author friend Lorraine Nelson and set up a blog tour stop on this site in August.
July 20th, received formal online contract for "The Legionnaire's Prize"
July 23rd, After reading EVERY aspect and cross referencing terms and conditions, signed contract.
July 24th, Edited 25 pages of second story.
July 25th, wrote 1,225 more words to next story.
July 26th, e-mailed editor about release times and new novella.
July 27th, received e-mail from editor excited about new novella and wants to see it ASAP. Also received Pre-edit checklist for "The Legionnaire's Prize"
July 27th, (cont.) spent four hours reviewing and applying editing checklist to "The Legionnaire's Prize"
July 28th, received e-mail from editor that 2nd story needs to be completed by next Friday, in order to possibly complete by November time frame. (No guarantees on submission acceptance, just interested.) I can live with possibilities :-)
July 28th, wrote another 1,778 words on second story.
Editor has already confirmed that IF second story is picked up, then we will be doing nothing but edits on 2nd story, which would come out before "The Legionnaire's Prize," the month of August. Three rounds of edits in a month! I'm so ready for it, and yet wondering how all this is really happening to me!
All that in two weeks! Now, I know that it may not seem much to some of you, but when you've been writing for six years with no one buying, it's rather extraordinary to have a contract and a possibility of a second contract in a matter of only a couple weeks. I'm utterly astounded.
I'm so enjoying this writing life, and I hope that you will stay with me through this. I will be hosting some author's on the site for their blog tours when their newest releases come out.
Well, back to writing. Five days to deadline!
Lisa A. Adams
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
An Exciting Monday - 1st Contract Offer!
It's been almost seven years since I started my writing career. I've tried several genres and have submitted to various magazines. All were rejected and I began building my portfolio of rejection letters. Someone once said that you didn't get published until you had about an inch worth of rejections, so I was measuring.
About four years ago I began doing enormous amounts of research on publishing websites and resources. I found my niche in romance writing and worked closely with a group of writers through several "Book in Three" marathons, but to no avail.
Two years ago, I began NaNoWriMo and worked harder on my writing. This past year I have attended webinars through Writer's Digest, online writer's workshops through various romance groups using Yahoo, and even enrolled in a romance writing class at a local college.
The manuscript I had submitted and was rejected, sat patiently waiting for my edits and for resubmission. With more confidence in my writing abilities, I reviewed the manuscript carefully, adding detail, eliminated head hopping, and worked on the story plot.
Two weeks later, I was ready to resubmit to another publisher. Using the wonderful knowledge of some very key authors that I had worked with, I chose to go with an online publisher and submitted my work on May 8th, 2012.
This morning I woke up to an e-mail message in my inbox, congratulating me on my story and I have been offered a contract.
After screaming, "Oh My God!" several times through happy tears and jumping up and down on my new hardwood floors, I sat back and reread the e-mail several more times before finally replying.
I have accepted the terms of the initial e-mail and am waiting an official contract to show up to review.
It is a very exciting Monday. The only thing I can say is, "If the week starts off so great, I can't wait to see what the rest of the week holds!"
Will keep you posted!
Lisa A. Adams
About four years ago I began doing enormous amounts of research on publishing websites and resources. I found my niche in romance writing and worked closely with a group of writers through several "Book in Three" marathons, but to no avail.
Two years ago, I began NaNoWriMo and worked harder on my writing. This past year I have attended webinars through Writer's Digest, online writer's workshops through various romance groups using Yahoo, and even enrolled in a romance writing class at a local college.
The manuscript I had submitted and was rejected, sat patiently waiting for my edits and for resubmission. With more confidence in my writing abilities, I reviewed the manuscript carefully, adding detail, eliminated head hopping, and worked on the story plot.
Two weeks later, I was ready to resubmit to another publisher. Using the wonderful knowledge of some very key authors that I had worked with, I chose to go with an online publisher and submitted my work on May 8th, 2012.
This morning I woke up to an e-mail message in my inbox, congratulating me on my story and I have been offered a contract.
After screaming, "Oh My God!" several times through happy tears and jumping up and down on my new hardwood floors, I sat back and reread the e-mail several more times before finally replying.
I have accepted the terms of the initial e-mail and am waiting an official contract to show up to review.
It is a very exciting Monday. The only thing I can say is, "If the week starts off so great, I can't wait to see what the rest of the week holds!"
Will keep you posted!
Lisa A. Adams
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