A subtitle to this blog entry should be Contests I. (Another note for newbie writers—no subtitles).
In 2007, The Wild Rose Press ran a contest for time travel stories, the winners to be published. They also promised a free critique.
Free critique! Yes! But when you don't pay for the contest, you have to write a story to the contest's specifications. So I wrote a time travel story.
As stated above, I didn't win. Looking back, of course I didn't win. I didn't even know what POV (Point of View) was when I wrote the story. I'm lucky they didn't take one look and send back a form letter saying thanks, but no thanks.
What they did send was a different form letter, saying they liked the story and would reconsider if I removed the contest-specific details.
I rewrote the story and resubmitted. The story returned with the instruction that the hero and heroines needed more physical reactions to the situation. I went to Joanna Waugh's website and her Body Language Cues to Emotion (http://www.joannawaugh.com/Craft.html). Joanna has a great website, full of lots of information for Regency readers and writers, and again, she did NOT pay me for the plug.
I rewrote and resubmitted. And two months later, the editor replied saying she wanted to contract my novella, Lady of the Stars. (Author's note, 2/28/10: Lady of the Stars is now a finalist in the 2010 EPIC EBook Competition in Science Fiction Romance)
Ah, an HEA (Happily Ever After). Exactly what romance is.
