Mid March Madness

Howdy everyone! I hope you’ll have been fine 💕. It’s been insanely busy this month, I can’t believe we are barely half way through the month!

About two weeks ago, I learned Harlequin was looking for new authors for their christian branches, Love Inspired and Love Inspired Suspense. Requirements were one chapter, synopsis, and cover letter by midnight March 15.

I did not have anything started in Word, but I had a mystery in my head, so I decided to give it a go. Two weeks are enough time to write a chapter right?

I wondered if my story was suspenseful enough and wanting to get a feel for what they expected, I pulled four books from their series to read the first chapter of each. I found out two things.

First I learned my story didn’t fit their suspense line. My characters weren’t running 🏃 for their lives at the turn of every page.

Second, I discovered Sharee Stover is a great author that I‘ve been missing out on!

Limiting myself to one chapter was impossible with her book! Without planning, my TBR pile got smaller and I lost sleep without accomplishing any writing 😁.

No problem I still had two weeks for the nerve wrecking deadline. This was Saturday. Sunday is always busy with church activities and preparing for the week. Plus I go in to work a couple of hours earlier on Sunday.

Come Monday (or was it Tuesday?), I decided to tone my story down making it more suitable for Love Inspire instead of torturing my characters into Love Inspire Suspense. That figured out, I sat to write my life away. Only I found that my office software wasn’t working! After an hour of trying everything, but flinging the laptop across the room, I remembered my student surface.  No need to bother the Geek Squad at Best Buy!

‘What? It’s not charged? Where is my charger?’ It took me two days to find it.

I got my chapter done and submitted it to my critique group. I can make this long story longer by stating I got sick and was out of commission for 3 days. One of those days I slept 16 hours! Who does that?! Also my phone died for a couple of days and I had to buy a new battery. My girls were on spring break, family from out-of-town came and I still worked on the days I decided to not sleep 16 hours 😂 !

Anywho, I got the most amazing feedback from my critique partner on Wedensday, but I had to work and didn’t edit Until Thursday. On due-day Friday, I worked on my three page synopsis.

If you’ve read this far you’re probably wondering if I submitted my chapter on time, right?

My computer screen showed exactly 12 when I punched the orange submit button! I received a confirmation email so I think it made it 🤔.

Talk about cutting it close, my computer almost turned into a 🎃! But I did it, despite my obstacles! I’m hopeful but am aware it could use some more polishing. My cover letter only had my name and book title, painfully pathetic, but it was a great experience and I am excited to be receiving feedback from professionals 🙂 !

Life is a journey and I choose to enjoy the ride, sharp turns and all 💕 . I am growing as an author and am grateful for your words of encouragement, I appreciate you!

A special shout out to Christina Myerly, my critique partner, you are a blessing from above and I can’t imagine doing this without you! You inspire me! In the past 6 months you have quickly become one of my dearest friends! 💕

The End