As many of you know, this year I sold my first book, my 2011 Golden Heart Finalist Manuscript, In Her Sights. My agent, Jill Marsal, placed the book with Amazon's Montlake Romance. I was so excited to be part of this new venture. Especially when Connie Brockway is the launch title with The Other Guy's Bride. To my excitement and surprise, my book and Melinda Leigh's She Can Run, were the two follow-up titles in the launch month—November, 2011.

It's been an exciting adventure since that call and signing my first contract. Montlake Romances are available through Amazon, of course (click here to order), but also via Ingram and Baker & Taylor. My paperback is available at Barnes & Noble (click here to order), and hopefully other retailers. As has been said, most eloquently by JA Konrath, it's a whole new world out there.

Recently, Amazon hired former Harlequin Senior Editor Kelli Martin who will be heading up Montlake's submission process. In the midst of conversations, I was able to get access to Montlake's new submission guidelines, so I thought I'd share.  Because SO many of you have asked for information on how and what Montlake is acquiring, I'm providing the submission guidelines on this blog. In a month, I'll be putting out an article on what Harlequin Intrigue is looking for as well, where I sold my next three books. So keep an eye out. Good luck everyone. And Happy Writing.

Montlake Romance Submission Guidelines...

I was very excited to finish the first draft of my latest manuscript, Unwilling Witness.  Of course, it is my first draft!  Over the years I've sort of figured out how I need to write, though this is constantly evolving.  I have friends who are final draft writers.  Before they move on, each sentence must be perfect.  Each emotion must work.  By the time they finish the book, they just send it in.  I wish I could write that way.  I've tried to.  Believe me I have.  

However, one of the most important lessons I've learned over time is that each writer has to learn what works for them.  When I try to final draft write, my pacing suffers.  In fact, my pacing is so slow, I fall asleep reading my own story!  I've learned that my stories are best when I write iteratively.  It's irritating, actually--my process, I mean...

There's nothing worse than writing a synopsis...is there?  I haven't found it.  My first piece of advice on writing a synopsis is...get someone else to do it :-).  Seriously, as a writer, we love too much of our book to ever boil it down to its key elements.  My other bit of advice is to write it before you write the book...that way, you don't know what you don't know yet :-).  Of course, that's not always possible...either way, however, I have found a quick recipe for writing a short synopsis.  I hope it helps some of you.  It sure helped me.

The way things are going in the marketplace, most selling synopses are 5 pages or less, no matter what the length of the book.  Here's how I do it.  That being said, there are as many ways to write as there are writers, so take what you want and leave the rest.

I recently judged a writing contest and half of the entries included scenes that didn't really work very well.  The writers could write.  The characters were good, but the scenes fell flat.  As I studied the entries more closely in order, I realized that the scenes had one thing in common.  There was no arc to the scene.

One of my critique partners and I have been talking a lot about the arc of the scene.  It's one of those elements of story that writers don't mention very often.  Many of you have read Techniques of the Selling Writer, by Dwight Swain, or Scene and Structureby Jack Bickham.  They talk about the structure of scene.

Scene includes:  goal, conflict, disaster
Sequel includes: emotion, quandary, decision, action

Hi everyone.  Well, this is my first foray into blogging.  Until May of this year, I was finishing up my MBA and there are only so many things one can do.  However, now that my MBA is complete, I can focus more on my writing career.  I've spent the last few months catching up with life after four years of taking classes at night.

I really do love studying the craft of writing. For the last decade or so, I've been part of an amazing journey called Discovering Story Magic (www.discoveringstorymagic.com).