An Interview with Harlequin Editor Joanne Carr - Part 2

Here’s part 2 of my interview with editor Joanne Carr:

When do you do most of your reading? During office hours or after office hours? Do you avoid reading on your down time, or can you still enjoy it by taking off the editor hat?

I try to do my reading in the office, in office hours, but as an editor, it is not always possible. Reading submissions, both unsolicited and from published authors, is a core part of an editors’ job, but it is a myth that all we do is read all day – there is so much more that an editor does. Consequently, to get the reading done, manuscripts are often taken home at night and over the weekends…

I still love reading for pleasure but I find it almost impossible to take my editor hat off completely! There is always part of me thinking, ‘if only the author had done this’ or ‘the editor really should have suggested some cuts’, but my love of reading is why I became an editor so I don’t find it ruins my reading experience.

Are there any things that published authors have done, that have made you crazy? Missed deadlines? What sort of things complicate the publishing process?

In regards to missed deadlines, it all depends on the circumstances as to whether it causes a problem/make me crazy! For example, it is different if an author missed a deadline, but gave prior warning and has a genuine reason, to an author who just doesn’t get in contact, fails to deliver and gives no explanation to why. It is all about being professional! And, of course, missed deadlines can affect the publishing process. If a book is required for a specific slot, the manuscript will then need to be turned around quicker than usual, putting extra pressure on not just the individual editor but the copy-editor, Production and even Art and Marketing!

What sort of book submissions do you absolutely love? What sorts of things grab you by the neck and make you unable to stop reading?

A unique voice, compelling characters and a fresh take on an idea/premise. Editors want to see something exciting, something new! We want to really care about the characters and be dying to know what happens next.

What can unpublished authors do to make your life easier, when it comes to putting together a book proposal?

Keep covering letters and synopses short and succinct and double-space the chapters. Make sure you have done your research and targeted your submission to the right series and above all – make sure your individual author voice shines through!

What sorts of things can published authors do to make your job easier?

Be professional – understand that your editor always has your best interest at heart, even if it doesn’t feel like it when she sends you revisions/rejects your book/won’t increase your advance/won’t give you the pub slot you think you deserve!
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Hope you guys enjoyed the answers from Joanne. Also, I think we may have a title for the new book. We’re tossing around the idea of Her Warrior Slave. And yes, there is a connection to the MacEgans, but you’ll have to figure out what it is . . .
What do you think?

Buying a New Appliance

Have you ever noticed how all major appliances tend to break at the same time? This weekend, our washer decided to bite the bullet. Of course it would be BEFORE we did all of our laundry. 5 people + broken washer = a quick trip to buy a new one! Thankfully it’s supposed to be delivered today. We’re getting one of the front-loader kinds, and I picked it based on which of them was reasonably-priced and could hold as much laundry as humanly possible.

My husband gently pointed out that, just because the washer holds more does not mean less laundry. Don’t ruin my fantasy, honey. If I can do 7 loads instead of 15, I’m all over that. There is also a time-delay function, so I could theoretically program the machine to run at 3 a.m. and when I get up at 5:00, it would be ready to switch into the dryer. Now how sad is that, being excited about time delay.

It’s the little things, people.

But I found out you have to use a special high-efficiency detergent with the machine. Huh. Now why you can’t just use less detergent, I’m not sure. You’d think that would work. I am married to a rule-following engineer, however, so I’ll never know the answer to that.

I am waiting at home on my day off for this delivery. And that’s one of my pet peeves. Why in the world, in this day and age of cell phones, can’t they call us thirty minutes beforehand, and we could just leave work? But no. We’ll be there sometime between 8 a.m. and noon. This, of course, means they’ll show up at 2:30. The all-time worst for me was when the satellite repair guys were supposed to show up between 4:00-6:00 p.m. They showed up at 10:30 p.m. Yeah, there was that little issue of it being DARK outside. And the guy wanted me to initial that I was satisfied with their service. Um…just that little problem of being 6 1/2 hours late. Needless to say, I wrote a note on that one.

Now that I’m awaiting my spanking new washing machine, I’m hoping that it will be everything I dreamed of. Buying a major appliance makes you pray that it won’t be a lemon, and that somehow it will make your life easier. But there’s that little part of me that worries–should I have gotten the other brand? The one with less space for laundry but possibly a better computer? Ack. The choices!

Do any of you have a front-loader washing machine? Anything I should know about?

Easter Traditions

In our household, we’ve begun a few family traditions. One is that we attend a very early Mass on Easter Sunday in order to enjoy egg hunts and Easter lunch later on. I leave the house with the kids to get them strapped in their car seats while my husband stays behind and sets out their Easter baskets, pretending he’s locking up the house. When they come back from Mass, they find their baskets waiting at the kitchen table. And oh, the happiness and joy. After that, they have to look around the house for plastic stuffed Easter eggs, hiding under cushions, near the piano, and in house plants. My six-year-old is getting more savvy and the hiding places are getting trickier.

I think we’ll dye our eggs on Easter Sunday, as well. I’m considering letting them dye regular, uncooked eggs, because they don’t like hard-boiled eggs. Wonder if that would work? Anyone ever tried it?

What Easter traditions do you have? My favorite is consuming as many Cadbury’s Creme Eggs as humanly possible. Someone has to do it…

An Interview with Harlequin Editor Joanne Carr - Part 1

While I’m hacking away at my manuscript and reinventing it, I thought I’d share with you some thoughts from my Harlequin Editor, Joanne Carr. She graciously agreed to be interviewed for the panel I did with Christopher Newport University, and here are the answers to some of the questions I asked. I thought several of you might be interested.

When writers submit material to you, what things have made you want to throw up your hands in despair? Have there been any submissions that made you groan? Anything funny or horrible to share?

Clichéd openings and premises are one of things that can make me throw my hands up in despair and groan! Here are some of the most common: the heroine is on a plane, off to start a new life after the end of a terrible relationship, or the heroine is late for her new job, everything that could possibly go wrong does, she turns up to find her new boss is the mysterious stranger she kissed/had a one night stand with/threw coffee all over on the train or another common opening at a funeral.

Sometimes I read through a pile of submissions, say about ten in total, and can count up the number of stories that start in this way and end up with a tally of: three ‘heroines on a plane’, two ‘bumped into the boss’ and one funeral!

All of these premises can of course work and we have and still do publish stories with such openings, but if you want to catch an editor’s eye, there must be something original and attention grabbing from that first page!

What sorts of things would make you stop reading material? Boring plots? Bad grammar? Cliches?

See previous point regarding clichés.

Bad grammar is something that can be fixed, so unless it is completely unreadable, this wouldn’t necessarily put me off if the submission had something about it. Similarly, boring plots can sometimes be forgivable if the author has a strong and unique voice and great characters. Plot and grammar can be worked on – real talent is often something born, not made.

In an average week, how many submissions do you receive? Out of that group, roughly how many full manuscripts do you request? (again, on average, since there will be good weeks and bad weeks)

It is probably easier to answer this in relation to submissions per month, because of our rota system; editors do not receive submissions every week…

We currently receive on average 100 submissions a month and each editor receives their share, say about ten a month. In a good batch out of those ten, about one will be a send for, but it is really hard to put numbers on this…

**Note to blog readers: This is on top of the 55+ manuscripts that Joanne has to read, that are written by contracted authors. Editors have to read and edit at least one full manuscript per week and attend numerous meetings, as well as handle submissions by unpublished authors.**

I’ll be back with part II next week. In the meantime, have a very Happy Easter!

Bring it on

Nope, I’m not going to bust out with cheerleading moves, like the movie titled after this blog post. That would be pretty scary. Of course, with my life lately, I seem to be cheering for bodily noises from my three-month old son, rather than sports teams. “Come on! You can burp! Don’t let that gas bubble own you!” (as I proceed to smack the stew out of my boy) Then, too, there are the gas moments when I bicycle his little legs and encourage him to work throuuuuugh the pain or bounce him on my shoulder. You get the idea.

But today, revisions arrived on my book. This was the book where I wrote the last third in a desperate surge to get it done before baby. And I read it after baby was born. And said: Dear God, what was I thinking?

I rewrote the last third, during maternity leave. I think I should have known this was NOT a good idea, given that my average sleeping time was 4 hours or fewer per day. Even so, I wrote my way through the mess, hoping to see the light. I cut and pasted, rewrote and sweated my way through it. I turned it in on time, too.

Still not done. I think I’ve always known in the back of my head that those 118 pages couldn’t be saved. Even when I rewrote them, fleshed them out with more emotions, and tried to bring them alive…they strayed from the main romance of the book. I can see now that I didn’t write all of the scenes I needed to in the first third. The emotional pacing was off, and I need to spend more time developing my hero’s path from wanting to die, to wanting to live.

The bad news is, I’m probably going to hack out one third of this book.

The good news is, this is going to be one amazing book when I’m done with it. I bit off a little more than I could chew, trying to make a love triangle where all three characters were sympathetic. And I still believe I can do this. I think that the book will be more powerful and ultimately the best book I’ve written. Growing pains hurt, but they make you a stronger writer. I’m up for the challenge, and I’m not afraid to wander into this jungle with a machete.

Great books aren’t written. They’re re-written. Somehow in the midst of all this, I have to find the heart of the story and bring it to life. I’m not sure how long it will take, and I’ll probably have to bury myself under for a while. But I’ll get there.

Wish me luck!

Homemade Irish Brown Bread Recipe

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

In honor of the holiday, I thought I’d share a recipe I discovered yesterday for Irish Brown Bread. If you’ve ever been to Ireland, this bread is to die for. I could inhale an entire loaf. I recommend serving it hot with butter and drizzled with honey.

Brown Bread
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup wheat germ
2 Tbsp dark brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
2 cups (16 oz.) buttermilk
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
Mix dry ingredients in bowl; add milk, oil, and the beaten egg. Stir just until blended. Spoon into a greased and floured loaf pan. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. Lower heat to 350 degrees and bake an additional 15 minutes. Leaving bread in oven, turn heat off and let stand 15 minutes more. Turn onto a rack to cool.

It is absolutely wonderful. Enjoy!

Go Look and See!

My editor just e-mailed me something fantastic today. Go click on the main page of Harlequin and click on the four-leaf clover. You might see a familiar book…

Public Speaking

This Friday night, I’m giving a workshop at Christopher Newport University called “So You Want to Write a Romance.” I’m excited about it, but in a way, I almost feel like I have too much information to present. It’s a bit like teaching middle school before you’ve actually taught a lesson over several years. You usually “overplan” because you don’t know how the kids will respond to the material. Some topics just lend themselves to discussion and I’ve learned to just let the kids talk it out. Other topics…well, you can hear crickets chirping.

My plan is to come prepared for crickets and hope for lots of fun discussions.

Some of the best workshops I’ve ever attended were very hands-on, and very active. I think part of it was because the presenter had such good energy and rapport with the audience. Michael Hauge is a fantastic speaker, and I’ve also learned a great deal from Jolie Kramer’s workshops. One of my favorite publisher spotlights had a game show where the prizes were editors volunteering to read proposals and so on.

I’ll admit, I’m a wee bit nervous about speaking to adults, even though I’ve taught middle-schoolers for eleven years. For one, adults are less chatty than middle-schoolers. 12-year-olds LOVE to hear themselves talk, and they are known for inserting random bits of information that they are convinced is totally on topic. Adults rarely share things about what they’re thinking, nor do they ask questions until they feel that the atmosphere is comfortable.

So I’ll be speaking both Friday night and Saturday morning. I’d love your help on something. Think back on the best workshop or training session you’ve ever attended. What made it so good? (Thanks in advance for any answers you may have to share!)

I Hate Taxes

I don’t think I’m alone in saying I hate taxes. I mean REALLY hate them. My brain does not like numbers. And this year was a complete headache because I saved all of my writing expense receipts and deducted every last one of them. Which would be fine if I would actually remember to enter them into my Excel spreadsheet when I have the expenses. I started out the year well, I really did. Up until about March, I did have the expenses listed. And then after that, I just shoved the receipts into a big manila envelope and dreaded the day I’d have to add them all up.

That day was today. And it took several cups of coffee, chocolate, and spreadsheets to get it all sorted. You’d think that you could just add everything up and deduct. But no. You have to label which ones are education expenses, meals, travel, etc. etc. I thought my brain would blow up. And this was using a tax software that walked me through it, step by step.

I am sorely tempted to hire a tax accountant next year and let that saint person add everything up and deduct it all. I’m sure there were deductions I could have taken but didn’t.

In any case, it’s done now. My husband will check the numbers by doing the taxes himself. Fortunately, we’ll be getting a refund, but it’s still a hassle. I believe there are some Cadbury’s Creme Eggs calling my name. And jelly beans. I may need to go buy Therapeutic Jelly Beans to keep my sanity. I’m one of the weird folks who actually likes the black ones.

I should probably never tell my editor that she could pay me in Creme Eggs and Cadbury’s Picnic Bars, and I’d be one happy camper. Dear editor, you did NOT just read that.

So what about you? Do you loathe taxes as much as me? Is a tax service really worth it? Or should I just stick to my tax software and try to remember to add it up as I go next year?

The Little Baby Who Didn’t Sleep

You know, I was really hoping that Baby Boy would start sleeping through the night. For a while it looked like he was improving. He’d go to bed at 8:00 and wake up at 2:00 a.m. for his feeding. Very manageable. But now he’s waking up at midnight and at 3:00 a.m. AND at 5:00 a.m. Not good. Yesterday I was one hurting puppy, up since 4:00 a.m. because when you get up at 5:00 a.m. anyway, what’s the point in going back to sleep? It still seems to be gas-related. Even though I give him gas drops before each feeding at night, it doesn’t seem to be helping.

Baby Maalox anyone?

Sweet Savage Sven (Irish-Viking book) is coming along and I should have that proposal done this month. Thanks to Robyn for the title suggestion. It makes me smile every time I open the computer file. Even though the hero’s name is Tharand. He is turning out to be one tortured man. My heart goes out to him, and hopefully the heroine will learn to love him.

Then it’s on to Ewan’s story idea. I know what I want to accomplish with him, but my early drafts weren’t right. I’m very in tune with my gut instincts and they haven’t let me down so far. So we’ll try to get a proposal for him.

Saturday at 3:00 p.m. I’ll be down in Norfolk, VA at the MacArthur Center Mall Barnes and Noble signing copies of Her Warrior King. If anyone is heading southside, I’d love to see you!

Back on the subject of babies-who-do-not-sleep, does anyone have any baby voodoo magic that I could use on Baby Boy to get him to sleep through the night, or at least go more than 4 hours? The rice cereal isn’t helping any more. I’m not sure if I need to give it to him later at night. Thoughts?