Saturday, August 11, 2007

AUGUST COMPETITION

I promised you a competition this August for a copy of the September BY REQUEST (UK only) called BRINGING UP BABY with reissues of books by me, Jessica Hart and Marion Lennox.

To win all you have to do is email me the three years in which Jessica, Marion and I have each won a Rita. Email the answer to me with your name and address and BRINGING UP BABY in the subject line and I'll draw one lucky winner on 31 August.

SHEIKH NEWS...

The novella has reached a conclusion. I got to a point this week that I could call the end.

I wasn't entirely happy with the last scene (I could hear my editor in my head saying, "Mmmmm, I think we need to do something...")

Anyway, I woke this morning with my head in that clear space that it goes to when you stop trying and it'll be on her desk on Monday morning when she returns from holiday. Whew!

I've been thinking titles and I rather like THE SHEIKH'S HONOUR, but you can all see the problems with that one straight away can't you? US readers will think I can't spell. It doesn't matter. Whatever I come up with "marketing" will have it's own ideas. Leave them to worry about it.

Now I have an October deadline and a clear space in my head. Question -- Where do you get your ideas from? Anyone ... please ...

WRITING A QUERY AND GETTING AN AGENT

Writer Marcus Sakey tells us all how it's done, here. In the meantime, where does he get his ideas from...

8 comments:

Kate Hardy said...

Ideas... I wake up with them, so I'd suggest a hot milky drink and a snooze (!).

But I know that feeling. And last time I got round it by making sure I was nowhere near a piece of paper and a pen and doing something different. You could guarantee as soon as I stopped worrying and thinking... hello, idea.

Michelle Styles said...

With Gladiaotr's Honour, they simply changed the spelling for the NA market. It was really quite simple.
I like books with the word honour in it -- no matter how it is spelt.

Congrats on finishing though. I honestly do not think I could write novella. They are really hard, far harder than novels.

Michelle Styles said...

Oh for ideas -- I often turn the Smithsonian magazine. And there is generally an article that sparks something. They have a big article on the science of smiling for example.
It is a matter of looking at a lot of things and then suddenly it will come to you. Ah this is what you want to write about. Anyway you are going to Italy are you not? Do some reading for your holiday. The idea is bound to strike...

Liz Fielding said...

Hi Kate!

I'm keeping my distance from pen and paper -- the question is, how long dare I wait? :)

And email exchange about belly dancers sent me off on the idea trail, but sadly it was not the kind of idea I was looking for!

Liz Fielding said...

Hi Michelle!

You got the spelling changed? I've never seen that before. I though once it was set, it was engraved in stone. Did they do it throughout the text, or just for the cover?

And you're right about novellas. Mine have always been whole books crushed to fit. I keep telling myself I won't do another one. This time I mean it... Honest! :)

Michelle Styles said...

Liz,

I had a quick check -- they changed the spelling of the title and everything connected to the title (ie the US version of The Roman'd Virgin Mistress has Gladiator's Honor listed and the inner pages). I don't think the content of the book was changed at all. It was just a title change.
Hope this helps.

Donna Alward said...

FWIW we in Canada spell it HONOUR as well. At least we're supposed to!

D

Anne McAllister said...

They used to carve everything in stone. Maybe stone is getting softer. Or can be erased. In my UK spring book, One-Night Love-Child, I felt there was one hyphen too many. I said so. They said it was set in stone for the UK version but they'd be happy to remove a hyphen for the USA version. So Love Child no longer has a hyphen -- or so they say.

Where do I get my ideas? Um, your blog? Kate's blog? The phone book? A fortune cookie? A book on small houses? My dog? Pretty much anywhere and everywhere, as I'm sure you know. The belly dancing sounds promising. Too bad it didn't work out.