Thursday, December 10, 2020

Can't stop grinning

Forgive me for tooting my own horn a bit, but I just received an email that made me grin from ear to ear.

First, a little backstory. My third Harlequin Amish romance novel needed a lot of rewriting. This is because the completed manuscript involved a love triangle, written before I realized the Love Inspired line at Harlequin doesn't permit love triangles. Major groan.

This realization took place several months ago. I asked the editor at Harlequin if she could do a hasty review of a revised synopsis, which she did. She approved the revised synopsis, and I modified the first three chapters to complete the proposal. (A fiction proposal is always Synopsis + Three Chapters.) The working title for the story was "Eliza and Josiah" after the main characters.

When the proposal was accepted, I got to work revising the whole manuscript. And all the while -- writers will tell you this is a typical reaction -- I kept thinking, "This is ca-ca. It's nowhere near as good as my original manuscript."


But, deadlines being what they are, I got the revisions completed and sent in on time.

Then yesterday, out of the blue, I received the following email from my editor [note: Ruby is a secondary character]:

Happy Wednesday, Patrice!

I’ve just finished reading through Eliza and Josiah’s manuscript, and I have to say, you’ve done a really great job with this. I think it’s the strongest book you’ve written for Love Inspired so far. I particularly liked the ending, with Ruby and her broken ankle, and Eliza helping her. Loved it!

I’m very pleased with this, Patrice. Thank you so much for your hard work on the manuscript.

I’ll be sending it to a freelancer for line editing, but with the holidays, I’m not sure about timing. I’ll be out of the office starting Dec 23, so you may not see copyedits till early January.

Thanks again, and I’ll be in touch as soon as I can re: the next proposal. Have a great rest of your week! 

I can't begin to tell you how much this made me smile! What a major relief!

The new book will be entitled "Her Path to Redemption." I'm not sure of its release date, but I'll keep everyone appraised.

5 comments:

  1. When will your second book be on Amazon?? I liked the first one even though it is not the kind of thing I normally like.

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    1. I believe the second book will be released in March. I'll keep everyone posted.

      - Patrice

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  2. Congratulations! That indeed is a very satisfying e-mail.

    (And yes, the rewrite also feels worse.)

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  3. Congratulation! I can imagine how great that must feel. 😊

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