Writing for Harlequin Mills & Boon

freeoffers

Thanks slopingbird. I just don't have the qualifications to get a good job. Would love to write for a living, but I can't take stock in such uncertain things.

@gogocoo
There are some writers out there that seem to write to a formula, quite successfully I might add. It might seem to some like painting by numbers but it really comes down to whatever works for the individual. Are you going to take MB workshops?

Anglea

Hi all

Hi gogocoo, are you thinking of joining us here, you're very welcome.

I was reading the book proposal form that you now have to fill in with one the publishers I targetted years ago, it seemed as long as a book in itself, gave me a shock reading it.

LuckyLucy11

How is everyone getting along with their novels?

Has anyone sent off any work yet?

I can't wait to send mine off. None of them are quite ready yet. I think the first one I get completed will be about a police officer and a care worker set in the Welsh Valleys.

freeoffers

Yours are MB novels though right Lucy?
Good luck with that. How far are you into the novel? How many words are MB novels usually do you know?

Anglea

Hi all

I'm not writing anything in particular LucyL at the moment, just brushing up on excercises and doing some reading on the craft.

I found that if you have special interests as I had with the Victorians, there are lots of short cuts to getting published.

I still have the contacts so if anyone is interested writing in that time period PM me.

I also had an obsession with 1940/50's and got into a film and books.

So if any of you are writing about any special interest theme, take a look at any societies or clubs, as there are often published writers, screenwriters, actors, researchers that are also involved and can help you out.

Sassers

Hi everyone
Sorry I haven’t been around much – I was rushed to hospital in the back of an ambulance just over a week ago! :wave:
Now when I said I wanted to have different life experiences, calling 999 and being rushed to A&E wasn’t really at the top of my list.
(Well maybe not so dramatically, living as I do in the land of the twitching net curtains..........);)

I’m better now but anyone who’s ever had kidney stones – oooooooo! I feel like a chicken waiting for an egg as I can feel the stone rattling around – lol... :eek:

Anyway, nothing’s wasted as they say and one of the paramedics who looked after me will make a fab character in a novel one day. He was lovely, good looking – and funny too, which didn’t help when he kept making me laugh through the pain!

Just to add, I’m away to the M&B workshop tomorrow and will report back.

And thanks Anglea for asking about the male hero in my story. He’s quietened down now because I was writing from his POV and not my heroine. Since I've switched it around, she’s put him right in his place and sparks are flying between them at last, which is good.

The thing that helped was doing a fake interview on my mobile phone as I were she and so all sorts of surprising things came out in her voice.

God knows what the morning commuters thought of me talking to myself in the car on the way to work. :rotfl::rotfl:

Oh and one last thing before I dash off – I got Maeve Binchy’s Writers Club book and Beginnings, Middles and Ends by Nancy Kress from the library last week. I didn’t think much of them to be honest. The first’s a bit twee and the second waffles, which is annoying as I waited three weeks to get my hands on them.

Anyway back to work now and I'll report back after my M&B trip tomorrow. Seems like it'll be a group of about 20 with a waiting list of about 15:eek:
Love Sassers x

Sassers

Hi all :wave: back again!
M&B author Liz Fielding (who has written 60 M&B's) has done an interview on BBC Radio Wales yesterday. Very interesting - she said she had three books rejected before M&B took her on.
If you'd like to listen you can go to the link and it's at 2hours eight minutes.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b013y41v
Lots of helpful hints and tips....brilliant radio piece
HTH's
Love Sassers x

Anglea

Hi all

Sassers, I'm so glad you are ok after your very painful ordeal.

That's a good idea with the mobile phone. I've often tried pretending that I was writing to different people and receiving replies, but I was doing it all. I can be a good excercise although it's very easy to end up slipping in simlar words or phrases for each character.

Thanks for the interview, I'll have a listen later on. Good luck for tomorrow, I want all the news

SlopingBird

Sassers, good to hear you're on the road to recovery (bet that dishy doctor helped!;)) and looking forward to the M&B event tomorrow.

I really wanted to go but I'd already committed to babysitting for my grand-daughters. Frustratingly, I'll be in Swansea all day visiting my dad so not a million miles away from you. It's encouraging that Liz Fielding didn't get it right first time. I'll listen to her interview when I'm ironing later on so thanks for that.

Re characters talking. I bought screenwriting software two years ago; you can select a voice for each character and the computer 'acts' out the scenes. It's hilarious - there's no intonation or emotion whatsover in the delivery, just these monotone voices working their way through the words. I still haven't decided if it's useful or not as it makes all my dialogue sound wooden (sudden thought - maybe it really is!).:eek:

Anyway, I hope you enjoy your afternoon with Liz. These M&B events are clearly proving to be very popular.

Anglea

SB, that screenwriting software seems amazing, do you mean it picks up the words you've typed?