Adventures at 3.30am

I am a slacker. I was going to post earlier but I've totally been recovering from the trauma of getting up at 3.30am to pitch Mr Sheikhypants to unsuspecting editors (not to mention actually writing as much of Mr Sheikhypants as I possibly could). Naturally enough I had the usual nightmare - that I'd slept through and missed the pitch. You cannot imagine my relief when I looked at the time and saw it was only 12.30am. Thank God.

Anyway, a couple of hours later I dragged my sorry self out of bed and (despite terrible worries that the power would suddenly cut out or my computer refuse to work) managed to log on. It was a wonderfully friendly experience. I've never really been in a chat situation and it was fabulous that the editors were hanging out in the waiting room chatting with everyone too.

I was last on the list and around 5am eventually got to pitch. And I'm not ashamed to say that I froze. Completely. Twice. My head was full of GMC so when one of the eds asked me how my hero would pick her up in a bar, I kind of just stared at the screen going 'huh?' Of course AFTER the pitch I thought up all kinds of fabulous things to say such as my hero does not go to bars to pick up women! But did I say that? No. However, what I did manage to do was get across his conflict which they thought was 'very emotionally powerful'. Cue yays from me!

The editors also gave me some good advice re the heroine and also that since my voice is 'light' I need to get some darkness in there - cue more yays from me since I do love the darkness.

Anyway, I think I did all right since they asked me for a partial and synopsis, which is fantastic (the partial bit, not the synopsis)!

So go the sheikh!

Mr Sheikhypants Wins!

Okay so I was naughty and didn't tell anyone that I'd entered the Presents pitch on eHarlequin. I probably should have but to be honest I have been getting a little sick of announcing that no, I didn't get anywhere so I thought if no one knew and I didn't get picked then I wouldn't have to say anything.

But, well, I did get picked. And Mr Shiekhypants seems to have been a winner.

To say that I am moderately pleased would be to say that Sally Field was quietly satisfied with her Oscar win. :-)

And I have to say, I am quite shocked because it was only an 80 - 100 word blurb, plus a 250 word excerpt so you had no room at all to pitch your idea. I am also not the world's best pitcher. However, I will say that having a hook really, really helps. And some books are 'hookier' (if that's even a word!) than others. I have no idea whether that was what made it with mine, but having a tough oil baroness for a heroine helped. She was totally my hook and I shamelessly used her!

I do hope, however, that I haven't bitten off more than I can chew with doing a sheikh story...

Oh well, I guess that's me all up. I like to make it hard for myself and not play it safe. But at least it's another small step forward in this ridiculous roller-coaster ride of a journey.