Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Root Canal Therapy

Am doing a slash and burn on The Millionaire's Fake Fiancee. And it hurts. Oh how it hurts. All those wonderful words, the pages and pages of witticisms going into my bits-i-can't-bear-to-delete file. Am already down 3,000 words from my hard won 37,000. Okay so those 3,000 words are mostly about a sick Red Panda (who had no actual relevance to the plot apart from making it very clear the heroine was overly emotional about small furry creatures), and the hero (Sam) and the heroine (Cathy) making each other cups and tea and unexpectedly blurting out their insecurities, but still... ouch.

Its also become clear that the plot (hero wants wife/baby to satisfy dying wishes of beloved Grandmother) is very much a Harlequin Presents (Mills and Boon Sexy) storyline. Haven't written a Sexy before, so have done a raid on K-Mart and stocked up on all the latest Mills & Boon titles to do a bit of research and see how others are writing Sexies. Hmm. Plan of attack was to focus mostly on the Sweet imprint, as they're what I tend to read, but the story just doesn't fit Sweet. Its a dilemma and having put so much effort in so far I don't want to abandon the book.

Its exciting as well. I feel like I've been sent off in a new and unexpected direction. Who'd've thunk!

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Jess Dee said...

Sexy/Presents? Me! I'd have thunk you'd be good for them. International settings, alpha heroes. Yup. Right up your alley.
And have you heard about the first chapter comp that Sexy/Presents is running. I will forward the details to you.

Jess

Jess Dee said...

BTW - I know, that slash and burn hurts.
Ouch. But good call putting it all in another file. At least then you know you're not losing the work altogether.
Jess

Sami Lee said...

Ouch, I feel for you on the slashing Cait. I always lament the precious hours wasted...

Your title definitely sounds like a sexy/presents one.

Anonymous said...

Aww thanks Jess! I did see the comp but its for unpublished writers. Yes I know according to RWA I'm unpublished but...