It’s Labor Day weekend, and in addition to getting some much needed rest and relaxation, I’m determined to get a bunch of work done on my WIP. I’m posting it publicly, so now I need to live up to it. I do have some fun things planned for the weekend, including family time and some reading, so it won’t be all work.

Yesterday I bought the Harry Potter 5 soundtrack. The music for that is great. Anyone else a fan of soundtracks?

The Greatest Gift is in the second round of edits. (Cobblestones Press’s standard practice is three rounds.) Waiting for edits is a nervous thing. I always wonder how the editor will like the book, what they will suggest. With all my Cobblestone stories, it’s been a wonderfully positive experience.

It’s important to remember that your editor is also a reader. For this reason, she’s providing invaluable feedback. I’m always amazed by how much better my story is after editing, even though most of the changes have been minor.

This editor is fast! At this rate, edits will be finished by the weekend. Then I get to look forward to the cover.

I finished and submitted the historical story I was working on. It’s such a relief to have it done. It’s called The Greatest Gift and is set in the early Victorian period. I’ll post more about it once I hear back.

I don’t usually listen to music when I write, but this story takes place at Christmas, so I often listened to this CD (usually before writing) to get in the right frame of mind.

I sang in choir during high school and college, so I love choral music. Two songs in particular have a haunting tone that worked beautifully with the story: “Gabriel’s Message” and “Nativity Tale.”

Today I’m going to savor the fact that this story is finished. Tomorrow I’ll get to work on something else.

In other news, I’ve entered the Romance Junkies Writing Contest 2007. I’m not allowed to tell you which entry is mine (it’s not listed under my name), but if you have a minute, take a look at the entries and go vote!

Last night I worked on one of the scenes I’ve been struggling with in the WIP. I added details, dialogue, but the scene just felt . . . flat. So I took a close look at the scene to try and figure out what was wrong. I figured it out almost immediately: the point of view.

The scene is from the heroine’s point of view. So I considered what the scene reveals, why telling it from her POV is important. Then it hit me; the scene doesn’t reveal anything new, not from her point of view. So I switched it. Now it’s from the hero’s POV, and suddenly the scene is infused with emotion. It’s no longer two people having a conversation. It’s a conversation with underlying hope and longing.

One of those moments when the story clicks into place.

Research is fun. It can also be distracting, but at the moment I’m devouring a couple of books that will help with the current WIP. I’m particularly enjoying the one about 19th century women’s clothing. Fascinating stuff, and I think it’s helped me pin down the setting.

Here’s the thing about research. If I do too much of it before I start writing, I get so caught up in it that I put off the actual writing. This is probably because I don’t always know exactly what information I need until I’ve written a draft.

So now I’ve written enough that I can do some research. I just keep trying to remind myself that I don’t need to read the books cover to cover right now to get the specific information I need. Researching just to learn more can be so tempting . . .

Anyone else feel that way?

I’m still working on my historical. I’ve got the basic story down; now I’m filling it in and working on the transitions that will put the puzzle of my manuscript together. Am I winning? It doesn’t feel like it yet. Ask me again in another week.

The good news is I’m pretty motivated to finish. I have several novellas and other projects I want to work on the rest of the year.

Two of my coworkers and I are encouraging each other to write. We bring a little something to share with each other every day. This is nice. I’m the only romance writer; the others are writing historical fiction and fantasy. Still, sharing our work keeps us writing.

I continue to listen to 2006 RWA classes–too many to list. A few of the classes have mentioned using secondary romances to create single titles. This isn’t something I typically do, although I haven’t written that many single titles. (In fact, I have two WIP that will be single titles . . . eventually.)

Still, writing secondary romances is an idea I resist, I think because I tend not to enjoy them as a reader. Actually, that’s putting it too strongly. I prefer not to have them. I’ve certainly read lots of books where I’ve enjoyed the secondary romance, sometimes as much as the primary romance. In one or two cases, I’ve enjoyed the secondary romance more.

But even as I’m reading and enjoying, I sigh inwardly as I get caught up in one story then get jerked to a halt as the next subplot begins. And it happens again each time the story shifts.

What this means is that I’m not likely to include secondary romances in my books. Just a personal choice.

Readers and writers: what’s your opinion about secondary romances?

Some subgenres are more challenging for me to write than others. At the moment, I’m writing a historical and I can politely say it is kicking my ass.

I was feeling frustrated about it until I remembered what Nora Roberts said during her RWA chat. One person asked if she’d ever written a book and set it aside because it was beyond repair. Nora’s response:

No. I will win.

I like that response; it inspires me. So here’s what I say to my historical: I will win.

More than a month ago, I decided to enter Samhain Publishing’s Best First Line contest. You entered by posting the first sentence of your story; then the editors selected entries to go to the next round. Those people posted the second sentence; once again, some were selected to continue to the third round. And so on, through five rounds.

There were initially almost 300 entries; last week, these were narrowed down to 10 winners.

I was one of them. Now I’m invited to submit a synopsis and the first three chapters.

I’m very excited; so is Tony. I entered with the first five lines of his story.