A minxy scoop!

Head on over to the minxes today for a treat - the lovely Ally Blake has dropped by to talk about romance, writing inspirations and muffins.

Come chat!

Sent!

Am a happy / terrified girl today as have just pressed send on a first chapter and synopsis sub to M&B.

It's a heavily revised version of my NV entry, which only makes me double nervous and means I will just have to drink more wine to cope with the jitters, lol!

Am really enjoying working on this story, so am just going to crack on with it and cross my fingers hard that i've hit somewhere near the mark.

The Chilean miners

Hopefully, by the time I get up and flick on the news in the morning the chilean miners rescue will be well under way - I can't wait to see the images of those men coming out. Crossing everything for a safe recovery.

As a romance writer, hasn't it been creative juices gold? It's the stuff that movies are made of - and they don't even need to embroider the truth. It's been a truly miraculous story of human strength and endurance, with some truly epic moments of high drama along the way. The moment that they read aloud that note from the miners confirming that they were all alive and safe... wow. Just wow.

All of those wives and girlfriends camping on the surface to be close to their men.
Their novel ways to keep the channels of romantic communication open, even under such dire circumstances.
The amazing  bonds of solidarity that have formed between those families waiting around camp fires for their loved ones, and the sometimes explosive and unexpected stories that have dribbled out over the weeks.

I read that at least four of the miners plan to propose when they make it above ground.

A tiny baby girl born with her daddy trapped below.

I also heard about a violent row that erupted on the surface between one of the miners wives and his mistress. Straight away I find myself wondering if they knew of each others existence before the accident happened. How will his time below ground impact on these two women over the next couple of days?

And tonight I saw one of the wife on the news say that hopefully it will have made her husband a more humble man. I hadn't given any thought to the idea of any of the relationships being less than perfect before hearing her speak, but of course they weren't. These are ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

How on earth will their relationships fare under the burden of normality?

 Completely fascinating, and a deep, deep well of romantic inspiration.

KOKO cocktail anyone?

So, the news is out over on New Voices, and I didn't make bootcamp.

Am disappointed of course that my entry didn't make the cut, but the numbers were huge and the standard was high.
Huge good luck to everyone going onto round two, and a special fingers crossed for my blog buddy Leah Ashton. Fingers crossed for you! x

Am also sad that alot of other entries I loved didn't make it through either. There were so many outstanding chapters on there, I don't envy the job of the M&B ed's at all.

My personal plan is to revise my chapter before sending it in, but I will confess that i'm feeling Shaky Mcflaky about it.  On the plus side, I was lucky enough to get some terrific advice from Heidi Rice  - thank you Heidi, you rock and it's been a big help. :o)

Anyhoo, the point to this post is to invite you to join me in a highly alcoholic KOKO cocktail (pink, obviously - what other colour for romance writers?) , and then head over to the minxes site to join the after show party...

 

                                Keep On Keepin' On my friends, 

                                         Keep On Keepin' On.