Fast Track! HM&B Medical Romance wants YOU!

Harlequin Mills and Boon Medical Romance is holding another FASTTRACK! You can submit and have an answer in June! I asked M&B for information and here it is!

In 2010, Medical Romance fever swept through Romance HQ in London – it was the summer of our famous Fast Track. All Medical submissions sent in August were guaranteed a response in August, and wow did you keep us all busy. We read an incredible 174 Medical submissions and went on to buy FIVE authors from it: LouisaGeorge, Leonie Knight, Annie Claydon, Connie Cox and Tina Beckett.

This June, we’re looking to repeat the success:
THE MEDICAL ROMANCE FAST-TRACK IS BACK (BY POPULAR DEMAND!)

Are you a fan of the Medical Romance series?
Or perhaps you’re addicted to medical TV dramas?
Do you want to write for an excitingly unique, globally distributed series?
And – of course! - do you want an editorial response within a month?

Then this is the initiative for you!

All you need is an idea for a romance in a medical setting and the first chapter only – the rest is simple!

•    Send us a covering letter with a synopsis of your story and characters (no more than two pages) along with the first chapter
•    Fast-track submissions must be received between 1st and 7th June 2012 (12.00 midnight BST, British Summer Time)
•    Email your submission (as a Word document attachment) to medicalfasttrack2012@hqnuk.co.uk
•    You will receive a response by email by 29th June.
•    Otherwise our normal submissions and format procedures apply (visit our ‘Submit  manuscript’ section at www.millsandboon.co.uk)

Excited already? You certainly should be - this is a fantastic opportunity to get your writing noticed by the Medical Romance team and we can’t wait to read your submissions!
You can also find our writing guidelines or buy Medical Romance titles in print or ebook format from www.harlequin.com (a Medical Romance podcast is available here too), www.millsandboon.co.uk and www.millsandboon.com.au.

 To celebrate the announcement of the 2012 Medical Fast-Track, Fiona Lowe – along with help from other Mills & Boon® Medical Romance™ authors – give you their Top Ten Tips for Writing a Medical Romance!

1.    Find your unique voice…this is your own style. Sometimes it is right there on the page, sometimes it hides under a rock but you need to work on it so that when an editor picks up your manuscript she hears you on the page. Avoid letting your critique partners put their voice in your work. (True confession: I let that happen to me without realising until my acquiring editor back in 2005 said, ‘Your voice sometimes disappears.”)

2.    Discover plot, characterisation, conflict, emotional punch, point of view and avoiding the saggy middle. Attend writing workshops, read some ‘how to’ books and be prepared to tear down that brilliant scene you just wrote and re write it again…and again.  I know, it hurts, be brave J Medical romances are big, complex stories in 50-55,000 words.

3.    In a medical romance it is the ROMANCE that is front and centre. Remember that and use the medical scenes to drive the story forward. E.g. the characters learn something new about each other, or see a past behaviour isn’t working for them, or it changes the relationship between them.  Having your hero and heroine work together is very important because it keeps them on the page together and avoids “token” medical scenes. Your reader wants to see the relationship growing and it’s a lot harder to show this if they don’t work together.

4.    Talking about heroes, dare we say it but our medical heroes are divine and a little bit different from other category romance heroes. They’re strong, independent and focused, but they have compassion, heart and a bedside manner to die for. They go above and beyond the call of duty every time because they’re driven to heal.

5.    Louisa George, a previous ‘Medical Fast-Track’ success story, says, “Keep the working relationship equal- both the hero and heroine are professionals and independent.”  Their private lives might be a disaster, but at work they are at the top of their game. Due to the huge variety of specialisations in medicine, this opens up a huge array of settings for your books....the outback, flying doctors, ER, small town, big city, drop-In centre, the White House, Africa, sports medicine, surgery, midwifery, complimentary medicine such as Chinese medicine,....the list goes on! Think Outside the Box. 

6.    Amy Andrews who’s known for her awesome love scenes says, “Medicals accept a gamut of heat levels from closing the door to tearing it off its hinges - feel free to write the sensual scenes from sweet right through to phwarrrrr!!!” Fiona adds, “Let your characters determine the heat level. Their back story will guide you. In Sydney Harbour Hospital: Tom’s Redemption, the hero is blind. As a writer I had to channel all sensory information through hearing, touch, taste and smell.  As a result my editor said I wrote one of my hottest sex scenes ever. Who knew, right?

7.    Put a new twist on universal themes. Human beings are inherently flawed and frequently hurt and disappoint each other BUT for all of that, human beings have a huge drive to find and give love. The need for family, the need to know they are loveable, the need to care, the need to learn trust, to overcome failure, to balance duty and love...all these are universal themes. With your unique characters, make these themes your own.

8.    Read the current medical romances. The best way to get a feel for the line is to read the books. Popular themes in medical romances are midwifery, paediatrics, surgery, secret babies, miracle babies, bachelor dads, Mediterranean docs, new-found families with young children, – families with young children, billionaire and posh docs, playboys docs, royalty, aristocracy, sheikhs – duty to patients or title?  My debut novel combined three popular themes ...the outback, the flying doctors and a pregnant heroine. Since then I’ve written two more pregnant heroines, but they’ve been pregnant with a twist — a surrogate mother heroine, and in November 2012 in a Christmas book the heroine is pregnant using artificial insemination.

9.    Send your book out into the world.  That is a big and scary step. You love it to bits and a part of you always goes with any submission, but the only way to get published is to put it out there so polish up that first chapter and send it to the medical fast track!

10.   Bounce Back.  Rejections are very much part of the arts community. It is rare for a first manuscript to be accepted but what is amazing is that at Harlequin, editors DO give feedback !  So give yourself an indulgent day or two and then go back to the computer. Take on board what an editor said, re look at your work and keep writing.

I once read a quote that said ‘Luck is preparation meeting opportunity.’ The preparation is the only part of the process you can control. If you follow the ten tips you will write a book filled with action-packed drama, where a dynamic hero and heroine work together saving lives and in the process they work through the issues that had them putting their life on hold, and finish with them finding true love and their happily ever after.

Easy? No, but absolutely do-able. Good luck!

Cheers

Fiona

Fiona Lowe is an award-winning, multi-published author with Harlequin and Carina Press. Whether her books are set in outback Australia or in the mid-west of the USA, they feature small towns with big hearts, and warm, likeable characters that make you fall in love. When she's not writing stories, she's a weekend wife, mother of two 'ginger' teenage boys, guardian of 80 rose bushes and often found collapsed on the couch. A current RITA finalist, you can find her at her website, facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.


So friends what do you think? Will you take a chance and send your babies...er...chapters out there? Why not try it. After all you'll be hearing back within thirty days!

Want to know more? Ask away...

Louisa George on Heroines!

We decided to ask Medical Romance author Louisa George on types of heroines so here she is....

Girl Talk

 What makes a good heroine?

 Hi Nas! Thanks for having me here again, so lovely to be back!

 There’s much talk in romance writers’ circles about heroes. What makes a perfect hero? Alpha? Beta? What are the most attractive male personality traits, what are the best body bits (LOL)? Is sense of humor important?- you get the picture.

The Australian Edition
 cover of Louisa George's
 ONE MONTH TO BECOME A MUM

But, as a writer, my main focus is to make a connection with the (usually female) reader from the heroine’s POV. As Leslie Wainger (author of RomanceWriting for Dummies) puts it: the heroine is the reader’s alter-ego. As my editor puts it: the reader should want to be the heroine. Some writers have gone so far as to say that romance heroines are all about women’s rights- that they never settle for second best, that they give readers hope that they can be heroines of their own lives. And, as such, romance heroines are great role models.

This brings about all kinds of issues for a writer- I was told, for my second book Waking Up with His Runaway Bride, that my heroine’s reality was too bleak. She was grieving, her business was failing, she was in the middle of a bush fire…could I please make her world more aspirational? As a newbie writer I’m learning all the time and this idea was new to me. I’ve read so many books about women in desperate circumstances I almost thought this was a pre-requisite, but then I realized good heroines usually had one thing: a sense of humor, a best friend, a resource and resilience that made her world bearable. Sure- I get that there should be a connection, but does the reader really want to be the heroine? And then I thought about my reading habits and preferences and yes…I do imagine myself in the heroine’s shoes, I live her emotions and dream her dreams.

The French Edition cover
 of Louisa George's
ONE MONTH TO BECOME A MUM

That got me thinking about the kind of women I write about, I like sassy, feisty, up-front heroines. I like independent thinking women. Women who can stand up for themselves. I like heroines who are brave enough to say and do the things I would like to say and do. (So now I understand the backlash against Bella in Twilight- a girl who reacts rather than acts, who doesn’t take charge. And also why women like Scarlett O’Hara and Stephanie Plum are so popular).  When I was younger I used to want to be like Linda Hamilton (John Connor’s mother in Terminator Two- boy, that woman was strong.)

As a medical romance writer all my main characters are based in the health professions. I make sure that there is a meeting of minds, an equality between the hero and heroine (things have definitely moved on from the unequal doctor/nurse relationship of old. Believe me, as a nurse married to a doctor, I know!). I try to write intelligent and independent characters- all different, all flawed in some way. Most of my characters have body issues of one type or another, they’ve usually got baggage, and none of them believe they are beautiful. But they are strong and healed.

Is that what my readers want, though?  What kind of a heroine do you enjoy reading? Any heroine you’d like to BE? Do you like to see them swept away by a powerful man or do you think the heroines should be powerful enough to do the sweeping (but allow the man to do it anyway! LOL!). Any memorable heroines? Any heroines you hated?

Louisa on the web:

Website      Blog       Facebook       Twitter         Author Page

One Month To Become A Mum

Blurb

Some things in life are worth waiting for…

Jessie Price has lost her only chance at motherhood – it’s a constant hurt, until she meets sinfully sexy single dad Dr Luke McKenzie and his gorgeous little girl. Luke’s intoxicating kisses and his daughter’s adoring hugs have Jessie
longing for the impossible. But she's a temporary locum, the clock’s ticking – and there’s only a month to make all her wishes come true…

Buy Links:

Mills & Boon         Mills & Boon eBook          Amazon Kindle

Amazon UK            Amazon       The Book Depository

Louise Cusack, her SHADOW THROUGH TIME trilogy and a GIVEAWAY!

I've been hearing a great many things about Australian author Louise Cusack's Shadow Through Time Trilogy so I invited her to tell us a little about the trilogy as well as about herself! But she came bearing gifts!

LOUISE CUSACK BIO:

Louise Cusack is an International award winning fantasy author whose best-selling Shadow through Time trilogy was selected by the Doubleday book club as their ‘Editors Choice’.  This series is now available as eBooks, published by Pan Macmillan’s digital imprint Momentum Books.

In 2006 Louise presented the Queensland government’s Queensland Writing Showcase in New York, and in 2009 she was invited to attended the prestigious Crossover multi-media think tank sponsored by the South Australian Film Commission. 

Louise also runs her own business Writers: Working with Louise Cusack and has completed over 150 manuscript assessments and tutored more than 80 writing workshops.

You can find Louise on her: website  facebook  twitter and goodreads

 So over to Louise now....

I’ve been a dedicated vegetarian for thirty years, and a published author for twenty, so you’d think I’d notice if those two passions ever intersected. 

Alas… not. 

But let me explain.  It starts with my romantic fantasy trilogy Shadow Through Time which is set on the sepia world of Ennae where there are no wizards, goblins, elves or fairies.  It’s different to your usual romantic fantasy series, and publishers liked that.  They commented about the fact that it was quite unusual to have a world with no animals or insects, only people and plants.

I’d thought that was odd myself when I was writing it, but as a seat-of-the-pants creator, I didn’t question the world that was appearing in front of my characters, I just captured it as clearly as I could.  It was only later when the first book was released that a girlfriend of mine noted the obvious: every hard-muscled warrior and champion I’d created was vegetarian.  The were no animals on the Earthworld of Ennae to eat!

I’d like to be embarrassed about the fact that my prejudices have insinuated themselves into my work, but to be honest I’m delighted.  The men in this romantic fantasy series are literally to die for, and I hope you’ll enjoy them in: Destiny of the Light, Daughter of the Dark and Glimmer in the Maelstrom, now published as eBooks by Pan Macmillan’s digital imprint Momentum Books, and available where all good eBooks are sold.

To celebrate the release of the trilogy I’d like to give away a copy of the first book of the series Destiny of the Light to one lucky commenter.

Congratulations! Lynne Marshall's Grand Prize Winner and a Giveaway!

Woo hoo! We are in a party mood here! As this marks the end of Lynne Marshall's Celebration tour!


Unpacking After a Blog Tour 

Last February 1st I ventured out on the trip of my life - a blog tour for Courting His Favorite Nurse my March debut Harlequin Special Edition, and later including my late March e-book release from the Wild Rose Press - An Indiscretion.

Without leaving my home, I traveled the globe getting to talk about topics important to me. Some were educational, some were interviews or just-for-fun events like first kisses. I got to tell the blog followers about my soft spot for nurse characters, my favorite premises for books, on and on I blabbed. I mean, I blogged. And you, lovely blog followers, gave me someone to blog to. Thank you so much for following along, for reading, for commenting, for participating in my very first blog tour.

I also want to send special thank yous to the wonderful blog hosts for the last two months. Without your diverse locations and styles of websites, I would never have been able to reach out to new readers and cyber-friends. Thank you.

I won't kid anyone by saying a blog tour is easy, it isn't, but it is worth every word written into each and every blog entry. My efforts at entertaining and enlightening blog readers have been incredibly well received. I couldn't have asked for a better experience, thanks to Nas Dean's efforts to organize the tour. Thank you, Nas.

Along the way, I gave some gifts and books, and to prove I didn't fall down on my end, here is the list of winners.

 Love Cats 2/1 -        LaVerne Clark
 Sunday Smooch 2/12 - Kate Kyle
 Seekerville 2/16 -    Cathy Shouse + Cindy W
 Fresh Fiction 2/21 -  Wendy Hulbert
Maggie Marr 3/9 -      Maria P Mohan
The Book Bordello -     Desere
 Riding WithTop Down -      Kris
 Minxes of Romance  3/21 -       Jannine Gallant
Romance Book Paradise- Medeia Sharif and Chey

    If you have not yet contacted me to claim your gift, please do so at my website. www.lynnemarshall.com

As promised all those months ago, there would be one grand prize winner on this blog tour, (I've decided to add a few surprise items along with the book!) a $25. Amazon GC! and here is the name ...drum-roll please..MARIA POWERS!

And here are Lynne Marshall's  pages created/updated by Romance Book Paradise around the web:

     Lynne Marshall - Author Page

RomanceWiki

Shelfari

LibraryThing

Fresh Fiction

Eye On Romance

Goodreads

Congratulations to all the winners and to Lynne Marshall for her earlier title  ONE FOR THE ROAD has finaled in another contest in the Mainstream with Strong Romantic Elements category!

And to celebrate it she decreed there will be a giveaway of her Cherish Title- COURTING HIS FAVORITE NURSE today!

Fiona Lowe and her RITA nominated BOOMERANG BRIDE!

Amid all the upheaval she is facing, I managed to get Australian author Fiona Lowe to give us a few minutes of her time! So here she is, sharing with us about how she felt when she found out her first single title book, BOOMERANG BRIDE got nominated for the prestigious RITA® awards by the Romance Writers of America®.

Thanks so much, Nas for having me here today at Romance Paradise. It’s always a pleasure!

I’ve had a huge week! Last Tuesday morning I woke up to hear my iPad going ‘ping, ping,’ and I assumed it was my calendar reminding me of appointments, only I couldn’t think of anything special that I had to do apart from start a new book.

As my feet hit the floor, the pinging went into overdrive and I realized they were Tweets coming in and again, I was confused because the day before I had only tweeted once or twice and I couldn’t imagine such a response. I found my glasses, got to the kitchen, switched on the light and saw, ‘Hey @FionaLowe Congrats on your #RITA12 nom for Boomerang Bride. ‘Just like some of my heroines, my mouth dried and my heart leapt in my chest!

BOOMERANG BRIDE

I couldn’t believe it. I instantly checked the answering machine for a message from RWA in Texas because I had been told by past nominees that a phone call was how they found out they were finalists, but there was no blue light or any missed calls.  I tried to find the RWA list on the internet but my fingers were all wobbly so I rang Angela James from Carina Press and asked her if it was true. She laughed and said, ‘Yes’. She also told me that Boomerang Bride was the first Carina Press book to be nominated for a Rita. Woot! Squee! This book, which took a long time to find a home keeps kicking goals. I was excited when it got  print published in the US as I always thought it would only ever be an  eBook and now it has garnered three nominations but there is still some bigger news coming about it soon but I just can’t say exactly what yet.

It seems to be a tradition that when I get great publishing news my husband is out of the state! When I sold my first Harlequin Medical Romance he was in Canberra. This time he was in Sydney so I called him and then I spent a wonderful Tuesday floating and answering the wonderful emails, tweets and Facebook messages from the very generous writing and reading community.

Then reality hit the next day and I got sick with the virus The Lad had brought home from school. Not happy!  However, lying on the couch with the iPad meant I had time to check out flights to the US because my husband said, ‘You must go.’  So I am! How we are going to sort out the boys for two weeks when their father isn’t home weekdays will be interesting and I will probably fall into the plane seat a wreck before I’ve started after having organized casseroles, enough school shirts and socks to last the distance, but I am coming to the conference. I’m so excited that I will be meeting in person writers and readers I’ve only ‘E’ met. And Nas!  I’ll meet Nas, although I am hoping to meet her when I am in Fiji in late June. 

 [I'm also looking forward to meeting Fiona in person at long last! In Fiji and at RWA in Anaheim!]

So if being nominated for a Rita wasn’t enough in a week I’ve also sold my 18^th medical romance, a Christmas story out in November, my second ‘Bride Book’ to Carina Press which makes my 20^th novel to Harlequin. Oh and I have a new release.  Sydney Harbour Hospital: Tom’s Redemption. This is a standalone book as well as being the fourth book in the Sydney Harbour Hospital series and it took me a long way from my ‘small towns with big hearts’ and back to a big hospital in a vibrant and cosmopolitan city. It was a lot of fun to write and Melanie Milburne’s husband was a great help with the technical details of surgery. I also loved the trips to Sydney for research!

I have visited many places because I have read about them in books. I finally got to Prince Edward Island when I was 30 after reading the ‘Anne of Green Gables’ as a child.  To celebrate my wonderful week, I’m giving away a copy of Sydney Harbour Hospital: Tom’s Redemption to a lucky winner. Just tell me where have you visited because you read about the place in a book?

Fiona Lowe is an award-winning, multi-published author with Harlequin and Carina Press. Whether her books are set in outback Australia or in the mid-west of the USA, they feature small towns with big hearts, and warm, likeable characters that make you fall in love. When she's not writing stories, she's a weekend wife, mother of two 'ginger' teenage boys, guardian of 80 rose bushes and often found collapsed on the couch. A current RT Book Reviwers' Choice Award nominee, you can find her at her website, facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.

Boomerang Bride is available now from Carina Press,Amazon Kindle, Nook and all other online book stores.

Congratulations to Fiona on the RITA nomination!

Sydney Harbour Hospital: TOM'S REDEMPTION

US Edition

Sydney Harbor Hospital's most elusive—and eligible—doctor has returned…Two years ago, renowned head of neurosurgery Tom Jordan disappeared. Now he's back and his secret is out. Tom's blind and will never operate again.

He's the proudest, rudest man registrar Hayley Grey has ever met. Nevertheless, the chemistry between them is mind-blowing—yet there could be so much more, if only Tom would let Hayley see the man behind the mask.…











It's available now in the UK & the USA. For pictures and background information, head to Fiona's website. She has written a neurosurgeon who becomes blind in an accident and there is fantastic amount of background information on her website. 

UK Edition

To celebrate Fiona is giving away a copy of Sydney Harbour Hospital: Tom’s Redemption to a lucky winner. Just tell her where have you visited because you read about the place in a book?





Amazon          Amazon UK