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"I can't
believe it's been just over 13 years since I joined Harlequin
Mills & Boon as a Senior Editor. Rarely has anything kept me
interested that long, other than my own particular hero, of
course, but my role here certainly does. Partly because it is
constantly evolving and offering new challenges, but mostly
because of the wonderful books we publish and the authors I work
with. In that time I've seen the stories just get better and
better, more in-depth, more emotional, more passionate (in some
cases), and increasingly varied in scope, plus and keeping up
with social mores and reader's expectations. That, of course, is
all down to the authors we work with. We pride ourselves at
Harlequin in the close working relationships we have with our
authors and our focus on building author's careers with us.
I've had the
pleasure of a very wide experience at Harlequin. I started as
the Senior Editor for the Mills & Boon Romance series, and we
published 16
books a month at that time in one series. I saw through it's
transition
into two separate series: Modern (Presents/Sexy) and Romance
(Sweet) as they
are now known in the UK, and alongside that, managed our reprint
and series
single title programmes which appear in the UK market.
During all of that time I've worked with authors and acquired
manuscripts
across the Modern/Sexy, and Romance/Sweet and Medical
series, and still
do. Right now I am Senior Editor for Medicals and I just adore
them.
When I get a pitch from an author for Medicals what I really
like to see or
hear is a sense that the author really understands what the
readers want in
this genre - that they have read and understand what drives the
Medical
series. A short resume that gives me a strong sense of who the
hero and
heroine are, their emotional conflict and how this and the
romance will be
developed and resolved is key. I'm looking for charismatic
characters, with
a strong chemistry between them, an emotive and well explored
conflict that
appeals intellectually and emotionally. I'm looking for a
contemporary use
of classic themes eg, secret pregnancies/babies, marriages under
fire,
single parents, recovery from past relationships, and a sense
that the
romance and medical drama will merge naturally, one fuelling the
other, to
create the emotional turning points in the story. I'm looking
for a
scenario that gets me right into the conflict and characters,
starts with a
bang and ends in an emotional and romantic resolution that will
pull at my
heartstrings. Of course we also want a sense of the medical and
geographical setting, though we don't need a blow-by-blow
account of the
medical drama or the plot. Beyond that we want to hear what
you've got that
is unique to you, that something special you can bring to the
series - your
own unique voice.
I'm just thrilled to be coming to the conferences in Australia
and New
Zealand this year. I can't wait to meet you all, and to hearing
some
Medical pitches."
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