by Carla Molino

After fifteen years, resident contest junkie and Hearts Talk editor Paula Roe finally cracked Silhouette Desire with her first sale, The Forgotten Marriage. Carla Molino interviews her to discover the secrets of how to conquer rejection and reach your dreams.

Carla: Tell us about the Call.

Paula: The Forgotten Marriage (which started out as The Wife He Never Knew) had a love/hate relationship with editors. Mills & Boon Presents rejected the partial and Silhouette Desire rejected the full... twice. So after major rewrites, I pitched it to Kim Young of Presents at the Melbourne conference in 2005. While I waited for a response, I entered RWA’s Opening Chapter comp and won with it (how much do I LOVE RWA comps???!!!!) The final judge, Mary-Theresa Hussey loved the “energy” of the story and told me to submit it to one of her editors at Desire, Demetria Lucas. At the time it was also a finalist in the Emerald and placed second in our QLS. I emailed Mary-Theresa Hussey to let her know one of her other edtiors - Patience Smith -was reading it as the Emerald final judge.

Then it placed first in the Dixie First Chapter... but I had no request for further work.

Three months later, after a productive day with my crit partner Deb (who told me to stop dithering and get my finger out), I emailed Demetria to enquire on my ms status. She replied on the 29th August, thanked me for being patient and said she'd sent it to her senior editor to get her thoughts. Demetria said: “FYI - I loved your book and passed it along with strong recommendations. I hope the Sr. Ed. likes it as much as I do.” I was thrilled but cautious and settled in for another four week wait.

So on Thursday, 7th September, I woke with the conviction of getting my son off to kindy after he’d been home two days straight with a stomach bug. It's 7.30, we're trying to work out why there's no sound on the Dino Attack game at Lego.com and my emails came filtering in. The little ghostly boxes pop up... one, from ROMAUS, one from the Exec loop, one from my walking partner, one from Lucas, Demetria.... hang on! Did it say "great news!"???

Wrestling for control of the mouse, I opened Outlook and stared in disbelief at the email: "Great news!!!! Desire would like to make an offer on The Wife He Never Knew. Is there a number where I can reach you to chat?"

"They want to buy my book." No response from Cooper, who's glaring at the screen, demanding Dino Attack miraculously appear. "What?" says my mum distractedly, wandering past the office door. "They want to buy my book... THEY WANT TO BUY MY BOOK!!"" By now, Cooper's got the gist that something's up and looks at me cautiously as I dissolve into a fit of maniacal laughter. After I stop, I explain that mummy has sold her book to a company that will put a cover on it and sell it in book stores. Still not impressed, I add hopefully, "and I'll get money for it." To which he brightens and says, "Oh, can I have some, then?" Ah, the simplicity of youth. He only got excited when I promised to buy him a toy (he gets a toy, mummy gets a contract <laughs>). I got to keep my title and will know the release date after my revisions are accepted and man, it feels soooo good to finally say those three magical words, "editor", "revisions" and "contract"!

What is the book about?

Even though it was written before Silhouette changed their Desire guidelines, ironically it has all the hooks the new guidelines are seeking - secret baby, amnesia, lovers reunited, evil stepmother ?I had to write a back cover blurb for the Emerald Award and it went like this:

One phone call can change everything...
Unemployed and pregnant by her soon-to-be-ex husband, Ally McKnight needs a solution to her problems, not an added complication. But her husband’s reappearance throws her life into chaos again, less than a year after their whirlwind marriage and her abrupt departure.

The wife he never knew...
Finn Sørensen is rich, powerful and won’t take no for an answer. After a tragic accident leaves his memory frustratingly blank, he needs Ally’s help to save his father’s beloved company. He’s determined not to give in to any attraction – if only that damned promise weren’t so hard to keep!

You started this story seven years ago. What made you stick with it? Technically, how did it change so that it became sellable? How did the competition route help you?

I stuck with it because I started to believe in it ?. It started out as a cathartic exercise but eventually I really wanted to tell the story because it had some very valid emotions in it: betrayal, redemption, growth and change. When I first started, I had no idea Ally, the heroine, would morph into such a strong character: I initially had her reactions as too weak and wishywashy which made the hero, Finn, come across too forceful. There was also a lot of things that Ally reacted to, instead of being proactive about. Also, there were initially three more characters in the book - Ally's best friend, her mother and her grandmother. Even though I loved writing them in, I eventually realised they took the focus away from the hero and heroine and made it seem as if the situation controlled them, not the other way around. So I cut those scenes, which tightened the writing and brought out more of Ally and Finn’s personalities and conflict.

As to the contest route <grins>. Truly, if it weren't for both the Opening Chapter and Emerald contests, my book wouldn't have found a home with Desire (well, I hope it would have eventually, but certainly not as quickly! It was already a triple reject...).

Without the anonymous encouragement of contest judges, I wouldn't have kept on improving my writing. The good judges gave praise and critique where it was due, made me think about plot, characterisation and pace (which helped me tighten and revise) and the not-so-good judges provided me with a thick skin and an "I'll show you!" attitude ?

In terms of motivation, how has The Call made a difference to your life?

I'm a disorganised, slow writer. Terrible, isn't it? I like to deliberate after I finish something, to make sure that that scene/plot device/situation is the best for that book and the characters. And I know from experience that distance makes the book stronger. Funnily enough, a week before The Call, one of my crit partners demanded I start using a schedule, even going so far as to list my works-in-progress, how complete they were and what it would take to finish them. Extremely motivated, I then went out and bought one of those huge monthly desk calendars and it's now pinned up on a whiteboard with my every working day plotted out. The Call has just ensured that I keep on track because now, I'm motivated by the real possibility of a long writing career!

Tell us about a typical work day for you.

Typical? What's that? <laughs>. I'm woken up at 6 am (EVERY MORNING!!) and get to the gym for 7am. At home by 8, I drop my son at school during the week and then I normally have 9.30 until 2.30 to write (I've learnt to confine the writing to weekdays - just try concentrating on an important scene with a six-year-old walking in every two seconds!). That's 20 days a month... around 110 hours. Sound great? Well, hang on... On Tuesdays I have kindy reading groups until 10, every second Friday there’s hall assembly from 11.30 until 12, on Mondays and Thursdays I walk for 45 minutes with my walking buddy, and then there's any standing appointments I have to meet - waxing, dentist , writing group etc. And I also have to block off the last week of the month to deal with Hearts Talk (collating, printing, posting). All that time dwindles away, especially when you take into account all the little fiddly bits like answering email, paying bills, filing stuff (which I admit is like Everest at the moment!). I've just closed my doors to any more website design (I already have 16 clients !) so that should free up some more time...

For people targeting the Desire and Presents line, what do you see are the fundamental differences?

Oh, lord, you're asking me??? A few years ago I could've told you because I instinctively wrote more “American” but with the new guidelines, I know a lot of writers can’t see the difference. I do feel that Desire have more American characters but again, there's always an author who can prove me wrong ? Presents, to me, seem to feature more high-end glamour - and at times the writing can be more than dramatic... melodramatic, even. Senior Editor Melissa Jeglinski has said, “the defining difference between Presents and Desire is the author's voice. Desire heroes - though Alpha... may not be so intense as the Presents guys.”

Another thing I notice - Presents is what I call "zoom focus" books - stories that zoom right in on the couple and stay there. With Desire there's a bit more leeway to introduce another character or two, as long as it's central to the story. And with the new guidelines, Desire are seeking soap-opera kind of stories - no fairytales (e.g. princesses) or passive heroes (the Desire hero always must be in pursuit of the heroine - even if he doesn't quite know why?). And stories with babies over the age of five don't seem to sell as well - having children running around tends to inhibit the passion, the editors have said. Making babies, however, is a welcome plot device. ?

What advice do you have for writers seeking publication?

Stick with it. Sometime in 2004 I seriously considered a compromise. I thought if I couldn't get in the door with Harlequin, then I would build my name (as so many authors do) by getting published with a small press. There I could gather a readership and then try the “big names” further down the track. Because although I've only had five rejections, I could feel that I just wasn't hitting the right note with Harlequin editors. When The Wife was rejected the second time in 2004 by Desire (the line I desperately wanted to write for) I didn't know what they wanted, especially when I'd put so much of my heart into it. But after some more revisions (tedious things but such a goldmine!) and my success in the Emerald, I got to eat my words!

The funny thing is, I've just read an article by Melissa James <www.melissajames.info> about committing emotional suicide and my Lord, that speaks to me on so many levels! If you aren't prepared to open up a vein and bleed all over your page (metaphorically speaking) then maybe it's time to rethink what you really want to write. It may be that you're not suited to where you're targeting, or even the genre as a whole. Take a good look at your contest crit sheets, your rejection letters, talk with your writing partner or crit group. And learn from them all. It may take longer than your five-year plan, heck, it may turn out you're sending your kids to high school by the time you make it. But I promise you, you'll be a much better writer by the end of it.

Carla Molino writes as Cathleen Ross. Her novel, Man Hunt is the number one best selling erotic book on the Virgin Publishing website.

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