#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--HANDCRAFTED NEW ORLEANS VOODOO GOD TO OVERCOME REJECTION

Rejection is something with which most authors are quite familiar. Even very famous writers—everyone from Voltaire to Stephen King received their share of “thanks but no thanks” letters from editors. So it’s no surprise that Lois Winston, she who writes about me, collected a thick stack of rejection letters before selling her first novel.

There’s some speculation that the tide finally turned in Lois’s favor after her agent bought her a handcrafted Voodoo doll in New Orleans. This was not just any souvenir Voodoo doll, though. This was a Voodoo God to Overcome Rejection. The instructions stated:

Your doll is a medium to focus on a problem or desire. You can personalize with hair, small photo, or any small personal item. Tuck them into doll. To make a ceremony, every morning and every evening light a candle or incense stick. Stick pin in doll—heart for good, stomach for bad. Say aloud three times your desire or intention. Concentrate on your objective for three minutes. Repeat for nine days.

Lois refuses to say whether or not she performed this ceremony, but she did eventually sell her first book and has gone on to publish many more, including eight books and three novellas about me. Recently she received a proof copy of the trade paperback of Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide, the eighth Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, shown above with the Voodoo God to Overcome Rejection.

Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide (Pre-order ebook now; print available 10/1)

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 8

Two and a half weeks ago magazine crafts editor Anastasia Pollack arrived home to find Ira Pollack, her half-brother-in-law, had blinged out her home with enough Christmas lights to rival Rockefeller Center. Now he’s crammed her small yard with enormous cavorting inflatable characters. She and photojournalist boyfriend (and possible spy) Zack Barnes pack up the unwanted lawn decorations to return to Ira. They arrive to find his yard the scene of an over-the-top Christmas extravaganza. His neighbors are not happy with the animatronics, laser light show, and blaring music creating traffic jams on their normally quiet street. One of them expresses his displeasure with his fists before running off.

In the excitement, the deflated lawn ornaments are never returned to Ira. The next morning Anastasia once again heads to his house before work to drop them off. When she arrives, she discovers Ira’s attacker dead in Santa’s sleigh. Ira becomes the prime suspect in the man’s murder and begs Anastasia to help clear his name. But Anastasia has promised her sons she’ll keep her nose out of police business. What’s a reluctant amateur sleuth to do?

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--ROMANCE WRITING IS MURDER FOR GRACIE ELLIOTT

Author Lois Winston sometimes takes a break from creating havoc in my life to turn her attention to a second mystery series, The Empty Nest Mysteries, about wannabe romance writer Gracie Elliott. Even though Gracie has lost her job, Lois is quite a bit kinder to her than she is to me. Dead bodies aside, Gracie’s biggest problem is her inability to sell her romance novel, collecting a stack of rejection letters. And in Literally Dead, the second book in the series, Gracie discovers that writing romance can be murder—literally.

Like many other authors, Lois also received her share of rejection letters before selling her first book, then received more before she sold Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book about me. What she learned from all those rejection letters is that books are often rejected not because of a lack of storytelling skill but because the right book didn’t land on the right editor’s desk on the right day. And because taste is so subjective, what appeals to one editor may be a quick rejection from another.

Take Gone With the Wind, for example, or as I call it, Clueless in Georgia. I have no idea whether or not Margaret Mitchell acquired any rejection letters on her road to publication, but had I been an editor who received that manuscript, I would certainly have rejected it. Why? For one thing, Ashley Wilkes needs to grow a pair. What woman in her right mind would fall for such a wimp? Especially someone like Scarlett O’Hara? The only reason she pursued Ashley was because he and Melanie were betrothed. Scarlett always wanted what someone else had. She’s the classic petulant, spoiled brat from the first page of the book to the last. Fiddle-dee-dee! I envision my half-brother-in-law Ira’s twin daughters Melody and Harmony winding up just like Scarlett if he doesn’t wise up and grow a pair.

However, instead of sending Ms. Mitchell a form rejection letter (because I know from listening to Lois how disheartening they can be), I'd take the time to offer a few suggestions. First, I'd make Melanie Hamilton the heroine of the story. I'd tell the author to rip the rose-colored glasses from her face and get rid of her goody-two-shoes attitude. Have her recognize Scarlett for the "B-Yatch" she is. As for Mammy, instead of taking all that crap from Scarlett and the rest of the O'Hara clan, I'd have her hop on the Underground Railroad and head north to freedom.

So while Gracie and I were talking about rejection letters, Lois told us about Jerzy Kosinski. He won the National Book Award in 1969 for Steps. Between 1975 and 1977, a freelance writer by the name of Chuck Ross decided to test a theory. He set out to prove that novels by unpublished authors have little chance of ever getting published. He retyped Steps under the pseudonym Erik Demos and sent it off to more than two-dozen editors and literary agents. All of them rejected the manuscript, including an editor at Random House, the original publisher of Steps, who not only didn’t recognize the book as their own but sent “Demos” a form rejection letter.

Timing is everything. Luckily for both Margaret Mitchell and Jerzy Kosinski, their books landed on the right editor’s desk on the right day, and the rest is history.

Literally Dead
Book 2 of the Empty Nest Mystery Series

An homage to Dashell Hammet’s Thin Man movies with a modern day spin on Nick and Nora Charles 

After her last disastrous episode as an amateur sleuth, Gracie Elliott is back. The budding romance writer has spent the past year crafting her first novel. Her hard work and determination pay off when her manuscript wins the Cream of the Crop award, a contest for unpublished writers, sponsored by the Society of American Romance Authors. First place entitles her to attend the organization’s annual conference, normally open only to published authors.

With husband Blake in tow, a starry-eyed Gracie experiences the ultimate fan-girl moment upon entering the hotel. Her favorite authors are everywhere. However, within minutes she learns Lovinia Darling, the Queen of Romance, is hardly the embodiment of the sweet heroines she creates. Gracie realizes she’s stepped into a romance vipers’ den of backstabbing, deceit, and plagiarism, but she finds a friend and mentor in bestselling author Paisley Prentiss.

Hours later, when Gracie discovers Lovinia’s body in the hotel stairwell, a victim of an apparent fall, Gracie is not convinced her death was an accident. Too many other authors had reason to want Lovinia dead. Ignoring Blake’s advice to “let the police handle it,” Gracie, aided by Paisley, begins her own investigation into the death. Romance has never been so deadly.

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FAVORITES, FAILURES & FRUSTRATIONS--GUEST AUTHOR JACQUELINE DIAMOND

A former Associated Press reporter and TV columnist, USA Today bestselling author Jacqueline Diamond has sold 100 mysteries and romance novels to traditional publishers. Her 101^st book, The Case of the Questionable Quadruplet, launches her Safe Harbor Medical Mystery series. Learn more about Jacqueline and her books at her website. Today Jacqueline joins us to talk about her talent for failure.

A Talent for Failure

“How many books have you written?”

That shouldn’t be hard to answer, right? I’ve published 101 novels. Problem is, I’ve written way more than that—thousands of rejected pages, including a few complete books plus unsold partials and proposals.

Chalk them up as failures. But only in a sense.

Throughout my twenties and thirties, I turned out plays, screenplays and novels while working as a journalist. My bed rose into the stratosphere as unsold manuscripts piled up underneath (this was in the days of typewritten manuscripts). It sometimes felt like I was receiving rejection slips from publishers I hadn’t even submitted to.

At last, I sold a Regency-era romantic comedy called Lady in Disguise, followed by another three. Success at last!

If that had been the end of my rejections, this would be a very short blog. But as it turned out, failure is an option, even for published authors.

My editor rejected my fifth Regency, A Lady’s Point of View. She said the plot was too complicated and didn’t even request revisions (more about that book in a minute).

I moved on to writing contemporary romances and other genres. Gradually, more books sold, including a mystery (The Eyes of a Stranger) and a paranormal thriller (Echoes). But others, equally loved by me, didn’t.

Looking back, I came up with a few lessons worth sharing.

1) Although rejection hurts, I learned from it. Sometimes, the concept just wasn’t strong enough. Or the characters weren’t deep enough. Or the storyline didn’t fit what the publishers or readers were looking for at that time.

2) Failure isn’t forever. After a rewrite, my fantasy novel Shadowlight found a home at DAW and my offbeat mystery Danger Music sold to Five Star Mysteries. A Lady’s Point of View, after revisions, sold to another Regency line. All three are now available as ebooks.

3) When life gives you lemons, open a fruit stand. My Gothic romantic suspense Touch Me in the Dark endured multiple rejections before selling to an epublisher named Triskelion. The month it was published, Triskelion went bankrupt, and I didn’t receive a penny. Eventually, I regained my rights, updated and self-published this book, which has done well in its new digital life.

4) When life doesn’t even give you lemons, plant your own lemon tree. My favorite unsold book was a science fiction thriller called Out of Her Universe, about a woman with no idea that, as a baby, she had been brought to this world from a parallel Earth. Then, without warning, her life and those of people she loves are thrust into danger. I loved writing it and published it as an original ebook that has received outstanding reviews.

5) Taken together, lessons add up to an education, which can pay off in unexpected ways. Take my latest writing venture.

For my 101^st book, I was eager to return to writing mysteries with puzzle plots and offbeat characters. As my experiences had shown, I no longer need an editor’s permission to publish my work.

Rejections also taught me that a concept has to be strong to appeal to readers. Being a fan of Grey’s Anatomy and the author of a 17-book medical romance series, I decided to feature a doctor as my amateur sleuth.

Thus the Safe Harbor Medical Mysteries were born. I’ve published the first book, The Case of the Questionable Quadruplet, and am well into writing the second, with several more plots on tap. Without my failures, I might never have developed the confidence or the market awareness to write and issue this series.

We all enjoy hearing of people who succeeded in spite of their failures. In my case, I may very well have succeeded because of them.

The Case of the Questionable Quadruplet

A Safe Harbor Medical Mystery, Book 1

Eric Darcy, a young, widowed obstetrician, is stunned when the mother of triplets claims to have borne a fourth baby, a quad, that was stolen from her years ago. When someone murders his patient, Eric believes the police are dismissing a vital clue, and teams up with his PI sister-in-law to investigate, never imagining his own life might be in danger. This medical cozy is the first in the Safe Harbor Medical Mysteries.

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FAVORITES, FAILURES & FRUSTRATIONS--GUEST AUTHOR RUTH KAUFMAN

Award-winning author Ruth Kaufman is an Amazon bestselling Chicago author of the Wars of the Roses Brides trilogy. She’s also an on-camera and voiceover talent, freelance editor and speaker with a J.D. and a Master’s in Radio/TV. My Once & Future Love is the first book in her Unsung Knights of the Round Table series. Learn more about Ruth and her books at her website. 

Failure to Get “The Call!”

In 1994, I sent out my first requested submission for my first medieval romance. Literally hundreds of requested submissions later for a dozen completed manuscripts and a nonfiction proposal, I still haven’t gotten “the call” that an editor wanted to buy one of my books.

An epic fail, despite having two agents and even after winning Romance Writers of America®’s national Golden Heart® Award. And my third manuscript was runner-up after five rounds of online voting in American Title II, another national contest by then Dorchester Publishing and RT Book Reviews magazine. The winner got a publishing contract. The runner up: nada.

During these years, many colleagues and friends were, of course, receiving the call. Some, multiple times. Some went on to become bestsellers, when I still hadn’t sold one manuscript.

What was I doing wrong? What could I improve? My writing was consistently praised, so was something lacking in the stories or storytelling? I took workshops, had friends critique some projects, but couldn’t find a solution that worked. One editor, who rejected MS #4 in person at a conference, told me it was fine, but she just didn’t love it enough. That was the hardest rejection to give, she said, because she didn’t know how to tell me what to fix or change.

Many authors claim their success began with getting the right project on the right desk at the right time. I think one manuscript was the victim of bad timing…a bit late to ride the chick lit train. Harlequin considered it for Red Dress Ink, then lowered the heroines’ maximum age to twenty-five. Mine was older. They also considered it for Next, but that line closed.

I’ve received more than a dozen revision letters on assorted manuscripts. This meant an editor was very interested, but not willing to buy unless I made changes to her satisfaction. Of course I did my best to make the changes. No call. My GH winner received not one, but two revision letters from Harlequin over the course of two years. They still said no.

I learned I had to take control. So I decided to self-publish...and have released four books so far with a novella coming in September. Should I give up my dream of having an actual publisher’s name on the spine, something not in my control? Am I being persistent or beating my head against a brick wall?  Thanks to Twitter pitches, a romantic comedy is with a dream agent I’ve been submitting to since 1999, who “loves the voice,” and a humorous paranormal is with an editor at a small publisher. Will either of these submissions lead to “the call?” Stay tuned….

My Once & Future Love 

When a lady on the run aids an immortal knight in peril, can love flourish?

Annora of Amberton flees her castle to seek proof that she’s not a lunatic as her uncle declared when claiming wardship over her and her lands.

Morgan ap Myrddin must rescue his father, Merlin, from imprisonment. But enemies have wounded him, draining his powers.

He stumbles upon her cottage and enlists her aid. As he helps her in return, undeniable desire sparks. But he won’t succumb to the lure of a mortal woman as his father did. She’s wary of caring for a man who refuses to discuss his past. When he finally tells her he’s a Knight of the Round Table, she fears he’s the lunatic as danger, secrets and destiny thwart the power of love.

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