December 1, 2004. hmmm....What happened in November? Well, I GOT MY BOOK COVER! I think it is the best looking Regency cover ever! The Signet art department really did a great job for me and if you can't tell, I'm extremely pleased with it. :-) My book is also available to be pre-ordered off Amazon.com. How cool is that?
I've been working hard rewriting THE NUDE this past month. Sometimes it feels like it would be easier to just split open a vein and let the blood pour out. But then that wouldn't give me a better story. Two editors and my agent have all said about the same thing about how to fix it to make it more of a romance, so fixing it I'm trying to do. I'm really trying...though I'm begining to despair the chances of this one ever seeing the light of day. Which is a shame because the characters' tales deserve to be told.
For my action-adventure, THE HUNTRESS, I'm considering self-publishing it. I adore this story and just feel that because it doesn't fit neatly into one genre or another that I won't be able to sell it to a publishing house. Maybe I'll sell it on this website. Stay tuned...
And since it is December, have a blessed holiday season! The support I've gotten this past year from the visitors to this website has been priceless. I look forward to great things in the year to come for all of us. Please keep your fingers crossed that I can sell another book soon and I'll keep my fingers crossed that all your wishes come true, too!
November 1, 2004. I have an agent!
(Okay, some other things happened in October, too.) The copy edits for THE MARRIAGE LIST arrived in the mail this month. I had a very short time to look them over and get them back to Signet, but that's normal for all publishers. The copy editor goes through and corrects grammer and spelling and the like. There were a few things that I didn't agree with, so I changed those back. All and all, an enjoyable experience. One step closer to it being in print, which is very exciting. :-)
Now that I have an agent, I'm going to work on focusing on my writing again this month and let the agent worry about the business end of things for a while. Whew, that does feel good to say.
October 5, 2004. What! It's October already? Where did the summer go?? At least it is still warm enough to swim here, so it might as well be summer. This month went by so quickly I'm not sure what to say. Back to the old waiting game. I'm still waiting to hear from the agents I'd queried and am making a new list of hopefuls to query as well. Haven't heard from the two editors I had sent material to on my own. But I have started a new Regency proposal. And have recently heard from my editor about the first Regency proposal I'd sent her. She wants some revisions. All very reasonable suggestions, like make it more of a romance--duh. I should have figured that one out on my own. :-) October will be dedicated honing my skill in getting the first part of the romance--the hero/heroine first meet--as sexy and exciting as possible. Growing and learning that is what life is all about, anyhow. Right?
I've been bursting with Bombshell ideas this month and am frustrated that writing for that line didn't work out. I'm writing the ideas down. Perhaps I'll follow up on them sometime in the future. Maybe they'll turn into short stories that will end up on this website. Maybe they'll do a timewarp and turn into Regencies. Who knows? If a story wants to be told, it WILL be told. There is a law about that, I think. :-)
Keep your fingers crossed for me this month. If we all concentrate, maybe the wheels of fate will turn and I will have some exciting news for you the next time.
September 9, 2004. August has been a dream month for me. My editor from Signet has provided me with all sorts of exciting things to look at, like the back blurb of the book, a revisions letter, and she asked for suggested scenes for the front cover. Also in August, I had a professional photo taken for the back of the book. Up until now, I didn't really believe I was actually getting a book published. I was still waiting to wake up and realize I was dreaming. Now things feel pretty real!
I've unofficially launched my "author" website. If you have a moment, go take a look at www.dorothymcfalls.com. I invite you to sign up for my e-newsletter. I plan on running a few contests as the time approaches to THE MARRIAGE LIST's big publication date. So if you want to know when to send an entry, sign up for the newsletter!
I've also spent August working on my latest short story (to be completed soon) and have put together a couple of proposals for future Regency romances. Of course I'm still working on my "hush, hush" projects and putting feelers out for my adventure, THE HUNTRESS. I've finished reworking it. I just know I can find a publisher for that book. It's sexy and fun and a little twisted. Who wouldn't love it?
My agent search continues. I'm patiently waiting to hear back from the few I've recently queried. Keep your fingers crossed for me to be bringing news of some exciting successes in the coming months!
August 2, 2004. I'm back from the RWA National Conference in Dallas and happy to report that THE MARRIAGE LIST won 3rd place in the RWA Beau Monde chapter's Royal Ascot contest. The conference helped fuel my creativity and urge me to get back to work. Besides working on a few short stories, I will be spending my days working on 2 new short Regencies to submit to Signet, finish the romantic suspense I've started, find an agent, and continue work on my newest "hush, hush" project. Okay, okay, I'll spill the beans on this one. I'm working on a spicy adventure involving a witch, a witch hunter, and a deep dark evil that threatens to destroy the world. The working title is THE RED GODDESS. (Any editors out there looking for a hot paranormal, email me!) :-)
I'm also anxiously waiting to get the revision letter from my editor for THE MARRIAGE LIST. She promises the revisions will be light. I have my fingers crossed that I'll get them soon and they'll be a breeze so I can keep my book on schedule...May 2005 is just around the corner in publishing terms!! Oh my!
July 2, 2004. Vacation over. I'm getting back to work! I have completed plotting my next Regency romance and have finished the first couple of scenes. I'm getting excited about this one and look forward to a few quiet writing days.
I've been looking for an agent to represent my new improved version of my action-adventure, THE HUNTRESS. Had a few agents express some interest this month and ask to read the manuscript. Keep your fingers crossed that there is an editor out there looking for this hot-edge-of-your-seat book!
Don't forget, my short story, RELATIONSHIPS, gets published by A Hint of Seduction this month!!
June 7, 2004. After a couple of really exciting weeks in May, I'm getting back to work. After talking with the editor I have been submitting to at Harlequin/Silhouette about my chances of developing a future there (which at the moment seems grim) I've decided to stop work on my romantic suspense novel, which is nearly done, and focus on writing a new Regency romance with Signet Books in mind (bird in the hand, you know). I have a rough plot in mind and am anxious to develop a bang-up proposal for a second book (I hope, I hope). What an adventure I'm embarking on.
I doubt I'll be able to leave my romantic suspenses behind all together, so I'll definitely try to finish this current book before the end of summer and see what, if anything, I can do with it.
May 26, 2004. **Special Entry** First off, let me say I looked at several of my past posts here and have to say, gee, I sound whiny. Sorry. Luckily, this post in content and tone will be much, much better. :-) My sister had a baby girl yesterday!! A big happy for my family. AND Sunday I got a call from the Beau Monde Royal Ascot contest to tell me that my newest Regency, THE MARRIAGE LIST, is a finalist. Yippee!! AND (drum roll) I got The Call yesterday. Actually I was calling them back but I think it still counts. An editor at Signet Books offered me a contract for THE MARRIAGE LIST and of course I said, "Yes!!!!"
THE MARRIAGE LIST, a Regency Romance Novel, is scheduled to HIT THE SHEVLES on May 2005.
This was just the boost I needed to get back to writing. Hope to have my latest short story finished by this weekend. It just has a few pages left.
May 3, 2004. Okay. I'd meant to get a new short story written this weekend and posted to the site, but my brother-in-law, sister-in-law and nephew showed up. And nothing gets done when there's a 2 1/2 year-old in the house. Perhaps next weekend. In the meantime, do check out my nifty changes to the website.
And don't ask me about my writing/publishing progress unless you want to hear me whine. :-). I'll say this much, I'm working on several things right now. Who knows if anything will actually pan out or be any good. One thing's for sure, there are no such things as good things in disguise.
April 2, 2004. I'll start with the good news. I **sold** a short story to the ezine (online magazine) A Hint of Seduction this month. The story, "Relationships" will appear in their July 2004 issue.
Now play some sad music in your head while you read this next part. I'm hearing "Requiem for a Little Bird" by Sandr.
The editor at Silhouette Bombshell called me in March. She'd been so in love with my book, THE HUNTRESS, for a year now and now she's not. She asked for me to pretty much tear apart the plot (a plot she'd approved last April) and write something very different from what I'd given her. Anyhow, I probably burned an important bridge when I told her I wasn't interested in completely reworking that book right now. **Sigh**. I still think she's a wonderful editor, but maybe not right for me right now.
I'm lucky though. An assistant editor at Berkley/Jove has requested THE HUNTRESS!!!! I have my fingers crossed that she'll see what both the editor and senior editor at Silhouette books saw when they first read it and fell in love with it. So maybe this is a good thing in disguise.
March 4, 2004. I started a new project this month, a short mystery with some romance tossed in for fun. It will be like one of my short stories, only longer. I'm finding it hard to type while keeping my fingers and toes and legs and arms crossed for luck while I wait for the editors at Silhouette Books to review THE HUNTRESS and the editors at Signet Books to review THE MARRIAGE LIST. You can't imagine how badly I want to hear some good news soon. Any good luck vibes you can spare would be most gratefully accepted!
February 3, 2004. Though the revisions sometimes felt like spilling blood, I finished making the changes to THE HUNTRESS and mailed the whole thing back to the editor at Silhouette!!! She has been super to work with and I have my fingers crossed that she will like what I have done.
The last couple of weeks I have been putting the finishing touches on my traditional Regency to put into the mail to Signet, who recently requested to read the whole manuscript. Yay! I hope to have that done and into the mail soon. Since my fingers will already be crossed, I'm going to have to figure out how to cross my toes!
I've been working on a short mystery for this site. I hope it will be done and posted soon! I also survived a few rejection letters this month. One was from an agent who had loved the first three chapters of my romantic suspense. Apparently she hated the rest and wasn't afraid to tell me that she was rooting for the killer to knock off the main characters by the end. (Sigh.) I still believe in the story and will work on it further.
January 5, 2004. 2004! Oh my, where did the year go? I have a goal of thinking more positively and enjoying my writing more. To that end, I'm working hard on neutralizing negative thought patterns and replacing them with more positive ones. BUT I'm about to break my resolution by admitting that I spent all of December fretting over my revisions and holding my breath waiting for the annual Christmas rejection letters to roll in.
Well, I didn't get any rejection letters. I DID get a phone call from Signet requesting to read the first three chapters of my latest Regency though. Yippee!!!
After mourning the loss of the story that was. I began the long process of taking apart THE HUNTRESS and reworking it to meet the editor's desires. I still have twinges of regret, but I am surviving the hard process of revisions. (If you can spare good luck vibes, send them.)
