The HEA Cafe

I won a contest!!! My book Darcy’s Inheritance won first place in THE BEACON. Who’d of think??

 You see this book was one of those that seemed destined to fail. I wrote it for one market had it rejected. Fixed it for a second. Had another rejection. (Ouch). Revised it again and submitted it to Heartsong Presents and they bought it as part of a 3-book series that will be reissued as Montana Weddings in August.

I despaired at times that I’d ever get it into some sort of publishable form. I got so I hate the story (at times). Then the cover had to be redone. The editor agreed that the orginial proposal for cover art just wouldn’t work.

But the worst was yet to be. I finaled in THE BEACON. And a short time later the contest moderator contacted me to say the story seemed to end in an odd place. She gave me the page count on their copy–and the last 10 pages were missing. She graciously allowed me to send a complete copy going way beyond the call of duty.

And it won. (I entered 2 other contests and have no way of knowing if they got a story that ended in a very odd spot.)

I have come to expect that the stories I sweat and strain over and think will never work end up being much better stories than the ones that seem to come easy. Go figure.

Have you got your own stories of how a bad manuscript went good?