Anyway, a couple of hours later I dragged my sorry self out of bed and (despite terrible worries that the power would suddenly cut out or my computer refuse to work) managed to log on. It was a wonderfully friendly experience. I’ve never really been in a chat situation and it was fabulous that the editors were hanging out in the waiting room chatting with everyone too.

I was last on the list and around 5am eventually got to pitch. And I’m not ashamed to say that I froze. Completely. Twice. My head was full of GMC so when one of the eds asked me how my hero would pick her up in a bar, I kind of just stared at the screen going ‘huh?’ Of course AFTER the pitch I thought up all kinds of fabulous things to say such as my hero does not go to bars to pick up women! But did I say that? No. However, what I did manage to do was get across his conflict which they thought was ‘very emotionally powerful’. Cue yays from me!

The editors also gave me some good advice re the heroine and also that since my voice is ‘light’ I need to get some darkness in there – cue more yays from me since I do love the darkness.

Anyway, I think I did all right since they asked me for a partial and synopsis, which is fantastic (the partial bit, not the synopsis)!

So go the sheikh!

But, well, I did get picked. And Mr Shiekhypants seems to have been a winner.

To say that I am moderately pleased would be to say that Sally Field was quietly satisfied with her Oscar win.

And I have to say, I am quite shocked because it was only an 80 – 100 word blurb, plus a 250 word excerpt so you had no room at all to pitch your idea. I am also not the world’s best pitcher. However, I will say that having a hook really, really helps. And some books are ‘hookier’ (if that’s even a word!) than others. I have no idea whether that was what made it with mine, but having a tough oil baroness for a heroine helped. She was totally my hook and I shamelessly used her!

I do hope, however, that I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew with doing a sheikh story…

Oh well, I guess that’s me all up. I like to make it hard for myself and not play it safe. But at least it’s another small step forward in this ridiculous roller-coaster ride of a journey.