Why the argh? Well, I’m camping for a week with patchy internet access and no access at all the manuscript I pitched! Cue more argh! The only thing I could do was sit in my tent and think fiercely about all the tweaking I needed to do for it. Sigh…

Anyway, this is all to say that having just returned from my trip, I am now heading in to the writing cave to polish up my ms and make sacrifices to the gods of publication for a little bit of success. Wish me luck!

PS. Many thanks to Jami Gold for running the competition and also to the editors at Entangled for providing such a great opportunity!

PPS. Congrats also to Jo P for her successful pitch too!

I’m even more pleased because the kind of writing I fluked for the High Five, I put consciously, using all I’ve learned about conflict and character, into this story. That didn’t mean I expected it to come anywhere. The judges could easily have hated my story and my characters no matter how well they were written. But they certainly liked it enough to give it some good scores and I’m pretty damn thrilled about it.

The story isn’t a Riva story, it’s a Presents/Modern, which made it a nice change for me. Anyway, have no idea how the final judging will go, suffice to say that I’m pretty happy with what I’ve got already.

Some wise people have told me to celebrate any success in this tough industry, so here’s what I’m doing – Hoo is passing round some vintage Krug on a silver tray…please, help yourself. And while you’re doing it, share some successes you’ve had lately. It doesn’t matter what it is, big or small, let me know so I can raise a glass!