Comments on: Having a Whinge

By: Jackie Ashenden

Jackie Ashenden — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 08:41:57 +0000

Marcy – isn’t it great to have the opportunity to write it again? Good luck with yours too!

Lacey – no, a room for shoes is never wrong. Just ask Imelda Marcos. 🙂

By: Lacey Devlin

Lacey Devlin — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 06:09:05 +0000

I've just finished my rewriting phase (and just between you and me it's about time!) I don't know what I'd do if I'd been at it for six months although I guess to some extent we all are :)

When waiting buy shoes (I just have and I feel fabulous, is it wrong to consider building a whole room for them??)

By: Marcy

Marcy — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:10:20 +0000

The ms I'm working on is in it's second iteration. Luckily I realized faily early on that I started in the wrong spot and was able to start again.

Good luck with your rewrites!

By: Jackie Ashenden

Jackie Ashenden — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:38:41 +0000

Janette - yep, plenty of that happening too. Maybe it does compensate! ;-)

Lorraine - yeah, definitely revisions are almost always required. Luckily I have experience!

Rach - I shouldn't complain. It's only been 7 weeks for me. I feel your pain though!!

Hey Caroline! Good luck with your rewrites. And a new ms? Sigh, maybe I should go with something new too.

Kristy - thanks for reading my poor old chapter! And you'll probably understand now why it was rejected. :-( But thanks for your lovely comments. And thanks for reminding me why I love Modern Heat too - that sexual tension and dialogue! Who needs car chases eh?
I will be commencing with the chocolate and the NTAI...

By: Kristy Price

Kristy Price — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:33:39 +0000

Hi Jackie

Sorry to hear you're having a bad waiting day. I'm fully with you on that one. I had a horrible moment earlier when I saw our post lady striding around the cul-de-sac with a large brown envelope under her arm. In the minute it took her to finally deliver our post (bills) I'd convinced myself it was my ms being returned to me with a standard 'no'. This business is not good for the nerves.

As Suzanne quite rightly pointed out, it's very unlikely that your ms is boring, judging by how wonderful your blog is. You're writing style is fantastic, throughly engaging and highly entertaining. I read your winning 1st chapter on the Presents site and loved it, and I know you've written a lot more since then.

I'm with you on the worrying about the locations/excitement thing, I had the same qualms too. Whenever I read a Modern Heat though I'm always much more interested in the chemistry. between the H & H, it's the sexual tension that makes it exciting for me, most of the time I barely notice the location if the writing's good. As far as I'm concerned, as a reader, most of the entertainment comes from strong dialogue and we know that's something you excel at.

It's very difficult to leave old manuscripts alone (as I've learnt to my determent) but I think it's probably better to go with the new story than try and untangle the old (purely my opinion of course - it works better for me).

Hope you're feeling better about it all - chocolate always works for me!

By: Caroline Storer

Caroline Storer — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:59:11 +0000

Hi Jackie. Yup just finished a massive round of re-writes. Am also toying with my first ms – maybe changing the emphasis slightly and sending it off to another publisher. But I’ve got the new ms at the moment – and I’ll have to see which one calls the loudest. Take care. Caroline x

By: Rachael Johns

Rachael Johns — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:21:45 +0000

Commiserations… I’m a puddle of woe waiting to hear as well. Almost four months and not a word of whether or not they’ve even got my mss!! 🙁

As for rewrites… I WISH I was at that stage. The moment I can’t seem to stop starting novels but don’t actually get to the rewriting stage!

By: Lorraine

Lorraine — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:01:58 +0000

Had to delete my comment because Janette sneaked in there and my comments didn't make sense anymore (that is if they did to begin with!).

I prescribe chocolate and NTAI shopping :-)

As for re-writes I'm sure I heard it's relatively rare to get a ms accepted with no revisions required so it's a good skill to add to the arsenal (weapons imagery feels appropriate ;-)

By: Lorraine

Lorraine — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:56:29 +0000

This comment has been removed by the author.

By: Janette Radevski

Janette Radevski — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:53:33 +0000

Well mine are on a very tiny island, you want ‘nothing much happening’ well that’s mine. Oh, but they do have lots and lots of sex, so maybe that compensates??