Written by Julia Wild
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Today on my blog, I have a guest post from Julia Wild, author of The Secret Notebook, about her journey from pen to publication and how she came to join the Romantic Novelists’ Association.
Welcome to my blog and thank you for joining us Julia.
The Secret Notebook is on a blog tour organised by Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources. Follow the tour with these bloggers.
Welcome to my blog and thank you for joining us Julia.
The Secret Notebook is on a blog tour organised by Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources. Follow the tour with these bloggers.
The blurb:
The Secret NotebookWhen Izzie Dean’s beloved nan, Molly Blackshaw, passes away, Izzie returns to the Blackpool bungalow where she grew up, to say goodbye once and for all. When Izzie’s homecoming reunites her with her first love, Justin Swift, every emotion that Izzie has repressed since the day he broke her heart comes rushing to the surface. But then an unexpected discovery changes everything.
Between the pages of the battered secret diary Molly kept during WWII, Izzie discovers a story of love, heartbreak, and the incomparable hardship of life in a world at war. Reading her grandmother’s words soon puts her own story into perspective, and suddenly Izzie realises that the only thing holding her back from happiness, might be herself. Now she just has to convince Justin that they deserve a second chance at forever…
Military Romance
WWII
I thought I’d write a little about my own long and winding path to publication and some of my fun wrong turns along the way! And how I came to join the Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA)
A wonderful work friend framed a poem called Don’t Quit – and although I rarely became discouraged, I loved the comforting inspiration of the words, especially the line:
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit…
I had it beside my typewriter, and looked over at it each time I put a new sheet of paper into the machine.
Of course, PCs and laptops make the whole practise of writing a manuscript and submitting electronically a completely different experience these days, but I’m very happy that I have enjoyed both ways of working – and that even now if it is beautiful outside, I love to take a pen and paper outside under the sun umbrella and have a write.
I was fortunate enough to win a week’s historical writing course back in 1993 at Fen Farm, courtesy of Eastern Arts after submitting the first chapter of my 18th Century story of a handsome renegade and a highborn lady.
It was on this course that one of the tutors, who was a Romantic Novelists’ Association member, brought me one of her quarterly magazines to pour over and to copy out the contact details. It was early August, and she said if I hurried, I would be in time to join and submit as a New Writer and receive a critique – I mention this wonderful scheme as it is part of an aspiring writer’s membership fee to receive a report, and I believe it helped enormously in my own journey to publication.
The critiques are written by authors with years of experience and helped to steer me – and many others - towards eventual publication. Incidentally, my first submission was way, way too long – I hadn’t wanted to stop writing about the characters that I had grown to love so much, so by the time I’d finished the first draft, it was 250,000 words long!
And bless her, my reader in 1993 worked her way through the lot (there is a strict word limit these days) and gave me a hugely helpful report! Of course, one of her comments was along the lines of ‘it may be an idea to cut this down to two books of 100,000 words!’ At the end of the report, she did add that she was sure I would make it one day, so I was thrilled, and re-energised got to work, returning to the book I loved and worked on how best to literally chop the story down. I still absolutely love the story and think it is one of the most romantic I have written.
However, it had been my third 250,000-word whopper since 1989, and when I attended an RNA talk by a Mills & Boon Medical Romances editor in 1994 and learned they were looking for Medical Romance writers, I thought, ‘Oh, maybe I should try something different!’ On my way home, I wandered into W H Smith’s and picked up a Nursing Times and a medical dictionary, and watched ‘Casualty’ every Saturday night! Right, I thought, let’s give this a shot.
Well, my Medical Romance submission to the New Writers’ Scheme in 1994 was really well received, - and I truly believed I was on my way! I worked on the little tweaks my reader recommended and submitted. Sadly, another rejection. However, I was still hopeful and began another and submitted that the following year. Again, close, but no cigar!
The Organiser of the scheme suggested I try writing a contemporary romance instead. I took her advice and wrote about an artist as I’ve always loved to paint. The shadows from her long-buried past come back to haunt her and the upshot is that she finishes up being magicked away on a cruiser for her own safety by an ex-army hero who wants nothing to do with her as she is his ex-colleague’s partner … Dark Canvas went through the scheme in 1996, and was accepted for publication! I won the 1997 New Writers’ Award and I don’t think I stopped smiling for three weeks!
Again, thank you for having me on your blog, it is much appreciated.
| Author Bio – Julia Wild |
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 Lancashire born, I moved to Bedfordshire in the late seventies, married and started a family. I’m a past Hon Sec of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, have been a member since 1993 when I joined their New Writers’ Scheme as a probationer. That came about after winning a week’s historical writing course on the strength of the first chapter of my third Poldark-era romance. The tutor on the last day loved the story and handed me details of the Romantic Novelists’ Association – she said I absolutely must join as they would be able to help me towards publication. Some four years later my first published book, Dark Canvas, won the RNA’s New Writer’s Award in 1997, the sixth, Illusions, won the RNA’s Romance Prize in 2003. After working in the local library service for 18 years, during library cut-backs I took the leap to become self-employed as a writer and worked on releasing my backlist as eBooks for Kindle. Most recently, I’ve had the pleasure of working with amazing Charlotte Ledger when she pulled me from the writing wilderness and have now signed a three-book deal with One More Chapter. |
| Social Media Links – | |
| @juliawildauthor | |
| www.facebook.com/authorjuliawild | |
| Web site | www.juliawildauthor.co.uk |
| juliawildauthor | |
Thank you so much for having me as a guest on your blog, Deborah, it's my first one of these, so your time is appreciated beyond words. Have a super day!
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