Parting is such Sweet Sorrow--so come and pitch the editors of the Sweetheart line!

The last hour is always the sweetest. Thanks for stopping by. For our blog post, we'd like to open it up to pitches. Formal, informal--do you have a sweetheart of a read? We'd like to hear about it.

Enter your pitch in the comments. (and refresh to see new comments!) Give us the name of your story, the computer word count, the conflict (or what keeps your hero and heroine apart) and the resolution. Just remember--keep that bedroom door firmly closed. The Sweetheart line is emotionally-driven.

Make us laugh, make us cry-make us feel something--and you're guaranteed a request.

Leanne Morgena, the senior editor of Sweetheart, says...

I’m sorry I can’t participate in “real time” but I’m involved with my RWA chapter-sponsored conference today and tomorrow. Recently, I was interviewed for a New Zealand newsletter and was asked what makes a great submission for the Sweetheart line.

This is what we look for:

A story that starts off by pitting two well-developed personalities against each other and then keeps them together, but at odds, for the majority of the rest of the page count. Something from their individual pasts makes them hesitant to view the other as a potential mate. Through the course of the story, events take place that cause them to look at each other in a new way. Experiencing these events together allows them to create a relationship that moves from attraction to respect to trust to love.

At the end of the story, we look for both main characters to make a choice that they couldn’t have made at the beginning. They do it because they are stronger people for having known the other or because they choose to put another’s interests above theirs. In a line that doesn’t contain other plot elements (paranormal, suspense, sensuality), character growth and emotional content are the keys that hold the story together and have to be its focus.

Her personal favorites are:

--reunion stories because when characters have a past, they have to get over whatever broke them apart and whatever is keeping them apart now. I also like stories that involve competent people thrown into situations for which they have no training are also favorites. (big city girl on a farm, scientist put into the public eye, adult with no siblings taking care of friend’s small child, injured cop accepting help) Urban or rural, humorous or emotional, be sure to develop your setting so the reader has the tools to create mental images for your characters and where they live and work.

Vicky Reed says...

My personal faves are best friends who fall in love, realistic jobs and settings. It's fun to be rich or own a bed and breakfast--but retail clerks, unemployed mothers who find the love of their life and a job, fast-food workers and people putting in time at the food bank to help themselves and others, fall in love every day. I'd also like to see ethnic characters, African-American, Japanese-American, Filipino-American, whatever kind of (insert here)-American you are. I want to see Uncle Taki and Auntie Marival. Your granddaddy or uncles. Fly your colors. Whoever they are, make sure your hero and heroine are three dimensional and don't let the setting or secondary characters upstage the love story.

A special request for...

The Flower Basket--our Sweetheart Continuity

Do you have what it takes to be a part of The Flower Basket?

Sweetheart is currently seeking submissions to The Flower Basket series set in a small town called Almendra in central California. A free read titled Business is Blooming (available on our website) by Linda Carroll-Bradd launched the series, provides essential information about the town and introduces the three shop owners. Some element in your story has to include contact (in person, phone or email) with the shop or one of the three shop owners for a flower delivery.

The trick to plotting an appropriate story is to take an existing part of the town’s economic or social life and figure out a romantic story for two people who would live and/or work in this town (without duplicating what’s been contracted). Although the characters you create need to interact with The Flower Basket and the owners, your story can’t create any new storylines for Steffie, Grace or Donica, or some of the other characters. We hope that’s not too confusing.

A story chart detailing the existing characters, their roles/professions, and businesses mentioned in the contracted books is available on request from leanne@thewildrosepress.com. The chart also details which characters are reserved by the original author and which are available for others to use. The senior editor, Leanne Morgena, is also willing to review story outlines for works-in-progress.

Thanks for being here with us! We hope you had a wonderful time. The Sweetheart line will be available until 11p.m. EST. Pitch us! ....and you might win a prize. :)