Visit Lobster Cove - A New series from the Wild Rose Press

Lobster Cove Series Guidelines

Word Count:      No particular word count but would prefer stories to be at least 20,000 and up

Deadlines:           Holiday Stories – May 31, 2014 (So they can release for Holiday 2014)

                                For other stories, there is no deadline at this time.  However, we will be announcing one

                                at a future date.

What is Lobster Cove?

                Lobster Cove is a fictional small town on the coast of Maine, near Bar Harbor. It is quaint and quirky with a colorful history, a friendly population of charming residents, and a vibrant tourist business. It is home to research scientists and small shop owners, grumpy cops and sassy chefs. Back in the day, it was a bustling fishing town and home to many immigrants, from both the state cabins and the lowest decks.

What are we looking for?

                The Wild Rose Press is looking for well-written, engaging manuscripts from across all of our lines, from Historicals to contemporary. Stories can be romance or mainstream and can be sweet or erotic or anything in between.

Submissions must take place in Lobster Cove and also meet the guidelines for the individual line, including heat level and tone. For example, a paranormal must meet the guidelines for Black or Faery Rose and take place in Lobster Cove.

For instance: (These are just examples to get the creativity flowing!)

Contemporary

Crimson – FBI agent has been tracking a serial killer up Route 1, straight to Lobster Cove. Can the grumpy local sheriff help her finally catch the killer?

                Sweetheart – The local dog walker has had a crush on the cute second grade teacher since high school. Helping his class with their project for the annual Lobster Crawl finally gives her the opportunity to ask him out.

                Champagne – The ferry boat captain isn’t getting along with the historic lighthouse’s new owner. They fall for each other’s charms, but can they charm the old lighthouse into working again?         

                Yellow Rose - She left her family’s Wyoming ranch for a new start leading tourist rides around the area, but what happens when her cowboy comes looking for her?        

                Last Rose of Summer – After her divorce ten years ago, a sassy chef was too busy running her tourist magnet bistro and raising her teenage daughters. Now that they’re in college, she can finally cook up something with the fishing boat captain.

Historical

American Rose – The Revolution hasn’t quite reached sleepy Lobster Cove, so what’s going on between the British soldier and the magistrate’s daughter? Which one is really the spy?

                Cactus Rose – He’s sure his fortune is in the Wild West of California, but to earn his way, he’ll have to protect the coach of a wealthy arranged bride the whole way there. If they can ever get out of Lobster Cove.

                English Tea Rose – A shipping magnet brings his society daughter to their new home in Lobster Cove. Can she and the brash American ever get along?       

                Vintage Rose – An ER doctor is sure she’s treated every type of wound, from freak shark attacks to car accidents, but can she heal the wounds the town bad boy comes home with from the first Gulf War?

Paranormal

Black Rose – He lives in the creepy old mansion and runs the morgue. Is there any way this guy isn’t a vampire?

                Faery Rose – She runs the apothecary shop that draws locals and tourists alike. He’s only passing through and needs a gift for his mother, so why is he still there a month later?

Erotic

Scarlet Rose – A Navy SEAL has no idea what he’s going to do in Lobster Cove, until he finds out the oceanographer is as sexy in just her glasses as she is in a wetsuit. Or maybe something like this—no one knows quite what the mysterious woman is doing with the old speakeasy, but there’s a whole new kind of tourist in the area.

Mainstream

In a cozy New England town, there’s bound to be a wine club, a ghost walking an old rampart, or that almost forgotten mystery surrounding the missing child.

Submission Process

For authors who are already published with Wild Rose Press, the query process is the same as always. You may query your editor about writing a story for the Lobster Cove Series. Your editor will work with you and the line’s Senior Editor, as well as the coordinator of Lobster Cove (Lori Graham) to ensure your story fits within the guidelines of Lobster Cove.

If you are new to TWRP, please submit your story using our submission guidelines. Make sure you indicate you are writing for the Lobster Cove Series. Your story will be sent to the appropriate editor who will work with the Senior Editor and the coordinator (Lori Graham) on the story. http://www.wildrosepublishing.com/maincatalog_v151/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=214

To maintain continuity across the stories, a basic layout of the town and names of landmarks and streets will be created. Once stories are selected and editing has begun, changes may need to be made to the stories for continuity of character names, events, etc.  As more information about this is decided, notifications will be posted so everyone is on the same page. A yahoo loop will be created for writers serious about writing for this series. Please do not ask to join the loop if you are not serious about writing for this series.

Anyone with further questions should contact coordinator Lori Graham directly at lori@thewildrosepress.com. She will answer you directly or get you the answer you need.

Welcome to Lobster Cove and we hope you enjoy your stay!

Call for Submission - Summer Heat - Crimson Rose

Before winter arrives in the United States, let’s take one last shot at Summer.  Take a moment to think about how a hot, humid summer night makes you feel.  The evening air is so close that something feels as if it is just around the corner.  Your skin is moist and almost feels as if it is someone else’s.  The cicada song gets louder and feels as if it could overwhelm you.  Doesn’t that sound for the perfect setting for some kind of crime?

Crimson Rose announces a submission call.

“Summer Heat”

•             Spice level:  Sweet to Hot

•             Length:   7,500 to 55,000 words

Crime and emotions seem to spike on hot summer nights.  Bring them together and the results are explosive.  Let your late night imaginations run rampant.  It can be any kind of mystery or action suspense.  The hero and heroine can be the investigators, or the victims.  The only requirement is that the heat of a summer night must be a key role.  We even welcome manuscripts taking place in a foreign country.

Submit your synopsis and query to queryus@thewildrosepress.com after checking out the Crimson guidelines on our website. In the subject line include: Summer Heat Series and the Title of your manuscript.  For questions or clarification, please feel free to contact Lori Graham, Senior Editor for Crimson Rose, at lori (at) thewildrosepress.com.

Get a jump on summer and start thinking hot now.  We look forward to seeing just how far and how clever your imagination can be.

An Editor's Wish List

by Kathy Cottrell, Senior Editor, Last Rose of Summer

The High Concept

            I spent a very long time trying to figure this one out, attending every editor/agent roundtable available, asking for examples. Nada. Until I heard agent Jessica Faust speak at the New England Romance Writers conference and a light bulb went off inside my brain:  The high concept, in a very few sentences, sums up the crux of the story. Here are some 'ah ha' examples I have found at www.RTBookreviews.com:

            Julia Knight's fantasy romance, Ilfayne's Bane, [Samhain Publishing, Ltd.]: “He destroyed a continent. Dethroned a god. Now she will destroy him.”

            Monica Burns' historical erotic romance, Mirage, [also Samhain].: “An ancient prophecy. A sheikh's passion. One woman ignites the flame that fulfills them both.”

            Irene Hannon's contemporary romantic suspense, Fatal Judgment, [Revell Books]: “Jake Taylor's assignment is straightforward. His relationship with Judge Liz Michaels isn't. They have a past. But if he fails, they may not have a future.”

            As you can see; it doesn't give me any plot details, however it does tell me what I'll be getting myself into. 

 The Hook

            I am not only an editor, I am first a reader. If the first few lines don't grab me; or the last line of a scene or chapter fails to capture my interest and imagination, the story probably won't work for me. For some authors 'hooking' is as natural as breathing; others struggle, however, that's where a good editor comes into the picture. Here are some hooks which made me sit up and take notice:

            Nora Roberts' beginning hook for Montana Sky: “Being dead didn't make Jack Mercy less of a son of a bitch.”

            Rick Riordan's beginning hook for The Lost Hero: “Even before he got electrocuted, Jason was having a rotten day.” 

            Margo Hoornstra's end of scene hook for Glad Tidings: “What kind of woman buries her husband in the afternoon then sleeps with his best friend that night?”

            Debra Webb's ending scene hook for Traceless: Note: hero Clint Austin has just been released from prison after serving time for murder. “There wouldn't be much in the way of financial assets waiting for him back home. But he would have full access to the one thing that he wanted nearly more than his next breath . . . .The people who had stolen his life.”

 Memorable Characters

            I read Leon Uris' Mila 18 when I was fourteen. Every couple years I go back to visit the entire cast of characters. The same goes for Kathleen Woodiweiss' Shanna and A Rose in Winter.  These are the keeper books on my night stand.  The secret to creating great characters is to give them a few warts. Then throw them into the deep end of the pool but make sure you put a few hidden traps beneath the surface of the water.

 Examples: 

            Brenda Leigh Johnson, a Georgia peach transplanted to LAPD in TNT's The Closer. She may be beautiful and built, but her subordinates choke on her thick southern drawl; she dresses out of Volunteers of America; and she's tenacious as Hong Kong flu. 

            Harry Potter, the wizard raised as a muggle with a weird looking scar on his forehead. JK Rowlings tossed him into the deep end of the pool known as Diagon Alley, later Hogwarts and the fun began.

             Eve Dallas, [JD Robb's futuristic In Death series], the street smart homicide detective with the social skills of a rattlesnake confronts the prime murder suspect, a man with a one word name, more money than God, better looking than some lapsed Irish angel. Eventually he woos her with a rare steak and a sack of coffee beans.

            It takes Parker Evans, [Sandra Brown's Envy], a wheelchair-bound hero twenty years to exact revenge on his college room-mate by deliberately seducing the roomie's unwitting wife. “Did I stutter?” still makes me laugh out loud. This story keeps the reader on the edge from start to finish.

             Cash Boudreaux, [Sandra Brown's Slow Heat in Heaven] revels in the image of local bad boy, occasionally inciting violence, has good reason to want revenge against the richest family in town.       

             Just a smidge about secondary characters: they support the hero and heroine, often provide comic relief, occasionally serve as a red herring. Make each one different from each other as well as the hero or heroine. If they all sound the same why should I bother to read the book?

 The Setting

            Must be as vivid as any of the main characters and, in my opinion, becomes a character of its own. Examples:  Innocence, Mississippi [Nora Roberts' Carnal Innocence] if chock full of murder, depravity and humor; Nohmensville aka No Man's Land [Captain Marvelous] actually should have been named no woman's land due to it's apathy, bigotry and ignorance; Lunacy, Alaska [Nora Roberts' Northern Lights] features its own set of 'lunatics'. And let's not forget Hogwarts. Do you see how the names, while unique, describe the flavor and aura of the settings? 

 Goals, Motivation & Conflict

            Every thing I know about GMC was learned at the knee of one of my heroes Debra Dixon who wrote the book [literally] on this topic. In short, the hero and heroine must have a goal [ie what do they want/need to accomplish?]. It needs to be logical and realistic. Likewise, their motivation for accomplishing these goals must be logical, realistic, and understandable to the reader—as in 'yeah, if that happened to me as a kid, I'd shoot for that goal, too. 

            The really good stories put the hero's goals in direct opposition to what the heroine wants and that's called CONFLICT.

            Now . . . conflict comes in two forms, internal and external. External is usually pretty easy: it's an external force [such as the approaching hurricane in Eileen Dreyer's Sinners and Saints which hampers the heroine's search for her missing sister. In Captain Marvelous the hero is trying to identify the killers of immigrant women and bring them to justice. He is thwarted at every step by complacency, bigotry and apathy from the towns people and a less than sterling police department. External conflict is supposed to be a bitch for the hero and heroine. Thwarting bad guys, disease, pestilence, and the apocalypse is no easy feat. But . . . as Sister John Thomas used to say, 'adversity builds character'.

            Internal conflict is what gets authors every time. This is the demon inside the hero and heroine which prevents them from accomplishing their goals AND should be directly tied to their motivation and goals.  In My Name is Nell, the heroine is a woman working the program of Alcoholics Anonymous while managing a home and raising her children without much help from a toxic mother and sister. She meets, then falls in love with a widower. Neither was looking for romance; it just happened. Now take a guess as to the circumstances which caused the deaths of the hero's wife and child. Go on, take a guess. That's conflict with a capital C. 

             In Debra Webb's Traceless, Clint Austin served time in prison for a murder he didn't commit. Emily Wallace, the star witness against Clint has not been able to move past what happened to her best friend, and vows to make him pay for his crimes all over again.        

Words to the wise:     Conflict cannot be resolved with a five minute conversation between all interested parties. It is something so strong, so powerful, the reader must believe these two people will never ever stay together.

 Common problems that come across my desk:

Failure to follow submission guidelines:  after you pick the publishing house you want to submit to, commit their rules to memory AND FOLLOW THEM TO THE LETTER. This includes submitting a mystery to a publisher who only releases romance [or vice versa].

 Errors in spelling, punctuation, formatting:  Use spell check; take a basic technical English writing course and practice on your computer program to learn how to set margins, line spacing, and indents. Fancy fonts do not impress me, nor do quotations at the beginning of each chapter.

 Point of View: some editors only accept two POVs. I personally don't mind more than the usual two, but I don't want to dislocate a cervical vertebrae while reading a manuscript.

 Telling instead of showing: this takes some practice but it can be mastered. Don't tell me the hero's pissed at the heroine, show me.

 Frothy, repetitious prose. As I have occasionally informed the authors involved with the Class of '85 series for TWRP, “Hauling out the hedge clippers makes me cranky.” Tell me what you want to say in simple declarative sentences. Learn the purpose, and proper use of, commas and semi-colons.

 Too much sexual attraction too early: there is a reason why we call it sexual tension. Giving it all up by page 10 is not tension; it's risky and dangerous behavior, not to mention unhealthy. There is a reason why we keep our zippers in a locked, upright position. It makes readers keep turning pages. Note - there are certain types of romances where this rule would be broken such as in erotic romance. But for most of the romance subgenres sexual tension is what keeps the reader reading.

 Editor bio: July 2004, in the middle of a bar at RWA Dallas, nurse/victim advocate/and insurance investigator Kathy Cottrell was handed her first published novel. The experience, similar to holding her first-born child in her arms, remains with her to this day. She uses the years spent maneuvering the twists and turns of Rejection Road, as well as her time as Senior Editor with The Wild Rose Press, to teach new, and not so new, authors as  examples of what to do and not do, who to listen, and not listen to, in order to hold that new baby in their arms.

 Kathy's current editor duties involve wrapping up the Class of '85, a reunion series for the Wild Rose Press. Ever wonder what happened to the prom queen? Or the guy voted most likely to spend time in a maximum security cage? Come to the twenty-fifth reunion of the Class of '85 and find out!

The Millionaire's Club Series

We are announcing a new series in the Champagne Rose line this morning. Its called "The Millionaire's Club" and we are open for submissions as of today.

Remember the old Harlequin romances with the dashing rich hero and the heroine who usually wasn't rich at all - sometimes it was the Executive and his secretary or the nanny and the widowed father or even the housekeeper and the handsome rich guy - any of those scenarios or any others you dream up are what we're looking for. How about those marriage of convenience stories - yes we have a rule against married heros and heroines but these are different and we can bend the submission guidelines for these. My very first romance I ever read was called "A Marriage of Convenience" and it sits on my shelf today. Just think - that's where all this began - hahaha.

Our first story will go out in June "The Chauffeur Wore an Evening Gown" by Roni Adams will kick off this series and will hopefully be the first in a line of fantastic old time contemporary reads. But make no mistake- old fashioned or not - these are modern day HOT - the heroes are hot, the heroines are swept off their feet and their coming together is explosive. Keep in mind that Champagne is our hottest line before Scarlet and we want these couples to go all the way in every way your imagination takes you.

Submission requirements for the Millionaire’s Club.

Length – 20K – 60K (not full length - these will not go to print)

Rated Spicy to Hot (see details on both ratings below). Champagne Rose stories must include a fully depicted and fully consummated love scene to be considered in this line.

Spicy: Contains detailed love scenes, including descriptions of foreplay and consummation.

Hot: Contains sizzling detailed love scenes and explicit content, which may be offensive to some. This is not erotic romance. No extreme graphic language.

Send submissions to Queryus@thewildrosepress.com

Please feel free to pass this along to your writers groups, blogs, etc. You may send questions directly to me at rpenders@thewildrosepress.com

Rhonda