Friday 25 February 2011

News and the Shred

I am in a happy place.  I heard back from my editor today with revisions for book 2.  I am delighted.  This is the book I wrote while waiting to hear back from Mills and Boon about It Started with a Pregnancy.  So, my editor had never heard anything about this story, hadn't seen a proposal and hadn't agreed it at all.  After I got The Call for book 1, I sent this in and held my breath.
So now I am breathing a huge sigh of relief.  I don't need to write something completely different.  I have to make changes, but that's fine.  The revisions seem reasonable so I'm going to bury my head in the sand for the next month and work away on them.
Next, I've joined the Craze.  The Craze for the Shred.  I've heard other people talking about it and finally decided to see what it was all about.  I'm currently only on Day 4 and I'm still at level one of the 30 day Shred.  Apparently if you follow this 20 min exercise routine every day for 30 days you can lose 7-10lbs, change shape and drop a dress size.  Now I hate exercise.  I'm practically allergic to it.  I danced up until I was 17.  Then did nothing for years.  I went swimming for a bit, only because I'm not a particularly good swimmer and wanted to get better.  But it annoyed me.  The grey-haired swimming brigade kept swimming in front of me (going breadth wise instead of length wise - why would people do that?) and as I can't tread water, every time they swam in front of me I sank like a stone.  Recently I've been going to a Zumba class once a week and have quite enjoyed it, but an hour a week is not going to sort out my flabby tum.
So, Shred it is!  I've decided not to weigh myself until the end of the 30 days - so I'll let you know how it goes.
And what do you think of this?  It's my banner for my new website which is being built by a work colleague.  Hopefully it will be ready soon.
Finally a huge congratulations to Leah Ashton, the winner of New Voices who just sold her book to Mills and Boon.  I look forward to reading it!

16 comments:

  1. HUGE congrats on your revisions! That is REALLY exciting stuff... no wonder you're in a happy place. And thanks to you I've ordered The Shred, so hopefully I'll be stuck into it soon and looking totally svelte for conf this year :)
    And I LOVE your new banner. Cannot WAIT to see the whole website!

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  2. wow, you are on fire! Great, great news, well done.

    Love the banner - the heart stethoscope think is very clever!

    x

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  3. CONGRATULATIONS! That's great news for you and for me (because I get to read them :) )

    Fantastic banner! I absolutely love it. Obviously your work collegue is a genius.

    Congrats to Leah too!

    You've practically sold me on the Shred. I have no idea where to get it in my country but I'm off to look :)

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  4. Thanks Rach! Now I have to start work again, beware the stressed emails you will receive! Hoping and praying the Shred brings weight loss - I will be gutted if it doesn't!
    Jo - my banner was made by HR Web concepts, very cheap, just sent them a description of what I wanted and they sent 5 samples back the next day. I have no idea how to do things like that. Want to know what you're writing - you have to share!
    Lacey -Many thanks Lacey. My work colleague is trying to build a website with words of "Oh can you put this in..." everytime I walk past their desk. Poor soul. Here's hoping it's ready soon. I got my Shred dvd from Amazon, just hoping it works!

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  5. Great news, Scarlet! Yay you for joining in the exercise...it's so not easy. But this is your future, you're a romance writer and you have all these lovely books to write...so you know, you have to move when you can! ;)

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  6. Please email away Susan - I live vicariously through all my published friends :)

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  7. Great news on your revisions!

    I'm still doing p90x--lost a few pounds. But I can definitely see a difference in toning. I still have 6 more weeks to go though.

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  8. Well done on beginning the shred, good luck with it. I've started zumba which is such hard work but boy do you feel that you've worked. The only thing is I only do it once a week when really it should be 7 nights to make a proper difference. So pleased they like the second book. In some way I think the second can be more difficult than the first because having got the call for number one you want that joy to continue. Really looking forward to seeing the cover and reading both your books!

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  9. Maisey - many thanks. Too scared to get on the scales in case it demotivates me. Nearly ready to move up to level 2 - I may not survive!
    Rach- don't worry, I will send it!
    Jennifer - well done you! Good luck with the next 6 weeks.
    Cara - Aww.. thanks Cara. Have no idea what the cover will look like yet, think it will be another few months before I see it. Started the revisions, so I'll just see how it goes!

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  10. Yay, Scarlet, so pleased for you. Hope the revisions go really well. As for the shred ... it's a killer but I can see the weight going and it's evidenced on the scales so I'll keep going :-)

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  11. Yay! Well done, Susan, thats so inspiring! (back to the keyboard for me, pronto!)

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  12. Hi Scarlet, just wanted to say how much I've enjoyed reading your blog, especially the last year's saga of your first sale. I am currently bracing self to dive into my second round of revisions. I've never done any of it before and I feel totally out of my depth! Great to hear how you triumphed.

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  13. Hi Joanne - still trying the Shred at the moment, but not convinced as yet!
    Suzanne - many thanks! xx
    Sally - many thanks too and good luck back at the keyboard.
    Charlotte - best of luck with your revisions. Do you hang out on the eharlequin submission care forum? Lots of good advice there

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  14. Thanks Scarlet, I have looked a few times at the forum, some great articles and discussions on there that I wish I'd read before I wrote the wretched story! Might have saved me some time now. The worst bit is not knowing if what I'm doing is what they want - I mean I have the revision notes but am I good enough, can I really pin down what they're looking for. Must go now and make self get on with it as toddler is currently occupied by Wibbly Pig. That's the other thing, snatching time from all over the place!

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  15. Good luck with your shred. I lost some weight a year ago, but I can't seem to get my butt in gear to lose the rest of the weight I need to get rid of. So yay you for doing something active!
    I like your website banner (and your website). And I'm glad you received a green light on your revisions.

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