Visit Susan online:

www.susangable.com









The Mommy Plan (Harlequin Super Romance #1150)

The Baby Plan: 

9 Months Later 

(Harlequin Super Romance)

The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

Inspirations: Meditations 

from the Artist's Way

Editor's Note: I recently asked rising star Susan Gable to describe her journey to publication. Here is what she had to say:

I’d written fanfiction, starting in June 1999. Found some great writers to guide with some craft issues. By December of that year, I’d written pages and pages, of numerous stories, many of which were at least novella length, some of them were probably at least category romance length. Romance kept coming out in my stories, and by December, facing the turn of the century, and my 35th birthday, I had to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I couldn’t get my teaching certificate in PA, where we’d move to from NJ. I decided to try this “writing thing” for “real.” I set a goal of selling a romance novel to a major publisher by the time I turned 40 – five years. I reserved the right to re-evaluate the goal in five years if I hadn’t met my goal. To be honest, I had no idea at the time I set the goal how…optimistic…my time frame was.

In January I took an on-line class with romance author Carolyn Greene. It was called Writing and Marketing the Category Romance, and I swear to you, Carolyn took me from knowing nothing about the romance market and how to go about doing this, to having a high school diploma. She was fantastic. I don’t think without that class, I’d have met my goal so quickly.

I also found cataromance, and started asking a million and one questions. Without all the people who answered those questions, I wouldn’t have met my goal as quickly. But I was like a sponge, absorbing knowledge as much and as quickly as I could.

I found RWA on-line, and decided to join it.

I started my first romance ms in Feb. of 2000, and finished it several months later. In April, I sent out a query letter on it. I made plans to go to RWA’s National Conference in July of 2000 – it was only about five hours from me, and easily drivable. While reading the RWR, I discovered, through the contest listings, that there was another lady who wrote romance who lived in my same zip code. She was a contest coordinator for the NEORWA group, and her e-mail was listed in the RWR. So, I emailed her, and we got together. We decided to drive together to the conference.

 Just before conference I got my first rejection letter. Uh, oh. I was so new, I was making major newbie mistakes. I had an appointment with that very same editor to talk to her about the book she’d just rejected. Okay, so I’d been working on a new anyway. Some of my cata connections introduced me to the concept of GMC, and helped me hammer out the GMC’s for my next book. That helped a bunch. While at conference, I made sure to buy a copy of Deb Dixon’s GMC: Goal, Motivation & Conflict. For me, that’s the backbone of my story and really important. At conference, I was in workshops every single time slot – well, except when I got that migraine, brought on by the excitement, and the stress of my impending editor appointment.

I met with the editor from Silhouette – and she was so cute, and nice! Not scary at all.  She remembered my rejection. Okay, that was a little scary. We talked about the project I was working on, I asked her some questions, took some notes, and left with her invitation to send in the finished ms, which I thought at that moment was going to be a Desire.

I met wonderful people at conference. One experience that definitely influenced me was having lunch with Ken (K.N.) Casper, and Roz Denny Fox, who both write for Superromance. They were so incredibly gracious! Here I was, still sopping wet behind the ears, and these multi-pubbed authors were talking to ME, and asking me questions about my writing. Wow. They said they admired people who could write short because they couldn’t do it. Little did I know at that time that I couldn’t either.

All during this time, I was also reading like a mad woman. I read enough Desires and Temptation to get the feel for the differences between those lines. After doing that, I reworked my first ms (which was fatally flawed.) and sent a query to Temptation. I read a smattering of other lines. I got back home from conference and quickly realized that there was no way my WIP was going to be a Desire – I had waaaaaayyyyyy too much story to fit into that word count. Okay, so since it’s got to be a Silhouette because I’d met with a Silhouette editor, then it must be a SSE. I went out and bought a bunch of those, read them, wrote the book.

Finished the book and mailed it off to the editor in the fall of 2000. Just after conference I’d received a rejection from Temptation. I started working on some other projects. Kept reading, kept absorbing information – I surfed the web and read all kinds of articles on writing and submitting.

 If I had done enough research on SSE, I would have known what would happen next. And I did come to know, and expected it. In early Feb. of 2001 I received a rejection from Silhoutte. Harley, my heroine who was a lady mechanic with a criminal record, was a little too much for SSE. Well, by then, I’d realized that. I’d finally done enough reading. I also knew that the line most suited for my voice and my stories was Superromance.

 So, taking all the things I’d learned by then, I reworked the first three chapters and the synopsis of the story. I didn’t want to waste my time rewriting the whole thing if Super wasn’t going to want to see the whole thing. I sent the partial off to Superromance in April of 2001. I worked on another story with Superromance in mind. (This story STILL hasn’t been written because other stories keep shoving it out of the way.  I’m hoping to send a proposal on that story next. )

In July of 2001, I met with Paula Eykelhof in New Orleans. I was her LAST appointment of the whole conference. I was nervous, and I figured by then she was so tired of hearing pitches, it probably didn’t matter what I said to her.  I told her that I had a partial in the house, but wanted to discuss another story with her. She listened to my pitch, said it sounded like a Super to her, but I couldn’t submit anything else until they’d decided on the partial of THE BABY PLAN that was already there. Okay.

 So, I went home to work on Firefly Wishes, which, of course, became THE MOMMY PLAN.

In August of 2001 I went to mailbox and pulled out a letter from Harlequin. Oh, RATS, I thought, it’s a rejection letter on TBP. (I’d told them to recycle my ms.) So, I bravely opened it to discover it was a request for the FULL MS of The Baby Plan. COOL! Uh, oh. Now I had to go back and finish rewriting it to make it more like a Super, and to match the new synopsis. YIKES!

I mailed it off on Sept. 5, 2001. A few weeks later I received my post card back – it said they’d received it on Sept. 7th, and that I could expect to hear from them on it around April of 2002, 6-8 months.

I put it out of my mind and went back to work on Firefly Wishes, determined to get it done in time for the deadline for the Golden Heart. Which I did.

In January of 2002, I went to my mailbox and found another one of those letters with the Harlequin logo on it. Oh, RATS, I thought. It’s a rejection letter for Baby Plan. That’s okay. I thought Firefly was a stronger story. I had that one ready to submit. So, I tore open the letter – ad discovered that the editorial assistant from Super wanted to let me know that my book had come back from the reader with a positive review, and was now being sent to one of the Super editors. YES! The book was still in the running.

I wasn’t going to think about it until April, because that’s when the postcard had said. On Feb. 12, 2002, I answered the phone and heard a voice I didn’t recognize and who didn’t know how to pronounce my last name. I asked who was calling. I missed the woman’s name (would ask again later in the phone call – It was Zilla Soriano) but I clearly caught, “from Harlequin, calling.” My brain went off on its own tangent. Why were they calling me? Surely they weren’t going to buy my book? Nah. Then Zilla said, “I’ve read your book THE BABY PLAN, and I loved it. I’d like to buy it.”

To which I intelligently responded: “Oh….my…..God.” And she laughed.

I’d beaten my goal with 3 years to spare.

So Your Muse Has Gone AWOL?

The dips, the curves, the scenic view from the mountaintop--a fabulous vacation? Hardly—it’s just the daily journey of the writer.  Some days on the road, the sky is blue, the birds twittering merrily, straight out of a fairytale--ah, the blessed muse be with us!

Then there are those "other" days-- 

The sky is overcast, the road full of potholes and detours. You feel like your writing is akin to trudging through mud--in combat boots. 

Ah, where be thy muse, then?

“So Your Muse Has Gone AWOL?” is the brainchild of authors Pamela Johnson and Lori Soard.  The pair had previously done a creativity workshop on a small-scale writers retreat and when the opportunity to expand the workshop for the Romantic Times Conference came around it only added fuel to the fire of these two enterprising authors.  Soard, with a PH.D in Creative Writing and Johnson, a newspaper columnist, together hold an impressive list of awards, finalist positions and nominations to their credits.  “It’s been a thrill for me to work on this project with Lori, as I was her writing student for the first eight weeks of my writer’s journey.  That was six years ago.  It’s a little like coming full circle to create a project such as this with your writing teacher, but it has been great fun and a true honor for me.” says Johnson.

What started as the creation of a writer’s workshop has since blossomed into a book based on the interactive workshop the two have developed.  The book (So Your Muse Has Gone AWOL?) will premiere at the 2003 Romantic Times bookfair this fall where the prolific authors will be signing their current fiction novel releases, “Housebreaking a Husband” (Soard) and “Tides of Autumn” (Johnson).

Pamela says of the workshop concept,” It’s a little like a box of crayons in that we offer writer’s the resource tools, as well as tips from scores of authors—both experienced and new –to share some insight into the “hills and valleys” of the writer’s journey.”  Johnson goes on to say, ”AWOL offers an interactive approach to writing through the moments when it seems that the muse has a will of her own, usually when you least expect it and she takes off for a quick manicure or a lunch date with some Greek hunk—and what are you, the writer, supposed to do then?”

“It’s a bit different than the normal “how-to” books.  Many authors fill that “writer’s block” and “missing muse” are the same thing.  In some cases they are, in many they are not.  We discovered in our surveys and research that “a missing muse” could be the result of “real external issues that affect your inner creativity.”  Johnson states.  “Many authors have their own means of dealing with such times, yet for many the—“just sit in the chair and write” approach is not always the answer.  We don’t tell writer’s how they should be writing, or what they need to do in order to be a successful writer.  We offer to them a bevy of inspirational ideas, tips, resources, writing exercises, and more to use as it applies to their lives and their personalities.  What they do with the tools we offer is what we hope help them get through their “desert moments.”

“I actually had to utilize some of these tips during the writing of this project,” says Johnson, “ as I had to deal with the unexpected death of a close family member.  The drain of energy was enormous for a time, wanting to be present for my husband, my children, my relatives, and then deal with my own loss.  To read through some of theses authors advice gave me hope that I needed to be patient with myself and in time, with a little nurturing, my muse would return.  And she has!”

“So Your Muse Has Gone AWOL?” is your handy reference guide to moments when your muse takes an unexpected vacation, leaving you at the wheel alone.  No need to file a "missing muse" report--tips from the industry's "well-seasoned," writing exercises, creative suggestions, retreat opportunities and much more--its all here to get you and your muse back on the road to writing success!

Winter Woman (Harlequin Historical #671)

Trading Spaces : Make It Yours

The Where? I have converted one of the bedrooms of my house into a writing sanctuary.

First thing we'd see? When you enter my office you'd first notice a fountain on a small cherry wood table beside a loveseat. Behind that is a reading lamp and a wall of books and a sumi ink painting done my brother. It is the perfect nook for curling up with a good book or for proofreading a draft.

Creative Enhancements? I have a fountain and often play opera CDs on my computer when I work. My desk is a huge antique of oak that once belonged to my father. I have several Herkimer Diamonds beside my word processor that I found on a mining expedition. I like to consider them when I'm thinking. Hanging around my work area are paintings by my mother and brother and photographs of my family. I have two quotes on my bulletin board beside me. One by Henry David Thoreau says, "Our life is frittered away with detail . . . .Simplify, Simplify." The other I believe is by Earnest Hemingway and says, "Real seriousness in regard to writing is one of two absolute necessities. The other, unfortunately, is talent." 

This space is my favorite place in the house. I love to work here and hate to leave the space.

Most helpful? Of course my computer is my most indispensable workplace asset. I also have a laptop for mobile writing. Other than that, my desk calendar is valuable. I find all my appointments for the week there along with notes to myself on things I'd like to get done. Tucked between the pages of upcoming weeks are bills and notices. Having all this in one place keeps me organized and prevents misplacing important papers. This years calendar is "The Writers Image" by Jill Krementz and it is filled with photographs of writers and quotes by them. I find my calendar inspiring and useful.

If the popular TV show Trading Spaces came in to redo your office what would you like to see done? No one is allowed in my office by my husband. If the people from Trading Spaces arrived, I'd call the police.

Visit Jenna Kernan at: www.jennakernan.com
Latest Release: Winter Woman, Harlequin Historical, Sept. 2003