Breathless Press Submission Call

Themed Call for Submission 
Send your submissions to acquisitions@breathlesspress.com with the name of the anthology in the subject line. Breathless Press currently has the following themed submission calls:  

Ad-Dick-tion Anthology: Our Ad-Dick-Tion anthology is an ongoing submission call. Stories must be under 10k, have a heat rating of at least 3, be m/m (gay) orientated (m/m/f is fine as long as the two males have sex or a relationship together and not just with the female) and be original stories. There is no other theme besides being m/m. The anthology will consist of 10 stories each with a royalty of 4% of net sales. No single author shall have more than 2 stories in this anthology. We reserve the rights for digital for 1 year with the option of renewing after that. Some anthologies will go to print, if this is the case for this volume, royalties are 1.5% of net sales and we reserve the rights for 2 years with the option of renewal for another 2 years. Deadline: May 5th, 2011 - October 31st, 2011. Published: May 4, 2012.

Hot Shots Anthology: Our Hot Shots anthology is an ongoing submission call. Stories must be under 10k, have a heat rating of at least 3, and be original stories. There is no other theme besides being erotic. All stories must be m/f. The anthology will consist of 10 stories each with a royalty of 4% of net sales. No single author shall have more than 2 stories in this anthology. We reserve the rights for digital for 1 year with the option of renewing after that. Some anthologies will go to print, if this is the case for this volume, royalties are 1.5% of net sales and we reserve the rights for 2 years with the option of renewal for another 2 years. Deadline: Nov 26th, 2011 - April 30th, 2012. Published: Nov 30th, 2012.

Ravaged Anthology: Our Ravaged anthology is an ongoing submission call. Stories must be under 10k, have a heat rating of at least 3, and be original stories. There is no other theme besides having something to do with shifters. This can be wolf, lion, panther, etc. The anthology will consist of 10 stories each with a royalty of 4% of net sales. No single author shall have more than 2 stories in this anthology. We reserve the rights for digital for 1 year with the option of renewing after that. Some anthologies will go to print, if this is the case for this volume, royalties are 1.5% of net sales and we reserve the rights for 2 years with the option of renewal for another 2 years. Deadline: Aug 4th, 2011 - Jan 31th, 2012. Published: Aug 3rd, 2012.

Crimson Anthology: Our Crimson anthology is an ongoing submission call. Stories must be under 10k, have a heat rating of at least 3, and be original stories. There is no other theme besides having something to do with vampires. The anthology will consist of 10 stories each with a royalty of 4% of net sales. No single author shall have more than 2 stories in this anthology. We reserve the rights for digital for 1 year with the option of renewing after that. Some anthologies will go to print, if this is the case for this volume, royalties are 1.5% of net sales and we reserve the rights for 2 years with the option of renewal for another 2 years. Deadline: Feb 4th, 2012 - Jul 31th, 2012. Published: Feb 1st, 2013.

Serviced Anthology: Our Serviced anthology is an ongoing submission call. Stories must be under 10k, have a heat rating of at least 3, and be original stories. There is no other theme besides having something to do with the army, military, navy, or air force as well as being romantic/erotic in nature. We will be doing two a year, one with a focus on m/m stories, the other on m/f stories. The anthology will consist of 10 stories each with a royalty of 4% of net sales. No single author shall have more than 2 stories in this anthology. We reserve the rights for digital for 1 year with the option of renewing after that. Some anthologies will go to print, if this is the case for this volume, royalties are 1.5% of net sales and we reserve the rights for 2 years with the option of renewal for another 2 years. M/M Deadline: Sept 8th, 2011 - Feb 29th, 2012. M/M Published: Sept 7th, 2012. M/F Deadline: Mar 10th, 2011 - Aug 31st, 2012. M/F Published: Mar 8th, 2013.

Home for the Holidays: Our Home for the Holidays is published for December. We will be releasing 8 stories in December all revolving around the holiday season. Stories must be more than 10k with a heat rating of 2 or more. Deadline: Jan 1st, 2012 - June 30th, 2012. Published: December 2012.

Hot Shifters: Our Hot Shifters are published for October. We will be releasing 8 stories in October all revolving around the shifters. This can be wolf, lion, panther, etc. Stories must be more than 10k with a heat rating of 2 or more. Deadline: Nov 1st, 2011 - April 30th, 2012. Published: October 2012.

Send your sexy stories to acquisitions@breathlesspress.com with the name of the anthology in the subject line. And please check out our submission guidelines here: http://www.breathlesspress.org/Page/submissions

http://www.breathlesspress.org

Author Spotlight - Aimee Carson

The Minxes are super pleased to welcome the very lovely and supportive Aimee Carson to visit us today. Aimee is travelling today but will pop in to visit with us when she can, so let's make her feel welcome!

What is your writing process?
I’m a combination plotter/pantster, though I lean more heavily in the plotter direction. I develop the characters and conflict, do research, and write potential scene ideas on notecards—tacking them up on a story board (set up like a painter’s easel - dh is very handy) I take some time to think, ponder, dream, and wallow in the conflict, shuffling the order of the cards and filling in new scene ideas as I go. Once I’ve identified my major turning points, I start writing and rarely look at the board again. Of course, things often change because new layers to the conflict will be unearthed and interesting character quirks will be discovered. But that’s the fun, pantster part! As far as the writing goes, it’s up every morning at 3 or 4 and BICHOK (butt in chair, hands on keyboard) ‘till I can’t take it anymore.

Everyone who writes knows it's not easy - what methods do you use to keep at it on days when it would be so much easier to go shoe shopping?
Shopping is great, but I’d rather be riding my motorcycle! When I get really stuck and want to give up, I make myself write for 15 minutes on/5 minutes off. Giving myself those frequent breaks helps me keep at it when it’s a particularly difficult day.

Keeping fit: Do you have an exercise regime to counterbalance all those hours sitting at a computer?
I have a dog who knows how to make life difficult if she’s not taken on her daily walk in the woods. And I do yoga—without the dog, of course.

Do you believe in writer's block?

I’m a firm believer in the theory that positive or negative thoughts often become your reality, so my take would be this: the moment you start thinking you have writer’s block, you do.

Have you ever used an incident from real life in a book? If so, did it get you into trouble?

I get snippets of ideas from real life but so far there’s been no trouble. Of course, this is my debut book so there’s always hope :-]

In what way is being a published writer different to how you thought it would be?

Well, I knew there would be time pressures. I just had no idea how painful that could be!

Promotion is no longer a dirty word. In what ways do you strive to reach more readers?

I blog, I twitter, and I’m on Facebook. My husband just signed me up for a google + account, but I refuse to participate until someone develops a SIMPLE, easy-to-use universal remote that will control all of the social networking sites. They can do it for your TV/stero/DVD player etc., so why not social networking?!?

What is your top promo tip for other authors?

I think it was Donald Mass who said there are two things that sell a novel: writing a good book and word of mouth. I believe it’s important to have an online presence—and I don’t mean constantly talking about yourself and your books. Engage with others and let them see the real you, because your personality and your voice are a big part of your brand. But most importantly, be kind, be considerate, and help promote others. Because I believe good karma finds its way back to you.

What did you learn while writing this book?

That revisions won’t kill you, you’ll just sometimes wish they would!

What was the most fun part of writing this book? The dialogue. I LOVE dialogue. And these two had a lot to say to each other :-]

And just for fun: what would your hero’s honeymoon destination of choice be?

Sailing on a yacht in the Caribbean—completely staffed, including a master chef, of course.

What have the changes to the current Harlequin lines and branding meant to you? Have they affected your writing process?
I adore the new covers, but none of the changes have affected my process.

What do you think makes a Riva book Riva? Voice!

Thanks for having me here today, Minxes! My debut book, Secret History of a Good Girl, will be released in the UK September 16th as part of the Mills & Boon Loves anthology along with Maisey Yates, Barbara Wallace, and Leah Ashton. Its US release will be February of 2012.

Play with fire…
Miami hotel tycoon Paulo Domingues knows that beneath his events planner’s southern priss, Alyssa Hunt is all s

ass. Little Miss Prim has Paulo’s inner rebel roaring to life—he’s determined to seduce the fire out from behind it!

And you might get burnt!
Tough-cookie Alyssa hasn’t fought tooth and nail to shake off her past to be blindsided by one smooth-talking boss. Until, punch-drunk with desire, she succumbs to temptation and realises what she’s been missing out on! But will Miami’s most wanted bachelor run when he discovers the real reason behind her good-girl façade…?

The Writer's Productivity Trap

There seems to be a lot of pressure out there to pump out manuscripts and send them off to submissionland. If we’re not writing 150 bestsellers a year then we think we’re not writing fast enough. If Mary Sue down the street has submitted ten times in the last month and we haven't, then there’s something wrong with us. So, we take courses on how to write faster, better and in our sleep. We read books on how to write a book in a year, a month and 3.3 seconds.

Actually, some of those courses and books are quite good. But my point is that if you’re feeling anxious about the number of words you did or didn’t write yesterday you're not alone, you've fallen into the Writer’s Productivity Trap.

The problem with WPT is that it can result in an inability to write at all. Something that had once been your passion is suddenly so pressure packed that you’d much rather clean the toilet, iron your bedsheets or even paint your neighbour’s house. It’s human nature to avoid scary things, so don’t take this as the ultimate sign that you’re just not supposed to be a writer.

Donald Maass divides writers into two categories: storytellers and status seekers. What’s really interesting is that while you may start off a storyteller it can be easy, under the pressure of the industry, to start adopting status seeker traits.

So what is a storyteller and what is a status seeker? Donald Maass identifies that a storyteller's focus is on their story and making that story the best it can be by developing their craft. While they may be bewildered by some rejections they also recognize that something is missing from their writing and resolve to do something about it.

Status seekers, on the other hand, tend to live by the motto “get it in the mail, keep it in the mail”. They want to know how they can make their manuscripts acceptable and tend to be obsessed with promotion e.g. “Why throw money at authors who are already best-sellers? How am I supposed to grow if my publisher doesn’t spend some bucks pushing me?”

In contrast, Maass identifies that a status seeker will rush to send him “the first fifty pages and an outline a few months after the workshop” whilst a storyteller won’t show him their novels again for up to a year or more and certainly after several new drafts.

There will undoubtedly be status seekers in the industry with the sole intention of achieving the same sort of “glory” that JK Rowling did but there’s very little chance of that because they’ll be missing the key ingredient that inspires that sort of success and that is passion.

It makes sense that a storyteller, when exposed to the likes of social media and the productivity (whether real or imagined) of others could start to adopt the traits of status seekers. Suddenly there is enormous pressure to submit that partial in the shortest time possible, to always have something submitted, to churn out manuscripts. And it can happen in gradual way so that you don’t even know you’ve gone over the dark side.

But as Donald Maass identifies, he’d much rather you be a storyteller. He’d much rather you send him the novel after a year than in five minutes. He’d much rather you have a storyteller’s passion and desire to write the best story possible than to churn out manuscripts as though you’ve been bitten by a radioactive spider (poor Mary Sue). Your editor isn’t going to forget your existence in less than three seconds.

We’re not in this to write the most books in history. We’re in it to write a story that no one will ever forget.

The speed you write at is perfect for the next international bestseller.

You can find The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass at:

Amazon

Amazon UK

The Book Depository

Scoop! Mills & Boon New Voices 2011!

The Minxes are delighted to welcome Mills & Boon Editor,

Anna Boatman, to the blog today - to tell us all about this year's Mills & Boon New Voices competition! Take it away, Anna!

Whispers of the social media kind are spreading, the halls of Romance HQ are buzzing and wannabe-writers are flexing their typing fingers…. for New Voices – the romance writing competition with the X Factor – is back! That’s right, on September 13th Mills & Boon are launching their second global search for new talent!

Last year’s competition was a fantastic success. As well as Leah Ashton – our fabulous winner – we’ve since bought two new authors and we’re still working with (and hoping to buy!) several more. The number and standard of entries was fantastic, as well as the excellent, insightful comments and debates that went on. But we’re determined that 2011 will be even bigger and better!

So, how does this year’s competition work?

It’s the same basic structure as last year – read on to find out how you could be Mills & Boon’s next rising star!

Stage One – Grab them at hello! From the 13th September visit http://www.romanceisnotdead.com/ and upload a first chapter to enter. Don’t want to write but love reading romance? Visit the site to read the entries and comment – say what you love about their entry and constructive criticism is welcome too. As well as the competition itself, there’ll be debates about all things romance, plus editorial tips and blogs, Q&As and exciting gossip throughout!
The deadline for first chapters is 10th October – miss it and miss out! Then our expert editors will narrow the entries down to the 20 absolute best (always tricky and requiring copious amounts of chocolate). These 20 will be assigned an author mentor to help with their next challenge…
Stage Two – What happens next? The twenty finalists will submit their second chapter and this time you can help decide who wins! This stage is decided 50% by our panel of judges (including a mystery celebrity judge…!), and 50% by public vote, so come and have your say! After the voting’s over, we’ll have only four romance writers remaining!
Stage Three – The moment that changes everything! The fab four will submit their story’s pivotal moment. This is the final stage and the judges get together to discuss which story and writer show the most promise – it’s going to be a hard one to call!

Finally, on the 4th November, New Voices will announce the winner – and Mills & Boon’s newest author!

Among so many, how can YOU (and Romance Minxes everywhere) make your entries stand out? Here are our exclusive top tips…
- Start with a bang, not a whimper! Engage the reader straight off by beginning with a point of change for your characters.
- It’s all about the characters! We’re looking for entries where we like the characters and understand what they’re struggling with.
- Avoid cliché! Exploring your characters’ unique reactions will avoid your story feeling too familiar and really bring out the sparkle of your individual writing. Let’s not just hear that they are the most attracted they’ve ever been, let’s see in detail how that feels for that character specifically!

And there you have it, Romance Minxes! So writers, get thinking about those first chapters, readers get ready to hit the voting button – because New Voices is nearly with us… We editors can’t wait to read all your entries, or to hear your comments, so for now it’s goodbye until the 13th September. Good luck!

For more detail about entering and the T&Cs, take a look at the holding page currently up at http://www.romanceisnotdead.com/. For the newest news and hottest gossip, join our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/groups/250729414946433/

Author Spotlight - Olivia Gates

Today, the Minxes are super excited to have Olivia Gates, a USA Today Bestselling author as our guest author. Olivia lives in Egypt and writes super-hot sheikhs and we're beyond honoured to welcome her to the blog.

Take it away, Olivia!

What is your writing process?

The more books I write, the more I discover that every book is its own entity, follows a process of its own. But in general, I start with either a basic premise, or a character. I then write a detailed outline around either (some of my outlines reach 60 pages for ST length books). This outline serves two purposes. It gives my editors a good idea how the book(s) will unfold, and a chance to contest major plot points when its still on the drawing board, to save us both the pain of major revisions. It also serves as a road map for me, which is especially helpful when I’m pressed for time to save me the pain of second-guessing myself, when I can’t afford the hesitation. Of course, no matter how detailed the outline is, the execution is the hard part, which might I add, never gets easier.

Everyone who writes knows it's not easy - what methods do you use to keep at it on days when it would be so much easier to go shoe shopping?

The above-mentioned investment in a good outline usually saves me from staring too long at a blank page. If I already know what’s happening next, what remains is how to is how to execute it. I also talk dialogue out loud to myself when I’m away from the computer (and preferably alone ;-)) like when I’m driving. This helps make the characters come alive, and develop a unique voice of their own, and gives me lines to build scenes around.

Keeping fit: Do you have an exercise regime to counterbalance all those hours sitting at a computer?

I do aerobics, step exercise and weight training three times a week (though I’ve fallen off the track for the past months, and I’m already paying the price in various aches and pains, not to mention slowing down metabolism….Ugh!)

Do you believe in writer's block?

Not really. But I believe in being overwhelmed by life and letting yourself be so distracted while you deal with what it throws at you. That happened to me in the past months and for a while I was unable to focus on writing at all. It wasn’t that I didn’t have ideas, it was that I couldn’t focus long enough to finish any quota per day, so my output dwindled to almost a stop. Thankfully, I’m coming back from that, and I’m back on track to a consistent daily output, the key to finishing any writing project.

Have you ever used an incident from real life in a book? If so, did it get you into trouble?

A lot of the medical cases I used in my Medical romances have either been stuff I encountered in my other job, or heard about from colleagues. As for other kinds of incidents, I sometimes feel very tempted to use a lot, but as you say, I know I’ll get into trouble, so I’m sticking with the totally made up in my own mind variety until further notice. J

In what way is being a published writer different to how you thought it would be?

A good thing I did is that I didn’t have expectations. When I was unpubbed, I didn’t think at all how it would be when I got pubbed. I just wanted to get there, and had (and still have) this ‘bring it on’ attitude, which I think is essential to every writer who wants to have a long career. I also didn’t take other writers’ experiences as more than broad guidelines, since our circumstances and paths are so diverse, and it never pays to expect anything that others experienced. So basically, I keep a totally open mind about my career, take the opportunities that are presented to me and keep looking for the next ones. Nothing is ever as you expect anyway, so I forge ahead, and take the great with the good with the bad, and keep the basic thing that made me published alive; the love and joy of writing.

Promotion is no longer a dirty word. In what ways do you strive to reach more readers?

I am so looking forward to the day I can be a full-time author and have more time for promotion. Right now all I can do is occasional—and the stress here is on ‘occasional’—blogs, Facebook and Twitter activity, contests and newsletters. I need to get more consistent, but I think I’ll possibly hire someone to do most of the time-consuming work and organization for me. But what I really long for is opportunities to connect with readers, pre-published and other published authors in person (as in more than on social media). I’m working to change my situation so that this can be possible. Wish me luck!

What is your top promo tip for other authors?

I think the best promotion ever is to consistently write books the readers enjoy. Being prolific is also the greatest way to remain a constant on the publishing scene, and this draws a huge percentage of the feedback and attention. That level of output is what I hope I will be able to achieve after the hurdles I’m currently dealing with are over.

What did you learn while writing this book?

That characters do come alive and take over. I have no doubt anymore. In my previously mentioned outline of TO TOUCH A SHEIKH, Maram, the heroine, didn’t only have a different name, but a different personality. Then I started writing her and she was like: “Are you nuts? You think the simpering, sentimental heroine you’re trying to write will be of any interest to the cynical, rapier-tongued, wounded desert lion Amjad, let alone be a match for him, and hope to fill the position of his future queen? Can you just shut up and let me do the talking? And the touching?”

Needless to say, I let her do both to her heart’s content, and the result was one of the most dynamic, and witty, relationships I’ve ever written.

What was the most fun part of writing this book?

Hands down, the supersonic banter between the hero and heroine. Those two held nothing back. Emotionally, they start out as total opposites, with Maram wholly invested in her emotions for Amjad, the man who’d inadvertently proved to her what a hero he was, even though he wants everyone to view him as a villain. Meanwhile, Amjad is 100% reticent, and it takes everything she’s got, and that was substantial, to get him to open up, accept her love and admit his…only for everything to turn topsy turvy and for them to exchange positions…

But the best parts were when I wrote their verbal duels. Those two sparred even after the black moment exploded, and every salvo they exchanged was mega fun to write.

And just for fun: what would your hero’s honeymoon destination of choice be?

His secluded desert cabin, of course. This is where he fell in love with the heroine. And don’t worry, there’s plenty to do there.

Thank you so much for the fantastic questions. I hope you enjoy my answers as much as I enjoyed responding to them! And thank you so much for having me on Minx of Romances.