My First Manuscript by Cherie Le Clare

My poor neglected baby has languished in a dark closet since the day the one and only publisher I posted it to, with trembling knees and high hopes, returned it after many months of agonizing waiting, with a  thanks but no thanks form letter. There was only one spark of hope for me to cling to – they said I was a competent writer. Okay then, why wouldn’t they publish it? Because, they said, it lacked emotional punch.


Having no clue, in those novice days, of what ‘emotional punch’ meant,
I shoved ‘Hidden Agenda’ aside and concentrated on earning money in the normal way. My creative spark stayed squashed for almost a decade before I embarked on a new manuscript. By this time, I’d attended some more writing courses and workshops, and joined the local Romance Writers’ group. Voila! Here I met other writers with the same goals, and received a lot more insider gossip and secrets into the mysteries of the publishing industry.


Now that I’ve had two small novels and five short stories published I like to encourage others on this Cinderella journey, by being both a volunteer judge for romance contests and a mentor for individuals in my group. It’s a pleasure to see others succeed, and members will also empathize and support each other when our babies are rejected.


I rediscovered my ‘ugly duckling orphan’ recently, and feel that, with a bit more polish and sparkle, okay, a lot more, ‘Hidden Agenda’ will excite an editor.


Maybe I’ll rename it ‘From Rags to Riches’.

Cherie Le Clare lives in New Zealand, and has published two historical romances with The Wild Rose Press,  three erotic short stories with Xcite Books, and two contemporary short romances in magazines. She belongs to the New Zealand Romance Writers Inc. Learn more about Cherie at her website www.cherieleclare.com