New Contract

The Wild Rose Press will be releasing a new series this fall called Jewels of the Night. It is a romantic suspense series and each story will contain a blue diamond. I first learned of this special submission call last fall when my friend, Autumn Shelley, told me about it. It sounded like fun, but no ideas popped into my head at the moment. So I put it to the back of my mind and didn't think about it anymore.

Then, around Christmas, an idea started to take shape. Just little bits here and there until I came up with a full-blown story idea. Characters and plot points danced in my head. The deadline (or so I thought) was March 31. That was 3 months away. I could write this story.

I was a little slow out of the gate. I submitted my first 15 pages to the Roses Critique Group in January and received the pages from 3 others that I had to critique. Imagine my delight when I found pages for a romantic suspense that featured a blue diamond. Those pages belonged to Rachel Lynne. We started emailing back and forth and decided to help each other along. We sent our chapters to each other for critique as we finished them. We spent time on AIM plotting out our stories and figuring out our characters. It was a lot of fun.

I can honestly say that if I hadn't formed this partnership with Rachel, I may not have the deadline. I can really put things off when I'm stuck. So, anyway, I finished my story ahead of time and sent it in a few days early. That March 31 deadline was to enter my submission in a contest. A story from the series will be chosen at random to be the kick off story and get lots of extra publicity. The Wild Rose Press is still accepting submissions for this series, if you're interested.

Blood Diamond was born, the story written, a romantic suspense novella set in the rain forest of the Congo and featuring Jill St. James, a doctor with Doctors Without Borders, and Mack Nichols, a former soldier turned mercenary. It's actually the first attempt I've made at romantic suspense that didn't involve werewolves and vampires, so I'm pretty excited about it.

Yesterday, I received an email from the senior editor of the Crimson Rose line, who is in charge of the series. She offered me a contract! It arrived in my email inbox early this morning while I slept. I am happy to say that Blood Diamond will be my first published work under the pen name, Riley Quinn.