We’re so excited to have Kensington Brava author Helenkay Dimon in the jungle today! 
Helenkay (like our own Carly) is a former attorney who traded power suits and court cases for pajamas and romance writing. Her first sale, to Kensington editor Kate Duffy, was a novella which appeared in the Brava collection WHEN GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO BAD BOYS.
It was followed by a novella collection of her own, called VIVA LAS BAD BOYS, which was where I first read her. I was immediately hooked, as Helenkay’s books are funny, super-sexy and fast-paced, with fabulous dialogue. As a reader, there’s nothing I appreciate more than being simply charmed by every word, and that’s what Helenkay’s books do.
Her newest release RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW, which will be in stores THIS WEEK (hint hint) is a Romantic Times Magazine 4 1/2 Top Pick. “Dimon combines fresh, solid character voices reminiscent of chick lit with love scenes that sizzle with the passion and intensity of any hot erotica. The result is one comical page-turner.” 
Just FYI…Helenkay is also a strong voice in the romance writing industry, with an insightful blog and a common sense presence in the sometimes insane world of romancelandia. Be sure to check out her website if you get a chance! www.helenkaydimon.com
Please join us in giving a big jungle welcome to Helenkay Dimon! (Who will be coming around to answer questions today…so don’t be shy.)
Recycling, Reusing and Any Other R You Can Think Of
Before I sold my first book, I would hear comments in workshops or at conferences that seemed to contradict each other. To be honest, I heard about a hundred comments that contradicted each other. The specific contradiction I’m talking about now is one you get when you have a manuscript rejected. This is the move on and write something else advice versus the you may be able to use this somewhere else at some other time advice. I can honestly say I’ve followed…both. That sounds like one more contradiction.
Not so fast.
There are a few authors out there who wrote their first book and sold it. We hate them. (Just kidding) For the rest of us, we wrote a manuscript (or three or seven), lived through a round(s) of rejections and eventually sold something else. Even after that first sale, we have ideas that meet with rejection. We hate that (and I’m not kidding this time). The question then is: when do you move on from a project and how the heck do you know you should.
The Move On And Write Something Else advice
This is, quite possibly, the worst advice to hear. This explains why so few people follow it when they get it. The ego, emotion and love associated with writing a manuscript or coming up with an idea makes letting go tough. That doesn’t mean you should ignore the advice. There are obvious times to let go and move:
-When your category romance is 700 pages long and you refuse to cut a word.
-When your single title idea is such a mess that your heroine’s name changed twice during the span of the manuscript (and, yes, I have written this book).
-When you have entered every contest with the same manuscript for two years.
-When your love for one book or idea has made it so that you can’t come up with another or think you can’t write something else.
- When it’s been rejected everywhere. EVERYWHERE.
-When you try to explain the plot to someone and end up saying something along the lines of, “well, you just have to read it because it’s too hard to explain.”
Come on. Some of those look familiar, don’t they?
The You May Be Able To Use This Somewhere Else At Some Other Time advice
But, and here’s the good news, there are projects that can be revived (revised, reused – pick your “r” word). Now, I will admit that I heard this from my now-editor Kate Duffy before she was my editor. I thought she was…well, lying. Really, I thought she was being nice. I now know better. She doesn’t get paid to be nice. What she was really saying was that the idea I had was the wrong project or the wrong moment or not written well enough or not written as it should have been written.
For example, my release last year, YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY (Brava July ‘07), a romance set in Kauai, Hawaii, was the second single title I ever tried to write (the first was the one with the problematic heroine name, a secret baby, a mystery and possibly a cowboy who was once an alien…I’ve blocked most of it). I pitched the Hawaii single title romance idea for the first time to my then-not-yet-editor and she said it was too dark, the attraction was too instantaneous and it wasn’t the right place to start my career. She told me to put it away and we’d revisit it later. I then sold four novellas to her, but I never forgot the “we’ll revisit it later” part.
When it came time to try to write my first published single title for my now-editor, I dragged out that old Hawaii romance idea. After two years of not looking at it, what I once thought was brilliant was obviously not. Rather than go with that original Hawaii romance idea, I came up with a different one and YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY was born. But that original idea did not die. I revisited it one more time late last year. I re-wrote, revised, restructured and re-everything until it was the right Hawaii romance at the right time. That single title will be out in April 2009.
Is There A Point To This?
Believe it or not, yes. Just think about all of those folks who wanted to write paranormal romance for all those years and were told the market was not there. They had an idea or a book at the wrong time or written in the wrong way, but they had something worth nurturing and keeping alive for a later time. Sure, some of those were books that were never meant to happen and needed to be put to the side forever (category #1). Others were books that needed to find a time, a place, a different voice or something that only a bit of time could help discover (Category #2).
The reality is that not all manuscripts or ideas are viable. Being able to move on is the key, but not all have to be put aside forever. Some ideas need to find their time and, yes, get a complete overhaul before they work. It all comes down to the same thing: read, write, revise and start again. Just remember that starting again doesn’t always mean from scratch.
Leslie Kelly used to say she wanted to be a doctor when she grew up, but then she discovered Nancy Drew books. Being a flashlight-under-the-covers-nose-in-book reader throughout her childhood, she couldn’t think of anything else she’d rather do as an adult than continue to lose herself in fictional stories. Her real life marriage of 20 years to the man of her dreams is a constant reinforcement that happily-ever-afters really can happen…and that they’re worth writing about. Living in Maryland, Leslie spends her non-writing time laughing a lot with the above-mentioned romance hero and their three daughters. Though an author of more than thirty sexy, contemporary comedies, she has recently branched out to write dark romantic suspense under the pseudonym Leslie Parrish.
3 Seductions and a Wedding
Hot Number
Play With Me
Wild For Him
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Goodmorning :monkey :monkey :monkey :monkey and fellow jungle friends…
I would like to send out a warm welcome to Helenkay…thank you for being here…
You have very great advice…so you mean to say the novel I tried to write when I was about 14 or 15 can be revisited? Well, at least the idea can be recycled, refurbished, re-analyzed (is that even a word?)…I must think about that one…I like the fact that people should NOT just toss an idea because it wasn’t the right time or place for their book to work…isn’t that how it is in life after all…there is a time and place for everything, right?
I think it is interesting how many lawyers have turned to writing now…what made you decide to change careers, if you will? And why romance and not thrillers or suspense?
I hope that everyone has a wonderful day today…we were hit by a snow storm yesterday and I am hoping that we are clear at least for the rest of today…I will see you all later on tonight..ttyl
Peace and love,
Paula R.
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Great advice, HelenKay! Moving on is painful, but it’s one of the most important things a new author has to learn how to do.
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Good Saturday Plotmonkeys, Jungle Jezebels and Ms Dimon,
Thank you for swinging with us here in the jungle today, Ms Dimon. You are the third person I know who is a lawyer and chucked it for a career writing romance. What drew you away from the legal world of briefs and depositions and into the chemistry infused, emotion laden territory of writing about men, women, sex and love everlasting? Especially after the time, energy and brain-breaking work of law school.
Have a screamin’ Saturday all,
Cher
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Welcome to the jungle HelenKay. Your post rocks! It is hard to move on or to know when to move on. I have one manuscript that might find its way out of dust bunny land one day. It would have to be totally rewritten, but I still love that book. :)
Thanks for such great advice!
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Good morning! Huge thanks to the Plotmonkeys for inviting me. It is a thrill to be here with such talentd and fabulous authors.
Paula – Is it wrong of me to say I live in San Diego and it’s beautiful here? Yeah, that’s probably not cool… If that book you wrote at 14 is anything like my 700 page mess – no. If you could read mine – and you won’t, not ever – you’d agree that one needed to die a quick death. But I do think it’s interesting that ideas that seemed unworkable in their then-form (and by “seemed” I mean editors told me so) turned out to have a second life (with that same editor).
The lawyer to writer jump: It was a total accident. I didn’t even read romance until I was about 31. I was doing a lot of contested custody work – which is awful – and a retiring lawyer handed me three romances and told me I needed a happy ending. I read. I loved ‘em. I started reading every romance I could find. Eventually I tried writing one and, unlike Leslie who sold the first time out (I’ve decided to like her anyway), I got rejections. When I sold, I still was a practicing lawyer. I only stopped practicing last year because my husband got a job opportunity that took us from Maryland to California. Since I’m not licensed to practice law in California and since I had a three-book contract, I decided to try writing for a living…at least for a while. I’m hoping I can continue to do so.
Hi Jill! For those who don’t know, Jill is a fellow San Diego author. Her first book comes out in June – wahooo!!! And she just got a big deal at a second publisher. Watch for Jill!!
Cher – It’s strange how many of us make the move from law to writing, isn’t it? What’s funny was that when I told my fellow partners, everyone in my firm and lawyer friends about that first sale, all I heard was congratulations. There was a general sense of “man, I wish I could do something else” which plays into my theory that most attorneys (except my hubby) want to do something else for a living. I don’t regret law school or the 12 years of practice, but I was happy to step away. Twelve years of divorce work was a lot.
Vicki – You never know! You’d probably end up rewriting the entire thing, but I bet you could salvage the idea or parts of the plotline. And if not, so what? There are more books out there waiting to be written.
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Re-vamping.
No, really, it was intentional :p
Seriously, sometimes the premise is sooooo excellent, but the execution kills you. I’m all for rewriting a good idea.
(Not that *I* write, but you know… jest sayin’)
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Thank you, Ms. Dimon :-) I can understand why writing romance would be much more fun and a heck of a lot happier than divorces and custody cases.
Leslie, you sold the first time out of the shute? Geeze, and I already like you. Guess I’ll have to continue. :giggle:
No seriously, I’m glad you didn’t have to suffer through endless rejections.
Cher
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Hi HelenKay! Thanks so much for being here! I absolutley loved Your Mouth Drives Me Crazy and I can’t wait to read Right Here, Right Now.
Your post today couldn’t have come at a better time for me! I recieved that very bad R a couple of weeks ago.
It was the first full manuscript I’d had requested, a category romance, and after waiting patiently for 6 months, I got that lovely letter. The editor said the premise was interesting, but it lacked the emotional complexity they look for. I have to say, I agree. And I’d like to think I’m getting better at that.
So I asked a friend of mine, who’s published, what to do. Do I forget about it and put it under the bed? I mean with category, there’s no where else to go really. She said add the emotional complexity and make it a single title. So I’m thinking about it. And your two pieces of advice have definitely helped!
During those 6 months, however, I wrote another category romance (which I haven’t done anything with yet) and just finished my first single title. While doing that I discovered I like writing single title and already know what I want to make my next one about. So…I think I’m going to move forward for now, but maybe one day, I’ll go back. And in all this confusion, I’m crossing my fingers I’ll get published one day.
Anyways, sorry for going on so long. Thanks again for the great information. I really appreciate it! And I do have a question: If you go back and revamp/rewrite a story, give it a different name, can you submit it to an editor that previously rejected it?
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Welcome Helenkay! Your books sound wonderful. I haven’t read one, but have been in what I call a “reading funk” lately, meaning I need something great to read! I’m going to the bookstore today to pick up your latest book. I can’t wait.
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Hello again! I meant to write a longer post and I got interrupted. I wanted to add that starting a new project is the best remedy for rejection. As HelenKay said, my first book is coming out in June, but it’s not the first book I wrote. It’s the fifth. So I’ve had my share of disappointments. It’s always better to focus on moving forward than to dwell on rejection. And there is a bright side–sometimes those dusty manuscripts can be reworked! I still have hopes (unrealistic, probably) to revamp the first book I wrote. The idea was good, I think. The execution? Terrible!
Anyway, don’t give up. Keep writing, and start fresh.
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Hey Helenkay–thank you again for being here! You’re an official
now! 
And I definitely think there are projects we might want to write, but just aren’t ready to write. I’m feeling that way about a thriller I tried to sell 2 years ago. Now that I’ve sold very dark romantic suspense, I am “easing” my way closer, and my hope is to someday go back and sell that series, when I’m more capable of pulling it off the way it deserves to be done.
And FYI…I did sell my first book, but I have 3 completes in the drawer that my editor *rejected* between the time she read my first one and the time it actually came out! I had a big gap between the pub dates of book 1 & book 2.
That second book syndrome is a killer…I count myself very lucky (and give Brenda all the credit for pointing me in exactly the direction I needed to go) for breaking through it.
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Hi, HelenKay! Welcome to the jungle — and that’s for sharing some great advice with us! There a time and a place to “revive” a story, and then there are other times when you just have to let it go. Been there, done that — many times!
CHER — I love your “Jungle Jezebels”! I think we’re going to have to use that more often! :grin1:
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Great advice, HelenKay. I’m taking a second look at an idea that’s been in the bottom of my filing cabinet so long it’s grown fungus. I’ve replaced it with my Brava novella contest entry.
(Mr. Wonderful says hello and promises a review of the new book.)
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Welcome Helenkay, thanks for visiting in the Jungle today. I have no ambition to be a writer but like reading the Saturday post anyway! It makes me appreciate how hard all of the authors work to give us all that wonderful reading!
I’ve never read any of your books but I will be looking for one next time I’m in a book store. Love the title “Your Mouth Drives Me Crazy”! It conjures up decadant, yummy scenarios in my mind!!! 
How can you not like Leslie? She writes with such good humor & even shares her wonderful Bruce with us from time to time!
Everyone have a good Saturday. We have rain & the promise of a very nasty storm over the weekend! Oh joy!
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I am a big fan of chucking old manuscripts. I can honestly say that I loved each and every one of my four unpublished manuscripts while I wrote it and revised it. It was my heart and my soul. I believed in them completely when I submitted them, cried when they got rejected, worked my ass off revising when revisions were requested, was disappointed when it became clear they would be rejected…
… and then moved on.
Pretty new book! No rejections! Try this one!
It’s so freeing to put a book behind you. I honestly don’t think I would have been able to grow as a writer the way I have if I sat around trying to rework all my old manuscripts or try to make my new ones conform in some way to the old ones. They are mind clutter. Get rid of them. Move on. As my hero, Edna the Superhero Fashion Designer from THE INCREDIBLES says, “Never look back, darling.”
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I loved your
Mouth Drives Me Crazy and am looking forward to Right here Right Now.
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Welcome Helenkay! :wave: Your book sounds fantastic!
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Thanks for stopping by today! I cannot even imagine how it feels to have something
so dear to you, something into which you have put so much of yourself refused out
of hand! Good luck and good wishes go out to all those who daily struggle to reach
success in this field!
Pat Cochran
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Hi HelneKay – thanks for visiting, and for the great advice! As to that one manuscript with the secret baby and alien cowboy… haha – that just made me laugh. Have a great day!
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Hey HK! Sybil was talking about you over at TGTBTU, and I thought I’d come here and offer my support.
RHRN is TERRRIFIC! Loved it.
I loved the advice you give above, also. Always interesting to read how other people make big changes in their lives and what they do to make it work. Thanks for sharing.
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I once read that Nora Roberts eventually rewrote and published all of her unpublished work exept one-her first one. I guess sometimes a book/idea is so bad that even Nora can’t revive it!
Thanks for the encouragement!
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Hi everyone!! I stepped out for a bit. Went to see a Pompeii exhibit and decided that death by volcano has to be one of the worst. Ack!
azteclady – No vamps for me – but you know that! I leave those stories to the people who tell them so well. I would stink at it.
Robin – Thank you for your kind words about YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY. I hope you enjoy RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW. I am so sorry about the rejection. It’s part of the process, but it’s the tough part. Write what works for you – category, single title, novellas or whatever. On resubmitting, I think editors who want you to revise and send manuscripts back usually tell you that. I’m not an expert on this, but without that open door to re-submit that same project I think you might want to try someone else and send that editor who rejected your work something else.
Kimberly – I love your books!!! Thank you so much for trying mine. Hope that helps with the reading funk.
Jill – Excellent advice!
Leslie – Thanks for inviting me!! The sophomore slump is a killer. Your comments are a good reminder that the first sale is not a ticket to the perfect writing life. Everyone gets rejections. Two years ago Jayne Ann Krentz spoke and said that an editor had recently rejected one of her ideas. Jayne Ann Krentz!!!! She’s a bestseller. Just goes to show that it’s a process without guarantees.
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Janelle – Thank you for having me here! I absolutely agree. There are times to let go. Knowing when is the tough part, but I think we all get a better idea of what works and what doesn’t as we go along. It’s one of those experience things. When I look back at manuscripts I thought were really good, I can now see that they weren’t. It was an upsetting realization but a necessary one.
Darlene – Ah, yes. We all have that filing cabinet drawer. It’s a tough one to shut and equally hard to open sometimes. Say hello to Mr. Wonderful for me! I hope to see you both on my blog one day soon.
Donna – I hope you enjoy YOUR MOUTH DRIVES ME CRAZY! It was fun to write.
Diana – I agree that moving forward is the answer. Sometimes you can do that with an old idea, completely rewritten and refined. Other times starting fresh is the answer. And there’s nothing better than when you write something, know it’s good and have an editor agree. What a fabulous thing.
Estella – Thank you!! I hope you enjoy RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW too!
Susan – Thanks!
Pat – It’s part of the job, unfortunately. It can break your heart but it makes getting it “right” and selling all the better.
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JSL – if you read it, it would make you cry
Gwen – Thank you for the fabulous review of RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW at TGTBTU. Unfortunately I can’t get on the site to read it. My internet service provider and TGTBTU seem to be fighting. It’s the strangest thing.
Beth – I’ve heard Nora say that too. Further proof that woman can do anything. She’s amazing.
Leslie – I forgot to congratulate you on the romantic suspense sale!!! That is great news. I absolutely love romantic suspense and am excited to pick it up.
Off to dinner. Thanks again to the Plotmonkeys ladies for letting me stop by today. Your new releases look terrific. I’m off to B&N tomorrow to do some shopping for your books!
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HelenKay, thanks for a great post. Sound advice, and you always seem so aware and confident of where you’re at/going with your writing. Good for you!
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HelenKay, sorry I wasn’t here earlier to welcome you! Thanks so much for coming by with such fabulous advice.
I wrote an article a while ago called “To All The Manuscripts I’ve Loved Before” that tackles this very topic.
The book I have coming out in April is an old book. In fact, it was the book I came closest to selling back in, oh, 1992-3…right before I quit writing for a year after receiving going through a revision process with an editor and then having the line fold before she could buy the book. I took a year off, then started writing again in a whole different genre. I sold the next book. And another one after that. And then I decided to try and sell the old book to my new editor…she said no. I sent it off to SIM…no. When Blaze launched, I tried to sell it. No go. In the meantime, I wrote 20+ books for Harlequin and Pocket.
Then two years ago, I realized that the characters and situation of that old book had stayed with me after all those years. I did not drag out the old manuscript, but started fresh. My new skills and abilities, learned through years of writing other stories, finally gave me the ability to pull off that story that I simply didn’t have the skill to tell all those years ago. I wrote up something new and sold it as a three-book series to NAL. It’s been a long road, but I learned early on that some stories just aren’t ready to be told yet and we need to move on and keep learning. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll be able to go back.
And maybe you won’t. Trust me, my first two books will never see the light of day.
Anyway, great advice and thank you so much for coming to Plotmonkeys today!!
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great to see u here helen. love your books. great reviews on your new book
:elf: 
:banana: 
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Allison – Thank you! You are very sweet to say that, but I assure you it’s a trick done with mirrors. Just when I think I “get” it, something happens in this business to remind me I’m a newbie. Some very amazing authors with more knowledge and experience have been kind enough to answer my questions and have been very kind. I am forever grateful to these folks for paving the way and offering their support.
Julie – I need to find that article because your experience with re-viving an old idea sounds like mine. I do think the key is to start over and not try to re-write something that didn’t work before. Use the idea, try again and see if it works. If not, be smart enough to move on. The idea worked for you – huge congrats on the three-book deal!!! I love hearing stories like that.
Kim – Thank you, and thank you for all of your support throughout the year!
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Thank you for this. I’ve had those same thoughts, so it’s nice to see them backed up. I also think that sometimes a book should simply be set aside and then revisited a long time later. After working on the same piece for too long, it’s easy to become too close to it to see it clearly. Sometimes all it needs are fresh eyes, which can only come with time.
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you are welcome. love the great hot stories. keep them up
