Paranormal Romance Blog

You never know what little thing could change your life…like the two paragraphs that led to the publication author Nina Croft’s debut Nocturne Bite, The Prophecy! Find out what those paragraphs were in Nina’s guest-post….

by Nina Croft, author of The Prophecy (Silhouette Nocturne Bites, February 2010)

I’ve been in love with vampires ever since reading Ann Rice’s ‘Interview with a Vampire’ when I was twelve. They provide the perfect hero material; tortured, fighting their darker natures – and sometimes losing – tall, dark, sexy, and dangerous. So it’s no surprise that when I came to writing my debut Nocturne Bites, The Prophecy, there would have to be a vampire somewhere. In this case, it’s the heroine, Raven Cole.

Raven is actually half-vampire, half-witch, and due to a prophecy made at the time of her birth, she’s had things pretty rough. She definitely deserves a handsome shape-shifter hero and a happy ever after.

The Prophecy is the story of how she gets both.

It’s been nearly a year now since I came across a competition on the Harlequin community site — write a two paragraph blurb for your story, and win the chance to pitch to one of the Harlequin editors.

I was already half-way through writing my paranormal romance, and it seemed like a great opportunity. So I wrote my blurb, polished it, rewrote, polished… You get the picture, but I did finally manage to press the send button.

I had an email the next morning saying I was one of the winners. Now I had ten minutes to sell my story to the editor in a live chat session. I’d never done a chat session before, I’d never pitched to an editor, and my typing is strictly one finger at a time.

But was I daunted? Er yes.

I don’t actually remember much from the pitch, except the editor was very nice (and I’m not just saying that). But I survived, my fingers have grown back, and at the end of it, I had a request to see my manuscript.

I live in Spain, so most emails from the US arrive in my mailbox overnight, and for a while, starting up my laptop in the morning became an act of true bravery.

The months passed. I tried to tell myself no news was good news. Either that or my story had never arrived at its destination and was floating around in cyberspace, unloved and unread.

After three months, I gave in to temptation and emailed the editor. She came right back to me – she liked my story and had passed it on for final approval. It wasn’t lost in space, somebody liked my story – it was almost enough.

It was actually another two months before I got the final confirmation. That email has been printed, framed, and stuck on my wall. I still get a little shiver when I look at it.

So this is how my debut Nocturne Bite, The Prophecy, came to be. A two paragraph blurb that changed my life – you can read it on my website at www.ninacroft.com.

So next time you sit down to write, think about what two paragraphs could change your life.