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Wow, what a fabulous bunch of entries that was! The judges had a heck of a time choosing just a few, but choose they finally did, and here are the semifinalists:
#35 Assistant’s Secret by April Morelock
#39 Lessons from a Scoundrel by Christa McHugh
#50 Return to Me by Michelle (MG) Braden
#51 Shadow Dancer by Laurie Douglas Wicks
#57 CODENAME: DANCER by Amanda Brice
The semifinalists will be contacted individually on Monday, March 8 with instructions on how to send their first chapters and/or synopses to Jennifer for final round judging.
Thanks to all who entered! If you did not final, you are welcome to enter again this week with a different manuscript. Otherwise, please continue to spread the word. Round Two begins right now! The rules are exactly the same as round one, so you can check them out on the Week 1 Blog. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me through the contact form on this site. Otherwise, good luck for round 2! More semifinalists will be chosen next Sunday, March 14.
Jennifer
March 8th, 2010 at 7:12 am · Link
Title: The Chieftain’s Daughter
Genre: Fantasy/Otherworld Erotic Romance
The drums were heavy, and Ishara’s head throbbed with each beat. She had been shackled in a foreign pen for what could have easily been hours, and the crude, iron manacles were just now beginning to wear into the delicate, tan skin of her wrists. She could not remember the last time she had been fed or watered, which did not help the headache developing from the rhythmic booming of the deer-skin drums.
A few days before this, Ishara would most definitely not be in the state she was in now. She, the only daughter to the chieftain of the Oolina tribe, the present state of which Ishara did not know, was now the captured prize of the Manahotchi tribe, the Oolina’s sworn enemy from before she could even remember.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:02 pm · Link
OMG>>> OMG>>> I WON!~!!!… Well, I get to move onto the semi-final round… WHOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!
Squeeeee…. This is soooo exciting.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:05 pm · Link
Whoooohooooo… I won… I WON!!!! Well, 😆 I get to move onto the next round! Whoah doggie!!!!
Squeeeee!!!!
That was tough competition too.
Oh, and AMANDA!!!! You got in too. Good luck to everyone for round two!!
April
March 8th, 2010 at 2:12 pm · Link
Title: The Company of Wolves
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Sickness has a scent. The stale tang doesn’t burn the nasal cavity, nor does it sour as it hits the back of the throat. The perfume of impending death is musky, lingering heavy and oppressing in the air. It doesn’t have to be accompanied by formaldehyde or alcohol, the metallic rustiness of blood or the stench of decaying tissue, but I was able to distinguish all four scents — as well as something else.
For a moment, I considered feigning sleep, concentrating not on the unexpected earthy scent I knew all too well but rather on the strong and intrusive aroma of bleach, sterile fluids, and unemptied bedpans overflowing with bodily waste; the world was less complex without the complication of pack.
March 8th, 2010 at 2:12 pm · Link
Title: Siren Song
Genre: Erotic Paranormal Romance
First Five Lines:
“Not again, please, not again!”
Joan’s terror filled eyes shifted over the blood covered linoleum of the doughnut shop. She was halfway across the floor from her boyfriend’s corpse. The shooting had happened in seconds. Now the aftermath clattered around her as patrons ran for the door in panic
March 8th, 2010 at 2:16 pm · Link
Title: Mind Your P’s and Q’s
Genre: Contemporary Erotica
First Five Lines:
I didn’t expect my first day as an intern to involve a paddle. My hometown newspaper was my dream job. I knew it would be rough. But sitting down that night in my tawdry apartment, heat burning up my thighs and ass, I didn’t think it would be this rough. Granted, I knew nothing about the newspaper business.
March 8th, 2010 at 2:19 pm · Link
Title: Not So Pure
Genre: Contemporary Fairytale Erotica
First Five Lines:
“You’re a dirty slut.”
He growled, taking her bare cranium in his palms to thrust her faster.
She didn’t used to be. A dirty slut that is. This was a fairly recent development.
March 8th, 2010 at 2:25 pm · Link
Title: Demon Soul
Genre: Urban Paranormal
First five lines:
The pain came like an assassin in the moonless night, a ripping deep inside him bringing him awake from his bed on the sandy beach. Rafael Caine roared, his fear as strong as the crippling pain, and grappled with the unseen hands sinking into his chest. The stink of magic and vampire clogged his lungs.
Cool as water, a shimmer in the darkness, the soul threads were being pulled out of him. Desperately he grasped at the silvery strands of his humanity, pulled hard to keep them as they were being tugged away.
March 8th, 2010 at 3:51 pm · Link
Title: Burn For Me
Genre: Dark Paranomal
Five lines:
She squinted in the sudden glare when they took the blindfold off and looked around. This Hollywood B movie setting was where she was to join her soul with a demon’s? It looked more like an unfinished basement than a cave, large and mostly empty with moisture slick walls, floors smooth under her bare feet, like poured concrete. Her thin robe didn’t do anything to protect her against the chilly air. It might look benign, the place gave her a serious case of the creeps.
March 8th, 2010 at 4:59 pm · Link
Title: Isles Of The Sea
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Five lines:
Glass shattered, sending fragments exploding across porcelain sink and laminate, Tess retracted.
“You okay?” Molly’s voice echoed the sound of the baseball’s impact.
“Dammit!” Tess threw the dishtowel to the counter and ran to the screen door barely making it before Fi pushed through.
Eyes ablaze, the seven-year-old spouted. “Mommy, I hit a home run.” The unabashed exuberance in her pronouncement almost set Tess off reprimand.
Her eyes narrowed. “How many times have I warned you?”
March 8th, 2010 at 4:59 pm · Link
The Blue Dolphin
Romantic Suspense
Debbie sat on a stool in the virtual dolphin therapy room in her health spa, glad it was Saturday and early closing, and hummed a tune as she refilled the jars of liquids. A shrill scream ripped through the quiet and she jumped, the bottle of rubbing balm splashing on the white lab coat she wore over her blue jeans. She looked around wildly; brushing at the liquid that spread through the cotton fabric and creating a rust colored stain that resembled a gunshot wound.
It had turned deathly quiet in the alley behind the spa, and she thought of her daughter’s safety even though Janelle was away at college. A woman was in trouble, and she forced her legs—with blood as thick as molasses, and seeming to pool around her ankles—to move toward the back door, her eyes scanning the area for a weapon.
March 8th, 2010 at 5:11 pm · Link
Sorry…I blew that one. Usually I can count 😳
Please allow me to try again.
Title: Isles Of The Sea
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Fiction
Five lines (sentences):
Glass shattered, sending fragments exploding across porcelain sink and laminate, Tess retracted.
“You okay?” Molly’s voice echoed the sound of the baseball’s impact.
“Dammit!” Tess threw the dishtowel to the counter and ran to the screen door barely making it before Fi pushed through.
Eyes ablaze, the seven-year-old spouted, “Mommy, I hit a home run.” The unabashed exuberance in her pronouncement almost set Tess off reprimand.
🙂
March 8th, 2010 at 5:47 pm · Link
Title : Little Black Dress
Genre : Contemporary
5 Lines:
Of all the vinyards in Western Oregon, why did Suzanne Carmichael have to insist on having her daughters wedding at L’Etoile? Mrs. Carmichael probably wouldn’t have even thought of it if not for L’Etoile’s owner, Davis Logan’s planned wedding there. Except there hadn’t been a wedding.
Jessica Sommers stepped out of compact sedan, her high heels crunching on the gravel of the parking lot. Immediately, she wanted to turn back, but she’d put meeting with Davis off long enough.
March 8th, 2010 at 8:49 pm · Link
Title: Urban Secrets
Genre: Paranormal Romance
First 5 Sentences:
In all fairness, Thaddeus Mountbatten should’ve died a thousand years ago. Times like these made him seriously resent immortality. Blood oozed from the bullet wound on his right calf. The trail it wove behind him across the broken sidewalk zigzagged since he’d been hobbling on it for the last sixteen blocks. Damned vamps and their lead.
March 8th, 2010 at 8:54 pm · Link
Title: The Rogue Shifter
Genre: Paranormal Romance
First 5 Sentences:
Regan Elder cursed under her breath as she drove slowly past Graney’s Bar & Grill. She was late, the parking opportunities were now nonexistent, and her pig of an ex-boss had cornered her inside the supply closet, threatening to revoke her upcoming vacation time if she didn’t sleep with him. Regan, tired of being pinched and propositioned by the little weasel, had reacted without thinking. Seeming to have a mind of its own, her fist had connected with the bastard’s nose, sending him slamming back against the metal shelves stocked full of post-it-notes and printer cartridges. She’d then told him what he could do with his disgusting offer and had quit on the spot.
March 8th, 2010 at 9:17 pm · Link
Title: Payback
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
First 5 sentences:
The gun wobbled in Tanner Bryant’s hand as he wiped the sweat trickling in his eyes. His thudding heart drowned out the sound around him. All day, he’d been calm, and cool, exacting every move. Everything had gone as planned until now. The longer he waited on the rafters, the more his nerves frayed.
March 8th, 2010 at 11:44 pm · Link
Title: Hellbent
Genre: Romantic Suspense
First 5 sentences:
She was going to have to shoot one of them. It might as well be the woman.
Del McCort shifted slightly on her perch behind Truman King’s building and studied the angle of her shot. Three guards — that she could see from here — all armed and in Kevlar vests. The woman was stationed at the northwest corner, farthest from the building’s entrance, so if she went down, she’d pull the others right out of the way.
March 9th, 2010 at 9:58 am · Link
Title: A Dozen Deadly Roses
Genre: Romantic Suspense
First 5 sentences:
Dear God, not again!
Jade Donovan clenched her fists at the sight of the gold florist’s box leaning against the front door of her apartment. The delivery taunted her; flaunting the fact her skills as a police officer couldn’t help her catch whoever was leaving the boxes.
“Mama got another present. That’s four in a row.”
March 9th, 2010 at 11:04 am · Link
Title : I’m Haunting Me
Genre: Women’s Fiction
First 5 sentences:
Rage, sorrow, confusion, anger, revenge. Those feelings wrestled with each other, each claiming my mind for seconds at a time, as I walked numbly through the newsroom.
I heard Richard’s voice outside Tanya’s cubicle, his laughter forming a protective circle around their side of the office. A circle I once belonged inside, but not anymore.
Somehow I made it to my office.
March 9th, 2010 at 7:07 pm · Link
Title: Intrusion
Genre: Romantic Suspense
First Five:
Cameron Scott hated the F word.
Failure.
The word rippled through him with a shudder as he swung from the wrought iron fire escape and onto the roof of Nanodyne’s main laboratory. His left knee popped with an audible crack, an uneasy reminder of why he was freezing his ass out here in the first place. To prove he could.
March 9th, 2010 at 7:58 pm · Link
Title: The Southern Belle’s Guide to Witchcraft
Genre: Paranormal Southern Fiction
First Five:
“We can use this one to turn his skin green.”
Oh good Lord, save her from teenaged daughters. Pissed off, teenaged, witch daughters. Scarlet bent and quietly slipped her heels off, snuck up behind her girls, and peaked over their shoulders.
“Washes off too quick.”
March 10th, 2010 at 2:12 pm · Link
Title: Whispers of Me
Genre: Contemporary Romance
First Five:
“Code 55. Code 55. Trauma team to ER 12. ETA 10.”
One single moment defines me.
“Code 55. Code 55. Trauma ETA 5.”
I heard the announcement, but blocked out its significance.
“Mag, you’re trauma tech this week. You goin’ down?” Jake, my boss, awkward in his role as delegator, patted my shoulder.
March 11th, 2010 at 11:54 am · Link
Title – Crimes of the Past
Genre – Romantic Suspense
First Five:
The chopper’s rumble could be heard above them as Cpt. Danni Baltier’s camouflaged team, dragging their bound prisoner, exited the second car. The rotor wash of the descending Blackhawk blew rain and sand into their faces as they struggled to reach the hovering chopper maneuvering between wind gusts, buildings, power lines, and bullets.
With near zero visibility, the pilot relied on his feel of the controls, maneuvering toward the cars with only intermittent glimpses of the ground.
“Hey Muhani, looks like we’re all just in time to get you your deal,” Danni shouted toward him, “a chopper ride to see the boss. Your info’d better be damn good – the colonel’s not a real forgiving man.”
March 11th, 2010 at 4:45 pm · Link
Title: In Pursuit Of Love
Genre: Regency Romance (1813)
First 5 Sentences:
Hidden behind the fronds of a large potted palm, twenty-two year old Melanie Wainscott observed the crush of bodies gracefully dipping and gliding across the polished dance floor of Lord and Lady Whitmore’s grand ballroom. The massive doors and windows had been thrown open to allow room for the thirty piece orchestra and the swell of guests. With a gentle breeze carrying in the fragrant perfume of roses and wisteria from the gardens, Melanie couldn’t have asked for a more perfect setting. All she needed to do was bait the hook.
No use sitting on the proverbial river bank, she had a man to catch and with any luck he’d be as easy to snag as a brook trout.
March 11th, 2010 at 7:51 pm · Link
Title: After the End
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy
First Five Sentences:
Through the binoculars, a zombie was even uglier than when seen up close and personal. Of course, when they were near, you didn’t generally have time to study them too carefully. There were other things to do—like screaming and running. From a distance it was safe for Ari to let his gaze wander over the creature’s rotting skin, its flat, vacant eyes and slack-jawed yokel mouth. Blood stained the lower half of its face, coating cheeks and chin and nearly obliterating the Alpha Kappa Beta logo on the upper half of the thing’s sweatshirt.
March 11th, 2010 at 10:14 pm · Link
Title: Obsession
Genre: Romantic Suspense
First Five Sentences:
What was the best place to shoot Nic “The Lover” Lamoureux — the king-size bed or the beige club chair?
Lauren James scanned the hotel room through the lens of her Nikon D700. Eager to get started, she adjusted the intensity of the lights and the angle of the umbrellas around the bed. A tenth glance at her watch in as many minutes confirmed what she already knew — he was late. Everything she needed to get the cleanest shot possible was already in place, except her target.
March 12th, 2010 at 10:04 am · Link
Title: The Redneck
Genre – Contemporary Romance
“Oh my God!” Gabriel, “Gabe,” Miller shouted as the truck began a slow roll over the hill and down into the mud pit.
His passenger, best friend and co-conspirator in most things, Bubba let out a raucous Rebel yell, hooting the whole way down the embankment. Gabe tried desperately to correct the slide but the deep mud just grabbed the big tires, making it impossible to steer the two-ton truck. As he watched, helpless, the truck rolled on its side. Wet, sticky mud rushed in the open windows at an alarming rate, beginning to fill the cab.
March 12th, 2010 at 8:02 pm · Link
Title: A Dark and Terrible Light
Genre: Paranormal YA
First 5:
Ms. Virgil made us read the Divine Comedy during summer break. It wasn’t as bad as I thought. But if you ask me, Dante got Hell all wrong. There’s no river Acheron, or six-eyed devil–though I’m pretty sure our science teacher, Mr. Walczak, has eyes in the back of his head. And the damned are forced to stare at tentacular thingamajigs and buccal doohickeys until their gastric wachamacallits erupt.
March 13th, 2010 at 12:19 pm · Link
Title – The Undercover Professor
Genre – Contemporary Romance
Lucy shoved the door to the laundry room open with her fanny, struggling to keep hold of the basket, detergent, fabric softener, and mounds of dirty laundry.
“Hello there, need some help?”
A bearded stranger jumped to his feet and hurried to the door, scooping up a pair of socks and some black lacy thongs that fell out of her basket.
“Wow, not awkward at all. Thank you, kind sir.”
Correction, a cute, bearded stranger.
March 13th, 2010 at 7:45 pm · Link
Laird of Glencairn
Historical Erotic Romance
The tense silence stretched as the two gentlemen awaited the Laird’s reaction.
Alas, they noted only an outward display of boredom as he continued to install a Sapphire broach into the froth of lace at his throat.
‘What cause could the duke possibly have for wanting you dead, my Laird?”
“I suspect he merely intends to frighten me to the altar over a small lesson I was obliged to give one of his wards.”
“Ah, a lesson about why debutants should not chase after rakes, I take it?”
by vicki Vuat March 12th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
March 14th, 2010 at 12:15 am · Link
Secondary Targets
Hardboiled Suspense w/romantic elements
The morning sun glared down on Grace Hendricks like an evil omen. She towered over the plot that was supposed to be her father’s grave, but the headstone said someone else was buried there. Grace felt like she’d walked onto the set of some weird Sci-Fi flick.
She surveyed the cemetery, half-blinded by the sunlight dousing the tombstones rowing the landscape. Granted, she hadn’t been here since the funeral, eleven years ago, but who forgot a thing like where their father was buried?
March 14th, 2010 at 5:54 am · Link
Terms of Surrender
Single-title Historical
“Where do you think we are, Blackthorn?”
“Somewhere between Fort Ticonderoga and the mouth of hell,” Stephen said. He slanted his eyes to the right, just far enough to make out Granger’s profile, and one of Granger’s dark eyes staring back at him.
“We passed the mouth of hell a few miles back.”
Stephen nearly broke discipline and laughed. An apt enough comparison from the scenes they’d passed on the road to this god-forsaken wilderness.
March 14th, 2010 at 7:53 am · Link
I hope I’m not too late =)
Scandal’s Mistress – 88,000 words
Historical – Regency
No sooner had Justin Trentham closed his eyes than the image of the lusty brunette’s bottom slapping against his pelvis appeared in his mind. The remembered weight of her breasts, heavy in his hands as he thrust into her over and over made his mouth water.
Almost as if he held warm skin in his hands, he heard her whispered urgings, felt muscles contract, release close to hand. But then, a distraction.
March 14th, 2010 at 10:46 am · Link
The East End
Historical – Victorian
In the summer night’s deepening shadows, Martha Tabram rubbed her aching temples. The pain wasn’t from cheap gin. Too many years patronizing London’s Ten Bells Tavern had increased her tolerance. Besides, she needed drink to file off the sharp edges of her hopeless memories. Including what happened back in April to her friend Emma Smith.
March 14th, 2010 at 9:23 pm · Link
Title: Rake Untied
Genre: Regency Historical
“Are you peeking under that man’s fig leaf?”
Elinor Colton jumped back from the resplendent statue of Apollo Belvedere standing in the vestibule of the Knutsford Assembly rooms. An elm leaf had been tied around Apollo’s torso to cover his private parts, and she had reached out to straighten it. Turning in the direction of the voice, she saw a tall stranger with a devilish smile. Her mouth opened in reply, but she only managed, “Oh.”
March 15th, 2010 at 12:48 am · Link
Title: Par for the Course
Genre: Contemporary Romance
First 5 Sentences:
Her stomach dropped at almost the same time as the door opened behind her back, sending her tumbling high heels over hiphuggers. Fortunately, the Heinz 57 orange shag carpeting broke her fall. She scurried to her feet, denying all knowledge of what could be hiding in the 1970’s shag, and possibly exposing more of her backside that was wise.
A strong hand braced against the doorway she’d just fallen through like Alice in Wonderland down the rabbit hole. She followed the arm back to it’s source and discovered…perfection.
March 15th, 2010 at 12:49 am · Link
Title: Rock and a Hard Place
Genre: Contemporary Romance
First 5 sentences:
“Countdown to launch, two minutes.”
Damien glanced at his Tag Heuer, set the stopwatch. The parachute felt comfortably heavy on his back, all systems were go. He leaned over the side of the balloon basket, the beautiful village of Avondvaart below his feet. Holland was stunning this time of year, all green trees and lush fields.