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Another great batch of entries! Here are the semifinalists from this week:
#14 Urban Secrets by Amber Leigh Williams
#25 In Pursuit of Love by Sarah Simas
#36 Rake Untied by S. Orr
#77 (week 1 post) Shadow Horse by Anne E. Kyle
The semifinalists will be contacted individually on Monday, March 15 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 Three 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 3! More semifinalists will be chosen next Sunday, March 21.
Also, please respond to this blog entry for week three, not any of the earlier ones. I’ll go back and check (as I did this week–the semifinalists were chosen from every entry I could find on this blog that was posted after midnight on March 7), and I won’t deliberately penalize you for responding on another blog entry, but responding here is the best way to ensure your entry won’t get lost in the shuffle. Thanks!
Jennifer
March 15th, 2010 at 7:20 am · Link
Journey for Freedom
Historical
First five sentences:
Damn, damn, damn, Callista Arrington swore under her breath.
She wheeled her heaving black stallion around and tried to see through the light fog that covered the ground. Her heart beat so loud and fast she couldn’t hear anything else over the drumming in her ears.
“Easy Lucifer.” She gave her horse an encouraging rub and then kicked her heels to his sides, cantering across the dewy green grass of the park trying to discern a track on the ground, anywhere that would show man, horse or carriage had traversed the land recently. She only hoped that she got there in time.
March 15th, 2010 at 7:24 am · Link
Gardens of Pleasure
Historical – Regency
First five sentences:
Dominic Barnes, Duke of Northwood, was completely, disgustingly, foxed. The alcohol roiled in his stomach, mixing with the soul crushing regret that had become part of his everyday life.
Drinking back yet another glass of the sour liquid he’d already forgotten the name of, he looked around at his friend’s faces. They were seated in a tent on the darkened edges, deep in Vauxhall Gardens, celebrating his thirtieth birthday. No expense had been spared and the night would not be over until the early hours of tomorrow, but Dominic had already had enough.
March 15th, 2010 at 7:46 am · Link
Title: Desires of the Soul
Genre: Paranormal Romance
1st 5 Sentences:
Dom Russo stood on the sidewalk outside the last graduation party he planned to attend, if only to spare his liver from a severe case of cirrhosis. Like everyone else, he’d been celebrating his long awaited freedom from higher learning in the traditional fashion: drunken mischief in a series of benders with very little recovery time in between. The last couple of weeks had been one hell of a ride, but now his body begged for a self-induced coma, or at the very least, a dark room and an I.V. drip of Gatorade.
The scenes around him could have been straight out of an educational video warning of the consequences for binge drinking. Several people were passed out in the grass like inebriated lawn ornaments, in various states of undress, hands still clutching bottles of beer or red plastic cups.
March 15th, 2010 at 9:30 am · Link
Eeekk… there’s so many great first five lines. This is going to be a tough fight to the finish :>
I’m excited by the interest though… this is fun to watch.
April
March 15th, 2010 at 11:19 am · Link
Title – Secrets of A Spy’s Heart
Genre – Historical Romantic Suspense
First Five Sentences:
Death comes to those who expect it.
‘Twas a truth whispered to Lady Madelaine Aldridge years earlier at the funeral of her mama and baby brother. In the years since that fateful day, Madelaine tried never to think on death for fear of losing her father who she held more dear than her own life. But as she stared at her father’s blood smeared chest and counted his wheezing breaths, she could not help but consider he might die. When a crack of thunder boomed outside, she tore her gaze from him and looked out the window into the black sky to see what weather brewed.
March 15th, 2010 at 11:57 am · Link
Title: Rescued
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
First Five Sentences:
“Get over here. Now,” Mick Baines ordered, then hung up the phone.
Andy tossed her TV remote aside, grabbed her parka and headed for the door. When her dad used that tone of voice, it meant someone was in trouble. As head of Elk Park’s Search and Rescue, Mick must be calling the team together.
Including Andy.
March 15th, 2010 at 12:01 pm · Link
Title: Wild Horses
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
First Five Sentences:
“Damn, it’s hotter than the devil’s backyard out here.” Castaña Castillo took one hand off the steering wheel just long enough to swipe at the trickle of sweat running down the nape of her neck and adjust the volume on the radio. One of her favorites, “Amarillo by Morning”, wafted from the speakers.
Not even George Strait’s silky-smooth voice helped ward off her exhaustion. Castaña’s hands felt like twisted claws wrapped around the steering wheel, and the space between her shoulders ached until she prayed it would go numb.
March 15th, 2010 at 12:01 pm · Link
Title: Act Like We’re In Love
Genre: Contemporary Single Title
1st 5 sentences:
“In case it slipped your mind, I’m standing here in my underwear.” Linnea looked down past her daffodil yellow lace bra to the black stilettos tied around her ankles with satin bows. “Oh, and my new pumps. Not the warmest of ensembles, to say the least, so hurry up!”
“You should know by now my brilliance can’t be rushed.”
March 15th, 2010 at 12:44 pm · Link
Title: A Brief Encounter
Genre: Contemporary Romance
First five sentences:
Nostalgia.
A trip down memory lane. The perfect cure to assuage the sorrow that enveloped her heart.
Catherine Jackson needed a fix and she knew exactly where to go to get it.
“I’m leaving now, Margaret,” she told the matronly head nurse in charge of the children’s ward that had been dedicated to Catherine’s late father, Lawrence Jackson.
March 15th, 2010 at 2:30 pm · Link
Switched in Death
Romantic Suspense
It was always just another day and another dead body – until it was someone you knew.
Detective Seth Banning paused at the bedroom doorway of the rundown duplex, his gaze fixed on the dead woman lying on the floor. He swallowed while his brain absorbed the shock. He squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them again.
She was still there.
March 15th, 2010 at 4:15 pm · Link
Title: Jocasta
Genre: Women’s Lit/Historic Fiction
“I will make a queen of you.”
Jocasta dropped a linen sheet into the steaming wash tub, and stared at her father, wide-eyed and petrified by his words.
“You are thirteen now, my love, just old enough to be married and you should be thanking the gods I did not do it a year earlier when your courses marked you a woman, as King Laius suggested.” The king squatted down beside her and lifted the sheet out of the hot water. “It will be a great political move for Sparta, Jocasta.”
March 15th, 2010 at 4:28 pm · Link
The Saint’s Devilish Deal
Contemporary Romance
This was not happening. Not. Not. Not. She was not sitting in this stuffy lawyer’s office where the slowly moving ceiling fan stood no chance of cutting through the wet heat of a Puerto Vallarta summer day.
March 15th, 2010 at 4:58 pm · Link
Title: Enemy Wolf
Genre: Paranormal Romance
The blow came from behind. Kenna rolled end over end, tail over head, crushing a swath of long grass across her private meadow, finally coming to rest trapped under a strong body with her heart pumping wildly. She scrabbled for the slightest purchase of ground to free herself from the intruder as sharp teeth sank into the scruff of her neck. The hold on her was too fierce and painful, and she yelped when her attacker dug his canines further into her flesh. The power of alpha flooded through her as he groweled a command, then fur gave way to skin and paws extended to become feet and hands.
March 15th, 2010 at 9:12 pm · Link
Title: Dreamers
Genre: Paranormal Romance
First five sentences:
Somiar longed to join the crowd on the dance floor. Leaning against the mirrored wall behind her, she scanned the dim room to choose a partner. Her gaze settled on the man in the corner with dark chocolate skin and short coal black hair. From this distance, with the lights so low, he seemed good looking. But she had seen way too many men in clubs who appeared attractive until the lights came on.
March 15th, 2010 at 9:49 pm · Link
Title: Par for the Course
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Teri Burke’s stomach dropped as the door opened behind her back, sending her tumbling high heels over hip huggers. Fortunately, the Heinz 57 orange shag carpeting broke her fall. She scurried to her feet, denying to herself all knowledge of what could be hiding in it’s depths, and possibly exposing more of her backside than was proper. Way more. Low slung jeans had a way of doing that.
March 16th, 2010 at 12:18 am · Link
Title: The Cowboy’s Baby
Genre: Contemporary Series
First Five Lines:
“Okay, that should be sufficiently creepy.”
Cat O’Brien stepped off the ladder and backed up a few feet to admire the orange and black lights she’d strung around Gran’s porch. Along with the cardboard witch and ghost cutouts on the door and carved pumpkins on the steps, the blinking lights brought a new level of delicious holiday spookiness to the old house. Luckily, she’d been able to find her Halloween decorations in one of her still-unpacked boxes. Although she’d procrastinated until the afternoon of the holiday, the chore was done now.
March 16th, 2010 at 12:22 am · Link
Title” Shot Through The Heart
Genre: Comtemporary Romantic Suspense
First Five Sentences:
A car door slammed, and Laramie Porter’s pulse jumped up to mach speed, but she forced a smile to reassure her sister-in-law. “Try to stay calm.”
Julie made a noise in her throat like a frightened fawn. “Oh, no,” she moaned. “Lawrence found me already.”
March 16th, 2010 at 3:51 am · Link
Title: “What Goes Around”
Genre: Women’s fiction
Morgan looked down at her still, pale best friend lying not quite conscious under the crisp hospital sheet, and wondered when the guilt would start. Maybe it wouldn’t. Maybe deep down she didn’t believe this was her fault. After all, it hadn’t been her hands that inflicted the bruises, the abrasions, the carpet burn, the concussion. Nick had done all that.
March 16th, 2010 at 5:53 am · Link
Title: Chinese Bride
Genre: Historical Western
First Five Lines:
Clouds were painted on the flat blue-gray sky, not even a gull disturbing the barren heavens. From great, black stacks, ribbons of white billowed behind the rapidly moving ship. Although the steamer cut steadily through the waves, it seemed it wasn’t moving at all—as though Huiann would spend the rest of her life standing on this deck, waiting for her new life to begin. When she imagined meeting her husband for the first time, she wavered between nervous anticipation and wrenching fear. Was he handsome, ugly, old, young?
March 16th, 2010 at 4:57 pm · Link
Title: Moonlight Captive
Genre: Scottish Historical Romance:
First Five Sentences:
Roderick MacGowan stood before the fire, tipped the crystal glass to his lips, and drank the last drop of the precious golden fluid. For a moment the warmth of the liquid matched the warmth of the fire. The decision was made. Now all that was left was to set the plan into motion. He turned his back to the fire and faced his co-conspirators as they shared the warmth of the fire, the last of the brandy and the desperation to see this through to the end.
March 16th, 2010 at 9:27 pm · Link
Title: Morgan Ranch
Genre: Contemporary
First Five Sentences:
Silence permeated the house except for a ticking clock on the wall. The incessant noise matched the pace of Cody Johnson’s heart, which remained a beating lump in her throat. Only minutes had passed since she’d been in her boss’ home, but the longer she was alone, the more her anxiety grew.
She sat on the edge of the living room couch, waiting to be collected by the nurse, trembling and soaking wet from the rain, her clothes stuck to her imitating a second skin. What could Lane Morgan, a man on his death bed want to talk to her about?
March 18th, 2010 at 3:54 am · Link
Title: The Roman’s Revenge
Genre: Historical Romance
First Five Sentences:
The door to her cabin flew open with such a loud crash as it slammed against the wall that Livia jumped in shock. Her gaze automatically flew to the dark opening from where she sat curled up on her bunk in abject misery, her hands clamped over her ears in the vain hope of drowning out the noise of the storm, and the even more pitiful screams of the slaves trapped in the galley below.
Then as her eyes adjusted to the dimness beyond her door she saw him; the mocking stranger she had seen the first day she had boarded the trireme. Only this time there was no trace of mockery on his face; this time his jaw was clenched so tightly that she could see a nerve twitching rapidly along his jawline as his muscular chest rose and fell with exertion as if he had been running for miles.
“Come with me if you want to live,” he said, the tone hard, unyielding as he stepped into the cabin his hand outstretched towards her.
March 19th, 2010 at 2:07 am · Link
Title: Built For Two
Genre: Contemporary Romance
First Five Sentences:
Eli Mason pulled his deep blue metallic BMW Z4 to the curb across from the three-story 1930’s Dutch Colonial house. His dream home. No wife need apply.
Eli slid from the soft leather seat, leaned against the fender, and checked his Rolex. He was exactly ten minutes early.
March 21st, 2010 at 12:25 am · Link
Title: Unwrapped Secrets
Genre: Contemporary Romance
First Five:
She stood near the door way, sipping champagne, watching her guests float around the festive Christmas-theme dance floor, to the seductive tone of the orchestra.
“Geneva, may I have this dance,” he whispered from behind in a low husky voice as he traced the outline of the butterfly tattoo on her exposed left shoulder blade.
Oh my God, there’s no way this can be happening–not now, not here at my fundraising ball. Although he stood in back of her, she clearly recalled the vision of his handsome, classic Italian looks and that dangerous mega-watt smile—the one he’d used to seduce her with five and a half years ago.
The incessant jack-hammering of her heart warned her of the urgency to flee, before her secret was revealed.