TITLE: Operation
One Night Stand
AUTHOR: Christine
Hughes
RELEASE
DATE: June 2, 2015
ABOUT Operation
One Night Stand:
IT'S TIME TO CHANGE HER SEXUAL
KARMA
Caroline Frost had it all-until her
boyfriend banged the superskank intern, and poof! Caroline's happy little
bubble disappeared. Now it's been six weeks of weeping, a mountain of ice
cream, and a permanent buttprint on the couch. Enough is enough. She and her
ladybits need an intervention-now.
Enter Operation: One Night Stand:
Find a man who is hotness personified and have some much-needed sexy time. The
only problem is that Caroline is torn between a flirtatious, well-built guy and
the ridiculously hot bartender serving her shots. This was supposed to be all
fun and no games, but like the perfect scotch on the rocks, no good fling
finishes without a twist.
PRE-ORDER
HERE:
REVIEW
BY: TRACY
Caroline breaks up with her boyfriend
after she catches him cheating on her. After going through the grieving period
her friends tell her she needs a life change, that she needs to live a little.
First on that list is a one night stand. Caroline and her friends, Sarah and
Melody, venture out to a bar for the operation one night stand. Add in the
crazy adventures of 3 friends and yo out have a funny romantic comedy.
This book was good, not great, but
good. It had its good points, namely the antics that the 3 girls get into.
Favorite quote "I love you like a back-alley hooker loves crack." The
sexual content was good. The only thing I didn't like is that it felt like the
book just ended, with no real ending to it.
ABOUT Christine
Hughes:
I’ve always wanted to write. Ever since I was little, I
would craft stories and poems but the idea to actually do it “for real” never
really crossed my mind until last year. After sitting on three paragraphs of
what would eventually become my first novel, I decided to expand upon what I
had. At the time I had no real idea of where the story would go, I just knew I
had the time to do something with it.
I hadn’t researched market trends, I had no idea about
query letters or the evil synopsis, and I was green on the idea of agents and
editors and all that is publishing, really. I just wanted to write something I
enjoyed. I didn’t plot, outline, or character build, I just wrote. And then an
author friend mentioned that I should take my writing to a conference.
So with the confidence that my novel would surely be
welcomed by all who read it, I signed up for as many seminars and critiques as
I could. I knew someone would love it. In those two days, I found out I had a
lot to learn.
Funny, but as a former English teacher, you’d think I’d
have figured out the importance of editing and revision and revising again.
You’d think I’d have known that the first draft is just that, a draft. And when
the critiques started coming in, I thought I was done for. Not that the premise
wasn’t good (I was told it was), not that the characters weren’t believable (I
was told they were), but I used too much passive voice, I tense shifted and
there were some holes in the plot line.
A few agents really liked it, but the market trend
couldn’t support it. Some were not fond of the way I told the story. I queried
and queried my way to 57 flat out rejections and a number of partial and full
requests that didn’t pan out. But along the way I got some great criticism and
pointers and I made the story better. Then, on a whim, I trolled the
SavvyAuthors website and signed up for a three line pitch to editor Lauri
Wellington and I did a happy dance when she requested my full manuscript.
A month later, she responded that she loved the story
and the concept but it moved too slowly but I could resubmit if I revised. I
informed her I sent her a revision that was based on the opinions of agents,
authors and peers but I had the original (cleaned up, of course) and I was
sending it in to see if it was more of what she was looking for. And guess
what? It was! One caveat, I had to revise the manuscript into past tense. Easy
peasy, right? Wrong.
Revising into past tense from present is line editing
your entire novel. And it kinda stinks. By the end, I thought my eyes were
gonna start bleeding and pop out onto my keyboard. But you know what? That
little “exercise” tightened up what was loose, filled in any plot holes that
might’ve still been there and forced me to realize I could be a better writer.
The road to publication can be long. It can be a hop,
skip and a jump from your first query. Nothing in publication is set in stone.
The market is always changing. And the biggest thing I learned is that it’s all
subjective. Agents A-Y may pass but all you need is Agent or Editor Z to
believe in you as much as you believe in yourself. And I believe in my first
novel. And I am happy that Black Opal Books does too. I hope you do, as well.
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