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PITCHING THE CATEGORY BUZZ WORDS
By Carol J. Stephenson
copyright 1999 Carol J. Stephenson all rights, may not be reproduced
There I sat, with my heart in my throat, trying to string together a coherent
sentence. The Harlequin editor politely waited. Somehow, I blurted
out a gush of words. The editor first frowned, then smiled. "Oh,
you have a repressed memory book."
Stunned, I paused, waved my hands palm up, and said, "Exactly."
Moral to my less then stellar interview at our conference: if you're writing a
category, next time you pitch your manuscript either live or by query, try using
as your opening hook the category shorthand--its buzz words. If your story
is about a sexy cop who finds a secret baby, say so. If you have a unique
twist to one of the category themes, incorporate it into your opening hook, such
as former cop, now a cowboy, finds a baby on his doorstep and enters into a
marriage of convenience with an amnesiac bride.
I posed the question about buzz words on the Cata-romance list, and below are
the results [with a big 'thank you' to Silhouette author Rox Delaney!] along
with others I culled from back cover blurbs. If you still have the Dec.
'96 RWR, former Silhouette editor Melissa Senate listed a great many of these.
Babies/kids: abandoned, arranged, lost, found, adopted, biological, inherited,
borrowed, secret, switched-at-birth, matchmaking.
Single parents: struggling unwed mothers, clueless divorced dads, surrogate,
blended families.
Pregnant heroines: stranger, estranged husband or ex as the guilty culprit.
Cowboys & western settings: think taming.
Amnesia/repressed memory: Is s/he married, a criminal, parent, missing
groom/bride, presumed dead? Did s/he kill someone?
Twins: so different/so alike, identical, fraternal, triplets, switched
identities, mistaken identities.
Weddings & brides: marriages of convenience, fake fiancées, mail order
brides, virgin brides/grooms, runaway brides/grooms, green-card, royal, shot
gun, jilted, on the rocks, terms of the will, fight for child custody, by
mistake, stop that wedding!
Reunion: estranged, lost, thwarted, divorced lovers.
Boss/secretary: or any other combination where will he ever notice her as a
woman?
Favorite sexy 'occupations': doctor, cop, attorney, cowboy, small-town sheriff,
FBI agent, secret agent, charming criminal with a heart of gold, bodyguard,
journalist, fugitive, former military, mysterious man.
Bad boy/bad girl: think a challenge to tame, think misunderstood.
Makeover/transformation: Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Pygmalion, Ugly
Duckling.
Fairy tales/myths: Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Taming of the Shrew.
Mismatched Pairings: May/December, wrong/right side of the tracks, star-crossed,
mentor/protege, virgin/rogue, best friends/lovers, opposing occupations
[arsonist/fire investigator], she's the boss/he's not, rolling stone/homemaker,
country/city, hermit/socialite, gambler/conservative.
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