IF AT FIRST YOU DON¹T SUCCEED MAKE A MOVIE! by Joanna D'Angelo

I’m so excited to be blogging here at Hannah Howell’s home base. Thank you so much Hannah for the invite!

If someone told me last year at this time that I’d become the VP Editorial at Lachesis Publishing, I would have laughed and laughed. What? No way. I’m working in TV and burning to do another documentary. Well, sometimes our journeys take us on an interesting detour.

But how did I get here exactly?

Let me briefly take you back in time to the year 1991 (ahem). I was graduating with a Bachelor of Journalism at Carleton University and looking for summer work because I was continuing my education in the MA program in the fall. As I perused the job board outside the main office in the journalism department, I spotted an ad for a very cool job. Harlequin Books was looking for a copy editor but the job was in Toronto at their head office and it was full time. Now, the reason why I was so excited was because I had been a fan of romance novels since I first discovered Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett (gush).

Unfortunately, I couldn’t apply for the job because of school—but I always wondered what if? After my MA I ended up working in radio and print and then in TV and film so I have no complaints. Getting a chance to go to the Cannes Film Festival was definitely a highlight of my career.

But my love of romance novels was always there, so eventually I brought my two loves—film and romance fiction together and made a documentary about the world of romance called Who’s Afraid of Happy Endings? It was during my research phase that I met and got to know LeeAnn Lessard—a cracker jack PR gal who boasted a client roster of terrific romance writers including the wonderful Hannah Howell.  I kept in touch with LeeAnn over the years and when she and her talented business partner Louise Clark, who is also a romance writer, approached me about coming on board at Lachesis, it didn’t take me long to say a resounding YES!

I had come full circle—and while I hadn’t gone the more traditional route in getting here —my years writing and editing in various media have given me a unique perspective on the publishing world.

I am thrilled to be working with LeeAnn and Louise who are both smart and savvy as along with our accomplished and dedicated authors who love their craft and our stellar editors behind the scenes.

And now for the really good part!

We are pleased to announce that we are currently accepting submissions in the areas of horror, science fiction, fantasy, suspense thrillers and erotica. As for romance—(my first love) well, we’ve got some wonderful titles coming out this year and in 2013 so we’ll be looking for romance submissions again in a year or so.

We’re also planning a snazzy web site makeover later this year—so stay tuned for that! We’ll be back to let you know about our big launch!

In the mean time—I wish you happy reading!

E-mail submissions to joanna@lachesispublishing.com