Wouldn't it be fun if...

Reflections on my Smoochpit 2025 Mentee Application process

Hi friend,

A few years ago, I had to complete two practicum placements to finish a training program. I was working full time in the field, brand new in a role, and really wanted to do my first practicum on the job.

That’s not how it happened.

I ended up having to take an unpaid leave of absence from my role and working somewhere else.

When practicum rolled around next time, I was assigned a mentor at my current workplace. I had the foundational skills at that point, and she helped me fine tune them, to look for the things that are unseen, the tiny clues in behaviour that open a wealth of knowledge.

Where the first practicum helped me to do my job, my second mentor helped me hone my craft. When I was reflecting with my practicum coordinator at the end of my second experience she said something about my mentor that’s stuck with me:

“You weren’t ready for her yet. You are now.”

They were the right experiences, in the right order at the right time (even if I didn’t know it at the time).

I’ve been reflecting on this, because I have some exciting news to share: I’ve been selected as a Mentee in Smoochpit 2025, working with mentor Alexandra Vasti.

Here’s how that happened

In early September, I saw the opportunity on Instagram - to be able to work with a traditionally published romance mentor author on revising your manuscript and honing your pitch to literary agents. The catch - you needed to have a full manuscript.

I’m about halfway through the second Glengarry Curse book, so that was out. I also had my Anne of Green Gables inspired contemporary romance, but it was with an editor. I really wanted to get the edits back and digest them myself before getting any more opinions.

But then I thought: Wouldn’t it be fun to revive my Canadian historical romance?

So, I spent a phenomenal Sunday afternoon writing a synopsis, query letter, and cleaning up my opening pages. I was on a high - it was so fun to revisit that story!

I reasoned: “This mentorship goes until March. They aren’t announcing anything for another month. If someone was interested, I’d have lots of time to clean it up.”

And then, three days later, I got an email from Alexandra Vasti asking to see the full manuscript.

I fell in love with Alexandra Vasti’s work a few years ago when she released her Halifax Hellions eBooks. She’s since gone on to publish Ne’er Duke Well, Earl Crush and just this past month Ladies in Hating.

TLDR: She’s a pretty big deal in the historical romance genre.

My initial response was shock. Followed by joy. And then a little something like this…

Because I wrote this historical romance four years ago.

I looked at my husband and said, “Something really exciting happened. But it means I’ve completely derailed your weekend.” (He was very happy and understanding!)

I sent (what I hope) was a very polite, not-at-all-panicky email that I’d send the manuscript over by the end of the weekend, and then I dug it out of the depths of my old laptop.

I woke up at five a.m. both days, poured myself a cup of tea and got to work. I took a break on the Saturday to speak on a romance panel at Indigo Pinecrest (what is my life?!) and then got back to it. I climbed into bed at 10 p.m. Sunday next to my husband, both of us bleary eyed (him from effectively solo parenting all weekend).

“I did it.”

It was a lot of work going through that manuscript from four years ago, but what a gift it was. The story still stood up. I could see glimmers of my writing voice peeking out that I amplified. I cut and slashed about 5000 words of erroneous dialogue tags, filtering and filler words. I fleshed out some skeletal scenes. I also saw the reason it was still in drafts - there’s bits that I don’t know how to fix. And somewhere in the stark contrast of my writing ability between THEN and NOW I could see how my skills have improved.

This mentorship is the help I need paired with the experience I didn’t have before.

It’s had me reflecting a lot on timing. I’m a very goal oriented person. I wanted so badly to publish this years ago. It’s easy, when we chase outcomes, to feel like you’ve failed. It’s also hard to tangibly qualify growth. But turns out, if you keep writing, keep honing your craft, keep taking up space in your romance writing community, keep applying that feedback, you eventually get better at it. Rude.

The nugget of wisdom I’m taking away from this experience - Waiting doesn’t have to be passive. How can you find the power, agency and opportunity in it?

I’m looking forward to this experience, in part, BECAUSE I’ve waited. I’m so happy it’s happened now and not four years ago. And now I can’t wait to make the most of it :)

I want to share more about the Smoochpit experience and the book, but for now, I think I’ll leave you with another book rec…

She thought her future was set...until her past skated back into her life.

This is the latest in the Ottawa Otters (professional hockey team!) series by K.M. Gillis. It’s got all my favourites - second chance romance, dual timeline and POV, caretaking and a very cute cat. You can learn more about it here.