My Tall, Dark and Handsome hero, here I come!

Ever since I read my first Harlequin romance at the age of thirteen, I got hooked. I am sure I must have read over a five hundred of M&Bs by now. To say that I was a M&B fan would be an understatement! I used to devour them like crazy - day in and day out. I guess the maximum number of M&Bs I have ever read in a single day was three - like a movie freak, I took them shows one right after another. So naturally, there came a time when my library ran out of fresh stock of M&Bs - I had read every single book and some even twice. I was desperate. Like a Heroin addict, I searched for another source of books.

Eventually I started buying some on my own - sometimes from roadside shops, sometimes from second hand shops, and at times even brand new ones though they were a major dent on my pocket money. They used to cost around 150 those days - too much for my 500 rupee allowance. But thankfully, I soon found another library that had an even more amazing collection of these books. Days and nights went flying while I lived blissfully immersed in the world of M&B fantasies. While my other friends worried about crushes and marks, I was busy travelling in Italy and Greece with my dark-haired heroes and petite heroines. Ha, life was a dream.

Like all good things, my obsession with M&Bs also slowed down and I even stopped reading them all together once I started with my MBA. But not before I had vowed to myself to become a M&B author - In fact, if I remember correctly, I had even written a chapter or two of a novel like M&B in one of those bad days when there was no book to read.

With time though, life caught up and I was forced to abandon my dream world. A few years went by when I didn't even have a glance at a M&B - I had become least interested in them by now. My tall, dark and handsome heroes remained firmly where they belong - in fantasies and books, alone! That is until recently when I decided to pick up a few books on a visit to Landmark. I was getting hooked again slowly.

But what's got me super excited right now is not because I rediscovered my hobby. It is what I heard at a chance conversation in the office lunch table. My dear Harlequin is looking for Indian authors. They are in fact conducting a short story competition for romance authors. Wow! Is this a life time opportunity or what? I thanked my lucky stars that I had joined my team for lunch on that day - otherwise, am sure I would have missed knowing about the contest. As it is, the last day for entry is 21 Jan 2009. Barely a week to go. I better get cracking. My tall, dark and handsome hero, here I come!

The good samaritan that I am, if you would like to know more details of the contest, you can have a look here - Mills and Boon Passion Writing Contest. Be sure to thank me if you enter the contest and win! :)