WOMAN'S WEEKLY SERIALS.

I submitted a proposal for a serial of 3,800x3 parts to Woman's Weekly in UK.
I thought it was a good rollicking story. but the editor of fiction said.
Quote:
"Thank you for your submission. I’m afraid this isn’t quite suitable for us. We need plots that are a little more “down to earth”. I’m attaching our guidelines.


Best wishes,
Gaynor Davies
Fiction Editor, Woman's Weekly/
Editor, Woman's Weekly Fiction Special
IPC Connect
Blue Fin Building
110 Southwark Street
London
SE1 0SU
And that was withing 48 hours. I was so pleased that Gaynor was prompt. How is that for service. I will try something else. What have I got to loose.
Here is my synopsis. If anyone else wants me to write a three parter....

THE CUBAN MISTRESS.
 
 
At 50 Geraldine is looking to forget. Forget her divorce, her job, her house and the crippling payments and so she decides to take one last holiday before knuckling down to the rest of her life.
Louis has his 50ft yacht called Cuban Mistress, a love of the sea, an eye for women and debt.
Their worlds come together at a bar and over a few too many drinks Louis ends up inviting Gerri for a week of sailing around the Islands in Indonesia. What an opportunity to shake off her blues and so Gerri accepts. After all she thinks, she used to spend every weekend sailing with her good for nothing husband. The police have warned of pirates in the area and Gerri saw some mug shots of the brutes at the police station when she registered her intent to travel.
Then as the boat leaves the port Gerri hears Louis on the phone .
He is mad. Yelling, ranting and takes a winch handle and bangs it down. Gerri watches him calm down and then he says “Fred see you later and remember...cash only.”
Gerri wonders if she has done the right thing as she thinks about the mug shot of Freddie a known pirate in the area and still at large.
But she convinces herself ‘millions of guys are named Fred. It was just a coincidence. Nothing to worry about. Or is there?
 
 
Gerri's fears are allayed when she begins to fall for her old salt of the sea. They spend an idyllic day on a deserted beach talking, drinking, fishing and life seems pretty good. Has Gerri found a soul mate. Louis talks about his childhood in Cuba, his family and Gerri thinks it was almost like they were meant to find one another.
 But all too soon she has niggling doubts about Louis. She hears suspicious conversations over the radio, sees guns, and Louis becomes evasive when asked the most innocent of questions. He seems jumpy and on edge as Gerri tried to piece together what is going on.
 
Then, three men board the boat in the dead of night and it is obvious they are in charge. These thugs look like the mug shots in the police station Gerri saw before she left and then she hears them talking about getting rid of her.
Louis is mixed up on the wrong side of the law to pay his debts but murder wasn't part of the deal and so he gives Gerri the opportunity to escape just as they are ready to hijack a tanker in the shipping channel.
Gerri silently launches the dinghy and in a fast paced conclusion cracks open the throttle and speeds to the tanker shooting off her survival pack flares and trying to radio the tanker of the impending attack and her need for rescue. Gunfire misses her as she zigzags across the wake of the three story ship until with relief she hears the engines slow and sees a search light sweeping the water looking for her.
With her rescue secure the captain of the tanker radios for assistance and the Cuban Mistress is captured and escorted to port.
That should be the end of Gerri's experiences except as she passes the felons at the port police station Louis slips a note into her hand.
It is the address of his mother's place, in Cuba.
Perhaps the rest of her life can wait a little longer she thinks and Louis might keep is Cuban Mistress after all.