Kensington Publishing Corp. is sponsoring a writing contest and accepting submissions for its Lyrical Press imprint. If you have an unpublished romance, suspense/thriller, young adult, or new adult manuscript, get ready to submit. In the spirit of full disclosure, I should say that Kensington’s Lyrical Press is the publisher of my debut romance book, “In His Corner,” which will be released on April 14.

Cate Masters not just writes, but concocts stories. Her books combine magic, mayhem, and romance. She writes fantasy, historical, contemporary, and speculative fiction. Masters, who also writes as C.A. Masterson, has 31 releases under her belt.

It was a Thursday like any other—eight hours in the office, dinner with the family at home, and a treadmill workout, while I watched Brad Pitt’s “Killing Them Softly” on DVD. The movie was abysmal, but Brad looked good, and I burned some calories. What happened next, however, was what made April 10, 2014, one of the best days of my life.