A first-time romance novelist from Brooklyn Park is in the running for a publishing contract as part of a magazine contest playing off "American Idol.''

Tamara Hughes, a stay-at-home mom, says she's been reading romance novels "forever'' and decided to try her hand at writing one. She's now competing against three other U.S. writers in the Romantic Times BOOKreviews magazine contest, which asks: "Whose Book Will Be the Next American Title?''

Hughes describes her historical romance, "Once Upon a Masquerade,'' as a "Cinderella, murder-mystery'' tale set in New York City in 1883. The story centers on Rebecca, a housemaid impersonating a heiress who gets embroiled in her gambler father's troubles, a murder and -- of course -- romance.

Just like on "American Idol,'' it is the audience -- readers or anyone who goes to the magazine website to vote -- who will determine the winner of a book contract with Dorchester Publishing. And just like Randy, Paula and Simon on "Idol,'' three sometimes snarky judges from the romance writing world comment on the entries. (The contest hasn't yet caught up to "Idol'' with a fourth judge.)

Hughes, a University of Wisconsin math graduate who worked for several years in the information technology field, got into writing as a creative outlet. She says it took about five years of writing and polishing prose to finish her book

On the Romantic Times site, Hughes says she likes to write about "heroines who are a bit like me -- unsophisticated, a little quirky and a touch on the clumsy side."

She said she took some criticism in Round 1 of the competition, which focused on just the first sentences of the novels. Her sentence, "There has to be more to life than this,'' took some heat, especially from the "Simon Cowell''-like judge Flavia Knightsbridge, whose criticism was: "There has to be more to her lead than this!'' But the judges have been much more encouraging in the following rounds, and she notes happily, "I survived.''

Voting is open until Sunday on the "best dialogue scene'' among the four finalists at www.romantictimes.com/news_amtitle3.php. Then the finalists will be whittled to two.

After the last round of voting, which starts in mid-March, the winner will be announced in April.

Anything's possible in the world of fiction. For Hughes, her dream is to get published, but if she doesn't end up the winner, she'll take away lessons. "I see this as a huge learning experience,'' she said. 

She is already working on a second novel, which she hopes to finish by summer before her daughters -- Brenna, 12, and Megan, 10 -- are out of school.

The urban fantasy will involve a paranormal creature -- a man possessed by a beast. In terms of storyline, "it's going to be a whole lot different,'' she said.

Kathleen Clonts • 612-673-7301