By default HTML Editor uses P tags for the enter key.
in the HTML editor instance, go to the Formatting tab and select the option to use BR for enter instead.
for the escaping issue, try adding this at line one of your page:
<?php
ini_set('magic_quotes_gpc','on');
?>
for the delected event title to show in the email, you will need to set the event recordset to filer the eventID column on the eventList select list.