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“P” is for perseverance-- My long and wondrous writer’s journey.
I could always write. It was easy. Pull a movie out of my head. Put it to paper. Get an A+. Boring. Thanks to my love of Sci Fi and Fantasy, I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up, ignoring the fact that I have a deathly fear of heights.
My third year of college found me sick with pneumonia, lost my job, changed my major from Aerospace Engineering to Geology keeping my math minor as I ran into my first brick wall…Physics. Discouraged I took a creative writing class to fill in my English requirements. I knew it would be easy. Then about halfway through the semester, two “older” (They could have been thirty for all I knew) women in my class stopped me at break. They hovered around me grinning. “You,” they proclaimed, “are going to be someone, aren’t you?” “What?!” I was still dazed with antibiotics and trying to breathe. “Your writing. We love it. You are going to be someone. You know a writer. We just know it.” They patted me on the back and walked away. Huh. Me. A writer? I thought about the stories in my head. Then sat down to see if I could write a full book. I finished a 500 page fantasy before I turned 21. My roommates laughed at me. When I told my best friend about it, he said. “ Sounds like all the other books I’ve read. Why can’t someone write something new?” The book went under my bed and I dropped out of college.
1988- I read a bad book. Thought I could do much better. Wrote my first romance-550 pages. Got panned by my “friends” who read in the genre.
1990- Wrote my second romance. Went to library. Got names and addresses of agents. Sent out queries. Got requests. Sent out partials. (It was during this time my father bought me a subscription to Writer’s Digest. I read a story by a woman who said that it took ten full manuscripts before she sold. I shook my head. She must not be very good. I, of course, would do better than that. I did. I sold my 15th.) This year I learned two things: 1) there was an organization called RWA-which I couldn’t afford. 2) You can’t change POV in the same paragraph. (I know you’re laughing.) I figured I had a lot to learn/recall so I went back to college. This time for a Journalism degree.
1993- After graduation, I wrote my third romance. Sent out queries. Got some hand written rejections.
1994- Got “The call” from an agent-a good, well researched agent on my sixth 500 page manuscript. She told me that she had five readers read my stuff. They all “loved” it. She signed me. I “knew” I was going to be published any day. Joined RWA. Discovered at a meeting that a synopsis should be written in present tense. Called my agent. Huh, she didn’t know that either…
1995-Fired my agent after she moved offices three times, lost my manuscript twice and was talking about a vanity publisher. Joined a critique group. The CG didn’t write historicals, so for giggles I wrote a contemporary that had them laughing. (Nothing like a live audience to spur the story on.) Finished two 500 page historicals and the contemporary that year. Won a local contest for one of my historicals. A multi-published author pulled me aside at the meeting to tell me she judged my winning entry. She said, “You’re good. Damn good. You’re going to be huge.” (Note a theme of people telling me one thing while reality tells me another-)
1996- I entered my first GH. Got “The Call” that I was a finalist. “Huh.” It took my critique group to tell me it was a “big” deal. GH finalists get published right away. (Huh.) I went to my first RWA national conference. I met people. Had my first agent/editor pitches. I got to sit with “Sister Chrissy” Anne Stuart as she won double RITAs. I didn’t win. But I learned that agents and editors don’t like to be pitched multiple projects.
1997- I wrote three more books. Gathered rejections letters. HQ told me that my contemporary didn’t have enough depth of emotion. Since I wrote it for the ladies, I shrugged. Then I got “The Call” from Micki Nuding, editor, who was with Avon at the time. She left a message on my answering machine. She was breathless with excitement. She “loved” the partial. Please send the full ASAP. Heart pounding I sent it in.
1998- Two more books written. There is a shake up in the upper management of Avon. Rumor has it the new Senior Editor cleared off all the projects to start new with her “ideas.” I got a form rejection on the full I sent Micki.
1999-Got “The Call” from a second agent-well known. This time I asked better questions. She wanted to do some shady stuff. I wasn’t in to it. I didn’t hire her. Wrote three more books.
2000- Wrote my 15th full manuscript, a book for Berkley’s “Our Town” line. That line closed just after I sent out my query. Undaunted, I added sex to the story. Sent it out. Rejections said book isn’t bad, but westerns weren’t selling. I counted over 550 rejection letters since I started seriously in 1993.
2001- Avalon started an historical line. I pulled out the “Our Town” book- ruthlessly cut the page count in half. Sent it in, while I was writing my 17th manuscript. I got “The Call.” This time- I sold. Book number 15 became the debut book for Avalon’s historical line-“Saving Samantha.” I was faced with writing an option book and wrote “A Wanted Man.”
2002- “A Wanted Man” got a starred review from Booklist-the first ever for Avalon books. I was named a Rising Star of 2002. My editor asked- did I have any more? I sold five more on a concept paragraph.
2003- I met my editorial director at RWA nationals- she is excited me to meet me- pumps my hand. She tells me-“You are going to be Big. Huge! And we will have your back list.” I go to my agent appointments-only to be told-get this- I have too many contracts already signed and no one wants to rep me until those contracts are met.
2004- More starred reviews. More rejections letters from agents and editors.
2005-I get “The Call” (are we sensing a pattern?) from a HUGE NY Agent about a manuscript I wrote in 2003. I call it my “Gates of Hell” book- it’s a dark urban fantasy. The agent tells me she “loved it.” Read it on the subway. Couldn’t put it down. We meet at RWA nationals. She wants to put my picture full sized on the back of the hardcover she is certain we will sell at auction….Be still my little heart. More rejection letters. I get another starred review for my latest Avalon historical.
2006- After seven rejections- the agent with my dark urban fantasy is no longer taking my calls. I fire her at the one year mark. Write two more books. The last book on my Avalon contract is picked as one of the Top Ten Romances of 2006 by Booklist. I am unable to sell a historical anywhere else. So, I write a 300 page manuscript for HQ’s Everlasting Line. I get a revision letter. I rewrite the partial and send it in. I get “The Call” from HQ editor. We talk for 40 minutes about revisions. I sit down and revise as advised. Six months later I get a rejection letter. Within a year HQ closes the Everlasting line.
2007- I write a Western and a ST contemporary. (As yet unsold-although the western is in full on two editor’s desks.)
Oct. 2007-I dust off a romantic suspense I wrote in 1999 and send it to The Wild Rose Press. They offer me a contract for “Mr. Charming” in Dec. 2007.
Spring 2008-I write my 27th or 28th full manuscript-(I’ve lost count.) It gets a lukewarm reception by agents at Spring Fling. My editor at The Wild Rose Press asked if I have any other romantic suspenses…So I dust off a second contemporary romantic suspense I wrote in 2000, “Dream Man”-send it in. Then I write my first thriller- 470 pages of murder, mayhem and action.
Oct. 2008- I am contacted by The Wild Rose Press. They offer me a contract on “Dream Man.”
Today-I have 6 queries out on the spring 2008 book. Plus a full of the western I wrote in 2007 at Dorchester and a full and a partial at Source Books. The thriller I wrote is being read by my beta readers. Am feeling another story coming on… I don’t know- it could be BIG!
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