Plot Monkeys

Inspired by Stephanie’s comment to Lori’s guest blog this week, the Plotmonkeys decided to take the next four Saturdays to tell you our first call stories! Thanks, Stephanie, for the fine idea!

I’m starting out…but before I get to the call, I think you need to know all the background.

I’ve been writing since…well, forever. Actually, I’ve been storytelling forever in my head, but can distinctly remember writing down my first tome in the 6th grade, a book I shared writing duties with two friends, Denise Espinola and Sharon Valenti. It was based very loosely on the Hardy Boys, but starring, of course, three girl detectives who were in turn, very loosely based on the three of us. But with cute boys in our lives.

Over the years, I fiddled with all sorts of stories, but didn’t get serious until college when I declared a Creative Writing major at the University of South Florida in addition to my major in Speech Communication. I wrote mainly science fiction during those years even though I read romance nearly exclusively. I read some sci-fi, but I felt it needed romance. Around this time, Johanna Lindsay’s Warrior’s Woman came out and the marriage of sci-fi and romance struck me. I kept working, but didn’t make any real progress until after graduation.

It was then…in November of 1987, that a good friend and I went out for drinks to celebrate her birthday when she suggested we write a romance novel together. Charlene had gotten me hooked on romance novels she’s swiped from her older sister when we were students at the same Catholic high school. We went to college together, joined the same sorority, and remain friends to this day.

Drunk as we were on copious amounts of White Zinfandel, we decided to co-author a book and we plotted it on the tablecloth. No, we weren’t THAT drunk…the tablecloth was paper. When we sobered up the next morning, we replotted and starting researching, as this book was going to be a historical romance.

We did write that book and a second while we were both in graduate school. We joined RWA, queried agents and editors and while we were praised for originality and enthusiasm, we never sold. (Honestly, the writing wasn’t very good…but we were learning.) In July of 1991, Charlene decided she’d had enough of the business and stopped writing. We remain friends to this day and I remember this time very fondly. I wonder if I would have had the guts to do all that I did then alone.

After that, I switched genres from historicals to paranormal romances and also started teaching full time. I completed a manuscript, which I submitted to Silhouette Shadows. I wrote a lot of other proposals…too many to count. I remember receiving a 13 page single-spaced revision letter from Paige Wheeler at Silhouette (she’s now an agent) in 1992 or 1993. I don’t remember the year…mainly because even though I slaved over the revisions and did every single thing she asked, convinced I was close to selling…I got a form rejection. Come to find out, Harlequin had cancelled the line…but I didn’t know that at the time and of all the rejections I’d received to that date–this one nearly tore me inside out.

To say I was devastated was an understatement. I also learned my husband had a great job offer that would take us out of Florida. He moved ahead of me, so I was alone, teaching a lot by this time (that year, 1994, I had 6 classes with 4 different curriculum requirements…two of which were electives I’d never taught before…the creative writing class and the yearbook) so you can imagine that I didn’t write much. Well, not book-length fiction at least.

After that school year, we moved to Georgia and with nothing better to do while I was alone in a strange state, I started writing again, this time sexy contemporary romance.

You see, I’d come home from Georgia shortly after our move to attend a workshop lead by Brenda Chin of Harlequin Temptation. I liked what she had to say. I liked her and wanted desperately to write for her. I had this short story that I’d started writing the summer before on a whim for my good friend Alexandra Kendall, the publisher of Red Sage (Secrets.) I decided after about 25 pages that I couldn’t make it a novella, so I set it aside…but Brenda’s speech made me wonder if I couldn’t resurrect that story for the new Temptation Blaze imprint. I dashed into the ladies room with my critique partner, Susan Kearney, and we literally wrote a pitch on a cocktail napkin. I had a five minute appointment with Brenda and I pitched the story. She loved it and invited me to submit.

So over the next two years, I wrote, revised, wrote more, revised more, revised more, revised more until I finally had a manuscript Brenda could buy…but since she was only an editorial assistant at the time (actually, by the time I finished my book and all the revisions she’d requested, she was an assistant editor, which is slightly higher up the food chain) she had to get permission to offer a contract.

So I had to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

But I didn’t really care…I’d already waited nearly nine years. I had enough rejections letter to wallpaper the White House. Never once had I thought about quitting…even when I took that long sabbatical prior to our Georgia move and after that devastating rejection, I never thought I’d stop writing. I was just taking a break.

In the meantime, we moved back to Florida. I decided to retire from teaching since honestly, the profession drained me of my creative energry and I needed it to write. I went to work for my family’s business as my father’s secretary and my brother’s assistant. (Awesome job, by the way.)

I knew that a call…either positive or negative…would be coming in from Brenda at some point. I had little post-it notes on everyone’s phone that basically threatened death to any employee who did not get me to a phone in ten seconds flat if Brenda Chin called.

On March 14, 1997, the call came in.

I ran into a conference room to take the call in private (my desk was in an open area).

Ten seconds later, my entire family (father, mother, and three brothers who all work there) followed me inside. Somewhere amid giggling and screaming, Brenda offered me a contract. It was loud and crazy and exciting beyond words. I called my husband. I called my critique partner, Sue. Parties ensued.

And it’s pretty much been a party ever since.

About a month and a half later, I learned I was pregnant. So when my daughter was born, I became a full-time novelist. A dream come true.

I was no overnight success, but I can tell you I wouldn’t trade one rejection or disappointment for anything in the world. Those knocks made me who I am–savvy about the business, determined to succeed and unafraid of people who tell me no. It’s now nearly twenty years since that drink with Charlene, over twenty-five published books with three different publishers and I can’t help but think the best is still yet to come.

So for all you aspiring writers out there…perserverance is the key. Talent is a valuable commodity, but if you give up, then what good does talent do you?

That’s my call story…thanks for listening! Oh, the first book was SEDUCING SULLIVAN, which was reprinted last year.