Plot Monkeys

Unlike my other plotmonkeys, I have THREE “first” calls, LOL. Because it wasn’t until that third call that I knew I’d finally found a writing home.

I have to state right up front that I didn’t grow up wanting to be a writer. In fact, I barely passed English in high school and I hated writing essays. If someone would have told me back then that I’d be a published author of over 40+ books, I would have laughed and thought they were crazy!

So, what changed my mind? Well, for me, becoming a writer was a matter of circumstance. At the age of twenty-one I married my husband, Don, and at that time he was working the swing shift, from four in the afternoon until one in the morning. Yeah, it was a sucky shift, considering we were just married, but he didn’t have a choice at the time. And without him being home at night, it left me alone with a whole lot of free time on my hands.

It was that situation, and my own job at the time, that led to my writing. I was working for a construction company, and it was a one girl office – and that was me. I took care of everything, and most days I was done with my work before five in the afternoon. But I had to stay at the office until five to answer the phones and schedule the guys for the next day’s job. So, during those times when I had nothing to do, I started reading romances novels. Back then, it was Catherine Coulter, Judith McNaught, Johanna Lindsay, and Lavyrle Spencer who ruled the world of romance. I also read the Bantam series line, Loveswepts (now defunct). Before long, between having time at my day job, and all my free time at night, I was reading a book a day. And for a just married couple with a new mortgage, that was quite an expense. One day my husband made the comment that since I was reading so many romances, I ought to try writing one.

I’m sure he was joking (or very nicely trying to tell me to stop buying so many books!), but he planted the seed and stories started forming in my mind. When I first began, I was writing those stories down in a large spiral notebook, and I eventually bought myself a really nice electric typewriter with correctable ribbon (I can’t even imagine writing a book that way now, LOL!). I wrote for five years, and during this time I joined Romance Writers of America and joined a romance writers critique group to learn all about conflict, plot, and point of view. I also entered contests to get feedback on my stories, too (and not all those comments were kind, either!). Needless to say, I have many books that are just awful and will never see the light of day. But, it was a learning process, and I never gave up.

Five years later, Harlequin was running a contest and wanted to published ten one hundred page novellas – each as an individual book. It was a test run for them, to see if smaller books like these would sell. I had a story, a “best friends to lovers” theme, and I sent it in . . . and got the call from Harlequin editor Paula Eykelhoff on July 27, 1992. I remember the day vividly - - I was overdue with my second daughter, and when Paula asked me to come up with a pseudonym (back then, Harlequin insisted on using a pen name), I truly had no idea what name to pick. My husband and I mulled over ideas, and we knew we wanted to use the name of our first daughter, Danielle . . . but what to use as a last name? We knew if we were having a girl, we were going to name her Kelly (I didn’t know what I was having), and I went with my gut instinct and used that name and became “Danielle Kelly”. A week later my second daughter, Kellie, was born, and THE FAMILY MAN was published as a novelette in December of 1993.

I really thought after selling the first book it would be so easy to sell another one. WRONG. I wrote for another two and a half years and submitted more stories to Harlequin, all of which were rejected. Including an “angel” story I’d written. I then sent that rejected story to Leisure Lovespell for a paranormal line specifically for angels that they were starting. They bought the book, and HEAVEN’S GIFT was published in October of 1995. Unfortunately, I only had that one paranormal story that I’d written, so I was right back to writing for Harlequin, which is where I wanted to be.

I found that I really enjoyed writing the hotter, sexier stories, and decided to target Temptation as the line I wanted to write for. Unfortunately, another two years passed of collecting rejections (sigh) before I got what I consider my last first call. This one came in December of 1996, and it was Brenda Chin from Harlequin Temptation. She wanted to buy the story I’d submitted to her, and a character’s follow up story! Needless to say, I was thrilled – despite the fact that she wanted me to rewrite the 2nd half of the story! Regardless, she trusted me to write those extensive revisions, and offered me a two book contract based on what she’d read. The first book, PRIVATE PLEASURES, was published in April 1998, followed by PRIVATE FANTASIES in May 1998. Both books were Temptation Blazes.

From there, I’ve sold pretty consistently, thanks to Brenda Chin. She’s a fabulous editor who truly believes in the authors she buys. All four of us Plotmonkeys have been so fortunate to have her as an editor!

So, even though my journey was a long one, it was well worth. If you want to become a writer, make persistence and patience your best friends, LOL. Keep at it. Keeping honing your craft. Keep writing and submitting new stories, even in the face of rejections. Because if you stop writing, you’ll never know if that next book you would have written would have been “the one” to sell and get you published. That was my mantra/motto, and what kept me sane in all those years I was struggling to sell a book.