Welcome to the Writer's Journal of 

Year 2000 was a turning point in my life; that year, I completed not only my first, 
but also my second-ever novels, both contemporary romances (yes, that's what I write!) 

The manuscript for my very first novel, TRUCK STOP, took 
First Place
in the Undiscovered Writer II Contest, sponsored by Rendezvous Magazine and Love Designers Writers' Club, a chapter of Romance Writers of America.  TRUCK STOP is now e-published by SynergEbooks and received a four-star review in Feb 2002 Romantic Times magazine, as well as some other very excellent reviews elsewhere! (Check out Truck Stop's Reviews)

This particular webpage is Just For Fun, I'm having a great time with it!  It's also not so bad for an confidence boost when I start feeling down with all these rejection letters pouring in  <chuckle>  I figure it's just as well that I *do* get depressed about it now and again... I mean, Heaven Forbid that I should develop an EGO! <laugh>

Many thanks to Caroline (Aelis10) and Janice (SarahStNy), fellow writers on AOL, for editing my early chapters, and showing me the finer points of writing!  It was Caroline who told me about Brenda Hiatt's "Writing the Romance Novel" class, and urged me to take it.  I did, and it was one of the best investments in myself that I have made!  I look forward to taking more of Brenda's classes this year.

 

To Scott:  You were always my inspiration, my one true hero. Although you never knew, it's because of you that I understand what real love can be "Think of me, think of me waking silent and resigned. Imagine me trying too hard to put you from my mind. ....There will never be a day when I don't think of you." --Christine, "Think of Me,"  Phantom of the Opera

 

Diary of An Aspiring Novelist

The History of Truck Stop, or, How I Got Where I Am Today:

For anyone interested, here is the whole story... this is very long, and is probably only of interest to my close family & friends, and other beginning writers :)

February 2000.  They required the first chapter and synopsis.  Yeah.  Okay, well.....  I had several dozen story lines (112, to be exact, carefully numbered A-Z, AA to ZZ, and so forth up to HHHHH) that I'd come up with over the last 40+ years , most of them no more than a couple of sentences of premise and maybe a scene or two written.  A few... very few... have as much as a 2-3 chapters.  Out of those few, I chose Truck Stop, pretty much at random and because it was the one that appealed to me just then... totally subjective :)  

So I started to "get it ready."  Mind you, I had three scattered (not consecutive) scenes and a basic idea for the main conflict.  That's it.  And about a week before the deadline for the contest.  I'm not sure where the idea for the opening scene came from, presumably right out of thin air.  I guess my Muse decided to kick in just then :)  So I wrote one chapter.  Then I needed a synopsis, about three pages.  Oh yuck.  Geez, *I* didn't know three pages worth of what the story is going to be!!!  So I spent a day brainstorming and came up with something.  More like, I hammered out a story line from almost nothing, with lots of mental anguish and an overdose of caffeine!  And when I was done, I was actually feeling pretty pleased with myself.... after all, I'd never written a synopsis in my life!  And it actually looked to shape up to be a pretty good plot as well.  I had the pleasant feeling of having surprised myself :)   

So I stuck the whole thing in an envelope, took a deep breath, and trotted out to the mailbox.

May 8, 2000  Here comes the old SASE manila envelope.   Now, I know the manuscript is going to have been judged, and maybe critiqued.  I stared at it, wondering if my self-confidence level was really ready for this.  Oh well.  Being a glutton for punishment, I ripped it open.  There's a letter (parchment, even!) in the front and I pulled it out.  The first thing that met my eyes was the big caption:  

C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S!

Ohmigod.  I.... WON???!!!!  <<<palpitations>>>   I read the letter.  I reread the letter.  I re-read the letter.  And let me tell you something.  Reading it for the hundred-and-fifteenth time, six months later, it feels JUST as good as it did the first time!  LOL!

Now, the PRIZE for this contest, was to have the winning manuscript read by a Senior Editor at Silhouette.   According to the letter, they'd already notified her of the winning manuscript and author, and she'll be expecting me to contact her.  ZOWWIES!  (Folks, this is SIX months later that I am writing this, and I'm sitting here looking at their letter in front of me,  reading it over and over and over again and crying and laughing out loud!)  Oh, I digressed.... where was I?  Right, the editor.  So I called her--I figure that's okay because she already has my name from the contest.  I got her right away (Wow, a Senior Editor answers her own phone?  Way cool!).   She knew my NAME, as soon as I said it!  Yes, she has the letter from Rendezvous right in front of her.  Do I have a complete manuscript?  No?  Well, just send her what I've written so far then.

Well (ahem), all that I had actually written at that point was the one chapter.  And a couple of scenes from various points farther along the plot line.  Remember, I hadn't *expected* to win the contest!  I'd just wanted to see what would happen if I entered!  I didn't tell her that, of course.  I told her I had three chapters, and she said to send them.  So I wrote off two more chapters real quick and sent them in.  My synopsis had taken some heavy criticism from the contest judges, so I got out my (newly acquired) copy of Writers Market 2000 and looked up the section on synopses, and re-wrote that before sending it in with the three chapters.  Even to my inexperienced eyes it looked MUCH better!

June 12, 2000.  There's a letter from Silhouette in the mail.  It's thin, obviously just one sheet of letterhead in there.  My first rejection letter.  <<<palpitations>>>  Okay, I told myself.  I expected it.  Heck, I even cleared off a wall in my office to hang them up on (I figured I could always take up darts as a hobby).  Still... I'd never quite managed to quench that dim spark of optimism, of hope.  I reminded myself that NOBODY gets accepted the first time around.  How many times did Margaret Mitchell have Gone With the Wind rejected?  Something like 24?  And John Grisham 77 times, I'd heard.  Not that I even pretend I'd ever be a Mitchell or a Grisham.... or Anne McCaffrey or Dick Francis, for that matter.... Oh, on with the story.  So anyway, I carried the envelope around in my purse for a couple of hours, steeling myself.  Lunch.  That's right.  I'll take it to lunch and open it there.  I'll have a good book along with me, one of my old tried-and-true favorites that never fail, and after I read the letter I can just stuff the letter back in my purse and lose myself in the book.  I can stop on the way home and buy some darts.  Great plan :)  

Only, it wasn't a rejection letter.  "Dear Ms... Congratulations on winning the Undiscovered Writers...." yada yada... "We would be interested in seeing your completed manuscript."  WHAT???!!!!!  <<<palpitations>>>   The only thing is, the letter wasn't from the same editor that I'd contacted previously, and to whom I'd sent Truck Stop.  It was an editorial assistant.  Hmmm.  Now I'm confused.  Did she happen to get a cc of the letter from Rendezvous and is not aware that I'd sent the partial to the Sr. Editor already?  Or did the Sr. Editor read the partial and pass it on to her?  Or did the Senior Editor NOT read it, and pass it on to her?  I floundered a bit between being ecstatic (maybe they'd READ it and wanted more!) and not knowing what to think at all.

So once more I decide to call.  This is, you understand, completely against ALL the rules, as I understood them.  One does not call editors.  Period.  I hoped that the excuse of not being sure who she was, would make it okay.  So I called the Editorial Assistant who'd sent the letter.  She answered the phone on the first ring.  I gave her my name... and I didn't even get as far as telling her the name of my manuscript, when she (bless her heart forever!) broke in:  "Oh!  Oh, yes, I know who you are!  You wrote the story about the truck stop, that won the Undiscovered Writer contest!"  <<<palpitations>>> (As you can see, writing creates a lot of stress on the poor cardiovascular system.)   She loved it, she said!  She'd read the first chapter that Rendezvous had forwarded to them, and had wanted to read more.  Then I sent the three chapters to the senior editor, which she'd also read, and she wanted to read yet more!   She wanted me to sit right down and finish writing it!  I explained that I was just in the process of packing to move to Arizona at the end of the month, and she graciously allowed that yes, that would be difficult to write when you're moving, but as soon as I was moved I was to get seriously writing.  As you can imagine, my frame of mind when I hung up the phone was rather... elevated!  I was practically levitating, LOL!

Once I got moved and ready to start writing, I had by this time (being involved in several writers forums on AOL), discovered more about contracts.  NO way do I feel ready to tackle that kind of a thing, should it be necessary.  I decided this was the time to start trying to find a literary agent... *before* Silhouette made me an offer ...and if Silhouette rejected it once I'd submitted the finished manuscript, then I'd have an agent ready to go looking.  Either way, I was covered.   I got out all my RWA magazines and my Writers Market, and carefully scanned each and every entry for a possible match.  Another consideration was that, besides Truck Stop, I have several more stories immediately in mind, and any number beyond that, but not all were necessarily within the same genre within romance, so that if my stories really are salable, I needed someone who could handle the several types of romance that I would be hoping to write.  And to be really honest, I'm not quite sure if category romance is the best way for me to go.  What if I sold it as category, and found out later that I *really* should have gone for single-title?  I figured an agent would know, and be able to advise me.  In the ensuing months, I'm a little more confident that category romance *is* where I want to be, but there is still the contract (assuming I get that far)... and all those other non-category romance novels I want to write.  Assuming I can sell Truck Stop in the first place, of course <grin>  I'm not being over-confident; planning what I want to do and what I want if I should sell it can't possibly hurt me, and it will keep me from selling myself short if an offer does come in.  The fact is, I don't honestly believe that I *will* sell it... it's too much The Impossible Dream for me to believe it will ever happen... but am having a LOT of fun thinking about it :)   Obviously :)

July 14, 2000.  Out of all the agents and agencies, I came up with two top choices and another half dozen possibilities.  Taking a deep breath, I chose one of the two to send my first-ever query letter to, and mostly, you know, because I just liked the way she had worded her comments about what she was looking for, and also (so sue me) because she accepted email inquiries.  So I sent her an email query letter, and had a response the next day!  I have to admit I sat here for five minutes staring at her name on the "From" list in my inbox, wondering if I should wait a little while, or just get it over with <laugh>  However, it turned out to be an  (initially) positive response!  But she wanted at least the first 100 pages, and all I had was the three (short) chapters, totaling about 40 pages.  Maybe less.   In my new home in Arizona, in the meantime, I had just moved in and was still unpacking, plus suffering along in a heat wave with no cooling except for two small fans, with the indoors temperature running in the high 90s.  Not the best atmosphere for creativity.  However, three days after I'd heard from the agent, my landlord brought over an old, beaten-up looking air conditioner that worked like a real trooper.   It took him a couple of hours to install it, but by 10 that same