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Date of First Sale?
April 7th, 2004.

Sold to which publisher?
Kensington's Zebra Regency romance line.

Novel title and release date:
Dangerous To Know, April 2005

Have you worked with a mentor, critique or plotting parter/group?
I had a mentor briefly a few years back, ditto a critique group, but the dynamics really have to click, I found, to be successful. I think you have to try these things in order to know whether or not they work for you. I haven't tried a plotting group yet, but it sounds like fun. I have a small group of writers who I turn to for writerly advice that's usually, but not always business oriented.

Did you enter any writing contests?
Yes, although my reasons varied: sometimes just to get feedback, sometimes to hopefully final and land on an editor's desk. I entered the 2004 Golden Heart (in which I finaled in the Paranormal category) because the Regency genre needed entries, and I thought, what the heck, I'll enter another manuscript into the Paranormal category too. It was such a thrill to final after so many tries!

Entering the Royal Rendezvous Conference's contest also got me sold. I entered, hoping to final and meet Kate Duffy from Kensington, who'd looked at the manuscript years and years ago when it really was not worthy. Then I found out that she'd cancelled and Hilary Sares was coming instead. I finaled in the Historical category and Hilary shocked us all by saying she wanted to talk contracts with the place-getters (I came equal third). It wasn't quite that easy and there was more work to come after that, but it was definitely a case of being in the right place at the right time.

What kind of work did you have to do?
Hilary wanted me to extend my Regency manuscript into a historical. I mentioned that I wanted to write for the Brava (erotic) line and so I went to town. 35,000 extra words in two weeks! In the end, Hilary bought it as a Regency, and most of those words had to go. Like I told her, "At least they got to have sex for a little while!"

How many manuscripts had you written when you sold?
Five. All Regency or Regency-set historicals, except for one short contemporary. The Redeemed Rake was the first manuscript I wrote, but it underwent many revisions. (7 major ones, to be exact.) Everything I learnt about writing went back into that first ms. I guess it paid off.

How long did you write before your first sale?
I've written all my life! But committing to writing romance as a career started five years ago.

Knowing what you know now, would you have done anything differently?
I think if I'd listened to some of the earlier comments on my first manuscript it would have been in better shape sooner, but sometimes you just need the writing "miles" to know how to fix something.

What is the most valuable thing you've learned, or tool you've used, that has helped you become a better writer?
Debra Dixon's "Goal, Motivation and Conflict". My local chapter, RWASD, ran two workshops, one was a series by Terry Blain who stepped through the progress of creating a novel, and the other was Janet Wellington's "Decluttering the Workplace". I admit, I'm still working on the latter.

Did you ever get discouraged about selling, and what pulled you out of the pit and changed your situation?
I was so sure that "Dangerous To Know" (then called The Redeemed Rake) would never sell, I went and wrote an erotic synopsis for it called Irredeemable. That came in handy when Hilary gave me the go-ahead to try for Brava. Unfortunately the plot was still too "Regency" and that's something I'll need to study about the Brava line.

What pulled me out of the pit? I was given an ultimatum: quit writing or stop whining and get back into the chair. I couldn't NOT write, so back into the chair I went!

What advice can you pass onto others?
I've barely sold, I'm not that much different from the days when I was pre-pubbed. All I can say is, be persistent, take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way, and do the best work you can do.

Setting goals worked for me. Somehow they fall back into your subconscious even if you forget about them after writing them down. I was updating my website right after I sold and found an old "letter" from January 2004 listing my New Year's resolutions. One of them was to be sold in novel-length fiction in 2004!

How do you feel now that you've made that first sale?
I got The Call at work. They didn't get anything productive out of me for about a week afterwards! Being published is a whole new zone. There is so much to learn, from how not to annoy my editor, to contracts, to copyediting and book deadlines.

What's next?
The second book is "Touched By Time" which will be released in July 2005. I'm working on the option book (another Regency) right now. I'd like to sell my Golden Heart final book ("A Sword for Wellington") and write a series based on it, and it'd be swell to quit the day job in the next couple of years!

Any last words?
You can't go past Yoda: "There is no try. There is only do."

Thanks to Janet Wellington for her wonderful questions!

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