Good bad or otherwise, you’re getting a twofer from me today. First things first – my first sale. It falls into the ‘if I knew then what I know now’ category, I probably wouldn’t be published. I was so naïve. Such a baby – rhetorically speaking – and so ignorant of the business. Long story short, I was in love with LaVryle Spencer’s work – who among us doesn’t love and miss seeing new work from LaVyrle?? Anyway, I’d exhausted her complete library – or so I thought until I discovered some old titles but couldn’t find them on the shelves anywhere. So I wrote to her. That was before the days of e-mail (yes, Virginia, there is a pre-web era many of us survived, but just barely). Wonder of wonders, she wrote back to me. Told me she wrote to me personally because my letter was so articulate. In my 'star-struck' mind that equated to: “LaVryle Spencer thinks I’m articulate. I bet I could write a book.”
You laugh but that’s just how it all started. I sat down with a portable manual typewriter with a sticky E and set out to write the great American novel. From that moment on I was a gonner. Bitten bad by the writing bug. That manuscript was rejected by the best editors in the business (many of whom I enjoy seeing at RWA nationals) but the rejection letters were very encouraging so I kept at it. I wrote two more books. Farmed them all over NYC and finally got the call one pretty fall afternoon from Elizabeth Barrett (yes that’s her name) from Bantam Doubleday Dell’s now defunct Loveswept line.
My hubby was helping a farmer friend of his so I was home alone. I was screaming and buzzed with excitement so I hopped in the car, drove out to the farm, bounced across a fall-plowed field or two until I found Tom behind the wheel of a HUGE combine picking corn. He saw me coming, jumped out of the cab and ran to the car. “Who died?” he asked frantically. In his mind, nothing else warranted the beating my poor car was taking.
We still laugh about that day but MAVERICK was my very first title and came out in July of 1991. Now- wow - 17 years and 41 books later, I still get a little tickle of excitement when I think about that first sale.
My question for you all is, if you're a writer, was there a particular author who inspired you? A particular book? Have you always wanted to be a writer? Or if you're not a writer, what compels you to take a chance on a new author?
On a more somber note, today is Patriot Day. Seven years ago today our lives were forever changed by the horrors of the 9/11 attacks. Please stop with me and take a moment to remember with both sorrow and pride all we endured as a nation that day. In honor of those lost then and in the days that followed as our military fight and defend all that we hold dear, if you fly a flag please display it at half-staff today and observe a moment of silence beginning at 8:46 a.m. eastern daylight time to honor the innocent victims who lost their lives as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
In peace…
Cindy
