Winning the Gold

Kathleen here. It's been many years since I heard my name announced as the winner of RWA's Golden Heart Award for unpublished writers, but I can still feel the excitement when I recall that moment. I've invited two 2010 GH winners--both members of Midwest Fiction Writers, my local RWA chapter--to share their experiences. Next week you'll meet Lizbeth Selvig, winner in the Best Contemporary Single Title category.

Now meet Cat Schield, recipient of the Golden Heart for Best Contemporary Series Romance, whose HEA story is only the beginning...

I’m very excited to be wi th you today to talk about my journey to publication. In my mind, it’s a lot like sailing. Both can be fun. Both can be scary. You get bruised. You can’t control the wind or the publishing industry. You can only adjust your sails or what you are writing to take advantage of the environment.

Rarely can you get directly from point A to point B. Both journeys might require a series of direction changes in order to draw ever closer to your goal. Most of the time, long periods go by where nothing appears to be happening, but you’re making headway. Interspersed with the waiting are short burst of frantic activity when you change the boat’s direction or do a quick polish on that requested manuscript.

Why am I making this comparison? Because if it wasn’t for sailing, I never would have sold my first book.

In 2006 a sailing buddy of mine, Erik Westgard, pestered me to write an article on our sailing adventure in the British Virgin Islands. He’d been writing for magazines for years, but had his eye on the glossy pages of International Yacht Charters and Vacations. To my shock, they chose my article for their June 2006 issue. I was going to be published.

Despite having tried and failed to sell a book at various times over the previous two decades, this pub credit gave me reason to believe in my chances of become a published author. My voice had matured. My dedication had ballooned. This time around I was going to sell or die trying.

I knew contests were a good way to get feedback and bypass the slush pile. In the fall of 2006 I’d finished two manuscripts and started entering them in contests. A lot of contests. To my delight, I made the finals in the the first two contests I entered. I was on my way. Or not. The next few gave me some eye opening feedback. Undaunted, I fixed my problems and got my first request for a full in the summer of 2007. And my first rejection. Slow pacing and not enough conflict.

I began to study craft and revise. More contests gave me more feedback and more full requests. Late 2008, after receiving great feedback on all my rejections letters, I got a form rejection. At a loss for how to move forward, I decided a change of genre was in order. So, I started writing YA. But I never lost my dream of selling to Silhouette Desire.

When I pitched to Kevan Lyon at the 2009 Nationals, I had a book at Harlequin and a two time requested manuscript I’d never submitted. She looked at both. And signed me. The editor who’d asked to see A Case of Meddling, my Silhouette Desire targeted book, had left by this time, but the new associate editor was happy to take a look. And to provide revision notes three weeks later. Believing this might be the one, I quickly turned around a revised manuscript.

To keep myself distracted while I waited to hear something, I entered the Golden Heart. In the past I hadn’t had much luck, but this year proved different. Of the two manuscripts I entered, I thought A Case of Meddling had the best shot. I was wrong. The book that finaled was Fake Fiancee, Real Love. And to my shock, it went on to win the Golden Heart for series contemporary romance.

A month later, Kevan called to tell me we had an offer. A Case of Meddling will hit the shelves as a Silhouette Desire in July 2011. Dreams do come true. Sometimes you just have to be patient and believe.

Cat Schield lives in Minnesota with her daughter, Emily, and their Burmese cat. Winner of the Romance Writers of America 2010 Golden Heart® for series contemporary romance, when she’s not writing sexy, romantic stories for Silhouette Desire, she can be found sailing with friends on the St. Croix River or more exotic locales like the Caribbean and Europe. Contact her at www.catschield.com.

KATHLEEN'S FIRST BOOK (and Coming Full Circle)

Anyone remember the celebration scene in Dances With Wolves when Costner is called upon to tell the story of his buffalo kill one more time? And he says, "No, no, I can't tell the story again. Oh, all right, one more time."

After, yes, 25 years, I've told my first sale story so many times that I feel like everyone in the world has heard it. But the Lakota had heard Costner's story a few times already, too. Oh, all right, ongi. One more time. (Grinning. My big bullseye. V is for Victory. Love this story.)

In the Beginning, I was not a Romance reader. I was an English teacher, Lit major, mother of 3, wife of an Indian cowboy/rancher, Eastern dude gone West. Oh, and a writer. I was always a writer. But I was about 35 years into my journey when I started writing a story for fun--longhand, pencil, spiral notebooks--and was coaxed and cajoled by my Indian Cowboy to let him see what I was doing. He loved the first half--White teacher goes West 100 years ago--and wanted to read the second half. Which meant I had to write a second half. When it was finished, he had no doubt that I could publish it. (My Indian Cowboy was and is an avid reader, you see. Westerns, from Zane Gray to Rosemary Rodgers. Secure in his manhood, his only problem with Romance paperbacks was that they were too thick for the back pocket of his jeans.) Anyway, the book was Private Treaty, and it was eventually the first book purchased for Harlequin Historicals--although published as #2. But that's another story.

My first book was the one you see here. Private Treaty got me an agent, who said we'd sell it sooner or later, but could I write a contemporary category? "They're selling like crazy." I said, "Sure." I had no idea what he was talking about. (I had just made peace with the fact that I'd written a Romance, and the probability that I was--and am--a cradle-to-grave romantic. Indian Cowboy (nod to Christie's "Surfer Guy") had done some rodeo, so I went with that theme. Eastern teacher became Eastern journalist gone West. I attended my first RWA conference as a double Golden Heart finalist for Private Treaty and Someday Soon, which won Best Single Title Contemporary. I met Leslie Wainger, who told me the book was on her desk and she was eager to read it. "I hope you like it," I said. And I had nothing for the next 9 minutes of the 10 minute editor appointment.

We had two offers on Someday Soon. Victory Dance! It could have been published as a Ballentine single title, but we accepted Leslie's offer at Silhouette, which I know now was a good career move. I loved this first cover. Franco Aconero (sp?) was the artist, and every detail I described (Silhouette always gets author input) is included, right down to the green and black "buffalo" shirt. I had one like it.

And the full circle part? After a dozen years or more, I'll have two new Silhouette Specials out in '09. In Care Of Sam Beaudry is scheduled for May and The Prodigal Cowboy for December. Rumor has it that readers are hungry for straight contemporary romance again. In the 25 years since I started publishing, the genre has spawned myriad sub-genres, and each gets its turn to be the new hot thing. What goes around comes around in this business, and a little bird tells me that human boy meets human girl is coming around again. I am so there.

So help me out. Did you start out as a category/series romance reader and/or writer? Have you drifted away? Have you gone around and come around? Or has it always been good for you? What changes have you seen in category romance? (Can my cowboy hero cuss?)

Have you found yourself coming full circle in your journey? In what ways?

Debra - How I didn't win the Golden Heart

For most of us, writing is something we do because we must. It's not a choice. We are driven to put words on paper. Publication is obviously the goal, but I've found that people who ONLY write for publication rarely make it in this business. There are so many easier more secure ways to make a buck. Seriously.

I knew this. I wrote anyway. For eight years. Well, longer than that but who really counts a sequel to GONE WITH THE WIND written at age twelve? (Even at twelve, I was looking for the happily ever after and I wanted it on the page and not implied.) I wrote a gothic in college. I think it was 96 pages long. And awful. There were twins with switched identities, a fire, a secret passage, a governess and a emotionally damaged child. And very little dialogue.

"Are you...the new governess?"

"Yes...I am."

Did ANYONE hire governesses in the late 1970's? Or speak like a Barbara Cartland novel?

This was written for my own amusement. Never circulated (thank heavens!).

Then in the eighties I met someone who published romance novels. For the first time my brain woke up to the idea that maybe I should consider writing a published novel as a serious and achievable goal. ::gasp:: I read. I studied. I even managed to snag a NY agent. An editor was interested but then she left the publishing house before the manuscript was bought. (I had no idea that this was life in the publishing biz!) Then my agent (a well-credentialed big NY agent) wanted revisions. Big revisions. I was stupid. I said, "No, I don't think so."

I no longer had an agent. But I had learned two valuable lessons. "Don't count your contracts before they hatch." And, "You aren't *that* good." It was back to the trenches for me. I moved from the romance genre to the fantasy genre. My luck wasn't much better, or so I thought. I didn't know it at the time but my rejection letters were stellar. Brilliant, actually. But I didn't know anyone who wrote and submitted to publishers, so I assumed that everyone who submitted got 2 page rejection letters, single-spaced with tiny margins and "pity" invitations to submit more projects.

One day I got a letter from Carin Rafferty, a Harlequin author who was moving to town and wanted to start an RWA chapter. I blew her off twice (I wasn't actively writing romance) but when I got the third reminder of the organizational meeting, I grabbed a sweater and wandered down to the library. We had to tell a little about ourselves and I soon found out that my rejection letters weren't the pathetic responses I thought they were.

I signed up to participate in a critique and got a phone call from Carin. She said that if I was serious, and I wouldn't cry, whine or procrastinate...then she'd work with me one-on-one. To this day I have no idea how she made it through that first manuscript we worked on. She knew it was unpublishable. By the time I'd finished it, I knew it too. I put it away and begin a romance about a woman whose editor sends her back to her hometown in the west to write a story about an adventure vacation cattle drive. Cowboys, cattle and westerns, Oh My!

I'd tapped into one of the strong story genres that publishers like to see in new authors. I didn't know a western was smart. I just knew it was a great story for me. I entered it in the Maggie contest. I didn't final. I did get a note from one of the judges who asked me to come see her at the conference. The lovely Sandra Chastain, now dear friend and business partner, introduced me to agent # 2 and said, "You have to sign this girl. She has amazing talent."

Okay, I added the word "amazing" but Sandra did literally introduce me to every agent at the conference which secured a private appointment with each of them. My new agent didn't ask for revisions but I would have done them! While she was sending the book out, I entered the Golden Heart and FINALED! The Loveswept editor who had requested a revision of my book was the final round judge! Oh, frabjous joy!

I did not win. When introduced to the editor at the conference, she said, "Why on earth did you enter the unrevised version of the book in the GH???" However, shortly after the conference, my agent called to say that editor loved the revision and wanted to offer a 2 book contract. I'm not sure what was said other than that I accepted. I hung up, then I sat down in the middle of my den floor and stared at the phone.

An editor had bought TALL, DARK AND LONESOME.

Next I told the dogs, while I was dialing my hubby, and after telling/screaming the news at him, I began dialing the whole Eastern seaboard--one number at a time. My mother arranged (unbeknownst to me) to buy the original art for my first book as a Christmas present that year.

Very quietly, without a lot of fanfare and a moderately expensive long-distance phone bill, the direction of my life changed. I became an 8 year over-night success.

How about you? What's the best contest you didn't win?? Who's offered you a helping hand along the way?

My First Sale. . . seems like it was yesterday!

My first book. Rapture's Ransom. Yes, I know, I've cringed at that title for more than two decades. I was first published in the era when historical romances had to have one of the "magic" words in the title: rapture, ecstacy, passion, or love. At least for many publishers.

Let me take you in the "way back" machine to the early 80's. Romance was booming, everybody was getting published (or so it seemed), and everywhere you went, you saw racks of paperbacks: gas stations, drug stores, supermarkets, restaurants, truck stops, and even hardware stores.

I started writing when a friend gave me a copy of Kathleen Woodiwiss's "Shana." (Interestingly, I had read a book by Frank Yerby years before ("Lord Johnny") with a similar plot.) At first I dragged my feet about reading the book; it just wasn't my cup of tea. But I knew my friend would ask AGAIN if I had read it and I was desperate for some diversion. (I had a five year old with a broken foot.) So I picked it up and by page 75 I was hooked. When I finished the book I went back to the start and read it again. The whole thing. Then I headed for one of the paperback "racks" and picked up another historical romance. . . and started to have some prime fantasies of my own.

One fantasy kept going around and around in my head: a handome hunk would kidnap me and make love to me every day until I lost 40 pounds. Yeah, I know. Everybody has that fantasy. Anyway, one day I got a yellow legal pad and started to write it down. Forty or fifty legal pads later, I had a book. And I had to learn to type in order to put it into legible form. I sent it to my sister, who had a subscription to The Writer magazine, and she encouraged me to submit it. . . even sent me a list of publishers names and addresses.

I chose four and sent out a letter and a sample of my manuscript. Chapters 3 and 4. Hey, they said "sample" and nobody told me they had to be the FIRST chapters. I knew nothing about publishing. I didn't even know anybody who had published a book.

Believe it or not, one of the houses asked to see the whole manuscript. I sent it and waited 6 months. I finally got up the nerve to call and got-- the janitor. The publisher had gone bankrupt and the printer had seized the assets! I have no clue what happened to that manuscript. For years my nightmare was that somebody pulled it out of a dumpster in New York, put their name on it, and sold a million. FYI-- I no longer have that nightmare. I don't think anybody else would have wanted to put their name on it!

My sister sent me another list of publishers and I sent it out to 13 more houses. That made 17 altogether! I made a chart to keep track of my submissions. 12 more rejections came back. . . #13 asked for the completed manuscript. I sent it and waited again.

About six weeks later, I got a telegram asking me to call the publisher to speak to an editor about my manuscript. I couldn't believe it. I called the next day from work and she made me an offer over the phone. I was terrified to let her off the phone without saying yes-- so I said yes! Pitiful advance. Just pitiful. But to me it was just a thrill to know that I'd be seeing my words in print and my name on a book jacket. I had to do a few revisions. . . which I did in record time. And then I settled in to wait for publication.

Then I got a one line letter from the editor saying that my book "Destiny's Choice" had been retitled, "Rapture's Ransom." ACKKKK! Ptooey! I hated the name, but when the cover came with my name on it. . . yes, in teeny tiny white letters. . . I forgave the indignity.

I didn't tell anyone-- except my family-- that I had written and sold a book. I was delighted when it came out and I got author copies. I just loved having this "secret writing life." And as soon as I could, I started on another idea. I wrote that 2nd whole book before submitting it. I didn't know you could sell a book "on proposal." I didn't know you could "negotiate" for money. I was a lamb waiting to be fleeced. And I was.

But I kept writing.

It took another two years before a friend mentioned seeing in the paper a meeting of romance writers. . . the RWA National Conference. It was too late to attend, but I got contact information and the week after the conference, I called Susan Johnson. . . who graciously invited me to a chapter meeting. I had published two books by then, but felt like a complete newbie. Everybody knew more about the business than I did.

Since then I've worked for four publishers-- five now, with Harlequin-- and probably a dozen editors. Through it all, I've met the most wonderful women. . . creative, generous, open-hearted women. . . smart, savvy, intelligent women. . . women I am honored to say I'm writing in the same genre with.

And I've had two young women tell me they named their daughters after my heroines. Now that's humbling.

Through all of this what have I learned? Persistence pays. Almost nothing else does. If you fall on your face or your rear: get up, dust yourself off, and try again. And I've learned that I probably do better when I have to "earn" my way along. Instant success might have made me a one-book-wonder. Having time to develop my voice and style was a blessing-- even though it didn't seem like that at the time.

I'm turning a new page-- writing a historical for Blaze and planning my first contemporary. I've written a small non-fiction book that's out for consideration right now and I'm working on two larger pieces-- one a paranormal and the other a women's fiction. You just never know what's around the bend, folks. It pays to be open to all kinds of possibilities.

Oh, and I did meet Kathleen Woodiwiss later, at an Avon party in Minneapolis. She was warm and gracious and lovely-- and I did a fangirl "Oh, I love your books so much; you inspired me to write" number on her. She didn't even flinch.

So, does my story ring any bells for you? Have you ever gone all "fangirl" on an author you admire? If you write, how do you handle success? Does it make writing easier or harder for you? What is your definition of success these days?

First Sale and Patriot Day

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

A (Not So) Brief History Of My First Time

No not that first time.  That time would be entirely too short and not worth the ink.  :-)

This is about my first time writing a story and publishing.

I'm not the sort who has always wanted to be a writer.  But I have always had stories playing in my head, since a very early age.  Elaborate stories that stretch over days and weeks, and certainly made me the bookish introvert I am today.  In 1990, when I was pregnant with my son, I had the notion to put down a story on the page.  Why not?  I liked the stories, maybe others would too.  And maybe I could sell, make the big bucks, and never have to work nine-to-five again?  

Such dreams.

So, with rummage sale typewriter before me, I began a weird story that featured a vampire as hero.  The remake of Dark Shadows starring Ben Cross was playing at the time, and that's when I learned vampires could be sexy.  I tossed in rock music, pissed off ghosts, a little time travel to my favorite period, 18th C Paris, and oh yeah, there's that wall paper scene because at the time I was currently tearing paper from the walls of my new house.

I went through three typewriters that summer, and finally got a cheap used computer one day with the little screen that must have been six inches across.  Remember those?  Two years later, I had a 200,000 word manuscript.  My masterpiece!  During that time, I'd been researching publishers using the Writer's Market (I hadn't heard of RWA back then), and decided Zebra was most open to new authors.  So, I packaged up the tome, kissed it, and sent it off.  [Note: the standard single title romance is 100K, but I didn't know that, among other things.]

And then I started my next story.  By then, I had become a writer, for real.  Didn't matter if I never sold a story, I just had to write.  I wrote stories I wanted to read, and I still do.

Six months later, and another manuscript half finished, I got the call.  A real live editor from the big city of New York actually wanted my book!  And she wanted to pay me for it.  How cool is that?  I still remember the day: April 8th, 2:00 in the afternoon.  My mother had stopped by, because it was her birthday.  My hubby was home (for reasons I don't recall; he always works until evening) and was taking a shower.  So, I jumped into the shower, fully clothed, and told him the good news.  When my mom arrived, it was interesting explaining my wet attire and the surprise book contract (I hadn't told anyone in the family I was writing).  It was a great day.

That was 1993.  The book was scheduled for publication in 1995.  I got to edit the book (four-page revision letter; it wasn't bad) and I was told to cut 70K words from the mss.  I said sure!  Little did I realize at the time, that I'd just been asked to cut the equivalent of a Silhouette Romance from my story.  I managed to get the story down to 145K; the editor seemed fine with it.  At one point during this fascinating process I called up my editor to ask what, exactly, was going to be on the spine.  I mean, would it be put out as 'Horror' a la Anne Rice, or 'Fiction'.  She was like "No, dummy" (okay, so the dummy was implied) "It's a Romance."  That's the first time I  knew I had written a romance.  Cool!

A cover arrived.  It was red and black and the hero was strangely purple.  I didn't care, it was gorgeous.  And the lettering was in purple foil.  Neat.  It was going to be a real book!  I made homemade bookmarks and sent to tons of bookstores.  Yeah, it cost a pretty penny, but I wanted the world to know about this book.

At the end of 1994, my editor called.  "Sorry, we're not going to publish Dark Rapture.  The vampire market is dead."  Pun not intended.  "But you know, I really like this book; I'll see what I can do for it."

 

I hung up, stunned.  Did things like this happen in publishing?  Can they buy the book from you and then not publish it?  I didn't know any other writers at the time, so had no one to ask.  I could only go back to the computer and keep writing.

The following year, my editor reported they were going to try again and scheduled the book for 1997.  Whew!  And guess what?  They made a new cover.  Heck, I liked the old one, but take a gander at the new one.  John DeSalvo in leather lace-up pants and looking SO sexy!  The blood dripping from the rose.  To this day, this is still my favorite cover.  I mean, look at it!  It rocks.  

So I set about promoting.  Again.  Letting bookstores know that the story would finally be published.  Back then, the vampire selection in the stores was not a dozen new titles every month, as it is now.  They published less than a dozen vamp romances the entire year.  So fans who read paranormal were really hungry for new stuff.  To this day, I still get fan mail for that book.  

So fast forward to the release!  Yay!  My first book!  I was so proud, and even fellow authors in the local RWA chapter I'd just joined were interested (Though some stood at a distance; who is this chick?  She writes about vampires?  Where's the cross and holy water?)  Anyway, I did a few book signings with some awesome names in the business.  And at one of my first signings, Betina Krahn presented me with a bottle of champagne.  (Class act, that Krahn chick.)  

Within two months, the book had sold out.  Used copies appeared at Amazon.  The highest priced I noticed as $80.  Really?  For a paperback book?  And people were buying it!  Myself, I have only 3 or 4 copies of that book now.  Wish I had more.  I have a 'send around' copy that's all tattered, but which has been to a few agents and editors with the promise it is returned to me because I just don't have any spares.  That's kind of cool in itself.

It wasn't really like a dream come true, it was more a manifestation of something that had always been with me.  My desire to tell stories.  And I'm still doing it, and hope to do it for a long time.

Now, eleven years after the first publication of Dark Rapture, the publisher has rereleased it.  They slapped a new cover on it (see the pic to the right above), and well, I have to be honest and say 'Yuck' to that cover.  It's not bad, but it ain't pretty either.  The guy on the cover is nothing like the gypsy-wild long dark-haired rocker vampire in the book, but whatever.  Here's hoping it won't scare readers away from picking up the book.  :-)

I'm excited for the rerelease, but a little worried, as well.  I wasn't given a chance to re-edit the book, and while I think it's an awesome story, I KNOW it needs editing.  Heck, it needs major revising.  I started reading it the other night, and man, did I like my adverbs back then!  My writing has really improved since the early 90s.  I just hope readers will understand this is 'classic' Michele Hauf, and enjoy the story.  And I hope I didn't reference anything from the 90s that'll seem strange now.  I did talk about a 'car phone'; can't imagine the size of that thing back then.  

So there you have it!  Though I sold the first book I ever wrote, it took four years to actually see it in print after the sale.  Some published authors might sneer at my selling the first book, but trust me, I've received many rejections since then.  But I'll never stop.  I am a writer.  It's in my blood.

So if you're a writer, have you always been so?  Or have you recently come to keyboard and screen with ideas?  What about the readers?  What's your take on vampire romances?  Love 'em or loath 'em, I think they're here to stay.  

I'll give away a copy of the new DARK RAPTURE (sorry about that cover) to one commenter.

Michele