The Call - Or Why Does My Answering Machine Always Get The Fun?

Out of my GH Call and first sale call - my answering machine has always had the honors.  In fact, I've only been home for one call, and almost didn't answer that because it was during dinner (I have a strong no phone policy during the one family meal we sit down to eat together).  

Labels: Golden Heart, The Call

posted by Jill Monroe @ 7:17 AM 5 comments

I never imagined it like this

This year, I realized the first part of my dream to become a published novelist, after more than a decade of rejections, disappointments, and thoughts of giving up. But I'm glad I didn't give up because on July 24, 2007, at around 10:20 a.m, while sleeping because I was suffering from a sinus infection and a fever, I got The Call. My agent called to tell me I'd sold my first two books, young adult titles, to Razorbill, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group. How did this fabulous event come about? Here's the skinny.

Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away...

Okay, so it was really the 1990s, and I was in Kentucky, but whatever. I began writing my first romance manuscript when I was in college at good ol' Murray State University in Western Kentucky. It wasn't an everyday kind of endeavor at that point because, well, I had a lot of studying to do and typically held two jobs while I was at it. I continued to piddle after I graduated in 1993 and started my first job as a newspaper reporter while the hubby did the grad school thing. The piddling continued when we moved to Tennessee in 1995 and I began working in the marketing department of an insurance company.

But in 1996, my local RWA chapter formed, I became a member of RWA, and I started learning more about the business and craft of writing. I continued to write when I left the insurance company and went back to journalism as a writer and editor at a magazine. I left that job nearly three years ago to freelance write and edit, believing I was on the verge of sale (one of those that fell through). I could have given up with that disappointment, but I'm stubborn and kept writing and submitting. Eleven years after beginning to submit to publishing houses, I finally sold my first two books. Not the first two I wrote. Those are safely tucked away in the deep recesses of my computer and on floppy disks (yep, floppy disks). At the time of those sales in July, I'd written 18 full manuscripts since beginning to submit to editors. There have definitely been days when I got rejections or felt I was "thisclose" to selling only to have it fall through that the thought of just chucking it all occurred to me. I'm so glad I didn't. I will forevermore be the queen of preaching perseverance to other writers. After a point, if you are getting good critiques and finaling in or winning contests, you've got the grasp on craft you need to be published. You just have to find the right editor at the right time with the right project while continually studying the business side of the industry and endeavoring to always push your writing to the next level.

I'm, of course, not the only writer who has taken the long and winding road to getting published. Fellow Noodler Merrillee Whren, who writes for Silhouette Love Inspired, wrote for 15 years before getting published. Noodler Mary Fechter and I have been on a very similar writing journey the past few years, and she too made her first two sales this year. She'll be writing as M.J. Fredrick for Samhain and Wild Rose Press. Anna Campbell, fellow Romance Bandit, took an incredible 25 years to see her first book published but is now enjoying much-deserved success. Another Noodler, super YA and paranormal author Stephanie Rowe, like me, wrote 18 manuscripts before selling, and now she's a multi RITA finalist. I owe Stephanie a lot because she encouraged me to write young adult books, and that's what got me my agent and, three years later, my first sale. She also nearly hyperventilated on the phone when I called to tell her and sent me these flowers when I sold.



I was fortunate to get another call on Oct. 26. This time, my agent called to tell me I'd sold two books to Harlequin American. This call was made extra special because fellow Noodler Esri Rose was in town and we were out to lunch together when it happened. The sales to American came about because of the Great American Romance contest they sponsored earlier this year. I placed third and ended up doing two sets of revisions on the first book before they bought it, then did another set after the sale.

Contests have been good to me, and the last one I was eligible for as an unpublished author is still ongoing. My paranormal manuscript, Out of Sight, is a finalist in the American Title contest sponsored by Romantic Times BOOKreviews magazine and Dorchester Publishing. Round 3 voting starts today, so I hope you check out the contest and vote. The voting information usually goes up on the site in the late morning.

I have so many friends who are in the boat I was just a few short months ago -- they're talented, they've finaled in and won lots of contests, and they've completed lots of books. I'll do whatever I can to help them climb from that boat into this new boat. I'm hoping they get that wonderful, unbelievable call very soon.

To celebrate today's post (and to garner comments -- hey, I'm not above bribery, hee hee), I'll be giving away another cool YA novel published by my publisher, Razorbill. So leave a comment to be in the running to win a copy of Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead.

Labels: The Call

posted by Trish Milburn @ 8:17 AM 16 comments

Janet Mullany--The Call

My Golden Heart call was pretty unexciting because I didn't know what a big deal it was. I'd had a full ready to go, more or less, so I entered it into the contest everyone said was the biggest thing since sliced bread and promptly forgot about it.

I was, uh, in the bathroom, if you know what I mean and I think you do. Cool. I'd finalled. I went to a writer friend's birthday party later that day and everyone else was a lot more excited than I was; frankly I'd rather have had a job, having lost mine a few weeks before, and spending rather a lot of time eating yams and watching English home improvement shows on tv.

Fast forward to September 1, 2004. I was unemployed--again--and wandering around the house in a slovenly, not-yet-dressed sort of way early in the afternoon. That summer another ms., Dedication, had won the non-traditional category of The Beau Monde's Royal Ascot and the editor who judged the final round had asked for a full. So naturally I was trying not to think about it, since I'd had a lot of near misses with Dedication, which had been my major contest cow for a year or more.

When the phone rang, an editor from NAL was on the line. Slowly it dawned upon me that editors don't call you up to say, well, sorry, we sorta liked it, but... she wanted to buy my book. Wow. Then she told me she wanted me to cut 20,000 words from it because it was for the Signet Regency line and I'd written it as a single title.

Sure, I said, and then said what I was sure would break the deal: But the sex has to stay.

She didn't miss a beat. Sure, no big deal.

The sex stayed. I got another job. Dedication was published in September 2005, the only Signet Regency with two bondage scenes. It's now out of print but it's being sold secondhand for $40+ and I wish I'd bought up more copies to support me in my declining years.

Labels: Dedication, The Call

posted by Janet Mullany @ 8:59 AM 3 comments

Trish Morey and Those Calls

Okay, the following is my call story, or calls stories, it should be, because there were a few of them leading up to THAT one - all of them exciting, all of them bearing lashings of hope, and all of them leading to the fulfilment of one of my most precious dreams - to become a published author. I'm just sorry it's so long but I do hope it's worth you sticking around for a read and I hope even more that if you've been hanging around waiting for THAT call yourself, that it might inspire you to hang around that bit longer. Let's face it, the fastest way never to get published is to give up.

Once upon a time there was a manuscript, originally titled Date with Destiny, that was requested by HM&B Richmond back in August 2002. I’d only just sent the partial the week before and I'd only finished that partial the week before that. Panic stations! However, I promised the editor I’d get the full in by the end of November, in time to also enter the Golden Heart – my first ever time – and a couple of Downunder contests.

Then I waited. In January I heard that editor had left HM&B and I had no idea whose slush pile my manuscript was now languishing in. Things were a bit dark then, after the editor's initial enthusiasm. Luckily I had a conference on the Gold Coast to plan for RWAustralia, which helped take my mind off things (not! But it least it kept me busy.)

Then one Sunday morning in late March, I turned on the computer to find an email from someone I’d never heard of, with a pretty obscure kind of RWAmerica subject line. She wanted my phone number, that’s all the email said. I’d never logged in my phone number with RWA because I figured (wrongly!) that nobody from the US was ever going to put in a call to Oz. I crossed my fingers and toes and prayed it wasn’t someone doing some kind of survey or chasing up subscriptions and sent off my number. And waited. And waited. And waited. It was mid afternoon when the phone rang and this gorgeous woman with a gorgeous American accent told me Date with Destiny had finaled in the Golden Heart. Wahoo!

Naturally I rang M&B to give them the good news ☺ and they'd already dusted it off and I learned it was with an editor but she'd gone home sick that day:-(

The weeks after that were a bit of a strain especially when they were picking up other writers - that is soooo hard! Have they filled all the slots? Do they even have a finite number of slots? Who knows?

Then one night in mid May I was out with #2 daughter's after school debating and then dropping her friends home and then picking up a chook for dinner after filling the car with fuel. You know how it goes - a typical mum's evening. There we all were at the dinner table and I'd just told them that that very day I'd turned down another job I'd been offered - bigger bucks but lots more pressure and I'd have to throw myself into it and I just wanted to give my writing a real shot so the timing was all wrong and the guy who'd offered the job had said, "Well, if you change your mind give me a call". And I'd replied with , "Or if I don't sell a book" and laughed.

So # 4 daughter , aged 7, suddenly looked up and said, "Oh, someone called." And they all looked sheepish (which is no mean feat when you're eating chicken) and finally fessed up that an editor from M&B had called not once, but TWICE!, the last time only five minutes before I 'd got home, and that she'd told them she'd call back tomorrow. And it was only 7pm and I lost my appetite completely. So I rang up myself, got put through to the lovely Angelina Manzano who called me back right away and who told me that they really liked my book but there were a few things they thought could be tweaked. We spoke at length about what needed tweaking. LOTS - I took three pages of notes. So my dear sweet family didn't tell me because they didn't want me to worry all the next day. Aaaaaaraaaaaarrrrrrgghgghghghghghghghgh!!!!! What if she'd wanted to buy the damn book? There were no guarantees that she would even after the revisions, but like DH said (when we were finally talking again☺), it's the closest I'd ever been. I had to do big revisions, a new start, tone down one character and change the ending completely, amongst other stuff. I sent it back in 2 weeks and then waited and waited and waited during which time I was, quite frankly, a mess.

Then one Monday night right after my birthday she called at last, wanting more revisions to the penultimate scene (the proposal scene - to get rid of extraneous characters - the son, the sister, the doctor - read, cast of thousands) and I got it back to her at 1:20am my time. That call was also amazing because she stated that this was not an offer to publish, but asked then if I'd mind if she changed the title and did some line edits herself and she wondered if I'd thought about a pseudonym - be still my heart! I kept telling myself not to get my hopes up too high. Very difficult. Barely 5 minutes after I'd sent off the revised scene, she emailed back asking for one more change and to get it back asap so instead of going to bed (hey, who needs sleep?), I stayed and fixed it that night - getting it back around 2:30am, which I thought was 5pm in London but turned out to be 6, so she'd already gone home anyway - duh.

The next night she rang again and wanted one more*final* change and to get it back asap (she wouldn't tell me what that meant, just asap) which I did, and got back to her again, late that night (because, who needs to sleep?) and she replied that she'd be in touch.

Wednesday night I was supposed to go out but I was so absolutely whacked (I needed to sleep!) and it was an awful winter's night -pouring and slick on the roads so I decided it wasn't worth going with my eyes hanging out my head. The phone rang 3 times after 5:30, all long involved phone calls, and I was in a rush to get the kids fed when the phone rang again.

It was 6:32pm on the 18th June and it was Angelina with THE call, and who calmly stated she'd like to make an offer for my book and outlined the terms. And then she asked what I thought.

I was kind of dumbstruck. I said something inane like, ‘Excuse me, I just have to pop into the next room and scream a bit, I'll be right back,’ and she laughed and I went into the lounge room and everyone went ballistic, me and the kids and DH, yelling and jumping around, plus the dog who was racing laps around the house barking like she was the one who'd just sold a book. And then I picked up the phone and said, "That's better - you were saying?"☺

Then she told me they'd already scheduled my book two days before. They didn't tell me that on the Monday. They wanted to make me sweat! (It worked.)

So that's my very long call story and how it happened that I finaled in the Golden Heart and ended up being published by Presents. As it turns out, I didn't win the Golden Heart, didn't even make the finals of the other contests I’d entered, but it didn't matter because I'd won the prize I'd been chasing for 11 long years - I was about to become a published author! And having the opportunity to hook up with the fabulous and talented women of the wetnoodleposse was the bonus.



Trish Morey’s November Presents, The Boss’s Christmas Baby, spent three weeks on the Borders/Waldenbooks Bestseller List and is still available from www.eharlequin.com

Labels: The Call

posted by MJFredrick @ 5:27 AM 20 comments

Pam's GH Call Story

That March Saturday back in 2003 was one of the worst in my life—or so I thought at the time. I sat by the phone, threatening the lives of my family if anyone so much as even thought of getting on the internet. I was waiting for the call I just knew would come.

Every so often I’d sneak online to check my emails. The calls were rolling in. My friend Stephanie Feagan finaled. I was so excited for her. Other people finaled. I’d never heard of most of them. Surely my call would be next. I waited and waited. As the “call” emails faded and were replaced by congratulations, I started to cry. I’d been so sure I would final. I was devastated.

I moped around all day, cried myself to sleep that night. I don’t know why I’d been so sure I’d final. Maybe it was part of that new writer confidence that makes you sure your book is the next big thing. Maybe it was because the book had already come so close to selling to Harlequin. But it looked like I’d missed the boat again.

Sunday, I set out to do all the errands I’d skipped on Saturday while waiting for the GH call. I needed to get away from the computer and all the happiness others were experiencing. I needed to get my mind off the whole thing.

When I got home, the dh said some woman had called, but wouldn’t leave a message. Huh? I shrugged and started unloading the groceries.

Fifteen minutes later, the phone rang. It was someone from RWA (I can’t for the life of me remember now who it was. A board member, I think.) But she’d called to tell me I’d finaled in the Inspirational category. Turned out Sunday was the day the calls were supposed to go out and she’d stuck to the original plan. It finally hit me. I was in! I was one of that elite group of people who’d finaled in the Golden Heart. I met the Noodlers, made some lifelong friends, and surely the next call would be from an editor wanting to buy the book.

Sadly, that never happened. I just sold a different book to Red Sage, but I’m pretty sure Lean on Me, my GH book, will never see the light of day.

Labels: GH, Pam, The Call

posted by Esri Rose @ 9:17 AM 5 comments

The Call - Diane's Story

This month of holidays, happiness and hectic activity, the Wet Noodle Posse is going to gift you with our The Call stories. For some of us, The Call will be the call telling us our entry finaled in the Golden Heart; for others, we’ll tell about The Call leading to that wonderful first sale.

Why is this a gift? Well, if The Call happened for us, The Call can happen to you, too.

My journey from being unpublished hopeful to published author happened in 2003, the year I became a member of the Wet Noodle Posse (2003 Golden Heart finalists). I’d been a Golden Heart finalist in 2001 and I very well remember the call telling me my entry Unmasked was a finalist. I floated for days afterward. I think it was the most exciting call I ever received, and I was certain my Golden Heart status was going to sell that manuscript. I sent it everywhere, every agent I knew of, then every publishing house.

It was rejected over and over again as “unmarketable.” “Readers will not like your heroine,” the rejection letters said. (My heroine started off the book as a prostitute in a gaming hell. Such a heroine may be all the rage in today’s regency historicals, but this was 2001 and 2002, and she was before her time.)

When time to enter the 2003 Golden Heart came around, I had a new manuscript, but on a whim I entered Unmasked again. Like buying a second lottery ticket, I figured, it would double my chances. My strategy worked, too, but when I received The Call to tell me Unmasked finaled in the Golden Heart again, I was more perplexed than excited. What could I do with a manuscript that had been rejected everywhere?

A few weeks later, on an afternoon in May, 2003 while I waited in a dermatologist’s examining room, my husband phoned to tell me there was a message on our voice mail at home from “some editor.” Never was a wait in a doctor’s office so long! The message was from an editor in England--Kate Paice from Mills & Boon. Mills & Boon? I had never even dreamed of submitting to Mills & Boon, the UK branch of Harlequin Enterprises. Everyone knew Mills & Boon rarely bought American writers, and, besides, what British publisher would buy a Historical set in England by an American writer who had never even set foot there?

Kate’s message said she had judged my manuscript for the Golden Heart and would like to talk to me. I rose at 5:00 a.m. the next morning and phoned her. She asked me questions about my writing, said wonderful things about my GH entry, and said she would phone me the next day. That third phone call--5:00 a.m. again--was “The Call.” Kate made the offer for what is now titled The Mysterious Miss M.

Being very well trained by RWA not to accept immediately, I agreed to talk with her the next Monday, even though I would be traveling. My husband and I had a trip planned to stay in a Bed & Breakfast in Charlottesville, Virginia, but I told Kate I would phone her on the road.

At the B&B, however, the only phone was outside the other guest bedrooms, and my cell phone did not work for an overseas phone call. So at 6:00 a.m., on my 30th wedding anniversary, at a phone booth outside a convenience store in Charlottesville, Virginia, phone card in hand, trucks whizzing by, husband watching from the car, I negotiated my first book sale!!

The Mysterious Miss M went on to win the 2003 Golden Heart for Best Long Historical. I accepted my Golden Heart in front of 2,000 RWA members and friends, in New York City at RWA’s annual conference, with my new Mills & Boon editors cheering me on!

The Mysterious Miss M made its debut in the UK July, 2004. It went on to be released by Harlequin Historical in November 2005. This coming January, 2008, The Vanishing Viscountess will be my eighth book, including my Christmas novella and the two books I wrote for Warner Forever. My third Mills & Boon book, A Reputable Rake, won RWA’s 2006 RITA for Best Regency Romance.


Wonderful story, huh? You can understand why I am so committed to the Golden Heart contest. I completely owe my first sale to the Golden Heart.

I wrote for eight years before selling, but I did receive The Call. And if I can do it, you can do it too.


Visit my website at http://dianegaston.com/. Enter my new contest, the Grand Finale in my Contest Countdown to The Vanishing Viscountess, on sale now on eHarlequin and millsandboon.co.uk . The Mills & Boon edition includes a special bonus book-- The Mysterious Miss M.

The Vanishing Viscountess will be in bookstores January 1.

Labels: A Reputable Rake, Diane Gaston, The Call, The Mysterious Miss M, The Vanishing Viscountess

posted by Diane Gaston @ 12:01 AM 4 comments