How it all began

It was the fall of 1983, my daughter and I (she was 18 months old) took a bus trip to Beaumont, Texas to visit my aunt. Since I've been hooked on reading from the beginning of time, I of course had my Romance Treasury book bag with me on the bus. A young lady sitting across the aisle from us saw my bag and asked if I was a writer or reader. Well, duh, of course I was an avid reader! But I told her I'd love to write, but didn't know how to get started. (After failed attempts as a child, I gave up that dream.) Well, lo and behold she said she just recently signed her first book contract and went on to give me good tips on what I should do to get started on my writing adventure!

I took everything she said to heart, and after the visit with my aunt, I went straight to the library and researched the books she recommended. Then, I bummed an old student manual typewriter from my sister and came up with an idea for characters and started writing their story. It took me about three or four months (maybe longer) to get it all down the first time around. After all I was using a manual typewriter for the longest time. Eventually I graduated into an electric typewriter with a correcting ribbon. That was a long time ago!

A very good friend of my mother's, who happened to be the same lady who taught me piano lessons, helped edit the first draft. We had a great time working out the kinks and developing the story, or so we thought! When it was all completed to our satisfaction, she hosted a mailing party for me at her home. She invited the ladies in the community and we all had a great time getting together to celebrate the mailing off of the manuscript.

That was the first attempt to try and hook an agent. Needless to say, the agent wasn't as thrilled as we all had been, but oh well. So, I received the manuscript back, and of course it went on the shelf for a while. Until I recovered from a busted dream.

I did take the advice that the agent gave me and reworked the manuscript. Sent it off again and again it came back. Tried different agents and publishers, but it still didn't seem to fit what they were looking for at the time.

So, I decided to chuck the formula's and rewrote the book again, (about the fifth time or so), changed the plot, added a bad guy, and then discovered the storyline held more secrets than I realized! You know, those characters just had a mind of their own and I just happened to stumble across some of their little secrets!

Changed the title to Secret Sins and decided I'd publish the book myself! I thought of all the trouble I've had in getting accepted by the "big" people, and decided that if I could sell and market my own book to make a decent go of it, then perhaps I could help someone else.

So we'll see how it goes. In the meantime that's how it all started. And we'll see what the future holds!

Till later!