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And so, I began writing professionally. Building a body of work, a reader base and most importantly, my skills. Recently I heard someone say I was an overnight success and certainly, I’ve not been at this as long as some others have, but this road has been one filled with wonderful things, high highs and low lows but it hasn’t been overnight.

What those two lines started, I’m still working on today.

For me, writing wasn’t about going to seminars or classes. I couldn’t read a book and simply incorporate those ideas into my writing. I don’t learn that way. And I have a serious penchant for breaking the so-called rules anyway.

In the beginning I didn’t know about the RWA or any professional organizations. I didn’t belong to a crit group or any writing loops so no one told me I couldn’t switch POVs when I wanted to. No one told me I couldn’t kill off a beloved character. So I did what I wanted, what made sense to me and it worked. I wrote without fear because I didn't know enough to be afraid. (The fear came later)

That’s not to say I didn’t have a lot to learn! It’s just that because I didn’t know all the supposed rules up front, I had no real idea what I was getting into. And for that I’m thankful. Because in the beginning it was simply all about the joy of writing. I had no expectations because I didn’t know what was “normal” and what to expect.

With my editor at Ellora’s Cave, I began to get better. My form improved. My chief grammar crime, the comma splice, began to lessen and while I’m still guilty of it (ask my crit partners!), it’s not the same was it was back then.

I had the ability to write whatever I wanted to write. The world was wide open and I had a great relationship with my wonderful editor who believed in me and readers who seemed to respond well to what I wrote.

My Witches Knot books were doing quite well but I had another idea, a manuscript for a romantic suspense novel and I decided to give an up and coming publisher a try.

As it turned out, 2006 was a big year for me in more ways than one because I contracted Giving Chase with Samhain and shortly after that, I got an email from an agent who’d read Triad and wondered if I’d given any thought to representation.

I spread my wings, held my breath and leapt…