First Rejection

Several months later I received a rejection letter from Harlequin. Okay, they didn't want the book and wouldn't tell me why. I understand. Well, not really, but I decided to keep writing. Until several years later, I realized that I needed to go back to college. Things were changing in the business world world and within the company I worked for.

I knew it would be almost impossible for me to work full time, go to college at night and write. At the time, work and college were the most important things in my life. But I still squeezed in time to write romance, maybe not as much as I wanted but I still read romances and I was learning, even if I didn't realize it, at the time.

Finally getting most of my major requirements out of the way, I found a creative writing class at the college. I decided to join the class so I could learn more. The class furthered my education and the instructor was a wonderful woman, her own requirement in the class was you had to write one poem during the first month of class, otherwise you could write anything you wanted.

I'll admit poetry was not my strong suit, but I learned. Then I started writing short romantic stories. I learned about story structure and other fiction writing tools. I took the creative writing class for my last three years in college, six semesters in all.

After graduating college with a degree in Office Information Systems (computer software), I was working in a job I wasn't thrilled with and left very little time for anything else. A friend had told me about Romance Writers of America, but the only chapter in my area met on Saturday's and the job I held I had to work on Saturday's.

I kept reading and writing, mostly short stories, not full novels and not with the eye to being published at the time. Then I got a call, a job I'd been looking for had an opening and did I want to go check it out.

Continuing the journey next Monday