.
I can't remember a time when I didn't want to be an author. From my earliest memory,
I conjured up people who lived lives I could only dream of, in a world of my
own creation. I acted out their stories till I learned how to put them on paper.
It helped me through a painfully difficult childhood.
I was an awkward geek who had to wear
unfashionably long dresses, clunky saddle shoes,
and an unflattering pixie haircut--all of which did
absolutely nothing for my self-confidence, or my
popularity. I was--and still am--extremely shy,
socially inept, athletically challenged, and a lousy
conversationalist. But when I sit down to write a
story, something magical happens and suddenly
I'm none of those things.
My favorite fairy tale was always Cinderella. I
emphatized with her. Many of my stories had a
Cinderella theme, which sparked a passion for
royalty. That, coupled with my fondness for
multi-generational sagas, planted a seed that over
the years grew into a jungle teeming with wild life.
In the 8th grade I conceived the notion of writing a
series of books chronicling the lives of a fictional
European royal family, from the Napoleonic era
to the present day.
That became my pet project for the next 20 years. Throughout my high school years,
my royal family formed and multiplied in my head. I was 19 when I finally started
writing their saga. Alas, none of the publishers were interested in what I had to offer,
though most of the rejections were personalized and polite. Only occasionally did I
receive the Xeroxed form letter that made me wonder if they'd even opened the envelope.
But then all those scandals that rocked the House of Windsor in the early '90's made
my own royal family seem superfluous. Who wanted to read about my fictional royals,
when the similar antics of their real-life British counterparts were already keeping the
world entertained and appalled? I cast my royal family into exile at the bottom of an old
steamer trunk, and decided to focus on writing something that stood a better chance of
seeing publication--historical romance.
That's when I learned about Romance Writers of America. RWA and the Tampa Area
Romance Authors made such a huge difference in my life, that I kick myself for not
joining them sooner. I found a gold mine of information, workshops, and contacts
that gave me much-needed self-confidence about submitting my work--and ultimately
helped me get published.
It took 22 years, 8 manuscripts, and countless rejections before I finally sold a book.
Yes, there were a few times when I almost gave up. But I never did.
During that long quest, I served nine years in the Air Force as an administration
specialist. I did a lot of traveling overseas, where I met and married a wonderful man
who still tells me at least once a day, "You can do it--I have faith." We unleashed
three children upon an unsuspecting world; sadly, one of them no longer inhabits it.
TRUE PRETENSES will always be the book of my
heart, not only because it's my first published work,
but because it was written in the wake of the most
devastating heartbreak of my life. Our only daughter
Fiona, aged 10, had just started going back to school
after missing much of the previous year because of a
rare autoimmune polyglandular syndrome that had
her in and out of the hospital. Her condition was
finally improving, so I started writing
TRUE PRETENSES. I got no further than the first two
chapters. Fiona went into cardiac arrest on Sunday
morning, October 15, 2000, but the paramedics
could not bring her back. Her little heart was too
weak from all she'd been through in the past year.
Our own hearts were shattered.
Months passed before I could bear to even look at those two chapters and ponder
whether I should continue writing the story, for finished or not, it would always
remain in my mind as the story I was writing when we lost our precious girl.
Early the following year, I enrolled in a writing class offered by romance author
Cheryl Anne Porter at the local community college in Tampa. I let her critique the
first chapter of TRUE PRETENSES with the notion that if she liked it, then I'd
continue writing the story. Cheryl had no idea of the fate she held in her hands.
But she loved it! So I started work on Chapter 3, picking up the story right where
it left off at the end of Chapter 2, as if nothing had ever happened in between,
when in fact the author's whole world had changed forever, and in the worst way,
between those two chapters.
Only after I completed the book, did I tell Cheryl of how it almost didn't get written,
and of the part she played in making it happen. By critiquing a new set of pages in
class every week, she encouraged and motivated me at a time when I was ready to
give up writing for good.
In the spring of 2002, one year after I'd completed the first draft of TRUE PRETENSES,
I entered the first 50 pages in the New Historical Voice Contest co-sponsored by
Dorchester Publishing and Romantic Times magazine. Three months later, Dorchester
asked for the complete manuscript, and about a month after that, they told me I was
one of three finalists, out of approximately 200 entries. Even though I didn't win,they
still liked the book so much they bought it anyway. Its publication comes 37 months
after I first sat down to write it.
Oddly enough, nothing about TRUE PRETENSES even hints it was written in deep
sorrow--it's actually a fun read from start to finish! I can only attribute this
phenomenon to Fiona's unique spirit that lives on in my heart--she had a lively
imagination and a wonderful sense of humor. She's my angel and muse.
And what about my royal family? Will they ever be summoned out of exile?
Never say never! For years they were my faithful laboratory mice, stoically
enduring numerous explosions of smoke in different colors while I experimented
and learned, till I finally struck the aforementioned gold. My royals will always
occupy a very special place in my heart. But for the time being, they must also
occupy that very special place in the steamer trunk.
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