Lots of Love and Thanks

I get asked all the time how I got published.  And if you've followed my blog tour for Forever than you know how I got "The Call" or in my case the "The E-mail" telling me I'd be a published author.  But how did it happen? What were the steps that took place to get me from thinking about writing a book to writing one to publishing Her Wolf to most recently publishing Forever?

I get asked about this a lot.  Whether its a unpublished writer trying to sell her first book who is friends with a friend of mine and so I meet her for coffee at the local gym (yes, the gym had a cafe and she was so super nice. I'm so glad to have met her) or when I'm out to dinner with some really nice friends who have just never heard the story before.  Its asked enough that I thought perhaps I would share it here with all of you.

I've had kind of an interesting, not to be but to others it seems to be, background.  After college I went to law school.  Met my husband, loved New Orleans, made some great friends. And dropped out of law school after two years. I just wasn't feeling that it was the right career for me.  Waiting for my husband to graduate, I taught school and planned a wedding. Thats right. At this point he's still my fiance.

We got married. Moved away to the cold North (Well, cold for my southern born and raised husband). We hadn't had kids yet so I sold real estate. I was good at it and the fact that the real estate bubble hadn't burst yet helped as well.  I got pregnant.  And 9 months later had our first child.

For two years I just LOVED being a stay at home mom with him.  I got pregnant with my second child.  And suddenly I felt less that satisfied with being home.  I wanted something else. Poor timing right? I am, after all, pregnant with baby #2.  Anything I start I'm going to have to stop, right?

I started reading incessantly.  I'd been an English/Communication double major in college. I can read. A lot. And fast.  Somewhere in that reading binge I found Paranormal Romance. I'd always loved romance but never read any real Paranormal version. Suspense. Contemporary.  Historical. Never Paranormal.  I could NOT get enough of it.

My husband could not believe the Amazon bills or the space my paper back collection took up in the house. He suggested I should try to write one.  With nothing to lose, I did.  And I wrote a book called Love Beyond Time knowing NOTHING about publishing at all.  I sent my book out and it got rejected everywhere, as it should have.  Boy, did that book need some help. At that time.

I joined an Online critique group.  Got LBT torn up a bit and sat down to write something else.  Sometimes when something is so bad it has to be rewritten its better to stop and do something else for a bit.  That something else turned out to be Her Wolf and nine books later its my bestselling series.

I submitted it for publication. At 50,000 words it was too short for most agents and most traditional print publishers to look at. They wanted at the time 75,000-80,000 words.  But that book felt finished at 50 k.  And the AMAZING news was that Liquid Silver Books took it! (You'e read that story.  Disney World.  Screaming in the lobby.)

But then the questions started. "Rebecca, what does that mean? This book won't ever be in print? How will we read it? On our computers?"  (And to give my parents credit, they bought my book, took it to the local office place and printed it up! They read my first couple of books that way.)

Something else really amazing happened really at that time.  Kindle BOOMED and with it the digital revolution that changed everything.  No one cared that they couldn't get Her Wolf in print.  (You can now) They got it in Digital form on their Kindles and eventually Nooks. And Now IPADs. Digital format made my career.  I am so thrilled with it.

What's happened since then? Well, I reworked Love Beyond Time? Its also a series.

I had my second and then third children.

And an amazing number of opportunities later I just published Forever.  I'e been grateful for every chance I've been given and what an amazing ride this has been.  I can't wait to keep going.
Lots of Love and Thanks
Rebecca