Twenty-five Years Ago Today...

On January 2, 1981, I became a serious romance writer. Serious about writing a book, finishing it, and marketing it. It was a New Year's Resolution. I had an electrical typewriter, a course of creative writing under my belt and forty years of daydreaming to work with -- and three kids expecting me to "do something" with my life.

I turned out two-and-a-half books of forgettable prose before I turned to what I knew. BUILDING PASSION was sold to Harlequin American in May of '82, much to everyone's surprise.

BUILDING PASSION will be coming out, not in '07 as I expected, but as of this past weekend it has been moved up to June 20, 2006!

Today is another day to put resolutions into action. Were it not for an electrical storm early this morning, I may well have gotten up at 5 AM like I did 25 years ago and gotten to work. But I've realized that it's not the number of hours I put into my writing that makes it succeed, but the craft and heart.

So today I'm starting another book. If it goes to contract, it will be my twelth. I was a serious writer of light books; today I start being a serious writer of serious books.