Sep 12 2008
My First Sale by Robin Owens
Welcome to the My First Sale series. Each Friday, Dear Author posts the first sale letter of bestselling authors, debut authors, and authors in between. Robin Owens writes paranormal romances for Berkley. Her book 7th Celta’s Heartmate book, Heart Fate, is in stores now.
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I sold in January 2001. In November of 2000, I’d given up writing for publication. I wearied of struggling every spare moment to craft good stories. HeartMate was at HardShell and Berkley, and I WOULD keep writing, but it wouldn’t dominate my life.
I don’t often remember to check my voice mail, so it was Superbowl Sunday and I was washing my comforter and cleaning, enjoying the freedom from guilt that I wasn’t writing. The air vent suckers were supposed to call and set up an appointment for Monday (thus the cleaning, you know how particular those air vent suckers are). I’d vacuumed and taken out the trash, so I decided to check my messages.
THE CALL. “I don’t usually leave messages like this on answering machines, but I really enjoyed HeartMate and want to make you an offer.” NO! Listen again. And again. Between pants, start calling critique buddies, first Sharon Mignerey, “Sharon,” gasp, “Sharon….” I don’t recall what I said, something like “gobble, pant, gobble, spit,” ending with hyperventilated breathing.
“Robin, has something happened to your Mom?” asks a concerned Sharon.
“Berkley!” I shriek. We talk. I get on-line and INSIST everyone in my e-crit croup come to the chat room. There I yell, faint and carry on. At the end of the day, I put away the brass-rubbing that I’d broken when I’d reeled into a wall and I notice that my cat Maddox (now known as “The Cover Cat”) has groomed himself on my clean, beige comforter, leaving tufts of black hair all over it. Life goes on.
May all our writing dreams come true, Robin.
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Sep 12, 2008 @ 05:34:07
What a great story Robin! I’m so glad you kept on writing. :)
Sep 12, 2008 @ 06:19:46
Wohoo, a new Heart… book! I hope we get more The Summoning books, too ^^
*proud of the fact she did the first German review on the original US HeartMate edition at Amazon.de*
Sep 12, 2008 @ 06:43:24
I’m not a writer, but can I tell you how inspiring these stories are to wake up to on a Friday morning?!
They affirm the importance of resilience, hopefulness, perseverance, and friendship in all our lives, no matter what we aspire to, and I love them!
Sep 12, 2008 @ 07:33:48
I too love waking up to these stories…even if they make me shed tears of longing. Though, when I’m done with the weeping, there remains a lovely sense of determination.
Thank you for sharing, Robin. I have to say I would/will react in quite the same way.
Sep 12, 2008 @ 07:45:42
Hi Robin!
Can’t believe we met that long ago! Thank you always for being so helpful and kind when it comes to the business. Isn’t it true, though, that we don’t see it when we’re turning that literal corner as we carry out the trash?
Sep 12, 2008 @ 08:41:18
Too funny. And I am going to take this opportunity to GUSH over the series. I read Heart Fate in two hours flat … *sigh* One of my favorites in the collection so far. May there be many more to come!
Sep 12, 2008 @ 15:06:37
Neat story. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Sep 13, 2008 @ 09:37:28
I too want to gush over this series. I came to it late, at the baginning of this year. I don’t know how I missed it so long. I’ve now caught up with all of them and find myself re-reading often. Thank you for persevering and thank you for your wonderful stories.
Sep 13, 2008 @ 15:34:53
Robin has such a unique style. She employs the best of fantasy while giving us a love story that we can enjoy. Both of her series are great and my only complaint is that she doesn’t write fast enough. Make sure you see her website, pretty cool.
Sep 26, 2008 @ 21:30:08
THANKS ALL! Somehow I missed that this would be posted today (the cats did NOT enter in my appointment calendar, some days those cats are totally useless except for posing!). So I did my writing this am and took a research trip to the mountains.
It’s wonderful to see some of my favorite authors here congratulating me and some readers, too.
That said, I’m not sure how far word has spread, but I did sell THREE more “Heart” books to Berkley last month. Current titles are Heart Change, Heart Journey and To Be Thought Of ;).
Thank you all for stopping by!
Robin