Charlene Teglia decided she wanted to earn a living writing fiction at age twelve. After scribbling her way through enough blank notebooks to sink Atlantis, she wrote her first book. It was so much fun that she got carried away and kept writing them, although it took another eight years to make her first novel sale. When she’s not writing, she can be found hiking around the Olympic Peninsula with her family or opening and closing doors for cats. Her St. Martin's debut is Wild Wild West.
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My first NY sale happened at a time when I least expected it. Love and Rockets, my first novel sold to Ellora's Cave, was nominated for and won the 2005 Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award for best erotic novel. I thought the email from Carol Stacey telling me this was a mistake. Of course, I'd thought the email from Ellora's Cave offering to contract the book was a mistake, too, but I said yes before anybody caught on. Eventually I came to understand that yes, in fact, the award was for real, although I wasn't able to go to Daytona to celebrate the moment.
Which turned out to be a good thing, because I needed all my time and energy to write proposals when Rose Hilliard from St. Martin's sent me another email. (All the good stuff happens via email. I love my internet connection.) She congratulated me on the award wondered if I'd be interested in writing for St. Martin's.
I had to get up from my desk and remember how to breathe. When I could get my brain and my fingers calibrated, I typed back something brilliant like "YES!� And then there followed many ideas pitched, proposals written, and Wild Wild West became my first sale to NY in a 3 book deal. I wrote it during two heat waves without air conditioning, which may explain why it's so hot. *g*
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Some day you’ll have to explain the no AC. Congrats on that deal!
Jill, the explanation is nobody has A/C in the Olympic Peninsula area. We’re not supposed to need it, snort. So when the heat hits, everybody melts. Thanks for the congrats!