My Story

A long, long time ago...

No, we aren't going there. This is my story about the road to getting published in fiction. It's a strange journey that no one would believe if I put it in a book.

The story begins in Los Angeles at a summer press tour three years ago. That's where all of the TV critics get together to preview the new fall season television series and talk to the stars associated with the shows. It sound glamorous and exciting, and for the most part it is. But after three weeks of talking to celebrities 15 hours a day, you get tired. Really tired.

My friend Paulette Cohn, who writes for Entertainment Tonight Online, and I were scoping out the talent at an ABC party and chatting. Our talk turned to books and she told me she wanted to write a romance.

I told her that I'd always wanted to write fiction and that I had a million stories and characters running around in my head. She said, " You should just sit down and do it. I bet you'd be great."

Well, two weeks later I did exactly that. Keep in mind that my regular job means writing 45-50 hours a week. At the end of each day, no matter how late it was, I would write for at least two hours.

I lost myself in this new world I'd created and I loved it. I didn't want to stop. A few weeks a later I had a first draft. Then I promptly stuck it in a drawer.

Three months later my friend Britta Coleman ("Potter Springs") moved in next door. Long, story short, we found out we were both columnist and novelist. I know, too weird to be true. Britta took that first draft of mine and ripped it apart. It was littered with red pen. It hurt. I wanted to cry. But I learned so much.

She dragged me to a critique group, which further humiliated me and made me feel like a loser writer, but I kept at it. In May of that next year I had an opportunity to query an editor the critique group brought to town. The night before we were to meet the editor, Britta said to make sure that I had other ideas to pitch. "She'll ask what else you have and you need an answer."

I panicked. Big time. I'd just finished the first one and didn't think I could ever do it again. But that night I stayed up and wrote a short synopsis for a book that had been rolling around my brain for some time.

The meeting with the editor went well, and she did ask about the follow-up book. She told me when I had some chapters to send it to her.

So, I wrote "The Witch's Diaries," which later became "Charmed and Dangerous." That particular editor didn't care for the book, but I did. I loved it and once again my friend Britta stepped in. "Now," she said, "we have to find you an agent."

I sent out about 10 letters and thought I would sit and wait for all the adulation to come in. I could imagine agents fighting for my book and then the millions of dollars would come rolling in. It didn't happen. I have to admit I had some really nice rejection letters, most of them along of the lines of "good writing, but it's not my kind of thing." It was depressing.

Britta pushed me to go to a writing conference and it was a quite a learning experience. There I had an opportunity to meet with an agent face-to-face. I interview famous people for a living, but I don't think I've ever been so terrified.

She hadn't read a word I'd written and I did everything wrong you could do in an interview like that. I talked too fast, stumbled when I tried to explain my books. It was awful.

At the end of our 15-minute conversation she asked for the entire manuscript of "Charmed and Dangerous" I was shocked.

A few months, and many revisions later, she became my agent. It wasn't long before I realized I was one lucky girl.

A month later we had a two-book deal with Berkley, my dream publisher. They changed the title from "The Witch's Diaries" to "Charmed and Dangerous" and put it on the fast track to be published in September 2005. And I got the world's greatest editor who really believes in my book.

I make this sound like a charmed story, but the truth is, along the way it wasn't so charming. There were days when the critique group I belong to ripped me apart. From the beginning there were people who said my book was too different and would never work.

But there were just as many people, my great friends in the critique group, who did believe in me. They encouraged me to stick with it and follow my heart. They were right.

In the end, the editor was drawn to the story because it was fresh, different and she loved that I had such a strong voice.

So, stick with it, believe in your writing and keep putting yourself out there. I'm living proof that dreams really do come true.