My first attempt at a romance was an historical that will never see the light of day.
The idea was about a cat in love with her master, and the story pinged in my mind after my husband and I had a conversation about potential horror stories. He saw a creep-out factor. I saw a charming, fairy-tale style romance. And that’s what I sat down to write.
It was never finished, and I moved on to contemporary category. I did much better, but didn’t sell my first completed manuscript. Having written it, though, taught me that I could write a book while practicing law, and I dug in, determined to not only break into category romance, but also to sell a paranormal idea that had been tugging at me.
I was seven chapters into the book when I set it aside, having sold my second completed manuscript to Harlequin (Nobody Does It Better). The Cat’s Fancy, however, wasn’t content to sit in a drawer, despite the fact that I had been told over and over by folks who were supposedly in the know that a story about a cat as a heroine would never sell, and that paranormal was dead (it actually was back then! Hard to believe now, huh?). But the book won a first chapter contest and editor Chris Keeslar came calling, wanting to see the full manuscript. I’d negotiated with Harlequin on my own, got wise, and hired an agent, and her first job was to call up Chris and tell him that I only had seven chapters and would they buy it on proposal? They did! And so even though I had no book yet on the shelves, my first single title romance sold on proposal.
I truly love this story, and I hope you do, too!
