Hello Romantic Inks!! It’s been so long since I’ve been here (before you all made the switch to Word Press). And I also haven’t been commenting as much, mostly because I have been buried in various forms of deadline hell, the book is out dementia, vacation frustration and unexpected visitor insanity. But I still visit every day and read the blog, so hopefully that counts for something.

At any rate now you’re ‘lucky’ enough to have me for the whole week! So buckle in because I don’t get to blog about writing as much anymore so I’m ready to go! Oh, and if you have a topic you’re just dying to have me cover, shout it out! I still have a couple question mark days.

But today isn’t one of them. Today I’m going to be really, really predictable and talk about New Year’s. And unlike Haven yesterday, who talked about things you are proud of for 2006 (which is a great topic — ALL countdowns should be like that). And I’m not gointg to talk about making resolutions in general either (if you want to read my thoughts on that subject, check out my article at Passionate Pen) — nope. I’m going to talk about a resolution you should never make.

I beg of you, aspiring authors, do not resolve to be published by the end of 2007. I talk about this a little in the article above, but I want to expand upon it a bit more. It’s a trap so many fall in to, including me in the past. So here is why you shouldn’t make that bewitching resolution:

• The steps leading to a first sale are in your hands. The first sale isn’t. — If you are writing to publication, there are certain steps you should be taking. Writing books. Completing books. Revising books. Learning and improving your craft. Writing query letters. Writing synopses. Sending queries to editors/agents. Maybe entering contests. Going to conferences and pitching your books. All those tiny steps are ones you can control. In fact, ONLY you can control them. No one else can make you write or give you the guts to submit and face potential rejection.

However, once that book leaves your hands, nothing else is in your control. You have no idea if the editor or agent you send it to is going to like it. Or read it in a timely fashion. You have no clue what process she has to go through even if she DOES like it to get it past her senior editor, her marketing team, her sales force. You have no idea if she just bought a book with a similar plotline from one of her new authors and she fears having too many similar stories out in a short period of time. You have no idea if the woman just had a bad stinking day when she reads your book. So you have absolutely no control over a huge portion of the elements tnat influence a sale or a rejection. All you can do is send the best book you can and hope the talent and timing align.

• Want a perfect way to ruin New Year’s Eve 2007? You got it. – 2001 was a crappy year. There were all the obvious reasons for that statement, of course, ones much bigger than anyone’s personal pain. But as Dick Clark counted down the beats to the New Year on the television, I was laying on the floor in my office, sobbing. You know why? I had been convinced, by a large collection of events, that by the end of 2001 I would be published. It was on my resolution list (and I’m a big list crosser-offer, so seeing it there, staring at me accusingly… ugly). But it didn’t happen. In fact, it didn’t happen for two more years. And selling to Avon didn’t happen for 3.

Now this tale is NOT in any way meant to depress you. Looking back, I’m so very happy events turned out the way they did. I wasn’t ready for publication, despite what a well-meaning agent and my own addled mind thought. But it is a cautionary tale. If you convince yourself so fully that one thing is going to happen, you won’t appreciate the steps along the way. You will only see this goal you didn’t make, rather than all the others you did.

• The moment always happens when you least expect it. — 2004 was a good year. I was anticipating the release of “Ancient Pleasures” in SECRETS, Volume 11 and I had sold another novella to Red Sage, an RWA-approved press. I had hired a wonderful agent who I really liked and got along well with. I was even starting to get my interest in historical romance back, thanks to said agent and her faith in me.

But I never, in a million years, believed that on September 21. 2004, believed that said wonderful agent would call me up and tell me that Avon had bought two books. I just didn’t think that in the LEAST. She was pitching SCANDALOUS, which I’d already gotten a round of rejections from myself a year before. I was writing furiously on the first Lady Spies book, hoping to finish it, since I honestly thought IT would be ‘the one’ if anything would. I was minding my business. I wasn’t looking for the moment.

And that’s probably how it will happen for most of you when it comes. You’ll be minding your own business, reading the paper, hauling the kids somewhere, screaming at the cable man for your internet being out for two days, whatever. And the phone will ring and the moment you couldn’t possibly plan for will happen.

Could it all happen this year? Absolutely! But don’t determine for a fact that it will. Because “The Call” has a way of sneaking up on you.

Happy New Year everyone! And I’ll be back tomorrow to talk about ‘the secret code’ of writing. Yes, I’m going to give you the secret code. Get pencil and paper ready.