Remembering the first time...

The first email I opened this morning was from a good friend of mine who'd been offered a contract for publication. Amongst the happy dancing and grinning faces it took me back to my very first sale back in 2005. There's something special about that first book sale...nothing ever eclipses that, so I thought I would share with you all that special feeling. I wrote this as a blog post for Romance Divas and I'm reliving it now with you all.

SHOUTING WITH MY FINGERS

When I started writing I used to read “the call” stories with awe. Stories involving messages on answering machines, of lots of screaming and blabbering over the phone while patient editors waited on the end of the line. One day that surreal experience will be mine, I confidently told myself. Then, of course, I quickly descended to my usual mindset of wondering if I’d ever be good enough. Oh, the sighs…I can tell you!

Then as I became a more experienced writer and heard my friends and acquaintances get these calls I wasn’t only in awe…I was downright jealous! Don’t get me wrong…I was thrilled for them, but at the back of my mind it was a toss up of feeling happy for my buddies or feeling guilty for wishing it was me…does this make me a bad person?

No, I hope not, but what it meant to me was that I was determined to get there. I wasn’t giving up. And it paid off for me when I sold my first book last Sunday morning. Yay Me!

So how did it all happen?

Well it wasn’t actually a “call”. It was an email...though no less exciting! I‘d been in editing hell for about a month and I was waiting on the word from a couple of friends who were giving the book a last read through. When I got the word that they thought it was okay, I submitted the requested full manuscript by email to my publisher. This was seven in the evening on the Friday night. I tried to stop thinking about it because realistically I knew it would be a couple of weeks at the earliest before I would hear anything. But I still checked my email all that night. The Executive editor emailed to let me know she had it and how she was looking forward to reading it. I had a really good feeling.

Still not thinking I’d hear anything for some time yet, I spent the next day checking the email anyway, telling myself what an idiot I was. But I couldn’t seem to stop myself, silly me. But on Sunday morning when I turned on the computer on my way to the kitchen to put the kettle on for a cup of tea and opened my email, there staring me in the face was an email from the executive editor. Oh my God…was this good or bad news? It was too soon wasn’t it? Or was it? Was this a good sign? Or bad? My hands were shaking as I clicked on the email to open it. But I had to do it. It seemed to take forever to open but —Holy mackerel! She loved the book and could she buy it? It was only 36 hours after she’d received the book that she made the offer!

Hearts really do slam chests…and gasping happens! True…I have the bruised sternum to prove it! And my youngest son tells me I gasped so loud it woke him up! I was actually going for a low key response given that the family was still asleep, or so I thought. Ha! But not for long…I made a bee line to the bedroom and woke up the husband…then found a couple of sons awake and told them…I even messaged number one son in his room on MSN! The next three hours were spent emailing and phoning everyone I could think of to tell them the news and then answering the overwhelming number of congratulatory messages and emails I received. Romance writers all over the world are the most supportive people I know.

I really was shouting with my fingers!

And I never did get that cup of tea.

****

I'd love to hear your stories too...doesn't have to be a first book sale. It could be a first job, or a first kiss, or the first time with a lover...? 

New Sale! "The Relic"

Good news everyone!

Total-e-bound has contracted my short novel The Relic for release in June 2010! Yay me!

The Relic is based on my character Magda from The League of Amazing Writers and is a rather hot action adventure story *vbg*

Here's the blurb: They used to be a great team, but could they forget the past long enough to save their lives?

Finding herself in the wilds of a Penang rainforest wasn't something Magda was exactly happy about. Being there on a mission to recover an ancient relic that threatened world peace certainly had its appeal, but the heat, the bugs and wild animals quickly cancelled out any of the excitement of the chase. Adding to her misery was the arrival on the scene of the last person she ever wanted to cross paths with. Vincent Stone, her rival in the search for the relic, and her ex-lover. The man who'd ripped out her heart and trampled on it had no business being in the same country as her, let alone the same jungle.

Vincent isn't doing much better as he tries to remember why he'd broken it off with her. She made him feel more than anyone else but in his line of work, and with his past history, he didn't have room for a relationship. But damn she made him want one.
Fate has a way of playing with realities though and as they teamed up they both came to realise that sometimes it was better to just go with the flow.

BOYS DOWN UNDER IS RELEASED!

Shapeshifters, Seduction, Corporate intrigue and Flying Doctors all have one thing in common: Heat and lots of it. When you throw these talented Aussies authors together you’re going to have a sinfully good time when you meet some of the Boys Down Under!







Click here to BUY the BOYS!
http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/new-releases/boys-down-under/prod_189.html


The Executioner – By Maggie Nash

Blurb

A team building exercise at a remote location reignites the heat between former lovers Madeleine Smith and Nicholas Garabaldi. When team members start dying they must learn to trust again so they can outwit whoever is killing off the group one by one. Is this the “Executioner” from the indigenous Dream Time legend of the local Bilbulmun tribe? Or is someone closer to home responsible?

Excerpt

EXCERPT:

Nick breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the sound of the taxi driving into camp. She was here. Thank Christ! Flicking open the blind just a tad, his heart leapt at the sight of her climbing out of the car. If it was possible, she was even more beautiful than he remembered. Her dark, glossy curls hung down almost to her waist, and those long, tanned, shapely legs… Like a pre-programmed reaction, his cock swelled in remembrance of how she used to hook those muscular calves around his thighs as he pumped into her.

Down boy. There’s lots of work to do yet, focus on the prize at the end. Running his hand through his hair, he sighed. Oh yeah, and what a prize. Staying out of sight until at least tomorrow night so she would realize the camp actually was legitimate would be a challenge, but since Gary was taking the group out in the bush for most of the activities, he should be free to get ready for the evening. He planned to leave Maddie in no doubt that his feelings were real, and give her no choice but to let him back into her life.

Looking out the window again, he saw Maddie lean over to pick up her backpack. Three other team members raced to her side to help and he laughed softly. She always did have that effect on men, even though she never saw it herself. He didn’t feel any jealousy, though. He knew her well enough to know she wasn’t easily impressed by fawning males. She felt things deeply, which meant she probably still had feelings for him, although at the moment, the closest feeling to the surface was probably anger. After the weekend, if he had anything to say about it, that would radically change.
One last look showed her leading a procession along the fifty meters to her tent with the three adoring sycophants tripping over themselves to follow her in the faint hope she’d grace them with a gorgeous smile. He knew how they felt. He chuckled again as she shooed them away, entering her tent and closing the flap. Looking at his watch he thought about how exhausted she must be; the trip from Victoria to WA could be very tiring. She was probably too tired to join the group for dinner. He made a mental note to ask Gary to organize a tray for her. Just for tonight she could get the royal treatment.
Come tomorrow, Sweetheart, you’re going to learn all about survival of the fittest. A vision of her in tight shorts and t-shirt, swinging on a rope from one obstacle to another, got him hot all over again. He was going to enjoy every minute of watching her progress from the sidelines.


Click here to BUY the BOYS!
http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/new-releases/boys-down-under/prod_189.html