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Thursday, July 30, 2015

In The Beginning by Suzanne Rossi



Last month I attended my 50th high school reunion. (Yeah, I can’t believe I’m that old either!) I haven’t hugged that many people in my life, but not before sneaking a peek at their name tags just to make sure I didn’t make an idiot out of myself. As the three day event went on, many of my classmates asked how on earth I ever got into writing. Well, let me tell you.
I was always an avid reader. As a kid, I cut my teeth on Nancy Drew. Eventually, I graduated to what is now called Young Adult with books about teens, dating, and a chaste kiss at the end of the story. About the same time I also discovered Agatha Christie. As I matured, my tastes ran to different genres in fiction and a lot of non-fiction.
But my reading life changed when my husband was away at basic training. I was standing in line at the drug store when a circular rack of books caught my attention. They were slim and all came from some publisher called Harlequin. I bought a couple. Two days later I returned and bought the rest. I was hooked.
I don’t know how it happened, but one day in 1999 I finished a book with a sense of irritation. The sweet, submissive young heroine secretly in love with the uber-Alpha hero who ordered her around made me grind my teeth—latent feminism, I suppose. The phrase that popped into my mind was, “Hell, I can do this.”
So I did. Back then it all sounded so simple—write a book, send it to a publisher, and collect lots of money in royalties. The problem was I couldn’t write for beans. I didn’t know the craft. Writing is an art that takes years to perfect. In my case it was nine. Nine long years of attending my local RWA chapter meetings, going to conferences, networking, and most of all learning.
And then one day, it happened. The Wild Rose Press bought “Along Came Quinn.”
I consider myself lucky to do what I do. I love creating plots, characters, and seeing where they take me. My twelfth book, “The Good Twin” will be released on September 25, 2015. I wrote a book worthy of publishing, although I’m still waiting for the lots of money part.
So, if any of you readers are thinking of heading down the author path, keep this in mind. Not all readers will become authors, but I never met an author who wasn’t a reader.
Take care and have a good day. See you next month.

Suzanne

8 comments:

  1. Suzanne, I laughed because we had such similar paths to publication. I was fortunate enough to sell to Kensington, then Wild Rose Press, and now I'm self-published. I started the same way you did, though, by reading what at that time were sickly sweet young heroines always in love with their dynamic boss or similar. Sounded easy, didn't it? Little did we know! LOL I'm still waiting for the $$$ in royalties to drown me. Still, I'm doing what I love at home.

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    1. Amen, Caroline. I can't imagine a 9-5 job anymore.

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  2. Loved the insight into becoming an author. Being an avid reader, I appreciate the journey the authors take to provide me with reading material. Thank you.

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  3. I'm approaching my 50 years, too Suzzanne, so nope we're not old, just seasoned...well. It's fun to see the publishing story of a fellow TWRP author. Congrats on your great stories!

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  4. BTW, don't let my responses as Susan Peek throw you. Suzanne Rossi is my pseudonym.

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  5. Great post! I took a similar path to authorship, but I got a much later start than you did. Still, better late than never. Having a book published is a dream come true. Keep on writing!

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  6. Welcome to the dark side, Suzanne. That's the side where you get so obsessed with writing you can't think of anything else. *g*

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  7. Well told, Suzanne. Yes, your story also sounds like mine (except I would never recognize or even remember the former classmates at the reunion.) Those uber-alphas irritated me too, but I hated those prim, prissy, don't-you-dare -kiss-me heroines as well. Where were all the sassy determined women who fell head over heels and went for what they wanted? We had to write them into the picture.

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