Meagan Hatfield's call story and sizzling hot vampires
RACHEL is the winner! Email me at lisarenjones@aol.com with your address!
Welcome to Meagan! Today's prize is a signed copy of Shadow of the Vampire(US only– not signed outside US). Just comment for your chance to win. I am going to put winners up on the last two posts by 1 mountain time today. Promise:) Today's contest runs NOON to NOON tomorrow MOUNTAIN TIME.
So onward to Meagan's call story. I am just loving reading these stories. I hope you guys are too!
Okay, I suppose I have to set up the steps before the call, so you can understand how the sale came to be.
June 2007 –
It's conference weekend for our local Wisconsin RWA chapter and for the first time we have a silent auction. I noticed the senior editor from Harlequin Nocturne was giving away a one chapter critique and instantly put my name down and something ludicrously cheap, like $8.
Over the course of the day, I noticed I kept being outbid by Lori Devoti who (for those of you who don't know) is already a Nocturne author! Well, after a brief cat fight…err, I mean very polite discussion…she took her name out of the bidding and I ended up winning the first chapter critique for $25.
I quickly polished up the chapter of my dragon-shifter romance I'd been fiddling with and sent it off, excited to finally have the opportunity for an New York editors comments and critique.
December 2007 –
The editor, Tara, emailed to let me know she had read the first chapter and really liked it. But instead of receiving a packet back in the mail with the pages all marked up and bloodied from her pen like I expected, she sent me a few things she wanted me to think about, perhaps change, asked me to write a prologue and said she wanted to see a partial. So that weekend, I wrote and trashed about six prologues before settling on one. I busted out a synopsis (I had hand written it in a notebook, but hadn't typed it in submission ready form yet) and e-mailed it all to her on Monday.
February 2008 –
When I saw an e-mail from her in my inbox this time, I almost didn't open it. No joke, I seriously had to call my cp and have her talk me through clicking open. Like many aspiring writers, I was so used to hearing "thanks, but no thanks," I was certain I'd dropped the ball somewhere along the way, the writing sucked or the synopsis had so many plot holes and clichéd storylines a rejection was waiting for me when I open that email.
Well my cp, (the supportive and smart wench that she is) happened to be right all along – it was okay to open the email, I'd written a good story and yes, Tara liked it too. She asked for a few tweaks off the synopsis and then requested the full. Now, this was the closest I'd ever been EVER and I didn't want to mess it up. So, I spent 6 weeks finishing, tweaking, adding her changes and then editing and tweaking some more. My goal was to send her the full in March and I succeeded. Yay me!
June 2008 –
Tara e-mailed to let me know she had the book with her and was going to read it asap and get back to me by the end of the week.
Two weeks later…
July 2008 –
It was 9:30-ish in the morning. I know because I had to leave work for a bit to pick my son up at his Kindergarten summer program. After dropping him at home (where yes, he has someone watching him) I drove back to work per usual. As I pulled into the parking lot of the gym, my cell phone rang. Seeing how it was a typically hectic Monday and it had been two uneventful weeks of tensing at every phone call, I didn't think anything as I picked it up. The caller ID said area code 212, which I knew from previous research was New York. Then I glanced up and the actual ID said "New York." My heart jumped. I took one deep breath and then answered. Tara was on the line. Her voice was nothing like I expected – no thick NY accent, just smooth, eloquent and friendly. She immediately set me at ease and I think the first thing I said was "It's so nice to finally hear your voice!" I walked into the club, found my boss, pointed to the phone at my ear and mouthed "New York" so she knew what was up.
Seeing how gyms are not the quietest place on earth, I went into the thankfully empty children's playroom so I could hear her. We chatted for what felt like forever before she finally said, "I had a chance to read your book and I loved it. I would like to make an offer to buy it." I'm pretty sure I squealed at a higher pitch than a chipmunk on crack, said OMG a couple times and thank you a dozen more. I wrote everything down and asked her a few questions. Thankfully, there are quite a few Harlequin authors in my local chapter, so I felt pretty confident saying yes to the offer over the phone. Actually, I think she had to ask me twice! Something like, "So do you think the offer sounds good?" I laughed and said "Of course! I would be honored to accept it."
I sat down at the small kiddy drawing table (with my knees tucked to my chest) and we spoke for about a half hour about some revisions she wanted and the following books in the series. When the call ended, I swore I could have bench pressed 500 pounds I was so excited! A few of our members who know I write, congratulated me and I spent the rest of my Monday with a huge smile on my face. 
And the one crazy thought that kept slipping through my mind was I basically bought a New York contract with Harlequin for $25! lol! I mean, I didn't really…but in a roundabout way…kinda sorta…yup, I guess I did.
Visit Meagan at http://www.meaganhatfield.com/
