Welcome to Pamela Palmer–What does it take to be an overnight success? Call story and contest!
***Note– this contest will be open through December 1. I will also leave Nancy Gideon and Rhyannon Byrd's contest open through Monday at midnight since a lot of people were traveling and away from their computers this weekend. I'll post winners for all open contests on Tuesday morning.
Welcome Pamela Palmer!
Today Pamela is sharing her call story. I love her success story so much because it shows how important it is to reach for a dream and never give up. I was really excited to have her share her story because I feel we often we hear about the overnight success stories, when often THE CALL doesn't come overnight at all. In fact, the overnight success stories tend to be years in the making.We just tend to think things were overnight for someone because suddenly the success of a certain writer, or movie star, or whoever it might be, seems to be evident. When in truth, there were many 'almost but not quite' experiences to their success (raising my hand on that one!). Even after THE CALL there is a career to build that often takes years more. Many writers write 20 plus category novels before they breakout in single title. Or write like crazy for e-pubs and then finally make it in single title. I've often used the analogy of — I'm invited to the house across the street. Then to the curb. Then to sidewalk. Then to the front door. When do I get to go inside? Is it time yet? Do I get to come to the real party? It's baby steps. So again, I think it's so important for aspiring authors to hear, and try to remember through the bumps in their path, that they just need to keep believing in themselves, and keep working hard. So, all this said, read onward and enjoy Pamela's story. I hope it inspires you as it does me!
And Pamela is giving away a copy of her most recent book Rapture Untamed and if you haven't tried this series you want to, I promise you. So how do you get a chance to win a signed copy of Rapture untamed? Simply comment on Pamela's post or like THE CALL which is something every writer is thankful for — share something you're thankful for this holiday season.
So onward to Pamela's great story and bit more about her most recent release and her early 2011 release.
The Call – Pamela Palmer
Unlike a lot of authors I know, I didn't grow up wanting to be a writer. I grew up wanting to be an astronaut until I realized that being an astronaut in the late twentieth century didn't mean seeking out new worlds and new civilizations. I wanted starships not space shuttles. But by that time, I was well on my way to an engineering degree. I met my husband in college, got married, and went to work as an engineer for IBM. Not until after my kids were born did I decide I wanted to write. I'd always been a reader, mostly of romance, and a daydreamer. I had the storyteller gene that is at the heart of all fiction writers. What I had to learn was how to craft the stories already crowding my head.
It took me two years to write my first book, then nine more to sell. Finally, May 31, 2006 I got The Call as a direct result of Romance Writers of America's (RWA's) Golden Heart contest.
The Golden Heart is the most prestigious of the contests for unpublished romance manuscripts. I'd finaled before, a total of five times. But in the spring of 2006, Lady Luck finally found me. One of the final round judges of the paranormal category that year happened to be an editor at Harlequin-Silhouette, an editor actively buying for the brand new Nocturne line. And my story, ultimately released under the title The Dark Gate, was just the kind of dark paranormal romance she'd been looking for.
I submitted the manuscript in the Golden Heart back in the fall of 2005 under the title Midnight Fire, then almost immediately changed the title when I thought of another I liked better. Under the new title, See No Evil, I entered a number of other contests and began querying editors and agents. The end of March 2006, I learned the manuscript had finaled in the Golden Heart.
Early afternoon on May 31st, my phone rang. It was Ann Leslie Tuttle from Harlequin-Silhouette wanting to make me an offer on my book. It took a moment for it all to click since I'd never submitted to Ann Leslie, I'd never even submitted to Silhouette. But the moment she called the manuscript Midnight Fire, I knew she must have been one of my Golden Heart judges. (GH judges are kept secret.) From there, the call got even more confusing since she wanted to buy it for their Nocturne line, which I'd never heard of. I'd envisioned this manuscript as single title, not category, and was a little concerned about what changes she might want me to make. But she quickly allayed my fears and I realized I was in the middle of The Call.
As I'd been taught to do, I didn't agree to anything, but thanked her profusely for the offer and promised to get back with her in a couple of days, as soon as I secured an agent. Then I called my husband whose exact words were, "Great! Did the plumber come?" (We'd had a leak beneath the fridge that morning.) I made more calls to my parents and my best friends, then I called the three agents I'd recently queried and told them I had an offer. The next day, two of the three offered to represent me, I chose one, and my career was off and running.
Four and a half years later, I've published nine books with three different publishers (Avon, Berkley, and Harlequin-Silhouette) and have four more under contract. And in July of this year, with the fourth book in my Feral Warriors series for Avon, Rapture Untamed, I hit the NY Times and USA Today bestseller lists.
Everyone's path to publication is different. Mine was tougher than some and easier than others. Ultimately, it's about patience, perseverance, hard work, and the elusive Lady Luck.
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Rapture Untamed, today's prize book, hit the New York Times extended list and the USA Today bestseller list!
Congrats Pamela!
About the book:
The most combative – and tormented – of all the Ferals, Jag is a predator who hunts alone – until daemons terrorize the human population. To stop them, he partners with Olivia, a flame-haired Therian temptress as strong as she is beautiful. But Olivia is no ordinary immortal. The survivor of a vicious supernatural attack, she possesses a deadly and forbidden skill – one that must remain hidden, especially from the powerful Feral Warriors.
As Jag and Olivia's sensual dance of dominance and seduction gets wilder and hotter, a dark force sets its sights on Olivia, threatening to destroy everything she has vowed to protect. And the only one who can save her soul is the arrogant jaguar shifter she lusts for but dares not love.
Rapture Untamed is Book 4 in the Feral Warriors series
Read an excerpt here
Coming February 22, 2011
Book 5 in the Feral Warriors Series
Hunger Untamed
from Avon Books
For a thousand years she has haunted him—Ariana, queen of the Ilinas, a beauty of mist and light. His love, his life mate… Kougar believed her lost to him forever until the truth of her stunning betrayal left him bitter and hungry for revenge. Now she alone holds the power to save two trapped and desperate Feral Warriors.
Ariana, caught in a deadly battle of her own, is neither the soulless creature Kougar believes her to be, nor the savior he seeks. And when darkness threatens to annihilate both races, the greatest danger of all becomes the glorious love Kougar and Ariana once shared. A love that must never rise again. A love that has never died.
Read an excerpt here
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Let the comments begin!
