2010

How time flies. It hardly seems possible that what seems like such short time ago we were all ringing in a new millennium. And now we're already a decade, a DECADE into it. It makes my head hurt!

But this has been an awesome decade for me. So many things changed in my life and career. It was in 2002 that a friend of mine and I decided to take up the pen (or keyboard) and write with the goal of becoming published.

Now at the beginning of a writing career, everything is new and shiny and you have big dreams. The thing with those big dreams is that you aren't really certain, or even halfway convinced, they'll ever come true, but it doesn't stop you from daydreaming about "one day."

So much of my writing career didn't go as I planned. Okay, none of it did. I look back on how things have gone and I just shake my head and have to laugh because nothing went the way it was supposed to.

And that's a good thing.

You see, if things had gone the way I planned? Well, I probably wouldn't even have a career at this point.

I never planned to publish predominately under Maya Banks. It was a pen name I made up on the fly when I sold a book to an epublisher. Even after I sold a few contemporary erotic romances, I still figured I'd publish historicals under my real name. Then I sold a contemporary romantic suspense series and then I sold contemporary romances to Silhouette Desire. All under the name Maya Banks. And well, the final laugh was when I did eventually sell some historicals, and they too sold under my pen name.

Yes, this decade has been exciting. It's been a wonderful ride. But 2010, especially, was a year when I achieved those impossible dreams. The ones new writers like to tantalize themselves with. At least I did.

Earlier in the year, I hit the USA Today bestseller list with a book I wrote for Silhouette Desire. Then in September, The Darkest Hour also hit the USA Today bestseller list and for me this was so incredibly sweet, because this book was one I had waited years to be able to publish. It was a book I started on way back when I was still only writing historicals. But Ethan and Rachel's story came to me and it wouldn't leave. It stuck with me through all those years until the time was right and I pulled it back out. And the Kelly series was born.

To close out the year, the second book in the KGI series, No Place to Run, landed on the NYT bestseller list and remained on for a second week.

It took a bit for it to truly, truly sink in that so many of my goals had been reached. I'd actually done it. My books landed on the USA Today and NYT bestseller lists.

Four years after publishing that first book, I achieved something that I wasn't sure I'd ever achieve. It's still hard for me to wrap my head around it, but I'm more grateful than you can imagine for the opportunity to do something I love so very much.

And I'm grateful to you, the reader, for making it all possible.

My best wishes to you for a happy and safe 2011 as we embark on a brand new decade. May this year and this decade be as sweet and rewarding for you as the past year and decade has been for me.

Love,

Maya

©2010 Maya Banks: Southern Sin. All Rights Reserved.

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