The month of March marks a double milestone for me. It was
23 years ago I got The Call from a New York editor offering to buy my first
book. That was on March 17, 1997. That book was published on March 1, 1998, as A Duke Deceived by Harlequin Historical.
(It was one of the few books I wrote in which the publishers kept my original
title.)
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| Signing my first book at a Barnes and Noble bookstore. |
I’ll never forget the day I got The Call. I was working as a
news editor at a community newspaper and had gone home for lunch. A light was
blinking on my phone’s answering machine. The message was from Harlequin editor
Margaret Marbury, who said to give her a call.
I knew what this meant. The senior editor there had read my
first three chapters five months earlier and had asked me to send them the rest
of the novel. (This was after she had read another of my books in a contest I’d
finaled in, and she’d asked me to submit a historical novel, if I wrote one
that took place before 1900.)
One doesn’t get a phone call for a rejection.
By then I was trembling.
I’d waited a long time for this call. Twenty-five years. I’d written my first complete book when I was in
my early twenties.
I picked up the phone.
And I called my husband.
“Why are you calling me?” he chided. “Call her right back!”
$5,000 Advance
So I did. She offered to buy the book and asked me if a
$5,000 advance was all right. I thought it was just wonderful, but I tried to
play it cool. “Fine,” I said. I don’t remember a whole lot more about the call
because I was flying really high.
After I hung up I wanted to tell the world. I wanted to
celebrate. Of course I called my husband and told him. I called my mother, but
she wasn’t home. I left a message on her answering machine. When I got back to the office, I was still shaking all over, and I told our receptionist.
One of my children had finished law school and fled the
nest, the other was still in college and working nights, so celebrating with them
that night was not an option.
I’d always dreamed of buying an expensive bottle of
Rothschild wine and really celebrating the huge milestone. But even my husband
had to work that night. As a college professor, he was required to teach one
night class, and this was the night.
This calls for a
celebration
As it was, he and I managed to sandwich in a quick dinner at
our favorite Mexican dive to mark my Huge Life Event. Not what I’d always
envisioned, but at least I didn’t have to cook.
The following day when I went to work, our receptionist and her young daughter had baked me a cake that said "Way to Go, Cheryl," and the whole office enjoyed celebrating my milestone. Our publisher even insisted a story about my accomplishment go into that week's edition.
A year later the first of my
forty-plus books came out. Harlequin billed it as March Madness, when they
introduced four new authors. What a wonderful opportunity it was for me.
Holding my book, seeing on the shelves in bookstores, and
having it professionally reviewed, all of this was beyond thrilling. It was
even better than getting The Call.
How happy I was that my mother lived to see my first
published book and attend my first book signing. She died a month later.
March will always be special to me because it is what
launched the career I love. Oh, and there’s a moral to this story. Don’t ever
give up.—Cheryl Bolen’s last release was HisLady Deceived.
Enter our March Lucky in Love giveaway here.
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