Is it true you got published as the result of winning a writing contest?

companion_new180Yes, that’s true. As soon as I decided to try my hand at writing romance, I joined Romance Writers of America. One of the many benefits they offer unpublished members is the opportunity to enter writing contests that provide valuable feedback from judges — regional contests as well as one important national contest. I won two of the four regional contests I entered, and the winning entries for one of the contests were sent to acquiring editors. Mine was sent to an editor at Berkley/Jove, who wrote me asking for the full manuscript. Minor problem: I didn’t have one yet. I only had nine completed chapters. She asked me to send them to her, and she bought the book based on those few chapters. I realize how extremely fortunate I was to sell my first book without a completed manuscript. I will always be grateful to Judy Stern Palais at Berkley for taking a chance on me and publishing A Proper Companion.