Authors' Journeys

Lorelle Marinello

My adventure into writing began as a way for me to find a profitable occupation while staying at home with my kids. Go ahead laugh. You have my permission. It was 1995, my youngest was eighteen months old. I figured I could probably achieve my goal by the time she was in first grade. Ha! It took twelve long years, seven manuscripts with many rewrites, and me pretty much writing full time to reach my goal. When I'm not writing, I'm reading about writing and studying the craft. Writing was new territory for me, since my background is in visual arts. I had so much to learn. The only edge I had was a mother with a Masters in English Literature who had been correcting my speech for forty years.

I began writing what I liked to read, regency romances. Along about the second manuscript, I could see the regency market was going into a death spiral, so I decided to try my hand at a short contemporary. I came close to selling my second manuscript. It won an editor's choice award from Margaret Marbury as well as first place in women's fiction at the Santa Barbara Writer's Conference in 1999. I worked with a new editor at Silhouette on the revisions for almost two years. When it came time for the big decision, the senior editor went out on maternity leave and I was back to square one. Despite the disappointment, the lesson I learned was invaluable. I now knew how to tear a book apart, pull out a subplot, and rewrite. I also discovered I was meant to write bigger books-single titles with lots of subplots.

I finally found my voice in my third manuscript, FAIRHOPE, a Southern romantic suspense, which became a Golden Heart finalist in 2003. I also acquired my first agent with FAIRHOPE in 2001. I thought I was on my way. FAIRHOPE finalled in contest after contest, received positive editorial attention, but still no sale.

My fourth manuscript, HARD LIES, was an even bigger hit in contests and won the coveted Golden Heart in 2005. My agent and I had split over this manuscript in 2002. I remained agentless for five years, while I searched for the right agent. My work crossed the genre lines between women's fiction and romance. I needed a brave agent with vision who believed in me. Tired of the long wait, I made opportunities for myself by attending conferences and workshops where I could meet editors. I received requests from editors who normally only looked at agented material. I took the feedback they gave me and rewrote.

I realized I was hitting a wall and needed to submit my work to a mainstream editor. I took a shot at a local multi-genre conference and submitted my first ten pages of my sixth manuscript, WALTZING WITH ALLIGATORS, to a Harper Collins editor. It worked and she requested the full. I was opening a rejection from an agent who'd been looking at my work for the past two years when I received an email from my editor on a Sunday morning. She'd taken half of my manuscript home on Friday night and had run back to the office to print out the rest so she could finish reading it. Yikes! Talk about pins and needles. She said she'd call the next day.

I was pretty much speechless when she called. It was basically a who-are-are-and-what-are-your-hopes-and-dreams call. Then she said she had to get a few more reads on the manuscript before a decision could be made. Four long days passed until THE CALL.

I'd sent out queries to agents shortly after the editorial request. One agent had emailed me the day after she received the first ten pages and requested an exclusive. I gave it to her based on her enthusiasm. Though two other agents offered representation, I went with the one who initially loved my voice and reacted quickly.

There were a couple things that kept me going through the years of rejection. If you've ever been a Golden Heart finalist, you know all about rejection-the dark side of the glory that no one talks about. You really have to put yourself out there in the four-month window of opportunity. Rejections come fast and furious, sometimes more than one a day, if you're unagented.

During that time, I learned that I had to believe in my work and myself, even if no one else did. Jenny Crusie taught me that it can't matter whether you are published or not. You have to write the books you have to write, tell the stories you were born to tell. Publishing is not part of that. It's about the writing and being true to who you are. Even if you adopt a detached attitude, it doesn't mean that you won't be disappointed when you receive a rejection. Rejection hurts no matter where you are on the publishing scale. It takes a certain amount of arrogance to be a writer. You have to believe in yourself and your stories when the rest of the world seems determined to knock you down. Keep the faith and push ahead.