It started when my Mom introduced me to the book "Someday Soon" by Kathleen Eagle. Although I was writing short stories and plays for my sisters and I, the real love for writing came after I read that book. My sister and I took turns reading that book until we could almost recite it line by line. I decided that I was going to become a world class writer and become an overnight sensation. My dreams including becoming a millionare, living by the Gulf, seeing the sun rise and the sun set there...wondering if I would swim in my olympic size pool or the Gulf of Mexico when I got my latest chapter finished. Letting my parents, grandparents, and siblings have a great and money filled life. LITTLE DID I KNOW!!!!!
At the time there were no computers that we could buy. The computers had just come into schools at the time and you had to feed them codes, line by line, just to get into a program. Instead I wrote by hand my work. My dad had bought me a typewriter that wrote in cursive that I started using after that, but once the spools ran out, it was hard to buy for that specific typewriter, so I went to a smaller one. That one you had to put 2 pieces of paper in because the keys would hit the paper so hard that the paper would tear if you didn't have something behind it. I was a typing machine! Dad had an electric typewriter, but didn't want to borrow it for fear I would somehow break it. So my short stories that I was writing was typed out every evening from the longhand I would write!
In my senior year of high school, I decided that I was going to write longer stories and decided on mysteries. You could have mysteries as romance novels, I rationalized. (I didn't know if there were romance novels out there that were mysteries or not, was stuck on the Silhouette Romance and Silhouette Romance Special Edition at the time.) That's when the problem came about that my characters kept falling in love with each other and I couldn't kill anyone off, so the mystery was cut out of the equation.
After high school, and numerous small books that I had finished, I got married and bought an electric typewriter. Staying up until the wee hours of the morning writing was heaven for me, no children wanting something, they were peacefully sleeping, but for my husband, he was not a fan of me coming to bed at 3 a.m. He was also tired of hearing the keys clacking, but I was so sure that I would become the next big seller, that I didn't want to stop. Rejection letters have a way to do that to you, though.
In 1994 I was up typing one night and my husband was trying to watch one of his shows and had had enough. "I think you need to get a computer. In fact, I dare you to go get one. Tomorrow!" That had the keys become magically quiet. I looked at him, told him I didn't have that kind of money, except for my babysitting money where I was watching 3 small girls, but it got me thinking. I did the math and figured that I could put one on layaway until it was paid off. The next day, with my daughter in school, my 2 youngest with me, and the 3 small girls that I usually watched at their Dad's house, they were sick, we went to Sears. I told the gentleman what I wanted, what I wanted it for, and walked out with a huge computer setup, printer, cords, and a huge box of computer paper, and a new Sears credit card in my name!
That computer was a lifesaver, for 6 months, when it crashed! Another one was shipped to me, and it changed my life. All my thoughts, partial books, poetry, short stories I wrote down. Again, the rejection letters kept coming, but the books stayed on discs, knowing that somehow, some way I would get them published.
My best friend, Kim, read my stuff and coaxed me on. At the time, she lived in Alaska, a 4 hour time difference, so I would confer with her at nighttime and plan things out. She helped with little things and I kept writing. In 1996 I met Diana. She worked with me at an air conditioning company and I started giving her my stuff to edit. She told me the truth, whether it was good or not, and what I should edit.
Now, 15 years later, still writing, have dozens of books finished, loads and loads of them are started, and dozens of rejection letters! Diana still tells me what I should edit. Kim is still there for me to talk to if I need to talk to her about a storyline, but she has a very busy household, so most of the storylines get forwarded to Diana.
2 years ago I was chatting with some weather fanatics and one approached me, said he loved to write to, and we started writing page by page, sending it back and forth, until he stopped. I finished that book. Had me in tears at the end of it. I sent it to Diana, every chapter as I finished it, and she was as hooked on reading it as I was finishing it. My husband, God bless him, answered question after question, and, didn't mind that I wasn't coming to bed until 2 or 3. He then went to Kentucky to help add on to a home for some friends of his. I had 3 weeks to finish the book, have it edited, and a final draft before going to Florida for a week. I had it all finished in 2 weeks. Diana, whom I stayed with in Florida, went over it with me, and it was perfect. I sent it out, 5 months later a letter came back...a rejection letter. Although, as with a prior book...File Under "L" For Love...it was "Although this book was a great story and has great promise, we just can't publish it at this time." So it gave me hope. Again, more let downs, but still the dream was there.
Today I was sitting at the computer on facebook and reading the forum for the Bold and the Beautiful when I came up with this idea. I'll put my romance novels in a blog. I won't get paid for them, but at least people can read them, and I'll still have my dream!
So people, here's to the start of Tammy's Romance Novels page. Hopefully, after I get everything off discs and CD's, I'll have quite the collection. Unfortunately, the ones I wrote when I was younger, no longer exist. Some of them were lost on a move, and some were so thin on paper that they actually tore.
Here's to Tammy's Romance Novels.....Cheers!!!!!
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