After two weeks of hating Patrick's guts, I calmed down enough to ask him for specifics. He suggested that from what he'd read, I should try social comedy. (So much for gritty realism and betrayal.) And, he suggested, instead of cops, who are bound by rules and regulations, why not use a private investigator, who isn't? Since he now headed his own P.I. firm, I had a resource made to order. Patrick's wisdom (and some cool plot twists) now inform Her Private Eye.

I'd had an idea that had been turned down by Red Sage, so I abandoned my thesis halfway through the program--a risky business, that--and started a story about a P.I. who sets up a surveillance post in a woman's house and falls in love with her. Patrick loved this. He said it actually happened to him. The man is tall, dark, and gorgeous, so I believe him. :)

The proposal went to Temptation in January 2001. In June that year, Susan Sheppard asked for the complete--and then she left Harlequin. A couple of months later Jennifer Tam Green wrote to introduce herself, and said she had the manuscript. In July 2002 I met Jen and Birgit Davis-Todd at National in Denver, and when I introduced myself to Birgit, she gave me one of her keen glances and said, "Your name is familiar to me." Gack, I thought. What does that mean? It meant the book was already on her desk for review. On August 8 at 10:45 a.m. Jen Green called and made me an offer.

And my writing career began.

Her Private Eye will be out in June, just in time for me to sign it at the literacy event in New York. Because of course I'm going to New York. There's no way I'm going to miss my very first Harlequin party.

I know I told the "First Sale" column in the RWR that I'd been writing for 11 years. I just didn't want to tell them it was closer to thirty. (It would be just too humiliating to have the next entry be Nora Novelist, who sold her book after writing for six months.) Since I've paid my dues, I'm uniquely qualified to talk about putting the "I" in persistence and staying with writing for the long haul.

It takes 7 years to be a lawyer, 12 years to be a doctor … these guys have it easy. In this business, the writing and your own persistence are the only things you can control. Everything else is up to the publisher and the reading audience.

I've found that there are five things you can do to motivate yourself while you're waiting for the stars to align and beam down on the editor who picks your manuscript off her pile.

It helps to have a supportive critique group, or at least one knowledgeable reader you can trust to give you constructive feedback.

Over a period of years your critiquers can change, depending on what you write and your skill level, but this can be a good thing as you mature in your craft. Plus, it really motivates you to keep producing material if you know someone is waiting to read it. The critiquers I trust most, with the exception of one, don't live anywhere near me. One is in Denver, one is in Southampton, England, and one is in Ontario. But I value them enormously because of their insight and their honesty.

Silhouette author Brenda Novak said at a recent meeting of the San Francisco RWA, "Expect to succeed and you'll be prepared when you do." I've proved this in my own experience. Something that kept me motivated, particularly over the last two years, was visualization.

Now, I'm not usually a proponent of woo-woo stuff, but I tell ya, after this last couple of months I'm changing my tune. I would lie awake at night visualizing the call. I'd script it out--Jen would say this, and I'd say that, and how about eight percent and 50 author copies, and so on. I went over the questions I wanted to ask. I went to a workshop at Denver (did I mention how valuable that Denver conference was?) on "What To Do When You Get The Call," and I had the checklist by the phone--an act of positive thinking in itself. So when Jen actually did call, I didn't scream and drop the receiver. I went straight into business mode, because I'd practiced everything so often that it felt comfortable having the conversation and using the words.

And no, I didn't get eight percent.

Another thing you can do to keep yourself going over the long haul is to create a positive environment.

Recently some writers were talking about doing feng shui in their writing environment. So one weekend last summer (in a fit of work avoidance) I feng shui'd my office. I learned that my writing desk is in the prosperity corner. Good thing, because it weighs about 500 pounds and I can't move it. Just to be sure, I put a Canadian $10 bill--which happens to be purple, the correct colour for that corner--in a ginger jar, because I want lots of money coming in from Toronto. I put candles in my fame and reputation area, and put my master's diploma on that wall. My bookshelves were already in the creativity area, so I cleaned those up. I reduced clutter. I put Jen's name in the "helpful people" area.

So, you ask, what happened, besides the fact that I could move in my office without tripping?

A week later, I got the call. Woo-woo stuff? Maybe. But I'm not going to argue with it.

Creating a positive environment means more than tidy furniture and purple money, though. It means surrounding yourself with people who contribute to it.

We've all heard of toxic people--the contest judge who wants to rewrite your story the way she'd tell it, the writing friend who can never get motivated and looks to you to keep her going, the coworker who spreads rumours about you because you write "smut." Do your best to control how much you interact with these people. Surround yourself with people who give you energy, and who inspire you to give energy in return. This may sound heartless and selfish. Maybe it is. But think of five or ten years spent with a critique partner who continually drains you so that she can keep going. Where is inspiration coming from for you? I think it's Susan Elizabeth Phillips who says, "Protect the work." For me this means, Think of the long haul. We're going to have to live the long haul anyway, so we need to make it as inspiring and joyful a journey as we can.

The last way to motivate yourself is to look inside and find your passion.

Every writer has something to say--that's possibly one of the reasons we write. The books I've sold all have a common theme: a woman breaks away from authority structures and makes her life on her own terms. At least for now, this is my passion. It's something I feel strongly about, and it gets into my writing whether I'm conscious of it or not.

Find that nugget--that theme or metaphor or piece of your character's makeup--that makes you passionate, and not only will it help you keep going in the long run, it will be the thing that catches the editor's eye. They can spot passion a hundred yards away--and I'm not just talking about love scenes, here. An editor knows when a writer is writing from her heart, and that's the book that's going to be the one that nets you the contract.