I had been writing for 12 years, submitting, and collecting reject letters. Still I kept plugging away. I was convinced that somewhere out there was an editor who loved my stories as much as I did.

We moved cross country from New Jersey to Arizona. I was emailing a friend one night and she told me about a new publisher out of Arizona. They were going to publish some of her back list as e-books and they were doing a sort of CSI series. She suggested I may want to email the publisher.

As this person was someone I trusted, I did just that.

Unfortunately, the slots for the series were filled, however there was another series they were doing and she sent me a link to the bible to see if I would be interested.
I looked and I was, so I quickly wrote a proposal for what would be my first paranormal romance The Man in the Mirror. At the same time I told the publisher about another book I had finished and that was a romantic suspense. She asked to see it.

A few weeks later I opened my email to find a contract for the romantic suspense, Pandora’s Justice and a few days after that a second contract for Man in the Mirror..
Pandora’s Justice went on to become a finalist in the romantic suspense category of the 2005 EPPIES.

I received the email at 8pm on a weeknight. It was to late to call most of my critique partners back east. I did call one that I knew would be awake and screamed over the phone to her. I also emailed the friend who originally suggested submitting to them. After 12 years I was finally published! Some people call it stubborn, I prefer to call it “THE CELTIC FACTOR”. Being Scots Irish it fits.

Now, I wish I could say I went on to be a NY Times best selling author, but not yet.

After a few years, the publisher went bankrupt and I found myself orphaned. But not for long. In a stroke of luck, my husband had sold his first book to a publisher out of Texas called Swimming Kangaroo Books. He told her of my problem and asked if I could email her. I did and my first book came out in print! EZ Lovin’ was published in 2007 and Pandora’s Justice will be out in 2009.

The moral of the story Remember THE CELTIC FACTOR

This post was submitted by Elaine Charton.