Welcome back! I’m so thrilled you’re here. This week Brenda Margriet asked – What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given? Could be in writing, in life, for your career. What’s the one thing that has stuck with you through the years?

Okay…Once upon a time, I was about to give up writing. I had been at it for years and had no luck with traditional publishers or agents. I had written a novella for a editorial call for submissions at a small publishing house. It was the best work I had done at that time, and the house rejected it. Suffice to say, I was devastated and ready to give up.

A few weeks later, I went to a NJRW (New Jersey Romance Writers) meeting and told that story to a friend. She immediately looked at me and said, “Don’t be an ass, go submit it to someone else.” She went on to tell me that manuscripts cross editors desk by the hundreds, and you have no idea what kind of mood they were in when yours went by. It’s not personal, it’s business.

So, I pulled up my “big girl panties” and submitted the story to another house, and they bought it. For the record, both the house I published with and the one who rejected me have gone out of business in the years since this happened. However, I got my foot in the door, gained confidence in my writing, and have sold NINETEEN book since.

There you have it, the best writing advice I ever got was “don’t be an ass.” Or something like that. LOL

And we all lived happily every after…more or less…

You can pick up a review copy of A Lady’s Escape before it’s releases at NetGalley. 🙂