First off, let’s raise a cheer for Dame Devon, who came up with the brilliant idea of each Dame talking about their path to publication. It’s been interesting reading, and I can’t wait to read what the remaining Dames have to say!

My path, I’m afraid, was a long and rather uneducated one. Like Dame Rachel, I didn’t hit this business from an academic bent, but rather from a sheer love of telling stories. I’ve been telling myself stories for as long as I can remember. As a horse mad pre-teen, I used to take my collection of horse statues out into the garden and make up adventures with them. I even told myself stories in bed at night to help me fall asleep. But the first actual time I can remember putting pen to paper was when a favorite author killed off a character I loved in one of her novels. I was so incensed that I rewrote that story, making that character the hero and letting him live.

And that, I’m afraid, was the start of it all. As a teenager, I was always writing—sometimes the stories featured my favorite pop star falling madly in love with me, and sometimes they were simply fantasy stories featuring females as the main lead (even as a teenager who loved fantasy stories, I was getting a little sick of women always being the ones who needed rescuing)

As I became an adult, the desire to write grew stronger, as did the desire to see my novels in print. But I had no idea where to start or what to do, and besides, why in the world would anyone want to published a story from an unknown Australian who had absolutely no training when it came to writing?

So, I went to work, bought lots of books, had lots of horses who ate too much and got too fat, met my hubby, and eventually got married. All through that, I kept writing and kept dreaming of being published, but I never did a whole lot to actually achieve the dream.

Then, in 1989, I got pregnant. And suddenly, it was now or never. I decided that when my daughter was born, I was going to quit work and concentrate on my writing with the aim of becoming published, because we all know new mums have so much free time once their child is born (okay, you can stop laughing. Babies were new world to me—I had no idea back then just how much work the adorable little blighters were). But despite the culture shock that was my daughter’s entrance into the world, I did manage to write. Not only that, I went to my first conference–the Romance Writers of Australia conference–and it was a revelation. For the first time in my life, I knew I wasn’t alone in this dream of becoming published, and I began to believe it was actually possible.

It was around that time that I wrote the first draft of Dancing with the Devil. It was a paranormal romance featuring a kick arse heroine, and I happily sent it off into the world, fully believing that any publisher in their right mind would snap it up.

Unfortunately for me, the publishers didn’t quite see it that way. Rejections followed. Lots of them. Ten years worth, in fact. I joined crit groups, learned more about my craft, and wrote lots of other books, but I just couldn’t let Dancing go. I really believed in that book and wouldn’t let it die. But as so many rejections reminded me, it was simply too cross genre for the market. I also think the fact that I was an unknown Aussie didn’t help matters—in fact, I know it was a reason several agents rejected me. The tyranny of distance, and all that crap.

In the late 1990′s, in a fit of frustration, I submitted to two e-presses. One was Hardshell, and the other ImaJinn, a small trade paperback and e-press that had just started up. I knew the risks, I knew I was never going to make a lot of money, and I sure as hell knew I wouldn’t ever see my books on the shelves in Australia. But I figured that if New York didn’t want me, maybe I could build up a following at an e-press and, along the way, gain some experience that might just help me step up. So I sent Dancing back out. Hardshell never really got back to me, but ImaJinn’s response was quick. But once again, it was the dreaded rejection. However, for the first time, it was actually a positive rejection, with the editor saying that if I rewrote the book and addressed her concerns, she’d look at it again. Naturally enough, that’s exactly what I did, and in 2001, Dancing with the Devil became my first published book.

Releases came thick and fast after that. While some of the stories published were novels I’d written in the years before Dancing’s publication, many of them were brand new, and between 2001 and 2007 I had 12 novels and one novella published with ImaJinn.

But for me, the big jump came in 2003, when I wrote my first werewolf book—Beneath a Rising Moon. In it, you’ll see the beginnings of the mythology that became the world of Riley Jenson. Riley herself sort of exploded into my life sometime in 2003/2004 (I can’t remember the exact date now), and I wrote the first two books in rather quick succession. I knew from the minute she hit the page that if any book could break me into New York, it would be hers, and I excitedly sent her out to the world. All she collected was rejections. I even had a great agent work on it with me, but in the end, she too rejected it. The story was so cross genre she wasn’t sure were to send it. To say it was disheartening is something of an understatement.

When I got the recommendation to our fabulous Dame Agent, I wasn’t exactly expecting a whole lot, so it was something of a surprise when she got back to me rather quickly to say she loved it and wanted to represent me. Six weeks later, after an auction with three publishers, I had a three book deal with Bantam. Full Moon Rising was published in hardcover in 2006. Between the hardcover and the paperback release of Full Moon, I signed another three book contract, meaning the Dec 2006 mass market release of Full Moon Rising was followed in quick succession by Kissing Sin (Jan 2007), Tempting Evil (Feb), Dangerous Games (March), and Embraced by Darkness (July). I also sold another 3 books, bringing the total to 9. In 2008, The Darkest Kiss came out (April), as did Destiny Kills (Oct), and I sold another 4 books to Bantam. In 2009, both Deadly Desire (March) and Bound to Shadows (Oct) came out. Moon Sworn, the last of the Riley series, came out in May this year.

So what’s next? Well, Mercy Burns, the follow-up to Destiny Kills finally comes out in April next year, then Darkness Unbound, the first of the Dark Angels series (The Riley offshoot series) comes out in July. Right now, I’m working on the second of the Dark Angels books, and then I’m out of contract and hoping like hell Bantam wants more of them.

So to echo the words of my fellow dames, whew! But as you can see, my somewhat long writing apprenticeship did eventually pay off, evolving into a rather rapid succession of sales and releases. It just shows that you should never, ever give up on your dream of being a writer. And that sometimes, sheer, bloody minded persistence does pay off!