Sheila, you wrote eleven Regencies over a period of several years, and your career seemed stable. What happened to change all that?

My own stupidity. I didn’t think through one aspect of my plot very carefully, which lead me to make a serious error; one that not only I failed to catch, but one that was missed by my critique partner (who is usually fabulous at catching mistakes), my editor, the copy editor, everyone but the woman who reviewed the book. This unfortunate circumstance, I am convinced, affected my sales. When it was time to go back to the table, my publisher offered me considerably less for my next book. Thinking we could do better elsewhere, my agent and I declined the offer and went looking. But when we went looking we found that no one wanted to be found, at least not by us. I had published thirteen Regencies, but that didn’t matter now. I was a literary leper.

To make matters worse, the midlist was in a downturn at that time. How did that impact your Regency career?

The midlist crisis was exactly that, a very real career crisis for a lot of authors who were not beginners but weren’t superstars, either. Book stores were devoting a great deal of shelf space to the latest release of the big name writers as well as their back list. There is only so much room in a book store, and once most of that shelf space was taken by the big names there was little left for the legion of us still trying to make a name for ourselves. For those of us trying to squeeze in, it was, indeed, a crisis.

Can you describe how you felt during this "dry" period? What was the most frustrating thing about it?

I thought my life as a writer was over. It was devastating. I felt like a failure, and the worst thing of all was the knowledge that I had brought this on myself. In retrospect, I realize that this was all for the best. I had been banging out pot boilers like crazy, but not working on improving as a writer. Oh, I thought I was doing a good job, but I had a long way to grow. Come to think of it, I still do. Becoming a good writer is rather like trying to improve your tennis game. You’re always working on it.

At what point did you decide to turn your efforts to contemporary romance?

What finally turned me writing contemporary romance was when I got the idea for my Christmas book, All I Want for Christmas, which came out in Oct of 2000. Before I started that I had banged out two regency romance proposals and an entire manuscript for a regency historical plus a proposal for three other books to follow it. Obviously, I was in there pitching... or typing.

Tell us how you made the switch.

I did a lot of thinking about writing during my three year unemployment period. I read a ton of books on writing. And even after that, I think I’ve only scratched the surface. I think, as writers, we should always be learning and growing, working to improve, wanting to grow.

What kind of support or non-support did you get from fellow authors?

My fellow authors were fabulous. In fact, I was whining one day at a lunch about how miserable I was and how I was getting nowhere, and Kristin Hannah broke the sad news to me that I was going to have to have to go back to start and write an entire book. At the time I was desperate for money and in a hurry and wanting to find a shortcut. What I found was there was no shortcut. Unless you happen to Lazarus, rising from the dead takes a long time. My other friends concurred, and I spent the next year of my life eating a lot of beans and writing my first contemporary.

Was it hard to get up the nerve to pitch something new to editors? What about your agent?

It’s always hard to pitch something new. It’s still hard to pitch something new. Just this week I mailed off a proposal for something, and as I drove away from the post office, I thought, “What if there is still a typo I didn’t catch? Should I have rewritten that synopsis a fifth time? I loved this, but it’s probably garbage. My editor will hate it. Oh, heck, it won’t even get that far. My agent will send it back. Did I remember to include the cover letter? No, I know I put that in because I already ruined one priority envelope checking to make sure it was there. Oh, who wants to be a writer, anyway?” As for the agent thing, well, read on.

In effect, you made a "first sale" all over again. Tell us about the road to publication this second time around. Did being previously published help? Or were you facing the same pile of rejections that most new authors face?

The agent I had when I hit the skids had ended our professional relationship (bless her heart, she tried to help me, but at the time I was still trying to find myself and pretty unhelpable), so I had no in with an editor. I knew this because I had tried to submit to editors on my own and with no success. I kept thinking someone would give me a chance because, after all, I’d published thirteen books. The saying “you’re only as good as your last hit” doesn’t just apply to songs. I believed in my new book though, thought it was a winner, and knew that someone else was bound to think so, too. But I knew the only way I was going to get anyone to take a look at it was if I submitted through an agent. Again, my friends came to the rescue. Susan Wiggs introduced me to my current agent who is the coolest thing that ever breathed. My new agent helped me tweak the manuscript further and negotiated my sale, and I will be forever grateful to her.

Describe your thoughts on receiving the news that your first contemporary had sold.

It was even more exciting than my first sale, which I had pretty much stumbled into. This time I had sweat blood and shed tears, and I was so thankful I could hardly stand it. I went running up and down the road to all my neighbors (who all happen to be my family), knocking on doors, jumping up and down and babbling incoherently, and they all jumped up and down with me. It was thrilling.

Do you see yourself returning to Regency in the future?

Thankfully for Regency readers, no.

Tell us about your upcoming books.

I’m very excited about my upcoming book, A Prince of a Guy, which will be out this summer. My heroine is a know-it-all radio shrink who learns by the end of the book that she doesn’t know as much as she thinks she does (I listened to so much talk radio advice for this book I could start my own show.) My hero is the guy next door (literally), and I love him. And my cover model is about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen on a book. I guarantee you’ll fall in love with him, warts and all.

How can readers contact you?

I hope they’ll visit my website: sheilasplace.com

Sheila, thanks for chatting with us, and best of luck!

March 16, 2001