Sunday, March 4, 2007

The "Call" Celebration

Saturday, March 3, was a special day... My fellow Central New York romance writers celebrated my "call." I want to thank our president, Midge, for planning my awesome "call" celebration, especially the added personal touch of NML's cover photo on the cake. Midge, you're the best. Since the party, I've been proudly showing off my engraved pen and cardholder set, and have been busy emailing the party photos to family and friends. Truly, it was wonderful to be honored in this way, and deeply appreciated. I'll never forget today.
And to those of you members who answered my questions for the past two years, no matter how stupid, thank you for your patience and willingness to share your knowledge. The specialness of this chapter is no exaggeration, and I can't wait to brag at this year's presidents meeting in Dallas.
Special thanks to my critique partners that made Never My Love a reality: Gwen, Jen, Arlene,(the Laptop dancers) and, "my coach," Nicole. For all their time, hard work and friendship, they deserve a lifetime supply of chocolate kisses!
My journey to becoming a writer was the hardest thing I've ever done. Publishing is a tough business, especially for romance writers. There are those who still persist in belittling our work as not literate, or trash. Hogwash. It's easy to pen a story where people are tortured or killed. Try writing a story where the two most unlikely of characters meet, iron out their differences until annealed to mutual respect, and have a world of trouble treatening to keep them apart. To top it off, have a satisfying, happy ending. Only the insane would even try. Instead, college professors, lawyers, teachers, physicians, and even jet pilots, along with other extremely talented men and women, write this way every day. Why? Because we love making people feel hopeful rather than hopeless.
That's why I have always loved the romance genre in all forms, whether an historical, regency, paranormal, futuristic, vampires, werewolves,changelings, mystery, suspense, or romantic comedy. I read them all. From my first novel by Sandra Brown, Sunny Chandler's Return, I have been hooked.
So if you've never read a romance, hopefully, Never My Love will be your first of many! ^-^
Susan

11 comments:

Gwyneth Bolton said...

Congrats, Susan! I'm so sorry I was out of town and missed your "The Call" Celebration. I would have loved to see that beautiful cover on the cake. (And I would have loved to have had a piece of that cake. LOL.)

Gwyneth

Kari Lee Townsend said...

Love what you've done with the blog. Very cool look and feel to it. And great workshop, Susan;)) I feel the need to bake all of a sudden.

Holly Greenfield said...

Congratulations Suemarie!! Sorry I missed the celebrations.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, Susan! Sorry I couldn't be there for your special day.

LOVE your blog page.

All the best,
Samantha Graves

Nancy Henderson said...

You deserve it, Sue!!! (((Hugs)))

Susan St. Thomas said...

Gwen you missed the party! Check out the CNYRW files for pictures of the party and cake. See you next month.

Susan St. Thomas said...

Hey Kari- Becareful baking those hot-crossed buns. Men can't resist!

Susan St. Thomas said...

Hi Holly! Are those two beautiful babies yours? Thanks for stopping by. See you next month at critique!

Susan St. Thomas said...

Sam/CJ- you were missed. We have to celebrate at the Retreat when your book makes the best seller's list in April. Sight Unseen, is awesome!

Susan St. Thomas said...

{{HUGS}} right back atcha, Nancy!

Nicki Greenwood said...

Hi Sue - congrats on The Call! I was happy to help any way I could - you deserve the success! BTW, great redesign on the site!