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