But really, how do you know? For me there have been points of clarity mixed with occasional thwacks upside the head to remind me. The first big point of clarity came in high school when I knew writing for the newspaper and getting nonfiction published in a national magazine wasn’t enough. I didn’t want just a byline, I wanted to create stories that were something no one else could do, that were out of my own creativity rather than reporting.

The second point of clarity came when I started a Writer’s Digest course and got my first smackdown from a wise teacher who told me my first novel had way too many plots going at once and I needed to pare it down to one single story to focus on. I was crushed, but she was right.

The third point of clarity came when my mother passed away at 52 from breast cancer. She was an inspiration, a person who really made everyone around her strive to live their dreams, and a natural storyteller. But she also taught be something I’ll never forget – if you don’t tell the stories, they stayed locked inside. No one can share them but you. If you leave this world without sharing those stories, those stories leave with you, never to be read. I can’t go there. Frankly there’s barely enough room in my head for what has to be there day in and day out, let alone to store a bunch of stories that’ll never be told. I’ve got to clean it out by getting those stories down on paper.

My fourth point of clarity came with the American Title contest, when I was cut after making it through a few rounds. Boy did I think about quitting. I already had a successful public relations agency, why did I need the grief? I was going to purge my office of writing. Yeah, right. That lasted half an hour. Then I realized I was still going to have stories in my head. I was still going to have to find some way of releasing them to keep myself sane and happy. Writing was cheaper than therapy, and it also meant I got to keep my non-writer friends who wouldn’t be bombarded by yet another untold tale of mine.

The latest thwack upside the head to remind me what I am came just last school year in a high school chemistry class. I know you’re likely wondering what the heck I was doing there. I was substituting. I do that too. I realized that as much as like teaching, I really, really am a writer. It’s telling the story that gets me going, especially when you can see how the story is unfolding for each individual. It’s that chemistry between writer and reader that makes writing addictive. Writers crave readers. We’re not shy about that.

So how do you know if you are meant to be a writer? Really the litmus test is easier than you think (and pardon me if it begins to sound a bit like you might be a redneck . . .)

If you occasionally hear voices in your head, that aren’t your own. And they’re arguing over something, you might be a writer.

If bits of paper seem to find there way into everything you own, because you’ve got ideas you’ll jot down on any old scrap you can find when it hits, you might be a writer.

If your bookshelves are nearly busting out and have overflowed on to various surfaces in your home because you are easily fascinated by all manner of ideas and have to know more, you might be a writer. (maybe you just don’t know it yet.)

If the smell of books is kind of addictive to you, you might be a writer.

If you’d rather sit on your butt and type for three hours a day or more, because you have to, rather than because you want to, even though there are dust rhinos cavorting in your dining room and under your furniture, you might be a writer.

If you look at a billboard, magazine ad or other such thing, and immediately think what that person might be like, and starting spinning ideas around of who they are, what they want and what might happen if they…., well, you know I’m going to tell you, you might be a writer.

If you’ve got pages already written, on a book that will never be seen by human eyes, you my friend, might be a writer.

And, if the idea of not writing another day in your life leaves you thinking, what the heck would I do, then you might be a writer.

Now if you’re a writer, and you’ve only just discovered this amazing fact, let me share with you three bits of advice that I’ve consistently heard from every New York Times Bestseller I’ve ever had the fortune to strike up a conversation with (which is quite a few).

1. Finish the book. No one will buy a book until you’ve written it. So starting a book is important, yes, but finishing it is a necessity.

2. Perseverance makes the difference between published and unpublished.

3. Start writing the next book. Careers in publishing are usually built on one book after another, after another. If you’ve got one book it you, chances are you’ve got another too. So keep writing!

The two winners are: Kim Giardna who’ll be getting both a $20 gift certificate to Wicked Wines Online (where she can indulge in either red Vampire Vodka or other Vampire Winery offerings) and a copy of Salvation of the Damned.

MelJPrincess, you’ve won those snazzy customizable chrome fangs and a copy of Salvation of the Damned.

Congratulations to you both!

You know I was just beginning to think that Spring was really here. Near my house there is a wetland area and every year I wait to hear the chorus of tree frogs start up. That’s a sure sign Spring is just around the corner. Well the frogs have been singing. Loudly.

Then I saw the crocus coming up and even had a few early daffodils bloom. That’s a irrefutable sign Spring is here.

And we even had the Spring Equinox so it isn’t getting dark before 5 p.m. anymore.

But then it happened. Today, April 1, April Fool’s Day. Apparently Mother Nature is in on gags today too, because it’s snowing! I can’t even begin to tell you how wrong that is. We live in an area that gets decorative snow maybe once a year. You know the kind that falls, is there for a day to make snowmen, then melts away?

Sigh. Just when I thought it was Spring…

I guess it’s Mother Nature’s way of saying Spring Break is for writing, go back to your keyboard!

The truth is if you pick up pen and put it to paper or type on your keyboard and create a story or an article, you are in fact a writer. But here’s the thing: if you want to get paid for that writing, you have to write what you can sell.

Case in point – as much as I love my dark fae stories, they are going to have to wait. Why? Because I’ve been asked to send in more vampire story proposals. It’s more likely those stories will sell, since that is what is being requested. Is it a guarantee? Absolutlely not.  But as much as you love writing “the book inside you” or “the book of your heart” a working writer writes with the guideline of writing to sell. If there’s an opportunity in a market, then you see what you can do about it.

I’m not saying that writers should blindly follow trends. You have to write what you are able to write (for example don’t ditch the historical and write an erotic romance if you really feel that it is totally unlike you). At the same time you have to be willing to stretch yourself. For a long time (from about the mid 90s until two years ago) historical writers were faced with a downturn in the market for historical romances. Many of them started writing contemporary romances or paranormals or even romantic suspense. Some of them have recently begun writing historicals again.

Being flexible doesn’t mean that you’re selling out. It means that no matter where your readers might be, you’re going to work to reach them.

So how to you decide what to write? Start with what moves you as a reader. What stories capture your imagination most? What do you like to read most? Do you have an idea that you can see fitting into the current market – in other words, if you went into a bookstore would you be able to figure out where it would be stocked on the shelf?

Start there. Then do your homework. Pick up those books you love and find out who the publisher is. Find out who agents that author (the Internet is amazing for this, but you can usually find clues in the dedication or thank you section in the beginning of a book too.)

Then sit down and write the book, the whole book, not just a few chapters. If you don’t have a critique group, then consider joining a writer’s group. There’s one out there for just about everything, Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, Thriller Writers, Pacific Northwest Writers Association. Google and you’ll find something close to you. Go to a meeting and start asking questions. You might be amazed what you learn.

And last, even if the book isn’t selling right now, don’t be afraid to put it aside. It might sell another time. For if there is one thing that is consistent about publishing, it is that everything changes.

Go forth and write!

But I am excited! Twice now I’ve come so close (those of you who still ask me when The Spellbound Bride is coming out, I’m working on it and waiting on publishers). But the third time is the charm! 

I hope you’ll hop over to the Harlequin site and take a look. If you’d like to read an excerpt, check out the books section on my site and you’ll find it.

In the meantime, I’ll be hopping around several blogs this month talking vampires, paranormal romances and what not. Google, you’ll find them. Leave a comment on any of them (or here!) and I’ll include you in a contest where you can win either a pair of customizable chrome fangs (perfect for those of you thinking of going to the Romantic Times Convention’s annual vampire ball) or a gift certificate to Wicked  Wines Online where you can find Vampyre Vodka (that’s red!), Dracula Syrah, Chateau Du Vampire Bordeaux and Dark Vampire Chocolate, among other goodies. Winner to be announced April 1, 2009 (and no, I’m not joking).

And now, I’m off to celebrate!  Hey my first book just came out!

How can you not love a holiday that is about love, celebrated by eating chocolate?

But I hate what commercialism has done to it. My kids, in grade school mind you, feel pressured to BUY things for friends, their teachers, even their parents! WTH?

Valentine’s Day is not about how much you can fork out at the cash register. It’s about an expression of our love for one another.

Ever read a romance where it was all about his quest to buy her the perfect ring or flowers and once he gave them to her he walked off, done with his “love” story?

Hell no!

Love is about expressing feelings, talking, sharing and letting the other person know how much you truly care about his or her place in your life.

So go find a way to connect with someone who’s made a difference in your life. Some one that you love. Leave a note on a windsheild. Slip a note under their office door. Write in lipstick on the bathroom mirror! Give them a homemade coupon for something you do well (cooking dinner, backrubs, freshly made margarita, whatever.)

But don’t be paralized because of your pocketbook! Go do something about it and show people you care!

(Then you have permission to go storm the stores tomorrow and get all your chocolate for the next six months half price!)

Um, yeah. Let me disabuse you of that notion right now.

There are literary writers and there are genre writers. Kind of like there are Catholics and Southern Baptists. Both Christians, but totally different.

Literary writers are given reviews, and taken seriously, usually producing work that transcends society in some manner or other and is usually educational or morally edifying in some way. Case it in point – it is designed to be art/literature/educational. Think dinner at a restaurant with linen tablecloths and smallish size food that looks pretty.

Genre writing on the other hand, is more along the burger and fries of books. It’s a staple. More people read it, buy it, hell, consume it, because frankly they are hungry, they don’t have the time to sit down to eat. They just want to get filled up with something they know they’ll like. Genre writing is designed to be entertainment, in the same way a movie, a video game or a television show is entertainment.

This doesn’t mean it was harder to produce the book for the literary writer. It just means that the literary writer chose to take longer slashing their own path through the woods instead of taking an established trail.

News flash for my literary friends: genre writing is formulaic because that’s what readers want! They want to know a murder mystery contains a dead body and we’re going to find the killer. They want to know a thriller is going to be scary and give you goose bumps and they’ll throw the book at the wall if a romance doesn’t have a happen ending, well, let’s be honest, it won’t get published at all without a happy ending.

But within those very loosely constructed borders is a whole world to explore, so the stories are never the same, and they are not imitations of one another, just like America is different from England, even though we both speak English, share some of the same history and occupy the same planet earth.

What’s interesting to me is this: literary writers I’ve talked to yearn to be thought of as artists of the word, but they deep down wish they had fame to go along with it. They think that’s what genre writers have because of the hundreds of thousands, hell millions, of copies of genre books a single popular genre writer can sell.

Genre writers on the other hand, and more specifically romance writers, wish their work would get the respect of a literary writer, so when the go to a spouse’s company dinner party some smart aleck doesn’t say “Oh, your wife writes sex books. Bet she just cranks those out on the weekends in between quickies.” They wish that the serious reviewers would even try cracking one of their books and give a review. And they wish they could be nominated for awards given out for books (because after all, they’ve spent years tapping away at their keyboard and going through the harrowing world of publishing the same as the literary author has.)

So one wants fame, the other respect. Funny since they both write books. Didn’t you know that really, you should have taken up acting? More people likely know about Zac Efron from Disney’s High School Musical than will ever read a single book.

But I digress. (as per usual) Writing is hard work no matter what. If you want to be your own original and educate the world, then be literary and soar. If you want regular deadlines and want to make this your job, then write genre. It’s all a matter of market and numbers. You can’t go around wishing one were the other. It isn’t. It won’t be.

So literary authors, rather than disparage your genre brethren, think on this–as long as people are still picking up genre books, be grateful. As long as they are reading rather than watching re-runs of Scrubs or Grey’s Anatomy, you have a prayer they may some day desire to be educated by their reading selection.

Genre authors, keep plugging away and know one thing—people will always pay for entertainment, even in a depressed economy. And books are the cheapest source of entertainment on the planet (ok, unless you are born a guy). And in a hundred, possibly two-hundred years, your books may even be well-respected literature if William Shakespeare, Emily Bronte and Jane Austen are any indication.