What Did YOU Do?

For me, my first sale is tomorrow. But I'll let you know.

larocca said:

Hi Caro,

I'm certainly going to hope your celebration isn't "Read a congratulatory email from Michael LaRocca." But you can do that too. Congratulations!

Best regards,
Michael

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Thank you. But, of course, my first sale isn't literally 'tomorrow', just metaphorically (tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow). Even if my tomorrow is five years from now, I'll let you know. Howzat?

I received my first acceptance letter on July 10th, 1991. The cheque arrived a few weeks later. (I had to look that date up from my submission files)

The first thing I did to celebrate was call everyone I knew to tell them I'd had a story accepted for publication.

After the cheque arrived and was cashed, I bought a bottle of wine which I shared with my husband Dave, who has always been my biggest cheerleader and was the first to encourage me to write my stories down and start submitting them.

Well, I am still hoping for the experience!

(Just completed my first book, a memoir. My agent has been shopping it around for some months now. Two publishers now seriously interested, read the proposal, now looking at the full ms.)

BTW, looked at your website, very intrigued to read that you grew up in Roxboro NC. Takes me back....I lived in Durham in the seventies, when I was in graduate school at Duke. But my husband taught at an elementary school in Roxboro. We have warm memories of that time in our lives.

Susan

larocca said:

Hi Susan,

Considering how many schools I've attended, it's not impossible that I met your husband. I attended Earl Bradsher Elementary. Unless it was Earl Bradshaw Elementary. My memory's gotten so bad that I have to look at my own memoirs sometimes, and it's not reliable either.

I still think of Roxboro, pre-Research Triangle, as home, even though I wasn't born there and I only lived there 2 years. I took my (now-ex) wife to Roxboro and showed her "where I grew up" but wasn't to find Northern Junior High. I learned years later that's because they moved it across town. Not my memory's fault!

And I digress. See what happens when I don't have an editor cutting my words?

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Yep,that was the school! My husband was there 1973-77, taught various grades, 3-6. Principal was Dr. Logan Denton. He kind of stood out--a long-haired Jewish guy from NY, vegetarian. He really loved the place and the people.

Susan

My very first sale was a short story. I didn't really have any big celebration, but when I got the check, I used it to buy a watch I really loved. I've worn the watch pretty much every day since, and before I'd sold anything else, I would be working and look down at it on my wrist and think, "See, you can do it."

Well, the closest I got was a detective novel that an editor at St. Martins wanted to buy, but then it was read by other editors and they decided against it. My goodness this is a very masochistic venture. I love the writing though.

My first sale was a short story to FEAR magazine - they paid me, too. Sadly the magazine is now defunct. I don't actually remember what I did to celebrate, or what I spent the £50, as it was a lifetime ago.

But the acceptance letter was dated 18 July 1989. I know because I framed it and hung it on my study wall. It still provides me with inspiration.

Shara

My first sale was a poem in an online mag. I remember screaming so loud when I got the acceptance e-mail my poor husband thought I was in labor!
Naturally he had reason to suspect this may be occurring so alcoholic celebration was not an option- sent DH to Krispy Kreme at 3 am instead. (Hey, I'm in another hemisphere. It's not MY fault that all the good e-mails arrive at obscure hours)
I do know I never cashed that check- the amount was too small to justify passing that souvenir over to the bank teller. It's on my wall as a reminder that I am making small strides.

My first book sale was in 1988 with a nice advance. I was on cloud nine, I can tell you. I celebrated by going to the BEA at the Anaheim California Convention Center and saw my book plastered on a big poster in a booth. I still have my brown author's badge. Had lunch with Clive Barker and got to chat with George Takai (sp?). THAT, I will never forget.

Next book was 1990. Wait for it....went to the BEA again!! What a thrill, rubbing shoulders with the real heavy-weights. Had just as much fun. You could have knocked me over with a feather.

Just released my first novel. The thrill is gone. I feel okay about it, but it just doesn't have that same "new car smell" that it did years ago. Maybe I'm jaded, but I was expecting more out of this first venture. I'm sure proud, though, because it's my fiction validation.

Tri

My first short story sale was last year, and I didn't really do anything to celebrate, except for going around the house, jumping and screaming and overall being quite giddy.

At the age of sixteen, when my first short story came out in a national publication, I took my copy and rushed to the house of the fifteen year old girl I'd been unsuccessfully trying to get a second date with, sure that this credit would turn the tide in my favor.

When my best friend at the time, and the guy who'd introduced us, answered the door, I got my first inkling that the pen might not be mightier than the brand new sports car.

Anyway, fast forward a few years: the friend wound up living in his mother's basement, wasted on drugs. The girl never became anywhere near the actress she wanted to be (the back of her head having appeared once in a shampoo commercial before she gave it up). Even the national magazine went out of business.

When my first book came out, in 1975, my wife threw me a big surprise party at a local restaurant. I remember being escorted in by my brother and thinking, "What's my cousin doing here? How come my next door neighbor eats at this place?" before it dawned on me what'd she'd done.

Luckily, my brother tackled me before I could escape.


(Look for a longer, more detailed description of this in one of my upcoming novels)

I made a color copy of the check (just cuz) then cashed it, put some back and took the boys to lunch-n-stuff.
(It wasn't a big one)

Now, the NEXT one.... hmmmm....

oh, wait- I have to finish the book first!

It's due in August. No advances- so everything will be after it comes out in November. Some will get put back-- the rest will probably buy a camera for the hubby and fund future book projects.

=)