It's Party Time! (Tara Taylor Quinn)

We brought in the new year for the calendar - we partied and celebrated, toasted, kissed loved ones, offered good wishes and made resolutions. Or we did as my aunts did and slept through the ticking of the clock that signified another new beginning. Either way, we made it to 2011 - but just because the calendar has been celebrated and satisfied, doesn't mean the party has to end.

To me, and for a lot of us here at SuperRomance, the real party, the true celebration, isn't in a counting of days, but in real life living - in making the most out of every single day. To that end, we're starting the new year with a huge Party!!! We're gathering here at the brand new SuperRomance Authors Blog to celebrate life and living - the things we write about.

I knew from the time I was in high school that I was going to write for Harlequin some day. And when I read the very first rendition of a SuperRomance - published by another Harlequin imprint - Worldwide Library - I knew that I wanted to write for SuperRomance. I read every single SuperRomance title that came out under the Worldwide imprint. And when the imprint switched to Harlequin, I read every single one of those titles, too.

I couldn't get enough of the longer, more layered and intricate stories. SuperRomance was everything good about Harlequin Books - the books spoke of the same hope and joy and ultimate strength that embodies true love - and they made those commodities readily available to me, in real life - in my life. They weren't fantasy. They were living in the deepest truest sense - the heroes and heroines that came to life on the pages of SuperRomance novels lived life as I wanted to live it. They were an inspiration to me - a promise that the true love I believed in - a love that is strong enough to heal the deepest hurts, to overcome the highest hurdles - really did exist in every day living.

My way wasn't easy. I didn't just write a book and sell it. I wrote many of them. And had them rejected. Multiple times. Over a period of years. I met the senior editor of SuperRomance at a conference in 1989. I think that my determination, my belief that I really was going to write for SuperRomance one day - a quiet and strong knowing, not an egotistical load of spouting off - spoke to her. Over the next couple of years she kindly read my work. The stories still got rejected, but the letters of denial were long and technical - they were filled with valuable information pertaining to the craft of writing. I devoured them, grateful for every single tidbit.

And in 1992, I got THE call. Harlequin SuperRomance was on the phone, asking me if I'd sell them my book. Very calmly, I told the editor I would. I listened as she gave me some practical details. I agreed to them. I hung up the phone. And I screamed until my throat hurt. My daughter was six at the time. I can still remember the look on her face as she stood there watching me release more than six years of pent up determination and energy. We went to Burger King to lunch to celebrate.

I've written more than forty SuperRomance novels in the nineteen years that followed that phone call. I'm writing for MIRA books now, too - mainstream suspense novels. I've written novellas. And in April of 2011, I will see the publication of my own true life love story from HCI books. (It Happened on Maple Street.) 2011 also brings another SuperRomance title, Full Contact (8/11). And my work in progress is a back to back trilogy of SuperRomance. Because no matter where I go, or what I do, SuperRomance is a part of me. These are stories of life.

Life isn't easy. Writing isn't easy. Publishing gets harder and harder. But for me, every single day that I get up with a story in my head, with fingers that can type and a keyboard that works, is a day to party.

I hope you'll join us here at the SuperRomance Authors Blog this week. We're giving away lots of free books, sharing life and living, and starting the new year off in the most perfect way possible. And tomorrow, Tuesday, January 4th, we're bringing you a very special treat. Wanda Ottewell, Senior Editor of SuperRomance, will be here, celebrating with us - and you.

So come on SuperRomance lovers. What does SuperRomance mean to you???