It was a blazing summer day, not a cloud in the sky, the heat peaking above ninety. Seagulls sang above me, turquoise waters lapped before me.  My thoughts were as far in the distance as I could see… miles and miles away from any semblance of life.  I hope they call me.  I hope they call me.  It was the one thing weighing heavy on my mind.  Just a few days earlier I had queried my first publisher, setting off what became a life-altering chain of events.  It all started on the beach that day.  I remember fishing out the cell phone from my over-stuffed bag. I’m just going to check for messages – yes, yes, I know it’s too soon – but I gotta check anyway.  I punched in the number and a feminine automated voice welcomed me.  “You have one new message,” she said, in a most pleasant tone.  My heart pounded.  Suddenly I was the ultimate optimist. This is it, I lied to myself.  This is it!  Next thing I knew I was jumping up and down, in a bikini, like a complete fool, in the middle of the beach, with my cell phone splattered on the sand.  Luckily, the people around me dismissed me for another Florida wacko and went back to their reading. I, on the other hand, was thrown into a whirlwind of events where I never once looked back. Selling my first novel to Kensington Publishing was a dream.  Getting contracted for two more books just a few months later was a fantasy.  Writing romance from the heart is my new reality.