[Forward] [Back]
To hopefully keep the intro to this chapter in my life short, after selling that first confession story (is anyone surprised that those aren’t real confessions?), I pounded out who knows how many more, at least 30. I didn’t get rich but neither did I feel bad about staying home instead of going back to being a social worker. Those checks were nice if unpredictable supplements to my husband’s income.

However, there were only so many ways I could confess. When I wrote a story called, “I Was An Unwed Father”, I knew I’d hit the wall. Enough with the pathos! By then I was part of a round robin letter writing group united by our interest in writing. When I pissed and moaned that I’d burned out on confessions, one member challenged me to try what she was doing—category romance. I’m giving my age away, but back then Harlequin and Silhouette were just entering the U.S. market. Writing a 70,000 word long book revolving around a man/woman relationship was intimidating, but my writing addiction was in full steam so I did it. At that point I had two sons playing Little League baseball so my first romance called Summer Season revolved around baseball. All it lacked was Mom and Apple Pie.

I sent in my typewritten pages, then reported to duty helping my husband and a friend add a room onto our house. One day I ran down to the lumber yard. When I returned, my husband said I’d gotten a phone call from Harlequin. (Can anyone hear my heart hammering?) I went into the bedroom to return the call, stammered through a refined “YESYESYES!”, then returned to said husband and friend & announced I was going to be able to pay for the plumbing and carpet. Do I know how to blow my first book advance or not?

Tomorrow: Vella Munn/Vonna Harper Day 4: Realities of the Publishing Business Brought Home

Bio
Vella Munn has been writing since dirt was new and has no other marketable skills so much continue doing the only thing she wants to in life--other than gardening, being part of her family, and walking the dogs. She wrote category romance and historicals as Vella Munn (most are being republished )and currently writes erotic romance as Vonna Harper. She lives in rural southern Oregon where she avoids shopping as much as possible and counts among her accomplishments going to Alaska and Omaha Nebraska for the college baseball world series. Her latest erotic release is Canyon Shadows with Kensington Aphrodisia.