"I Wish Money Grew on Trees"

Just in case you haven't had enough Heat Wave stories yet...

I was published in 1999 with Avid Press, now defunct, and in 2001 with Echelon Press, who is still one of my publishers. But I had a friend who found considerable success with Amber Quill, so I'd been "watching" them for a while. I heard really good things about the business end of the company, and I liked the product they put out. But like Adrianna said, they were closed to submissions.

My friend nudged me to enter the contest, which I'd already heard about but had absolutely no ideas for. She nudged me again, and still I had nothing to write. Then one day, I was driving my daughter home from school and she said, out of the blue, "I wish money grew on trees."

I was quite amused, because she said it as if she'd never heard the phrase before, and it's such an overused term. But my Writer Brain started working on it. What if money did grow on trees? What kind of system would that be? Where? The TreeKeeper was born.

I went home and raced through the writing of that story, submitting it on the final day of the contest. When I got the announcement of the winners, my story wasn't among them. I shrugged and figured I could try to sell it elsewhere, and if not, it had at least been fun to write.

Later that night, I launched my e-mail program and checked the spam folder, which never has more than a couple of messages in it. And lo and behold, there was an e-mail from Amber Quill! My story wasn't good enough to win against the very stiff competition of the contest, but if I was willing to make some changes, they'd consider offering me a contract.

Woo hoo!

Since then, I've had some fabulous opportunities to stretch myself, indulge my fantasies, and work with a group of the best people in the business.

Thank you, Amber Quill!