Karen Templeton (edit name/settings)

A dozen years ago, a starry-eyed mother of five submitted a pair of queries and synopses to Silhouette for her first two short contemporary romances. She had no clue what to expect, or even if she was on the right track – she’d written both books completely by the seat of her pants, having no idea where she was going, or what she was doing, other than that the stories had to have Happy Ever After endings. In 60,000 words, more or less. Oh, and she’d determined that if she couldn’t tell the stories with characters who sounded and acted like real people, fuggedaboutit. (Told you she was starry-eyed. Or maybe just too old to give a rat’s patoot.) To her shock, however, she got a request for both complete manuscripts by return mail.

Approximately five minutes later, off they went to New York.

Eleven…months…later…Silhouette bought WEDDING DAZE for the old Yours Truly line, proving once again that, sometimes, there’s no accounting for sheer dumb luck. Because I’m not kidding about the clueless thing – I’d never entered a contest, gone to a RWA meeting, read any how-to books, worked with a critique partner. And I still rarely do anything the “normal” way, in case you’re wondering. In any case, since my debut in 1998, that same editor has bought more 25 books from me, for Yours Truly, Silhouette Intimate Moments, Red Dress Ink and Silhouette Special Releases, and now Silhouette Special Edition, my new category romance “home.” And readers, bless ‘em, have bought more than a million copies of my stories in thirteen languages. Okay, so I’m no threat to J.K. Rowling, but it’ll do.