My Harlequin Moment: Bronwyn Jameson

Harlequin is Like a Box of Chocolates.

Choosing my favourite Harlequin moment is, I've discovered, like attempting to choose my favourite chocolate from a ginormous multi-layered box. 

For the past week I've been poring -- or is that pawing? -- through the layers, sampling this one and that and dithering over my final choice.

How can I pick just one from the sweet diversity?  Every one is delicious.  Every one a favourite.

The moment I realised that the accented voice on the other end of the phone wasn't a telemarketer but Leslie Wainger from Silhouette.  The moment her "we want to buy your book" registered.  Walking outside and telling my husband; his arms around me, the tearful knowledge that this was not going to be such a bad year after all.

The perfect moment when I opened the box filled with copies of that first book and saw my name on the cover -- on every cover in that box! -- and I knew this was real. Harlequin had published my book.

In Bed With The Boss's Daughter brought many, many more favourite moments.  It allowed me to visit America for the first time, to attend the Romance Writers of America conference in New Orleans.  In a hotel en route I woke at 3 a.m. and, unable to get back to sleep, I decided to check my email.  I remember a moment of pure joyous delight when I saw my book on the Waldenbooks bestsellers list.  Despite being new, unknown, untested, thousands and thousands of people were buying my book and reading it because it was a Harlequin title.

There was the moment I shared this news with my editor; the moment I walked through the door of my first Harlequin party; and at my first literacy autographing, the moment when the doors opened and hoardes of fans poured into the ballroom. I was a Harlequin author, I had readers, they queued for my book...my book!

On that same trip, another chocolate box moment: walking into a Waldenbooks and seeing my book shelved alongside those of authors whose books were lined up on my keeper shelf.

Which brings me to another layer, that of the Harlequin reader.  How many delicious moments have these so-called "little" books brought me?  Moments of comfort and escape, of tears and laughter and huge emotional truths.  Moments of awe brought on by the perfect description or combination of words, or by my heart-racing, shivery response to a scene, a sentence, a perfectly delivered line of dialogue.  Moments when I've put down a book and gone to bed with hope instead of worry, all because of these big-hearted "little" books and the amazing authors who craft them.

I've decided that my favourite Harlequin moment was the realisation that I was now part of this wonderful bunch.  This came six months after I sold, at my first Romance Writers of Australia conference as a soon-to-be-published author.  To be honest, it wasn't so very different to the previous five conferences.  I still hung out with my same friends, still felt like the same sponge ready to absorb all the knowledge I lacked, still attended the same sessions...except for one event. 

Until then I knew nothing about the authors' luncheon put on by Harlequin Australia; I think it was still a shiny new thing in 2000. It was on the Friday and as luck would have it, my good friend and roomie from several conferences past, Fiona McArthur, also sold that same year.  We arrived together, sat together, met and chatted with authors whose books we'd not only read and adored, but who had inspired us to write for Harlequin.

Toward the end of that luncheon, the sales staff brought books out for the authors to sign and there was a lull in the chatter as we watched Emma Darcy and Helen Bianchin and Meredith Webber and a dozen others do their thing.

I met Fiona's eye across the table and we both grinned, the message unspoken but clear.  Next year we would have books to sign too; next year we would be Harlequin authors. How cool was that?

About The Author:

Bronwyn shares an idyllic piece of the Australian farming heartland with her husband of 20 years, their three school-age sons, a few thousand sheep, a dozen horses, assorted wildlife, and one sheepdog. When her head isn't bent over the keyboard or buried in a book, you will find her at the stables or somewhere out on the farm, cheering her sons on at one of their many sporting pursuits, or spending time with their extended family.