 |
1982 |
-------- | Roxanne completes her first short story, and names it Lupe di Mare, after a classical composition she loves. She presents it to the visiting composer as a gift; he gently informs her that Lupe di Mare means Sea Wolf, not (as she'd assumed) Our Lady of the Sea. She vows NEVER TO WRITE AGAIN. | |
She writes her second short story and sends it to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. They are underwhelmed, but kindly encourage her to continue. Unfortunately for them, she does, beginning a long and sad relationship of rejection. |
-------- | 1982 | |
1984 |
-------- | Roxanne is thrown out of -- er, graduates from -- Texas Tech University with a degree in Accounting, because God knows she's going to need a paying day job. | |
She achieves her dream of becoming a professional (i.e., paid) musician, which turns out to be slightly less profitable than the position of Fry Manager at the Burger King. She falls back on her accounting degree and, in thwarted creative frustration, begins to write again. |
-------- | 1985 | |
1987 |
-------- | Roxanne, having moved to Dallas to pursue her dream of becoming a certified public accountant, continues to write her obligatory 10,000 words of crap which, thankfully, she doesn't inflict on anyone else except for the longsuffering staff of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. | |
After another brief hallucinatory stint as a professional musician, which ends when she is required to dress in Liederhosen and play a fundraiser for the Republican Party, Roxanne's boyfriend suggests she attend a science fiction convention to meet people who might be equally deranged (other writers). Result: Roxanne sells her first novel, Stormriders, to Iron Crown Enterprises. It's a love-hate relationship. She vows briefly NEVER TO WRITE AGAIN. |
-------- | 1989 | |
1992 |
-------- | Roxanne hangs up her musicial ambition to pursue her writing. She sells her vampire novel, The Undead, shocking not only her boyfriend but her roommate as well (luckily in a good way). The boyfriend leaves on good terms, but Roxanne meets and marries Cat Conrad, long-haired artist and all-around great human being. | |
Zebra publishes Roxanne's novel Red Angel, ensuring that no one in their right minds will ever ask her to babysit again; she discovers the down side of writing when her employer strongly hints that his life would make a fabulous book, and will split the profits with her if only she'll write the book for him. She vows NEVER TO WRITE AGAIN. |
-------- | 1994 | |
1996 |
-------- |
At her new job, Roxanne continues to sell novels, including the sequel to The Undead, Cold Kiss. She also writes Slow Burn, which may very well have put the final kiss of death on that pesky trend of spontaneously combusting hooker novels. | |
In the midst of several short stories, Roxanne completes work on Copper Moon, her first past-life-regression- murder-mystery, and sells it to Signet/Onyx. In a fit of panic, the publisher puts a good cover on it and makes it a moderate success. Flustered by this, Roxanne vows NEVER TO WRITE AGAIN. |
-------- | 1997 | |
1998 |
-------- | Roxanne completes and publishes Bridge of Shadows, another Texas-based suspense novel, which gathers strong support from reviewers. She receives her very first piece of fan mail, which makes her go teary-eyed and sentimental. This phase passes after her next novel, Looking For Lewis, is given the cold shoulder at three publishers in a row. She vows NEVER TO WRITE AGAIN. | |
The year that sucks. Roxanne turns out a bunch of writing but nothing in the way of actual sales of novels ... on the up side, the lovely Pat Elrod buys a story for a new Dracula anthology. On the down side, even Stephen King got hit by a car. Bad year for writers. Who knew? Oh yeah, and Rox vows NEVER TO ... you know the drill. |
-------- | 1999 | |
| 2000 | -------- | Well, not a bad year overall. Some REAL bad stuff, some REAL good stuff. Averaged out, an okay year. Found a new agent. Entered a prestigious contest (jury's still out ...). Reprinting The Undead and Red Angel for 2001. Oh, and a really cool job. Y2K is AOK! (Must have vowed never to ... oh, never mind.) | |
"Exile," the new feature film script, places #16 out of 920 entries in the American Accolades contest, just ONE PLACE SHY of the finals. It also places in the semifinals of the very respectable Texas Film Institute competition. Anybody want to finance a movie? Rox delivers yet another anthology story. Rox works VERY hard. Rox tries hard to love her writing, but hovers constantly on the verge of vowing NEVER TO WRITE AGAIN. Not to worry. Check how many times in this timeline Rox has vowed NEVER TO WRITE AGAIN. You'd think she'd have managed to stick to it by now. |
-------- | 2001 | |
| 2002 | -------- | Arguably my most successful year yet. Wonderful new agent. Turned in Exile, Texas to a hardcover publisher, which was especially nice because former agents had insisted the book would never sell ... And this mysterious new person Rachel Caine turned in Book 1 of the new Weather Wardens series. Day job: good. Didn't ONCE swear NEVER TO WRITE AGAIN! | |
| Rachel Caine turned in Book 2 of the Weather Wardens series -- Heat Stroke. In a most unexpected turn of events, BenBella Books, on the strength of her moderately amusing essay on Buffy, hires Roxanne to do a blizzard of anthology submissions, with which she happily complies. Ill Wind, the first book in the series, debuts to accolades and a frightening number of sales. Terrified of potential success, Roxanne vows never to write again. Rachel overrules her. | -------- | 2003 | |
| 2004 | -------- | DUDE. Not only does Heat Stroke do well when released, Ill Wind goes into reprint. Rachel turns in Book 3, Chill Factor, and in a burst of caffeine-fueled enthusiasm, makes a two-book deal with Silhouette Bombshell for two books in a new series, Red Letter Days. She also, as Julie Fortune, jumps into the wild world of media tie-in with a British release of a novel for Stargate SG-1, one of her many television obsessions. More BenBella essays. Rachel also turns in the first draft of both Red Letter Days: Devil's Bargain and the fourth book of the Weather Wardens series, Windfall. | |
| Chill Factor debuts with impressive numbers. Heat Stroke gets nominated for Best Fantasy Novel of 2004, to mind-boggling shock on the part of Roxanne, Rachel, Julie, and all of the other imaginary voices in Roxanne's head. Rachel, however, is far too busy to worry about that: she turns in rewrites for Windfall and Devil's Bargain, more BenBella essays, and first drafts of Devil's Due and Weather Wardens Book 5, which is still untitled because she's too insane to think of a clever weather-related title at the moment. More to come. The year's not even half over yet. Rachel is vowing never to stop writing. | -------- | 2005 | |
| 2005 really came in two parts: the first part, above, and a screeching halt. In May, Roxanne et al was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, which occasioned a huge revising of her life, her priorities, and her deadlines. After two surgeries, post-operative infections (those are NOT as much fun as they sound), plus a full seven weeks of daily radiation, she began to get her life back on track. As a result, she slowed down a little. But she was too busy to vow NEVER TO WRITE AGAIN. And she would like to assure everyone that she is quite all right, and thanks all of her wonderful friends and correspondents for their incredible support. | -------- | 2005 | |
| 2006 | -------- | Got off to a bang-up start as Roxanne's day job kicked into gear from 50-hour work weeks to 80-hour work weeks, and above, from January through May. Nevertheless, she managed to turn in the first book of a brand new series, Glass Houses, and the first book of the new Bombshell Athena Force series, Trust. Windfall (Book 4 of the Weather Wardens) debuted early in the year to very impressive sales figures that terrify Roxanne into vowing NEVER TO WRITE AGAIN, because surely people will stop buying books soon. Meanwhile, she sets about turning in Book 2 of the new Morganville Vampires series, The Dead Girl's Dance, and the 6th Weather Warden novel, Thin Air. And miscellaneous other things. Lots of 'em. |
