Air travel has changed a lot and my recent trip to NYC and Toronto proved it. I had a lot of obstacles to getting where I wanted to be, which was home.

At the airport, I was told that since I hadn’t paid for seat selection, (huh?) I may not get on my over-sold flight. (Nowhere in all the information was this explained.) But after stressing for 90 minutes, I got on and had a great seat!

When we landed high winds buffeted the plane. Which meant that the seaplane I’d booked wasn’t likely to take off. Indeed, I called and found flights had been cancelled.

Determined to get home that night, I rushed through the airport and booked the next hotel shuttle to downtown, was told I had five minutes to get my luggage and be outside for the next one. It happened! The shuttle driver ran behind by a few minutes, so I jumped on just before he pulled away.

Downtown, I dashed across the street to wait for a city bus to the ferry terminal. (I still had water to cross!) The very first bus that showed up was the Express! Yay! Had I considered that I’d need coin for this bus? Of course not…I’d booked a seaplane flight, no need for exact change, right? Right.

I asked the driver if he’d please just take a bill. No! I sagged, defeated and knew I’d miss my ferry connection. But wait! He said to jump aboard because there were lots of people who would give me change for my bill…he waved to indicate the nearly full bus.

So, I hauled my luggage train, (yes, a train, they hook together now!) laptop and oversized purse up onto the bus. By the time I’d arranged all my gear, there were hands outstretched under my face offering me coins, coins and more coins! Flabbergasted, I gathered them all, gushing my thanks and dropped the exact change into the fare box. When I finally looked up to see my benefactors, they’d all taken their seats and I didn’t have a clue who’d helped me. Again, I gave them my thanks and settled into a seat…made my ferry (which pitched and rolled all the way home) and figured that maybe, just maybe, all those times I’d dropped coins into expired parking meters for strangers had come back to me.

What does this have to do with my first Blaze sale? It parallels my journey to Blaze.

I got my first rejection from Harlequin 23 years ago now. (It actually read: don’t call, we won’t discuss it) After some hard work and much time and many many more words written, I began to get personalized rejections. You know the kind, the ones that give the impression that you’re close, AKA good rejections.

I so badly wanted to write for Temptation! Meantime, I’m racking up more “close this time, but sorry” letters. Eventually, I get one that reads, “Bonnie, the sex is great but there’s just so much of it.” (Buffeted plane…seaplane cancelled.)

But buried in my rejections is a clue! (Round about now, you’re seeing the parallel with me catching that shuttle bus, yes?) And wouldn’t you know, there’s a short 4 book promotion launched called Temptation Blaze…hotter than your regular Temptations. (This is me at the bus stop…without the correct change.)

Ah, yes, but the winds of change were blowing and I stepped up, took a chance that someone would lend a hand. And voila! The market heated up to boiling and the sub-genre of erotic romance appeared. I threw myself onto the bus and rode!

Once I was on the bus…I made it to the ferry terminal…jumped on the boat and sailed home…just where I wanted to be.

And here I am, waiting for my first Blaze release, Possessing Morgan (if all things go smoothly from here on out), which should be out in March, 2010.

It’s been a long trip to get here, and I had many obstacles in the path, but that just makes being here that much sweeter.