Rebecca Paisley’s Followers (62)

Rebecca Paisley

Born

The United States

Website

http://rebeccapaisley.com/home.html

Genre

Historical Romance, Regency Romance, Romance

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I wanted to write things ever since I learned to write my name. I started with letters to my grandmother like: “Der Grammey, I went on the ralerode trax today and finded a big pees of gum by the raleing. I piked it up and ate it. It was bananna. I chwed it till it did not have inymor flaver in it. Aftr I swaloed it I kind of thot I had sum majic in me frum the persen who first ate it. Mama sayed wat I did was veree nasty but I beeleeve in that majic.”

To this day, I remember that gum and the way it made me feel. I continued to write about things that happened to me. Sometimes they were pure non-fiction. But other times they were invented, like when I wrote a one page story about my father being Superman. He was an Air Force Fighter Pilot and I wanted to write things ever since I learned to write my name. I started with letters to my grandmother like: “Der Grammey, I went on the ralerode trax today and finded a big pees of gum by the raleing. I piked it up and ate it. It was bananna. I chwed it till it did not have inymor flaver in it. Aftr I swaloed it I kind of thot I had sum majic in me frum the persen who first ate it. Mama sayed wat I did was veree nasty but I beeleeve in that majic.”

To this day, I remember that gum and the way it made me feel. I continued to write about things that happened to me. Sometimes they were pure non-fiction. But other times they were invented, like when I wrote a one page story about my father being Superman. He was an Air Force Fighter Pilot and often had to leave on secret missions he was forbidden to tell us about. He told us his Superman costume was hidden in the flight bag he always took with him when he left. So I wrote a page about how he didn't need his jet on that mission. No, he flew in the plain air and directed the other pilots where to go. Because of his instructions, all the enemies scattered and were never seen again.

And then I grew up and became a woman, but not before I wrote hundreds of stories. When I was about 28 or so, I wrote a very long historical romance…with my 2 year old son hanging on my leg the whole time. I sent that manuscript to every publishing house in NYC, and the editors rejected it every single time. You want to know why? Because I was writing what I thought the publishing houses wanted to buy. I was copying other authors’ styles. I didn't know any better.

After 17 rejections, I decided to write the book I wanted to read. Not a book for an editor or even readers. Freedom, at last! Freedom to invent characters that made sense to me. Characters whose thoughts mirrored mine, whose ways of doing things were my ways of doing things.

Whose hearts were offspring of mine.

I never thought to submit that manuscript to anyone. It was going to be mine, all mine, and no one else’s business because the heroine was so wild, so outrageous and different. She was not a romance heroine, Chickadee McBride. She defied every romantic heroine in the publishing rules.

But I did end up sending her and story in, and Avon Books bought her. The editor told me Chickadee McBride was a gamble, but Avon was willing to try her out. That book was THE BAREFOOT BRIDE.

After that sale, I never again wrote what other authors wrote. I stayed true to what I loved, what made me cry and laugh and be surprised. I never knew what my characters were going to do or why. I just wrote.

And eventually I became a Publisher’s Weekly Bestselling Author, which gained me a place on Romance Writers of America’s Honor Roll and the accomplishment of becoming a RITA finalist. I won Romantic Times’ Lifetime Achievement Award and Career Achievement Award as well as a Reviewers’ Choice Award for Historical Romance Fantasy and a Best Love and Laughter Award.

None of these things would have happened for me had I not decided to write a book that appealed to my quickness to laugh, my love for the outrageous, my deep sensitivity. . .

. . . or the belief that if I can dream it up, it can happen. ...more

Combine Editions
Rebecca Paisley’s books

Average rating: 4.14 · 2,274 ratings · 255 reviews · 21 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Barefoot Bride 4.22 avg rating — 581 ratings — published 1990 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Basket of Wishes 4.03 avg rating — 403 ratings — published 1995 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Rainbows and Rapture 4.27 avg rating — 241 ratings — published 1992 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Moonlight and Magic 4.16 avg rating — 188 ratings — published 1990 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Diamonds and Dreams 4.17 avg rating — 182 ratings — published 1991 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Heartstrings 4.25 avg rating — 175 ratings — published 1994 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Midnight and Magnolias 4.46 avg rating — 110 ratings — published 1992 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bed of Roses 4.10 avg rating — 90 ratings — published 1996 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Prince to Call My Own 3.77 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2015 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Love Potion by Rebecca Paisley, Lydia Browne, Elaine Crawford 3.86 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 1995	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Rebecca Paisley…

Series by Rebecca Paisley

Moonlight and Magic (5 books)
by

Rebecca Paisley

4.14 avg rating — 1,097 ratings

Rags to Riches Romance (3 books)
by

Rebecca Paisley

4.24 avg rating — 873 ratings

Quotes by Rebecca Paisley (?)

“I got more sense’n to leave my gun whar I cain’t reach it so’s a bahr could git me. And yore back ain’t no ribbons. It’s got a scratch on it, but it ain’t near as bad as yore a-sayin’ it is. Yore the complainin’est man I ever—”
― Rebecca Paisley, The Barefoot Bride

2 likes

“What a truly remarkable emotion love is,” he whispered, his breath fogging the window. Only love, the very thing he’d once believed to be pure myth, could have made him feel the way he had today at the race. He’d been irritated by the way people laughed at her, angered by the condescending way everyone looked and sneered at her. The whispered insults he’d heard had infuriated him, and Wesley’s slander had finally hurled him into a rage.”
― Rebecca Paisley, The Barefoot Bride

1 likes

“His mind strayed from his work to her. His dreams were never of anything but her. There was nothing beautiful in the world that didn’t, in some way, remind him of her. And he began to wonder if he really did have a heart after all. For didn’t you have to possess a heart to be so dangerously close to losing it?”
― Rebecca Paisley, The Barefoot Bride

1 likes

See all Rebecca Paisley's quotes »

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Rebecca Paisley’s Followers (62)

Rebecca Paisley

Combine EditionsRebecca Paisley’s books

Series by Rebecca Paisley

Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Rebecca Paisley’s books