This column's question:
"I'd love to write a romance, but I don't know how to get started. How did you begin?"

Margaret answers:
I was a stay-at-home mom with two small children, anxious for something to do "for myself" when I received a brochure from the local university I'd attended offering various writing courses. Although I'd never really thought about being a writer, that seemed like I something I could do in my "spare" time (all you mothers of young children will appreciate why that word is in quotation marks!). So I began heading off to class again, one night a week.

I discovered I knew a lot more about writing than I thought I did. Egad, all that reading was actually paying off! I also learned about Romance Writers of America, and that there was a local chapter. I hied myself off to a meeting. That was in 1988, and I've been a member ever since. I heartily recommend joining RWA if you're truly serious about pursuing a career as a romance writer. Their information and workshops and conferences are amazingly helpful.

After that, it was basically a matter of, well, writing and submitting my work to publishers.

I'll be talking about the submitting in future columns. There's a lot to do before you think about that!