Hey, love...what a great blog! Thank you for sharing your heart like this. :) I so hear you! I wrote for nine years before selling my 13th manuscript - they all sold subsequently, but I often say writing isn't for whimps! :) My first romance novel? It was a Presents. The first author I glommed - Julie Garwood. The first time I realized I could make people feel like what I was reading? Eclipse Bay by Jayne Ann Krentz. (I'd been writing for several years by then.)