Bio

Trish Milburn - Tricia Mills The first book I ever wrote was a romance. I just didn’t know it yet. That book, Land of the Misty Gems, was a class project way back in the fifth grade. We wrote the text, illustrated them with colored pencils, even bound them with twine and pasted a fabric cover on our creations. I still have that book. It was the beginning of my writing career, even if until the early 1990s that writing consisted mainly of research papers and essay test questions and then newspaper articles.

Let’s back up a moment. I was born and grew up in Kentucky and began reading so long ago I don’t remember how it all started. I do remember loving a little book called The Runaway Pancake, then the regular treasures that would appear in our mailbox from the Weekly Reader Book Club, then books like the Little House on the Prairie series. The library was one of my favorite places. And even though being a bookworm didn’t do wonders for my social life when I was in my teens, I wouldn’t trade my love of books for the world.

That love of reading and writing has brought me joy and some of the most wonderful friends a girl could have, including the members of the Wet Noodle Posse, the Romance Bandits, Music City Romance Writers and Georgia Romance Writers.


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Since I wasn’t a math genius and didn’t particularly have a passion for the frog dissection required in biology class, I gravitated naturally toward writing. So I began writing for the school paper in middle school and kept on writing for papers through the years immediately after I received my print journalism degree. Until I left to try my hand at writing at home full-time, I was a magazine editor/writer.

My office, though the honking big monitor has now been
replaced with a lovely flatscreen.

I was given my first romance to read during my teens by my friend Jennifer and her mom, Jeanie, and haven’t stopped reading them since. I began writing my first romance, a historical set along the Oregon Trail (the only historical I’ve written), while still in college. I got serious about writing and submitting for publication in 1996 when I was one of the charter members of our new local Romance Writers of America chapter, Music City Romance Writers. I’ve written contemporary romance, romantic suspense, women’s fiction, and young adult novels.

During my journey to publication, I finaled in RWA’s top award for unpublished manuscripts, the Golden Heart, eight times. I was fortunate enough to win the Golden Heart twice - in 2004 in Romantic Suspense and in 2007 for Young Adult. On July 24, 2007, I finally got “The Call” and sold my first two books, young adult titles, to Razorbill, a part of Penguin Young Readers Group. On Oct. 26, 2007, I was thrilled to sell two romances to Harlequin American.

I sign my first book contract, an event more than a decade in the making!

My home since my dear hubby got out of graduate school has been in Tennessee, but I love to take road trips to the beach when it’s cold or places like Yellowstone National Park when it’s hot here in the South. I love to hike, am a total National Park junkie, am quite proud of my ability to spoil my two beautiful nieces and two adorable nephews, and am convinced Buffy and Angel will find their own happily ever after someday.

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Readers Ask...

Where do you get your ideas?
Where do I not get them? A story idea can be sparked by something I read in the newspaper or in a magazine, by something I see on TV, a movie, even a bit of overheard conversation. It might be a tiny idea when it begins, but it often leads to something interesting. I have a fat file folder full of snippets of ideas - everything from potential book titles in need of a plot to go with them to more detailed synopses of stories.

How can I get published?
First, you need to know what type of book you've either written or want to write. Then you research the market for that type of book through resources such as Writer's Digest or professional organizations such as Romance Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America or the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. It's also important to make sure your story is the absolute best it can be before you submit it. Remember, in many cases, you only get one chance with that manuscript at a specific publisher. Don't submit before it's really ready. You'll also need to figure out which publishers print your kind of novel. Once you've identified them, determine whether they take unagented submissions. If not, you may want to begin an agent search. It's extremely important to really do your homework about agents. Always remember, NO agent is better than a BAD agent.

How long have you been writing?
The quick answer is as long as I can remember. But if you mean with the aim of publication, I began writing my first book while I was in college in the early 1990s. I started submitting in 1996. It took me 11 years to sell my first book.

How many books have you written?
I wrote 17 full manuscripts and partials for two more before selling. I've since completed the 18th full, Heartbreak River, which was my first sale.

What kind of advice would you give to a new writer?
I'm the queen of preaching perseverance. You're going to get rejections, likely lots of them, and they're going to hurt. Give yourself 24 hours to grieve, rant, eats copious amounts of chocolate, and watch all your favorite DVDs (my personal favorites are all three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Supernatural, and my Buffy the Vampire Slayer collection), but then get back in the writing saddle. Also, don't ever think you know it all. It's a very good idea to continually learn about both the creative and business sides of writing. And the final thing is something your mama probably already told you years ago - be nice! While the publishing world might seem huge, it's not. If you say something bad about an agent, editor, publishing house or fellow writer, there's a high likelihood it's going to come back to bite you. Bad karma and all that.

How long does it take you to write a book?
Fortunately, I'm a fast writer. Still, the answer to this question varies. It can take me three months or so to write a single-title length (400 pages) novel if it's one that comes to me more slowly. The fastest I've written a book was 17 days. That was for Coven, the young adult manuscript that won the 2007 Golden Heart. I felt like I was channeling that book.