computers. From there she worked as a web designer, still writing at every spare moment. Her agent, who’d stayed with her through all the years she hadn’t been selling, continued to submit her work but every submission was turned down.
Career
Fiction
In 1997, Kenyon received the rejection she credits with relaunching her career and forever changing the course of her writing style. At that time, the hottest novels being published on the market were Regency-set historical romances. Since her critique partners at the time were well-known authors in the field, Kenyon sat down and wrote such a novel. Her agent and critique partners loved it, yet it was the manuscript that garnered her the worst rejection of her career. “No one at this publishing house will ever be interested in this author. Do not submit her work to us again.” Kenyon was again devastated. Since they were still living in poverty, Kenyon promised her husband that she would never spend another cent on chasing a dream that obviously wasn’t meant to be.
But she couldn’t stop writing. That rejection spurred her to stop paying attention to what was selling to New York. She spent the next few months writing books for herself while listening to the characters and not the market reports. When it was done, Kenyon sent her latest work to her agent who did not like the manuscript at all and declined to further represent her. Believing her career was over and with no money left to pursue it on her own, Kenyon set her work aside.
A few weeks later, Kenyon saw a notice in a writing magazine that Laura Cifelli at HarperCollins was looking for manuscripts. Since Cifelli had been Kenyon’s agent at the beginning of her career, Kenyon sent a single query letter to her.