I had the opportunity to meet Alina Adams in person last Friday night and found her to be as charming in person as her book promises to be in writing. But the process of making it in this business? That might be a little less charming…

I’ve worked in television for close to twenty years. In television, we like to say, “You’re only as good as your last project,” and “What have you done for me lately?” (We also like to say, “We’re the media, where’s the free food?”)

That’s why it’s nearly impossible for me to pick a “Made It Moment.” Because I know I’ll just have to start again at the bottom a few minutes later.

I’ve known television writers and directors who’ve gone from holding an Emmy in their hand straight to the unemployment office the following Monday. Actors whose picture is still on a magazine cover when they’re once again waiting tables to make ends meet, and authors with bestsellers dropped by their publishing houses in the middle of a series.

When did I know I’d made it as an author? Well, I initially thought it was when I sold my first Regency romance novel back in 1993 to AVON. That line promptly closed.

Or maybe it was when I got a two-book deal for stand-alone contemporary romance titles with DELL for more money than I’d ever made previously. That editor promptly quit.

Was it my five-book Figure Skating Mystery series with Berkley Prime Crime? Following the 2002 Olympic judging scandal (which I actually fictionalized in my first outing, “Murder on Ice,”) interest in skating plunged worldwide.

Wait! I know! It must have been my two “New York Times” best-sellers, “The Man From Oakdale,” a tie-in to the soap opera, “As The World Turns,” and “Jonathan’s Story,” a “Guiding Light” tie-in.

“Guiding Light” was cancelled in 2009. “As The World Turns” in 2010.

These days, rather than hitching my star to a trend, I am doing the exact opposite. Trying to start one of my own. I am in the process of creating “Media Mongrels,” books that have videos relevant to the story embedded right in the text. My initial experiment is “Skate Crime: Multimedia,” an enhanced e-book that’s more or less a first of its kind. (Simon & Schuster is doing something similar with their “vooks.” But, the bulk of their titles are non-fiction. My “Media Mongrels” are fiction. Yes, I enjoy making things extra-super-hard for myself.)

So, okay, Alina, enough stalling; spill it: When did I have my “Made It Moment?”

I guess it was when I realized that, no matter how many times I was knocked down (and the above are just the more comical highlights), I had the capability to stand up, take a deep breath, and say, “Right. That didn’t work. What’s next?”

ALINA ADAMS is the author of four romance novels, five Figure Skating Mysteries, two books of non-fiction, and three soap-opera tie-ins. Her enhanced e-book, Skate Crime: Multimedia is available at Amazon.com. She can be reached via her website, http://www.AlinaAdams.com.