Robin Constantine loved visiting the Bayonne Public Library when she was growing up. “One of my favorite things to do was browse the shelves and discover new stories to fall in love with,” she recalls, naming Judy Blume and S.E. Hinton as favorites. “I’d usually check out way too many books to read by the time they were due.”
Now you can find her novels upstairs in the young adult literature section. Most of them are set here in Bayonne. Constantine writes contemporary romances that are meant for ages 14-18, but she finds that plenty of adults enjoy her work. It seems like everyone can relate to a good coming-of-age story.
“It’s such an exciting time in life. Everything is before you,” Constantine says, adding that there’s also plenty of drama. “It’s built-in tension as a teenager.”
When Constantine was a teen she went to high school at Holy Family Academy. Her first two novels are set in the similar hallowed halls to those that closed here in Bayonne in 2013.
“Before Holy Family closed, they had this multi-year reunion, and I went,” Constantine says. “I didn’t realize how much it did influence my work, because I looked around and thought, Oh my God, this is the school that I picture when I write. I think making things authentic really gives it a sense of place. I’m not sure that I could write about somewhere I’ve never been.”
She still has close ties to Bayonne, though she and her family relocated to the South several years ago. Her hometown has been a great place to set her stories, but it’s also where she first began her journey as a writer.
Bayonne Beginnings
Right after college Constantine got a job at a public-relations firm that specialized in promoting Broadway shows. She commuted from Bayonne to her job in the city.
“It was a small firm that did big things,” she says. “It was fun, exciting and 80 hours a week. It was the kind of job that didn’t leave much time for anything else, so when the time came to start a family, I knew I needed a change.”
She also wanted to follow her dream and become a writer. When she had her first child she decided to leave the office world behind and try writing full time, all while taking care of a newborn son.
“I had thought, When I have a kid I am going to stay at home. I had a vision of myself with a baby on my lap, typing away, but the reality is that they don’t do that. They need things and want things.” But she had a really great support system in town. “My parents would watch him,” she says. “I joined a writing group here in town, probably when he was around one, and they would come and watch him when I went off to my writers’ group. I wrote when my son napped. Looking back I don’t know how I did it, but I did.”
Novel Experience
The Bayonne Writers Group, a club that met in the library basement, was a source of encouragement for Constantine.
“That was the first critique group I’d ever joined, and while it was more social it was a first step toward my goal of being published,” Constantine says. “I’ve been seriously writing for 20 years. Not chained to my desk, hammering-out-a-word-count kind of writing, but seriously pursuing this dream of being an author since about 1997.”
Part of that pursuit was entering her work in contests. Constantine entered the Get Your Stiletto in the Door contest for ChickLitWriters.com. One of the judges was agent Tamar Rydzinski of The Laura Dail Literary Agency. Constantine won. Rydzinski offered to represent her.
“I was thrilled,” Constantine remembers. “I was on my way!”
But her first novel didn’t sell.
“I wrote another novel and over the course of a year went through several rounds of revisions with my agent until we felt it was ready to submit,” Constantine says. “The Promise of Amazing went out on submission the Monday after Thanksgiving. I tried not to obsessively check my email because I figured chances were I wouldn’t hear anything until after the holidays. When I got the call from Tamar, it was honestly surreal. After a nail-biting week and a half, while all sorts of scenarios danced through my head and no Christmas shopping was done, my manuscript sold! Best Christmas present ever!”
Constantine soon came out with her second published novel, The Secrets of Attraction. It is a companion novel to her first book, so the two share characters and are both set in Bayonne. Locals will notice a reference to Judicke’s doughnuts and other “Bayonne Easter eggs” hidden within the novels.
Three’s a Charm
Constantine’s third novel is on shelves now. It’s also set in New Jersey, but this time the town is a fictionalized version of Cape May. Constantine summarizes The Season of You & Me:
“As the story opens, Cassidy, still reeling over her recent breakup, decides to spend the summer with her father and his family at their bed and breakfast on the Jersey Shore. A fresh perspective and new job as a camp counselor sounds like the perfect way to put her ex behind her, but once in Crest Haven she realizes it’s not as easy as it sounds.
“At Camp Manatee she meets Bryan, who is returning to his former position as camp counselor after a spinal-cord injury. Bryan is ready to prove that being in a wheelchair won’t hold him back from enjoying his life. Worried parents and overly concerned friends do a number on his confidence, but he’s determined to regain his independence on his own terms.
“Cass and Bryan become fast friends and team up for the camp scavenger hunt. While neither one of them is looking for romance, they can’t deny their growing feelings as the summer progresses.”
Constantine is already brainstorming story ideas for her fourth book. Her advice to anyone who dreams of writing a novel is to just do it.
“Never give up,” Constantine says. “Keep writing the story that you want to write and trust your instincts. It’s also not enough to love writing on the good days; you have to love it on the awful days when it feels like everything flowing from your fingertips is clichéd drivel. Those are the days you need to care about it the most. Keep putting one word down after the next and be wise enough to know the magic rarely, if ever, happens during the first draft.”—BLP
The Season of You & Me is available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, Indiebound and iTunes. robinconstantine.com