I’m Publishing My First Novel!

Last Monday I was in the midst of a nervous breakdown. Okay, more like a self-induced anxiety attack. I was looking at my calendar, counting weeks and driving my husband insane. Why was I such a freakazoid? Because it was nearing six weeks since I’d queried Crimson Romance. The rational part of my brain said it wasn’t a very long time and to be patient. The other part of my brain kept saying they’re going to reject you. I finally calmed myself down, did the wife and mother thing, I think I even worked out before settling  in for my usual 9 p.m. writing time. I flip on my lap top for a quick email check and what do I see: “We enjoyed You Can’t Plan Love and we’d love to have it for Crimson!”

What the what?!? They like it; they’d love to have it. Come on man, did I really just annoy the crap out of my husband in vain? Yes, yes and yes. After a happy dance and a call to my mom and beta readers, I tried to sit and read the contract. Needless to say, I couldn’t comprehend a damn thing. So I waited until the next day to try to make sense of it all. Over the next few days I looked over the contract and asked questions before leaving town for my anniversary.

Getting good news before spending a weekend in Nassau is a win-win situation. Between the beach lounging and drinking I’d look at my hubby with a goofy grin on my face and say “I’m going to be published”. But it still wasn’t quite real until I received the welcome to Crimson emails yesterday. Talk about a reminder that this is a real job with deadlines and such. I doubt I’ll have a problem with that. I already have a loose writing schedule. Now I’ll have to tighten it and avoid the social media time suck when I should be writing/revising. And, my 3rd MS will be slightly neglected as I go through revisions to my first, but I hope to find some time to continue working on it.

I don’t care about the extra effort I’ll have to put in, because this is my dream. A dream I’ve had since high school, but didn’t seriously pursue until two years ago. When I set my mind to do something I do it. I believe my perseverance to learn all that I can about writing and the publishing industry helped me. I’m not done. I’ve gotten some books on marketing, and am participating in an online lecture about story structure and pacing. Because my plan isn’t to publish one book, it’s to publish multiple books. To do that I’ll have to continue to learn as much as I can so that I can grow as a writer.

Check out my publisher (squeee!) Crimson Romance and keep an eye out for some great reads starting June 4th! Writers you can find their submissions guidelines here.