Well, Dear Reader, here I sit, still feeling a bit stunned. After 6+ years of writing, querying and months of being on submission, I am so shocked and thrilled to share the news that I’ve sold my first YA fantasy book!
This is the dream I’ve been working towards, the thing I’ve been thinking about and hoping for – and it’s coming true! So thankful to my amazing agent Laura and to Lauren at Page Street Publishing. I need to sit down and sort out my thoughts and share more about the writing process and inspiration for this story, but it’s going to take my brain some time to stop buzzing and form coherent thoughts again, so that will be coming!
For now, all I can feel is grateful, because I think this story is the best I’ve ever written and I’m so excited it’s going to be a real, live thing that someone can hold in their hands and read for themselves. I’m so grateful I kept writing, kept working and didn’t give up! This goal of writing and becoming published didn’t really appear in my life until I was 32. How lucky am I to get to realize this new dream? Especially since writing is something I really started doing just for myself, a creative outlet where I could have control and work on stories that really mattered to me.
In my journal today, I was jotting down these thoughts about how to define this year, in which I am 38 years old, and these words for the next few years just came tumbling out:
- 38: Great!
- 39: Divine!
- 40: [Here’s where I couldn’t stop chuckling to myself] Party? Wart-y? Cavort-y? [I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.]
Thanks to all of you who are so excited right along with me – I can’t wait to work with Lauren and make this book be the best it can be! Stay tuned for more…