Thanksgiving has come and gone. The nasty economy probably kept folks up all night shopping for all the black Friday deals that have crept back so far, people are shopping in their turkey coma. But I'm still thankful.My family isn't the kind that sits around the table and tells everything they're thankful for at dinner. That's a little too touchy feely for my crowd. But I still think about it, or blog about it as the case might be. And this year, I am obviously unbelievably thankful for the turn my writing career has taken.
It has been less than six months since I got the call that I'd sold my first book WHAT LIES BENEATH. The rest has been a blur of revisions, contracts, line edits, proofreading and art fact sheets. I met my editor, made friends with the other writers in Desire and walked in the footsteps of my characters in New York. I signed with a great agent at Bookends. I sold my second book, a July release which just got titled as MORE THAN HE EXPECTED even though we're still working on revisions and waiting on contracts. I'm spending the rest of my holiday weekend eating leftover pumpkin pie and finishing up that book for my deadline. Then, hopefully, I'll spend the rest of December working on the single title for my agent to shop and putting together a proposal for my next Desire contract. By spring and my first release, I'll be in full promo-mode. I can't wait.
Wow. Its just crazy. I mean, this time last year, I was hopeful that a couple projects I had out might go somewhere. The holidays were kind of depressing me. Normally I love it, but I was feeling dumpy. I wouldn't have put up a Christmas tree if DB hadn't flipped out when I made the suggestion. This year, I'm crazy busy between my two jobs and yet I can't wait to decorate. I even think (since its oddly warm today) that I might decorate some outside. I haven't really done that since my new house (uh, 4.5 years ago). No way am I stringing up lights on a 2 story house. And yet I want to, though probably as a revisions avoidance tactic.
So this year, even with Thanksgiving come and gone, I have to say that I am still extremely thankful. Thankful to find an editor that 'gets' me and is actually like a twin separated at birth. (We had a discussion about Ninja Turtles once and I knew it was meant to be.) I'm thankful for an agent who thinks I have great potential and was willing to sign me without knowing if aliens landed in chapter fourteen. I'm thankful to have sold to a line that has room to grow new authors and has a community of writers that are welcoming and friendly to the newbies.
Finally, I'm thankful for the friends that kept me writing when I felt like giving up. I would never have gotten this far without them.
SP
3 comments:
Yeah, I've been using shopping as a revision avoidance tactic. But my credit card is groaning under the weight so it's back to work for me today. I have a lofty goal...150 pages revised today so I can finish this book. We'll see how far I get...
Insti
Lately I seem to be able to use anything up to and including using a toothbrush to scrub the toilets as an excuse not to write. I seem to scrub better than write lately. NaNo has about 4 1/2 days left and there's no way I can write 32K in that time. :-( But I'm thankful for so many things and must focus on those rather than writer's block or whatever this is.
I'm a little late to read this blog post, but I'm happy to hear I'm one of the things you're thankful for. :) I knew a year ago when we were playing name that Christmas song on Twitter that we'd make a great team. And I was right. :)
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