Hi FRIENDS!

December is always a mixture of holiday spirit and reflection. It’s a time to cherish our loved ones, remember those we’ve lost or who can’t be with us, and review the highs and lows of the year in order to set some goals for the upcoming year.

At this time, a year ago, I didn’t have a publishing contract. In fact, I had been querying my work for the better part of the last five years and was at a very low point, emotionally. I had just about given up the road to traditional publishing. On December 21st, I received a phone call at work from Red Adept, a traditional publishing house I had earlier queried, offering to publish my book. I cannot begin to put into words how much my life has already changed as a result of that one phone call. To say that I’m grateful isn’t even the half of it.

Now, I have two books under contract. I’m still waiting on a release date for All That is Sacred, but I promise, it IS coming! I'm waiting on the audio company to set a date which will most likely be in the spring versus the winter. Adjusting to the highs and lows and starts and stops (and pauses) is something for which I’m learning to develop patience.

I received content edits for book two, Of Lies and Honey (originally titled Lost and Found); I’m looking forward to digging into revisions based on my editor's suggestions. As a little bit of insight on the process of this stage, I receive a twelve-ish page document of notes and a fully marked-up draft full of suggestions. It’s up to me to parse out what resonates with my vision for the story. I always feel completely overwhelmed by these upon receipt, so I give it a few days or even a couple of weeks to mull over her notes before beginning. This is a novel about motherhood, mother/daughter relationships, debutante society, secrets and lies.

The first draft for book three is complete. I participated in the November writing challenge called NaNoWriMo and wrote 50,000 words (in one month!) to get it there. There’s a saying in the publishing world, “The first draft of a novel is always for the writer to understand the story,” which is an absolute truth. I’ll let it sit until after I’m done with edits for book two, then I’ll begin revising this one. This novel, tentatively titled On Gossamer’s Wings, features domestic abuse, a mother/daughter survival story and hypnosis–back to another lifetime. 

Finally, my essay  “Living in a Five Pounds of Sugar,” part of the anthology Smoke, Blokes and Jokes of Foggy Town London, was released by Red Penguin Books and is available on Amazon. It was fun receiving my copy and sharing it with my daughter who is the subject of the essay. If you’re an anglophile like me, you’ll love it. 

 I hope you take time to reflect on what has been good about this year for you, big and small, and celebrate–celebrate yourself. Wishing you and yours a happy & healthy holiday season! 

Until next time...