And We've Left the Gate!
Well, this will be a very interesting experience. Especially since my email account was hacked earlier this morning, making me spend an entire day figuratively running around the internet trying to change everything I remembered that used that email. Yikes! What a mess!
This is supposed to be about my writing experiences, so I suppose I should give a little bit of background on me. I've actually been writing novels since I was in 7th grade. Wrote my first trilogy in 7th and 8th grade. Those books will never see the light of day, but they were a worthwhile experience. The first book I attempted to get published was Bonds of Blood, Bonds of Steel, a fantasy Commonwealth Publications, Inc. in Canada took me for a little ride, then folded. It left me with a few scars, an experience, and no money. However, they did return the rights to me in a class action suit.
After I was burned by Commonwealth, (check them on out SFWA Writer Beware for more info) I took a couple of years off and concentrated on my teaching and getting my master's degree. When I had two more manuscripts done, I won an auction to have my work critiqued by a best selling fantasy author. I won't mention any names because it wasn't a pleasant experience. She pretty much told me to keep my day job.
Undeterred, I kept going. I have a quioxtic streak--can you tell? I stumbled across the webstie Savvyauthors and signed up. In September I tried for a "Pitch your book in 3 sentences" contest. I write awful query letters, I admit, and I thought this would be an excellent learning experience. A couple of weeks later I received an email from Solstice Publishing, the company sponsoring the contest. I thought it was a "thanks for participating" email. Imagine my surprise when they told me I won!
What I'd won was the opportunity to send my book in for a full review. I sent it in. The website said it took more than a month to look at the submissions. I wasn't expecting to hear from them until right about now, to be honest. They contacted me in mid October to say that they were publishing my new book Ribbons of Moonlight.
Ribbons is a time travel romance with a literary inspiration. I was just assigned an editor this week, so we'll see how this goes. I'm really looking forward to this! Of course, I feel like among school, my family, my union responsibilities and the writing someone has set all the balls I'm juggling on fire. Here's hoping I don't get burned!
This is supposed to be about my writing experiences, so I suppose I should give a little bit of background on me. I've actually been writing novels since I was in 7th grade. Wrote my first trilogy in 7th and 8th grade. Those books will never see the light of day, but they were a worthwhile experience. The first book I attempted to get published was Bonds of Blood, Bonds of Steel, a fantasy Commonwealth Publications, Inc. in Canada took me for a little ride, then folded. It left me with a few scars, an experience, and no money. However, they did return the rights to me in a class action suit.
After I was burned by Commonwealth, (check them on out SFWA Writer Beware for more info) I took a couple of years off and concentrated on my teaching and getting my master's degree. When I had two more manuscripts done, I won an auction to have my work critiqued by a best selling fantasy author. I won't mention any names because it wasn't a pleasant experience. She pretty much told me to keep my day job.
Undeterred, I kept going. I have a quioxtic streak--can you tell? I stumbled across the webstie Savvyauthors and signed up. In September I tried for a "Pitch your book in 3 sentences" contest. I write awful query letters, I admit, and I thought this would be an excellent learning experience. A couple of weeks later I received an email from Solstice Publishing, the company sponsoring the contest. I thought it was a "thanks for participating" email. Imagine my surprise when they told me I won!
What I'd won was the opportunity to send my book in for a full review. I sent it in. The website said it took more than a month to look at the submissions. I wasn't expecting to hear from them until right about now, to be honest. They contacted me in mid October to say that they were publishing my new book Ribbons of Moonlight.
Ribbons is a time travel romance with a literary inspiration. I was just assigned an editor this week, so we'll see how this goes. I'm really looking forward to this! Of course, I feel like among school, my family, my union responsibilities and the writing someone has set all the balls I'm juggling on fire. Here's hoping I don't get burned!
Becky, I am so happy for you! I have always wanted to author something, and it is nice to read someone's journey through the process (who I actually know). I am so excited for you adn can't wait to buy the book!
ReplyDeleteMichelle A