A Good Year

Now, as 2008 ends, it’s time to reflect on the past year.

Looking back:

I entered four RWA contests. I neither won nor finaled. Mainly because my heroine doesn't appear in the first twenty pages. Maybe this book won't sell as it stands, but I'll have to see what an editor or agent says.

The Wild Rose Press gave me my first contract for my novella, Lady of the Stars. Lady started life as an entry in TWRP's Through the Garden Gate time travel contest. I lost. But they saw enough to ask me to resubmit, and I resubmitted twice before they accepted the story. For all the gory details, see my blog post And How Did You Become An Author?

Before and after submitting, I learned a lot from the Wild Rose Press. Their suggestions made my story better and helped me with my next submission. Thank you, Wild Rose Press, for giving me a chance.

I started promotion. Oh, my. Talk about culture shock. I had no idea what promotion involved. Writing is very hard work, but promotion is even harder, maybe because I'm not the outgoing type. Luckily for me, with online promotion, I can still hide to some extent. I now have a blog, a website, accounts on myspace, facebook, goodreads, and I will start a twitter account. And I belong to forty-five yahoo loops.

In between all that time-consuming promotion, I finished NaNoWriMo (52,084 words) and I wrote my second novella, Pumpkinnapper. TWRP gave me a contract for Pumpkinnapper without asking for a resubmission.

Looking forward:

2009 starts with the release of Lady of the Stars on January 7. I hope it fares well.

Happy New Year.

Thank you all,

Linda