The fulfillment of dreams and the start of the next adventure

I have been writing fiction since I was in the second or third grade. I began by writing fan fiction in the back of the school bus with my second cousin. I wrote about Annie. She wrote about E.T. We wrote poetry, too. Mine was bad.

I started writing original stories not long after that. My youngest sister was my first critique partner, though neither she nor I knew it. Once, my mom was mad at me for fighting with my younger sisters and my punishment was to play with them for an hour. I never liked playing, not even when I was a kid (weird, I know). Somewhere in the midst of a nightmare of playing with Barbie dolls, I had the brilliant idea to read them my stories instead. They loved this idea and so did I.

In college and grad school, writing stories and music was my reward time after practicing flute four hours a day. After I got married and started working, fiction writing became dangerous while I learned to separate real life from made-up worlds. And then I got serious and started learning to write for real.

I’ve queried (meaning pitched to literary agents) at least three different novels (often multiple rounds/versions), and each time I’ve gotten closer. There were a lot of heartbreaks along the way. But I stuck with it because it’s so deep a part of my identity.

Last fall, I signed with Sonali Chanchani and Claudia Cross, of Folio Literary, and in the spring we went on submission.

I tell you all this because I’ve been preparing to make this announcement for a lllloooooonnnnnggg time. Those of you who have visited my landing page or follow me on social media may already have seen this, but I realized in the madness of IEPs and back to school (sorta-kinda), I forgot to put an actual blog post up!

So now I’m turning a corner–starting down a road I’ve had my eye on for years, but have been sitting at the intersection with my blinker on for what seems like forever. It’s exciting and slightly overwhelming–but mostly exciting!

In the coming months, I’ll keep you updated here on the big stuff–final title, cover, etc. But if you’re interested in following more closely–being part of my “woo-hoo-boo-hoo” Book Tribe, click here and request to join. If Facebook isn’t your thing, I’ll be sending monthly author newsletters, too. You can sign up for that here.

I can’t wait to share this labor of love with the world!