Unbelievably Excited!

I've been making every effort to stick to my Monday / Friday schedule, but this has been a long time in the making, and it's too exciting not to share!  Plus, what better day for major news than the 1-year anniversary of my blog?! Ready? Okay:

I officially have a deal with Swoon Romance for my first book! 

I have written before about the importance of Twitter for authors, but now I have concrete proof to offer you, as this deal first started as a pitch for #AdPit! (The next #AdPit event is actually tomorrow!) To be honest, at the time I had intended to continue seeking an agent, not approach publishing houses yet, but all of the requests I received that day were from publishers, not agents, and I decided to see them through – and I'm glad I did!

Until now, I've been referencing this manuscript by the initials of its main characters, as titles are frequently altered before publication, but now I can share that the title almost certainly will be Mending Heartstrings.  And just in case you, like me, find this all hard to believe, check out the Publishers Marketplace listing!

This has been a long and complex path so far, though perhaps not by publishing industry standards, and there's still quite a ways to go before this book is actually published, but now it's an entirely different road!  Since I have no idea how to articulate my excitement at the moment, let's just look at some numbers:

• First word written to completed draft: 103 days
• First query: April 4th 2013
• Rejections: Uncounted - intentionally!  But I assure you, there were quite a few.
• Twitter Pitch Events: 2
• Online contests: 3
• RWA chapter contests: 7
• First word written to first offer: 53 weeks
• Offers: 2

Expected publication date: Fall 2014!