Contracts signed, scanned and delivered!

Just a brief update to say I have signed and sent out two contracts this week!
1) to my agent allowing her to represent Four Possessions.
2) to the publisher Books We Love to agree they can publish The Bookstore Lady.
Time to celebrate then set my focus on editing!
Woohoo!

A pause while I catch my breath!

What a wild week at my house!

First off, the older kids finished school Monday. My oldest is now officially a high school graduate AND enrolled in University AND got his first real job for the summer and has to get up at 4:30am every day! My middle son is taking advantage of having the house to himself to squeeze in video games, friends hanging out and walking with me. My youngest finishes school today and HAD to go because he and a buddy are going out for lunch. Hard to believe how mature they can all be in the real world. Certainly a different story at home!

As for me, I got a great email from my agent on Wednesday to say that she wanted to represent Four Possessions and work on getting it published. Woohoo! Great way to start the day, which led to a good karate class that I sweated like crazy in. It was when I came home for lunch afterward that I nearly fell off my chair...

My wonderful agent Dawn phoned me to say we had an offer to publish The Bookstore Lady!! I won't give out details just yet until all the paperwork is signed etc. Needless to say, its hard to eat a stir-fry when you're dancing around the kitchen. Things get messy!

We're holding onto the offer until today because The Bookstore Lady is also with three other publishers. Dawn sent them each a notice to say we have an offer and if they want it to speak up before the weekend. Today is the deadline. We'll know by tomorrow at the latest what my options are and I may be able to submit more books to them in the future!

Wow! Very glad for a long weekend this weekend! Need to sit back and catch my breath for a few minutes.
Of course then I have to update my blog when I get more news, update my website, update facebook, send out twitters...

Silver Linings

Things have been a little hectic in my life over the past couple of months. I've been sidelined by some crazy allergies to things I never thought I was allergic to, I've gone on a doctor supervised elimination diet to try to weed them all out. The list seems to grow daily as I add things back into my diet. Things like green tea, honey and dairy products and that's just the first of many I'm sure. Yikes. Certainly a life changer.

Another life changer was my oldest son turning 18 this year. Wow. I'm so excited for him. Such a realm of possibilities are opening up for him! University. A job. Travel. My biggest wish for him is to live the life he loves. To find joy in every day life.

Joy can elude us so easily, can slip from our fingers and be replaced by darkness, frustration and despair. I have tried to raise all my kids to find a silver lining. To look for the positives even in the negatives. A Pollyanna view? Perhaps, but good is always there lurking.

My writing career has stalled for the past couple of months as I deal with my health issues and "real life" took over. Too busy to write, to edit, to think. Too distracted by all the big things to bother with sitting and focusing.

Then came a rainy Monday.

Stuck at home with cranky weather, no vehicle and a bad mood, I sat and I wrote. As I wrote, emails came in from my agent. More rejections, but with it came more possibilities and the request for a sample of my latest manuscript. The one I was working on right that minute. A silver lining.

Now I face the excitement of a new deadline and karate classes with a possible grading.

Better get cracking!