What to do on a holiday weekend when your husband is working long days? Maybe catch up on some writing, or emails, or both. I checked the website of a publisher who contacted me in March about submitting a proposal for a sweet romance. The site declared Submissions closed, July 29, 2016. Yesterday? Without notice? But they didn’t allow for my procrastination.
Be brave, I told myself, reply to the original email and refer to the important fact you guys wanted me. The ideas for another novel had been percolating in my mind for a few months so I pulled a couple of details together and sent them off. At that point, the novel was comprised of only one half page. The publisher replied and asked me to send a few pages for her to take a look at.
I agonized for a couple of hours and came up with . . . yup, two pages. So I forwarded the lengthy script on and heard back shortly. The publishing house was closing down but in the meantime she’d forwarded my pages to another amazing publisher who was “willing to take me on as an author as she ‘likes my style’”. Am I dreaming?
I contacted the new publisher (who publishes several well-known authors) and promised to have a complete manuscript in November (251 pages or 70,000 words from now). The contract is in the mail. I must overcome the procrastination habit. Repeat. I must overcome the procrastination habit.
Here’s the blurb:
A young woman with more gumption than ability tries to solve her family’s money troubles by departing on a cross country expedition to deliver a mule train to Death Valley. Along the way, she falls in love with an aloof cowboy who comes to her rescue.
I’ll let you know how many pages I write each week. My goal - 16.
Please bug me if I am falling behind!