Sunday, October 02, 2005
And suddenly the day got better!
Yesterday started out just like every other day of the past month--fixed breakfast then headed for the computer--but my heart really wasn't in it. I've been feeling overwhelmed with projects lately--my deadlines for two novels and a novella are all scrunched together during the holidays with one novel due November 15, another January 1 and the novella on January 15. Now I don't know about the rest of you, but our holidays, with kids, grandkids, great grandparents and extended families are sometimes absolutely nuts, and not necessarily conducive to getting writing done on time, so I've been nervous about getting things done.
Anyway, it was just another day in a row of days without a break and no end in sight. I was wrapping up the final read-through on Wolf Tales II--Tia's Wolf, so I can get it printed and sent to my editor on Monday in time to start the next book, when I decided to check my email -- someone mentioned their January Kensington release was showing up for presale at Amazon! I started scouting around the various booksellers online and at first couldn't find my book. I got a bit creative (read: Desperate!) and typed in "Wolf Tales by Kate Douglas" on Amazon.com and lo and behold, it was THERE! Checked back at Barnes and Noble and Books a Million and saw the same listing for pre-sale.
I had to literally sit still for a moment and catch my breath. Now, this isn't my first book by any stretch of the imagination, but it's my first book with a New York publisher. If you're not a writer and haven't lived with that dream for a very long time, you'll probably just laugh me off as an overly-emotional doofus, but for me this is the culmination of a twenty year quest. Yep, you read that right--twenty years. I wrote my first romance in the early 1980's with my goal a NY publishing contract. Instead of contracts and book sales, I've got a folder full of rejections that's thicker than my first book. I've been print-published now since the beginning of this century (sound's more impressive than saying since 2000) but my first NY book debuts in January: Wolf Tales, from Kensington Publishing.
Until I saw it listed for pre-sale, however, this entire journey had still felt like some sort of nebulous fantasy that might suddenly go "poof" and disappear. I've had visions of someone calling to tell me the joke's off and the whole contract thing never happened, but seeing the book actually listed for sale made it feel real for the first time. I sent an announcement out in my newsletter and started hearing back from some of my readers within the hour that they'd already ordered the book! I tried going back to work and realized my heart was racing and I couldn't concentrate, so I went outside and whacked weeds and worked up a sweat, stretched a few muscles too much and generally worked off the case of nerves that had hit me so hard.
And when I was done and so tired I could barely stand, I realized I hadn't stopped grinning the entire time. I had this amazing epiphany, standing there with the garden shears in my hand and the piles of branches all around that, damn, it was a fine day and life really was good. And yes, the book is coming out as scheduled, along with the next one, and the next. And another yes that, finally, after years of hard work and highs and lows and in-betweens, that I hadn't been tilting at windmills after all...I'd actually chased and caught a rainbow and it felt pretty damned good.
Now, it's a day later, and the feeling's still there. I imagine at some point I'll come down off this high, but not for awhile, I hope. I plan to savor the feeling and enjoy every moment between now and the time the book actually hits the shelves in bookstores around the country. Then I imagine the nerves will hit all over again. For now, though, I can honestly say I've worked a long time to get here, and I fully intend to enjoy it.
Anyway, it was just another day in a row of days without a break and no end in sight. I was wrapping up the final read-through on Wolf Tales II--Tia's Wolf, so I can get it printed and sent to my editor on Monday in time to start the next book, when I decided to check my email -- someone mentioned their January Kensington release was showing up for presale at Amazon! I started scouting around the various booksellers online and at first couldn't find my book. I got a bit creative (read: Desperate!) and typed in "Wolf Tales by Kate Douglas" on Amazon.com and lo and behold, it was THERE! Checked back at Barnes and Noble and Books a Million and saw the same listing for pre-sale.
I had to literally sit still for a moment and catch my breath. Now, this isn't my first book by any stretch of the imagination, but it's my first book with a New York publisher. If you're not a writer and haven't lived with that dream for a very long time, you'll probably just laugh me off as an overly-emotional doofus, but for me this is the culmination of a twenty year quest. Yep, you read that right--twenty years. I wrote my first romance in the early 1980's with my goal a NY publishing contract. Instead of contracts and book sales, I've got a folder full of rejections that's thicker than my first book. I've been print-published now since the beginning of this century (sound's more impressive than saying since 2000) but my first NY book debuts in January: Wolf Tales, from Kensington Publishing.
Until I saw it listed for pre-sale, however, this entire journey had still felt like some sort of nebulous fantasy that might suddenly go "poof" and disappear. I've had visions of someone calling to tell me the joke's off and the whole contract thing never happened, but seeing the book actually listed for sale made it feel real for the first time. I sent an announcement out in my newsletter and started hearing back from some of my readers within the hour that they'd already ordered the book! I tried going back to work and realized my heart was racing and I couldn't concentrate, so I went outside and whacked weeds and worked up a sweat, stretched a few muscles too much and generally worked off the case of nerves that had hit me so hard.
And when I was done and so tired I could barely stand, I realized I hadn't stopped grinning the entire time. I had this amazing epiphany, standing there with the garden shears in my hand and the piles of branches all around that, damn, it was a fine day and life really was good. And yes, the book is coming out as scheduled, along with the next one, and the next. And another yes that, finally, after years of hard work and highs and lows and in-betweens, that I hadn't been tilting at windmills after all...I'd actually chased and caught a rainbow and it felt pretty damned good.
Now, it's a day later, and the feeling's still there. I imagine at some point I'll come down off this high, but not for awhile, I hope. I plan to savor the feeling and enjoy every moment between now and the time the book actually hits the shelves in bookstores around the country. Then I imagine the nerves will hit all over again. For now, though, I can honestly say I've worked a long time to get here, and I fully intend to enjoy it.
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