The Road to Publication: Jumping Head-First Through the Open Window

"When God closes a door, He always opens a window, because you can't throw yourself out of a door."

That pretty much summarizes my life. This week particularly in my writing.  One door very definitely closed. I was not a finalist in the “So You Think You Can Write” Contest. I blogged about the insanity that completely overtook me my experience during this contest a few days ago.  I was shocked by the number of people who contacted me via comments, Twitter, or Facebook about how crazy they also had become during the contest also.

We unpublished authors? Evidently we’re a fanatical lot. I blame it on listening to all the voices in our heads.

But even as I posted about my utter idiocy SYTYCW experience, I was STILL secretly hoping that I might be one of the Top25, since the official list had not been released yet. So for four more days I still spent more time on Twitter than I did anything else. A taste:

 

(That's right, you saw the important one: can we please get a shirtless shooting match between Aarow & Hawkeye?? Pretty please?) Anyway, finally on Friday, the official list did come out. And guess what? I wasn’t on it.   My very adult response:

AND THEN, not two hours later, I kid you not, my husband walks in with the mail. In his hand is a letter from Harlequin.  I knew it had nothing to do with the SYTYCW contest, but I had three other partial manuscripts in with them, and I knew this was news about one of them.

I was sure it was a rejection, since it was in an actual envelope and very official looking. I didn’t even want to open it since I was still reeling from not making it into the Top25. But I did open it.

Lo and behold, it was a request from an editor for me to send in the FULL MANUSCRIPT for a book I’ve been working on (not the same one as for SYTYCW) called See No Evil.  They had read the first three chapters and synopsis, and thought highly enough of it to want to see the entire thing.

Now this doesn’t mean they’re going to offer me a contract or publish my book (want more details about rejections in publishing: see here), but it is definitely a big step towards my publishing goal.  I was excited! I was thrilled! I was like, What SYTYCW contest??!!

And that was about when Karma bit me in the… ahem, Karma bit me. I realized I need to finish the book the editor requested. It isn’t long enough or polished enough or… finished.  Definitely not in any shape to send to an editor any time soon.  So I’ve been writing like a fiend and will continue writing/editing like a fiend for the next few weeks.

And I will offer my sincere apologies to the lady who I derided in my last post because she didn’t have her manuscript finished.  Because… Pot, meet Kettle and call her black. That’s what I get for being mean.  (And btw, the lady who hadn’t finished her manuscript is a lovely and gracious person and quite talented. Well deserving of being in the Top25).

For me it’s time to refocus. Get serious and get writing.  Get that manuscript into the editor.

And try something new like lowering myself carefully out of the window that has been opened rather than flinging myself out headfirst. 

But not too carefully. Because where's the calamity in that? :)