Rocky Road to Publication

I was reading over the wonderful "First Sale" interviews on my blog, and thinking that someday somebody will interview me and I'll get to talk about the frustrating, difficult months I've just gone through. Of course, I've got my fingers crossed that this phase of crappola is over, but you just never know. So I'm keeping my crappola mask on and hoping for the best.

Without going into a lot of detail (in other words -- without doing a lot of whining), I was offered agent representation in January. Let's just say our first attempt to sell my book was a less-than-rousing success. My agent gives great pep talks, and he insists this is but a minor setback. OK. I like his thinking.

You might have noticed that I had a couple of posts here on the blog about selling my short story. Since those posts are no longer here, I guess you can connect the dots. The first place (Inara Press) that bought my story went out of business. (Honest, I only mentally accused them of doing it just to spite me one time!) Then the editor I was going to work with at Inara (who also works elsewhere) took my story with her when Inara closed. This editor sent me a contract, set things in motion and all was well. Until she took my story to her publisher. Who hated it. I mean really hated it. Hated all the not-normal elements that I like about the story. So, long story short, the contract offer was snatched away, and my short story is once again homeless.

Huge sigh. OK. So, I'm whining a little bit.

I'm going to put that story aside, and either put it on my website as a freebie or add more stories with the same characters and see if I can get an anthology out of it.

I've had some rough days, and really haven't done a lot of significant writing for the last few weeks, but I'm still hanging in. My agent wants me to finish the second book in the Kismet Knight series and I want to complete the novella I'm in the midst of. I know it might be shallow of me, but I want to sell something. I'm definitely back on the horse, but the saddle feels pretty slippery right about now.