Announcement!

Monday, March 16th was a rather nice day. It was an ordinary day, and I was simply driving home from a routine dentist appointment when my phone rang. It was The Agent. Now, I knew he might be calling “early next week”, but I didn’t think that meant Monday on the dot. First thing out of his mouth was “We have an offer.”

Um…what? Excuse me? ‘Cause I could have sworn you just said… Oh holy shit. At which point I’m trying desperately to remember how to follow all pertinent traffic laws. (yes, I know, driving + cel phone = bad)

The Agent gave me the details, and I managed to ask a few coherent (I think) questions. He said we were waiting to hear back from one more editor, and that he would be calling me again before the end of the day to let me know what the final result was.

I hung up the phone and proceeded to freak out, much to the concern of my daughter in the back seat. “Mommy, I think you need to calm down now.” When the six-year-old is the voice of reason, there may be a problem.

The second phone call came and went, and we still only had the one offer, but you only NEED one. And suddenly after being on submission for only six-ish weeks, in the space of a few hours, I am officially a professional author. I mean, someone is going to PAY me to do what I love anyway!

(I told The Agent at one point in the conversation that I would do this for a poke in the eye and a box of donuts. He told me he’d try to get me enough money that I could buy my own donuts. He’s just awesome.)

So here’s the official word on the subject:

I have accepted a three-book deal with Berkley/Roc (the imprint is still undecided) and my editor is Anne Sowards. For those not in the publishing industry, Anne also edits for Jim Butcher (permit me a small SQUEEEE!!!) and Anne Bishop among many, many others.

My first book (Project 2) will be out in stores in the summer of 2010, and I need to bust my butt working on the next two. We have some edits to do on Project 2 (shiny new title coming soon, hopefully) and I’ll be trying to chronicle the process as best I can.

I have to thank every single one of my beta readers. Without them, my book would be shite, my spirits would be low, and I probably would have given up years ago.