The Call

I was soooo excited. January 25, 2013 is a day I'll never forget.

It was also the fruition of a year of hard work. Well, actually longer than a year, but in the course of a year I rewrote the book three times. THREE times. Yep.

Back in 2010 I entered Harlequin's Medical Fast Track in the fall. I thought, what the heck. It was a chance to move beyond slush and I SO wanted to be a category romance author for as long as I can remember.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love writing my paranormal stuff for Ellora's Cave (and I will continue to do so), but I also wanted to write contemporary romance for Harlequin since I was 12.

So I entered a synopsis and 1 chapter to the Fast Track. A couple weeks I had a request for the partial. I sent it in. A couple more weeks went by and I had an R&R on the partial. They gave me awesome stuff to keep in mind. So I worked hard and in December I sent off the rewritten partial and got confirmation.

Then I waited.

And waited.

In July 2011 I lost a very close friend. It was devastating. He was like family and happened to be married to my best friend (who is like a sister to me). She was pregnant with their second when the tragedy happened, their first was only 2 yrs old like my youngest. In fact they were my youngest's godparents. It was horrible and I couldn't write, let alone think straight. A week later, my request for a full came from Harlequin Medical.

This is what I wanted and what my friend had always encouraged me to do. So I worked. It was hard. By December 2011 I submitted the full. Then waited.

And waited.

In March 2012 I got an email from a lovely editor named Caroline Kirkpatrick. She had some awesome advice on tweaking and we worked together. I even worked on my road trip across Canada. At the end of August Caroline called me, she was living Harlequin. *sob* I was devastated, but not for long. A month later I was reassigned to Suzanne Clarke.

And she worked me hard!

On January 2nd I send the full in and on January 8th I sent in a partial of a second story they requested.

When I woke up at on Friday January 25th, I was groaning. We were going through a cold snap, I has to get the kids up. It was one of those days. I opened my email at 7:00 a.m., and saw there was an email from Suzanne asking me when she could call me (as they're in London and 5 hrs ahead).

I hyperventilated and then told her when I was available.

I don't even remember getting the kids ready, but I did. I got them off to school and waited. At 9:45 a.m. Suzanne called and offered me a two book contract!

You read call stories and you try to imagine what it'll be like and they're never like they are. After it was over I balled like a baby and called my hubby. I tried to call my parents, but they were out. Next I sent a text to my friend. She called me within a minute to squee with me.

And that's my little old call story.

My first story has been retitled to SAFE IN HIS HANDS and the second partial is being torn asunder and rewritten to something stronger.

And 'm going to be busy for the next little while as I churn out the words!