It was worth it

A big thanks to everyone who commented and commiserated on my waiting hell. Glad to know I'm not the only one who has developed a callous on my Refresh finger.

The good news is that sometimes the waiting is worth it. I just received word from the editor that my serial short story "Frozen" will appear in Woman's Weekly starting in the May 17 issue and running in four parts. "Frozen" is the story of Emma and Rick, a couple who, after undergoing IVF eight years ago, must now decide the fate of their frozen embryos.

Now I just have to wait for the magazine to come out!

What do I do with this?

Seriously. This is not a rhetorical question... What do I do with this information?

My new four-part serial short story "La Luna" began in Woman's Weekly (a UK magazine) this week. As I posted last Friday, the editor wrote about it in her Editor's Letter, which I didn't see until yesterday when I received my contributor's copies. Here's what she wrote:

So... OMG! (and I don't use that expression lightly, because, honestly, I just can't pull it off.) Seriously, this magazine has a circulation of 350,000 every week and a readership of 570,000. So even if only half the readers take a look at the contents page, that means almost a quarter of a million people just read my name and really nice comments about my story.

Now aside from the fact that this gives my ego a boost it could really use after all the rejections that come from querying a novel, there has got to be some way this can work in my favor, right?

I've posted this on my web site (if you haven't already checked it, go ahead and look -- I've got a stat counter and it makes my day when I get visitors). But I'd love to hear from you marketing experts if there is something else I should do to with this development. Should I mention it in my query letter? Include a hardcopy of this page when I send out paper copies? Hire a skywriter to reproduce it in vapor? Get over myself because it's not that big of a deal?

I'd love to get any suggestions people have. Remember, there's no such thing as a bad idea! Thank you in advance for your help.

Feel Good Friday

I received an email from the fiction editor, Gaynor Davies, at Woman's Weekly. My four-part serial "La Luna" hits the UK newsstands next week (10 August issue) which is exciting enough. But Gaynor also told me that the editor is mentioning my serial in the Editor's Letter that appears on the Contents page! Gaynor didn't tell me what the editor wrote but said "I'm sure you'll be pleased with what she says" and went on to thank me for a "lovely" story.

Yay!

And then she went on to inquire about the progress of my next serial. Um... I better get to work!

How about you? Any good news or happy feelings you'd like to share?

I'm a Cover Girl!

OK, not really. But sorta!

The woman on this cover is not me, but Darcy Bussell, British ballerina. But see that little banner on the upper right hand corner? The "Compelling Mystery Serial" that starts today? That's me!

I'm in the depths of querying my novel (and have been for months) and we all know that means rejections. So I must take my joy and successes where I can. 350,000 people will be reading this magazine and maybe my story.

So.... yay!

Now I have to get back to working on the next serial. And framing the cover to put on my wall. It will make a nice change from the rejection letters.

Little tiny squee

I said I wasn't going to do this but I can't stop myself. I'm only doing it because I know there are only a few people looking at this blog (hello to you!).

I started the submission process last week. I've spent lots of time researching agents and whittled it down to my top 50. Last Monday, I sent queries to the top 10, with a plan to send 10 a week, giving me a chance to amend my query, synopsis, etc. if I needed to.

Within 3 days, I had three rejections (1 personal, 2 form), 1 partial request (from one of the 'uber-agents' I never expected to hear back from) and 1 full request!

WOO HOO!

I know it can all go terribly wrong from here. Up to now, the query process can be 'I don't like/rep your idea' which stings, but doesn't impugn your writing per se. But from the partial/full stage, it could be 'I liked your idea, but your execution...not so much.'

BUT... STILL!

It's nice to have that little lift in thinking that maybe, just maybe, this could happen.