This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
They say that being a writer is like telling a joke but waiting two years to know if it was funny. In my case, it was actually more like waiting six years…and to this day – I still don’t know if it’s funny or not.
The initial contract with my literary agent was for two years; if we didn’t find a home for my manuscript by that time, I would be agent-less once again. The contract would run out February 21, 2014. By Valentine’s Day 2014 – and still with no publishing contract in sight – I had lost all faith that the ending to my story would be a happy one.
When my home phone rang early Valentine’s Day morning, I had barely mumbled a greeting before my agent’s voice screamed through the phone with exciting news; my manuscript had finally found a home with Post Hill Press. They had contacted her late the night before and she had been trying my cell phone all night. I glanced to my cell with a dead battery – still not charged on my nightstand and silently cursed myself for not plugging it in. Apparently she had also sent me multiple e-mails, but since I hadn’t checked my computer, the good news had not gone bi-coastal.
To this day, I can’t recall exactly what she said or the details of our conversation. I do remember bawling like a toddler through most of it, then hanging up the phone feeling something between elation and nausea. What’s odd about having a dream actually come true is that – for quite a while after it happens – you doubt the validity of it. Like a hot object, you touch it, check it every few minutes to make sure it’s real and actually happening.I didn’t sleep for a full week after my agent shared the news with me and, after the fifth confirming e-mail I sent her – just to make sure the deal was solid – she urged me to calm down and have a drink. Not sure if the drink was for my benefit or hers, but it was very good advice.
A year post-news, my novel is finally being released. April 7 2015 The Cave will hit bookshelves and I will finally be able to utter the words I’ve waited a lifetime to say. “Yes, I’m a published author.”
The Cave by Michela Montgomery is out now.