So happy to announce that my third book, The Season of You & Me, hits the shelves today! This is a book that is close to my heart for so many reasons. I love Cassidy and Bryan. I adore the setting and the cast, and had so much fun imagining all their shenanigans. I’m digging the fuchsia on the book cover, so much so that I purchased nail polish that matches it. Release is a time for me to celebrate.
The Season of You & Me began its journey titled Landscape of Little Dramas in 2008. I’d toiled over it for two years, bringing it to my critique group again, and again, and again. When it was finally ready to be out there – I queried my dream agent. They requested a partial. I was sure THIS was my time.
They passed on it.
I was devastated.
During this same time, I entered the manuscript in a contest. I won’t go into details (but if you want the full story go here) except to say, that I won! And not only that, but the agent who had judged my category requested a full! When she read the full, she made me an offer of representation. I politely accepted (aka internally screamed my head off) and all these years later, she is still a champion of my work.
Landscape of Little Dramas went out on sub.
It was rejected.
Again.
And again.
And again.
I worked on another manuscript, which turned out to be The Promise of Amazing. I remember standing in front of Bath and Body Works (I was Christmas shopping at the time.) when the deal went through, I was on the phone, trying to hold it together in public since all I wanted to do was dance down the street – before my agent hung up she said she still loved my first manuscript. I said I did too. That feeling never went away. That conversation stuck with me.
When the time came for my option book, I wrote a proposal for a paranormal mystery. My editor didn’t connect with it, but said she’d love to see me write another contemporary romance. We talked about characters and scenarios, and she wondered whether I would consider writing a character like Jason Street.
I’d never heard of him.
That changed. (Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose.)
I considered it, and thought of Landscape of Little Dramas and how it could work.
I went back and forth with the idea a lot, but finally came up with a proposal and it sold. And the rest, as they say, is history – or at least it’s the book that hits the shelves today.
The Season of You & Me is a far better book than my original manuscript. I say this because I know there are writers out there, toiling away with a story they love but for whatever reason, it isn’t selling. I know a lot of books fall by the wayside on the road to publication. Dropped ideas. Unfinished manuscripts. Finished books that you can’t quite figure out how to fix. It’s frustrating. I feel you. I see you. Keep the faith. Just because something doesn’t sell today, doesn’t mean it won’t sell tomorrow. And maybe, just maybe – it needs time.
Time to simmer.
Time for you to distance yourself from it so you can see it in a completely different way.
Time to be a book you never realized you could write.
I know not every shelved work gets a happily ever after.
…but sometimes, they do.