So I can finally shout to the
world that my debut novel, RECLAIMED, will be coming out with Spencer Hill
Contemp October 2013! I’m really so
excited and thrilled to be working with the awesome people at Spencer Hill
Press.
Edit: Here is the announcement from PM:
Sarah Guillory's RECLAIMED, in which a girl determined to flee her small town finds a reason to stay when she falls in love with twin brothers, one who can't remember his past and the other who doesn't want him to remember, told in three alternating points of view, to Danielle Ellison & Patricia Riley at Spencer Hill Contemp, in a nice deal, for publication in October 2013, by Rebecca Mancini at RightsMix (World).
Long Story: I can partially thank Twitter for this. Really.
If I hadn’t been on Twitter, I probably never would have participated in
WriteonCon. And if I hadn’t participated
in WriteonCon, my query wouldn’t have been seen by my awesome editor. So thanks to Twitter! And WriteonCon! And my awesome editor, who saw that there was
a story in my pitiful attempts at the query!
(And I promise I don’t use exclamation marks like this in my book. I’m just really excited.) J
So, Ninja Editor saw my query in
the WriteonCon forums and asked me for the full. I was working on reorganizing the first fifty
pages or so, so I worked frantically all weekend and sent the full on a Sunday
night. The following Sunday, awesome
editor Danielle Ellison tweeted about a manuscript she was loving. I crossed my fingers and prayed it was mine,
not getting my hopes up. Then she
tweeted other glowing comments about the manuscript and I just knew it wasn’t
mine.
I get up at 5:25 a.m. every
morning to go running. Since my full was
out, I’d started checking my email first thing when I got up. (No, I’m not obsessive or uptight in any way,
why do you ask?) So when I opened my
email Monday morning and saw I had an email from Spencer Hill, I held my
breath. When I opened it and saw that
they were excited about my manuscript and wanted to talk, I didn’t even finish
reading the email. I started jumping up
and down and woke up my husband, who was dead to the world and tried to be
excited for me while still half asleep.
I went for a run, but even running in the thick humidity felt like
flying.
We scheduled a Skype call for
that evening, and somehow I managed to teach six classes and tell no one that
everything I ever wanted might be happening.
But there was a hurricane brewing in the gulf, so there were plenty of
hurricane preparations to focus on. At
least that gave me something to do instead of staring at the clock.
The Skype call with Danielle
Ellison and Patricia Riley went great. I
was probably grinning like an idiot the whole time. They were so excited and
passionate about my book, and that meant so much to me. I’ve been working on this manuscript for over
two years now, and my blood is in it.
The fact that they totally understood and loved my characters was
surreal. They offered publication, and I
tried to play it cool when really I wanted to run out into the street and howl
at the moon or something.
Then Hurricane Isaac hit. Luckily we were spared some of the worst of
it, though we were without power and internet for a couple of days, which made
me even more on edge. Since school had
been canceled, I paced the house for several days, all nervous energy and
excitement. I baked and redecorated and
drove my husband crazy. At one point he
threatened to drug me.
And then the contract was signed
and sent and I vacillated between wild excitement and disbelief.
I kept thinking I was going to wake up and
realize it wasn’t really happening.
But
it is!
So if you’ve read this far,
thanks, and give yourself a cookie.
Because I’m going to have several.
Oh yeah! Here's a pic of me signing the contract.
