My First Published Novel

January is the month of new beginnings, the first month of a brand new year. I’m excited to begin 2012 with a clean slate and a spanking new calendar to monitor and record my life.

Yet I like to look back, too, to see where I’ve been. January in Seekerville is the Month of Firsts, a great way to focus on our firsts and how they changed our lives.   

I’m highlighting my first published book, Courting Miss Adelaide, September 2008. Melissa Endlich, Senior Editor of Love Inspired Historical offered to buy my manuscript on June 29, 2006. With Love Inspired launching a new line in February of 2008, I had to wait for what felt like forever at the time. Yet this launch provided the open door I will always be grateful for and made me a published author.   

If you’ve had a book published or are trying to, I’m sure you can relate to the excitement of selling your first book and seeing that book in print. Many firsts are involved: first contract, first revisions, first edits, first cover, first back cover blurb, first author copies, first book on the shelves—each milestone taught me a lot.

The Harlequin contract is a long document but I read every word before I signed. Here's the picture my dh took of this momentous moment. My, I look young. Guess six years take a toll. LOL

My first revisions were light, no doubt the result of lots of polishing.

From these firsts come the first reader letter, first book signing, first review, and my first published contest finals. Debut authors may also deal with the first less than stellar review, the first negative reader letter, the first didn’t-sell-a-single-copy book signing. But thankfully most firsts are joyous events, filling authors with optimism and bigger dreams. J

My advice to those who sell this year, squeeze every bit of joy out of that debut. Ahead of you is another book to write. Only this time you won’t have the leisure to revise and polish to your heart’s content, using contest feedback to guide you. This time you worry if you’ll sell a second book. But wait, I’m wandering into seconds’ territory.

Seeing a book didn't change my life in any huge way. I didn't get rich or famous. Most of us authors find life is much the same. That is until a reader says your book touched her life in some way and thanks you for your story. Or until a child or grandchild looks at books with your name on the cover and their eyes glow with awe, like you're some kind of a super hero. Or until you get your very first check and realize you'd been writing for years piling up expenses and now you're getting paid. An editor thought your story worthy. Wow. Publication didn't change my life that much but it changed me. Added some pressure too, but that's another post.   

All of my books have had lovely covers but Courting Miss Adelaide’s cover is my favorite. Doesn’t she look feisty, flirty, the epitome of a successful milliner? Here's the back cover blurb:  

A Family of Her Own

The “orphan train” seemed like small-town spinster Adelaide Crum’s last chance to know the simple joys of family life. So many lost children, every one of them dreaming only of a caring home—the home she longed to offer. And yet the narrow-minded town elders refused to entrust even the most desperate child to a woman alone….

Newspaperman Charles Graves believed his heart was closed forever, but he swore to stand by this lovely, lonely woman who was fighting for the right to take some motherless child into her heart. And her gentle soul and unwavering faith made him wonder if even he could overcome the bitter lessons of the past, and somehow find the courage to love….

The idea to write this story came after I read a newspaper clipping my father sent on orphan train riders. I’d never heard of the phenomenon but knew immediately I wanted to write a story about these children. I set the book in the real town of Noblesville, Indiana, where an orphan train once stopped. I entitled the story Orphaned Hearts and entered it in several contests. In time Orphaned Hearts performed well on the contest circuit, even garnering a 2005 Golden Heart final. I met Seeker sisters and fellow finalists Julie, Tina and Myra through the GH. We called ourselves the Golden Girls. Golden or not, that final didn’t result in a sale.

Speaking of contests, the published book, Courting Miss Adelaide, was a finalist seven times in either Best Inspirational and Best First Book or both. It received 4 ½ stars from Romantic Times and a Romantic Times Reviewer Choice Award. I had no idea at the time that my yet to be written books would not garner this much success. I’m grateful for what my first book brought into my life, for that first open door. Still, each successive book I've seen in print is a thrill. Some readers tell me these later books are their favorites so I've realized contest finals or wins don't determine reader popularity or book sales.  

I can’t serve breakfast until I give a shout out for my latest release. AnInconvenient Match, Love Inspired Historical, that just hit the bookshelves January 3, 2012.  

Here’s the back cover blurb:

THE BEST OF ENEMIES

His family destroyed hers. But Matthew Cummings’s job offer—to care for his recuperating father—is impossible to decline. Schoolteacher Abigail Wilson can swallow her pride for the sake of a summer paycheck that will help her sister. And when Abigail’s employment ends, old loyalties will separate the feuding families once more.

If there’s anyone in town stubborn enough to deal with Matthew’s cantankerous father, it’s Abigail. It’s just a business arrangement—and a temporary one, at that. Her good opinion shouldn’t matter a lick to Matt. Yet their different backgrounds belie a surprising kinship. Perhaps unexpected love will be their reward for the summer’s inconvenient match.

For a chance to win a signed copy of Courting Miss Adelaide, leave a comment. Let's talk debuts. Books or otherwise. 

I brought scrambled eggs, sausage and bacon, pancakes, biscuits and gravy with coffee, tea and tomato juice for breakfast.