The Year In Review

About this time last year, I heard my publisher was closing.
Not quite now but we're getting really close.  December 1, 2011 they officially closed and I heard about it in November.

For a moment, I really despaired.  Although my publisher, Sapphire Blue Publishing, believed in me, would anyone else?

Strangely, it seemed to be a case of when the going gets tough, the tough get going and I found out I was a little stronger than I thought.

I considered it a challenge. Either I was going to make a go of being an author or I would take this as a sign from the universe and hang up my hat.

So, without further preamble, here is my year in review:

November 2011- Wrote Lips of Velvet and submitted it.  Only 3k, I searched for a house that would be interested in something that short.  Lips was picked up almost immediatly.
Also, applied for and got a job as an editor.

December 2011- Endeavored to re-contract some of my previously pubbed work.  Out the door went Clothing Optional, Odd Stuff and Accidental Pirate.
Odd Stuff was picked up almost immediatly and is still awaiting release.  Clothing Optional was picked up by MuseItUp and slated to release in July 2012.

January 2012- Accidental Pirate contracted.  Wrote and submitted Someone Like You (later renamed Turn Me On)  Wrote and submitted Hypnotist.  Started work on Necro.

February 2012- Wrote and submitted Taking Control. 

March 2012- Contracted Taking Control with Decadent. 

April 2012- Contracted Hypnotist with Decadent after some revisions. 

May 2012- Wrote Runaway Groom.  Sent out on submissions in July.
Wrote 3/4 of Lasso the Groom. Contracted Turn Me On. Visited with authors and readers at Lori Foster's.

June 2012- Clothing Optional released

July 2012- Wrote and submitted Rumor Has It.  Edited and prepared for release all the other stories.  Worked mostly on promotions.  Rumor was then contracted by Champagne Book Group.

August 2012- Wrote and submitted Dom of the Dead and self pubbed Lips of Velvet and Accidental Pirate. Taking Control released.

September 2012- Wrote Were,Witch and Baby, Started Tourist Trap and Catching Death.  Hypnotist released.

October 2012- Wrote and submitted Proper Care and Feeding of a Sex God

November starts in a few days.  All in all, in less than a year, I've written and submitted thirteen short stories/novellas/books.  I've signed eight contracts and still have three stories out on submissions.  I also self pubbed three books in the meantime.  I also have four more WIP's still on my desk.

Point of all this?  When you're feeling like you can't do something is often exactly the moment you should see it as a challenge and refuse to give up.  You can do anything if you just grit your teeth and get to work.

If I can do this while being a full time student, single mother of three kids with varying challenges, and still find time to work as an editor and crit partner to some authors who make me look like I'm slacking, you can do just about anything.

Well, except be a fish. Or a bird. But anything else...you can do it.

NaNoWriMo is coming and this was your pep talk.  For more about my coming soon books, check out my Coming Soon page on my website here.
Happy writing!