Back From the Conference, Part II

As I said yesterday, before I headed home after the ACFW 2007 Conference, I drove on up to visit Elaine. On Sunday afternoon we got busy on a new novel, rather we picked up where we left off on a new novel last October - Murder in Maggie Valley, A Keps Delicacy Book 1.



I say we. I was zonked. I stretched out on Elaine's couch to listen to her read me what we'd written a year ago. Of course I dozed. But I woke up then dozed again. Did that a couple of times. I got a nice nap, and Elaine got some work done. When she was tired of writing, I took over. I wrote, we ate dinner, and Elaine disappeared into her office where her Internet computer is located.



Around 10:30 pm she called me to her office asking me if I wanted to hear something. I thought she had been writing on a different book. I started down the hallway when I heard the words, "...so we want to offer you a contract for First I'm Nobody... if you still want us to publish it."



Of course we wanted The Wild Rose Press to publish our book! Elaine composed our acceptance and added a note that we already had a sequel completed, Redigo. She asked if they'd like to look at it as well. She sent it off, and we prayed that we'd get the contract by email no later than Tuesday, mid-day, because I needed to come back home by Tuesday evening. If we got it by then, we could both sign it without having to use the US Post office.



I was so excited. Finally. Book two, for me; book five for Elaine. I really do have to get on the stick and get some solo projects finished and off to editors. I called my mother to tell her the news, but didn't have anyone else I could call at 11:00 pm. I did text my niece, but I got no reply from her. I looked at Elaine and said, "I can't even call you; you're right here!"



On Monday afternoon, we checked our email, but there wasn't a reply from our editor yet. So we gathered our stuff and headed over to Elaine's daughter's house to fix dinner for Elaine's son-in-law. His birthday was coming up on Wednesday. While we were there, after dinner, Elaine checked our account again. Our contract came in along with an okay to send Redigo to the editor.



So we went home, printed and signed the contract and told the editor we'd send the next book to her as soon as I did a quick revision. Sigh. More revisions. And I got the pleasure of completing all the informational stuff The Wild Rose Press requires for a publication - main character descriptions, book cover suggestions, author promo information, book promo information, etc.



Got that done by late Wednesday evening. Then I got started on revising Redigo. So far there are not as many corrections to be done by a long shot. After all, it was the fourth book we'd written together, we should have learned a few things by then.

So now I'm working away on revising Redigo as fast as I can, so that I can revise Alaskan Knights and get a proposal off to the agent who requested it before she can forget about her request. Elaine's got a week off coming up in ten days, so I'm off to Denton once more to write, write, write. We want to get Murder in Maggie Valley far enough along so that we can write a synopsis and get a proposal off to one of the cozy mystery publishing houses. Who knows, maybe we can get three contracts for 2008?