Once My Dream Comes True: Announcing my Debut Novel

I find myself in the surprising position of being a writer having worked for almost two decades toward a goal, finally achieving the goal, and being at a loss of words for how to announce it.

Those of you who’ve followed my blog for years, especially back when I posted often, know that my biggest long-term dream has been to publish a novel with one of the ‘Big 5’ publishers (Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster). It has not been an easy journey.

I’ve stuck to that goal through the death of my dad, getting married, having kids, health issues, global issues, all kinds of personal and public trials and triumphs.

I might have at times seen my inability to have a novel picked up by a big press as a failure. The close calls we had could take the wind out of you. ‘Revise and resubmits’ that fell through. “Rave rejection” became part of my regular lingo. But my agent stood by me, and my husband, and my writing friends supported me even when they didn’t fully understand why I didn’t just adjust the course.

It meant sticking it out with book after book sliding into the someday drawer rather than moving to self-publishing or independent presses. (I did eventually realize that I could do non-novel books with top indie presses and still have a novel debut with Big 5, which is how I ended up publishing my novellas with Shortwave and my collection with Bad Hand. Experiences I wouldn’t trade for anything.) But I believed, right or wrong, that my novels merited a larger audience than any of the other routes could provide.

It is fitting that the novel to ultimately become my debut is a book about hope at its most dire, in the midst of darkness, against seemingly impossible odds.

On February 4, I got the offer. A week ago, the contract was officially completed. Today, it’s been announced in Publishers Marketplace. My novel Once the Darkness Comes has been bought in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal along with an unwritten novella, by Union Square & Co., an imprint of Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.—a Big 5 publisher.

Do I need to describe the feeling? I think if you’ve stuck with me this long, you feel it. I’m soaring. Triumph, validation, joy, exhilaration, relief, nerves, calm. So much. Just right.

This book has been a long time in the making, and yet I feel I’m just getting started. There’s work to do, and much to learn. I can’t wait to get to work with my new editor. I can’t wait to learn. And friends, I cannot wait for you to finally get your hands on what will be my debut novel.