It’s going to sound cheesy but tomorrow, one of my life long dreams comes true. I’ve wanted to write novels since before I learned to write. Back then I used to draw my stories (which were always about horses living on islands for some reason).
I wrote the first draft of Celebrity Spin Doctor in early 2013. I’d had a pep talk with myself that went something like”Celia, if you want to write books, you actually need to write a book.” So I did. It took me four months and the end result was awful. Mostly because I’d written the thing while listening to the Twilight soundtracks and it came out all serious and moody.
I let it sit. Then I let it sit some more. I tried to go to grad school for creative writing so I pulled out the first three chapters and polished them to within an inch of their life.
I didn’t get into grad school. Not a single one of the ten I applied to. Best thing that ever happened to me. And probably to Celebrity Spin Doctor.
But it still hurt to get that much rejection. Somewhere within and after the pain of all that, I decided I was going to rewrite this book and actually try to get it published. I started sending it out in the spring/summer of 2016. By the fall I had a publishing contract!
It was not to be. For reasons beyond their control, the publisher closed up shop when the book was still in the early editing stages. That was the winter of 2017.
I tried again. And again. By the end of the year I was thoroughly discouraged. So I made myself a deal – I would send the book to every romance publisher I could find at the beginning of 2018. If everyone said no, I would move on to another book.
Well, as you can see, it didn’t come to that. InkSpell Publishing snatched it up right out of the gate and here we are! Celebrity Spin Doctor comes out tomorrow and I still have to keep reminding myself it’s not a dream. It’s not, right?
Bravo!