Agent? Check. Book deal? Check. Check. Check.

The same day that the lovely Rachel Ekstrom became my agent, we received our first offer from St. Martin’s Press. After three days of negotiations, going back and forth over these rights and those rights, I accepted their offer with slack-jawed amazement and terrifying excitement. Synchronized squealing and an animated happy dance followed.

After coming back down to earth, I sat and marinated in the details.

• THREE book deal
• Great contract
• Retain audio rights
• Publish every 6 months
• 6 FIGURE ADVANCE

That’s it. No pressure. Hahaha. With such a generous advance and a quick publishing schedule, I’m leaving my day job to focus on writing. It’s exciting and so, so scary. But if this isn’t the time to follow a dream and take risks, then when is?

The craziest part of all this, is that within TWO WEEKS of meeting these ladies at the Jambalaya Writers Conference, I had a book deal. Thanks to Rose, from St Martin’s, and Rachel who believe in my writing and are already working so hard.

I keep asking myself, “Does this really happen to people?” The answer is, “Yes. It happened to you. So get writing!”