I left you, dear readers, entering the hotel for RT with my pitch in hand for my YA urban fantasy, The Devil You Know. Pitches, after a practice session with fabulous authors Kelley Armstrong, Raina James, and Rachel Vincent, went well and I garnered requests from everyone I spoke to. Needless to say, I queried the heck out of it once I got home. Response has been good, but this part of the journey isn’t about that YA project.
You see, prior to leaving for RT, I also re-worked that horrid NaNoWriMo novel into something similar, but different. What had been a space western novel became a steampunk romance novella. As much as I liked it, I didn’t know if it was worth anything… Was it romance-y enough for the romance readers? Steampunk-y enough for the genre die-hards?
My wonderful beta readers convinced me to send it out. So, I did — to a very targeted group of e-publishers. I got the surprise of my life. There was interest, and not just from one publisher. I am happy to say that just a couple weeks ago I signed my contract with Carina Press. My novella, Badlands, will be coming from them in (tentatively) February. 🙂
But the good news doesn’t end there. On the heels of that success, I re-worked an old short story and sent it off. Though I had to make some big additions to it, my short story, “Of Course I Try”, sold to Decadent Publishing. As a matter of fact, it’s one of the stories they used for their launch just yesterday.
My adult stories are being published under the pseudonym Seleste deLaney (to prevent those hoped-for teen readers from finding it too easily). When I started writing about my journey towards publication, I didn’t really expect to be able to end the series like this, but it’s amazing to have been allowed to share it with you. I want to thank Lou, Has, and E for the fabulous opportunity they’ve given me. Much love to you all.
I hope, dear readers, that you’re willing to follow me even though this is the last of these guest blogs. If you’re looking for more information on me or my stories, my new website is www.selestedelaney.com.
Even though the guest blogs are over, the journey isn’t. And whether you choose to continue on with me or not, thank you all for hanging with me for part of the ride 🙂