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It's been a long time coming, but I'm thrilled, excited, ecstatic, and Happy Dancing to annouce I've finally sold This Feels Like Home to The Wild Rose Press! Home is the third installment in a 'series' that began with This Time for Always and This Can't Be Love. When I first conceived the idea for Always, it was with the intention of using the secondary characters in it for additional stories. With the publication of Home, another of my writing dreams will come true.

The road to publication has been a long one in this case. I first submitted Home to my editor at TWRP back in August of 2011. The timeline goes something like this:

August 2011 - I submitted to my editor.

September 2011 - The story was transfered over to another editor at TWRP because my hero is a bull rider. It was now being considered under the Yellow Rose line, which is for contemporary cowboy stories.

November 2011 - The new editor took a pass on the story, but mentioned some areas for change if I wanted to resubmit. The changes were some fairly major ones, and it took me a long time to decide if I wanted to go in this new direction for my story. And then it took me even longer to implement the changes.

June 2012 - I resubmitted the story.

September 2012 - I received another e-mail saying the editor liked the changes, but felt it still needed something more. She was kind enough to offer specific suggestions on areas that still needed improvement and to even do a partical unofficial edit. Even so, I was devastated. It seemed this book just wasn't meant to be. After I got over my sadness, I got to work on another round of revisions.

January 2013 - I submitted for the third time, hoping this was the 'charm'.

March 2013 - The e-mail I'd been waiting more than a year and a half for finally arrived: the offer of a contract!

Getting all of the revision requests wasn't easy. Each one, although not an outright rejection, was like a little stab in my heart. In the end, though, I know the story is a stronger one, and I really love the changes I've made to it.

Right now I'm in the process of filling out my Manuscript Information Sheet and Cover Information Sheet. Once those are submitted - hopefully later today - we can proceed with the first round of edits. Depending on how many rounds we go with that, my release date should be toward the end of this year or the beginning of next! I haven't had a paperback release in a few years, so this is all the more exciting. Soon, I'll have that trilogy sitting on my bookshelf.

See? Dreams really can come true!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

So, I was doing some household chores this morning. We were out of town last weekend, so some of the standard chores didn't get done. But, I have to admit, I discovered some things I'd let go for a lot longer than a week.

Out on the back porch I still had tins of Christmas cookies. Now, I can look at that in two ways. On the positive side of things, there were actually some left over, so I didn't pig out and eat them all over the holidays. On the negative side, what was I thinking letting delicious Christmas cookies go to waste?

On the bed in the spare room was an outfit I'd set out to wear but never did. It was purple to match the color I'd done my nails...at the beginning of February.

There was a pile of things on the stairs to be taken up when I go...the pile had dust on it. Now, I take half a dozen trips up and down the stairs on a daily basis, which means I've had plenty of opportunity to take those things up and put them away in their proper spots...

My laptop...the corner of it I could see that wasn't covered with coupons and other papers...also had a layer of dust on it. Which means I haven't done a heck of a lot of writing lately. Okay. I've done zero writing lately. At least new stuff. This past week I got my galleys for The Vampire and the Vixen, so I did edits on that. But nothing fresh. No progress on a Work In Progress.

Yep, I've definitely let things slide lately. I really need to get back on track.



On a completely different note, to celebrate Read an Ebook Week, my debut novel, This Time for Always, is available FREE today at The Wild Rose Press! Click here to pop on over and grab a copy...

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com