Reaching dreams

I sold my first story in 2003 which, in my head and in publishing seems like a real long time ago. I’ve been keeping a blog almost as long, and it’s always supposed to have been chronicling me trying to reach my dreams.

Well, despite some ups and downs, I’ve officially reached two of my writing dreams. The ironic thing is that they’re dreams I set in stone around the same time I sold that first story, and here it is eight years later and I’m just now reaching them. Also, I’d given up on them both about three years ago and moved on to other dreams (though I call them goals now).

The first I can’t tell you about really, for several reasons. Mostly it’s like getting a full ready by a specific agent, it’s been a personal goal for a long time but not something that needs to be plastered all across the internet.

The second though, I can scream my silly little head over. Monday I sold my first book. Not just the first stand alone, full length book that I’ve sold, but literally my first book, the first book I wrote. Amusingly I’ve been told “It doesn’t read like a first book”. Well of course, it’s my first book, not the first version of my first book. I rewrote it in 2008 after I had a few other books and a few more publications and several years of reviewing under my belt.

But the official details are: The book is called Wolf Heart. It’s about a small town werewolf who joins a pack, falls for the guy, but that’s how it begins, not how it ends. It’s a hybrid of romance and horror, but not really urban fantasy.

Wolf Heart was bought by KHP, the same people who put out Rot so I know I’m in really good hands.

To say I’m excited would be a massive understatement. I’m ecstatic, gleeful even, because I really had given up on believing this book would sell. Not because it isn’t good, I still love it even as I’m looking over it for edits now. But just because I’ve been overwhelmed with agent disinterest.

So sitting here, smiling, I feel like I’ve just started all this writer-career thing from the beginning again. Like maybe now I’m finally ready to step forward and embrace those dreams again.