So, it’s happened again! I have a new book under contract to The Wild Rose Press!

If I seem a little quiet about it, it’s because I’m a little stunned that it happened, and that it happened so quickly.

Here’s the backstory: In 1996, after my non-fiction book was published, I turned my typewriter to fiction. Specifically historical fiction. My first effort was fiction all right, a mash-up of European fantasy and Gaelic names, and in no way historical. After being panned by no less than Diana Gabaldon of Outlander fame, I galloped into the current century (golden locks billowing behind me.) Anyway, I started writing contemporary fiction, specifically romance.

It turned into a Romantic Suspense with a dashing ex-military hero, feisty, headstrong heroine, overbearing father, and crusty, disheveled detective. Yes, all that. I called it Key to Her Heart because it starts in Key West.

I entered it in several contests and it did well. Publishers asked for the full manuscript, which they promptly and emphatically rejected. I remember this because I kept the letters to refer to when I needed to be dragged into the pit of despair.

I will tell you that the reason for the rejections was that my subject matter was too edgy, too intense, and definitely unsuitable for romance. No, I’m not telling you what the subject matter is. You will have to buy the book…late next year.

Back to my story…So I set Key to Her Heart aside, transferring it along with all my other moldering manuscripts into one computer after another over the years, like pieces of me I couldn’t stand to part with.

And then, in May, on a whim (and in another twist I will have to reveal later), I reworked the nearly 30-year-old synopsis and queried my editor at The Wild Rose Press, asking her if she’d be interested in the book. Two days later, she came back and asked me to send three chapters. I spent two weeks perfecting those two chapters (meaning I added cell phones) then sent them in. Two days later, she asked me for the full manuscript and said they wanted the book.

Clearly, sensibilities about what is and isn’t suitable in romance have changed.

By now it was June. I spent the summer reworking the book to make it more current, but also to remove as many adverbs and exclamation points as possible. I changed passive voice to active and did away with comma splices in dialogue. In other words, in an effort to head my editor off at the pass, reduce the time spent editing, and make a better, tighter, more perfect book, I did all the things I’d been learning through the process of publishing Sensible Shoes.

I am The Learning Grandmother, after all.

All to say that two weeks ago I received a contract for what I am now calling Saving Samantha, a Romantic Suspense set in the present day. I will write more about it as we go along on this roller coaster journey.

But I can tell you there is a horse, and the heroine’s hair billows out behind her.