For those of you may not know (maybe we are only newly acquainted or maybe I haven’t seen you in a while or maybe somehow you have escaped the inevitable discussion about it if we talk for more than 5 minutes) I have been working on a book entitled Sensible Shoes.

For twenty years.

It is the book of my heart and I started it around 2003 when I was still at JCPenney and a member of my beloved Writers’ Club there. I had been writing steamy romance for a long time without any success and had begun Sensible Shoes out of frustration as what is known as Women’s Fiction, which doesn’t have the same rigors as Romance and thus can take itself off in a number of delicious directions.

Anyway, I slogged along writing, working, sending kids off to college and then retired from JCP in 2007. Shortly thereafter I finally sold two of my earlier romance novels to a brand spanking new e-publisher called The Wild Rose Press. They are a royalty-paying publisher, which means they handle the production and sale of my books and pay me for each one sold, so I have no out-of-pocket expenses. They also are a print-on-demand publisher, which means when you order you can request an e-book for your Kindle, etc. or a typical paperback book, so I can have a book in my hands, which is what I love. They also market books on their website, but also through Amazon, which is very important for increasing availability and therefore, sales.

My two books came out in 2009: A Different Drum and A Hot Time in Texas. Yes, you can still order them from Amazon. Go ahead. I’ll wait. Also, the picture above is from a book-signing for these two books in 2009. I look exactly the same.

But, back to Sensible Shoes, which by then was languishing badly. I was working full time at the Dallas Media Center with Scott, and there was no time to write. With just a few chapters to go, the manuscript mocked me from its place on my computer desktop.

Then nearly five years ago I became a member of The Worst Club Ever and found myself with time on my hands. I went back and reread the manuscript. The story still worked; the characters still rang true; I still laughed and cried in all the right places. I started writing the last two chapters. But the ending escaped me. I paused again for nearly a year.

And then I joined three other writers in a new club, meeting once a month, uplifting and encouraging each other. They read the first chapter of Sensible Shoes and convinced me it warranted pursuing.

Then, as these things happen, the ending came unbidden, through my fingertips to the keyboard to the page, the sweet, soft, completely perfect ending to the book of my heart.

And I decided to get an agent because this book needed to be on the New York Times bestseller list.

Sure, I can be delusional.

I sent it off to an agent in Dallas. A year later I had not heard back. This is typical. The word now is that it is impossible to get a first book published unless you know someone or ARE someone.

I strike out on both counts.

Then it hit me like a lightning bolt. Why not go back to The Wild Rose Press? So I checked their web page. Yes, they accept Women’s Fiction, not just Romance. So I queried.

Twenty years ago this meant sending a manilla envelope containing the requested materials: a cover letter, synopsis of a certain length, a specified number of pages, and a stamped, self-addressed envelope to hold the inevitable rejection letter. I have dozens of them. Now these materials are sent in an email. And you get rejected in an email if you’re lucky.

So, fingers crossed, off the query went. I prepared myself to wait for months. Two days later, the president and founder of The Wild Rose Press, Rhonda Penders, emailed me personally. OMG! Her lovely email welcomed my query and assured me that she was sending it off to one of her editors.

True to her word, I quickly heard back from an editor who asked to see the full manuscript. I made some hasty edits (because cell phone usage and cultural references have changed a lot in twenty years) and sent it off to her. She came back with edits to be made based on their style and legal needs (mostly dropping adverbs, plus commercial and copyrighted names) with a casual reference to “before I submit it for a contract.”

WHAT?!?!?

This had all happened within a matter of weeks, over the fall when life kept going at a full clip. And then, the week before Christmas, I received a contract in my email. I signed it electronically, because the world has shifted on its axis. (I did print a copy–I’m keeping a notebook in case my computer blows up.)

And Sensible Shoes (hopefully they will love the name) will be an actual book sometime next year (they have 12 months from now, according to the contract.)

You are all invited to the party.