Thread by @stone4031

A #WRITING THREAD:

In 18 days, my biggest, scariest, most impossible-ist dream comes true. On August 1st, the world gets to meet my book. Honestly, if we go by the odds, it should even be happening. 1/?

My whole life I've secretly wanted to be a writer but then I grew up and taught middle school and had four kids and two of them had special needs and writing wasn't practical and life taught me I had to be ruthlessly practical. 2/?

But in 2015, friends encouraged me to start a blog (probably tired of my rambling FB posts) and I discovered two things: 1) I liked telling stories A LOT, and 2) I kind of hated blogging.

But again, no time, no money, no sleep, no book writing. 3/?

Then in 2016, my laptop broke. We couldn't fit a new into our budget. (The co-pays/deductibles for medical expenses and therapy for the boys took a huge chunk of our budget.) I resigned myself to not writing. 4/?

Which was FINE except I quickly discovered that writing had become a huge outlet for me. Free therapy, if you will. I missed it. Then one day, out of the blue, a friend asked me out for coffee. 5/?

When I got there, she presented me with... a new laptop. A group of mom (most I didn't even know) pitched in and bought it for me so I could keep writing.

It was the most remarkable gift I have ever received. 6/?

I decided then and there and I was going to write a book because HOW COULD I NOT?

So during naptimes, at 1 a.m, in between cleaning up spilled milk and wrestling naked children off the trampoline, I wrote. 7/?

That laptop lived on my kitchen counter, perched on an economy box of baby wipes. I often wrote in five, ten minute increments, whenever I could, standing at my kitchen counter.

In 2017, I finished that book. Or I thought I did. (Because revisions, amirite?) 8/?

I started querying too soon (DON'T DO THAT) and got requests. I took the feedback and stopped querying to revise. In June 2017, my only sister/sibling and best friend passed away very unexpectedly. I plummeted into a pretty severe depression. 9/?

I don't think I slept for 6 months. But I didn't give up on that stupid book. Some days, it was one of the few things that kept me going. 10/?

Over 16 months, I queried 107 agents. I was rejected A LOT.

I should say here that I had no money for extras. I didn't attend conferences. I couldn't pay for an outside editor. 11/?

I used the resources I found around me--the writing community on Twitter, I spent $50 on a membership to @WF_Writers (best money ever). I found a local writing group. I met strangers who became critique partners who are now lifelong friends. 12/?

Two days before my 40th birthday (yes, I'm OLD), I signed the contract with my agent.

We began to go on submission and...I had feedback and more revisions. 13/?

In the meantime, I secretly entered the Golden Heart contest. I told NO ONE, not even my agent. I waited until the very last minute and had to scramble to find the $100 to join RWA to even enter the contest. (This was pre RWA implosion.) 14/?

I was sitting in a Petco parking lot when I got the news that I was a finalist for the 2019 (and final class) Golden Heart.

I cried. Then politely turned down the invitation to fly to NYC to attend the conference. Which mind of well cost a million dollars. 15/?

But people encouraged me to crowd source for the funds. It took a little over a week for friends, family, and members of the writing community to fully fund my plane ticket, hotel, and conference fee. 16/?

I went to NYC for that conference. I didn't win but it was the best, most overwhelming, second most remarkable gift I've received. 17/?

Alas, that book DID NOT sell.

So I wrote a second book. The idea came out of me grumbling about resolutions and how stupid they are. My brain took it from there. 18/?

And it was pretty good. Better than my first. I'd learned A LOT. Especially a lot about writing for publication which is an entirely different beast than writing just because. 19/?

The book went out on submission in 2019. And the response was positive. I got a R&R so, you guessed it, we pulled it and I did more revisions. 20/?

And went back on submission February 2020--right before the world exploded and all of publishing, which is already slow, became sloth-like.

Then my personal life went kind of nuts. 21/?

In August 2020, my husband was laid off his job of 10 years. Two months later, he got COVID and ended up hospitalized for a few days. In January 2021, my oldest son began having grand mal seizures out of the clear blue sky. 22/?

And still that book was on submission. The feedback was great. It went off to acquisitions a few times. One publisher who shall remain nameless dragged out the process for an entire year. Getting a maybe for an entire year might be worse than a flat out NO. 23/?

In February 2021, the Freeze came through Texas and our two story house was completely DESTROYED by frozen pipes. We moved into a hotel for over four months. My husband still hadn't found a new job. Things were bleak. 24/?

And no, this is not the part of the story where my book magically sold and there were rainbows and kittens.

I wish. 25/?

Nope. We finally got back into our house and in October 2021, my husband accepted a job 2000 miles away in Washington state.

So we sold our house, uprooted the kids from the only place they've ever lived and moved right after Christmas. 26/?

We found a new house (a miracle at that point), got moved in, and I had about resigned myself to the fact that this book would never sell. Maybe I wasn't even meant to be a writer and this was all a pipedream. 27/?

Now the good part! (FINALLY)

In February of 2022, my agent submitted to @bookouture and @bookishbilli got her hands on THE DO OVER.

AND THEY LIKE IT! THEY REALLY LIKED IT. THEY LIKED IT ENOUGH TO OFFER ME A BOOK DEAL. 28/?

Bookouture moves fast in 18 short days (August 1st), THE DO OVER will be out in the world.

I have to pinch myself all the time that this is really happening. 29/?

Has my world suddenly become rainbows and kittens? No, it has not. We still have a lot of challenges and they aren't going anywhere.

But I know what I'm capable of now. And there's no going back from that.

THE END. 30/30

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