In which I sign with Etopia Press!

I'm extremely happy to share that my novel Affairs of the Dead has been contracted by Etopia Press!

So how did it come about? Well, I actually have WriteOnCon to thank. When it was going on, I was checking out the forums and posting a little bit, but because I knew it was a YA oriented Con I didn't delve too deeply into it. I knew agents and editors would be lurking and people were encouraged to post their queries and opening words, but there wasn't even a section for Adult so I wasn't going to bother. However, I saw in their "other" section that adult authors were chatting and posting their work, so I thought, why not, even if no agents or editors saw it maybe I'd get some feedback. So up went the query and first 250 for Affairs, and I was happily surprised when I got a message from my now editor Narelle, who introduced herself and asked me to send her the full. I had honestly never pursued small presses before, but being in contact with Narelle and researching Etopia opened my eyes more to small presses, and I think it came at a good time because I was becoming highly discouraged with the agent/query route, as well as the contest route. I was starting to feel like I was running on fumes, and it didn't help that I was starting to hear more and more about how difficult selling an Urban Fantasy was becoming with traditional publishing.

So off went the full manuscript, and then came the waiting game, always my least favorite part. Anyway, about a month later I got an email with the offer, and I was only too happy to accept. So now Affairs and I will be in the editing trenches, and I am very much looking forward to sending it out into the world sometime next year. It will first be released as an E-book, then print. Excitement!

Watch this space for more updates!