My novel sold! My novel sold!

My novel, "Love Shine," sold to a publisher today!

Not only one novel - but TWO! My agent and I officially accepted a dream-come-true-somebody-pinch-me-please two-book offer from Grand Central Publishing (formerly Warner Books). It was a very long, but exciting process that began last week. We had three offers, and then it went down to two and we stayed there and negotiated details and we decided on GCP! I almost hyperventilated a few times in the process.

It did not come easy. I spent many, many hours for this. I sacrificed time with my family and friends. I bet I got extra grey hairs and wrinkles from the experience. But they are wrinkles from smile lines!

I started my manuscript in November of 2004. It was the first fiction piece I ever wrote (not counting grade school and high school), and I had no idea if it would sell. I didn't care. I wrote it because I loved the characters and story. These days, I like to look at my past blog entries during that time. At one point early in the game, my agent had me go back to the drawing board. I shed tears. I could have given up. But instead, I spent the next year redoing the book. Recently, I had my friend, Kathya, read the entire book (she also read my first manuscript back in the day). When she gave me back the manuscript this time, she said, "This is it Kathy. This is your book." My amiga, Yoli, read the entire thing too, and said the same thing. Thank you, ladies! I love writing, period. Now I get to do more of it, and use words as my glitter and varnish.

My advice if you have a book idea: follow through, baby!!! Do not look for agents or editors, or bounce your ideas off of anyone. FIRST write your book. That's all. Don't do it for any other reason other than that you want to do it. If it is meant to be, it will come together for you, it will be rough, but stick with it. Again, finish your book! Or if it is non-fiction, write your proposal. Read, read, read. Let it consume you, stay up late at night if you need to. I wrote my book between the hours of 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. several nights a week. Sometimes during the weekend too.

I never thought I could do this. "I can only write craft books and entertainment stories", I thought. Who says I can only do that? No one but ourselves. We can do whatever we put our minds to. I always dreamed about someday writing a book about hipster Latinas. And then Alisa came out with The Dirty Girl's Social Club and my jaw dropped. I read that book cover to cover in days, and was motivated to read other novels. Here are some fun author suggestions: Mary Castillo, Marta Acosta and Lynda Sandoval (look at their links for other authors!).

Eventually, the writing bug bit hard.

It was the best feeling to tell Patrick and the kids about my book sale, because they feel like they own a part of it. There were times when I sat them all on the couch and read them chapters and they offered input like, "Make Star's eye twitch when she tells a lie, Mom!"

I'm going to bed with a smile on my face tonight. Hard work really does pay off!

Felicidades,
Kathy :-)

Still trying to write a novel

Thank you all of you who have written me about it, and those of you who offered to be test readers of my manuscript. I really appreciate the interest!!! I ended up going with a couple of my best homegirls for that. Anyway, my manuscript went out to 10 book editors recently, and now it is a candle lighting/finger crossing/marathon prayer session/waiting game to see if a publishing house will buy it. I think it is the cutest book ever - of course, I wrote it, what else could I say??? It has adorably kooky characters, love triangles, roller derby girls, crafting, Mexican food, reggae music, and of course, GLITTER!

So will it sell?

Half of me knows that many, many authors have never published their first, or even second, manuscript. I'm ready for that. I knew I was taking a chance when I devoted all those hours to it. The chances are slim.

However, the other half of me has this gut feeling that this was meant to be!!

I've had visions of seeing the cover of my book on the middle table at Barnes and Noble. I've been working on this project for the past three years, with no paycheck or guarantee attached. I'm a busy lady who has a family to feed. During those three years, I worked full-time, wrote my craft books, ran my online store, and did the whole domestic thing. Why in the world would I stay up until 2 a.m. every night to write a novel? I've never written a lick of fiction before. But I felt so compelled to do this. I don't know why. The characters just hopped out of my head, and followed me around in my daily life. Something in me, maybe an angel or an internal (fictional?) boot camp coach, made me follow through like a woman possessed.

It all started in 2004, when I saw an ad for National Novel Writing Month. Tonight I re-read my blog from that month, where I posted my progress. I would love more than anything to email NaNoWriMo founder, Chris Baty, and tell him - "My novel sold! Thank for having NaNoWriMo!"



Even if it doesn't sell, I feel so proud to have accomplished such a feat. Will I ever do it again? Probably. I have a couple other ideas for saucy reads. In the meantime, I'm still working hard on my craft books. My next one is for Random House/Potter Craft (they rock!), and it is a Crafty Chica sewing book. I'm so grateful to write craft books.

Today at Borders I looked for my books to sign. I couldn't find them anywhere. I asked the clerk to please look up my name to see if they had any in the store. She said yes, and we walked to the craft section to find a stack of them. I got a bit worried because I had signed several a couple months ago. For a second I thought, "How embarrassing, these must be the ones I signed last time!".

But no.

It was a fresh pile of books. The others had sold! So, thank you to the wonderful Glendale crafty chicas who purchased them! It made my whole day!
Felicidades,
Kathy :-)