My journey to a traditional publishing deal.

July 2025 was the month I decided to stop playing small and starting taking my goals and dreams seriously. I come from a screenwriting background and I had written a dozen or so screenplays over the course of fifteen years. I have always had a passion for writing and movies so screenwriting felt like the right direction to pursue a writing career. If I could tell you how many times that I came close to getting one of my stories made into a movie only to watch it fall apart time and time again, you would be shocked. Full disclosure, I felt beat down by the industry, so I put writing aside and decided to concentrate on raising my boys and settle into domestic life. Let me be clear, I love being a mother, my boys are my life, but we are not meant to be defined by one thing. We are more than mothers and wives and whatever else society tries to label us with. We are meant to be multi-dimensional beings with many interests, hobbies and career aspirations.

After a good eight plus year hiatus, I felt lost and unfulfilled with every day life and knew the answer was to throw myself back into the thing I loved the most: writing. I needed to bring back my fire and feed my soul. I knew this deep down in my bones. So, as I was vacuuming one Sunday afternoon in mid-July, I decided that I was done with the excuses and I was going to turn my screenplays into novels and write everyday, whether it was two sentences or 20 pages, until I typed the words “THE END” on my first manuscript.

I met that challenge…with a few days missed here and there, because life. Needless to say, I finished my debut novel the first week in November (a nice birthday present to myself). I did it. I had kept my promise and it was liberating. I was over the moon.That being said, I knew that was just the beginning of my journey from a finished first draft to publishing.

I went into this knowing I was only going to query one agent, my “dream agent,” and that was it. If that didn’t work out, I was going to throw myself into the self-publishing life and had made a promise to myself that I would publish my book by April 2026. Well, I never heard back from my “dream agent,” and I soon realized I had queried too soon; I wasn’t ready. After a couple rounds of line edits with an editor, I decided I was going to query a few more agents…20 in total. Ugh, I know; it becomes addicting. I also ended up querying three publishing companies. As the rejections started trickling in, at first I was devastated but I quickly got over that and trudged ahead. I had a lot to learn about querying and decided I was going to put the agent dream aside and concentrate on my manuscript. Edit after edit after edit after edit, I polished my manuscript to where I knew that if I was to self publish earlier than my original date my novel was ready.

I was proud of the story that I brought to life and I was eager to share it with the world.

Okay, let’s backtrack a second, on December 20th I had queried Green Avenue Books & Publishing only to receive a full request the very next day. I panicked (which is silly because this is what I wanted), but I sent off my full manuscript anyway. This was before I had done my umpteenth edits on my draft, but I knew it was structurally sound enough and my characters were fully developed. I had written the screenplay for this story twenty years earlier and I knew it like the back of my hand. However, the story and character development took on a life of its own and it blossomed into something bigger and better than I could ever had imagined. The creativity was flowing and it was empowering. I hadn’t felt this good in a long time.

As time ticked by and a few more rejections came in, I had detached from any outcome and knew that I was going to self publish this book, so I set a publishing date for April 23, 2026. On Saturday, February 7th, I bought my ISBNs and I was excited but completely overwhelmed to start my self publishing journey so I could meet my self imposed publishing date. This was it, I was going to do it. I was ready. The very next day (which was a Sunday), I was just chilling and watching TV with my husband when I decided to check my emails and saw that I had a response from Green Avenue Books & Publishing from QueryTracker waiting for me. I quickly opened it expecting another rejection (because of course, I always think the worst) and to my surprise I had an offer for traditional publishing. I jumped up from the couch faster than toast from a toaster and started screaming “HOLY SHIT, I have an offer!” My head was spinning and I had to read the email a dozen times to be sure I was really seeing what I was seeing. Spoiler alert: I was.

I knew that they were a smaller publishing company and I felt honored that they wanted to take a chance on me. I mean, of course we all dream of the BIG 5, like duh, but the fact that a company with a lot more to lose was willing to gamble on me felt overwhelming in the best way. Someone else believed in my story as much as I did and I cried a lot that day. I was sent over a draft contract a few days later and had my legal counsel look it over. Please for the love of all that is common sense, if you don’t have an agent make sure you have legal counsel read over the contract. We had a few questions and needed a few things clarified, which Maria Green was more than happy to answer for us and she had the contract amended to reflect those clarifications. That’s when I knew I was dealing with someone who believed in their writers and was willing to do what was necessary to make sure we were both on the same page and satisfied with the offer. After a week or so, I signed the contract and I am now on the road to be traditionally published with a release date of April 27, 2027.

From the very first page to signing my deal was about a six month journey. My querying-process-to-signed-author journey was much shorter and I still can’t wrap my head around it. It pays to be tenacious and determined in the pursuit of your dreams. I could have let the rejections crush me again, but they only fueled me even more. I almost gave up my dream a little over eight years ago but I knew I had to try again, there was no way I was leaving this world without knowing I gave it my all. I am currently hard at work on my second novel, a dark psychological thriller, that I hope will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with me, I hope you enjoyed my first ever blog. I will post here from time to time with updates on The Day I Died Again and share with you any new adventures as I head back into my make believe world. Book number two here I come!