Back At It Yet Again!

I failed to mention a couple months ago that I finished Ty's book! I have been working on Ty's book, entitled "Taumafai", since fall 2010. The inspiration and motivation for writing about my grief and healing and spiritual experiences has been an on-again-off-again relationship. In March, I reached my goal and finalized the conclusion just before Ty's two-year mark. Such a relief! I was pretty proud of myself. Not that I consider myself 100% healed or anything (that process will never truly end), but I feel like I have experienced the most heavy events.

Since Deseret Book and Covenant Communications had both rejected my initial book proposal, now that "Taumafai" was complete, I felt the drive to try again.

Deseret Book, Shadow Mountain, and Cedar Fort have been top of my hope-list since mid-March. And then . . . Cedar Fort rejected me by email last week. I've anticipated hearing back from the other two by end of June.

So today, as I casually checked email and saw a new one with the subject heading, "Taumafai", I immediately thought, "Only rejections come by email" and prepared myself to read the usual generic statement of "thanks but no thanks". That was not the case. Instead, with my eyes reading faster and faster as I recognized the personal nature of the email, I squealed out loud in disbelief.

Dear Erica,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript titled Taumafai. I have quite the backlog of manuscripts to review, but for some reason I couldn't resist opening yours yesterday and reading a good portion of it. It is very well written, and even more importantly, I think it can give other parents hope when they lose a child. It also pulls the reader into the story and tugs on the heartstrings--that's the kind of emotional response we want from a book. At any rate, when I get a chance, I will discuss the book with the president of Walnut Springs to see if he thinks it is something we should publish.

I could not believe it! I jumped up and down, not sure if I was about to cry or if it was merely my annoying leaky-tear-duct acting up. Aiyana was the only person home to celebrate with me, and she was clapping her hands and laughing with me (or at me as I performed some ridiculous dance in the kitchen!) I picked her up and swung her around, telling her all about how I might get to share her brother with so many people.

Part II of the email only furthered my hope and excitement:

Since you are such a good writer, I googled your name to see if you have published other books. (I found you on Facebook but didn't request you as a friend because I thought you might wonder if I was stalking you. :) Somewhere online, I read that you have written a novel. Is that manuscript available, or have you already contracted with a publisher? If the manuscript is available and meets LDS standards (it doesn't need to contain LDS characters or principles), I would love to see it.

Sincerely,

Linda
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? She was potentially interested in BOTH of my books -- and coincidentally, I had just started dusting off the cobwebs (so to speak) of my YA novel, ready to try again. I submitted "Taumafai" to Walnut Springs Press just on Monday, in addition to two other small publishing presses. If they didn't want Taumafai, I had made a note to send my novel to them also.

After the first couple hours of excitement died down and my high-pitched voice returned to normal, the pessimist in me is worried that I may have celebrated too early. What if the president of Walnut Springs Press decides no? Then I'll just wish Linda hadn't said anything to me at all!

BUT . . . I'm still pretty excited that, as Dan pointed out, she assumed I had written or published other material based off reading Ty's book. I find it funny (and complimentary) that she googled and "facebooked" me. So maybe one of the two will be picked up, or she can recommend me to a more suitable agency for either. I don't know.

Now for the anxiously exciting waiting game. I keep asking myself, "Could this really, truly happen? Right now?" In my heart, I feel like cheering yes! So we'll go with that answer for now.

Either way, it earned me a delicious meal at Ruby Tuesdays.