I lit my fire for the first time of the year this morning and boy am I glad I did.  It was sure chilly in the house when I got up!  No frost outside that I can see though, so maybe I should just 'harden up'. But I did it for the kids :), I wouldn't want them catching a cold now, would I?

As for the book?  Well first things first; it has a new name...Debutantes Don't Date.  And it now also has a release date which is April 30th, 2014.  If you have been following me on Facebook, you will of course already know this. What you won't know, however is that yesterday I received the cover of my book.  Well, not the actual cover of the book since it is an e-book after all, but the virtual cover of my book.  And it is awesome!  Unfortunately for you, I can't show it to you yet. ;) You will have to wait until my publisher 'releases' it to the world.  Hopefully this will be soon because I can hardly wait to share it. Even my dear husband has said it looks like and I quote, 'a proper book'.  I'm not exactly sure what he was expecting...

Last week while I was talking to my editor, she offered me another contract.  This time for another three books!  I never in my wildest dreams imagined this.  I would have thought that any new contract would be offered after the first book was released to see how well it sold.  But since I am new to all of this, maybe this is normal procedure; I'm not sure, but it doesn't take away from the fact that I am over the moon.  I have been flying high all week!

To top things off, this morning I found out that there are quite a few New Zealand authors that are taking the world by storm.
Vanessa Barneveld is a Golden Heart Finalist and the following authors are RITA finalists, Anne Gracie, Frances Housden, Anna Campbell, Nalini Singh and Leah Ashton.  Congratulations to all of these fantastic, talented women.  I encourage all of you to check out their books.

The list of things to do is getting shorter...and longer.

First on my list was to sign my contract. Tick! I am pleased to say that I am now an official author of Carina UK. Carina UK is a subsidiary company of Harlequin. Check out their websites to see what kind of company I'm keeping.  http://www.carinauk.com and http://www.harlequin.com I think a lot of people will be surprised to learn what else they publish.  There are even man authors...that write man books. (no I do't mean that kind...although there is probably a few of those as well!), I mean books about cars and stuff. Man stuff.  I must admit I was surprised to find out that Harlequin published something other than romance.  Not that there is anything wrong with romance, I write it, but Harlequin is synonymous with romance.  I mean, who hasn't heard of Mills and Boon?

Second on the list was my copy edit.  Tick! A 'copy editor' went through my manuscript word for word, line by line and made changes and/or suggestions.  Did you know you can track your changes in a word document? I didn't.  It's very cool. I was able to see who made what changes, whether is was me, the copy editor or my editor.  This was all relatively painless and I even managed to get my changes back to Victoria before she needed them. It was after I sent back my changes that I found out the copy editor was a man.  I was hoping I didn't embarrass him with the more, shall we say, intimate scenes.  Little did I know he wrote a manual on how to write erotica. Now who's embarrassed?

Third on the list? Tick! I have sent my editor my plan for a series and hopefully she likes it, especially book 2 I'm currently writing is number two of the series. :)

I should also be sent the cover art for my book, and find out what title they've decided to go with very soon.  I'm so excited!  I can hardly wait to share it with everyone. So book 1 is now complete and out of my hands.  The next time I see it, it'll be on an e-reader as a proper book. 

Number four on the list. Added. When I find out the publication date I will be planning along with my good, and very helpful friends at Beattie and Forbes Booksellers in Napier (www.beattieandforbes.co.nz) a book launch. I am will be hosting one in Wairoa as well.  I'll let you know the details as they come to hand.

Number five on the list is perhaps the most important. It seems like the house cleaner we were looking for may be closer than I thought and hopefully she wants to start soon...my place is still a mess!

Please check out the Home Page of my website (link at the top of this page) to see the updated blurb for my upcoming book.

And we're off! 

Holy Cow, things have been moving very quickly in my world lately.  Since my last blog (my apologizes for the long break in-between) so much has happened!  If I remember correctly my last blog was just before my husband and I went to a wedding (without the kids) which means that just before we left for the weekend, I received my revisions from my editor.

For those of you who, like me before I received said revisions, didn't know what they involve, I'll try my best to explain.  I can only speak from my experience and how my editor did them and I can only assume every editor is different, so please don't take my word as this is how it has to be done.  My editor, let's call her Victoria, sent me a two and half page revision letter.  Upon opening it, I gave a nervous squeak and then started reading.  It wasn't so bad.  I have heard of horror stories where editors rip apart a manuscript and want the whole story changed, but Victoria didn't do that.  She was very gentle for my first time (hee hee, don't mind the pun).

The letter wasn't full of demands or even requests, but questions to make me think and dig deeper into my characters and my story.  I absolutely loved it.  I had so much fun 'working' on my revisions.  Granted, I only had 15 days to complete all the changes...and I made a lot of changes, but I still loved it. 

In the meantime, my house was a complete disaster and the only thing I managed to do other than write and do the school run was make lunch and dinner and I must say, that was a near thing some days too.  Don't let anyone tell you that writing Romance is romantic.  'Cause it's not.  It has taken me four days to catch up on laundry and dishes alone.  Thank goodness my kids finally cleaned up their mess in the living room (it only took the threat of me burning all of their Lego they left on the floor for me to step on, to get them moving), but the rest of the house is still not company proof.  Actually, after tonight, no one's allowed in...the dishes are starting to pile up again.  A friend and I have started looking for a OCD house cleaner to share between our two places; someone who will make the place shine while I'm holed up in my fantasy land.

Where was I?

Oh yes, revisions.  I had my revisions to Victoria on the 24th, as requested.  On the 19th I received my contract.  In a word? Confusing!  The actual contract itself is quite straight forward, but the terms and conditions are very 'legal' and long winded, as most legal things are.  I have just had time to read them all the way through tonight, and hopefully will be signing them very soon...and then I can tell you who is publishing my book!

Which is a good thing, because I was told today that they are hoping to publish my book at the end of April.  Like I said, things are moving very fast.  Especially since my contract said it would be 18 months before publication.

Also in my contract it has the delivery date (sounds like I'm pregnant, doesn't it? (I'm so Not!)) of my second book.  It is due to the publisher on July 14th...of this year.  Did I mention it took me three years to write my first book?  However, I was writing my first book as a hobby.  This one I will be writing as work.  Time to pull the finger out, so to speak.

I feel as though I am on a rocket ship, off to see the stars.  Part of me can hardly wait to get there, but another part of me just wants to enjoy the ride.