And the Starting of a New Adventure…

                 (In which I announce some epically exciting news!)

I hope you enjoyed all the subtitles.  I couldn’t resist!  In my last post, I promised you some very exciting news and here at last you have it:

Today I signed my first book contract!

Still tentatively titled Out of Darkness Rising, my novella is going to be published by Flaming Pen Press and is currently planned to be released in summer of 2012!

In October of 2009 I started a story.  It was originally written for a short story contest and supposed to be limited to 1200 words.  I hadn’t been writing for more than a few hours when I realized that the story I wanted to tell could not be adequately told in 1200 words, so I kept writing.  And a few days later, I ended the story at 9,000 words, scribbled “the end” at the bottom of the page, and buried it in the dust bound trunk of my computer’s hard drive. 

At the start of the summer of 2010, I rediscovered the story, blew away the dust, and discovered as I leafed through the moth-eaten pages, that there was still more to tell.  So, I started rewriting and expanded the story with the goal of turning it into a novella.  By October, after months of writing, rewriting, editing, and revising, I pronounced it “finished,” and having also spent the summer months researching publication, I sent a query letter to Flaming Pen Press. 

Several months passed while I waited to hear back, and in the meantime, I started work on a new fantasy novel Song of Leira, and for a while I forgot about Out of Darkness Rising.  In January, I went on a mission’s trip to Haiti and happened to share an excerpt from Song of Leira with one of my team members on the flight home.  I had begun to feel discouraged about my writing, but she was so encouraging about it that I came home ready to dive once more into Song of Leira and finish the first draft.  When I got home, however, there was another surprise awaiting me.  

I received an email inviting me to submit the complete manuscript for Out of Darkness Rising to Flaming Pen Press.  I hastily polished the manuscript and sent it off a few days later and then waited again… 

About two months later, in March of 2011, I again happened to check my email one night and discovered a message informing me that Scott Appleton of Flaming Pen Press had decided to accept my manuscript for publication!

We spent the next few weeks discussing book titles and cover ideas, etc.  Then I moved away to camp for the summer and only had computer access on the weekends, so further work was put on hold for a while.  Finally, last Saturday, I received an email with the book contract attached!  And now, after a few days of careful scanning and deliberation :) the contract is signed and sealed and en route to Flaming Pen Press!  

Needless to say, I am very excited about this!  A dream come true!  I know that there is a lot of work left to be done, but I’m looking forward to it!  It is said that adventures oft’ come in pairs and that certainly is the case in my life!  This past year has been a series of adventures, one right after the other.  And yet another adventure begins tomorrow: college!

Between one adventure and the next, I’m going to be very busy!  But it is a good kind of busy!  And I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next.  At times, life is like a wild stagecoach ride, but it’s nice knowing that God has the reins and I can sit back and trust Him to steer things according to His perfect plan!

~ A Servant of the King

Out of Darkness Rising