It Worked!

I’ve been itching to post this for a while, but couldn’t until it became official. This is from the deal section of today’s Publishers Marketplace:

Author of ANNA OF BYZANTIUM Tracy Barrett’s THE STEPSISTER’S TALE, a retelling of the classic Cinderella from the stepsister’s perspective, in which beauty, romance, and happily ever after aren’t quite what they seem, to Annie Stone at Harlequin Teen, in a two-book deal, by Lara Perkins and Laura Rennert at Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

(Yes, I have two agents—the Laura and Lara mentioned above. And they have an intern named Laura.)

I’ve been working on both The Stepsister’s Tale and the novel that went out on Friday for a long time. Both were basically complete but in serious need of revision, but what with the day job and my position at SCBWI, I couldn’t hunker down and do what was needed in any kind of concentrated fashion. Nor did I have the time to start anything new.

Well, as of May 11, I’ve had the time to do both. My agents sent out another manuscript on a submission round last Friday, and I have a non-fiction manuscript and another novel (my NaNoWriMo project) nearing completion.

Laura had given me some excellent editorial comments on an earlier draft of Stepsister, and before it went out on submission Lara went through it page by page with comments, suggestions, and queries that made all the difference. I dug in and revised over and over. I lost track of how many drafts I did—drafts that I would have loved to do before, if only I’d been able. And it has paid off.

Do I wish I’d gone to full-time writing earlier? Honestly, no. For most of my time at Vanderbilt, I loved my job. For the last few years, I liked it. I never hated it—never even disliked it. But when the time came, it was the right decision both personally and professionally.