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These past several months have been absolutely surreal to me. Thrilling and what I’ve been working towards for years, but surreal.

After I submitted Forbidden Fantasies, I got an amazing email from editor Deborah Nemeth explaining that while Carina Press liked my story, it wasn’t quite ready for publication. My heart sank, but I kept reading…and then I got really, really excited. This wasn’t a NO. It was a “Revise and Resubmit” request, meaning I was being given the chance to work out some of the issues and try again. SCORE!

I thanked Deb for the offer and her terrific feedback and said I was definitely interested. I took my time, thought for a couple of weeks about what she’d suggested, turning the pieces of it over in my mind. Then I got back to work and started editing and re-writing. Finally, after many passes through my critique partners – and even more edits – I resubmitted the story, and waited. And then I got “the call.” Well, actually, I missed the call from Angela James, telling me Carina Press wanted to offer me a contract for Forbidden Fantasies. I got the voice mail – which I still have, odd as that may sound!

The editing process was fascinating. Okay, some of it was painful, but all of it was a learning experience. I discovered more about the way I write in those couple of months than I did in the entire time I’ve been writing. Deb was fantastic, providing invaluable insight and spot-on suggestions that only made my story stronger. After developmental edits came line edits, where we focused more on single word choices and grammar and punctuation, then copy edits, a final check.

The road to publication has been interesting, that’s for sure. I can’t rest easy on this, though, because if I want to be published again, I need to write, write, write. And now that I’ve had a taste of it? I want more!