Two and a half years ago, I embarked on two journeys that ended up being a hell of a lot harder to achieve than I initially thought.
The first – getting published – I’ve talked about a lot online.
The second – getting pregnant – I’ve only talked about to a few close friends.
Both have been stressful and heartbreaking in their own way. Both have taught me lessons in patience, perseverance and trust – not that I’m any better at those things than when I first started. If I’d had any doubts about which of these two challenges hurt me more, the day I got both a rejection letter and my period settled the question. I could face an agent’s rejection in a reasonable, professional manner. My body’s rejection, though…I still can’t think of words to describe that disappointment.
I’ve worked my fingers (and other bits – ha!) to the bone (ha! again), and suddenly in the last few months everything has changed.
I’m pregnant. And I’m getting published.
Yeeee haaawww!
Or, as they would say in Britain: I’m chuffed.
For your sake and mine, I’ll spare you the details of how I got pregnant (open a romance novel – it was just like that, I swear) and focus on the publication deets.
This summer I went to RWA’s national conference in Anaheim. I actually got to go for free because I volunteered the year before and won my conference fee in a giveaway (thanks, RWA! You rock!).
At the conference I pitched one of my contemporary romance novels to Angela James, Executive Editor at Carina Press. I was so nervous I thought I’d puke. She seemed nice and welcoming, but when I mentioned that the hero is a professional rugby player she really perked up. She showed me one of the pins on her name badge – a rugby ball with the New Zealand All Blacks’ logo.
Holy crap. After having a dozen people (including my beloved rugger-bugger Smarty Pants) suggest that I change my hero to a football player in order to appeal to Americans, I finally found someone who saw the potential in a rugby hero!
I stumbled through my pitch and, when I finished, Angela smiled and said, “You had me at ‘rugby hero’. I just let you go on so you could practice your pitch. Send me the full.”
When she handed me her card, she said, “Who knows – this might be your story of how you just needed to get your book to the right person.”
Which meant that she could say “I told you so!” when she emailed me to say that Carina Press wanted to publish my book.
Hallelujah!
At that point, I was about 11 weeks pregnant and we’d only told our parents. Suddenly I had a whole lot of good news to share.
I’ll be sharing more details about the book (including, hopefully, the title since we’re in the process of brainstorming a new one) in the coming weeks. It’s tentatively scheduled to come out next summer, so I’ve been editing it with my fabulous editor Deb Nemeth. What fun!
But I also want to let you know that I’m having a week of giveaways next week to celebrate. You’ll get extra points if you follow me on different channels, so get a head start and:
- subscribe to my blog (put your email address in the “Subscribe by email” widget on the right-hand side of this blog)
- follow me on Facebook
- follow me on Twitter
And thank you all for being so supportive of me through this process! Even though you didn’t know it at the time, your comments and involvement on this blog helped keep my head up at times when I was truly losing hope. You guys are amazing, and I can’t thank you enough!
So that’s it. I’m getting published and I’m pregnant. The hard work’s over and now I can just kick back and enjoy the…um…fruits of my labor, right?
Right??
Oh.
Congratulations! That’s such great news! Here’s to a healthy, happy pregnancy! Can’t wait to read the book, I loved your teasers!
Congrats on such wonderful news. I am so happy for you. Best wishes on both of your babies.
Awesome! Double congratulations, Kat!
Rugby, huh? That brings back fond memories. My dad used to play rugger scrum with us kids when we were little. 🙂
Aww, how sweet! That’s such a nice memory, Barbara!
Oh, Kat, I am so happy for you! CONGRATULATIONS! I can’t wait to read your book – and I am so, so excited for you about the pregnancy. What happy news!
Congratulations! Wohoo,,what a great news, double happiness. Best wishes for you Kat!
Toutes mes félicitations
congratulations
i’m so so happy for you and yes you deserves to enjoy a bit!
i wish you all the best
Merci, Miki!
Oh YAY, what wonderful.news!! What a wonderful year 2013 will be for you. Congrats!!
Now there’s a holiday present for you. Congrats!
It’s it crazy how life works out.? Sometimes things fall into place and now you’ve got these amazing holiday presents (Singing: Happy Holidays). Congrats!
How wonderful! I hope you enjoy every moment of these two momentous occasions! I look forward to reading your book in 2013 and seeing pictures of your precious baby.
Congratulations! Both are quite the accomplishments
Way to go, Kat! (And Mr. Smarty Pants). Boy, is your life going to change All good. I’m so happy for you on both counts. Enjoy these last few months of your own time schedule and as much sleep as you want and prepare for a wonderful new phase in your life. Congratulations!
Thank you so much for all of your support, Kaki! You’ve been awesome. And my mom said almost the exact same thing to me – “Sleep NOW!” For the first time in my life, I’m actually looking forward to being kept up all night. (Remind me I said that come May.)
Thank you all so much!
Adding my congrats! Yay! I’m looking forward to reading your book next year. I’d much rather read about a rugby hero than an American football hero. 😉 And wishing you health & heaps of happiness. 🙂
Oh, oh! I’m so freaking excited for you–on both counts!
*grabs your hands and spins you around in a gleeful happy dance then remembers your “condition” and sits you down in a chair and gets you a glass of water and settles for buckets of confetti* LOL!
I know how much this means to you! *hugs, hugs, and more hugs*
Ha! *feels woozy and collapses into a chair* Jami, thank you so much for helping me with that pitch! I owe you a drink next time we meet at a conference (which, sadly, probably won’t be in 2013 because, happily, I’ll have a 3 month old!).
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
I am soooo happy for you – both for the book and for the baby. What a dream come true! Angela does incredible work over there at Carina Press – you will be soooooo happy with them.
All my best,
Happy Celebrating,
Sara Megibow
Thank you SO much, Sara! I really appreciate you stopping by and commenting!
Yay! *huge hugs* I’m SO happy for you! Can’t wait to read your story!
And extra special congrats on the baby news! I went through a few early miscarriages along the way to mommyhood so I know how frustrating and heartbreaking it can be when you want that dream so badly. So it feels all that more exciting when things finally go well. Yay for baby! : )
(Rescued you from the spam folder)
I’m so sorry to hear about your miscarriages, Roni. That must’ve been heartbreaking. Thank you so much for being here to share this with me. My writing improved tremendously when we worked together, and I’m so inspired by you!
*hugs*
YAY YOU – twice! 🙂
Happy dancing for you (again), Kat! Congratulations on two well-deserved milestones–and congrats to Smarty Pants, too!
Suz, I owe you and Moriah Densley BIG TIME. Gator steaks all around (tofu steak for me) on that happy day when we can all meet in person!
This made my whole day. CONGRATULATIONS!!! I’m so very happy for you. 🙂
Congratulations on both counts!
I’m so happy for you on both counts!! I think perseverance is one of the most important traits anyone can have! At 45 my nephew and his wife (42) just had they’re first baby after 3 miscarriages 🙂 And the birth of your books are wonderful as well. Congratulations.
What wonderful news for your nephew and his wife! They must be so thrilled after such heartbreak. Big hugs to them!
Oh KAT!!! Huge congrats, on both counts! Angela is a wonderful person and Carina a terrific press. You are on your way, my dear – to a writing career and to being a mom!
Congrats, Kat! I think it’s wonderful that the fruit of your labors have both turned out very well. I am looking forward to hearing more about your book and your pregnancy as they go along.
Congratulations on both pieces of amazing news! 🙂
Kat, excellent news on both accounts. Congratulations! Marian
Our lives are similar. I had the same “issues” and now have a 3-year-old son AND my first publishing deal. =] Best of luck and oodles of happiness to your family!
Trish
Woo hoo for you too! What blessings and relief! Good luck with your publishing journey (and the toddler stage!)
OMG CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! I can’t wait to read your book, and I can’t wait to see pictures of the baby! That is amazing! I’m so happy for you.
Thank you!!! I can’t wait for you to read it! And I can’t wait to have a baby to take pictures of! 🙂
Well, as a Kiwi who worships Dan Carter (fabulous hero material and his wife is expecting a baby too), I think Angela has wonderful taste in loving the All Blacks, but more for buying your book. CONGRATULATIONS on the book slae and the baby – a BB win. Go the All Blacks this weekend agaisnt England.
Ha! I probably shouldn’t admit this, but when I describe what my hero Spencer looks like, I have Dan Carter and Carlos Spencer in mind. Yum! I’ve made him play for England, though (sorry!).
Very happy for you, Kat! Two very big, wonderful, life-changing events!
What awesome news, Kat. You pulled me out of lerking, because I had to give you my best wishes on both baby and book. Keep us posted on your journey.
Dawn Chartier
NOT AN ANGEL, Free today! Amazon
So glad you came out of lerking, Dawn! I really appreciate it. 🙂
Congratulations on both counts. Just personally, there can’t be enough rugby romances. I live in New Zealand, and the first book I ever wrote has a rugby player hero.
Ooh, is it published, Shelley? I’d love to read it!
Congratulations on the wonderful news. What a moment in time, huh?
I think the spam folder ate my original comment. But *hugs*, congrats, and I can’t wait to read your book! Yay!
Oh no! I’ll go see if I can rescue it. Thanks so much for all of your support, Roni! You rock. 🙂
Congratulations! Your story is SO inspiring! Right time, right person, and a whole lot of perseverance — for the writing part! Re: the preggy part, congratulations! Your bundle of joy is bringing his/her own basket!
ha! awesome story. I don’t love rugby the sport, but it does remind me of the Friends episode where Ross tries to play. I can’t wait to read about your Rugby hero. 😀
Congrats and best wishes on everything 🙂 Looking forward to reading your work.
Congratulations! That’s so awesome. My first book with Carina just came out, and they’ve been awesome to work with. Your post really made me smile, because I had a similar thing. Actually, my DH and I gave up trying right around the time I got The Call from Angela. (I just got to the point where I couldn’t try anymore. When you talked about crying over your period? Yeah. I just… I couldn’t do it anymore.) We started pursuing adoption, and we ended up with two girls (4 and 7) joining our household just a few months ago. We’re fostering right now, but we really hope soon we’ll get the opportunity to adopt them. But 2012, the year I got published and became a mom. And you get 2013! It’s a lot to take on at once, but man, are they both worth it. Get your next book written now. I had to write half of a book (I was on contract for 3) after the girls arrived, and woah was that crazy. And the girls go to school, so at least I have a LITTLE free time during the day!
Anyway, huge, tremendous congrats, and if you ever want to talk to somebody who had both happen at once (even though mine isn’t a baby) drop me an email! I’d be happy to chat. And I’m totally in favor of rugby over football. As Giles said on Buffy, “I just think it’s rather odd that a nation that prides itself on its virility should feel compelled to strap on forty pounds of protective gear just in order to play rugby.” 😉
Oh, Jax. This made me tear-up. I’ll definitely be emailing you. Thank you so much for sharing!
And that quote from Giles is awesome! So, so true. 🙂
Congratulations, Kat. I’m with Angela. Can’t wait to read about the rugby player. Welcome to Carina!
Congrats on both!
Kat,
That is amazing news all the way around. Congratulations!!! I’m not surprised that your story is being published. I’m so happy we had a chance to connect in Anaheim, and I got to hear about your story. It really sounds great and I can’t wait to read it!
Best wishes!
Thank you so much! You really helped boost my confidence before I went in to the pitch room. I really appreciated it!
Kat,
2012 has turned out to be a phenomenal year for you! Motherhood and published author–it doesn’t get much better than that. I”m going to start checking out rugby on TV. Way to go.
Christy McKee
Ha! You should definitely start watching rugby. It’s not just full of hot men – it’s a great sport full of excitement. (And sometimes someone’s shorts get ripped off, but I swear that’s not why I watch. :))
Count me in as a future reader THRILLED to read about rugby players (American football…meh). Can’t wait!
I had a hard time getting pregnant the first time, miscarriage and a looooooong time trying. Second time around it happened before I could even say, “I wonder if we should have another one…” You’re in for a wonderful, crazy, fantastic boot camp of the heart and soul. Writing life as a mama is an adventure in patience and perseverance….in the future I recommend getting The Wiggles entire musical collection. I play the kidlets tunes every morning and get around 1-2 hours of writing time!
Lila, I’m sorry to hear about the difficulties in getting pregnant the first time, and I’m so glad you didn’t have to go through that with your second child.
Thank you for the Wiggles tip, and THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for helping me practice and hone my pitch. Meeting you at the conference was awesome, and I can’t wait to read your novel!
Congratulations on accomplishing both of your dreams. I just became a subscriber so I can keep up with both fun journeys. 🙂
Thanks so much, Jess! Hope you enjoy the journey! 🙂
Major congrats, Kat.
Hi Kat! Huge congratulations on both counts! How special that you’ll get to remember that both these firsts happened at the same time.
Congratulations!! Such wonderful and exciting news on both fronts!! Have a happy and healthy nine months and many happy book sales too!! 🙂
Congratulations on both counts! 🙂
Celia
Congratulations this is fabulous news in so many ways. There is nothing like having a baby on the way and it looks like you have two babies on the way. A first books is just like a baby almost and I am so thrilled for you.
I’m so happy for you! I know about the pregnancy heartache – I finally had my 2nd child at 42, after 7 years of issues. She was well worth the wait! And I am looking forward to reading your book. I know nothing about rugby (or football, for that matter), but what’s not to love about a jock? Keep us posted.