Release Party Day 1-"The Call" For Champion

Welcome back to my party! I'm so thrilled you decided to join me. I promised to share THE CALL story with you so, here we go!

Every writer waits desperately for THE CALL from an agent, an editor or someone to tell them they have a great story with great potential and the person wants to publish or represent it. At once it's the most wonderful feeling, but it can be overwhelming as well.

I did not get a call. I got an email.

On November 6th I submitted Her Highland Champion to Decadent Publishing. On November 30th, I left the house about 6:30 in the morning and didn't get home until about 7:30 that night. I subbed in an elementary school and then went straight to my PT tutoring job for a couple more hours. I still had NaNoWriMo words to finish, I was exhausted, but I decided to check my emails before I jumped in to win NaNo. (Yes, my emails OFTEN become my procrastination tool! Anybody else have that problem?)

I saw the email from Decadent Publishing and thought, "Damn, ANOTHER rejection!" I don't know why I thought that first, probably because I'd trained myself to expect a phone call for a sale. I debated whether to open the email right then because I wanted to stay positive and focus on my NaNo words. (I'd had a hard time with NaNo and a few days prior I hadn't been sure I'd be able to win.) But I did open it, read the words "would like to offer a contract" and immediately teared up. Yes! Validation! Someone else besides my friends believed in my writing! (My family believes in me too, but few of them have actually read my work.)

My first call was to my mother and then I started emailing and texting other family members and close friends. I almost couldn't focus to finish my NaNo words, but I did. Okay, I wrote a bit, checked emails, wrote a bit more, checked & sent more emails, and wrote more. I admit I choked up quite often whenever I got a response from someone or when I thought about my story hitting the cyber shelves. I STILL can't believe it even though it's now FIVE days away!

I honestly don't remember how I truly celebrated. I'm sure I took myself out to eat and then celebrated with a toast with some friends. But that was about it. How would you/do you celebrate a dream coming true?

All right. Remember to comment to get in the running for the 1st prize, an Amazon gift card. I'll choose a winner from all comments through midnight on Monday night. Then I'll post the winner's name early on Tuesday.