My path to publication has been, to borrow a favorite lyric, a “long and winding road.” I used to be an attorney and, as I quip on my website, “would write long briefs, making other people wrong on a part-time basis.” I enjoyed law school because I’m crazy about ideas, and I love to get to the bottom of things. But I didn’t like the practice of law, and deep down, I’d always wanted to write novels.
When I was pregnant with my first kid, Jacob, I took the plunge. I wrote Mab’s Gate straight through, front to back, and said to myself — ta da! Watch out world! Watch out, indeed. This was back in the days when you generally queried agents by snail mail with the help of the S.A.S.E. Did I mention that my son is now almost seventeen? Yeah, that long ago. I would occasionally get back nice handwritten notes from agents, even if they were taking a pass, which they invariably were. And for the next decade or so, when I wasn’t practicing law part-time, homeschooling my kids, or chasing chickens and goats around our acreage, I was learning how to write good books.
I revised Mab’s Gate more times that I can recall. In fact, I wrote two totally different versions — with unique voices, plot points and everything — and revised each of those many times. Kind of like Groundhog’s Day on steroids. Then I had a brilliant idea. I could write a different book! So, I wrote Arcana, my homage to Something Wicked This Way Comes. I got very close to securing some excellent agents — close, but no cigar (there’s a nice 20th century idiom for you.) Then I had another brilliant idea. I could write a different book EVERY YEAR. That’s when Vasilisa was born.
Vasilisa finally got me my top-notch agent, and phase two of my adventure was begun. Tune in soon for the next installment, but in the meantime, meet my chief editorial assistant — that’s her in the post’s featured image, looking particularly studious. Rosie is an avid hengi collector (that’s how she says tennis ball, go figure). Her second favorite past-time is eating kibble and her third is chasing dabbits (again, sorry, she has something of a lisp).
