On New Years Eve of 2008 I gave myself an ultimatum. If I failed to sell a manuscript in 2009 I would take down my shingle. Toss out my flash drives. And catch up on my reading.
The next day, New Year's Day 2009, while walking my dog up a slight incline, I experienced a grabbing sensation in my left calf. Thanks to that excruciating pain we had to go back home. The next morning that leg was swollen as big as a tree trunk. By the time a radiologist found the DVT (deep vein thrombosis) the vein was completely blocked from ankle to groin.
I began a ten day regimen of twice-daily Heparin shots, which I injected twice daily into my abdomen, and started taking Coumadin, a blood-thinning drug intended to gradually dissolve the clot. I didn't know then that that drug could be part of my daily regimen for the next 12 months, as would weekly and sometimes daily blood tests.
My doctor ordered complete bed rest with my blocked leg elevated above my heart, or short periods of exercise, which was all but impossible dragging that tree stump around.
I could no longer sit at the computer for long periods of the day, so I couldn't write. It took me a while to realize I could edit for short periods a day, so I printed out a completed manuscript and started revising it. Standing in line at the post office was out of the question. For the first three months I wasn't even allowed to drive, so I began submitting my manuscripts electronically to eBook publishers.
Toward the end of that year spent mostly flat of my back an RWASD chapter member emailed members about a fairly new publisher who'd just reopened for submissions, Desert Breeze Publishing, Inc, so in early December I zapped my manuscript off to her. The next day I received an offer to publish from Editor-in-Chief Gail Delaney, with a note that she loved my quirky heroine, the same heroine who had caused other publishers to reject my manuscript.
I can't say enough good things about Gail, she understood my heroine, she liked my writing. I can tell you how good it feels to have someone who earns their living reading manuscripts say they like your work. Gail's very supportive of her covey of writers. She and her partner cover artist Jenifer Ranieri do a terrific job of promoting us and I couldn't be happier writing for DBP.
Leave a comment here for a chance to win a free downlaoad of Law Breakers and Love Makers, my first romantic suspense released by Desert Breeze, and to be entered in the big Birthday Giveway on April 30th.
The Desert Breeze Blog Tour continues tomorrow on Barbara Scott's blog:
http://scotwriter.blogspot.com/
Drop by and say "Hi," for another chance to win in the big Giveaway. You know the drill.
Good luck.