What a relief it is! Years ago there was an acid reducer advertisement that sang, “Fizz, fizz, what a relief it is.” That was how I felt when I realized that at last the story in my heart and mind was published. I started writing this story one chapter at a time in 2012.

A lot of progress on my manuscript was made in 2020 during COVID-19’s stay-at-home orders. A writer friend of mine sent my manuscript to a publishing house where we entered into a contract for them to publish my book. The publisher contacted me about five times and then ghosted me for an entire year. My book was frozen under his contract, but it was untouched or edited. Nothing.

I became discouraged because I thought I was not a skilled enough writer to get published. That discouragement caused a lot of confusion. Yet, I could not let go of my heart story.

Even though I was forced to wait a whole year until the contract dissolved, I still held hope in my heart that my manuscript would be published. In January 2022, a writing friend PeggySue Wells passed my manuscript to Deb Haggerty at Elk Lake Publishing, Inc. Soon after Deb read my manuscript, she sent me a contract!

Elk Lake worked with me on another edit. However, this edit was more laborious because I had two minor surgeries and two major surgeries with a hospitalization between them. When final edits were due, my agent and friend PeggySue helped to complete the final edits on the second rewrite for this publisher. The third rewrite moved more quickly.

At last, the time had come to have my book in my hands!

Contact PeggySue Wells here.

Find Elk Lake Publishing, Inc. here.

Originally posted on 11/16/2022