For a lot of you, it’s already 2008. Not yet here, but I’ll be in bed before the year ends. Now that I’ve gotten the rant out of the way, I can reflect a bit. First off, I expected to be watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer with my son, but his cousin ended up inviting him over, so I’m all alone tonight. With no further ado, here’s my imitation of Samuel Pepys.

2007

Considering there was a period when I thought my writing career might be over, 2007 was good for me, writing-wise. Of course, in late 2006 I signed with my agent, Kristin Nelson, and boy. I’m in the right place. In 2007, she sold two more books for me one of which was Scandal. For anyone who thinks once you’re published all your worries are over, let the history of this book put that myth in a well-deserved coffin. Nail it shut, people.

I sent Kristin 4 proposals, one of which, yes, was Scandal, then called The Rake, and before that called The Heir. She loved one of the 4, really liked My Wicked Enemy (which she quickly sold in at auction in a two-book deal) didn’t know what to make of Shift (Me neither, but it will be cool when I turn my attention to it.) As for Scandal? That proposal almost sunk me with her. She told me if that’s all she’d seen, she’d have rejected me out of hand. Ouch. And, she also told me, Just start over. So, okay. I did, and when she blogged about editors looking for historicals, I sent her the revised stuff and she sold it, too. A book that went through two really wretched drafts and one misbegotten rewrite hash of the first chapters. My rewrite went back to what I loved about Sophie and Banallt. The final result this time was, I really do think, pretty spectacular. And let me tell you, around November or so, I thought I’d never finish on deadline. Impossible. I turned it in early. Go figure.

So, as far as I’m concerned, writing-wise, the sale and completion of Scandal ranks as one of my biggest accomplishments of 2007.

Another, naturally, is finishing My Wicked Enemy and then revising the hell out of it in something short of three weeks to turn it into something totally neat.

Starting Xia’s story is another.

Finishing my MA is English. That was huge. Yay!!

Have a wonderful 2008 everyone. Now, back to Xia, I haven’t hit my minimum yet.