My Big News!

If you read my last couple of posts, you know the story. I was about to quit, but fate had other plans...well, here are the details, now that THE CONTRACT IS SIGNED!! *passes out*

Hubs had been sick all day. It was 10:30 pm, and I was so tired, I was just playing a Facebook game, waiting until I was tired enough to sleep (sleep and I...have our issues). I saw that I had an email, so I clicked over. It was Stephanie Taylor from Astraea Press, saying that they loved my book. The contract was attached. I thought, hmm. Cool, and went back to playing my game.
About ten minutes later, it hit me. Wait, WHAT?! I fell out of my chair. I climbed back into my chair and re-read the email, getting shakier by the second. And Hubs was unconscious, completely un-wakeupable (yes, that's a word). Luckily, I had Facebook and my iwritenetwork friends, so I told all of them. And then I didn't sleep.
Fast forward a few days, and I'm doing all my research, comparing royalty rates and company reviews, stalking authors that write for each company  (I had a second publisher offer, after I told them Astraea had offered...ya know what, it's a long story. Just see here), and I kept telling my Hubs, I know I need to weigh pros and cons, but I really just like Astraea. That's who I feel I should go with. Part of it was that the emails to Stephanie were super-fun, more like I was talking to a friend than a potential holder-of-my-life-in-her-hands.
Hubs, of course, agreed that I should do whatever I felt was right. But I did more research, more stalking, more praying and weighing. And on Monday, October 1, I signed my contract, and my first book, Feudlings, is slated to come out in March 2013!!!

Eeeep! and Stuff

Okay so you know that conundrum (totally love that word. LOVE IT) I had about whether I should quit or not, and the inadvertent guilt trip my nine-year-old sent me on?
Well.
It seems that I may not quit after all.
I promised my hubs that I would try to get Feudlings published for a  year. After that, I could quit and not feel bad (9-year-old missed that memo). So that year was up this past weekend, on my birthday. I had been trying for a year, and being rejected and miserable and, let's be honest, pretty dang grumpy. I was ready to give up.
But.
The Monday before my birthday, I got an email from a small publisher I had pitched to only a week or so before. She said they loved my book and offered me a contract.
I fell out of my chair. Literally.
I was so excited, and she was so super nice. So I sent an email to the other publishers and agents that had my manuscript, because it's the polite thing to do.
A few days later, a second publisher said they also wanted Feudlings. That night, an agent wrote to say she would upgrade from the partial I sent her only a couple days before to a full. By then, I was not breathing. I nearly passed out.
Now I have a decision to make. I'm doing my research, asking lots of questions, squeeing lots and lots. I guess this was the universe's way of telling me I wasn't supposed to give up.
Thanks, universe :)