Extremely big news.
Posted: March 18, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized 3 Comments
Above: Marine Drive, Mumbai, India.
The announcement’s showed up on a Turkish publishing blog, so it must be real: after eight days on submission, my debut novel The Girl in the Road was sold to Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House. My delightful editor is Zack Wagman. We’re aiming for publication in spring or summer 2014. I could not be happier with the outcome—like with Sam, I clicked with Zack right away. He got the book. He got me. There’s no substitute for chemistry.
When you’ve spent five years toiling in obscurity on something that feels true and right and good to you, but you have no idea whether anyone else will feel that way, and then you find out that they do…I can’t even. It’s so big.
The deal went down last Thursday. I’ve been going about my daily life. I think if I were as happy as I should be, all the time, I wouldn’t be able to function. So I’m just taking little sips of the joy and feeling the path shift beneath my feet.
To live is an awfully big adventure.
monica byrne 
Monica,
I am so proud of you and can hardly process this great news. When I think about the first conversation I ever had with you — you were headed to a sci-fi conference in San Francisco, expressed an interest in writing and a disinterest in your day job. I’m so glad to have kept up with your pathway. You have set a wonderful example of determination. Can’t wait to read the book!
Pam Tandy
North Street
Dear Pam, thank you so much! Yes, I was headed to the Clarion Workshop in San Diego…the first step in a long journey, but in other ways, the culmination of a long journey, too. That workshop changed my life for sure. Hugs to you!
[…] same week my huge publishing deal went down, I was rejected from the third of three MFA programs I’d applied to. C’est la […]