It Pays to Answer Your Phone.

I got some good news this week, and the moral of the story is this: sometimes it does pay to answer those random phone calls.

 

If you’re like me, you never answer calls from numbers you don’t recognize. I’ve gotten too many telemarketers and scammers, so I’m always cautious about answering my phone with a number I don’t recognize. I also have phone security apps that weed out a lot of the spam calls.

 

So, on Sunday, when my phone rang from a number in Atlanta, and I knew I didn’t recognize it, I let it go to voicemail. And forgot about it, especially when my phone didn’t alert me to a voicemail. Later in the day, I was scrolling on my phone and noticed an alert on my voicemail screener. Usually, those calls are spam, but if I get an alert, I check it. 

 

The cool thing about that app is it transcribes the voice mail so I can get a hint at least about the type of voicemail it is. This time, the app couldn’t transcribe the message. I was positive that meant it was a scam. But I listened to it anyway.

 

Good thing I did, because it was from the contest chair for the Maggie Awards, a contest run by the Georgia Romance Writers. Although it only asked me to call them back, I knew it would be good news of some sort, since you never get calls that you LOST a contest.

 

I called back immediately, left a voicemail, and unblocked the strange Atlanta number that I’d blocked before. Oops. She called me right back and let me know I’m a finalist in the contest for my book Unlock My Heart. Winners will be announced at their conference in October. 

It's Real

It’s been a while since I last blogged. In fact, probably long enough that maybe there are three of you who still read my blog. Oh well, I’ll write for the four of us. Invite your friends if want.

I’ve been working on the third book in my Harlequin Special Edition series, and like most writers, I’m plagued by, “what if.” What if the book isn’t as good as the other two? What if my editor hates it? What if I can’t make my deadline? But to be honest, those what ifs aren’t going away. Ever. I’m pretty sure they’re just part of my writing process.

 

Even after returning from my lunch with my editor—the first time I felt like a real writer with a worthwhile profession—I still looked at my manuscript, gulped, and thought, “Oh, God.” And I think I’m going to feel that way for the foreseeable future.

 

When I first started writing, and there was nowhere to go but up, of course I was excited. I was inspired and had ideas pouring out of my head. I had the freedom to play with them, to do anything I wanted with them because no one was looking for them. Once I turned this into a business and had deadlines, and requirements, and readers, well, I have to admit, some of my inspiration disappeared. 

 

I’m still writing. I’m still coming up with new ideas, and I still love what I do. Really. Even more so now that I’ve been exposed to people—editors, support staff, marketing people—who depend on me for their business to run. They take me seriously. They’ve given me a necessary piece of support that no one else can, no matter how hard they try. And I’m forever grateful, especially since I didn’t know I was missing it. 

 

But it doesn’t make sitting down at my computer any easier. I know what I need to write. I know where I am and where I want to get to in my manuscript. It’s the process of actually going from point A to point B that’s giving me fits right now. But I’m not giving up. As I say all the time, writing is a muscle, and you need to use it every day if you want to keep it in shape. So I’m writing, getting to know my characters, discovering new things about them two thirds of the way through the book that I didn’t know about them in the beginning (and making notes to go back and fix that beginning when I’m finally finished.).

 

In the meantime, book one—Home for the Challah Days—comes out in two months. It’s actually up for preorder now if you’re interested. I’m ramping up my marketing again, both for that new book and for my backlist—you can see some book recommendations here that I’ve made that will hopefully entice you to buy some of my books. And I’m doing lots of in-person events, including RomantiConn in July, which you can see here.