As our regular readers know, our amazing critique partner and blog mate, Joanna Shupe, has come into some major success recently. As a result of her recent final (and now WIN!!!) in RWA’s Golden Heart contest for unpublished authors, an editor who had her book on his desk got motivated to read it in a hurry… at the same time, she got an offer from another publisher. Joanna ended up with a three-book contract, including print, from Kensington! At RWA’s National Conference she rubbed elbows with the other Golden Heart finalists and with the Kensington authors, not to mention she will now be a PAN member. Although her historicals won’t hit shelves until early 2015, worlds have opened up for her already. Given Joanna’s stellar writing, fab stories, and serious work ethic, I guarantee this is just the beginning.

Why, you wonder, is my blog post about Joanna? Because, dear readers, her success has renewed my own hope. Joanna landed an agent about a year before me, so not only has she been submitting longer, she’s submitted to more places than I have. Yet every one of her rejections and my own seemed to lump together in my heart. Just when the both of us really started to wonder—maybe not about quitting (well okay, once or twice it crossed my mind), but about possibly giving up the original dream by pursuing publication through a less traditional avenue. An option that’s viable, though still terrifying, these days. Then, viola, success for her! From her dream house, for three-books, not just one, and even for print, which let’s face it, seems a rarity these days for a new author.

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