Some of you will know that I recently sold my Steampunk Paranormal Erotic novel to Ellora’s Cave. Unlike most of the work I’ve been doing lately, I’d been working on that novel for almost two years when I submitted it. I initially started writing the book now known as Airship Seduction in February of 2009. Granted, it didn’t take me two years to write it, over the two-year time, I kept working on it.

Still. More than three years from conception to birth. Seems like a bit of a toxic pregnancy to me. People told me over and over again when I was first getting into RWA that this would happen. You get an idea, you write a novel, you submit, it takes time. But I never really got what that would mean.

I meant that between the time I started the book and the time it is published, this is what happened:

* I quit one job, found another.
* I went through three relationships.
* I moved from Calgary to the U.S.
* I lost a grandparent.
* I sold six novellas.
* I lost 38 pounds.
* I gained 42.
* I ran three sets of summer camps.
* I ran three sets of fall camps.
* I ran three sets of spring camps.
* Two Christmases.
* Three birthdays.
* Two trips to Disneyland and one to Disneyworld.
* Two trips to RWA National conventions.
* Three Super Bowls.
* Three NCAA National Championships (one of which Duke one–WOOHOOO!)
* Watched the entirety of Buffy. Twice.
* Watched the entirety of Corner Gas. Twice.
* Read 692 books.
* Served a term on an RWA chapter board.
* Started a term on a different RWA chapter board.
* Became a different officer on that same board.
* Saw all my critique partners sell books.
* The Iraq war ended.
* Wrote two more novels.

I could go on and on. But the thing that really got me was when I realized how I would have looked at that time from the other side. If I’d been standing in February of ’09 looking backwards, the three previous years would have seemed millions of miles away. To think about starting something that wouldn’t see the light of day until there was a new President… it would have been unthinkable.

But that’s the way this industry works. Sure, sometimes you get fast contracts. I’ve had those. My last novella was submitted and contracted literally overnight. I know the industry can also work fast. But you’ve got to be prepared for it to be slow.

When I first joined RWA, I moved in with my parents so I could concentrate on writing. I told my Mom it would be a couple of years until I could move out on my own. I wasn’t a narcissist. I’ve always known I was a good writer. I knew if I could finish a book, I could sell it somewhere. But I had no idea how long it would take until I could really do just that. Now, I wonder if I’ll ever be able to really do only that. To be a full-time writer as a single-wage-earner is extremely rare. Plenty of people can afford to write full-time if they have a wife/husband to also bring home the bacon. But I don’t have that. And I eat a lot of bacon.

Now, I have a much better concept of what it’ll take. And it won’t just take time. It takes good connections, good editors, good marketing, good ideas, good execution. It takes a lot more than me sitting at my roll-top desk plunking out words. But that’s where it has to start. And now, to get back to that. Cuz I’ve gotta work in the morning. I told you about my bacon issue…