Welcome Y'all

I’d never been to a Rolling Stones concert before. No, let’s go back even farther. It was March 2015. My daughter and I sat on a Jet Blue flight from Fort Lauderdale to Puerto Rico watching Pit Bulls & Parolees. I hadn’t seen the show before and it hooked me. Instantly, I thought that a dog rescue would be the perfect setting for a YA contemporary story. Dog Girl was born. In between my daughter’s tennis tournament matches I wrote and wrote and wrote. I had about half the story done when she’d lost and it was time to go to the next tournament. We had an extra day though and went sightseeing around San Juan. This is where I met a baby wolf in a shop among alligators. For a fee you could pet them and the proceeds went to save the wild life or so I hoped. That little wolf haunted me. I always wondered if that company was legit. That timber wolf made it into the story as well.

For three and a half years, I polished this novel and finally landed an agent, Sharon Belcastro. She and I had met several times before when I finally got up the nerve to ask her if I could submit Dog Girl to her. She said yes, then she had me edit it about 3-4 more times.

Now back to the Rolling Stones. During Hurricane Dorian, August 31, 2019, my husband and I drove to Miami, a five hour drive. On this drive I received an encrypted message from Sharon saying we needed to talk or could I talk at 4 p.m. Something like that. Anyway, for hours in the car driving to Miami I was on pins and needles. It had almost been a year that she’d been trying to find a publisher for Dog Girl so I feared she was either going to drop my novel or she had found a publisher. Thankfully, it was the latter. The concert became a huge celebration. We had a blast listening to incredible music by legendary artists, clinking glasses of beer, and dodging the rain and wind rolling in from Hurricane Dorian. What a memorable night!

Now, nearly a year later, Dog Girl will be published Fall 2020. Current date set at November 16, 2020. Due to the Covid-19 virus, that could change. As you can see, writing a book and getting it published is a long process. If you’re trying don’t give up. I wouldn’t give up that night at the Rolling Stones concert for anything! It’s a great feeling. Hopefully, there’s more to come.