I was feeling nostalgic this morning as I was re-reading my first published book, Sealed In Lies. This book and I have been on quite a journey. It took me over a year to write it, mostly because I obsessed over every sentence. I read the manuscript aloud until my family was sick of it.
I received multiple rejections from agents and small publishers which nearly ended my writing career before it ever got started. I was so discouraged, but my husband kept telling me to keep going, to keep putting myself out there and one day it would happen.
Solstice Publishing took a chance on me, and I remember the day I got the contract. I jumped up and down, did the Snoopy dance in the kitchen and called everyone I knew. No one answered their phone. 🙂 That didn’t matter. I celebrated any way by hyperventilating and shoving my face into a paper bag.
I knew this was a big step for me, but the journey was far from over. Since that day over seven years ago, that wonderful book has gotten accepted into the public library ( a recent acquisition I’m very proud of), and miracle above miracles, it has a movie option. Now, talk about exciting! Villa Vision Pictures took another chance on this story, and I’m eagerly awaiting more news there. That process takes a very long time, if it ever happens at all, but at least that wonderful romantic spy story is finally getting the attention I feel it deserves.
The point to all my musings? Keep up the good fight. Polish your work to its absolute shiniest and put it out there. Be sure to follow all the publisher’s/agent’s submission instructions and learn how to write a kick a** query letter, and you too could be on your published author journey. It takes time and patience, but if you continue to perfect your craft and learn from feedback you receive it will happen for you too.
Best of luck in your writing journey and stay tuned for more writing and publishing tips.
If you’d like to see what all the fuss is about on Sealed In Lies, stop by my website to pick up a signed copy, or you can buy it here from Amazon.
Jack Weaver, a super sexy ex- SEAL and under cover operative for the CIA, can’t escape a life of lies. Working in the largest drug cartel in Columbia, Jack lives a life of guns, drugs and beautiful women. All that ends, when Jack is betrayed by his own Deputy Director, Kent Larson, in conjunction with a plot to kill the President-Elect on Inauguration Day. Jack is forced to make a decision that lands him in the middle of a mystery that entwines all of Jack’s former SEAL team buddies whom he’d once trusted with his life.
Caroline, the abused wife of Senator Warren Walters, the current Vice-President Elect, has her own problems, which are only compounded when she discovers Jack breaking into her home desperate for answers. She’s terrified of him at first, but soon realizes he may be the answer to her prayers, when he forces her to leave as his hostage.
Unexpected desire sizzles as Jack leads Caroline on a search for the truth. When he offers to let her go, she finally sees the one man who can free not only her battered body but her heart as well. Together they fight to clear Jack’s name, save a President, and free themselves from a life Sealed in Lies.
Author Kelly Abell 
