Mark your calendars because this is a very important date. A date I have waited a few months to receive for an announcement I've waited since August to be able to share with you all.
March 2nd, 2016 is the official release date for Dust, my debut novel. Boom!
Last summer I received an email from Tirgearr Publishing, a company I had submitted to back in June, with a formal contract offer for the publication of Dust. Since signing with Tirgearr, I have been introduced to a wonderful community of authors and editorial staff, been busy with edits, and am now working on developing the cover art with one of our resident artists.
Dust will be released in eBook format first; available through all major eBook retailers such as Amazon, Apple, and Barnes & Noble. Pre-sales will begin early in the new year so be warned - the onslaught of marketing, teasers, and pleas for purchase are coming!
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I can't begin to express how big of a moment this was for me or how casually I took receiving the contract that morning sitting in a flower shop surrounded by friends. Stopped mid-conversation, I looked up at my friend, Courtney, and blankly stated: "I've been offered a contract." I immediately began researching the company and even forwarded on the email to a friend of mine who is a publisher to confirm it was in fact not a scam, but the real deal. Once she had authenticated it, I went radio silence to the public on the whole event. I told my husband, parents, my closest friends, and grandparents - but then nothing. The last thing I wanted to do was jinx it!
Now that edits are well underway, a release date has been given, and the cover art is being created it has all suddenly become exceedingly real to me. And so I've had a few shocking moments of internal rejoicing.
When we moved to Wyoming my goal was to write a novel and within a year I had completed it, shipped it to publishers and agents, been rejected, and finally accepted. A dream I had held close to my heart since the beginning of my memories had been realized. Come March 2nd, 2016 I will be able to claim the title "Author" and wear it with a humble pride that comes from the pursuit of dreams and a determination to appreciate the process and freak out over the result.
In the meantime, allow me to introduce you to Dust:
Some people go to marriage counseling; others clean up horse manure - and Austen St. John has picked up a shovel.
The infancy of her marriage has long since transitioned from
blushing newlyweds to the unending, rarely resolved, constant battles which
plague two people who merely co-exist. On the verge of giving up, she realizes
perhaps it is she who is responsible for her dejection. Leaving behind her
life in Oregon for a summer on the wide open plains of a Wyoming ranch, Austen grinds away
at the threatening questions inside her mind while her body toils under the
grunt work every ranch hand labors. Surrounded by the wilds of a Wyoming summer
Austen discovers, through a discovered love of self, how she will be able to save
her marriage while staying true to herself.
