Finally, I can scream and laugh and dance and sing in public about this (have been doing it a lot in private).
I’ve sold my fantasy romance trilogy, Balance of Power, to HarperCollins Australia. It will be published in Australia and New Zealand under the Voyager imprint, with the first book Love in Control to hit the shelves in July next year. Freedom to Be and Chance and Reward (books two and three) will be published in six monthly intervals from the first.
All this happened really, really quickly. I’ll go into some detail on what happened (and how I felt) in other posts, but in a nutshell, it went like this: I queried Stephanie Smith at HarperVoyager on Love in Control in April, she said she’d like to see the manuscript so I sent it to her in May. I saw Stephanie at Conjecture in Adelaide in June and she assured me she had the manuscript, but it would take her a while and I assured her I understood that publishing moves slowly. July 3, I get an email saying she loves it, and she wants to take it to acquisitions. I had to do a few things (synopsis for trilogy, bio), we had a chat on the phone to establish what would happen. On Tuesday July 14, the trilogy was taken to aquisitions and passed. On Friday August 7, the offer came through. Again, more to do on my part, this time getting ABNs and such organised, but I returned the signed offer on Friday September 4.
So much for publishing moving slowly. In just a few short weeks, I’ve gone from being a hard-working amateur to a professional writer, and in just a year from all this there will be a shiny book on shelves across Australia and New Zealand with my name on it.
As you can imagine, this has meant some major changes in my life. Since the trilogy passed aquisitions, I’ve been working two jobs – day job at the supermarket, writing when I can. Finances and things are needed to be reorganised to cope with the new tax regulations I have to work under. I had to pull out of the Aussiecon 4 committee, which was a shame as I was enjoying it but there’s only so many things one little person can do. As it is, the housework has been suffering, friends and family have been wondering where I am and I don’t think it’s any coincidence that I got so sick last week.
So, I’m guessing the main thing you’re all asking is – what is the trilogy about?
Well, it’s set in the modern world and features a race called the gadda – they descended from different ancestors to us humans and as a result, have access to the power and energy in the world and can use it to perform magic. Keeping their identity a secret is a big deal. Another big deal is the Forbidden Texts – teachings and ideas that have been locked away because of the danger they pose, not just to the person attempting to use them, but to the world as a whole.
The trilogy opens with the theft of the texts, and they need to be found and neutralised asap. The story of the struggle to do that is told over the three books in the form of three separate romances. In each book, the reader follows a new couple, whose growing relationship is at times eclipsed by the dangers of the texts. You get to see the same characters and follow the timeline, but in each book within two new POVs.
In book one, the couple is Maggie Shaunessy and Lucas Manly. Maggie grew up amongst humans, tried to disavow her gadda heritage and as a result is seen as a bit of a troublemaker. Lucas Manly also grew up amongst humans, but that’s because he thought he was human. Things are difficult enough between the two of them, and that’s before the Forbidden Texts start to make their presence felt and their futures are changed forever.
Book two is the story of Ione Hammond Gorton and Stephen O’Malley. Ione’s a single mum, and she’s got more than enough to deal with. When her uncle tries to set her up with the current wunderkind of the gadda, she isn’t impressed. Stephen, meanwhile, has spent his entire life focussed on one aim, and isn’t prepared for the way Ione turns everything upside-down. When Ione is poisoned with a concoction from the Forbidden Texts, they both find life heading in a direction that wasn’t anticipated.
Book three features Hampton O’Rourke and the lovely Mina Haraldson. Hampton is better known to the gadda as the Meganome, the protector of the gadda and the man responsible for finding and neutralising the Forbidden Texts. The search leads him to Mina, who’s descended from the mythical lost gadda – families who broke from society centuries earlier and were never found. Mina’s power has been awoken, and the results cost her dearly, so she’s quite anti-gadda, and not impressed to find the cute guy who comes into her store is the gadda of all gadda. Hampton should have more important things to think about – like finding the texts and saving the world - and yet…
So, there ‘tis. The short, sweet version of how my own text has changed my world forever. By far the best thing about this so far has been the reactions of friends and family about it. In some cases, they’ve been more excited than I have! Well, okay, it’s easy for them to get all excited – they aren’t the ones who have to get two (thankfully already drafted) books up to scratch and ready for publication in the space of a year, not to mention dealing with edits, publicity, and so on…
But yes, it is very, very exciting news. I’ll be working hard to hopefully ensure that this is just the beginning and I’ll be announcing book deals for many years to come.