My Decadent Journey

Sometimes I keep waiting for someone to pull the rug out from under me...

Today, a bunch of Decadent authors are talking about their journeys with the amazing Decadent Publishing. I count myself lucky and blessed to be one such author, and I'm grateful to JoAnne Kendrick for being awesome enough to give us a chance to share our stories.

I'm a newbie to the whole publishing deal as it is. I've been writing since I was eight years old, and when I was a sophomore in college, I decided to pursue publication. Books had always been a source of comfort and companionship for me, so I thought, why not share that gift with others?

Sounded good in my head.

It wasn't until I shelved my science fiction project that I started thinking about other options. I participated in Six Sentence Sunday and met quite a few amazing authors, whose books I ended up buying. And a lot of those ended up being Decadent Publishing 1Night Stand stories.

I thought, Hmm. These are fun. I can haz writing one?

And that's how This Time Next Year came to be.

Since my deep, dark love is deep, dark love stories, that's what I went with. Go with your strengths, right? I love stories about redemption, an unconventional, almost impossible love. As I wrote TTNY (which was Decadent Submission for almost all of its life), I kept wondering, What am I going to do if they don't want this?

If you're not familiar with the 1NS line, it involves a woman named Madame Eve (who may or may not be magical), her impeccable match-making skillz, and a happily ever after.

I could've done 1 out of 3 if worse came to worse, but I loved the story with Madame Eve's influence all over it.

When I got it finished, I sent it to my trusty betas and hoped, prayed, DREAMED that this would be accepted. It was like when the people on the Price is Right have to ask the Mighty Sound Effects Lady if they got one number right. Oh mighty beta readers, did I get any part of this right?

Thank God they beeped. Er...said yes.

After intense edits, I sent it in. And waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

I'm not very good at waiting. I continued work on a new SF romance, I played Xbox, I went to my sister's for Christmas. And waited.

It wasn't even a long wait, but when it's something like this, it feels like eternity.

So when I checked my email *on my Crackberry* and saw the acceptance? I dropped the phone, plopped on the couch, and uttered more than one 4-letter word in glee. TTNY was going to see the light of day after all!

And what was I most excited about? The cover. *Don't laugh, Taryn.*

I *might* have tinkered with the cover form before filling out the actual contract. Mostly because I was unaware of the awesomeness that is Adobe 10 (thanks, Jessica!).

Excited author was excited. And an AUTHOR.

I still think someone's going to pull the rug out from under me. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed, and sometimes I do sporadic happy dances when I think about it. But I'm a Decadent author now, and that, folks, is AMAZING.

Want to read tales from some of Decadent's fabulous authors? Click here!