Oh, to hell with it.

November 17, 2003

Oh, to hell with it. I’ve been trying to keep a lid on this on my blog because I don’t have *that* many details, but Christ, I’ve told practically everybody I know already, and I have no idea exactly when I’m going to talk to the editor again (sometime today, hopefully this morning) and so I’m just going to post because I can’t STAND it anymore. :)

Luna Books, Harlequin’s new fantasy imprint which is launching in January, called me Friday afternoon and offered me a 3-book deal for URBAN SHAMAN and the next two books in the series.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I swear to God, my brain flatlined. I thought she was calling to talk to me about multiple submissions, because I’d called on the 5th or 6th or so to say that another house had requested the manuscript and I wanted to know if it was okay with Luna to multiply submit. So she says to me, “What’s new and exciting?” and I said, “Oh, not much, I just made chocolate chip cookies, that’s about as exciting as it gets around here right now, how’re you?” And she was fine, calling from her cell phone because the office phones were down and the repairman had been there and said he couldn’t do anything until Monday at least, and I allowed as how repairmen were always saying things like that, and she apologized for not getting back to me sooner, but she’d been at a convention and then on vacation and then out sick, and since *I* wasn’t worried about the multiple submission thing anymore (Tor doesn’t take them from unpublished/unagented authors), I said it was okay and I hoped she was feeling better.

Then she said, “Well, I hope you won’t be multiply submitting this book, because I have some good news –I hope it’s good news! — for you: we’d like to make you an offer for URBAN SHAMAN and the next two books in the series….”

And my brain went BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

I said, “I guess I won’t be submitting it anywhere else!” and “Thank you!” and rather a lot of other idiocies, I’m afraid, and she was *very* nice and told me that everyone was like this when they got a first book offer, and that I should take the weekend to think about it and we’d talk more on Monday.

That’s *all* I know right now. I don’t have a contract in hand yet, so obviously something horrible could blow up and it could all go wrong, but I’m not *anticipating* that. The first thing I did…

Well, okay, the first thing I did was shriek, laugh, kick my feet and gibber insanely for about six hours. :) I was shaking too hard to dial a phone, and Ted very helpfully called my parents and let me shriek at them, and eventually we all went out to dinner and there was more gibbering. *Lots* of gibbering.

After that, though, I emailed Jim and said WHAT DO I DO NOW, and he gave me lots of very helpful advice, and this morning I called Jennifer Jackson (who happens to be Jim’s agent) to leave a message and I’ve emailed the Luna editor to tell her I’m pretty much talk_ok all day, and I’ve emailed work to ask if it’s okay to take the day off, or at least the morning, because I’m useless. :)

And that is all I know right now. I will post more when I have it.

25 thoughts on “Oh, to hell with it.”

  4. I can hardly wait until we can start counting down to the release date!

    You’re definitely a professional author now.

  5. Too freaking cool. It’s one of the most amazing things to watch a friend get their first book – and always good to see a new perfomance of the old classic.

  7. *stands in line to get your autograph*

    Excellent! I’m so excited for you…. !

    You DESERVE this… you’ve worked HARD for this.

    *happy booty dances* (on your behalf)

  8. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

    Yay Catie!! I will drive to Anchorage and do fangirl squealing when you do your first booksigning!!

  9. Wheeeeeeee! *shriekgibbergibberhandflaps*

    . . . and so forth. You get the idea. *gigantinormous GRIN*

  11. Wow. And to think, I’ve rubbed elbows with royalty! Well, okay, maybe not royalty, but it’s still pretty nifty. I get an autographed copy, right? :)

  12. Right, which is to say, you buy a copy, I’ll autograph it! I won’t be able to afford to hand those babies out for free! :)

  13. Two friends sell books in the same month. There’s something in the air, I tell you. (: (But you sold three times as many! You are mighty!)

  15. I really am tempted to go to Cafepress and get some “Official C E Murphy Groupie” buttons or something made up.

  20. Squee! Many congratulations!

    (But, how am I going to get an autographed copy, what with living on the Right Coast and you being in Alaska? I guess you’ll just have to do a book-signing in, say, Boston…)

  22. I told Catie we all need our own fanclub domain on her personal site…..Since we’ve all known her since before she was famous….The fanclub domain on her professional site can be for all those latecomers who didn’t know her “back in the day” :)

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