The happy never stops!

From Publishers Marketplace:

Courtney Allison Moulton's MY SOUL TO REAP, in which a sixteen-year-old begins seeing Reapers; monstrously sized wolf-like creatures; with the help of a handsome boy who has waited 60 years for her return, she unlocks her full power; soon the secrets of her past-lives surface - including truths that may be too frightening to remember; now she must keep an army of Reapers from consuming every soul on the planet...starting with hers, WINGS OF THE WICKED, and HYMN TO THE FALLEN, to Sarah Shumway at Katherine Tegen Books, in a good deal, In a pre-empt, by Elizabeth Jote at Objective Entertainment.

In October 2008, I was toying with some post-apocalyptic novel ideas and decided to watch The Time Machine. I'd seen it many times before(Guy Pierce is so hot) but this time was different. For those who've never seen the movie before, it's about about a scientist whose fiance dies and he builds a time machine to go back and save her. He goes back several times, but she keeps dying. Eventually he stops trying to save her and moves on. I wondered what would've happened if he'd kept trying to save her life even though he knew she was doomed to die. That's how Will character was created and I built a story around his never-ending tragedy. Ellie's character was created and eventually Will's story of tragedy became a story of hope--and scary monsters! So that's what I decided to write for NaNoWriMo '08.

On November 23, 2008 I finished the first draft and, like one of THOSE NaNoWriMo-ers, I sent out a couple of queries. When I got requests, I scrambled to edit and send out the second draft. When those requests turned into rejections, I realized that I shouldn't have been so quick to query such a crappy book. That is NOT how you get published, FYI! I stopped querying, got a couple of amazing beta readers, and did an extensive rewrite, careful to take my time.

In January 2009, I started querying again and two weeks later I had an offer of representation from the fabulous Elizabeth Jote. We had actually spoken over the phone about the book I queried 2008, so I made sure she was one of the agents I queried as soon as I felt I had a good (non-sucky) draft of the current manuscript ready. In March, we went on submission. In April, we got a lot of interest and in June, we began some extensive revisions requested from editors. I would spend a month of revisions, turn the MS in, and Liz would encourage me to top what I'd just done with another of her brilliant ideas. I stressed and freaked out and doubted myself and my story, but she never did any of those things. She believed in me through and through, and I couldn't have done it without her behind me all the way. After five rigorous months of revising back and forth, we went on sub again with the revised manuscript (36,000 words longer than the original draft) in November. I held my breath and crossed my fingers, toes, and eyes.

On November 23, 2009--one year exactly to the DAY of finishing the first draft--I walked in my front door after coming home from riding my horse and my phone rings. Liz has called to tell me that we were about to get an offer. The next day, just after eating lunch with my mom at our favorite Mexican restaurant, my phone rang again. I accepted a three-book pre-empt offer from Sarah Shumway, senior editor at Katherine Tegen Books for HarperCollins.

I started to have a panic attack while on the phone with Liz, so bad that my mom had to pull the car over in a grocery story parking lot so I could get out and walk around the car in order to breathe. Within a few moments, the walking turned into running and jumping and dancing. That was definitely the best day of my life--and my mom of course embarassingly documented my whole freakout session on her camera phone and then posted the pictures on Facebook.

What are moms for, right?

I owe so much to my agent for having the guts to take on such a rough project and help me to transform it. Her advice and brilliant ideas really pushed me to be the writer I never thought I could be, and to delve into an emotional depth that I thought would kill me. I've never had anyone work so hard for me and I owe her everything. She's a rockstar, a goddess, a queen, and a great agent.

So there you have it! A not-that-exciting publishing story and why I love my agent. I'm so thrilled for the next year and a half working with my shiny new editor and making this book even better.

Summer 2011, baby!! *dancedancebananasdancedance*