“Bubbly Cat” by Jane Diamond

The Cat Lady’s Secret made the rounds among a few publishers last year and was rejected by each of them. I consider that a “God thing,” since only He could’ve known I’d end up the year as sick as I did. After the last rejection, I asked my agent to hold off until I was well enough to deal with the edits and promotional campaign necessary for a successful release if it ever did get published.

Recently, a buddy in my critique group proofread my synopsis, and a couple of others proofread the manuscript (thank heavens. It was riddled with typos and errors!). I did the edits based upon their recommendations and rewrote the query letter. By the end of my work day Friday, everything sparkled.

Which means—drum roll, please—The Cat Lady’s Secret is on the publication trail again!

Saturday I sent the entire submission packet back to my agent, letting him know that he didn’t have to work on it over the weekend. He did anyway, getting rid of all the hidden codes that seem to show up between my word processor and his. Past experience with this tells me the process probably took him a good couple of hours. (Made me feel bad. His grandkids were visiting.) So today, if he hasn’t already, he’s going to send the submission out to several more publishers. Only thing left to do now is wait.

Next on the list is one I don’t discuss too often, the mystery/thriller novel I’m cowriting with a friend, Brad Seggie, called The Simulacrum. In this one, Mary and Gunnar are hunting down the man who killed Mary’s uncle Wayne, a renown paleontologist who discovered a human fossil alongside a dinosaur fossil. His claim that humans and dinosaurs coexisted—an impossibility according to dating techniques—threw the scientific world off-kilter. Now he’s dead, and in searching for his killer Mary and Gunnar are unraveling one of the biggest secrets in the scientific community—secrets certain people don’t want exposed.

Trust me, even nerdy scientists can be dangerous.

Brad and I have been working on this for a while–he much longer than I–but I hope to finish my part of it by the end of the week. If everything works out right, we may have it done by early summer. I’m revved up and ready!