Waking Up to a New Publishing Journey

*Update to this post. Waking Up Joy will now be published in print, in addition to digital.

I’m happy to say that my third Women’s Fiction novel, Waking Up Joy, will be coming out from Tule Publishing Group on October 8th, 2014. I can’t even begin to express how excited I am to bring you this story set where my roots run deep in northeastern Oklahoma.

It took me a year to write Waking Up Joy because I wanted it to be perfect. No novel can be perfect, of course, but I spent the next few years tweaking it, trying to get it ready for my readers, and to say exactly what I wanted to say about my main character, Joy Talley, who not only wakes up from a coma, but wakes up from the mundane life she’s been living for years.

As I was writing Waking Up Joy, I was also busy with my own life, which wasn’t mundane at all. Raising three amazing children with my husband Albert has kept me on my toes. I admit that I gave up a lot of writing time to be a mom, and I don’t regret one hour of it. I would do it all over again just to watch them be kids, but things change and kids do grow. Our children are now teenagers and while I am trying to appreciate every single moment with them before they embark on their adult journeys, I am blessed to find more time to write and to be able to focus more on my writing career. It makes bringing you Waking Up Joy an even greater victory.

Waking Up Joy is one of those books I just couldn’t let go of. You see, just because I am a Random House author doesn’t mean that my publishing future is set. I still have to work for it, just as my fellow author friends do. In fact, it is because of many of them, and my agent, Chip, that I didn’t give up on my career. When I got introduced to Jane Porter of Tule Publishing Group, I was thrilled and terrified for her to read Waking Up Joy, and soon after was blessed by Tule’s offer of a contract. Now here we are just a few months from the novel’s release.

I want to thank you, my readers, for being my biggest encouragers of all. Your letters, emails, and messages telling me you were still spreading the word about my first two novels and waiting for my third kept me believing that there was a readership for Waking Up Joy. You all are amazing. An author couldn’t ask for more in the way of readers and friends.

So here’s to bringing you Waking Up Joy on October 8th, 2014. Get your eReaders ready, and of course, my first two novels, Ruby Among Us and Rose House, are still available from Random House in print and as eBooks if you or your friends need to catch up.

Thanks for visiting and be sure to keep in touch!

–Tina