Wednesday, June 15, 2022, will be a day that I never forget!

It was a normal “work-from-home” day for me. Clad in my yoga pants and sweatshirt I was working away drawing house plans. Around ten o’clock that morning I got a call from our vet’s office. They let me know that they had actually made two memorial paw prints and had forgotten to give us one of them. (This isn’t the “call” that I’m referring to in the headline but it’s a call that felt like a “sign”, so I have to include it.) I made a reminder on my calendar to pick up his paw print on Friday.

A few hours later I received an email from an agent I had been talking with – no, she wasn’t calling to offer representation. But she was emailing to let me know that she had emailed another agent about one of my manuscripts and that agent was interested in seeing more! Yay! Another step closer!

It wasn’t until 4:30 that afternoon (you know that time… when you’re just wanting to be done with work for the day and you might be scrolling aimlessly through social media.) that I received a phone call. At first, I was wondering who the heck would be calling me from Los Angelos California. I figured it was just another spam call but decided to answer it anyway…

Because I have a terrible memory, I normally jot down names and info whenever I’m on a call. This was as far as I got…

When it suddenly dawned on me who I was talking to… Ann Whitford Paul!

“Congrats! You won this year’s Ann Whitford Paul – Writer’s Digest Manuscript Award in the fiction category!” (I’m not sure this is exactly how she said it because I think I blacked out at the beginning of our conversation!) I do remember my first words were “You’re joking” and I remember her telling me how much she loved what I had written – all while I was bawling on the other end of the line. She asked me if I had been querying this manuscript and my response was “I’ve only sent it to two agents and one has already sent a form rejection”. (I hadn’t sent it to many because, like many authors, I tend to second guess my work all the time!) She went on to tell me that they will try and get me connected with more agents and editors in hopes of getting the story published. Through blubbering tears, I thanked her before we ended the call. The thing that made this so special and heartbreaking for me is that this story was inspired by our dog, Hank, who had passed away on June 2nd. That earlier call from the vet’s office felt like a sign. Words can’t describe how much I miss him but I truly believe he was trying to tell me not to give up.

So here is my message to all of my friends – Don’t give up on your dreams! Keep working and revising! Listen to those gut feelings! And always answer the phone!