[splitimage]

I'm excited. I met with my publisher yesterday, to go over some of the book details, and we're in agreement on deadlines etc. So today he pdf'd me the author contracts. They're on quite generous terms for a first time author, and he's even giving me a good advance against royalties, to help pay for the writing course I'm taking.

I'm quite psyched.

splitimage

[glok]

Congratulations, splitimage.

I wish you well.

[Can't Stop Crying]

Super big CONGRATULATIONS!

[ToeJam]

Yeah, that's fantastic news... congratulations!

***Congratulations!*** What exciting news!

[~Christina]

Oh soooo exciting !!!! Good for you

[AngstyLady]

That's so awesome! I wish I could say the same, I can only DREAM of writing professionally. Congrats!

[VladM]

That sounds like very good news. I'm doing anything and everything to work for myself creatively. I'm downright sick and tired of being a working class drone. Enough is enough.

[Hatter08]

Congratulations! I hope to be in your situation too someday. This is really encouraging to hear.

[Blue_Bird]

That's awesome! Congrats

[Hobbit House]

Excellent, I'm very happy for you!

[Fresia]

Fantastic! Congratulations!

[TheWell]

((((Split))))
That is awesome!

That's wonderful! I've always wanted to write a book but I keep putting roadblocks in front of myself.

[ChildlikeEmpress]

Wow, that's awesome!! How exciting!

[Lady Courtesan]

Split Image-

Hope I can ask a few questions? What's your genre? Word count? Number of MC's? POV? First or third person? Is your world building strong? Do you keep character profiles? How many secondaries? How many agent rejections? Did you use an agent or go straight to publisher? How many subplots? Number of story arcs? Do you write every day? Usual word count? Does your condition limit your work? Do you read only your own genre or other's as well? Are you using a main genre or sub-genre? How long from inception to finish? How many times did you rewrite your query?
Did you research agents?

Sorry-guess that's more than a few. Dying to know the title-I know you can't give it here but maybe you could PM me?

I've got three that are only a couple of months toward complete but this illness has robbed me of focus and ambition. How did you get over that?

And lastly- Congratulations! I know the amount of work that goes into a novel. (And we know advance on a first book is incredible!)
Can we be friends?

How about cover art? Is your agent AAR? Sorry- I can't stop!

[splitimage]

Lady Courtesan,

I'm not writing fiction. I'm writing a book on concurrent disorders recovery, from a consumer's perspective. It'll be 80% memoir, 20% info on prevalence rates, evidence based best practices for treatment, and suggestions for navigating the mental health and addictions recovery systems.

There are a number of books on addictions or mental health recovery, but not on concurrent disorders, and mine will be one of the few that doesn't use the 12 steps.

As for getting the publishing deal, I was lucky and had an advantage. I worked in publishing for 20 years and still have some friends that do. One of them is head of a press. He's followed my blog for years, and likes my writing style, so we've been talking about doing a book together for a couple of years. So when I finally felt like the time was right, I put together a proposal, which he liked.

I'm targeting a word count of around 100,000 words, which isn't a lot, since I typically write around 1,000 words once a week between my two blogs. Link to one is in my signature, the other is a blog I write for the treatment centre and publisher Hazelden. Target publication date is August 2015, but I'm hoping to be finished a lot sooner than that.

I find writing actually helps me manage my illness which is good, and I like writing and find it flows pretty well for me. Besides my blogs, I write a lot anyway - I journal every day, and I write a lot for therapy.

Good luck with your books.

And happy to be friends with you.

splitimage

[Lady Courtesan]

Dear splitimage,

Thank you so much for your thoughtful and detailed reply. Being a fiction writer, of course it never occurs to me that people write anything else!

Your slant on living with concurrent disorders recovery is original and fresh. Since it is 80% memoir, I assume you have based a large part of it on your journals and blogs. Are you writing it first person? I am looking forward to reading your blogs, and hopefully, your book. I know that it takes about a year for it to come out. How marvelous that your advance was based on your proposal! That certainly doesn't happen very often! And your experience in publishing will undoubtably come in handy. And I love your handle. It makes me think of a rorschach test or a reference to DID.

As someone who has always lived with concerrent disorders, the recovery section is of great interest. I have lived with bipolar disorder, anxiety and borderline personality disorder as welll as PTSD (and DID when I was younger). I am a veteran and was recently tested, only to find out that I've never been bipolar and had lived with the wrong diagnosis for fourteen years. I have complex PTSD. I have a trauma pdoc, a regular pdoc and a very fine primary care doc. They work as a team on my recovery and I am just coming out of a major PTSD episode. So now we are working on grounding techniques (baby steps) and meds.

So I will be one of your readers that I'm sure will garner a great deal of information from your book. I'm very lucky in that I don't have to navigate the mental health system (I've only been with the VA for about a year) and consider the doctors there to be very dedicated.

I am also very interested in recovery from addiction sans the 12 steps. This also sounds like you are breaking new ground. I hope that when you feel comfortable with it, you will allow me access to one or both of your blogs.

Writing has always been the center of my life, but lately I've thought about giving up. But the thought of letting these disorders take me down when I am so close is hard to swallow. Perhaps you have some words of advice?

Thank you again for your courtesy-I look forward to some fine conversations about the work we both love so much.

Lady C.