When I sat down to write A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder, I never dreamed it would be a series, and that one day I would be writing the tenth book in that series! If you don’t know the origin story, here is an abbreviated version.
I started writing the book to amuse myself, but when I took it as far as I could, I wanted some feedback and didn’t know where to get it, so I turned to social media. At the time Writer’s Twitter was a thing. I don’t know if it still is, but it was a great place to find out what other writers were doing and where they were going for guidance. That’s where I learned about PitchWars. (Sadly, it no longer exists.) You could enter the contest if you were a writer with a work of book-length fiction that was as polished as you could make it. If you were accepted, you would “win” a published writer who would critique your book. With that critique, you could revise your manuscript and submit it to an agent panel.
The stars must have been aligned in my favor, because not only did I get into PitchWars, and get an agent, but that agent had me revise the book once more, then she sold it–as a series. It all happened so fast. In August I had a manuscript I didn’t know what to do with. By January, I had an agent, a publisher, a 3-book contract, and an obligation to write two more books! I barely had time to think before making decisions, but I said yes! And I’m so glad I did. This is the second career I never knew I needed. 
Those of you who don’t subscribe to my newsletter might want to do so now. (Here’s the link:) Since my next book doesn’t come out until September, and it’s the ninth book in the series, I decided to give away one of my books each month along with the Book of the Month in my newsletter. So, if you enter the drawing and win the Book of the Month, you will also win a Countess of Harleigh mystery of the month, starting with this month and the first book, A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder!
I’ll be honest, you don’t really need to subscribe to both my blog and monthly newsletter, but you do get more stuff with the newsletter, so you might want to give it a try. You can unsubscribe at any time.
