I HOPE YOU DANCE...

Talk about new beginnings.

In my writing world I was doing a nice long line dance where my characters were all dancing together in time with the music ... step forward, kick back, slap your fanny and yell, “Hell, yeah!”

Like the line dance, I had all my ducks in a row. One Hot Cowboy, coming out in April…check. Woman’s Fiction book (although we were having trouble with just the right title) coming out in August…check. Mistletoe Cowboy, October…check. Just a Cowboy, December…check. Now slap my fanny and yell, “Hell, yeah!” and get on to the last book in the contract … check.

Then the music stopped.

The line dance broke up and new beginnings began as the band switched from playing a fanny slapping line dance to a two-step.

Uncheck, uncheck, uncheck as I watched the ducks waddle back to the pond in the space of a twenty minute phone call.

One Hot Cowboy, still coming out in April …check.

But there was a whole new bunch of new beginnings on my dance card.

It was time to partner up with the WIP which was supposed to be my spring 2013 book but had been shuffled into the October slot to be my Christmas book. I’d been planning on it being a hot summertime book and suddenly there was snow flying in the air and Christmas songs playing on the radio. It was time to hug up to it and talk the weatherman into changing the temperature from three digit summertime heat to a blizzard and one digit wintertime cold. Changes got made. Christmas will arrive in the form of Mistletoe Cowboy in October. It’s finished and only needs a little polish applied before I throw it across cyberspace to Deb.

But now a new slow song starts and brings another new beginning. It’s time to do some slow dancin’ with my woman’s fiction book. Believe me, it’s a heck of a lot harder to change horses in the middle of a raging river than you think. I’ve been on the romance horse for a long time and the friendship horse is trying to cooperate but the shift is not easy. So we are pushing it ahead to January and I’m going to tinker with it some more. I have every confidence that it is going to strengthen the book and it will sell a million copies (yes, ma’am, I dream big! Hell, yeah!) What fun!

As soon as the woman's fiction song is finished, then it’s take a deep breath, grab a drink and start on edits for Just a Cowboy. It needs a rewrite since it’s now my December book and not the Christmas one. I can't wait to get back to it and visit with Gemma and Trace about all the changes we are about to make.

After that two-step, I get to grab another drink because the next song will start up and I'm changing partners one more time. Dewar and Haley are waiting in line for me. Their story was the middle book but it has moved to the last slot and we're going to dance and talk about the new changes for their story. So I’ll two-step with it so it will be ready for a spring, 2013 publication.

The band has promised that when all the shuffling is done that they’ll play nothing but line dances for a while and all my ducks will be in a row again.

Me?

Change is good and as long as the band is playing, I’m happy to be on the dance floor either line dancing or with a partner! So (raise your glass of wine, shot of Jack Daniels, cup of coffee or even your herbal tea) here’s to the dance, folks. May all your new beginnings bring you happiness and success this year…and like Lee Ann Womack says in her song, if you have a chance to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance!

Have you ever gotten a phone call that changed your direction? What did you do about it ... dance or sit it out?

There is an ARC of One Hot Cowboy Wedding (April 2012) waiting to give away to one lucky person who comments on this blog today! Interested? (US and Canada Only please. Winner chosen Monday, Jan. 30)