The Call...and THEN the Wait!

I think I had the most torturous wait-to-tell-people story...

Back in October, my lovely agent calls me and says, "Hey Dona. An editor at Kimani loves your book, but want to see a few changes XYZ. Can you make them?"

I'm all like, sure. Very calmly. I've had more than a few close calls before, and I refuse to get overwhemingly excited about anything but THE CALL anymore. So, I make said changes and send HOW TO SALSA IN A SARI back to lovely agent and forget about it.

I announce to the whole world that I am leaving for India for 3 weeks...and am pretty happy to get out of the country since I *know* nothing will come out of the Kimani deal and I don't want to be depressed around the holidays. I had no email and no phone access as I toured Calcutta, Banglore, and Madras. I attended a friend's wedding and generally had an incredible time.

I get back to my in-law's house in Bombay and as soon as their internet is hooked up, I check work mail and my donasarkarmishra.com account. Lo and behold, there are quite a few messages from Lovely Agent screaming at me to CALL HER NOW.

Shaking and trembling, I do so. Unfortunatley, it's 3 am Eastern Time and I get her voicemail. I spend the next 5 hours driving my in-laws and husband insane. Let me explain, those were the longest 5 hours of my ENTIRE LIFE. I was literally sitting in the living room in my in-law's house in Bombay sweating for 5 hours. GOD!
"Could it be THE call?"
"Could it be Sha-Shana is ditching me?"
"Could it be that I suck and should no longer write?"

After 5 hours of pure torture, I call back and Lovely Agent lets me know it is indeed good news. We have an offer on the table. And then, the bad news: We need to get marketing sign-off on the offer so I can't talk about it yet. And since it is the week before X-Mas, most likely we'll have to wait until the new year to hear any further. I hang up the phone in a daze and walk back into the living room. My husband gives me a look like,"Well?"

I shrugged.

What could I say? I explain the situation and swear him to silence....then I proceed to check mail like it's my JOB for the next week. And the week after that...and the week after that. I had to force myself to stay away from all writing friends just so I didn't get slap-happy and scream my news.

So I wait a WHOLE MONTH in pure silence. I go back to work, attend meetings, start writing again...and then on the day Seattle shut down due to a snow storm, I get another email in my inbox from my agent. CALL ME NOW.

Let me tell you, keeping this kind of news to yourself is really, really hard. But that morning, the deal got finalized. I am going to be a published author as of early 2008. HOW TO SALSA IN A SARI will be release one and HOW LIA MET ANA (tenatively! Thanks BBGS!) will be release two.

So! In tradition with getting THE CALL in weird places, I got mine during an All-India tour over Christmas vacation. The BEST Christmas present I have ever gotten in my entire life.

I am still in a state of shock that my dream is actualy going to come true....

Dona Sarkar-Mishra
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HOW TO SALSA IN A SARI - early 2008 releasefrom Harlequin Kimani-Tru
dona@donasarkarmishra.com
http://www.donasarkarmishra.com
http://donasarkar.blogspot.com
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