Inanna is going into production of the fall schedule. PATTERSON HOUSE is finally going to see the light of day. September 27, 2022 is the publication date.

It’s been a journey. In case you ever wondered if you should keep going, if you ever wondered if your work would ever get finished and get “out there”, here are a few of the things that happened along the way to writing my first novel.*

After starting the work in 2006, I realized I did not know what I was doing. I gave up several times. I took courses. I joined writing groups. I got help.

I turned several ideas into short stories. I published unrelated short stories and other work. Smaller things. I learned.

I realized I had too many characters.

The main character changed. It was supposed to be the young Constance, but Alden took over, which is so like her, and I had to acquiesce.

I gave up again.

I moved to Boston and decided that was a good time to resurrect the book and figure how to write a novel while getting an MFA, which I did. Meanwhile, Elaine and I edited an anthology about menopause because all that was happening too.

This brings us to 2016.

I had an agent interested. I promised her a full MS in four months. I wasn’t quite finished, but knew I could be in four months.

Then I was in a car accident and got a brain injury. That journey is described in IMPACT. The TLDR version: I had to learn how to do a lot of things again, including read.

Three years later, to no one’s surprise, the agent very kindly said she was no longer interested.

I found another agent who seemed very interested and suddenly our movement towards a contract faltered. She had decided to leave the business.

I found a third agent, who was even more effusive than the second. While we were negotiating the fine print of the contract, she left the business, which I learned about on Twitter. I began to wonder if I was the common denominator here. Was my novel driving people out of publishing? Luckily, I had not yet signed because although the agency promised to take care of her clients, they did not.

I gave up looking for an agent.

I started submissions. There were rejections. And near misses. Perhaps the best/worst was when a house told me I was ninth on their list and they decided to publish eight books that year. Seriously, why even tell me that? I mean, thanks? I guess?

And then acceptance! I signed with Inanna. I had worked with them in the past (Writing Menopause) and was excited to do so again, especially with Editor Luciana Ricciutelli, who I first met in 1998 and had always admired.

The pandemic started and Inanna, like so many other presses (both small and large), delayed their entire schedule. Lu sent a multi-page email detailing the situation. Totally understandable. Even major movies were being delayed. No one knew what was going on. Meanwhile, I was working on IMPACT. I had a lot to keep me busy.

Then the unthinkable happened; dear Lu died. A tragedy for so many people. And my book was, understandably, delayed again. A minor thing in the context of the loss of such a wonderful person.

There was one more delay after that. Probably for the best since IMPACT was coming into the world and with my brain injury, I’m better doing one thing at a time.

The September 27 date comes with some cautions; paper shortages, shipping containers, etc etc etc etc etc. Recently, I heard of a YA writer whose container full of books landed in the Pacific somewhere. I couldn’t read on. My heart goes on to them. Anything can happen.

But for now 16 years after I first had the idea for this novel, Inanna will publish PATTERSON HOUSE. I can’t wait to share this last leg of the journey. It’s been a long time coming.

What’s the lesson here? Keep trying. Sometimes things take a while. Knock on wood.

* ”First novel” is the MOST optimistic phrase I have ever uttered.