Christine Gabrièlle

I finished working with my Beta Reader a couple of months ago, and it was such a great experience to have someone who didn’t know me personally or as a writer read my second book and totally get what I was going for. Actually, she found themes I hadn’t noticed or intentionally set. Maybe I set them subconsciously because once she pointed them out, I couldn’t unsee them. It was such a validating experience.

My intention with Book 2—and I have only shared this with a couple of people—is to pursue publication through award submissions, and I’d already timed the completion of the book with the summer submission deadline for an award with a publisher I’m really interested in.

Imagine my surprise when I check the site and submissions have been closed nearly two months before the posted deadline and won’t open again until March ’24 (well, that’s the next round deadline, there was no opening date posted).

So, I started researching alternate awards to submit a short story collection, and to my additional surprise (and maybe pleasure), all three of the ones I am interested in are currently closed, have submission deadlines for early next year, and—despite being held by different orgs—are all published through the same publisher I was already interested in. Guess what that means?

We’re waiting until the end of the year (or beginning of next year, depending on when submissions open) to send Book 2 off for judgement.

Honestly, it’s worth the wait if it means Book 2 will be more traditionally published and marketed to a larger audience than I am able to do alone. I’m so excited about this book (in love with it) and I want it to reach as many people as possible.

I know God has plans for me and this book. We’ll just have to wait a little longer for it to reach you.

In the meantime, I’m changing up some other life things on this side of the screen and I’ve started reading Creep. The first chapter was a bit tough to get through with the narrative going back and forth between several events, but we’ll see how it goes.

🖤