Everyone give a warm welcome to guest blogger, Stacey Klemstein, author of The Silver Spoon and Eye of the Beholder, the first two books in a sci-fi romance series; and, Bitter Pill , which is a mystery that came out just last week. All three are available at Echelon Press.

Stacey is another super client of the Lovely Laura Bradford and a fabulously nice person! Welcome to The Bradford Bunch, Stacey. Make yourself and home and have fun!

Stacey’s Terrible, No-Good…Awesome Day!

Hello! Thanks to the Bradford Bunch for having me here, especially to Marissa and Denise for the inviting me to guest-blog. I must admit, I’m a little nervous. For months before Laura signed me, I was reading this blog and feeling more than just a bit wistful, like the dorky new kid longing to be invited to sit at the cool kids table. : ) And wow, now I’m here.

On my own blog, I ramble quite a bit about whatever strikes my fancy from the Battlestar Galactica half-season finale to Regency bathroom habits (nope, I don’t write historicals, I’m just naturally curious about weird things), but here I thought it might be best to focus a little more. I thought I’d tell you about the day I received “the call.”

It was the Saturday before the big Romantic Times Booklovers Convention, one of my favorites to attend, and the day before I was due to fly out. Things were not going well. I’d just learned that my books, The Silver Spoon and Eye of the Beholder, had not been ordered for the book fair (a long and complicated story), which meant I’d have to pay an ungodly amount of money to ship some from my own stash, and my husband, God love him, would have to remember take them to the post office for me in the middle of the week. Eeeek. On top of that, I was still trying to finalize my prep work for the pre-convention writing workshops, pack my clothes, squeeze more promo items into an already overstuffed suitcase, attend my nephew’s birthday party and make sure I’d covered everything at my day job for the week that I’d be gone.

I think, though, it was the laundry disaster that put me over the edge. It probably wouldn’t really even be considered a disaster by most standards, but it was just the final insult on top of lots of injuries. I love pajamas, and as a writer, I spend an inordinate amount of time in them. Therefore, when I loaded my wash into the dryer and found that something blue (!) had faded all over my favorite new pajama top, the one I was planning to take to RT, I went a little crazy. I did not have the time or the money to go out and buy something new, especially a duplicate of something that had been just fine before I made the brazen move of washing it. I stomped around the house and ranted, scaring my dogs (and probably my husband, too).

At that point or shortly thereafter, I decided it would be a good idea to check email. Um, yeah. That’s when I saw Laura’s email in my inbox, and I thought, “Oh, #$@#.” Because everyone knows, right, that a phone call means good news and a letter or an email means bad news? At least, that’s what I thought. My head, at that moment, was a wild mess inside, and I could barely breathe, thanks to the crushing disappointment. I’d been so hoping that it would work out. (No, I hadn’t actually opened the email yet.)

Keep in mind, I’d been querying for a variety of books off and on since 2003. Almost everyone had something positive to say. Great characters, good voice, tight writing, BUT…it’s not exactly what I’m looking for, I don’t have the kind of time needed to devote to your career in this stage, and, my personal favorite, I just didn’t fall in love with it. Ouch. By the time 2008 rolled around, I was beginning to feel like the longest-running subscriber on the agent equivalent of match.com. “You’re such a nice girl, but…”

The worst part was, I’d been assigned to speak on a panel at the RT pre-con about how to get an agent. Prior to this point, the plan was merely that I would relay my experiences so far, what I’d learned, and how I was hopeful for the future. After this, I just didn’t know if I could pull that off and be believable. Or, at least, not break down into sobbing hysterics and ask a group of stunned beginning writers, “Why doesn’t anybody like me?” or some other such melodramatic nonsense.

Then, I opened the email. “I loved your book. Let’s talk at RT.” Seriously, it was like the Hallelujah chorus sounded and a bright light shone from above. Okay, so it might have been my iPod and, you know, the afternoon sun, but so what, it counts!

After that, there was much screaming and rejoicing. The dogs were scared…again. And my poor husband, who had not learned to differentiate between screams of “An agent likes my book” and “I just saw a mouse and am now standing on my desk chair,” came racing to investigate.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

The lesson is, I guess, to be patient and persistent. It’s worth the struggle to find someone who believes in what you write. Also…the Clorox bleach pen works wonders on removing set-in blue stains from a favorite white pajama top, if you were wondering. : )

Stacey’s Bio:

As an award-winning corporate copywriter, Stacey Klemstein has written about everything from backhoe loaders to breast pumps. But she prefers to make things up instead.

From her first childhood scribbles about a magical necklace that would turn people into cats, Stacey has long been fascinated with what happens when the “ordinary” bumps up against “out of this world.” What if aliens landed on Earth? What if the afterlife is really just another dimension?

She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, Greg, and their two retired racing greyhounds, Joezooka and Tall Walker. When she’s not reading or writing, you’ll likely find her parked in front of the television with her Roswell DVDs, staring rapturously at Jason Behr.