One year and two major revisions later, I felt I had a story that was ready. I entered ten contests, hoping to final at least twice. To my surprise, I ended up with eight firsts, my third GH final, and five requests for fulls, including one from my Dream Agent, Rachelle Gardner, who offered me representation in December 2009.

But I still wasn't ready. I took a deep breath—as well as Rachelle's excellent advice—deleted the final 3/4 of my story, and rewrote it. In October 2010, she sent it out on submission. Within six weeks she'd sold my debut novel to Barbour Publishing. After an initial investment of five years, 10,000+ hours, and over 1,000,000 words, I was a contracted author, proving that hard work and perseverance really do pay off. Embrace your dream, and don't give up.