Our Second Success Story of the Year

I told you they'd start rolling in, and sure enough we're off and running!

Here is Helene Dunbar's success story, in her own words:

My story starts with a bet. Writer friends telling me to write fiction; me betting that although I’d written just about everything else under the sun, I wouldn’t be able to pull it off. I set out to prove that I couldn’t do it and ended up writing almost four complete manuscripts in a year. Okay, so perhaps, my friends knew something I didn’t.


They told me that book #3, GHOST LIGHT, was “the one”. So I focused on that. I edited. Rewrote. Reworked. I posted pages, sent it to crit partners and readers, and did it again. (And again, and…)


I started querying. Tentatively. I wasn’t completely sure where my psychologically-based story would fit into the complex current marketplace. I sent out a ton of fulls to requesting agents. Everyone seemed to have good things to say, but I was starting to wonder if I shouldn’t focus on something else.


I decided to enter Authoress’ Baker’s Dozen Auction as one last ditch effort. Then I got really, really, really busy with my day job and forgot I’d entered…until, of course, I got an email from Authoress that GHOST LIGHT had been selected. By the time I tuned in for the auction, Melissa (Jeglinski of The Knight Agency) had “won” GHOST LIGHT.


I left town for a work conference. On my way to a meeting, I received Melissa’s email that she wanted to speak. I called my husband and cried. Then I wrote her back. Given my 18-hour work days during the conference, the holidays, vacations, technical difficulties, etc., I didn’t get to speak to her until three weeks later. Three. Very. Long. Weeks.


And then we spoke. And she got it. I mean she REALLY got it. Like “I think she was in my head when I wrote the book” got it. I informed the other agents who had the full, all the while telling my husband that I should have just signed after the call because no one was going to instinctively understand my book as well as Melissa and that proved true. I’ve enjoyed few things as much as writing her to tell her that I was accepting her offer.


Even had this story not had such a wish-fulfilling ending, I would be forever grateful to Authoress for the time and energy she puts into creating this amazing and mutually-supportive community of talented writers. I’m grateful to be a part of it.