MSFV SUCCESS STORY: A Happy Update!

I announced Ava Jae's original success story in February.  I'm happy to share this exciting update with you!

Sometime last year, Team Fury member extraordinaire Lady Lioness noticed some promising entries on one of Authoress’s Secret Agent contests and told agent of awesome Louise Fury about them. (Can you tell I love my agent and her team? Anyway). They then e-mailed Authoress and asked about the entries, and Authoress asked if Louise would be willing to be a secret agent for one of her blog contests. Louise agreed to do it with another agent, so she and Emily Keyes lined up to be October Secret Agents.

Meanwhile, I’d been querying my newest Sci-Fi novel, then titled SLAVE & SIRA for about a month when, on October 7, 2013, the entry period for Miss Snark’s First Victim’s October Secret Agent contest opened up. I figured it was worth a try, entered, and crossed my fingers.

After some confusion I detailed in my last MSFV happy post, on October 14th Louise picked my entry as a runner up, requesting my query and the first three chapters. Which then led to a request of the first fifty pages, which led to a request of the full, which led to a super happy e-mail about setting up a phone call, and a ridiculously exciting phone call in which she offered representation! 

On February 2, 2014 I officially announced that I’d signed with Louise and became part of Team Fury! YAY!

And thus began several months of editing and brainstorming new titles (because apparently titles with made up words aren’t that popular or something? Who would’ve guessed, right? *ehem*). We went on submission in June and after four-ish months of fretting, and writing, and waiting, and incessantly checking e-mails…

On October 7, 2014 (EXACTLY a year after I entered the Secret Agent contest!) I accepted an offer of hardcover publication from Sky Pony Press! Sky Pony is the YA imprint of Skyhorse and their website is here.

The PM announcement says this:

"Ava Jae's debut BEYOND THE RED, in which a feud on a distant, crimson planet with established nanite technology creates a violent uprising that threatens the reign of a teenage queen and forces her to turn to her rebel half-blood bodyguard for help, before the planet's human population is destroyed at the hands of her power-hungry twin brother, to Nicole Frail at Sky Pony Press, in a nice deal, for publication in early 2016, by Louise Fury at The Bent Agency …”

I’m completely elated and seriously cannot wait to share BEYOND THE RED with you guys, which is currently slated for release in hardcover/e-book in March 2016! You can add BEYOND THE RED to your Goodreads shelf right here.

And to think—it all started with a random lottery drawing right here on this blog.

Thank you so much, Authoress! My dream is coming true and your awesome blog was the catalyst. :)