Author Guest Post: Angela Morrison!

I was lucky enough to have the always amazing, Angela Morrison, author of Sing Me To Sleep, Taken By Storm, and Unbroken Connection with me today to do a guest post about one of her own publishing experiences.


Wednesday. February 24, 2010, my phone rang. I stopped packing heavy sweaters, wool socks, and boots for SING ME TO SLEEP's launch tour back in Canada and answered.

Cool. My editor was on the phone. SING ME TO SLEEP was one week away from launch. I was leaving on Friday to join Amabile Choirs of London Canada to celebrate their 25th Anniversary and SING's release at a gala festival concert. How nice of her to call and wish me well.

But my editor had news of her own. The kind of news authors have nightmares about. She was leaving Razorbill to start her own boutique literary development company. Just great. It was so hard to find an editor who was willing to take a risk on my type of stories--heartfelt love stories with subtle spiritual underpinnings. Finding my editor was truly a miracle. Had I used up my share or could I count on another?

It should be okay, I reasoned. TAKEN BY STORM was out in paperback. SING ME TO SLEEP was on it's way. But I had submitted STORM's sequel, UNBROKEN CONNECTION, months back in fulfillment of my contract's option clause and really wanted sign that and the final novel in Michael and Leesie's saga, CAYMAN SUMMER. My agent was counting on the same. With my editor gone, could that still happen?

Monday morning--after a hair-raising drive through a blizzard from the Detroit Airport to London, Ontario, a fantastic weekend with Amabile, and getting to see Matt's mom again and go to the hospital with her to meet the wonderful team of nurses who cared for Matt, I got an email from Razorbill's publisher rejecting UNBROKEN CONNECTION. Three days before SING ME TO SLEEP's launch. Cold, huh?

My agent talked brave about finding a new publishing home. And then I didn't hear from him--for months. (We've since parted ways.) But I had huge support from my readers and the blogging community. One blogger started a FB group and another designed a "Don't Break the Connection" icon to post around the blogosphere. That all meant so much to me.

So I made plans of my own. Why not go indie? Publish UNBROKEN CONNECTION myself. I got some great advice from other authors who'd taken the same path and my son assured me he could do all the design work (phew! great to have talented kids, huh?), so I jumped.

UNBROKEN CONNECTION is now available as an eBook or a paperback. Isn't the cover gorgeous! I'm so excited to have you all read it. I hope it surprises you as much as it surprised me.

What's next? Like I said, UNBROKEN CONNECTION is book two in Michael and Leesie's drama. They really don't like where I left them. I tell them to be patient--second books have to end on a bit of a cliffhanger, right? They are tired of being patient. So--October 15th--I'm launching a new blog site devoted entirely to CAYMAN SUMMER. I plan to post the novel as I write it--poem by poem, dive log by dive log, chat by chat. This is a journey I want to bring all my readers along for! Are you game? Stop by http://www.angela-morrison.com/ for updates and links or friend me on FaceBook or Goodreads where you'll get even more up-to-date info!

Thanks so much, Christina, for hanging in there with me. You hear about things like this happening all the time in the publishing industry--but you don't ever think it will happen to you. I have learned something huge, though. Editors, agents, publishers come and go. That's reality. There is nothing constant in this business. Except . . . YOU! Readers. It's my commitment to be constant for you. In the long run, nothing else really matters.


Thank you so much Angela for doing this guest post and I am one of the many who are so, so happy that Unbroken Connection is in book form at last! Team Michael and Leesie!

You can watch the trailer to Unbroken Connection here: