With eight months of editing and revising behind me, I made the decision to be brave and actually send my novel out into the big wide world. Now that is scary. It’s one thing having friends and family saying your story is great but a whole other thing to let a publishing company look at it. My first problem - how was I going to find a publisher that would be interested in this particular genre? By searching the internet you can have reams of publishing house names appear but it takes a long time to refine that search into different genre’s and find a particular fit. My novel comes into a fairly new genre – speculative fiction as it is neither sci-fi nor fantasy but is set in an alternative future. Now you can see my difficulty? With several weeks of research I settled on three possibilities. Two accepted email submissions and one snail mail so after making sure they did not require exclusivity, I took a deep breath and let ‘Life in Slake Patch’ free. Now it is a waiting game. Who would have thought – especially me – that in less than 2 years from joining the WFSC, I would not only write a novel but send it out for publication? I have come a long way with my writing in a very short time and it is due, in a very large part, to the incredible support and friendship given to me by the members of the Writers Foundation of Strathcona County. No matter what happens I will continue to enjoy my writing and this fellowship.