Divine Intervention or coincidence? I say the first.

Good evening everyone! In my last Blog, I told you all a little bit about how incredible it was for me to experience an unbelievably quick turn around in receiving a traditional publishing contract. Thank you TATE Publishing! Well, there’s more to the story…

A few months ago, I was speaking with, Donna, the Associate Director of Acquisitions at Tate Publishing. She was the one I have to thank for this opportunity! I asked her if it would be possible for my husband and I to come on by their office and meet them in October. I was headed out to the Mid-West for a work conference (for my day job) and since I would be in that longitudinal area – sort of, I thought if they allowed it, we’d stop in. They were more then willing to oblige, and said that they loved to meet their Authors, so we scheduled a date.

Basically, I just really wanted to shake the hands of all the great folks I’d already been corresponding with and of course, meet Donna. I was so excited! So after my work conference in WI, My husband and I rented a car and drove down to Oklahoma. We made a three day trip out of it to enjoy the countryside and also, so I could work on book 3 in the evenings! Got some great sight seeing in that I’ll probably use in some later books, but that’s a spoiler alert, so shhhh.

When we got to Oklahoma, I was tingling with anticipation for the coming appointment. We arrived in the packed parking lot, and found a meek little spot all the way around the corner in the back. It wasn’t until we had walked up to the lobby doors that my husband pointed out a plack positioned right in front of a parking spot near the entrance. It said, “Reserved for Author, RJ Machado De Quevedo”. I was thrilled! He asked if he should go get the car and park it there and of course I said yes. I wasn’t expecting that and it made me feel, Okay, this IS really happening and I AM an Author now. Wow.

A lovely lady named, Rachael, Director of Operations, gave me the grand tour. We walked through the building and she introduced me to as many people as were present or available. The first building was their Executive and Administrative office building which houses their CEO, President, Acquisitions staff, Marketing Managers, Editorial Managers, and the like. Then we went over to the building nearby and meet the editors, artists, designers, website designers, etc. Great people! I definitely got a lot of practice giving my elevator speech about the books.

When I got to meet, Donna, the woman who had reviewed my manuscript and sent me the publishing contract, we got talking about the circumstances in which I submitted the manuscript. As I described in my last blog, it was on a Monday and I was at work when I’d felt it in my gut that today was the day that I HAD to submit the manuscript. So as soon as I got home that evening, I did. What I learned from Donna when I meet her, was that she wasn’t even supposed to be in the office the next morning when I called to make sure they had received the manuscript. Since I never received the confirmation email that the website said I would receive, I had called Tuesday morning just to make sure they had it. Donna was scheduled to work from home and had come into the office for a little while. When I met her, she explained this to me and said that now, she couldn't’t even remember why she had decided to come in. The day I called, she accepted the transferred call, even though she didn’t have to as she wasn’t supposed to even be there.

Donna further explained to me that normally, it can take nine weeks or more before a potential Author receives a reply of any kind. It just so happened that when I called, she was there, choose to take the call, opened up the document with me still on phone, scrolled through it to make sure it was complete, and somehow, was intrigued enough to review my manuscript that week! Donna told me, “I firmly believe that when it’s God’s timing, it’s God’s timing.” And she was RIGHT!

So, thank the Lord and Thank you Donna! And thank you to my readers.

Next time I’ll talk a little about some interesting and trippy things that have transpired while I scouted locations for scenes in my books.

Until next time, have a fabulous weekend!

R. J. Machado De Quevedo

Follow me on Twitter under @TheDeceiverBook