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July 23, 2007 I was on vacation with my husband in The Philippines. I remember the date because it was my birthday. Oh yes, it was my birthday.

We'd gone out to our favorite Mexican restaurant. When we came back we noticed a window open. Then we noticed a whole bunch of stuff missing including my laptop, my husband's passport and all our cash, Philippine, Korean and American. The first order of business was getting my husband a new passport so he could go back to South Korea where he was scheduled to have surgery to remove a tumor the week after we got home. (Oh yeah, my husband was diagnosed with and had surgery and radiation treatments for cancer in the summer and fall of '07. The care was stellar and he's fine now.) The American Embassy put us through a day of H – E - double hockey sticks while they debated whether his case was life or death enough for a temporary passport. Seven months later that same embassy made Arnel Pineda sing for his visa to go to the US and audition for Journey.

By the time we got back to Seoul, what I had lost started to sink in. The partly revised Three Alarm Tenant with all the critiques. A new manuscript that I had started. A completed manuscript on the hard drive. I know you see this coming, but I feel the need to salt my own wounds. I had nothing backed up. I'm a genius, aren't I?

Additionally, I was dealing with my husband's surgery in a country where I didn't speak the language and in a running battle with my bosses who were frustrated that he was taking time “off” for this. Most of this time, I was also sick. That year I caught every cold making the rounds in Korea. I did consider chucking the whole thing. For the Gather contest, I didn't even expect to do well because I considered my book to be a category romance not a single title, but I thought the experience would be good.

I scraped myself together, reedited the first chapter of Three Alarm Tenant, triple checked the contest rules, figured out when the posting window was for my side of the world and threw my hat in the ring.

And wasn't mobbed with accolades.

Yeah, the ego. You'd think I'd have gotten my ego under control, but no. A friend emailed me and said, “Honey, you've got one of the best entries, but if you don't start pushing yourself, no one is going to see it!” Okay, she probably didn't say that exact thing, but it was something like that. The Gather contest was judged on response. The more unique comments and views you had, the better. Thus began three weeks of forty hours a week, promoting myself for comments and views while working 40+ hours a week teaching and dealing with my ill husband. I went from somewhere near the bottom to the top 20 or 25 by the end of the contest. When the second round started, I was in the middle of a demanding project at school so I didn't have the time to devote to the contest and had to ride on quality. I didn't do too shabby for no effort. If I remember correctly, Three Alarm Tenant was 2 or 3 from making the next round. I also entered the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest.

Round 1 of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest was judged by pros. A group of industry types went through the something like 8000 entries and decided which 500 were going to round 2. I forgot that I'd entered. Oops. I was busy. There was Halloween (the first for my 5 year old students – so cute!), my husband's recovery, the Christmas concert, we spent the holidays in Thailand where my husband nearly drowned due to faulty diving equipment, hunting for a new job in another country with National Health so my husband could get the care he needed. You can see how I'd forget.

Then I got the email that I'd made the cut.