BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO

Last week I got a call from my editor Sulay Hernandez. "There's something I gotta tell you." I could tell by the serious tone of her voice it wasn't something I was going to be happy about. Reminded me of when a girlfriend says, "We gotta talk." Usually bad news. I took a deep breath. "I'm leaving Kensington and going to the Touchstone Fireside imprint at Simon & Schuster." Okay. Felt like I got a punched in the gut. I haven't been stunned like that in a long time (probably the last time I heard, "We gotta talk...). Guess I still got abandomenet issues.

I knew there'd most likely be a time when Sulay would leave for another house, it's common in publishing. But I thought she'd be around for the Devil's Mambo actually hitting the bookstores, which is only four months away. But next week she's gone. After I got over the initial shock and disappointment, I told her how happy and proud I was. It's great opportunity for Sulay, and a Latina sister making those kind of waves is always a wonderful thing. I adore Sulay and she deserves all the best. Still, I'll miss working with her in a big way.

"Do you want to work with Kate or somebody else?" She meant Editorial Director Kate Duffy, her boss . Kate had championed my novel from day one and got every major player in the house to read it. Besides, I like her a lot. Tough. Smart. Doesn't censor herself. My kind of broad, and I mean that in the most complimentary way. "Kate, of course," I said.

So in a couple weeks I'm handing in my second novel to my new editor, and Sulay will be at a different house dealing with new authors and new colleagues.

Funny how life often has more twists and turns than fiction does. So from this point on, I guess I shouldn't let anything involving my journey as an author surprise me. Like the saying goes, "Roll with the punches, black boy."