Goodbye 2014!

It's been a great year.:)

I published my first book. I sold two more. I went to my first book convention and my first book festival and then a few more.:) I met TONS of readers and tons of other writers & authors. I fangirled over authors who I still can't believed I got to hang out with, and I laughed and joked with them and learned they were REAL people--like you, and me.:)

And I learned a TON. :) About writing, about me.

I rediscovered things I forgot along my writing/publishing journey, and am SO glad I remembered them.:) Like the fact that books are creative works of art. Not everyone will love each one, but some will, and that's who authors write for. :)

I learned that it's not about the days you can't find the time or inspiration to write; it's about the days you DO.

I learned that not every shiny new idea will turn into a finished book, but some will. And I learned typing The End never gets old.:)

I learned that writing on deadline is different and hard and DOABLE and deeply rewarding.

I learned that publishing is a journey, not a destination--like life, and each writer's road is different at every point. (Whoa-that was freakishly deep. ;D )

I learned that it's hard to say goodbye to characters in a series. And I learned that just because it's easier to let them all live, that doesn't mean you should.

I learned that writing on deadline feels more solitary than expected.

I learned that friendship among writers is real and true and life-saving.:)

I learned that my family and friends are amazing and have blessed me beyond measure, and so have all the readers who took a chance on an unknown debut author and picked up NIL. *hugs all the #NILtribe*

Thank you to all who helped make 2014 an amazing year! I love all of y'all!

See you in 2015!

NIL is available for pre-order! A timeline! And a contest alert...:)

I just learned a few days ago that NIL is available for pre-order on Amazon!

It's book birthday is March 4, 2014, so it's still almost nine months away. I know, nine months is forever, right? But it's not. Especially in publishing. So here's my sekrit: I can't help clicking this link now and then, because it makes the whole I'm-getting-published-thing so much more real.

That probably sounds weird. But here's the thing:

I began writing NIL in February 2010 . . .

drafted and revised . . .

went to a writer's conference in May 2011 . . .

revised even more . . .

queried NIL in the fall of 2011 . . .

signed with Jennifer in February 2012 . . .

Jennifer sold the book in May 2012 . . .

and NIL is coming out on March, 4, 2014.

That's essentially four years from the time the idea popped into my head to the day NIL hit shelves. And this is totally normal in traditional publishing.

Four years.

So can you see why I'm crazy-excited that NIL is available for pre-order, even though March 4 is almost nine months away? I can't wait for readers to discover Charley and Thad's story, and get swept up in the world of NIL. That's the dream every author has--to touch a reader, and make them feel.:) I hope y'all will love NIL as much as I do!

I'm so excited that I'm going to come up with some kind of giveaway for readers who pre-order the book. I haven't figured the giveaway out yet, but it'll be some kind of cool NIL swag.:)

So if you pre-order NIL (I will love you forever! :D), please check back for a pre-order contest announcement! :)

Happy Tuesday!

P.S. Little fun Tuesday fact--did you know that all books are released on Tuesdays? Yup, NIL releases on Tuesday, March 4, 2014. It's sekrit publishing stuff....and now you know.:)

Happy New Year!

Hello 2013!

To kick off the year, I joined a cool group of YA & MG authors debuting in 2014, One Four Kidlit. Yay! Feels like the perfect way to start today. Want to check out the blog-in-progress? Go here. :) There are so many awesome books coming out in 2014 from new authors, and I'm honored to be part of this group!

Ok, now for the promised 2012 wrap-up.

These kinds of summaries are hard for me; it's why I don't have a "family letter" inside our Christmas card (not that I sent cards this year...ran out of time LOL). But 2012 was amazing. Full of quiet moments and many highlights, writing-wise. Here's a few:

I found my agent, Jennifer Unter, who is made of awesome. Truly. I couldn't ask for a more perfect champion for NIL, for me, or for my writing. Thanks Jennifer, for EVERYTHING.

Jennifer sold my book, NIL, to Macmillan/Henry Holt, for publication Winter 2014. Just--WOW. Talk about a culmination of years of work . . . of a dream come true. Again, thank you Jennifer. :) And thank you Kate, for falling in love with NIL too. :)

I met my awesome crit partner from Omaha, Tonya Kuper, in person--not once, but twice. (Which also meant I got to see Snow Patrol live twice as well--both times with Tonya. Woot!) I'm so grateful to my friend and CP, Laura Stanford, for introducing us through Backspace (a killer conference if you ever have the chance to go). Hugs, Laura! Tonya landed an agent in 2012 too and that made me HAPPY. Like over-the-moon happy. To watch a friend succeed when you have been there for the ride is pure sweetness and a highlight all its own. :)

I made more writing friends on-line than I ever dreamed possible. Like the amazing Lindsay Currie and Trisha Leaver (through Tonya!), who gave me the opportunity to read one of their blow-your-mind awesome manuscripts and who are as nice as they are talented . . . like Jay Spencer, a talented artist-writer-music fan (alert: Jay writes kick-butt MG) who kick-started a music blog for writers and gave me the chance to be a part of it . . . like Eliza Tilton and Laura Stanford, both writers from Backspace, who each celebrated personal/career successes this year (publication! dream job!) which make me happy too . . . like Jessie Harrell, who is an amazing writer and CP (ok, Jessie is local and I love her and I can lunch with her when the stars align and neither of our kids are sick, but this wrap-up cannot NOT include Jessie, who has been with me every step of my writing journey.:D) . . . like Natalie Whipple, whose blog I stumbled across when I first began pursuing publication and who I'm honored to count as a friend (Natalie is honest and smart and Talented and kind and I want to read EVERY SINGLE ONE OF HER BOOKS -- and possibly her grocery list, because her writing is just that awesome)  . . . and like dozens of other writers who make me smile when I read their Tweets. The writing community is tight on Twitter, but not in an exclusive way, and I feel blessed to be a part of it.

I learned--again--that publication really is about patience, and perseverance. Patience while you wait to hear from your agent while on submission, patience while you wait on your book contract, patience while you wait to receive your edits . . . (see a trend here? The waiting in publishing never ends. I'd heard that before and it's so true!) But while you wait, you must still write. You still have to sit and push through the block when the words won't come, or the muse doesn't show, and you can't let the waiting kill your writing. It's hard, at least it was for me at times, because the emotional roller coaster of the WAITS (the flats in between the highs and the lows) are like mental quicksand. At times it's hard to keep going, but you can't stop, at least not for long, because you'll get stuck.

There were personal highlights too . . . I celebrated my 17th wedding anniversary, watched many gorgeous sunsets and sunrises over the ocean (sometimes on a paddle board), fell back in love with painting (oil, preferably, but acrylics are fun too), figured out I suck at yoga but like it anyway, watched all 4 of my boys do amazing things in sports and school, and read over 150 books. Lots of good books out there to be read, which makes me stoked for 2013. :)

So Happy New Year! Here's to a fresh start, a new year, many months of GREAT books and good times. :) *clinks glass*

Oh, one more thing: my resolution. Balance. I'm REALLY going to work hard on juggling the family/life/health/writing balance. It's hard for me, because when I'm into something, I do it 100%. But sometimes as much as I want to write for 14 hours straight, I can't--or shouldn't. So I'm working on balance, with a time management component.

What's your resolution for 2013?

To you! Cheers!

The Secret to Writing a Bestseller

I haven't a clue. :)

And I don't think there is one. There's no secret, no magic bullet. But I do think there's some basic ingredients to the bestseller recipe. Like . . .

Hard work.

Great writing.

Fresh storytelling.

Timing.

Opportunity.

Heaps of LUCK.

Mix all those up--and listen, I know the last three aren't really in your control--and you *might* have a bestseller. MIGHT. Because as y'all know, nothing is guaranteed, especially not in publishing.

But I believe there is something that will help improve your odds: write what you love.

Maybe it won't sell a bazillion copies, maybe it will. But if you're lucky, your book will touch a reader in a way no other book has. Because if you write what you love, your passion for your story and your characters gets infused in the pages themselves, and your readers will respond to it . . . they will feel it, and in the end, isn't that what you want? For your readers to feel? To be moved? To be transported to another place or time? To be scared? To want? To wonder? To fall in love? And if your novel touches enough people . . . voila! Now we're starting to talk bestseller. :)

So give yourself a gift this holiday season: permission to write what you love. Just write . . . without fear, without expectations. Without pressure. Write the story you're dying to write, because if you love it, chances are, another person will love it too. :) And maybe more than just one . . .

So what are you writing? And do you have any other ingredients to add to the bestseller mix?

First Friday

My first blog post! It feels epic--and yet it's not. :)

I've been writing seriously for years, but never blogged. Instead, over this time, I've followed many. Sometimes I've commented, more often I've lurked. But regardless of whether I commented or not, I've been incredibly grateful for all the encouragement, inspiration, and support I've received from the YA writing community as I pursued my writing dreams. I couldn't have made it this far without y'all. :) I've said many thank-you's on Twitter, but lately I've wished for more than 140 characters to share and give back, so . . .

Voila! This blog.

First up? On Monday, I'll be talking about how I found Jennifer, my amazing agent. I decided to make this topic my first Monday post because when I was in the agent hunt, I loved reading about how writers found theirs. Each story was different, but each gave me hope. Hope that if I didn't quit, that one day an agent would say YES. And for me, a huge part of that hope was the uniqueness of each writer's road. Each writer's gifts are unique, and so is their writing journey. On Monday I'll share part of mine. :)

Here's a preview:

This is me, holding my contract on the day I signed with my awesomesauce agent, Jennifer Unter. (LOVE HER!) Note the perma-grin above. Totally ridiculous. :)


Until then, I'll leave you with this:

"This is your life, this is your time"

-Snow Patrol, Called Out in The Dark

Thanks for stopping by! :) Have a great weekend!