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!

On Finishing

Today feels strange.

I'm totally in-between projects, without a deadline in front of me for the first time in months. I finished my second pass pages for NIL, and my agent has my latest project in her expert hands (a project I ADORE and can't wait to share!). But the strangest part is that NIL is done.

I've been working on NIL since February 2010, when the story burst into my head. I wrote, revised (and revised :D), queried, revised for my amazing agent, and then went on submission. Then I revised for my awesome editor, went through copyedits, first pass pages, proofreading queries, and then finally, second pass pages. And now I'm done.

As of this week, NIL is in production. I won't see NIL again until it comes out in hardback.

Like I said, NIL is done.

And it feels both right and strange. To know I will never touch those words again is a little scary, because NIL is no longer just mine. It belongs to you, the reader. Which is how it should be, but as a debut author, it's still a weird--and rather scary--feeling. :) Especially because, as written, NIL is a stand-alone, so my time with those characters is over.*

The perfect word for how this feels? Bittersweet.:)

So now, as far as NIL goes, I'll be doing lots of fun stuff building up to NIL's March 4, 2014 release. Giveaways are coming, packed with cool swag and NIL trivia, and I'm so excited for the months to come. :) It's going to be AWESOME, and I can't wait to share NIL sekrits and scoop with you.

But this week, I'm just going to chill. I'm going to finish some long-overdue beta reading for sweet CP's that I'm woefully behind on... read some killer books on my TBR list that I've been longing to read... and go for some long runs and listen to new tunes and let my brain wander to new stories. And then I'm gonna write something fun and new and just let the words flow, which feels both liberating and exciting.:)

What do you have planned this week? And have you ever finished a project, or job, or something big that took months--or years--of work? Awesome, but weird, right?

xoxoxo

*Lately I've been pondering a companion novel, from a different character's POV. Not sure if I'l write it, but some ideas are floating around in my brain. But Charley & Thad's story is done.:)

The Power of Three (or How I Found My Agent)

I started writing seriously on January 15, 2009. Not for publication, but for me. At the time I had a 1 year old, 3 year old, 6 year old and 8 year old, so I stole time when I could. Mostly at night, sacrificing tv. Looking back, I’m pretty sure I was sleep deprived, which no doubt fueled my insanity.:)

Six months later, I finished my YA magical realism novel. (Yay! It rocks! I rock!) After a celebratory round of cupcakes, I read it again. And died a little.

It was ROUGH. Terrible, actually. So terrible that even as a baby writer, I KNEW it was terrible. But I didn’t know how to fix it. And the endless tinkering began.

During this time, I was fortunate enough to meet Charles Martin, a high school friend of my husband and a NYT Bestseller author in his own right. He kindly read the first three (awful) chapters and told me to pick up the pace. He suggested I look at my novel from a different angle, maybe start in another place. In hindsight, Charles was SO RIGHT.

Meanwhile, in October 2009, I started Novel No. 2, a YA post-apocalyptic, inspired by a phone call from my husband when he was on a Costa Rican surf trip. Then in February 2010, my husband and I took our first week away from the boys since having babies--to Hawaii, the big island. (GORGEOUS!!!) Inspiration hit, hard, and I wrote 10K of a fresh YA light sci-fi novel (Are you counting? Novel No. 3!) while we were there; 2K on the return flight alone. (I know what you're thinking: bad wife. :D In my defense, it was also a work trip for him so I had plenty of down time to write. Plus, my sweet husband gets my writing addiction. Another reason I love him.:D)

For the next few months, I flitted between books, writing two and tinkering with one. And I worked on my craft. I read blogs, Stephen King’s book On Writing, and just plain read. Books, lots of them. I discovered querying, entered writing contests on Janet Reid’s blog, and realized publication was out there, like a crazy carrot. And I wanted it. I hunkered down with novel number one, slashed and revised tinkered, and by summer 2010, it was ready. And it was AWESOME! My friends and family told me so! I joined QueryTracker (great resource), researched agents, drafted my query (personalized, of course) and sent it out.

And the rejections poured in. Mostly form, occasionally personalized. Sometimes they’d arrive in packs, which was especially crushing. That fall, Charles gave me some valuable advice. He told me to put my first book aside,  and write something else. It wasn't easy to hear, but again--he was SO RIGHT.

Around the same time, I met local YA writer, Jessie Harrell. She became my hometown CP. It was HUGE. Game-changing. She introduced me to the YA writing community on-line, and she let me critique her WIP, which was a gift. She have me incredible feedback, and soon I realized I’d never truly revised Novel No. 1, just tinkered, and they’re not the same. But it was too late. Novel number one was dead.

Everything --and everyone-- was telling me to move on. Charles, Jessie, and the pile of rejections. And so I did. I put my first book in a drawer, and let it go.*

Flash-forward to February 2011. I had first drafts of two very different books: a YA post-apocalyptic and a YA light SF, and I had to make a call. Which to polish? I chose NIL, my YA light SF. And I got to work.

I went to Backspace Writer’s Conference in May, where I found awesome crit partners Laura Stanford and Tonya Kuper. (That's another crazy story. :D) Also in May, I won a crit from the talented Natalie Whipple (love her!). After Backspace, I revised my opening pages based on agent feedback (revision no. 1). Then I sent my MS out for critique from this fab four. Each gave me constructive feedback, encouragement, and inspiration, which not only helped my MS, it helped me. Especially my confidence, which you need fully intact before you hit the query trenches. (SO GRATEFUL y’all!) And I became a better CP myself.

Based on the crits, I faced revision, again. This one was tougher. Bigger. But worth every difficult minute. After a *slight* initial freakout ("I can't do it!"), I dug deep, added more layers, and in the process, I fell in love with NIL all over again.

Now my MS was shinier than a Christmas tree. NIL was ready. I was ready. Game on. :)

September 2011: NIL queries went out. This time I got requests right away, and within a month I had a R &R from one agent, a big gun. I mulled it over, even as more requests rolled in and the holidays approached. (One of those requests, a partial, was from Jennifer. Woot! *dream agent alert*) One night as I pondered the revision request, a new sub-plot fell into my head, one that pulled pieces together I didn’t even know were missing. I wrote furiously for the next month, weaving in the new plot line, not sure whether I was addressing the agent’s R & R concerns but knowing this last revision was how the novel was meant to be. (This final revision was revision number 3). Meanwhile, I got more requests. Rejections too. I checked my inbox obsessively. The holidays were S-L-O-W.

But then January arrived. I got an email from Jennifer that she loved the first 50 pages, and could I please send the rest? Uh, YES! She was one of the very first agents I queried on NIL, having loved her interview on the Mother.Write.(Repeat.) blog. Fingers crossed, I sent Jennifer the revised version, which was also in the hands of seven other agents, including the one who requested the R & R. A few weeks later I got "the call" from Jennifer, almost three years to the day after I began writing again. Her enthusiasm for NIL blew me away. We clicked, and I felt she “got” NIL. I notified the other agents considering NIL, including the one who’d requested the revision. (That agent passed BTW; our visions for the book didn’t mesh, and that's okay). That week was a roller-coaster, full of emails and phone calls, but my feeling that Jennifer was the agent for NIL (and for me) never changed. I accepted her offer a week later.

I’m still pinching myself. :D 

Here are the dirty numbers:

Novel 1 (YA magical realism):
55 queries, 2 requests. A dismal 3.63 request rate (Ugh!)

Novel 2 (YA post-apoc):
Still in drawer

Novel 3 (NIL, YA light-SF):
35 queries, 14 requests. A much-improved 40% request rate, resulting in my signing with Jennifer. :D (BTW--I'd queried Jennifer on novel 1, and she'd passed.)

Why the improvement? My query was better. My writing was better. But most of all, my MS was better, and it was READY. I let it marinate, then I revised. I got feedback from other writers (CRUCIAL!) and revised again. And then I revised AGAIN, when my gut said it need it.

3 years. 3 books. 3 revisions. The power of three.

I’m still learning, improving my craft. That part of a writer’s road never ends.

But here’s three things I’ve learned:

1. Don’t stop. Don’t stop writing, don’t stop reading, don’t stop improving. Don't stop working. And like Journey sings (*cheese alert* :D): don't step believing--in your writing, in yourself. In your ability to make it.

2. Reach out. Get on-line, go to conferences if you can, make friends with other writers. And remember that old adage, to have a friend you must be a friend? Offer to read their work. Be positive as well as constructive.

3. Remember that your journey is your own. For me it was the power of three. 3 years, 3 books, 3 revisions. Every writer's road is different. But if you keep going, I believe you'll get there, wherever your "there" is. :D

Where are you on your writer's road? *offers travel snacks* And where are you headed? Wherever you are, I wish you safe travels. And I leave you with this song. It gave me heaps of inspiration, reminding me why I refused to stop. :D

"We know, we know, that we are more than this
More than we know, there's a reason we exist"

The Matches "Point Me Toward The Morning"

 Happy Monday!

*for now:)

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!