Biggest Week EVAH

I take a break from this:

Copyedits...I OWN you. (Well, I'll at least finish you.:D)

to bring you epic snack-cake, music, and interview goodness. Here's what's happening this week:

NIL!!!!!!!

I'm over at One Four Kid Lit talking about NIL and sharing how NIL was conceived.:) (And did I mention I got my copyedits on Monday, had a fantastic chat with my amazing editor on Wednesday, and am shipping these goodies back by Monday? Yeah. BRING IT.:D Sleep is SO over-rated.:D)

Music love and free tunes:

Over at All The Write Notes, I shared the awesomeness of AWOLNATION and Blondfire live. As y'all may know, I'm a huge Blondfire fan. Hop over if you missed the post because you've still got time to enter the Discover Blondfire giveaway and win $10 in free iTunes.:)

#TakeMyTwinkie contest:

So yesterday I posted my Cupid's Arrow on The YA Valentines blog, where I waxed poetic about the death of the beloved Twinkie (and also shared my newfound knowledge of the Twinkie Deconstructed, which may have been an over-share). :)

Anyway! I'd ordered a Twinkie in advance of my post--and my Twinkie never came. Now I know I don't want to can't selfishly keep this snack-cake goodness to myself.  So the #TakeMyTwinkie contest was born.

Follow my #TwinkieTrack tweets on Twitter as I track my Twinkie, and when it arrives, I'll tweet #TakeMyTwinkie. Be the first to reply with the hashtag #TakeMyTwinkie and it's yours! But the best part? You'll also win a copy of one of my favorite YA releases with a MAC with hair the color of the iconic golden sponge cake.:)

Ok, the rest of my week has been insane with family stuff. Now back to copyedits.:)

Happy weekend and good luck!:)

They're hereeeeeeee! Copyedits.:)

So on Monday, this package appeared on my doorstep:

*stares at...the light...* :)

Inside the golden envelope? My NIL copyedits. 

Ok, so there they sat, on my dining room table, until I could get two of my four boys into bed. I  knew that if I opened THE PACKAGE, my mind would be spinning, and there would be NO WAY I could focus on GO DOG GO and other important nightly reading. So my NIL copyedits waited, until approximately 9.00 pm. 

Then this happened:

I cracked open the edits...

And I read them ALL.

The next morning, the table looked like this:

DONE. (Reading, that is.)

See the notebook to this right? Yup, FULL of NIL notes and copyedit questions.*

Yesterday was packed with family matters with my boys, so my copyedits sat waiting. But today? 

I feel like this:

That's what I'm talking about...

Thanks to Jay C. Spencer for this last pic. So now, bring it on, copyedits!

*Music on my iPod while reading copyedits? Blondfire and Lana Del Ray

NIL is on Goodreads! And other book stuff.:)

Happy April everyone!

NIL is on Goodreads! Woohoo! I've been a Goodreads member for a while, first as a reader, now as an author. And the idea of someone adding NIL to their "to-read" shelf? It makes my day. Truly. I can't wait for people to meet Charley and Thad...and find out whether they make it off the island. *tease alert* hehe

Here is the link to NIL on Goodreads if you're interested. :)

Other book stuff... reads & recs, young-adult style.

Here's what I'm reading right now:

I really enjoyed Book #1 (THE NAME OF THE STAR) so I've been looking forward to this book for some time. I've got high hopes...

And my recent read I can't stop thinking about?

I LOVED this book. TOTALLY LOVED IT.

I know a book is going to stay one of my all-time favorites when I keep going back to the story...when I keep thinking about the characters and their growth and their choices--and how each choice impacted the plot. Gayle Forman is a master, and JUST ONE DAY is absolutely one of my favorite reads of 2013. If you haven't read it, run to your local bookstore and scoop it up. You won't be disappointed.:)

Other recent reads I loved too: Kasie West's PIVOT POINT, A. G. Howard's' SPLINTERED, and Jennifer Nielsen's THE FALSE PRINCE.

Next on my TBR list:

The cover alone is amazing.

If you had one book to recommend I read next, what would it be? And what's your favorite read of 2013 so far?

Friday Five

I haven't blogged in what feels like FOREVER. At least not here.:)

But yesterday over at All The Write Notes I talked about pacing, and how to know when you've hit the sweet spot in your novel.:) Thanks go to the a capella group Walk Off The Earth for the inspiration!

Anyway, I realized I hadn't posted in almost a month, because I've been super busy. So here's a quick Friday Five explaining what's happening with me, and with NIL . . .

5. Craft.

Yesterday I blogged about pacing perfection. Go here if you have a minute. Or 4 minutes...:)

4. Beta-reading.

I've been blessed to read for some amazing YA writers, who are all as sweet as they are talented. You're in for a treat from Becky Wallace, Trisha Leaver, and Lindsay Currie. I've read manuscripts from all three lovelies in the past few weeks, and all were exceptional.:) Way to go girls! *fist bump*

3. Chasing boys.

Mine, in particular.:) Lacrosse, soccer, golf, tennis, and swimming all spread among the four. Lately my writing time has felt pinched, which I hope to remedy soon!

2. NIL

My big edits are done! Woot! I'm not sure of the process, but I think copy edits or line edits are next. :) I bit the bullet and took the dreaded author photo yesterday. I don't know why, but photo shoots are always so intimidating. But it's done...new pic soon! And coming soon to the blog will be a NIL playlist...pics that inspired NIL...and more.:)

1. Music.

This weekend I'm going to see AWOLNATION with my sweet husband. Blondfire and Mother Mother are opening, and I CAN'T WAIT. I listened to AWOLNATION when I was revising NIL, especially the opening scenes from Thad's POV. And I discovered Blondfire during the same time. Their song "waves" is one of my absolute faves. I'm a huge fan, and since I found them when I was still fully involved in the NIL world, I think Blondfire will always remind me of NIL. :)

Here's my favorite Blondfire song right now....

Where The Kids Are

Blondfire

So what's your weekend plans? And what have you been up to lately? :)

Monday Madness

Hi everyone! Happy President's Day!

My boys are home from school, it's cold out (well, cold for us here in Jacksonville. It's 32 degrees outside and the frost has made our grass crunchy.:D) and with clear skies, I can feel it's going to be a great day.

A quick post today, about tunes and Valentines and NIL and my morning epiphany.:)

Top five things on my mind this morning:

5. My first post over at All The Write Notes. I blogged about fresh new artist finds, featuring a British singer-songwriter Hannah Trigwell. I LOVE HER. Go check out the post. It's worth it, I promise, just to hear her voice.

4. Tomorrow is my first post over the The Valentines! I'm interviewing the awesome Anita Grace Howard, the authored of the epically cool novel, SPLINTERED. There will be goodness and giveaways, because Anita is that amazing.

3. I am freezing.

Which leads me to the revelation that...

2. I am a wimp. I should go running yet I can't bring myself to go out when it's still under 40 degrees, which is ridiculous.:)

1. NIL. I woke up thinking about it's cover. Or what it's cover might look like. I've had a million different ideas, and I can't wait to see what Henry Holt does with it, because they are AWESOME with covers.

I don't know when the cover reveal will be, but I'll let you know as soon as I do. :) In the meantime, I'm, going to start sharing my NIL playlist soon. Some songs are for Thad, and some are for Charley. And the songs, like the two characters, are very different, but hopefully equally awesome.:)

Happy day! What's on your mind today?

A Sweet Treat

Tomorrow is going to be full of AWESOME.

Why, you ask?

I know what you're thinking... It's Valentine's Day, the same day flowers inexplicably shoot up to 10x their usual price, chocolate is guzzled like water and people are suddenly overcome by the desire to write sappy haikus.

All true. (And I have homemade hearts and goofy stuff all over my house to prove it, which I totally love.:D) But the main reason I'm stoked for tomorrow is that The Valentines blog goes live!

Woohoo! It's a sweet site to find cool YA books debuting in 2014.  Fourteen cool YA authors Valentines with books dropping in 2014. You can find out their sweetest/goofiest/most memorable Valentine's Day memory, and enter to win heaps of our very favorite YA books.

Pop on over today if you have a minute. But definitely pop over tomorrow and in the days to come. We'll be talking books, interviewing authors and agents, engaging in shenanigans and possibly definitely embarrassing ourselves. :)

And it will be AWESOME.

So happy almost February 14th! And get ready to share the YA book love...

Friday Five Linkapalooza!

Happy Friday, y'all!

For today's Friday Five, I'm doing a quick blog-post-shout-out to my faves of the week.

5. On craft.

Killer post on how to add tension during revisions by talented (and sweet!) author Janice Hardy. This post is so awesome that I'm bookmarking it.

4. On books.

More interview goodness about YA debuts dropping in 2013 and more 2014 MG/YA book love to come! If you haven't checked out One Four Kid Lit yet, it's definitely worth a visit.

3. On music.

Who says music isn't educational?! A fun post by the cool music writer Jennifer Carney. On a related note, the All The Write Notes blog is up and running, and you still have time to enter and win a CD by The Rural Alberta Advantage. So pop over and enter; you've got time. :)

2. Just because it's hysterical and I don't want you to miss it. :)

Ok, so this post by the hilarious Tracey Neithercott had been up for a few weeks, but thanks to living in a cave full of NIL edits and tortilla chips, I didn't discover it until this week. :) And oh my land, IT'S HYSTERICAL. Tracey tells a story in YA book covers, and it's classic. YOU HAVE TO READ IT. And as a bonus, you might even discover a book to add to your TBR list. Tracey, you rock.

1. In which I leave Number One up to you.:)

Do you have a favorite post of the week? Let me know what I missed.:)

Until then, here's my favorite track of the week:

Mother Mother's Simply Simple. Enjoy! :)