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Monday, June 27, 2011

LUMINOUS!!


Today is the day I interview the fabulous Dawn Metcalf over on the Apocalypsies blog!

Her debut novel LUMINOUS is out June 30th!


And just because I think she's super cool, here is another link where she was featured as a Summer Beach Read on Seventeen.com!

YAY DAWN!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Halfway

As of last night I have reached the halfway point on my edits!

Now this may not seem like a big deal. Halfway means I'm not done, I'm halfway done.
But to me — the person who starts back at the beginning at least a zillion times before I move on — halfway means things are going to be moving a lot faster from here on out.

In all fairness I never would have reached this point without inspiration.
So. Here's some music that has gotten me through the sluggish beginning. And just in case you were wondering, you should definitely check them out.

Bon Iver

Their newest album is self titled. And it rocks!! Not in a "rock" kind of way, more like you could close your eyes and listen to it for hours while you create worlds inside your head. Go check it out!




Cloud Cult

I have been a bit obsessed with their album, Light Chasers. In fact one of the songs would work great for my book trailer...






Death Cab For Cutie

I've always been a fan. Their newest album, Codes and Keys, has one of my favorite songs so far, Monday Morning.

YAY music!!

And if you have some inspirational songs of your own feel free to share them!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Winner!


Thanks to all who entered and keep checking back in for more FREE BOOKS!

So today's winner is:

Thisbe!!

YAY!! You have won yourself an ARC of The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater!

Let us know what you think once you've read it!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Last Day!


Today is the last day you can enter to win The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater.

All you have to do is add up the following:

Comment +1 entry

New Blog Follower + 1 / Old Blog Follower + 2


Tweet about contest + 2 (please tell me your twitter name or leave a link)

Blog about contest + 3 (Please leave the link in the comments)

I'm sure you all know Maggie from her Shiver series
in fact in my next contest I will be giving away the third book in that series, Forever.


Yay books!


I also wanted to share the news that I've joined Brave New Words, a new blog of YA sci-fi authors debuting in 2012!

Come check us out! We will be sharing our agent stories and "the call" stories as well featuring awesome giveaways and such.

So please spread the word!

Friday, June 17, 2011

The Truth About Editing

Now that the June birthdays have come and gone it's time to get to work.

And editing isn't easy. I have to say, I didn't expect it to be this difficult.
When I first got my letter I read through it, printed it out and then set it aside for a week or two.
I wasn't exactly ignoring it, but I just needed some space, you know, to work out a few issues and figure some things out.
The one thing I've learned from the whole revision process is that the easy fix is rarely the best fix.
As much as I'd love to just throw in a word or a sentence and say, "there, all better," it doesn't exactly work that way.
And that's why I needed some time to think.
I have a feeling this book is going to be much different than when I started. And that's a good thing.
The other thing I've learned through this process is that this is no longer just my story.
I now have an amazing editor who talks with me and brainstorms with me and encourages me to get it just right.
And that's new. Writing tends to be a rather solitary adventure.

Yay teamwork!

And the other thing that's new is that while I was working this little thought crawled up inside my mind and just sat there waiting for me to notice it.

This story is no longer just for you. Other people are going to read it soon.

At first I just ignored this thought. Isn't this what I always wanted?
Yes. Of course it is. And then it hit me, because obviously it didn't fully sink in when I got the call or signed the contract. Nope. I had to sit down and rewrite a scene for me to believe, for all of it to feel real.
My book is going to be published. My book. My words.

And soon.

So now that I have that going on, here's to rewrites and fixes and long nights of editing.

And lots and lots of chocolate.


Don't forget to enter the contest! Monday is the last day to enter!!

Monday, June 13, 2011

First Contest EVER!

Now that I have some super cool ARCs to hand out it's time to play, WIN THAT BOOK!!

And since I've never done a contest here on this blog it's going to be fun for both of us! Just wait. You'll see!

Today's prize is:

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

All you have to do is add up the following:

Comment +1 entry

New Blog Follower + 1 / Old Blog Follower + 2


Tweet about contest + 2 (please tell me your twitter name or leave a link)

Blog about contest + 3 (Please leave the link in the comments)

Help me spread the word about my blog and you get a prize! See how it works?

FUN FUN FUN!

The contest will end on June 20th and I will post the winner the next day.

Yay books!

Monday, June 6, 2011

Birthdays, BEA and Bears

Well hello there!
I know. It has been a while, but I mostly blame Blogger and perhaps the book I'm editing.



Today is kid #1's birthday! YEAH BIRTHDAYS! She now gets to hold up one of her hands, splay out her fingers and say, "I am FIVE!" And then her brother yells "FIVE!" When really he'll be "TWO!" next Wednesday.

Yes. June is a busy month.

But I'm going to do my best with the whole blogging thing. I've already warned you that if you see a post pop up and the screen is filled with random letters like, hhhhhhheeeeeeeellllllllpppppppmmmmmmeeeeee you know I either fell asleep on my computer because of late night editing or I've completely lost my mind because of late night editing.

And did I mention that editing is fun? Did I?

Okay. So a week or so ago (blogger hates me) I traveled into the rather large NYC to attend one extremely overwhelming day of BEA. BEA!! YEAH!
And it was such an amazing day. I got lots of books and met lots of people and got lots of books.
Oh, the books. Sigh.
And I got to hang out at the Chronicle booth and I took photos, I DID! But because the light in the Javitz Center is horrible and the Chronicle booth was bright and happy and beautiful the camera on my iPhone screamed when I aimed it at the booth and did not do its best taking photos.
Don't blame me, I'm a photographer remember? I'm a professional. I never take bad photos.
Anyway. I did get this one.





And looking back I wish I had grabbed more books because now that it's over I keep hearing about books that were at BEA that I didn't know were going to be there like, Lola And The Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins and Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale.




OH! The frustration!

But I did get some other fabulous books. Wanna see?








And, no, I'm not reading them. Cause that would be bad.

Editing + Reading New Books = Chaos!

But I will pop back on here and give some away soon! Stay tuned!