A couple of weeks ago I mentioned pulling out my plot grid when I was revising a manuscript and promised to talk more about that later. Now that NaNo is finished and many of you have a very rough draft in place, it's key to pull out or create a plot grid.Why have a...
I have been excited to review for you SANCTUM by Sarah Fine. Honestly, I wasn't sure how Fine would deal with the issue of suicide, which is ultimately what this book was about. But she creates characters and a world that are both intriguing and so real that I was...
Last night my friends, Larissa, Tara, Liz and I headed to downtown Orlando to attend Jessica Souders' book launch for RENEGADE. Jess had her launch in a cool, high-rise, open-spaced office area. This was one of the locations that inspired the setting for...
So you’ve written the story of your dreams. You’ve stamped your soul’s signature onto it. With all your heart, you believe it’s publishable, unique and marketable. It just has one itsy problem. It’s a big fat mess. Yep. That’s me with my latest WIP. It’s a new series...
I've been tagged by Justina Ireland, author of upcoming VENGEANCE BOUND, and Tara Gallina.I'm supposed to answer all kinds of questions about the book I'm working on. I'm actually working on two other projects, one a sequel to GILDED, and another is a dystopic...
The other day, I was sitting on the sidelines watching my son's soccer practice. On the field behind me a football coach was yelling at his players, saying, "If you're not sweating, you're not working hard enough!"My first thought was, “Man, I’m glad you’re not my...
Over at the MiGs, I wrote a post called After the Book Deal- The First 3 Months, which will end up being a series on things you can do after you get your book deal. The whole process can be daunting and you might wonder, where do I begin? Hopefully this series, After...
Every day we as writers face fears. Fear of rejection, fear of reviews, fear you'll never land an agent or editor, fear that your next book won't sell, fear your agent or editor won't approve those edits. The list is endless. But the only way to overcome those fears...
This weekend has been overwhelming. I've been blown away by the well-wishes on Facebook and Twitter, the emails and blog posts. It's moments like these that all the years of late-night writing, tears over rejections and fighting self-doubt become worth it. I'm so...
Finally, finally I can scream from my rooftop that I've got a book deal! I've been keeping this little secret for a hundred years now. (Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration).I am so pleased to announce that my young adult paranormal, GILDED, sold to Amazon...