New Book Deal
Thrilled to be working on my 4th book with Kensington!
Writing
The Query That Worked
The book that would become SOME KIND OF MAGIC was the third MS I queried. From 54 queries, I received 15 partial or full requests, followed by an offer from Dystel and Goderich. The title of my book has been changed, and you can see how much the back cover copy retained elements of my query on the Goodreads page….
New Book Announcement!
Book world gets weird on the other side of the portal — easier and harder in some ways. Easier because you’ve got a foot in the door so you can do things like sell a book on concept alone. Harder because you’ve got your foot in the door of a very specific building so you might not sell a…
Teaser for SOME KIND OF MAGIC Audiobook
Take a listen!
CALAMITY: 2016 Pages From the Heart Contest Finalist
I’m excited to announce my novel, CALAMITY, has been selected as a finalist in the RWA Pages From the Heart contest. http://fthrw.com/2016-pfth-contest-finalists CALAMITY is a romantic comedy about unlucky Mallory, who thinks her fortune’s beginning to change after a series of disasters culminates in a proposal from a dreamy millionaire. Unfortunately, having everything she wants might cost her the one…
Revising via Scene Map Spreadsheet
One of the first things I do before revising is a bit dastardly: Map the book on a spreadsheet. If you’re a plotter, you may laugh at the necessity of doing this in reverse. But pantsers curl into fetal position at the mere thought of mapping our scenes out in any kind of organized fashion. However, fear not. You can…
The Homo Superior
Warning. This is going to get maudlin. I didn’t write about David Bowie on Monday. Not much. I shared some songs with other fans who were grieving. I posted errant comments about this video, that concert, this picture, that memory. But I didn’t write anything. I didn’t even think about writing anything. It was like being caught in a…
Blog Tour: THIEF OF LIES
I am so excited to share Brenda Drake’s Thief of Lies which is due to release on January 5. Check out the gorgeous cover and see below for more info about the book, plus an excerpt. Gia Kearns would rather fight with boys than kiss them. That is, until Arik, a leather clad hottie in the Boston Athenaeum, suddenly…
A New Title and a Contract!
My book, originally titled I WANT YOU TO WANT ME, has a new name: SOME KIND OF MAGIC. The contract arrived yesterday, and I’ve sent it back. Once it’s finalized, I’ll officially be a Kensington author!
Holy Crap! I HAVE A TWO-BOOK DEAL!!
So last Wednesday, I got an email from my agent with the subject “Offer!” that I did not even notice because she has my last WIP and I was totally waiting and hoping to hear from her about that. It didn’t occur to me to expect an offer on the book on sub, because I just never stopped to…
Query Advice Corner
This is a redundant post because if you want to learn how to write a great query: Read Query Shark. Keep reading it. Read it some more. You’re not done yet. I know you’re cheating because you wouldn’t be looking here for a quick fix if you’d really read the query shark archives. But I’ll continue on anyway. I…
Comma, Comma, Comma, Chameleon
Ah, the comma. Arch-nemesis of writers. I think I know all the rules on commas until I start writing. Then I start throwing commas around like confetti, and half of them don’t land where they belong. I’m getting better at it, but there are specific instances I always have to stop and look up.
Ten Things About My Writing
This post was inspired by the brilliant Tara Sim. This is meant to demonstrate that we writers are all weirdos, but maybe my idiosyncrasies will strike a chord with someone else. 1. I can write anywhere, anytime as long as nobody knows I’m writing. If someone in my house sneaks up behind me, I’ll switch my monitor over to…
In the beginning, there were … 250 words
I’m gonna state right up front that I hesitate to post a blog about how to write a first page. I am certainly NOT a paragon of great writing, and I make ALL the mistakes when I start a new work in progress. I have to let myself make them because words must litter the page before I can…
All About That Pitch — No Trouble #PitchSlam
We’ve all faced the problem of shoving our perfectly polished, honed, and refined novel into the misshapen box known as the pitch (or the query or the god-forsaken synopsis). It’s like trying to turn a diamond back into coal. It seems impossible, and everyone’s first attempts usually end messy and painful. After reading over one hundred pitches for Pitch…
My Favorite Songs of 2014
On various blogs across the webosphere, I’ve released my favorite songs of the year for anyone who might want to listen. This year, Ima do it over here on my shiny new writer blog. Usually, I go pretty far into Indie land, but this year’s batch veers scarily close to heavy alt/pop radio rotations, and I’m okay with that….
Schrödinger’s Cancer
For the past month, I’ve been dealing with what I dubbed “Schrödinger’s Cancer.” It’s the cancer you both have and do not have in the interim time between finding something suspicious and test results. It’s that window of time that opens with you waiting to see if that unnatural thing goes away, convinced you’re healthy. It’s nothing. It has…
The Liebster Award: 10 Question Blog Hop
Oh my God, YOU GUYS! I got some kind of an award! Woohoo! Thanks to Nikki Roberti for nominating me on her blog for something called a Liebster award. Now I’d never heard of it. So…. I checked Wikipedia and discovered: The page “Liebster award” does not exist. Cutting edge stuff right here. And if you run Liebster through…