REBEL ANGELS by Libba Bray

REBEL ANGELS was a book I started early on in the school year, and then it kind of sat on my desk for a while.  I didn't really get back into it until I was on vacation last week, and then it totally owned me for several days.

Bray is just awesome.  She's created this whole other world that's so vivid and gorgeous.  I love how I, as a reader, thought I had everything figured out, and then she totally surprised me at the end.  Nothing was what I thought it was.

I want to give Gemma a hug.  I want to hang with her and the gang, wear amazing gowns, and sip absynthe when no one's looking.  Just an amazing, fantastical novel.

THE SWEET FAR THING is sitting beside me on the couch.  At 700 pages, it threatens to swallow up the rest of June and beginning of July!

do you NEED a copy of SISTERS RED?

Then enter Sara's awesome contest!  She's giving away several books, including SISTERS RED, which I'm drooling over but haven't yet purchased (need to get myself to B&N).  Sara's blog is awesome and hilari-freaking-ous.  (See that?  I just tried the Mr. Big thing.  Abso-effing-lutely.  Doesn't work as well for me.)  Anyway, check it out!

beta reading

So I just finished reading a fabulous manuscript.  I mean, one that really grabbed me and didn't let go!  Not to name names, but... ahem.

And it started me thinking about the nature of beta reading.  I'm only now developing my routine.  I tend to do a first read-through and give encouraging comments.  Like that sweetheart reader thing.  So mainly the things I liked, along with any questions I had.

Then, and I don't do this for many people, I go through and give specific comments on things I think could make the manuscript stronger.  This takes a loooong time, and you want to make sure the person can handle the feedback and actually use it to improve their story.  Hence the only doing it for a select few people.

I understand how people can get too frustrated to put the feedback to use.  I've been there.  A few years ago, I had a phenomenal beta reader for DRAWN TO YOU.  Bless his heart, the guy actually printed out my manuscript and marked it up and then mailed it to me.  Tons of feedback, and not all of it complimentary.  I'm not sure why I got so overwhelmed.  Maybe it was because I had several fulls out, and I didn't like the idea of completely overhauling my manuscript and then seeing if agents would accept a revised manuscript.  Maybe it was just laziness.  But I ended up hiding from this incredibly helpful feedback.  I'm not proud of this; in fact, I'm incredibly ashamed.  And I apologize to the man who spent hours marking up my pages, all to help make my story better.

I do truly believe I've grown since then.  One of my betas for OP suggested I needed a stronger explanation for several plot points.  It required a major revision.  So I thought hard about it, came up with a solution, and did a major rewrite.  The story is all the stronger for it.  Thanks for that, Shayda!

What kind of a beta reader are you?  What do you expect from a beta reader?

apple, how I love thee...

You know what's irritating when you're a writer?  A bottom row of keys that stick.  Or refuse to produce letters altogether.  I'd be typing along and realize all my n's were missing.  And then I'd have to punch the n key 6 times to get it to work.

But then I took my computer to the Mac store.  And they were amazing.  Granted, on a Sunday afternoon, the store was packed with drooling customers hoping to play with the iPads.  But I got my issue taken care of within an hour.  A new top plate.  The best part: it was free!

My computer is a new woman.  Isn't she fancy!  She's twirling and whirling and begging for me to typetypetype a new story.

Oh, but I should be working on revisions, Cecilia (that's what she insists I call her--though sometimes she prefers Lady in White)!  Very well.  Maybe just a chapter.  Or two.

Dystopian, here I come!

enough whining... the revision process!

I might as well write about something useful.  The revision process!  For this is the third novel I've actually revised, and I might be developing a real process.  Yay for me.

Step 1.  Print out the manuscript.  This time, I had to take it to FedEx and copy it because our printer is screwed up.  When I got it home, I realized I'd printed it without page numbers.  So I had to write those in, but doing so was oddly enjoyable.

Step 2.  Make a list of plot things that need to be changed.  For instance, in UNFATHOMABLE, I need to make a character creepier, more clairvoyant.  So adding in those bits.  And there's a bit about a paddlefish I need to add.  And, halfway through the first draft, I decided one character was actually a ghost.  So have to make that mesh.  As I revise, I'll look at this checklist and make sure I incorporate all of these changes.

Step 3.  Start reading.  And slashing.  I don't have a ton of over-the-top descriptions of things or useless dialogue to slash, but I have a lot of little things.  Extra "thats" and prepositional phrases.  Though my prose is generally spare, I have to cut the bits that trip me up as I read.  And of course there are those little missed words or typos or false starts.  Slash all of those.

Step 4.  I mark all of those things on the hard copy, so in step 4 I have to go back to the Word document and change them.  This usually takes a few days.  It's so boring!  Have Buffy reruns in the background, for sure!

Step 5.  Celebration chocolate and send out to betas!

And... done!  I'm currently on step 3.  Step 3 takes a long time, slogging through it all and adding bits.  I'm about 1/4 of the way through the current ms.  Sigh.

writerly insecurities

So much for vacation.  I've been holed up in this hotel room all day, working on UNFATHOMABLE revisions and surfing blogs.  I neeeed to blog.  It's a physical urge.

I've observed something about myself in the past month.  Getting an agent was amazing, it really was.  And is.  But there's something inside me that's screaming to keep going.  It's this drive that made me write UNFATHOMABLE in a month.  I think I had to get it out to prove I didn't have just one book in me.

And, now that I'm revising UNFATHOMABLE, I've got all these other ideas swarming around... a historical, a dystopian, a contemporary.  It's just me, frantic, trying to accomplish as much as I can.  While the fire is hot, I guess.

I need to slow down.  I know that.  But I can't.  It's not me.  I write in spurts, and while the inspiration is there, I have to seize it.

gone fishin'

Quick post to say I'm taking the week off from blogging.  Lots of things to do, including reading the stack of books I've accumulated (not allowed to buy more until I finish the ones I have), editing UNFATHOMABLE, and cuddling my baby.  Oh, and seeing Toy Story 3.

Be back soon!

winner + fun stuff

Drum roll, please!

The winner of my Follower Appreciation Contest is Amanda J!  Congratulations!  Please send your e-mail address to jillewheeler (at) hotmail.com, and I'll send those books + gift card off pronto!


OTHER EXCITING NEWS

I've just finished my first draft of UNFATHOMABLE.  Yay!  I'll be spending the next week intensely revising (there are just a few things I'd like to change).  But I write pretty solid rough drafts, so I know I'll be looking for betas in about a week.  Let me know if you're interested!

my lovely afternoon

So guess where I just came from?  Barnes and Noble!  Jealous?  Well, don't be.  I was buying presents for you guys.

By the way, I went to two different locations and could not locate THE FIRST FIVE PAGES by Noah Lukeman.  I also seem to have misplaced my copy.  So instead I got a book that addresses the same issue, how to hook your reader from the very beginning: HOOKED by Les Edgerton.  I own this book, too, and it's excellent.  I know there's no chocolate in the picture, but that's partly what the B&N card is for.  I saw some excellent Godiva chocolate when I was there.

I also may have picked up some presents for me...

So I hope the winner is okay with the B&N card.  Otherwise, I'll get them an Amazon card and use the B&N card for some other things I've been eyeing:

Ha ha ha.  This post pretty much shows how terrible I am at buying gifts for other people.  One for you, one for me, one for you, one for me.

WAKE by Lisa McMann

I must make this quick before the bb wakes up!

So... I just gobbled up Lisa McMann's WAKE last night!  I'd been saving it until I had some distance from OP because people kept telling me my premise sounded like WAKE (with Sylvia's narcolepsy), but once I got into it, I was relieved that our books are nothing alike at all, plotwise.

I was drawn in from the very beginning, when we learn about Janie's mysterious power--she gets sucked into people's dreams.  The poor girl feels powerless to keep it from happening, which is basically all the time... at sleepovers, in school, riding the bus, wherever people fall asleep.  And some of the dreams are creeeeepy, which is so true to life.

Janie's love interest intrigued me.  Perhaps because I've experienced liking a boy who used to be kind of geeky but then all of a sudden turned superhot, the kind of guy all the girls want.  Cabel is a mysterious loner who prefers to hang by himself.  But once Janie gets to know him, he's incredibly sweet and protective of her.  The way they open up to each other and expose their fears and insecurities is just beautiful.

The pace of the story is excellent... kept me turning the pages past my bedtime, until I'd finished the story.  And you'd better believe I'll be checking out FADE, the next book in the trilogy.

P.S. If you haven't entered my contest (see the next newest entry), you'd better!  You have until midnight tomorrow night to win some excellent prizes, including a Barnes and Noble gift card.

Follower Appreciation Contest

Over the weekend, I hit 100 blog followers.  I thought to myself… How can I thank these lovely people for visiting my blog?  Wait a minute…  Who are these people?  And why are they visiting my blog???

Well, I figure a lot of you are aspiring authors, just like me.  So I just thought about things I like and things that help me write.     

• Chocolate.  This is the most important one, really.  But I’m not sure I want to send chocolate through the mail, so I might just add a few bucks to the next thing, and you can buy chocolate at my favorite place…
• Barnes and Noble.  The winner of my Follower Appreciation Giveaway will receive a $25 gift certificate to B&N, my favorite place to spend an afternoon.
• My favorite writing resources.  The first one is ON WRITING by Stephen King.  Seriously, I’ve read this book too many times to count.  It’s amazing.  The second is THE FIRST FIVE PAGES by Noah Lukeman.  A huuuuuge writing skill is hooking your reader right away.  This book really helps you understand how to craft a compelling start to your story.  The last book is NO PLOT? NO PROBLEM! by Chris Baty.  I’m such a huge NaNoWriMo fan, and this book will help you get that first draft down, no matter what it takes.

The contest will last until midnight CDT on Thursday night.  To enter, you must be a blog follower and comment on this post.  You get extra entries for the following:

+1 for already being a blog follower

+2 for tweeting about the contest (please include your Twitter name so I can verify)

+3 for blogging about the contest (please include URL so I can verify)

Please add up your entries and include that at the bottom of your comment.  I will announce the winner on Friday!

*Someone just asked if this contest is international.  I'm going to say yes, but the gift card will probably become an Amazon one, just in case there's not a B&N wherever you live.  And I'd probably just do the books through Amazon, then, too.  Same thing if the winner lives in the U.S. but not near a B&N.

**Aw, heck.  I'll just let the winner choose whether he/she would prefer a B&N or Amazon gift card + the books.

OMG, did you SEE this?

A bunch of YA lit. supporters are coming together to sponsor a FREE online writer's conference!  Check it out on Lisa and Laura's blog (and join their query/first chapter critique contest while you're at it)!

I'll be back soon with my own contest to benefit growing writers!  *plotting*

woohoo!

100 blog followers!

You know what that means!  Contest!  Prizes!

Stay tuned for the deets.

review of HUSH, HUSH

This one has been a long time coming. I mean, I started this book before school let out, but between finishing grades and writing up a storm, I didn't really have time to read. Okay, I didn't *make* time to read. (Though I did make time to goof around on the internet and add 600 people to my Twitter feed, apparently.)

I think I first heard of HUSH, HUSH (Becca Fitzpatrick's debut) on Lisa and Laura's blog. They share an agent with Becca, the lovely Catherine Drayton of Inkwell Management. But then I started to hear about the book everywhere. EVERYWHERE, I tell you.

And it's not hard to miss when you're walking through the bookstore. It's got the most gorgeous cover I think I've ever seen. Mmm, muscley dark angel. So I picked up the book, partially so I could just sit in the dark and stroke the cover (what???), but mostly so I could see what all the buzz was about. Well, let me tell you, the buzz is well-deserved.

Nora Grey is a smart, ambitious chick who cares about things like school and writing for her school's e-Zine. Loved her from the beginning! But then she's paired with this dark, sexy guy (Patch) in biology. Strange things start happening. And then she meets another hottie, Elliot, who transferred from a rich preppy school. More weird things happen. By the end, Nora finds herself in this epic struggle between good and evil. She has to pick the right guy, but how does she even know which one that is? If she makes the wrong choice, she could *gulp* die.

So, yeah, this book sucked me in. I had to finish the last bit at my in-laws' dinner party last night. (I know, I'm totally Miss Manners. But they're used to me with my nose always in a book.) The end was AMAZING, totally kept me turning the pages.

I'll definitely be checking out CRESCENDO.

plotter or pantser?

The question about process that writers always seem to ask each other is: Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Plotters make careful outlines and fill out character profiles. Spend a lot of time thinking about their characters' pasts and relationships with one another. How every piece fits together. It's like my friend, Jon, who refused to play World of Warcraft until he'd read the whole manual. He had to know every detail about how the game worked before he started playing.

Me? The first time I played WoW, I jumped right in, not knowing anything about talent points or how to build a strong character. I looked like an idiot. Or, more accurately, a n00b. But it was way more fun, exploring and figuring things out on my own. Same thing with writing. I splash these characters on the page, put them in crazy situations, make terrible things happen to them. And it's fun. I'm kind of a pantser... I write by the seat of my pants.

I've done the outline thing. And it works, it does. It just takes some of the magic out of the process. If I had outlined my WIP from the beginning, I would never have written one of my favorite scenes, which takes place in a fish hatchery. Yes, a fish hatchery.

I always end up going back, about halfway through the book, and outlining where I've been and where I'm going. That way I can make sure to tie up everything neatly by the end. So I guess I'm a combination plotter/pantser.

I just came across a fascinating technique that combines the best of both worlds. It's over at Cynthia Jaynes Omololu's blog (she wrote the book that just came out, DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS, about the daughter of a hoarder). I'm dying to try it.

What about you? What's your process?

100 followers

So I'm 12 away from 100 followers (um, counting me, since I accidentally followed myself one time and can't figure out how to undo it). And after seeing Karsten Knight's planned celebration for 100 followers, I'm all excited about what to do to celebrate when I hit that milestone.

What do you think? Possible options:

1) Party bus. No? You don't want to all come to Iowa to celebrate with me? We could tip cows or something. Ooooh, okay.

2) Aspiring author gift package. One lucky follower would receive a gift package including necessities such as chocolate, a Barnes and Noble gift card, and several writing books (THE FIRST FIVE PAGES by Noah Lukeman; NO PLOT, NO PROBLEM! by Chris Baty; and ON WRITING by Stephen King).

3) Query critique. You all could e-mail me your queries, and I'd post one a day. Everyone could chip in and give their feedback. I think this one sounds really fun!

Unfortunately, I'm not up to doing the "Single Ladies" dance like Karsten. I might post a video of the bb dancing to the BUFFY theme sometime, though!

Tell me your favorite option in the comments section, please!

sweetheart readers

I can't remember if I've blogged about this before or not, so forgive me if I'm being redundant. Sweetheart readers, as Stephen King calls them. So important. Someone who reads your work and tells you all the cool stuff they love while not picking apart the stuff you'll have to change later.

For me, this is my mom. This is tricky because everyone knows your mom has to love the stuff you write. In fact, after I got an agent, my mom was kind of weirded out. She said, "I know I loved the story, but it kind of makes it more real that someone else loved it, too." Thanks, Mom! Anyway, my mom isn't typical because she's a librarian and has read practically everything under the sun. So I really value her opinion when she says she likes something.

Still, whether it's your mom, your significant other, your best friend, a fellow writer, I'm a firm believer that you need a sweetheart reader. Someone who will just hug you after they've read your stuff and tell you how proud they are of you. Then you can send it to the hardcore critics and start the hard work of making your book better.

Also: I just reached the 25K/100 page point on my WIP! I'm celebrating with chocolate in the B&N cafe. And this is how much of a nerd I am: I was poking around the YA section and heard some teens talking excitedly about their favorite books. I just wanted to give them a big hug. Very much a different experience from when I hear them dropping the F bomb every other second in the halls at work.

helping out other authors

Shannon Whitney Messenger just blogged about helping other authors. It was really an eye-opener for me because I thought I was helping out authors by buying their books straight from the store and posting reviews on my blog when I got a chance. But Shannon pointed out how easy it is to cut and paste those reviews on sites like Goodreads and Amazon. She also talked about making an effort to go to signings and never buying ARCs on Amazon (which I'd also never thought about before, not that I've ever bought an ARC).

So yesterday I started a Goodreads account, and I'll be posting all my reviews on there. Friend me if you like! It's also way handy because I can mark all the books I intend to read, and that list is actually longer than my list of reviews right now! And there are other authors linked on Goodreads, so you can see what your favorite writer is reading. For instance, I love Courtney Summers, and now I can stalk her and see what she's into at the moment. Cool for me. Maybe creepy for her.

Anyway, if you're not on Goodreads, I'd strongly recommend opening an account.

distractions

Guess which show Netflix is streaming ALL the episodes of??

I'm in so much trouble. Oh, well. Meet my writing goal each day, then I get to watch. I wonder if beebee will remember the opening song? I watched all of them when I was about 6 months pregnant with her and would dance around during the credits.

summer days

Oh, how I love long, lazy summer days.

My only goal is 2,500 words per day. As long as I get that done, I'm golden. Of course, these days aren't as lazy as they used to be. I have a new appreciation for my daycare provider. It's not that easy to crank out the words when I'm also watching to make sure the beebee doesn't throw something unsavory into her mouth. And how does my DCP get my daughter to take naps? It's a total mystery. All the beebee wants to do is play, play, play. Not watch momma tap, tap, tap on the keyboard. I don't get it.

I'm nearly 2/5 of the way finished with my ghost story. It's coming together pretty well. And, although I do have an idea for a twist at the end, I'm pantsing this one. No outline for me. It's almost more enjoyable this way. I just keep thinking, "Now, what's the most unlikely thing to happen at this point? Let's do that!"

The ghosts are creeping me out, though. I suppose that's good, when I can't fall asleep because I'm thinking about the things in the shadows. And sparklers.

THE CALL

I loooooove reading stories about THE CALL, so I'll post mine, just in case you have--uh--several free hours. It's a novel in itself, just to warn you. Without further adieu:

This is a story about how fast things can change, but it is also a story about how long it might take for things to happen.

I’ve always written. I’ve got stacks of journals detailing my teenage angst. When I was in high school (circa the mid- to late-nineties), I produced my own zine called SALZA by writing the articles, physically cutting and pasting artwork, and then xeroxing the whole thing and handing it out to my friends. This may have gotten me into trouble at my Catholic high school, since I was writing articles about the hypocrisy and injustice I saw in the halls every day. A local comic book store agreed to sell my zine for $1 apiece.

In college, I took writing classes, wrote bad poetry and personal essays. Produced a zine called ESCAPE FROM DIET HELL about my struggle with an eating disorder. Submitted writing to the literary magazine. Kept journaling.

But it wasn’t until I’d been out of college and teaching a few years that I tried my first real crack at a novel. It had all the clichés, someone waking up to an alarm clock, looking in the mirror to describe herself, etc. It was a good concept, don’t get me wrong—in fact, it’s one I might like to return to someday. But it was bad. Plus, I was doing this for NaNoWriMo, and I went by the mantra of Never Delete. This resulted in many fragmented scenes that didn’t hang together quite right.

The next year, I tried NaNo again. This was the first time I wrote a novel that was actually semi-coherent: DRAWN TO YOU. Again, good concept, but there were some strong flaws, and I don’t think I chose the right POV because the writing at times seemed stilted and uninteresting. I did query this novel and ended up getting a number of requests; still, it wasn’t strong enough for anyone to take it on.

So I cooked up another story idea, wrote along with my kids during NaNo this year, and cranked out OTHER PEOPLE. I used first person present for the first time ever, and it really worked for me. It seemed comfortable, like an amazing pair of jeans that hugs you just right and works with your flaws.

A lovely literary agent gave me a huge vote of confidence when she saw some of my work on Share Your Work at the Absolute Write website. She e-mailed and asked that I query her when I was ready.

After several rounds of revisions, I felt the piece was strong enough to start querying. I am a querying maniac. Once I pop, I can’t stop. When I get a rejection, I send out ten more. But I’d chosen a poor time to query. It was right before BEA 2010. So of course most agents were busy preparing for that.

Around this time, I got the flu. But requests started coming in—the week of BEA! The day I felt the sickest, I got THREE full requests. One of them required a synopsis, which I didn’t have. So, sick as I was, I cranked out a synopsis and hoped for the best. I didn’t want to keep busy agents waiting.

A few hours after I sent one full, I got an e-mail from one of the agents. It said, “I’m really enjoying this; you’ll hear from me soon!” I was totally freaked. In a good way.

Okay, so at this point, I thought I’d better start researching what you do when an agent makes an offer of representation. I read a bunch of articles and consulted people on Absolute Write. They advised me, once the offer was made, to ask for a week to contact agents who still had my full.

The agent e-mailed me, told me what she loved about my manuscript, and asked for a good time to talk. This was it: THE CALL. We set up a time, and I arranged my baby so she had everything she could possibly need: toys, bottle, snacks. I changed her diaper. I rounded up my computer, my cell phone, some Tums. And then the agent called, and we had an awesome conversation! I really can’t express how lovely this agent is. She had great ideas for revisions and really seemed passionate about the project.

But, from my research, I knew the professional thing to do was contact the other agents and give them some time to read my manuscript. One dropped out right away. She had BEA and then Backspace and just wouldn’t have the time. Another thought the story and writing were solid, but she just didn’t fall in love with it. Still another thought the writing and plot were amazing, but it was too gritty for her; plus, she had another client with a similar premise. One agent was MIA. But another agent surprised me.

I got another CALL on the Sunday before Memorial Day, this one unplanned. I had to race upstairs, get the baby situated, and try to remember all the questions I wanted to ask. The agent, Sarah Davies, had just finished reading my manuscript and wanted to immediately speak with the person who’d written it. She asked me to tell her a little bit about myself, and she told me a little more about Greenhouse Literary Agency (which I’d already read about, but it sounded even better coming from her). She had a few ideas for revisions and said she knew exactly who she wanted to send the manuscript to.

The whole conversation, I was pretty much like, “Uh huh, uh huh” because I couldn’t think of what to say. My previous conversation with an agent had been planned; this one, not so much. But Sarah kindly suggested I take a day or two to put together some questions, and then we’d talk again. We spoke again a few days later, and she answered all my questions and was very reassuring. And somehow I just knew. I knew she was the one I wanted to usher me through this process.

It was so hard to let the other agent know. I really like her and believe she’d do a fabulous job with my book. But something about Sarah just clicked. I’m so, so excited to work with her.

Agent Announcement

In the past few days, you may have been able to tell I had some big news to share. Now that it’s official, I’m thrilled to announce:

I have an agent! **insert squee here!**

I’ve accepted an offer of representation from Sarah Davies of Greenhouse Literary Agency.

Sarah is amazing. She’s been involved with the publishing industry for more than twenty-five years, first at Collins (before it became HarperCollins). She’s worked with writers such as Judy Blume, Gary Paulsen, and Meg Cabot (um, double squee??). She was an editor for years, so her editorial feedback is invaluable, and she sells directly to both U.S. and U.K. publishing houses, as Greenhouse started in London. Greenhouse also has a sister company, the Rights People, that handles foreign rights. They pretty much do it all.

Right now I’m kind of in shock. But in a good way.

The plan is to revise and start subbing at the end of June/beginning of July. Until then, I’m hard at work on my WIP, the male POV YA ghost story. I thought of a scene last night that seriously creeped me out. I almost couldn’t get to sleep.

fitting in

I've been doing a lot of thinking about where I'd fit in. This song* is an amazing soundtrack for those thoughts. Don't worry. This will all make sense soon. I think.

*some terrible typos in lyrics

fabulous people, fabulous stories

A year or so ago, I compiled a list of my favorite success stories... or you might know them as "THE CALL" stories. Among them were the stories of Carrie Ryan and Aprilynne Pike, whose books you can find in the YA section of any Barnes and Noble. It's been amazing to watch those writers go from "THE CALL" to "THE DEAL" to being, well, author rock stars.

Since then, I've seen quite a few of my friends get "THE CALL" and even go on to make book deals. We'll see these books on the shelves soon... and you can come back and read how they started out. Of course, you could read their stories just by perusing their blogs, and I suggest you do because they are intriguing stories, but I weeded out "THE CALL" and "THE DEAL" stories for you to read when you're feeling blue, like you'll never be published and never amount to anything. I can promise you they've had days just like those. The moral of the story is--keep working, keep reading, keep bettering yourself. And you too could be on this list!

First, I want to honor a few members of our former "FAB FIVE" group:

Lisa and Laura Roecker

Getting their awesome agent, Catherine Drayton at Inkwell

The story of their book deal--LIAR SOCIETY will be out from Sourcebooks in spring 2011

Sarah Raasch

Getting her awesome agent, Kate Schafter Testerman of kt Literary

Samantha, because she rocks at life.

Next, I have to link to some of Kody Keplinger's amazing posts. I met Kody on Absolute Write a couple of years ago, and she's grown so much since then! Imagine being compared to Salinger! Insanity! So here are some of her posts about her book deal for THE DUFF, which will be released from Little, Brown this fall.

Last, but not least, I came across an amazing writer through SYW at Absolute Write. She goes by Vee (which I obviously love), and here is the story of how she landed the wonderful Ammi-Joan Paquette at Erin Murphy Literary Agency.

So congrats to some of my favorite people! I can't wait to join your ranks someday.

a loooong teaser from THE LAKE

*snip*