Who the Heck Am I? An Unofficial #PitchWars Mentee Bio

Who am I?

Well, hopefully, if you're reading this, I'm your potential mentee! :) Or perhaps a fellow #PitchWars contestant.

(For those of you who are a little confused right now, I'm entering a contest called #PitchWars and will spend the next few paragraphs convincing the lovely and talented mentors why they should pick ME! For more info on this contest, please visit the amazing Brenda Drake's website HERE.)

So here goes...

WHAT I WRITE:
I write both YA and Adult romance. My #PitchWars entry is a YA Contemporary that is actually the 4th book I've written. It's a coming-of-age story about a city girl who moves to the middle of God-Only-Knows-Where the summer before her senior year of high school. She plans to hate it, but finds that sometimes love can be found in the most unlikely places. It would appeal to fans of Sarah Dessen or Stephanie Perkins.

I love YA. I love the thrill of falling in love for the first time and, of course, I love the kissing! Whether I'm writing a near future thriller or a YA contemporary, all of my books have an element of romance—that's just how I roll. I love to read the romance and I love to write the romance. 'Nuff said.

WHY YOU SHOULD PICK ME:
I am ready, willing, and able to work hard. I welcome your critiques, thoughts, changes, suggestions... I WANT IT ALL! I am in this for the long haul, and I know that it takes an incredible amount of perseverance, dedication, hard work, and patience to get to where all of you authors are today. That is my goal, and I'm willing to put in the time and effort (and blood, sweat, and tears!) to get there. Please give me the chance to prove myself! (Okay, I'll lay off the begging for now...) :)

WHAT I OFFER:
I like to think that I'm a very friendly, positive person. I love to laugh and I love to have fun, but I also know when to buckle down and get serious. I'm a hard worker. I'd love a mentor that I connect with as a person because it would be awesome to walk away from this with not only a perfectly polished manuscript (and maybe an offer of rep!), but a new friend as well.

MORE STUFF ABOUT ME:
I live in the middle-of-nowhere North Carolina with my husband and five sweet, fun, and wonderfully noisy little boys. Like many writers, I began writing as a child and wrote my first "book" in fifth grade. Time lapsed and in high school I became involved in things like cheerleading, show choir (think Glee but with dorkier outfits), soccer, boys... You catch my drift? Writing took a back burner.

Fast forward a decade. As a mom of young children, stories began to fill my mind (especially after I read the Twilight series. What can I say? Stephenie Meyer is my idol.) So, I started writing again. And now, here I am with four novels under my belt, begging you to PICK ME! Yup, I'm not ashamed to beg...or offer chocolates!

OTHER STUFF:

FAVORITE BOOKS:
Well, obviously, this list is endless, but I have read some books recently that I LOVED.

—THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE by Jandy Nelson
—ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS by Stephanie Perkins
—DEFY by Sara Larson
—WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart
—FRACTURE by Megan Miranda
—THE SELECTION SERIES by Kiera Cass


FAVORITE TV SHOWS:

—Vampire Diaries (I can't get enough of this show. Puh-lease tell me there are more coming out!)
—White Collar (This one is a little obscure, but Matt Bomer who plays the main character Neal Caffrey is a hottie!)
—Castle (Nathan Fillion fan, anyone?)
—Drop Dead Diva (If you've never watched this one, you must! Find it on Netflix and watch ALL the seasons. Back to back. One right after the other. All day long. You won't be able to stop, trust me!)
—Modern Family (Like I said, I love to laugh!)
—Downton Abbey (In another life, I was born with a British accent and lived in a castle, so this one is fitting!)

MORE OTHER STUFF:

I love sushi, overdosing on chocolate, all things girly and sparkly, and beating my kids at Just Dance. If you looked in my closet, you'd notice that I have a major scarf fetish. I also love a little adventure, and I'm slowly knocking things off my bucket list, like this:

Ziplining through the Guatemalan jungle
(The handsome guy next to me is my
hubs. Sorry, he's taken!) :)

Just look at that form! :)

And this:

Parasailing over Gulf of Mexico—that's how small the boat
looks from where we are in the sky. And yep, the only
thing tethering us to the boat is that little cable.

And, of course, this:

Snowmobiling & snowboarding in Utah

Oh, and can't forget this:

Completing my first Triathlon (Man, I look
rough! And rightly so...) :) 

I'd like to forget this:

Eating escargot—gotta say, I'm not a huge fan!

And this isn't so much adventurous as just plain fun:

Braving the SCBWI conference and making
some great friends.

 And my greatest hit so far:

Being a mom to 5 bouncing boys!

Does that make me a *Superstar*? :)

So, if you think I'd be a good mentee, I guess there's really only one thing left to say...

Thanks so much for stopping by! :)

Cover Reveal: Piper Morgan Joins the Circus by Stephanie Faris

I'm super excited to be able to help reveal the cover of my dear friend Stephanie Faris' latest book, PIPER MORGAN JOINS THE CIRCUS. A huge congrats to Stephanie!! Isn't the cover just the cutest?

Piper Morgan Joins the Circus

Stephanie Faris

Cover illustration by Lucy Fleming.

Blurb:

When Piper Morgan has to move to a new town, she is sad to leave behind her friends, but excited for a new adventure. She is determined to have fun, be brave and find new friends.
And after learning her mom’s new job will be with the Big Top Circus, Piper can’t wait to learn all about life under the big top, see all the cool animals, and meet the Little Explorers, the other kids who travel with the show. She’s even more excited to learn that she gets to be a part of the Little Explorers and help them end each show with a routine to get the audience on their feet and dancing along!

But during Piper’s grand debut, her high kicks and pointed toes don't go quite as planned. After causing a dance disaster, she has to prove to everyone--especially queen of the Little Explorers, Lexie--that she belongs in the spotlight. 

Stephanie Faris:

Bio:

Stephanie Faris knew she wanted to be an author from a very young age. In fact, her mother often told her to stop reading so much and go outside and play with the other kids. After graduating from Middle Tennessee State University with a Bachelor of Science in broadcast journalism, she somehow found herself working in information technology. But she never stopped writing.


Stephanie is the Simon & Schuster author of 30 Days of No Gossip and 25 Roses, as well as the upcoming Piper Morgan series. When she isn’t crafting fiction, she writes for a variety of online websites on the topics of business, technology, and her favorite subject of all—fashion. She lives in Nashville with her husband, a sales executive. 

Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

I'm a sucker for circus themes! And the premise is fantastic—don't you think? Congrats again, Stephanie!

IWSG August: Doing Fine

Hello friends and fellow IWSGers!

As always, a big thank you to the amazing Alex Cavanaugh for bringing about this wonderful support group! And thanks to our hosts for the month!

This post will be a little different today. I'm on vacation on the beautiful Maine coast and I've put aside anything writing or querying or publishing related for the week. So, with that in mind, I guess you could say that I'm doing just fine.

Sure, I've received some query rejections, but I'm still hopeful.

And I'm super excited for Pitch Wars coming up in a couple of weeks. I'm really, really hoping that there will be a mentor who falls in love with my MS and wants to pick mine to work with. Keeping my fingers crossed!

So, that's it for me. How are you doing this month?