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! :)

IWSG July: Final Four

Hi everyone! I can't believe it's already July—where is the summer going? Before I know it, my kids will be back in school and I'm seriously dreading that! I'm loving the no-schedule thing!

Well, since it's the first of July, it's time for another group posting of the IWSG! It's a time for writers to air our insecurities or triumphs and offer support and encouragement to other writers. As always, a big thank you to Alex Cavanaugh for starting this awesome group! And thank you to the co-hosts for today: Charity Bradford, S.A. Larsen, AJ, Tamara Narayan, Allison Gammons, and Tanya Miranda!

I'm not feeling insecure this month, instead, I kind of feel like I'm floating on Cloud 9! The past month has been a really good ego-boost for me. And hopefully this feeling will carry on as I begin to query my YA Contemporary MIDDLE OF KNOWHERE.

As many of you already know, a few weeks ago I was chosen to be on one of the teams for Query Kombat. And thus began my amazing ride! After weeks of "battles" against other Kombatants and after beating out four of my opponents, I made it to the Final Four round. Now, can I just say that I never in my wildest dreams would have thought I'd make it that far! In fact, over this past year as I've queried a different manuscript and entered contests with it, I didn't get anywhere in those contests. Making it into the Final Four is seriously like a dream—or an answer to a prayer.

Anyhoo, I got knocked out in the Final Four round BUT I was finally able to see my agent requests from the Agent Round. And the total number of requests I received is...Seven!

I'm super excited, especially because I haven't even started querying KNOWHERE yet. But, as always, I don't want to get my hopes up. But one thing is certain, being in Query Kombat has given me the confidence I need to keep going at this trying-to-get-an-agent thing. I can do this. It may take months, it may take years, but at least I know I'm in it for the long haul.

Thanks, as always, for all of your support! I am always amazed by how wonderful writers are, especially when it comes to cheering on fellow writers.

Happy Wednesday!