September IWSG—Moving On

Hello, IWSG peeps. It's that time again. Time for another group posting of the IWSG. Hosted by the amazing Alex Cavanaugh, the IWSG is where we post our insecurities, doubts, triumphs, and offer encouragement and support to others. To join this group, go HERE. And as always, a big thank you to the co-hosts for this month!

Well, y'all, I'm feeling pretty insecure at the moment. Last night, the Pitch Wars picks were released, and needless to say, I was not chosen. So, instead of feeling like this today:

I feel more like this:

No, I haven't cried or anything, but I am disappointed. I'm getting so used to rejection that I kind of expect it. 

BUT, I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Last night, as I was in the midst of finding out I didn't make it into Pitch Wars, I received an email from my dream agent. She was full of compliments for the story and suggestions of how I could make it better. So, with her suggestions in mind, I'm going to do a R&R, which I'm super nervous and excited about.

I want to thank all of you for your kind words on my Pitch Wars mentee bio (if you didn't read it, you can find it HERE). Thank you for cheering me on, for supporting me, and for helping me see that I'm not alone in this.

Writing can sometimes feel like a solitary endeavor, but it's really not. As writers, we need each other. We will fall and we will fail, but it's a community like this that will help pick you back up. So, thank you.

And lastly, I'm sorry I've been MIA lately when it comes to blogging. Summertime was crazy with all the kids home, and I finally feel like my life is getting back to normal. I hope to visit all of you who regularly visit me very soon! I've missed all of you! And I've missed reading about everything that's going on in your lives.

Happy Wednesday! (Now, it's time for me to eat my way through a vat of chocolate.)

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?

The House That I Built

There's a house being built across the street from us. So far, all they've done is clear the wooded land so there's a nice flat spot to build the house.

The other day, I was thinking about how this cleared land is like our writing. We all start out with cleared land, or a blank sheet of paper, rather. But line by line, brick by brick, we build our "house."

Some of our homes are simple. The materials we use to build them aren't very fancy. No elaborate detailing or expensive framework, but it is a home and it serves its purpose. Just like in writing, some writing is simple in nature, straightforward, not flowery or full of descriptive language. And there's nothing wrong with that, because there are many types of homes just like there are many types of writing styles that translate into many different kinds of books.

Other homes are massive, with rounded archways and drive-through porte-cochère's. And while they are beautiful to look at (and money aside), if it's not your style, then it won't be the right house for you. Same goes with writing. If you aren't a literary writer, don't force it just to try to fit in with a trend. Write what you want to write. If it's simple but full of heart, there's an audience for you out there.

But lastly, don't skimp on your materials. Whether you're building a simple house or an elaborate house, it's all in the materials. As writers, we have so many resources available to us. We have beta readers and critique partners (have I told you lately how much I love my beta readers and CP's?); we also have books that lay out the do's and don'ts of writing; we have writing conferences to attend and writing blogs to read.

Picture info

And if that's not enough, you also have the most important thing—YOU.

When you're building your house, you know what works and what doesn't. You know what will make you happy and what won't. Get other opinions, but don't forget to rely on the most important thing. Your own creativity.

What kind of house have you built?

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!

I Choose Beautiful

How many of you are familiar with the Dove Choose Beautiful Campaign?

This YouTube video was recently brought to my attention, and if you haven't seen it, you need to. As women, we sometimes devalue our beauty. As women, we tend to think of ourselves as "average" or "mediocre" or nothing "special." But the truth is, we are ALL special. We ALL have something to offer. We are all beautiful.

Yet, in the video, time after time, many women chose the "Average" door. Why? Because they didn't think they could call themselves beautiful? Or they didn't want to be judged off of other's perceptions? How often do we maybe "feel" beautiful but then think that others wouldn't label us as such?

                             

And why is that? Is it because there is a preconceived notion of what makes someone beautiful? Full lips, flawless skin, size 2 body? 

Of course not. Women are beautiful based on who they are, not how they look. Throughout history, women have made a difference. Women have spoken out for what they believe. Take Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who stood up for education and was shot in the face by a member of the Taliban. One side of her face may now be disfigured, but she is BEAUTIFUL!  She is embracing the fact that she may never look the same, but she knows that her words are more important than her physical features. Her words can change the world, more so than her looks every could.

I recently read this book for book club and it was inspiring. As women, there are so many things we can do to make a difference. Sometimes even the smallest thing can help change the world. And that, my friends, is where our beauty lies. Not in the structure of our face or the shape of our bodies, but in the size of our hearts. 

So, the question is....

Which door would you choose?

On a side note, I made it to Round 3 of Query Kombat with my entry Life Sucks—I'm Stuck in Podunk. It started out as 64 Kombatants and we are now down to 16 of us which means only 8 match-ups left. The next round begins Monday! Wish me luck!