Four To HarperCollins!

Sorry for being so quiet the last ten days or so. It hasn't been easy! But the announcement is official!


Aprilynne Pike's AUTUMN WINGS, four-book series about an ordinary girl who discovers that she is a faerie sent to guard the gateway to Avalon in the mortal world, and when she is thrust into the midst of a centuries-old battle between faeries and trolls, she's torn between a mortal and a faerie love, as well as her loyalties to both worlds, to Tara Weikum at Harper Children's, in a significant deal, in a pre-empt, by Jodi Reamer at Writers House (World English).


I'm a professional author!!! I have been bouncing off the walls since I got the call that Tara was interested in my book. There have been tons of calls between Jodi and me and I even got a chance to chat with Tara. She's so excited about my series and that makes me really happy.

Janet Reid mentioned on her blog a few weeks ago (and I'm paraphrasing) that as a whole, the publishing industry moves at a glacial pace, but that individual transactions move at the speed of lightning. That was certainly the case with me. We sent the book out on October 29th. We received our first rejection less than 24 hours later from an editor who just didn't think faeries would work for the YA audience. Well, to each their own. :) Twelve days later (which seemed like an eternity to me, but was actually remarkably fast) Jodi called to let me know that Tara was interested and would be taking my book to her acquisitions meeting two days later. I was cautiously elated.:) The next day Tara called with her offer. That was surprising to me; I wasn't expecting to hear anything for two days! It was an excellent offer, as far as I was concerned, but Jodi didn't think it was excellent enough to take the book off the table. I was just thrilled to know that one way or another, my book was going to be . . . well, a book! The next day Tara called back with her pre-empt offer. Within hours, the deal was done.

It was--and still is--so strange to go from just another aspiring author, to a professional author in a matter of hours! (That and recognizing that HarperCollins basically owns me for the next five years!:)) It has been such a roller coaster the last few weeks and I'm so grateful for those of you who have held my hand through this and offered encouragement and support. A book truly is the work of a community, and I'm so glad to have all of you in mine.

Ciao!!

I Have News . . .

You know, the kind of news that you can't actually tell, but that's okay because everyone knows what it is anyway?

Yeah, that kind of news.:)

Stay tuned!!

Ciao!

NaNo

I'm going to catch up. I swear! *sigh*

Well, I'm falling behind, but I'm still managing to get something written everyday and as my husband reminded me last night, that really is more important. But I still want the little winner icon to put on my blog when this is all over.

So I am really curious about what all of you are working on. I know there's a bunch of you and I'd love to see you come out of lurk mode, at least for one comment. Here's what I want to know.

What are you working on? (Book, poem, short story, etc.)

Genre?

If it's a book, what number is it for you? (First, second, eighth, etc.)

How long have you been working on it?

Is it a stand-alone, or part of a series? If it's a series, how big of a series?

And any other little tidbits you'd like to share.:)

I'll go first, of course.:)

I am working on a novel. It is a YA fantasy (paranormal, whatever you want to call it.) It is my fifth or sixth book depending on how you count (long story.) I have been planning it for months, but started writing it on November first for NaNoWriMo. It is the sequel to the book my agent is shopping right now and the second of a four book series.

How about you?

And as a special request, if you are not a writer at all, I would like to know three of your favorite books. please list the genre with each one in case they are titles I (and my lovely readers!) don't recognize.:)

Thanks in advance for sharing!

Ciao!

Are You Sick of Your Life?

Then apparently you are in the right place. Remember about two weeks ago when someone found my blog by typing in "I am so tired of being a stay at home mom?" Well, last night someone got here by searching for "I am so tired of being in law school." What gives?!?!? :)

Anyway, my life is going great. I am almost 10,000 words into NaNo, I've joined the Word Wars for my region (and we're winning! Yea!) I got some incredibly kind words from an editor yesterday and I had a great week with losing baby weight.:) So although visitors to my blog may be sick of their lives, I'm not. I'm lovin' mine.:)

Ciao!

NaNoWriMo

For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo.org sponsors a contest of sorts where authors try to write 50,000 words (about 220 pages) in thirty days. Last year I used this time to query agents on my already-finished book, in hopes that others would be taking a break from querying to write their books.

This year I'm a participant. Yea!!

I've decided that this is as good an excuse as any to get a good jump start on the sequel to the book my agent is *cough, cough* currently shopping *cough, cough.*

Can I just repeat (again) that starting a new book always reminds me how much I love writing? Really. There's nothing like starting a new book. A whole world full of possibilities just waiting for you to bring them to life. *Deep breath* Gotta love it! My friend Stephenie told me once that you have to really love the process of writing your first draft because it carries you through the rest of the work involved in getting your book published. I'm not published yet, but I think she's right.

So anyone else doing NaNo? The website is down right now, but I'll put the link up to my profile in the next couple of days over in my sidebar. If you are doing it too, feel free to friend me.:)

Also, my blogging may be a bit sparse over the next 27 days.;)

Ciao!