Happy Thanksgiving!

On Life

A few things I am grateful for, in no particular order:

1) My family, especially my ten-year-old son, who gets excited about publishing stuff even when he doesn’t understand it and who regularly gives me pep talks without even realizing it.

2)The chance to immerse myself in stories and to be able to share them with other people. Basically, the wonder of writing.

3) The break I have given myself from writing for the last two weeks. Basically, the wonder of not writing. Continue reading Happy Thanksgiving! →

Around the Internet

Sword and Verse

Advance Reading Copies of Sword and Verse are out in the world now, and bloggers are responding!

Barb at A Book and Hug: “Wondrously meticulous world-building makes the setting a vital character in its own right as the romance builds, the tension spirals upward and the deep threads of self-discovery and our own potential for greatness explode.” Read the full review.

Queen of the Bookshelves: “Very rarely does a book of this caliber fall into one’s hands.” Read the full review and see a neat image collage inspired by the book.

Alyssa at The Eater of Books: “I was LOVING the romance, despite how different it was compared to most romances in YA. I was half in agony, half completely intrigued, and not at all sure how things would end.”- 5 Reasons You Should Read Sword and Verse

 

 

 

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of attending KidLitCon, right here in my hometown of Baltimore, and presenting a session on “Connecting with Debut Authors” with Alyssa Susanna of The Eater of Books! blog.  I wanted to give attendees a sense of the particular neurosis that is being a debut author, and that means making one thing crystal clear: the waiting.

Oh, the waiting.

To that end, I polled my fellow Sweet Sixteens, and eleven authors graciously agreed to anonymously share the timelines of major developments in the publication of their debut novels.  You can find the entire PowerPoint linked at this post at Alyssa’s blog, but here are some of the averages from our completely unscientific sampling that might surprise you:

waiting game

The moral is: if you wanted to be a published author, be prepared to do a lot of waiting.

News and Excitement

News, Sword and Verse, Young Adult Fantasy

Lots of exciting things are happening for Sword and Verse!  A couple of them:

1) Positive early reader response in the UK has led to the decision to put the book out in hardcover in the UK market,  rather than waiting for paperback.

2) Just found out a few days ago that Sword and Verse will be released on audio!  As someone who is concerned with accessibility,  and as a lover of audiobooks, I am tickled pink!

Actual footage of me right now:

image

Sword and Verse Pronunciation Guide

Sword and Verse, Young Adult Fantasy

Four months from tomorrow, Sword and Verse will be published!  To celebrate, I have posted a pronunciation guide showing how to say to the names of the gods, characters, places, and story-specific words in the book.  This is something that several early readers have asked for, so I hope others will find it interesting too!  (And there are a few extra details in this guide that you won’t find in the book too!)