THIEF'S CUNNING Cover Reveal!

TODAY'S THE DAY!

Head on over to YA Books Central to take a gander at the THIEF'S CUNNING amazing cover and to enter for a chance to win a hardcover of ASSASSIN'S HEART!

CLICK HERE FOR THE AWESOME!

 

In Which I'm Excited For December (And Star Wars!)

I'm really having a hard time realizing that the year is only a few weeks away from being over.
Like, really? REALLY?

But, also, you know what happens before then?

Frickin star wars.

STAR WARS!



(he just looks so terrified about the shit that's about to go down)
It is going to be awesome. I feel it in my gut. Though I'm slightly worried about what may happen to Han Solo. I mean, especially if you want to compare its possible arc to episode IV. Is all I'm saying.
But I guess we'll find out in a few weeks (eeee!) Of course I don't get to see it until Sunday the 20th, so hopefully people will avoid posting spoilers for a week or so.

I cannot express how I excited I am.

I think the only think I'm more excited for (and, really, I'm so excited for both of these that it's really hard to tell what I'm more excited for) might be Captain America Civil War, but that doesn't come out until May, so I have some time before then.

 

(I mean, LOOK AT THIS!!!)

How about you? What are you looking forward to over the next few months (holidays notwithstanding)

In Which I Guest Post

This is a little late, just because it posted while I was on my blogging hiatus to finish my draft of Book 2, but nonetheless, I was a guest blogger over on ReadWriteLove28 talking about one of my favorite topics, how to use Pinterest as a writer.

So, maybe stop by and check it out!

How was your Thanksgiving? I hope it was awesome.

Also, I cannot believe today is the last day of November. Where did the month (nay, the year!) go?

Also, though, Wednesday marks the 60 day countdown until ASSASSIN'S HEART is officially out in the world.

EEEEEE!

 

In Which MY COVER IS REVEALED!!!!

Today is the day! THE DAY!

THE DAY OF COVER REVEAL FOR ASSASSIN'S HEART!!!

But, as I mentioned yesterday, it is not here, here, but instead at the awesome, wonderful Epic Reads Blog!

So please, click that little button and head on over to see my cover! Because I love it and I hope you will too.

CLICK HERE!!

you know you want to

In Which I'm On Hiatus

Hey pals!

I'm deep into some deadlines, which means no posts this week.

And next week I'm on a much needed staycation to do fun things like fix my house, which means no posts next week either.

Have a great couple of weeks and I'll see you on the flip side!

 

In Which I'm At AWP This Week

Hey pals!

I'll be at AWP for most of this week, which means no real blog posts (outside of this one) just because I won't be around to check it and stuff.

I'm super excited for AWP, but also already overwhelmed just because it's SO BIG. We're talking like 10 panels every hour for three days big. I don't even know how I'll go about picking what I want to see.

Anyway, I hope you have a great week!

In Which I Have My MFA Residency

Hey, blog pals.

I'm at my MFA Residency this week, so no blog posts for me. Have a great week!

 

In Which It's The Holidays

I'll be taking the rest of the week off from blogging because of the holidays.

Have a great week, friends!

 

In Which 2014 Was Awesome And Is Almost Gone

I can't believe we're already into December, and that Christmas is only a few weeks away.

Where did 2014 go? Wasn't it just summer?

Sigh.

But 2014 was a killer year for me. I landed and agent. I got a book deal. I started my MFA (which, honestly, was one of the best decisions I've ever made)

I'm officially done with my second semester. My next residency is in January and that will launch my third semester, which is when I have to write my critical thesis, a 30 page paper examining an element of craft.

I'm both looking forward to it, and dreading it. Looking forward to it because I want to write about monstrous characters.

Dreading it because I'm not actually looking forward to writing the paper. Or presenting it in the summer.

 

But, once it's done, that means no more paper writing for me! So that's another bonus.

But, also, my MFA is going sooo fast. Too fast, actually. I feel like the end is in sight, and that makes me sad because I love it so much.

So, what's up with you? Are you ready for the holidays? Utterly shocked that there's only a few weeks left in 2014?

In Which I HAVE AN AGENT!!!

Guys. GUYS!!!!

SERIOUSLY!

Okay. Wait. Let me calm down and back up a little. I'm just so excited because since I started this blog, alllll the way back in 2010, I've seriously dreamed about writing this post, guys. THE POST.

The I GOT AN AGENT POST!!

Because I did.

And this is how I feel:

I honestly wish I could dance this well

 

Okay, so let's tell a tale, a tale of queries and revisions and offers. But first, we must go back to a conference. (prepare yourself for a long ass post)

Wait. One more dance:

 

In NaNoWriMo 2011 I wrote the first 50k of ALL THAT REMAINS. Then I put it aside for a year because it was fighting me and I was working on something else. For NaNo 2012 I finished the last 50k of ATR and I loved it and decided I would take my time revising this one. And I would take a class to workshop it. And I would not rush.

In October (2013) I attended the MN SCBWI conference, which was fun and awesome. I had signed up for a MS crit from either an editor or an agent and I was assigned to the editor. But instead of giving me a crit, she mostly just said that she loved my first five pages and that she wanted to see the full of ALL THAT REMAINS.

Which was amazing and great. I told her that I planned on querying because I wanted an agent and she agreed that an agent would be the best way to go. And then she did something awesome--she told me if I wanted to, I could use her name in my query. So I did.

I began querying on Halloween. I sent 2 out, got 2 fulls, and then sent out a full batch of 10. My goal was to query through November, take a break in December, and then start up again when I was done with my MFA residency in mid January. Also, I had a new strategy with this MS: I was going to start off by targeting agents who had read previous manuscripts of mine.

I had a very large request rate. A lot of requests is normal for me, but this was different. This was also no rejections. Even with a lot of requests on the other manuscripts, I still pulled in the Rs. But not this time. For awhile I had an almost 100% acceptance rate on my queries. I even broke my rule and queried a few agents who had only rejected me in the past, and even they requested. For a brief moment, I thought about pulling out of the Baker's Dozen contest, but my family convinced me otherwise.

I got a partial request in mid Nov. Then that agent bumped it up to a full. And she tweeted about me, guys. That . . . that was a crazy moment. That she was so excited to read the full that she had to tweet it.

In early December, the same agent sent me an email that she wanted to call and talk revisions. She raved about ATR. She comped it to an amazing book that I lurved (*cough* LIES OF LOCKE LAMORA *cough*). And she wanted to give me her revision notes asap because she was pretty sure I would get an offer from another agent soon. And her revision notes were great, so I dove in.

And then I got 3 more R&Rs within the same week. Now, I'd had R&Rs before, but these were different. They were exuberant. There were phone calls and excitement and more agents telling me that I would most likely get an offer from another agent soon.

One agent only wanted to see revisions on the first few chapters. A kind of "feeling me out" sort of deal, to see if I could actually pull the revisions off. And that I wasn't crazy.

So I dove into those first, because they'd be faster. I sent them back to her a week before my MFA, but this agent was still out of the office because of the holidays.

Then, the day before my residency, when I'd be in lectures and workshops and readings for 11 days straight, all day, this agent said she wanted to call.

I thought it would be an offer. So I managed to skip some of the non-required readings, and took the call in a classroom.


And she offered.

And my new MFA friends freaked out in enthusiasm and excitement and congratulations and that night we went to a Korean restaurant/bar and performed some major karaoke.

That night I nudged everyone who had the MS, including the 3 remaining R&R agents and the few queries I still had out.

I had another offer a few days later. I actually had dinner with this agent because she happened to be in town, visiting in-laws. The dinner was lovely and I had a great time.

Then I had another offer. And another. And by this time the residency was over and I had just a few days to reach out to agent clients and do some final research before I had to make a decision. But during this time the offers still came in.

 

But, when it was all said and done, there was one agent that just struck a chord with me. When I was finished speaking with her on the phone, I felt excited to get to work. It was my gut telling me she was the one.

I am happy to announce that I am now officially repped by: MOLLIE GLICK! Of Foundry Literary + Media

I'm so excited to get to work on revisions with her.

Me, signing the agent agreement

 

Twin baked me a cake!

It was butter pecan. And it. was. delicious!!

So. The Numbers, since I know some people love the numbers (I know this because I am a numbers person. I love reading the "I got an agent" posts and I love seeing the stats)


Queries sent: 25
Query rejections (before the offer): 3
Partial Requests: 3 (2 bumped up to fulls)
Full requests: 14 (including the bumps)
R&Rs: 4 (3 stepped aside after the offer)
Number of Offers: 7


But, I think it's important to remind people that, yes, even though those stats are pretty awesome, this is after 2 other queried manuscripts. I've been querying almost steadily since 2011.

So here are some quick stats on those, because I want to remind people that sometimes it takes a lot of work and patience to reach this point. And there's no shame in it. I loved every step of the journey, both the ups and the downs, because it meant I was putting myself out there, that I was working hard and trying and I knew trying was the only way I'd reach my goals.


GLIMPSE OF ANOTHER SHORE
Queried for 8 months in 2011 and 4 months in 2012
Queries Sent: 96
Partial Requests: 1
Full Requests: 17


BREAK FREE
Queried for 6 months in 2012 and 7 months in 2013
Queries sent: 106
Partial Requests: 5 (three bumped to fulls)
Full Requests: 11 (not including the bumps)
R&Rs: 3


So. There you have it. over 200 queries in 3 years. 48 manuscript requests. 7 offers. 1 agent.

Thanks for reading and for being awesome. Because you are.
 

In Which It's 2014!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 

 

 

Let's PWN 2014!

In Which It's Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

In Which I Hodge-Podge

I can't believe we're into week two of December. 2013 went fasssst.

So the Baker's Dozen auction went well for me! (and thanks to everyone who stopped by and commented on my entry. Totally made my day)

I walked away with a full MS request, which I've already fired off. Starting on Wednesday, any other agent who bid or didn't get a chance to bid, can request pages as well and Authoress will forward any info from lurking agents.

Will I get any further requests? I have no idea. I reached my goal just by getting in so anything else is just icing on the cake.

(mmmmm cake).

I also submitted my 15 pages for my MFA workshop. So now I don't have to worry/stress about that anymore, which is good. I have 4 extra books I need to read for the MFA residency before Jan 9th. Luckily the library had all 4 in. Unluckily no one could find the picture book I needed so now I've got to wait for an email for when it appears. (Picture books, man. I can never find them).

And Wednesday we find out who gets picked for Pitch Wars. I'm excited. Not just for myself but to see if anyone I know or am rooting for gets picked too. I'd be excited if I got picked, no doubt, but I'd be perfectly fine if I wasn't.

Otherwise, this week I've got to start tackling some revisions and brainstorming others, which I'm excited about (but also a little scared. Because, let's get serious, I run through all the gamut of feels like all the time.)

And also try and finish up my Xmas shopping.

And that's me in a nutshell for another week. How about you? How are things going? Did you finish buying all the presents you need to buy? Have you been feeling all the feels? And staying warm (I can't express how cold it's been here (actually I can. Like -10.))

In Which I'm On Vacay

Hey all! I'm on vacay this week, so no posts!

See you all when I get back (and get down to some serious work).

Until then, imagine me like this:

Friday Fun

Yvie's here once again, ape-friends! Because we've made it through the week.

It's been stupid and rainy here for what seems like forever. First it wouldn't stop snowing, now it won't stop raining. It's June. I want to be lazing on the porch, sunning my tummy.

Woe is me. There is no sun

Sigh. But at least it's the weekend, amiright?


Onto the fun!

Friday Fun

YES! WOOO!! We did it, ape-friends! We made it through another week and now we have reached the weekend!

Pat yourself on the back

It's extra exciting for me, since we will be going up to the cabin for the weekend. And the snow is finally gone (crossing my paws that it stays that way)

So let's get your weekend started off with some fun!

Friday Fun

FridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFriday
FridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFriday
FridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFriday
FridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFriday
FridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFriday
FridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFridayFriday!

Have I said it enough?

Now that the word has lost all meaning, let's get this weekend started off with some fun!!