CONFETTI & SHEER HAPPINESS...

Happy New Year!

Here's to 2012!

SEASON'S GREETINGS!

I just want to take a moment at the end of 2011 to thank all my friends and followers here at the blog for such an incredible year. 2011 saw the release of my second YA, PLAYING HURT, and it was because of the support I received from bloggers during the successful PLAYING HURT Blog Tour that the book got into the right hands. (Thanks to my fabulous readers, discussion of the novel lit up the blogosphere...)

I'm so glad that I got a chance to meet so many new readers and fans throughout the year, and can't wait to find out what's just around the bend in '12...It's bound to be a fantastic year, and I'm thrilled I'll get to share it with all of you!

For now, though, I'll wish you all a very happy holiday season. (The card below is one that I drew many years ago, for my parents to send out. Now, I'm sending it to all of you!)


Season's greetings!

COVER PARTY: TIFFANY TRUITT'S CHOSEN ONES

Hey, all! I'm happy to participate today in the big cover reveal for Tiffany Truitt's CHOSEN ONES, set to release with Entangled in April 2012. Here's the lovely cover:

And here's the jacket copy:

What if you were mankind’s last chance at survival?

Sixteen-year-old Tess lives in a compound in what was once the Western United States, now decimated after a devastating fourth World War. But long before that, life as we knew it had been irrevocably changed, as women mysteriously lost the ability to bring forth life. Faced with the extinction of the human race, the government began the Council of Creators, meant to search out alternative methods of creating life. The resulting artificial human beings, or Chosen Ones, were extraordinarily beautiful, unbelievably strong, and unabashedly deadly.

Life is bleak, but uncomplicated for Tess as she follows the rigid rules of her dystopian society, until the day she begins work at Templeton, the training facility for newly created Chosen Ones. There, she meets James, a Chosen One whose odd love of music and reading rivals only her own. The attraction between the two is immediate in its intensity—and overwhelming in its danger.

But there is more to the goings-on at Templeton than Tess ever knew, and as the veil is lifted from her eyes, she uncovers a dark underground movement bent not on taking down the Chosen Ones, but the Council itself. Will Tess be able to stand up to those who would oppress her, even if it means giving up the only happiness in her life?

...What do you guys think?

A HOLIDAY GIFT: A BLUE SO DARK FOR 99 CENTS!

I'm so excited about this: right now, for just .99, you can grab yourselves a Kindle copy of A BLUE SO DARK! And, to accompany this fantastic offer, I will sign your Kindle copy through Kindlegraph!

Spread the word, my lovely bloggers...

PUKE

Okay, so not the classiest of titles for a blog post. But that's what I've been doing lately. I'm not sick...I'm just drafting new work. And I've decided that's actually the most accurate, vivid way to depict the drafting process. I mean, a first draft isn't supposed to be pretty. It's just supposed to come out. Just like, well...

I've also discovered a fantastic new way to get through the puking drafting process. I call it Give Credit Where Credit's Due. So often, at the end of the day, a writer can look at the number of words (or pages) and feel a little rotten about how skimpy it seems. Really, though, it's so much better for a writer's mental health to take stock of what really happened during the drafting process that day. If you figured out a plotting problem or made a breakthrough with backstory, that's worth far more than the sheer number of words typed that day. Always remember to take stock of what you accomplished, not what you think you should have accomplished.

Speaking of word count, though, I've also started giving myself credit for all the words I write during the drafting process...even notes to self, scrawled down the margins of notebook paper. I find that if I give myself credit for the words written outside of the story, I allow myself to go on tangents, to explore aspects of the story that might not ever have been addressed (at least, not in the earliest stages of writing the book).

All of this makes drafting infinitely more enjoyable. And that's definitely important, for someone who far prefers revising to drafting. Drafting's now so much more enjoyable, in fact, that I'm celebrating all WIPs at my house—even the WIP belonging to my dog, as this snazzy new sign illustrates! (More on Jake's WIP here.)


Happy puking drafting, everyone!

#FF FUN

I'm back for the Follow Friday fun, courtesy of Parajunkee...I just couldn't resist this week's question:

Keeping with the Spirit of Giving this season, what book do you think EVERYONE should read and if you could, you would buy it for all of your family and friends?

Well...



New followers, please leave a comment so I can check out your own blogs!

IDEA. JUNKIE.

I've said it before: I’m an idea junkie. It’s a bit of a disease, actually. I get two, three chapters into a new project when I'm suddenly bowled over by the concept for yet another book.

When I first began the pursuit of publication, those new ideas would sometimes get me sidetracked. I learned I need to keep a spiral-bound notebook where I can jot down the basics of a new plot, then get back to the project at hand.

Being the idea junkie I am, I recently found myself with a backlog of projects I wanted to get out of outline form…I reorganized my office, getting all my materials in order so that I could move straight from one project to the next, throughout 2012. Ten in all. Yeah. I know. Ten new books. I’ve got the list of books (written in the order in which I'll tackle them) thumbtacked to the wall above my computer, in my office.

My true goal for 2012, though? Not to get all the way through the list.

Writers know the scenario well: you get about halfway through drafting a new book when your editor sends you the revision notes for a book you’ve already got in development. You have to put your current project aside, to work on revisions.

Right now, my agent’s shopping several new books...and I have to admit, my Christmas wish is that my agent will sell those projects, and I’ll be interrupted all through 2012, as the revision notes for those books come in from editors…

At this point, I’ve quit just crossing my fingers. I now have my toes crossed, my eyes crossed, the strands in my ponytail crossed…A little bit of praying doesn't hurt anything, either:

Until then, I’ll be plugging away at the first project on my list!

OLD DOG, NEW TRICK

About a year ago, Jake discovered he could dig. Yeah, I know—most dogs get hip to this discovery fairly early in life, but Jake’s funny about what touches his feet (don’t even get me started on the recent boot fiasco), so it took him a while to finally get his—ah—paws dirty.

Now, though? He’s got one hole he’s been working on for some time (kind of like the sweater I’ve been knitting since ’07)… He’s incredibly proud of it, and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind a bit that I’m showing it off here:

But the thing is, even though he’s obviously proud of his creation, he actually prefers to do his digging when he thinks nobody’s looking. And then he shows up at the back door looking like this:

That nose will give you away every time, buddy…