Cover Reveal: HEIST by Laura Pauling

Posted by on Jun 18, 2013 in Young Adult (for adults, too! :)) | 0 comments

I love cover art. It’s one of my favorite aspects of novel creation. When an author, graphic artist, cover designer, or publisher can truly capture a story with cover art? That’s a beautiful thing.   Today, I’m excited to reveal the cover art and the synopsis for one of my critique partner’s newest books: a young adult psychological thriller HEIST by Laura Pauling to be released in 2013. I’m super excited to read this genre by Laura.   Synopsis: Can one decision change the past? Jack Brodie has a sixth sense that someone has been watching him....

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A Morning in the Life of a Published Writer

Posted by on Jan 25, 2013 in Writing Life, Young Adult (for adults, too! :)) | 22 comments

My first morning as a published writer: At 5:00 AM this morning, my phone buzzed with a text message alerting me that there would be no school for my children. A “snow” day!!! I fell immediately back to sleep. At 5:20, my daughter’s cat, Olivia (aka KeePoo) bit me. She. Bit. Me! On the hand, right between the thumb and forefinger where you’re most sensitive. While I was sleeping. I don’t know why! She then curled up beside me and went to sleep. (We’ll have to talk about cats in another post – Sheesh!) At 5:29, I realized I couldn’t go back to...

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Cover Reveal: MINDSPEAK

Posted by on Dec 5, 2012 in Writing Life, Young Adult (for adults, too! :)) | 17 comments

Before we get to the big reveal, I gotta first say your kind words and encouragement in the form of blog comments, emails, Tweets, “Likes,” and Facebook messages on Monday were so appreciated. THANK YOU! I am so grateful for you.  ♥♥♥ Now, a bit about covers. I could write several blog posts about covers and probably will. Covers are so very important. And difficult. Covers take a certain vision and creativity. And being someone who judges books by their covers, I took designing the cover of my debut novel very seriously. I’ve been sitting on this cover for a while!...

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Some Thoughts on New Adult: A New Genre or a Traditional Publishing Nightmare?

Posted by on Aug 27, 2012 in What I've Been Reading, Writing Life, Young Adult (for adults, too! :)) | 17 comments

Several months ago I started noticing the phrase “new adult” being mentioned everywhere. Mostly on blogs and twitter. It was the newest and hottest genre. And it wasn’t. What??!! That’s right. If you look around and do searches for “new adult” you’ll find varying and contradicting opinions about what new adult is and where it’s going. I know you’ll find this as a ginormous surprise… I’ve got some thoughts on the subject. #1 — First, what is new adult? According to Wikipedia: New-adult Fiction or post-adolescent literature...

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Interesting and Most Inspiring things from WriteOnCon…

Posted by on Aug 15, 2012 in Writing Life, Young Adult (for adults, too! :)) | 3 comments

What do you think about an online writers conference? Or do you ever take Writers Digest courses or other online classes? They’re great ways to make contacts and learn things about the publishing world without leaving your home, I think. But are they worth it? What’s your experience? And… Just in case you’re interested… WriteOnCon is going on right now!! WriteOnCon is a totally free, interactive online children’s writers conference created by writers for writers. It’s mainly for writers of childrens and young adult books, but there is interesting...

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Either I’m an old stick in the mud, or some PG-13 movies are not for my 13-year old

Posted by on Jul 18, 2012 in Young Adult (for adults, too! :)) | 12 comments

  My daughter (aka Thing #1) and I have a few nights to ourselves this week. Being the movie-lovers that we are, we decided to take in some chick flicks that the guys in our family would vomit over. Well, I made a mistake with the first movie I chose. I should have done more homework. Not the first mistake I’ve made, unfortunately. My daughter is growing up, which I’m not too crazy about at times, but it does allow us the opportunity to enjoy more and more movies together. She’ll be 13 next month. And she’s always been very emotionally mature in understanding...

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