the road to book 2

I am having a moment.

Later this morning, I will be sweating over my laptop, stressing about new words in a new manuscript. This afternoon, I will be hosing off my car after a very muddy trip to the mountains. And tonight, I will be cleaning up a scrapbooking mess I made in the living room.

But right now... right this second... I am having a moment -- a good one. I have the day off work, and I'm starting it off on the back patio watching the sun shine on the yard and drinking a cup of coffee (iced. This is Arizona after all. It's only 8:30am, and my temperature gauge already reads 90 degrees.)
This sunny caffeinated moment is how I am celebrating the launch of my second book, DEAD ENDS. (out today!)

I remember, after selling BUTTER, thinking the 2 year wait to publication would feel like a lifetime. In hindsight, it went by in a flash. But that flash was nothing compared to how fast it seems DEAD ENDS was published. We sold this book in the spring of 2012, so it's been a little under 18 months from sale to pub. For all but 1 of those 18 months, I was also planning my wedding, so I had very little time to obsess about this launch the way I did the first time around.
In fact, this quiet moment right now may be the very first time I've actually reflected on the road to book 2 at all.

I wrote the first draft of DEAD ENDS the month after we sold BUTTER, in part to keep myself from clicking on my email inbox every two seconds. *Best advice ever, by the way! There is a lot of waiting around on the path to publishing. Use that down time to write something new! Once edit letters and blog requests and cover comps start rolling in, you may find your writing time is being eaten away!

After my speed-drafting, I sent the manuscript (then-titled Billy D. & the Bully) off to one of my crit partners, who told me what I already suspected - I had a good start, some great characters... and not much plot.
So I spent the next 9 months or so rearranging, revising and rewriting. By the end of the year, with more help from crit partners, I had something worth submitting.
It was another few months before we sold it, and then I hit a wall of "now what?"

See, the first time around, every moment is a milestone.
book sale? champagne dinner out on the town!
cover reveal? splatter the internet!
launch party? everyone you know is coming!

It's a two-year-long party to celebrate a dream come true. But if book 1 is the dream, what is book 2?
It took me some time to figure out BUTTER wasn't the end of a journey but the start of a new one. And DEAD ENDS is the first step down that new path - a path that forks off in many directions, like a "choose your own adventure" book.
Do you want to write full time?
Do you want to explore a new genre?
Do you dream of longevity as an author?

It's a path of nothing but possibility, and it's a little intimidating, because once your biggest dream comes true... do you dare dream bigger?

For today, my dream is this: that readers who pick up DEAD ENDS will meet Dane, Billy D. and Seely... share their journey... and find something to love.

and on we go

*blows dust off blog*
*clears throat*
*taps mic*

oh my. where in the world have i been?

well, for starters, i was here:

 

that's me in the dress!

and then i was here:

 

when you're having a BIG FAT ITALIAN WEDDING, planning can kind of take over your life. but now things are settling back down, and it's time for BOOKS to rule my life once again!

 

on that note, i have some exciting events coming up in the next few months!

 

first, and most important! i will be celebrating the launch of DEAD ENDS with a signing at Changing Hands on Saturday, September 7th at 5:00. if you're in Arizona, i hope to see you there!

 

coming up in October, i'll be presenting at the SCBWI AZ annual conference, along with an incredible lineup of authors, editors, agents and more (including my own fabulous agent, Literaticat herself, Jennifer Laughran!) click here for more info and registration!

 

then, in December, i'm thrilled to be a guest author for the St. Louis Public Library's incredible Read It Forward program. i went to college (and attempted to write my first novel!) in Missouri, so this event will feel like going home.

 

more news to come, but that might be just about enough for my first blog back! stay tuned...

 

 



Dead Ends Jacket Reveal

Two big Ws have kept me away from the blog for far too long - Writing & Wedding. But as soon as this wedding planning winds down, I will be gearing up for the release of DEAD ENDS in September!

 

And you can't have a book release without a cover, right? If I was thrilled when I saw the front cover for DE, then there are no words for how I feel about the full jacket. Well, maybe one word. Amazeballs.

 

Are we still saying amazeballs? I'm usually behind on these things.

 

Anyway, enough of the drum roll. Check out the jacket!

 

I love it love it love it. Every inch of it. The whole thing just begs you to lean in closer. And for those of you who may have read an advanced copy of DE already, how cool is it that Seely is on the back cover?!

ARC Winners!

we have a winner!!!!!!!!!!!!
actually, we have 2.

thanks to all who entered the giveaway for an ARC of DEAD ENDS. i was pretty blown away by the response. the two winners were chosen by my favorite random number generator, Random.org!

i know i promised to announce the winners here on the blog, but i hadn't banked on clever email addresses that don't make every winner's name clear. since i don't want to give anyone's email address out here, i'll give you the winning numbers instead.
#10 and #92

10 & 92, you each got an email from me. CONGRATS!

for those who did not get an email from me, GOOD NEWS! you can still win a copy of DEAD ENDS on goodreads. there will be 5 winners, and the contest is open for another month. click here to enter!

thanks again!

Win an ARC of DEAD ENDS!

COVER!

CONTEST!

CAPITALIZATION!

In honor of some very important news today, I am writing this post with all the proper letters capitalized. (Well, hello there, shift key! Remember me?)

Today is the day I get to share my new cover for DEAD ENDS, coming September 3, from Bloomsbury. (Yes, I give you permission to just scroll down now for the reveal.)

I am in love with this cover. Each time I look at it, I see another layer of the story - the road, the backpack, the grit, the way a true friend can lift you up, the way we sometimes hit a wall even when it looks like the whole wide world is right in front of us... It's just perfect.

So, to celebrate this perfect new cover, I simply must give away an ARC! See the contest details below! (It's easy peasy to enter, I promise.) But first, without any further drumroll, I give you the cover for DEAD ENDS!

 

Dane Washington is one suspension away from expulsion. In a high school full of “haves,” being a “have not” makes Dane feel like life is hurtling toward one big dead end. Billy D. spends his high school days in Special Ed and he’s not exactly a “have” himself. The biggest thing Billy’s missing? His dad. Billy is sure the riddles his father left in an atlas are really clues to finding him again and through a bizarre turn of events, he talks Dane into joining him on the search.

A bully and a boy with Down syndrome makes for an unlikely friendship, but together, they work through the clues, leading to unmarked towns and secrets of the past. But they’re all dead ends. Until the final clue . . . and a secret Billy shouldn’t have been keeping.

Add DEAD ENDS on Goodreads!
Pre-order it here, or here, or here, or wherever else books are sold!

OR... WIN an advance copy by filling out the form below. Two winners will be selected at random.

UPDATE: THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. The entry form has been removed. Thanks to all who entered!  2 Winners to be announced Thursday morning and contacted via email. :)

Thanks for celebrating with me! *Happy Dance*

The Next Big Thing

thanks so much to Diane Zahler for tagging me to participate in THE NEXT BIG THING blog chain!

if you haven't heard of it, The Next Big Thing is a campaign that started in Australia and spread all over the world. essentially, authors and illustrators answer a series of short, speedy questions to introduce their next project, then they tag another author to answer the same questions the following week. not sure how long it's been going, but it sounded like fun, so here's my Q&A:

1) What is the working title of your next book?
Dead Ends.

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
It started with a series of conversations between two characters who I could not get out of my head. I had to write the book twice to figure out their story!

3) What genre does your book fall under?
Contemporary YA.

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
I can never answer this question! It's hard for me to imagine any actors playing my characters. Good thing I'm not a casting director!

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?A bully and a boy with Down syndrome form an unlikely alliance when they team up to find one of their missing fathers.

6) Who is publishing your book?Bloomsbury.

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
One month. I wrote it during NaNoWriMo! (note: I spent almost a year rewriting it.)

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Another question I have a hard time answering. I always try to tell a story I haven't read before, so if there is a similar book out there, I haven't read it yet.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?I knew I wanted to write a story from the perspective of a bully, and when the second character came to me, I had to think long and hard about his voice. He felt very unique to me, but it took some time before I figured out he had Down syndrome. I had recently witnessed a teenage boy with Ds having an argument with his dad in a store, and I think something about that fight stayed with me and worked its way into the character.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?
Even though there is a character with Down syndrome, this is not a story about Down syndrome. It's just a story. And one of the characters just happens to have that trait.

the Next Big Thing chain continues with Anne Greenwood Brown! Look for her post next week.

Dead Ends

sorry to be so mysterious, but i had to do a little magic to make this post disappear. ;)
keep an eye out for a new cover for Dead Ends coming soon!

 

introducing...

i interrupt this holiday hiatus to bring you a bit of news!

if you cruise around this blog, you'll find many a mention about a little book called Billy D. & the Bully.
like BUTTER, this is a book i named after my main characters. what can i say? i'm a little lazy when it comes to titles.

fortunately, there is a great team of pros at Bloomsbury to help me come up with something just as fitting for the story but not quite such a mouthful.

so i'm super excited to announce next year's book is now titled....

DEAD ENDS

and the cover is awesome!!!! i can't wait to show it to you! stay tuned.