Glass House Press Archives

GIVEAWAY TIME and Newsletter News!

2016 was a good year here. I know, I know. Political craziness, Standing Rock, continued racial tension and climate change (yes, I said it. 2016 was the warmest year on record, y’all!). Most people weren’t sad to see 2016 go, but for me personally, it was a great year.
I signed a book contract in June with Glass House Press for my young adult series, Dreamers.

My daughter was born in August. We had a wonderful fall celebrating her first season of holidays, topping it off with Christmas with both families.

My husband and I started a new Christmas tradition. Each year, we’ll both pick out a book we’d like her to have, separately, with no restrictions. If I want to give my six month old Tina Fey’s Bossy Pants, that’s my choice. If my husband wants to give her Marshall’s Best Games of Chess, he’s free to do so.

We didn’t, though. Here’s our Christmas choices for her first Christmas. I think we did well. Plus, it was fun to open those books Christmas morning and see what we’d chosen for our girl, since we kept our choices secret.

Finally, early in 2017, I signed a second contract with Glass House Press for my middle grade series, Traders of Incense. This series means so much to me. I can’t wait to tell you more about it.

How do I find when these books will be available? That brings me back to the giveaway!
I’m starting a quarterly newsletter to keep you all informed. Don’t worry. It won’t be more than a friendly seasonal greeting with updates on publishing news, with a few other interesting tidbits thrown in. Plus, if you sign up, you’ll be entered into the giveaway!

I’m giving away a book from an all-time favorite author. If you know me, you’ve already guessed it’s by Madeleine L’Engle. I’ve got a brand new copy of A Swiftly Tilting Planet just waiting for someone to read it. This is L’Engle’s companion to her Newbery winning A Wrinkle in Time and it’s a classic.

But there’s more. I have another brand new copy of Margaret Peterson Haddix’s Under Their Skin. It’s the first in her newest series for middle grade readers. If you’ve never read anything by Haddix, finish this blog, sign up for the giveaway, then go find her work. She has several amazing series that delve into science fiction, mysterious futures and time travel.

Finally (there’s more? Yup!). How about a $5 gift card from Amazon to top it off? Here’s the deal. I’ll pick two winners by February 14th. Each winner gets a book AND a $5 Amazon gift card.

All for signing up for a 4 time/year (plus maybe one or two extra extra read all about it) newsletters.

Are you in? Good! Just complete the form below and you’re set. I’ll post winners on the blog by February 15th. To win the books, you’ll need to be a U.S. resident.

Thanks in advance for keeping up with me on this publishing journey! I wish ALL of us a wonderful 2017.

Fill out the form below to subscribe to my author news and enter the contest!

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October’s Here! A Few Awesome Things for Everyone.

If you know me, you know I love October. I can’t imagine a more perfect month. Chilly mornings, warm afternoons, clear blue skies, red and gold leaves, and a hint of spookiness thrown in as we head into Halloween. Such fun.

This morning when I stepped outside for my walk, the air was cool, the sun on the way up to a beautiful blue sky, the wind made leaves swirl from the trees and a hawk swooped through the air. At that moment, I felt tremendous joy simply for being alive.

This month I’m the Blogger of the Month for Arkansas Women Bloggers. You can check out my first post here. If you haven’t visited the Arkansas Women Bloggers blog before, stop by! It’s a fascinating read.

I was also recently featured on the Glass House Press blog. I’m still so excited to be a part of this press and can’t wait for you all to read Dreamers, but until it’s published, you can check out GHP’s other great authors!

We all know October means pumpkin everything! You’re either for Team Pumpkin or against it. If you’re for it, here’s a great pumpkin cookie recipe my mom made every year! If pumpkin isn’t your thing, check out the other great author fall favorites.

If you’re in Northwest Arkansas this October, don’t miss True Lit Fest at the Fayetteville Library with keynote speaker Louis Sachar! I loved Holes (who didn’t?) and can’t wait to hear him speak. There’s also a wide variety of classes, author talks and even author pitch sessions. Don’t miss it!

If you’re celebrating October with kids, nwamotherlode.com is your best bet on finding all the cool October activities happening in the area.

Enjoy the most beautiful month of the year!

Writing is a Marathon

As a runner and an athlete, the idea that life is a race I’m running has always appealed to me. I’m on a course but I can choose how I run this race. Do I sprint the whole way and burn out? Do I choose the way of the turtle, slowly but surely getting to the finish line? Do I fix my eyes on the runner just ahead of me and let her pace me, or do I blaze past her and hope I have the endurance to keep the pace?

And what does this have to do with writing?

My aunt recently mailed me a clipping from a daily devotional. She does this periodically and I’ve come to appreciate her thoughtfulness. There’s nothing like receiving mail (real mail!) from someone you love letting you know you’re in their thoughts.

The text of the clipping happened to be Hebrews 12:1-3. I don’t write much about faith on this blog, but it’s a deep part of my life, and that just happens to be one of my favorite verses, particularly this part: “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

And what does this have to do with writing?

If you’re a writer, you’ve probably noticed, writing is more like a marathon than a sprint. It’s a long, grueling process and the end of the race – publication, success, best-selling NYT author (hey, why not dream big?) can seem miles away – 26.2 to be exact.

Along the way, you’re going to encounter setbacks. Injuries that most often come in the form of rejection of your work. It’s not just disappointing, it’s soul-draining. You start to lose your way and wonder why the heck you’re even in this race because it sure looks like those non-runners are having way more fun and not throwing their precious time away on something that may never be successful.

So you consider giving up. You bargain with yourself. Maybe writing isn’t as important to you as you thought. Sitting down to write is hard anyway, finding (and protecting) the time to write is too difficult, nobody wants to read these stories, so maybe your time is better spent elsewhere. Maybe you should get a “real” job or pick up a hobby that doesn’t make you want to pull your hair out? Netflix, anyone?

Plenty of people entertain the idea of writing, dream about it, start a story, even finish that story, but somewhere along the way, running the race becomes too much. The injuries (rejection), weather (unexpected delays), even the crowd cheering you on (distractions), it’s too much to deal with. You’re already way too busy with life to keep pursuing something that isn’t working out.

A writing mentor once said to me, “I know plenty of writers who are way more talented than me who never published. They gave up. I didn’t.”

I’ve been writing consistently since 2004 when I moved to Yemen and suddenly needed something to fill the long evenings I used to spend with friends and family back home. So I started pursuing something I’d always dreamed about, thankfully ignorant of how difficult a road the writing life is. Over the past thirteen years, I’ve gotten better as a writer, more disciplined, though I have my moments, but I haven’t seen much success and I’ve certainly endured long periods of disappointment where I questioned everything.

But.

Let us run with perseverance.

I couldn’t quit the race. The thing about a race is you never know what’s around the next corner.

In June I submitted three pitches to a Twitter event called #PitMad, where authors pitch their stories in 140 characters and editors and agents browse the feed and favorite anything that appeals to them. When you’re pursuing publishing, anything that gets your work in front of industry pros is invaluable. Writers pay big money at conferences and workshops to do just that.

Originally I was going to pitch two stories, but I added a third when I realized the rules for the event allowed it. I was surprised when this third story, a young adult dystopian novel, merited the interest of a small press in San Diego. They favorited my tweet. I sent a query letter with a more in-depth pitch and a few pages. Then I had a request for fifty pages. Then the entire novel.

And then I had an offer for the series. It happened so quickly I could scarcely believe it. Yet it didn’t happen that quickly because I already had part of that marathon behind me. All that hard work, the training, the persevering. I rounded the corner on the course I’ve been running a long time.

I signed on with Glass House Press at the end of June to publish my young adult dystopian series. The first novel, Dreamers, is expected to publish in 2018. (Whoo hoo!)

Is that the end of the race?

I have a feeling it’s just the beginning, actually, and that I’m going to need all of that endurance I’ve built up, and all of that perseverance to continue.

But I’m excited about the race again, and that’s where a runner, and a writer, needs to be.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.

Hebrews 12: 1-2