Disclaimer: This post has nothing to do with writing or books and none of the brilliant ideas are mine. I’ve been vacation planning for August – which seems ridiculously far away, but people book this stuff early so I guess I have to, too. We’ve decided to go to Venice and…some other places. That’s what I’ve been trying [...]

One of my agent’s suggestions for the book we’re working on (formerly known as Touch) was to change the title. Two YA books came out last year with that same title, plus one called Touched.  There’s the new TV show Touch, an adult novel from 2011 and others before that.  Touch is a really good fit for my story…and, it turns out, a lot of others. So, [...]

After a few days of banging my head against the screen, I’ve managed to make a widget for The Vision…ta-dah! Get the <a href=”http://www.widgetbox.com/i/5e2276d6-8d07-4d77-a4cb-1ac8de3851de”>Countdown Creator Pro</a> widget and many other <a href=”http://www.widgetbox.com/”>great free widgets</a> at <a href=”http://www.widgetbox.com”>Widgetbox</a>! Not seeing a widget? (<a href=”http://docs.widgetbox.com/using-widgets/installing-widgets/why-cant-i-see-my-widget/”>More info</a>) And, holy cow, I even just figured out how to post [...]

One: The Mark made the Bank Street list of Best Children’s Books of the Year.  Lots of great books are on the list, I’m thrilled to be included! Two:  My aunt’s sister’s daughter* is reading The Mark for her seventh grade English class.  Aside from the obvious (holy crap – my old school is reading my book!), I think it’s awesome that the teacher is using something with real relevance [...]

Finally.  Well, for now since this is just the smoothed-over draft and I really have no idea whether or not it might suck completely.   At this stage, lots of different things can happen to a manuscript, depending on where you are contractually.  Sometimes, after a book or two, writers sell fiction on proposal, which means their publisher buys based on [...]

I so thought this book (Touch) was done and would be off to beta readers this week.  I had a big chunk of Tuesday to tweak the final bits, but here it is, still sitting on my desk.  I didn’t even goof around online on my work day or blog or spend any more time on lunch than it [...]

So I know the blog’s been relatively quiet lately which doesn’t mean there’s nothing going on.  There’s actually a lot going on, much of which has nothing to do with books and writing and plenty to do with kids and school and stuff I don’t generally write about here.  But there is some bookish news… -I saw [...]

I typed THE END into the manuscript, so it must be true.  Book Three’s draft is officially done.  Finally. It’s the longest of my drafts at 73,500 words (Vision ended at 51,000 and The Mark at 65,000, though both final versions came in around the same 58,000).    I’m not sure where this will wind up, but based [...]

Tomorrow we leave for vacation, a week in Southern France and a few days in Paris.  So excited!  I’d hoped to be able to say that the draft for Book Three (Touch) was finished, but that didn’t quite happen.  It’s at 64,800 words with two scenes left to write which, truthfully, may be a better place to leave it [...]

I’m up to 53,300 words on the newest manuscript which translates to almost two-hundred pages or about 95% of the finished versions of The Mark and Vision.  This book is definitely not 95% done.  I’m not really sure how close it is, I’m just going to keep writing until the idea bin for it is empty.  That’s how first drafts go.  They’re my [...]