The Newest Adventure

In the last paragraph of my last post, I mentioned having a YA fantasy out on submission. Perhaps it is time for me to come out of another one of my writer’s closets. Yes, I write YA. And no, I do not do so under the same name as I write Romance.

I have an alter ego.

My alter ego has been quite busy lately. It has set up its own Twitter account. And along with its two wonderful critique partners, it just started a YA blog. Yeah, I know, I can’t seem to keep up this one, so how will I ever keep up two?! I’m just trusting that somehow it will work.

Our new blog is going to be all about reading, writing and reviewing Young Adult fiction. We’re excited about all of the opportunities this will give us to share our love of Young Adult lit, including sharing our personal writing journeys.

We went live two days ago, with a post of our bios. It looks like tomorrow we will post our first book review. It’s moving along nicely and we’re jazzed. If YA fiction is an interest of yours, you may want to stop by occasionally. We’d love to have you visit.

We are at http://yatriplescoop.blogspot.com/

The YA Triple Scoop: Sarah, Monica, Heather

Happy Writing!

REFLECTIONS ON PUBLICATION

My debut novel, THE VAMPIRE’S PASSION, has been out for over three months now, and I’m ready to reflect upon this singular experience. What a journey—most of which was chronicled here in this blog. But it turns out that those early frustrations and concerns were only the beginning of the learning curve. It turns out that publication is a learning experience all of its own.

Things I’ve learned since April 7^th:

·      Hitting that SEND button when you send your manuscript and query letter off to a publisher or agent isn’t NEARLY as scary as worrying if anyone will buy your book once it comes out.

·      Worrying if anyone will buy your book isn’t as scary as worrying that they won’t like it.

·      Hiding your true identity behind a pen name so that the parents of the children you have taught over the last bazillion years and having your true identity come out just before publication and knowing that these lovely people WILL be reading your book, might keep an author up at night.

·      Learning the ins and outs of how to promote a book is enough to make your head spin. What is a ‘blog tour’? How do you set up a blog tour? Who are these people who organize blog tours, and what should you reasonably expect to pay them for this service?

·      Learning how Facebook promotions work can lead to overindulging in the red wine. I have book promo sites figured out, but I still have no idea what a Facebook party is, or how it works, or what you do at one. Do you make appetizers and have chilled wine available for your guests? REALLY I want to know! If some kind reader could explain Facebook parties to me I would be ever so grateful.

·      Discovering the kindness of fellow writers has been a lovely surprise. Not that we aren’t a kind group of people! I love my writer friends! But I was moved that friends and strangers approached me with invitations to guest on their blogs. It was great fun, and I am so appreciative of them.

I can’t think of any more present participles with which to begin bulleted paragraphs, so I’ll just close this post by saying that despite the publication learning curve, it has been a wonderful experience. There is nothing in life like fulfilling a dream that you’ve held since you were twelve years old.

Recently, I finished the manuscript for a YA fantasy, and it is now out on submission.  I also just finished a novella, which is a prequel for THE VAMPIRE’S PASSION. Fingers crossed on both.

The journey continues…