One year + 300 =

Wow, can you believe I've been blogging for over a year? (My exact blogiversary was March 27th) AND I reached 300 followers in that time. I am seriously blown away. I am so grateful to all of you who think I have anything of value to say; that my posts are worth your time to stop by and read and comment on. Every comment I get brightens my days, every new follower makes me so happy. And best of all are all of the friends I have made through blogging. You guys seriously rock.

So... let's have a giveaway, shall we?

CELEBRATION TIME!!!

*Cue the confetti!*

I want this to be a great giveaway, something to really make you feel glad you stop by my blog as often as you do. So.... I'm leaving it up to you! What does that mean? Read on...

All you have to do is comment on this post and tell me two things: 1. What is your favorite part of my blog, or what are your favorite posts of mine (helping me figure out what I can do to improve my blog even more for the coming years) and 2. tell me what YOU want to win! That's right, your wish is my command! Do you have a certain book you're pining for? Would love a critique of some sort? You name it, you got it! (Please keep it within reason, I'm unfortunately pretty tight financially; so as much as I'd love to give you a Kindle, or twenty books, or something crazy like that, I can't.) The contest will remain open until Friday, April 8th at 10:00 pm MST. I will announce the winner on Monday morning! Also, I must limit it to the U.S. and Canada, for the aforementioned reason... unless any of my international followers pick something that doesn't need to be mailed, in which case, enter away!


THAT'S IT! Easy right? This isn't an April Fool's joke, I'm totally serious. You name your prize. The random number generator picks you, and whammo! You get it!

If you really want to earn extra entries, you may do the following:

Tweet/FB: + 1 point each (leave me links so I can verify)
Blog sidebar: +1 point (leave linkage)
Old Follower: +2 points
New follower: +1 point
Blog post: +4 points (leave linkage)
Refer a new follower (the person must give you credit): +4 points


If you do the extra stuff, please be so kind as to add up all of your points for me in your comment. I'm pregnant, remember? That pregnancy brain stuff is no myth, let me tell you.

So, there you have it! I am so grateful to all of you, and am very excited to make someone's wish come true! Hope you all have a great weekend, and I can't wait to see what you come up with. :)

(P.S. don't you hate it when you format a post, and preview it, and it looks fine, and then when it actually posts, blogger squishes the thing into one paragraph? Three times in a row? No matter what you do? Love that. So much.)

Thinking postive for 2011

So, all you out there in the query trenches (or hoping to enter them soon), let's step back from all the fears and worries that accompany hitting send on those emails (or putting the stamp on the letters). Let's assume that 2011 is going to be YOUR year! The year you get an agent! The year all your dreams come true! How many more exclamation points can I use?!

Ahem. Anyway, so yes, let's think positive, shall we? Good. Now, what do you do when that call comes--the one where an agent tells you why they love your book enough to offer to represent you? Do you immediately scream, "Yes! Yes! Please, please send me the contract right now, I will Fed-Ex it back to you tonight!!" (See, don't ever doubt my ability to throw in more exclamation points.) By the way, the answer is NO. Big N. O. As tempting as it is to just accept the first offer you get, you need to take some time and truly make sure this agent is a good fit for you. You should have some questions prepared to ask them, and you should be prepared to give the other agents who are considering your partials or fulls a week to see if they also want to offer or not. To many of you this will be familiar territory, but to some, you might be hyperventilating right now, thinking I've lost it.

I promise I haven't. So this week, I'm going to do two posts relating to this subject: one on Wednesday about what to look for in a prospective agent, and on Friday I am going to be announcing the winners to my contest and answering some of your questions. Wait--"what contest?" you might be asking. This one:

As my Christmas present to you, I am going to offer to critique two follower's query letters. Because let's face it, you're not going to get to that agent call, if your query doesn't generate some requests, right? I'm not claiming to be an expert, but after a couple of years in those trenches I got pretty good at queries. I'm making it really easy to enter this time. Just comment on this post with one question you'd like me to answer about queries or picking an agent or something else about the query process, and you are entered! The random number generator will pick two lucky (well, hopefully my critique will be good enough to make you think you're lucky) winners to email me their queries on Friday morning. You have until Thursday night at 10:00 pm MST to enter. I know it's not as cool as a gift card, or a Kindle or something, but hopefully it will be helpful.

Happy Monday and good luck!

Giveaway Time!

I am so excited to do this giveaway! I had lots of awesome comments and thoughts on my last post; many were in direct opposition to each other, so that was extremely helpful. Ha ha. Just kidding. Sort of.

Anyway, back to business. Since I'm doing this giveaway to celebrate the fact that I have 200 followers, I decided to ask you to list 200 of your favorite things about my blog to enter the giveaway! Woohoo!



*silence*



HA HA, I'm TOTALLY kidding!

All you have to do is comment to enter, and tell me which "prize package" you would pick if the random number generator gives you some love. Yep, after all those conflicting thoughts on my prizes, I decided to leave it up to you to pick! So, in case you missed it last time, here are your options:

1. A package that includes anywhere from 1-3 books (depending on which ones I buy and other factors like how loudly SonB is or isn't screaming in the book store, or grabbing things off of the shelves, or how loudly or obnoxiously SonA is begging for everything in sight, therefore giving me more or less time to shop for you). And yes, I'm aware that was the longest, most rambling parenthetical sentence ever. But I'm giving you books, so no complaining, a'ight? Anyway, this package also includes CHOCOLATE!!

2. A gift card to Barnes & Noble, or Amazon, or maybe a surprise retailer, and... CHOCOLATE!!

3. A 10 page critique of your manuscript, and hey, because so many of you seemed quite keen on it, I will even throw in some CHOCOLATE!!

Hence, you do not have to make a choice that will limit your options of chocolate. And I may even be willing to get you the best chocolate known to mankind, called Marabou from Sweden. Trust me when I tell you it will make Hershey's taste like dog food. Okay, not quite that bad, but you get the idea. Although, I have never eaten dog food, and maybe it's not as bad as I imagine it tasting. Uh, a bit sidetracked there. What was I saying? Oh yes, the point is that Swedish chocolate is amazing and you will be happy you won. As for what comes with the chocolate, that is up to you!

So comment away! This giveaway is open until next Friday, November 5 at midnight. (MST) If you are really craving that Swedish chocolate and want some more opportunities to increase your odds of winning you may add:

+2 for already being a follower
+1 for new followers
+4 if you refer a new follower (they must credit you in the comments)
+1 tweeting/FBing contest (please provide link)
+3 for putting it in sidebar on your blog (again, please add link)
+4 for dedicating a blog post to the giveaway (once more, all together: link please!)

(and Melody for that amazing, sweet totally unrequested post you did on your blog, you may add +5 to your entry. Seriously, what a sweetheart! Don't know what I'm talking about? Go check out her blog iamanauthoress.blogspot.com and the post "covert operations" right now. Totally unexpected and about the sweetest thing EVER!)

Also, I'd really appreciate it if you tally up your points for me in your comment. Good luck, and thank you again for taking the time to read and comment on my blog! You rock!


P.S. Happy Halloween this weekend! Any fun plans?

You know what 200 means...

*note: well, when I checked my blog earlier on Tuesday, I had reached 200... but apparently someone decided to unfollow me. *sad face* Apparently my rambling answers about loving Benihana and desserts and lots and lots of books and movies was too much for someone. Now I'm down to 199. But, you know what? It's close enough. So...

It's time for a contest! Woohoo! Thank you all for caring enough about what I have to say to follow me and comment on my posts. It means more than you know. As a way to say "thank you" I am going to do a contest. The only thing I'm having trouble deciding is... what to give away?

So now is your chance to let me know. What would you--my lovely, wonderful, awesome readers--like to win? Please vote in the comments and I will announce the contest prizes and what to do to enter on Friday!

1. A package that includes a book (maybe two or three depending on which ones I get) and some chocolate or candy.

2. A package that includes a gift card to Barnes & Noble or Amazon or something like that, and some chocolate and candy.

3. A ten page critique of your manuscript.

Let me know which one sounds the most appealing to you (and if you have any requests, let me know!) and I will announce the actual contest on Friday.

Thank you again; all of your support and kindness has been astounding.

Ask for it...

Thank you all so much for your comments on my last post - it really is gratifying to know that the things I'm sharing and the knowledge I've gained is useful to you. I will admit there are days that I think, "why am I spending so much time on this blog? Does anyone really even care about what I have to say? Especially when there are so many other blogs out there, written by authors who are more experienced/funny/knowledgeable/etc." Your comments on Monday (and many of my other posts as well) made me feel like I have something to offer, too. And I appreciate that more than you know.

Okay, warm and fuzzy moment over. I promise.

On to business. I happened to notice I'm at 192 followers right now. Wow, that is amazing! And I also noticed I haven't done a giveaway for a little while... hmm... 192 is pretty close to a nice, even number that starts with a 2 and ends with an 00. I'm thinking a contest will be showing up in the near future, most likely when I hit that nice even number. Wink, wink. Yeah, I know, totally subtle. Now, what to do for that contest? I will have to think about it. Stay tuned for what I come up with.

As for the title of today's post, I also realized it's been a long time since I've done a question and answer post. I usually try to do one every couple of months, just to mix things up and see if any of my new (or old) followers have thought of any questions they wish I'd answer. So have it: what are you just dying to know about me, or from me? Feel free to ask in the comments and I will do an answer post on Monday! (Friday is reserved for my recap of my friend Julie Berry's signing tonight at The King's English here in SLC! Go check out her new book, SECONDHAND CHARM. She is SO talented, trust me!)

Hope you are all having a great week!

QUERY CONTEST - ENDS TODAY!!

Happy Friday everyone! This is just your quick reminder that the query contest closes today at 12:00 MST - (2:00 pm EST, 11:00 AM PST). If you want a chance to win a query critique, click here and give me your best twitter pitch!

So, I'm curious... what book (or books) is/are coming out in 2010 that you are just dying to own? I can think of quite a few that I can't wait to have on my book shelf. Or, more realistically, in the huge pile next to my bed. I loved PARANORMALCY and can't wait to buy it (August 31st!). Kiersten's book is a wonderfully fresh, funny, romantic and unique take on the YA paranormal genre. I highly recommend it. And of course, MOCKINGJAY. Oh boy, I can't wait to see how this trilogy is going to end. Happy? Sad? Peeta? Gale? (Come on, go for Peeta! ahem...) Or maybe she'll kill them all. (Yikes, I hope not.)

There are so many amazing books coming out, but since those are both being released in August, they're on my mind right now.

Further on in the year is NIGHTSHADE (also loved it! I'm totally team Ren though. Not sure that's what she intended...), and one of my personal favorites MATCHED (duh, if you've been reading this blog long enough, you know how much I love Ally's book--all of her books really, but this one in particular). I know these are technically next year, but I also can't wait for DARKEST MERCY (the final Wicked Lovely book), and THE IRON QUEEN. CRESCENDO and FIRELIGHT and ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS and... Okay, I better stop. This list could go on and on and on.

So tell me, what books are you just dying to get your hands on?

Happy weekend everyone, and best of luck to all of the query contest entrants! I'm glad I'm not judging it, you guys have some great pitches.

Running and Writing and Query Contests...

Wow, you didn't realize what you were getting into when you asked me to tell you my path to getting an agent, did you? At least there was a super cool contest at the end of it all! Wait, you didn't know about it yet?? At the end of my last post, there are details on how you could win a query critique, so go check it out and enter. (Contest is open for submissions until Friday at 12:00 pm MST, so 2:00 pm EST.)

Did you all have a nice weekend? I hope so. My little guy got his glasses last week (he's 19 months old, but he has strabismus and so this is the first step in treating it--we're hoping he won't need surgery as well, but we'll see). He looks adorable in them if I do say so myself. He wouldn't keep them on AT ALL for the first two days, so I was seriously stressing. (Also adding to the stress was the two, yes TWO, books I was doing revisions on for my agent.) I called the doctor, and they said it might take months before he'll wear them all day like he's supposed to. Fabulous, right?

Well, the next day, he wore them for a couple of hours without taking them off. Then yesterday, he kept them on for almost 6 hours - I finally took them off because he had to take a nap. Victory!

So, what did I accomplish this weekend? One book revised and sent back to agent, second book caught up to the notes I have so far from her, kitchen cleaned, bedroom cleaned (thanks hubby!), SonB wearing glasses almost all day already (woot!)...

and then I went and decided to sign up and train for a 10k in October with my mom. WHAAAA? Am I insane? Considering I have this love/hate relationship with running (in that I hate running and love it when it's over), this could be interesting. Working out at the gym? I'm all over it. But I have always wanted to be a runner, so I'm just going to force myself to do it. Okay, I don't actually HATE running, I would love it, if it didn't hurt so bad. But I'm doing this. One step at a time, one mile at a time. Pushing myself through side cramps, and bad knees, and bad weather, and anything that comes in my way. I. Can. Do. This.

Kind of like writing, isn't it?

My Path to Getting an Agent Pt. 6

Okay, let's see if I can do this!

During the month of November and December, I get quite a few requests for fulls and partials of IMPACT. (Both were in the double digits) I am feeling very hopeful this time, but am nervous to get my hopes up after so many rejections in the past. Ultimately, I get rejected by ALL of them. The majority of the responses were so full of praise, that again they read like acceptance emails, until you got to the part where that word "enough" showed up again. Didn't love it enough. Didn't feel passionate enough. At this point I really, REALLY hate the word enough. I'm considering never using it out loud or in a book again. Ever. Okay, just kidding, but you get my point.

So, what do I do? I write another book. I loved the idea I'd used for my "adult book," but didn't want to try adult fiction again, so I thought about how I could turn it into something YA. At first it was going to be more of a quiet, emotionally driven book. But then this whole other side to the plot begins to build, characters and histories and future events begin crowding into my mind and I think it sounds like a lot more fun to write. Hence, SIGHT UNSEEN is born. I write it in about 3 weeks or so (it was over Christmas break, so I had a lot of writing time), and then spend about a month revising and polishing it. I start querying it in mid--late February.

I get a lot of interest again, with many requests for fulls and partials. When, suddenly, out of the blue, I get an email from an agent about IMPACT. She'd just read my query that I sent a few months ago and wondered if it was still available to read? If so, she'd like to read the full. I am totally surprised, but think, "sure, why not? I'll send it to her," and figure I'll get the rejection sometime in the next month or two. Then I didn't think too much about it again, as I am concentrating on SIGHT UNSEEN at this point.

Imagine my surprise when I get an email just two weeks later, telling me she'd read the whole thing over the weekend and wanted to set up a time later that week to talk on the phone. I seriously just sit there staring at my email (I checked it on my iTouch) trying to figure out if this was real. Instead of screaming or crying or anything like I thought I would do, after all the years of heartache and faith and hard work and dedication, I just feel... almost numb with shock. An agent had read the whole book and wanted to talk to me. On the phone. My next thought is, "I should call Trav and tell him that I think an agent might be offering to represent me." It is so surreal. Once I tell him, and he starts whooping and yelling, I finally snap out of my shock and start jumping up and down and freaking out. Then I have to wait for four days to talk to her. I begin to doubt myself, and wonder, "What if she just wants to tell me why she isn't offering? Or wants to revise it first before she offers?"

By the morning of the call, I am so nervous, I am sick to my stomach as I sit on my bed, holding the phone, a pen and a notebook on my lap (with a printed paper of the questions I wanted to ask next to me). Thank heavens she is so incredibly nice, and asks me really lovely questions like, "Have you lived in Utah your whole life?" and "Do you work or just stay home with your kids?" I know the answers to these questions pretty well, so I don't mess up. Phwew!! (Seriously, it made a big difference, and helped put me at ease before we started talking about my book.) Then, when she does start talking about my book, it is AMAZING. Her exuberance, her passion for my writing and my story, she actually GETS IT! We end up talking for almost an hour. When she asks if I have any other books I am working on, and I tell her how many I have finished, she is actually thrilled.

I can't accept her offer on the spot, because I have so many fulls out still. I immediately write the other agents, letting them know I've received an offer, and get quite a few emails back very quickly, telling me they will hurry and read SIGHT UNSEEN and let me know if they'd also like to offer. This sounds like a dream situation, but honestly, it is a very stressful week. Finally, the next Friday, I ultimately decide that Hannah's passion and love for my books, my writing, and her hopes to help me build a career, make her the right fit for me. I accept Hannah's offer, and two and a half years after I started querying, I finally, FINALLY have an agent. (And an awesome one at that!)

So that is my story! Wow, huh?

Now, on to the fun stuff! Your reward for continuing to read (and hopefully gleaning some sort of hope or wisdom from my long, arduous path to getting an agent) is that I am going to do a contest. But not just any contest...

What do you need to be as shiny and polished as possible to get your foot in the door on your path to getting an agent? Yep, you got it. A QUERY. So here's my contest: All you have to do is leave a comment with your "twitter pitch" (aka 140 characters or less); basically a one or two line pitch of your book. Then, I will take all of the pitches and have a panel of readers vote on which ones they like the best. The pitch with the highest number of votes will win a query critique from yours truly.

Sound good? I hope so! Thanks for reading and let the pitching begin!
(This contest is open until Friday, August 20 at 12:00 P.M. MST. Judging will occur over the weekend, and the winner will be announced on Monday, August 23!)

CONTEST!

I've decided I never win contests. Out of like fifty online contests I've entered over the last year, I've won one. I'm so glad I won that one, but seriously! I've entered at least ten to try and win MATCHED in the last two weeks. I haven't won ONE of them. And one of the contests only had 11 entrants, where you had to try and say what five covers had in common. I didn't even win that. *big, pouty, sad face* Oh well!

But lucky for all of my many amazing new followers *waves at shiny new followers!!* I'm going to hold a contest so I can make someone else a winner! I was planning on starting it tomorrow, but I'm just too pumped up from the awesome response to Elana's guest post yesterday. So I'm starting it a day early! Yay! I hope all my new followers will enjoy my blog. Welcome! Let's celebrate by giving away a book to one of you. :-)

Anyone heard of the book series Twilight or something? And how Stephenie just released a surprise book about someone named Bree?

You have? Shocking! :D

Would you like to win it? You would?? Great! because I'm giving away a brand new, first printing edition of it!

All you have to do is leave me a comment telling me what your favorite (or least favorite) part or quote from the Twilight series is. Whether you loved it or hated it, Twilight has become a phenomenon that has helped rocket YA books to the forefront of the book world. Team Edward? Team Jacob? Love or hate Bella? Her characters have created very strong emotions in almost every person who reads her books, and that says something! So comment away for your chance to win.

You can get extra entries for the following:

+1 for new follower
+2 for existing follower
+2 for tweeting or FBing (with a link to my contest) - please put the link in your comment so I can prove you did it.
+4 for doing an actual blog post about it (again provide the link)
+1 for any person you refer (and have that person reference you for credit)

Please tell me what you've done in the comments, and add up your points for me. Because while I was once good at math, having children and stuff has wrecked all parts of my brain except the writing part. At least I hope that part is still intact.

Anyway... the contest will close on Sunday at 11:59 P.M. MST and I will announce the winner courtesy of the random number generator on Monday's post. Good luck to all! May the contest force be stronger with you than it is with me. :D

Last day FTW... and the power books can have

Well... today is the day. (Did you know that FTW means "for the win"? I learned that from Lisa and Laura. You learn something every day. Thanks ladies, hehe!) We only have until 4:00 pm MST to try and get 20 more followers so that I can pick a winner for the signed paperback of WINGS. (It's looking pretty grim to get to 100 for the hardback of SPELLS.) If we don't make it though, that's okay. I really appreciate all the new followers that have signed up in the last week, and I promise to give y'all another chance at a giveaway soon. The best part is that existing followers will get two entries automatically in the next one. So keep an eye out for that...

As for me, I'm feeling better thank heavens. I think I should be back to full health tomorrow. Revisions are going well, which is always nice. I caught up to what my agent has sent me so far last night, so I got to take a little break today and read something else. I'm wondering... do books affect you like they affect me? When I was younger, a depressing book or movie could make me upset literally for days. Sometimes even more than a week if it was truly powerful. Not like crying constantly the whole time, but just down. Unable to stop thinking about it. I'm a little bit better at not letting things get to me so deeply these days (I don't have time to be down and crying all day about a character in a book dying when my 5 year old wants to play tag, and the 1 year old is dumping out the whole box of Teddy Grahams in the drawer, or whatever chaos is ensuing that particular day). However, sometimes they are sad enough to still get to me.

The book I just read was for a neighborhood book club, and not one I would normally pick up. Why? Because it's about the holocaust. Holocaust books are very, very hard for me to read; I know because of how many I've read. What happened during WWII is horrifying. I finally had to stop reading books about it, or be careful about which ones I picked because I'd get so depressed an upset afterwards. And this one in particular is about a part of the holocaust I've never known before (which is somewhat horrifying in and of itself). It's called SARAH'S KEY, and it was (not surprisingly) very depressing, but also very good.

It taught me a ton about France's role in the holocaust. But it though it was an easy read (as in, a fast read) it was also incredibly hard to read because of what happened. I know Sarah is fictional. I know her little brother being locked in the cupboard is fictional. (That's not a spoiler, it's on the jacketflap.) But I personalize things. I kept imagining my little 4 year old boy (who barely turned five) being in that cupboard, waiting for his sister to come back. I kept imagining feeling how devastated beyond all comprehension and words it would be to have been those mothers locked into camps with their helpless children. They had no food or water or provisions and then they were cruelly, brutally torn away from their babies, toddlers, and children and shipped off to Auschwitz to die. Despite how hard it was to read though, I'm glad I did. It was powerful and a reminder of what happened. (Just as a disclaimer if anyone wants to read it, be warned there are disturbing images, and some language in this book.)

So I'm curious. What books have you read throughout your life that have never left you? The ones that made you feel emotions so deeply that you felt like the characters were real? The ones that left you haunted or hurting, or maybe in a good way--jubilant and uplifted--by their stories, real or fictional?

That's what I love the most about books, the power to take you places, to teach you things, and to make characters become as real to you as your own family and friends. Books are powerful. Words are powerful. Don't you think?

First official CONTEST!!

Okay... I'm in a great mood--I had an awesome workout followed by a complimentary massage at the gym this morning, and I decided to pay forward the happiness. Who likes contests? Anyone? Anyone? he he he :-)

So here it is. There will be two possible levels of "winningness" (yes, I made that word up). Level one: If I can reach 60 followers on or before Thursday, May 13 I will be giving out a brand new (possibly even signed) paperback copy of WINGS by Aprilynne Pike. That's pretty nice, right? Not as nice as level two... which is this: If I can reach 100 followers on or before Thursday, May 13 by 4:00 pm MST, I will be giving away a brand new, just released, signed copy of SPELLS by Aprilynne Pike--the sequel to WINGS!!

I know this is a lofty goal, but I'm not rolling in the dough over here (ha ha, I wish! Maybe someday... then I can hand out all sorts of books!), so I figure I needed to make it a pretty worthwhile goal to reach. Why May 13, you ask? Aprilynne will be coming to my neck of the woods to do an author signing that night, and I will buy a book and have it signed to you that night!! All followers will get one entry. If you post an announcement and link to my blog on FB, your blog, or Twitter, please put that in a comment and you will get an extra entry! On Thursday, May 13 at 4:30 pm MST I will put all the entries in the random number generator and pick a lucky winner! But you have to get me to 60 or 100 followers first! Can we do it?? I hope so! Spread the word and see if we can make it in time!

Happy contesting!

P.S. Check out Elana Johnson's, Natalie Whipple's, and Lisa & Laura's blogs for some great posts and giveaways on some of their favorite books!