What's next?? (HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT!)

I've had so many of my fans and readers asking me "what's next?" and it has been SO hard to bite my tongue and keep this secret...I've been sitting in this announcement for months but I finally get to share my big news!

I sold a new duology to Scholastic for publication in Summer 2017!

DARK BREAKS THE DAWN is being pitched as GRACELING meets SWAN LAKE and I can't wait to share Evelayn's story with you all!

I've always loved the music and story of Swan Lake, and I've tried to do a retelling of it multiple times over the last six or seven years, but it just never seemed to work or come together the way I hoped. Until last summer. I was going through a difficult time. In talking about it, one person asked me, "how did you come up with the idea for DEFY?" I explained that I had merely been trying to put into words what I was feeling after Josh passed away, and he suggested I try the same thing, only for the new situation I was in at that time. And suddenly, it all clicked! My Swan Lake idea finally had the right characters and the right world and the right plotline - and I sold it a few months later to my editor at Scholastic!

It has been so fun to explore a new world and go on this adventure with these characters. And I'm very visual so I've put together a Pinterest Board of images that inspired me while plotting and drafting this series.  Here are a few to whet your interest: CLICK HERE to see the full board

And last but not least, my perfect Evelayn:

If you want to see more, check the board out by CLICKING HERE!

Signing my new contract!

And here's the official announcement!!

Can't wait to share more soon!! :-)

A triumphant return to bloggerville

So... it's been kinda quiet around here recently. Sorry about that. This summer has kicked my trash and I can hardly believe it's almost over! Deadlines and kids and vacations and birthdays and everything you can possibly imagine took up every last second of my time, and unfortunately my blog had to be one of the things that kind of fell by the wayside. 

BUT. 

I'm back!! Or, at least, I hope I can get my act together enough to be back! At least once a week! (Aim high, my friends, aim high.)

Anyway...

At least I'm returning with a bang! Yep, that's right. Awesome stuff has been afoot in my absence. (Prepare yourself for much capitalization and usage of the dreaded exclamation point...)

FEAST YOUR EYES ON THIS!!!!

*DRUM ROLL PLEASE*

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I got a little package in the mail recently...!

 YES - those are my ARCs of DEFY!!!!!!

 HOLY SMOKES! IT'S A REAL BOOK!

 Yes, I am a nerd. But how could I resist?? I mean, seriously. That thing is GORGEOUS.

 Yes, SHH loves them, too...

And you may have noticed a little somethin' somethin' on the front...

I can finally share one of my happy secrets: YES! That is a blurb from MARIE LU!!!! I about died of happiness when I found out she had read it and loved it enough to blurb my book. I still can't quite believe it, honestly. (THANK YOU AGAIN MARIE!!)

Well, so as not to overwhelm you with pictures and rambling and a plethora of exclamation points and stuff, I will stop there. But stay tuned! I will recap my amazing trip to NYC soon!

For now... just join me in drooling over my ARCs some more. Come on, you know you wanna! ;-)

THE post!

I've been staring at this blank screen for ... well, a while now. There are so many things I could say today--things I want to say. But I honestly don't know how to put into words what I'm feeling right now. Ironic, considering that words are what I use for a living.

I've already said much of what has lead me to this point before in THIS post, or THIS one, or even THIS SERIES of posts, way back in the distant past detailing my path to getting my first agent. (That link is the first post, I think I did it in 5 parts or something crazy like that. Also, I probably sound incredibly naive in those posts, so don't judge too harshly!)


It's been a long, long road.



BUT.


SOMETHING BIG HAPPENED.

Since I'm struggling to figure out what to write, instead of words, I'll use images. Today, this post is about something that makes me feel like this:




 And this:




And now, finally, I get to share this from Publisher's Weekly:

Lisa Sandell at Scholastic Press has bought Sara B. Larson's Defy, a debut YA adventure romance pitched as in the vein of Kristin Cashore and Leigh Bardugo. In the novel, the fiercest member of a prince's elite guard is actually a girl disguised as a boy, who gets embroiled in a deadly game of thrones while keeping her secret, and realizes she has far deeper feelings for the prince than she thought. The book will pub in spring 2014; Josh Adams at Adams Literary brokered the deal for North American rights.

I've been dying to share this news for a while and now I finally get to! AAAGGGHH!!!! ALL THE HAPPINESS!!!

When I got the call from Josh, he asked me how I was doing and then said, "Well, you're going to be published!"

I thought I'd do this:



And this:



Which I totally did... eventually. But when he said that to me, before I even knew who or what, I think I said, "I am?" and then did this:



And then when I found out who and what I did this:


(Except, they were ECSTATIC tears... But the ice cream is really appropriate because my hubby brought home ice cream to celebrate!)

Tears of joy, tears of relief... I'm sure Josh thought I was crazy.


But after my tears dried, there definitely was a lot of this:




Wow, that's a whole lot of emotion, right??

Guys, I am so so thrilled to be working with Lisa and to have my book published by Scholastic! It's an absolute dream come true!! And I can't wait to share DEFY with you! (This is the book I wrote last August, that used to be called Daughter of War--I'm pretty sure I talked about it in one of those posts I linked above.) I still can't quite believe it's going to be a real book, on a shelf, in my hands--possibly in your hands--in about a year! SQUEEE!!!! *happy dance* *all the tears of joy in the world*

 See? Here's me and my ice cream (after the happy tears had dried up), after I got my offer, with a nice little placement of a decoration beside me. In case you can't read it, it says "BELIEVE."

And here I am just last week, signing my contract!

I will do a post soon about all of the celebrations that have taken place over the last couple of months, including the amazing gift my sweet hubby gave me (other than ice cream). And I'll probably talk a lot about not giving up, and and inspirational shtuff like that. Because, let's face it, this is me we're talking about.

But for now, all I have to say is:



WOOOHOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!