Monday, October 8, 2012

NaNoWriMo declaration

I'm making it official and saying that I will be participating in NaNoWriMo 2012. Not only am I going to participate but I am going to try my darndest to hit 50k.

NaNo and I have had a pretty lackluster relationship in the past. I first flirted with the idea in 2009 but it was mainly because I felt like everyone I knew was doing it and I wanted to do it to (score one for peer pressure without peers doing any pressuring). Then in 2010 the fabulous Irene Latham told me that everyone has a story to tell, so that's when I decided that I would try and tell my stories. Life happened and November got away from me.

NaNo 2011 was a lot better. I actually felt prepared after doing some outlining and thinking about my idea. I got off to a strong start and got about 10k in and hit some sort of wall. I hadn't outlined as well as I had thought and I was so lost as to where my story was going to go. I had a beginning and an end but the middle just wasn't working out for me so I gave up.

I know I should've kept going but that's why I'm determined to punch NaNo 2012 in the face. I have a LOT of work to do in the remaining weeks before November 1st but I'm willing because I really want this to be my year. I've got my trusty composition notebook and my pen ready to spill its ink in preparation.

Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? What are you doing to prepare?


Tuesday, October 2, 2012

I'd like my Sultry with a Twist

Happy October!

I can't believe I'm saying that. This year has gone by so unbelievably fast but I'm not complaining because it just means that the day has come where I can finally say congratulations to my friend Macy Beckett (AKA Melissa Landers in the YA world) on the official birthday of her debut book baby, Sultry with a Twist!


If you know me, AT ALL, you know that YA is the genre I primarily read but when someone in your writing group gets a book deal, genre doesn't matter. You support them because you know exactly what they went through and just how hard they worked to get to that point and you know they deserve to do well.

YOU GUYS.

Macy/Melissa is a sugary ROCKSTAR. I read this book two months ago thanks to NetGalley and I absolutely adored it. It's sweet, fun, witty, sexy, and the writing is fantastic. I may not have picked this book up if I didn't know her (I don't find myself wandering the romance section. ever.) but I can say that I would be missing out. I do know that even if I didn't know Melissa, I would be recommending this book to people and already have a list of people I want to gift this book to.

Not only did I love the inside of this book, I loved the outside. Sourcebooks did an amazing job on this beautiful cover and what I like most about it is that they actually let readers vote on the cover. The three options they originally had weren't that great and now that I've read the book, they didn't match at all. I think it takes a pretty fantastic publisher to redesign the cover based on what readers suggested.

So, Congratulations Melissa! Your baby is officially out in the wild and I can't wait for my copy to arrive. I know it's going to be one of many with your name on it to live on my bookshelves.

Want a little taste of Melissa's sense of humor? Check out this awesome anti-trailer she made.