What's Been Going On Lately
What's NOT been going on lately? Blogging. Sorry about that. I'm sure you're not too broken up about it.
What HAS been going on lately? Writing.
I've completed a first draft of my brand new contemporary young adult novel. It's with my critique partners as I type. Yes, my fingers are covered in band-aids. You know me so well.
I love this book. I love it with as much love as CRACKED and EMPTY. That's a crap-ton of love.
My main character is severely flawed, which is the nicest way to say it. Quite frankly, she is a vapid wench. A series of tragic life events deepens her ugliness as a human.
But she has a heart.
It just needs to be excavated.
Even typing it out in such a teaser-like-manner makes me happy. I. Love. This. Book.
Moving on.
You know what else I've been doing lately. Events.
Sweet mother. October was what I deemed "Event Mania" (there were 9!!), and I'm calling November "The Month of New Author Experiences in Which I Have to Create A Lot of Stuff".
I've created and run a three hour workshop for Chester County, PA school librarians on the topic,
Books + Librarians = How To Change The Climate of Your School
Build Community, Foster Kindness, Tackle Bullying
I'm really proud of this 1)because I tackled mountains of nerves to pull it off 2) the immediate response and feedback I got that day was overwhelmingly positive, which made the hours and hours it took to plan the workshop worth it.
I was supposed to give a speech to the Main Line Moms & More group on the topic, Bullying From Both Sides: Fiction and Non-Fiction but it got postponed due to the snow. I still had to write the speech though. I'm looking forward to this one!!
I'm giving a speech for TEDx *gulp* which will be filmed, and I'll be in front of a live audience of one hundred. My topic: The Power of Human Kindness. While I've given this speech before, and in front of five hundred and fifty additional audience members, I've never been filmed.
And lastly, November has me doing a teleconference workshop (a first for me) through Writing For Children Live.com on the topic: Writing YA: How to Let the Characters' Voices Take Over and Keep You Silent The event on November 28th at 7 PM is FREE, but you must pre-register, which you can do HERE.
Despite this busy new lifestyle, you'll never hear me complain. This is what I queried 2.5 years for. This is what I cried for. Dreamt about.
To any of my readers out there wanting something: keep fighting for your dreams. I'm here to remind you how badly you want it - whatever "it" is.
Onward, my friends.
What HAS been going on lately? Writing.
I've completed a first draft of my brand new contemporary young adult novel. It's with my critique partners as I type. Yes, my fingers are covered in band-aids. You know me so well.
I love this book. I love it with as much love as CRACKED and EMPTY. That's a crap-ton of love.
My main character is severely flawed, which is the nicest way to say it. Quite frankly, she is a vapid wench. A series of tragic life events deepens her ugliness as a human.
But she has a heart.
It just needs to be excavated.
Even typing it out in such a teaser-like-manner makes me happy. I. Love. This. Book.
Moving on.
You know what else I've been doing lately. Events.
Sweet mother. October was what I deemed "Event Mania" (there were 9!!), and I'm calling November "The Month of New Author Experiences in Which I Have to Create A Lot of Stuff".
I've created and run a three hour workshop for Chester County, PA school librarians on the topic,
Books + Librarians = How To Change The Climate of Your School
Build Community, Foster Kindness, Tackle Bullying
I'm really proud of this 1)because I tackled mountains of nerves to pull it off 2) the immediate response and feedback I got that day was overwhelmingly positive, which made the hours and hours it took to plan the workshop worth it.
I was supposed to give a speech to the Main Line Moms & More group on the topic, Bullying From Both Sides: Fiction and Non-Fiction but it got postponed due to the snow. I still had to write the speech though. I'm looking forward to this one!!
I'm giving a speech for TEDx *gulp* which will be filmed, and I'll be in front of a live audience of one hundred. My topic: The Power of Human Kindness. While I've given this speech before, and in front of five hundred and fifty additional audience members, I've never been filmed.
And lastly, November has me doing a teleconference workshop (a first for me) through Writing For Children Live.com on the topic: Writing YA: How to Let the Characters' Voices Take Over and Keep You Silent The event on November 28th at 7 PM is FREE, but you must pre-register, which you can do HERE.
Despite this busy new lifestyle, you'll never hear me complain. This is what I queried 2.5 years for. This is what I cried for. Dreamt about.
To any of my readers out there wanting something: keep fighting for your dreams. I'm here to remind you how badly you want it - whatever "it" is.
Onward, my friends.
