Anyway, I managed to remember and got in here to blog.

Not a lot has happened, apart from yesterday Amanda and I spent the day preparing for our YA workshop at the Australian conference in 2 weeks and six days. And also creating a very pretty raffle prize (which, seeing as neither of us are creative, was a huge achievement in itself). I’m so looking forward to going…. I’ve never been to Sydney before and can’t wait to see the sights. And of course hearing Deb Dixon on Goal, Motivation and Conflict is going to be the most awesome experience ever. It’s an area that I think I understand until one of my CPs points something out and I realise that maybe I don’t!

Talking of CPs at the moment we’re on a writing 1k a day stint,  and for every time a person misses the target that means they have to buy the other two a drink at conference…. now I know we’ll be doing that anyway but it still seems to be a great incentive. And I’m in charge of recording our progress…. I have my sheet of paper and tick off each day when each person meets their word count. I have the added pressure of having to get my words done before Masterchef…. a new series has started (Australian version) and I LOVE it!!!

Not as much as Glee though, which annoyingly is finishing next week, as are so many of my favorite TV series. Luckily, I got the first two series of Bing Bang Theory for my birthday so I’ve been filling up on those, it has to be the funniest program on TV.

Okay, I’m off to start on my 1k words for today…. as well as the usual motel work which needs doing…. wish me luck!!!!

Other exciting news, I’ve just signed with the awesome Amy Tipton of Signature Literary Agency, and already my book is out on submission.

Getting really excited because it’s only 5 weeks until we go to the RWAus conference in Sydney. I’ve never been to Sydney before and we’ve scheduled in a little sight-seeing time….. can’t wait to see the Opera House. And also really excited about doing the Deb Dixon workshop on Goal, Motivation and Conflict. And then there’s the matter of our workshop….. we’ve prepared some slides (because the conference organisers needed them for the conference packs) but other than that we haven’t done any more preparation….. nor have we bought the chocolate (which is most important). We’ve found the promise of sweets (candy/lollies) works well when enticing people to attend…..

Hope you all have a great weekend…. I’m hanging out for some sunshine, we’ve had way too much rain and cloud recently.

I’m excited to be touring Jenny O’Connell and her two books Local Girls and Rich Boys

There are two kinds of people on the island— those who leave at summer’s end… and those who are left behind.

Bestselling author Jenny O’Connell presents a sizzling series for summer. Her first two Island Summer novels, LOCAL GIRLS and RICH BOYS highlight the lives of the summering visitors, the year-round locals living in the beach towns of Martha’s Vineyard, and the fireworks that explode when they combine for three steamy months.
In LOCAL GIRLS, friendships are in danger of ending with the summer. Kendra and Mona are best friends, local girls who spend their summers catering to rich tourists and the rest of the year chafing against small-town life. Then Mona’s mom marries one of the island’s rich summer visitors, and Mona joins the world of the Boston elite, leaving Kendra and Martha’s Vineyard behind. When Mona returns the following summer, everything is different.

Unlike his sister, Mona’s twin brother Henry hasn’t changed. He’s spending his summer the way he always has: with long, quiet hours fishing. Early mornings before work become special for Kendra as she starts sharing them with Henry, hoping he can help her figure Mona out. Then Kendra hatches a plan to prove she’s Mona’s one true friend: uncover the identity of the twins’ birth father, a question that has always obsessed Mona. And so she begins to unravel the seventeen-year-old mystery of the summer boy who charmed Mona’s mother. But it may prove to be a puzzle better left unsolved–as what she is about to discover will change their lives forever…
In RICH BOYS, Winnie jumps at the chance to babysit for a wealthy summer family and earn some extra money—but soon learns that life in the Barclay’s beautiful vacation home isn’t as perfect as it appears. And what was supposed to be a carefree summer quickly becomes more complicated than she ever thought possible.

Learn how you can win an Island Summer t-shirt – just in time for the beach. Go to http://jennyoconnell.blogspot.com and enter to win today! And learn more about LOCAL GIRLS and RICH BOYS at www.jennyoconnell.com.

Bio
Jenny O’Connell received her BA from Smith College and her MBA from the University of Chicago. The author of PLAN B and THE BOOK OF LUKE, she lives outside of Boston with her family.

Before I start I’d just like a little moan…. actually a big one……… THE WEATHER!!! Okay, I know it’s winter, but really we might as well be back in the UK it’s been so freakin’ cold. I swear the other morning it was negative 4 or something. And yes at times it does get very nice during the day and we have blue sky and sun but even so. And as soon as the sun goes in the temperature drops about 10 degrees. Still, only a year to go before we move to Australia and the Sunshine Coast…. omg I’m counting the days.

Okay, back to me………………… I’ve been really busy finishing off my latest manuscript, which is much more edgy and gritty than my other stuff, but I loved writing it so much. As long as there’s no blood. I can’t do or read anything with blood in it…. which means most of the Vampire books have passed me by, with the exception of House of Night series and the first Twilight book.  Anyway, so I’m now working on a new idea, just as edgy and gritty and again I think from a boy point of view.

What else……………. well, it’s only 7 weeks to the Australian conference, which reminds me Amanda and I need to get our workshop prepared. We’re doing one on YA which will be fun, and of course there will be lots of chocolate and candy to go round………. a YA workshop isn’t a YA workshop without it.  I’m trying not think of the 10lbs I want to lose in the interim.

And another exciting thing about conference is it’s just before the publication of our CP Christina Phillips debut book, which is awesome. Last year at the NZ conference when we last saw Christina she’d just signed with her agent and her book was out on submission, since then she sold a two book deal and now it’s coming out………….. I’m just wondering now if she had sold by conference, my bad memory is legendary so I’ll wait to be corrected!!

I think that’s about it.

Have a great weekend!

I know I’ve been slack at blogging recently… promise to get better soon….

Other news…. well, I’m writing up a storm which is very exciting. It’s different from my usual style and I’m LOVING writing it…. who knew I had such a dark side????? My crit partners would probably say they did, it just took a while for me to realize.

Not a lot else to say, unless you want me to bore you about the weather, and how much I’m hanging out to move to Australia (of course it’s not on my mind every minute of every day, whatever gave you that idea?).

Have a fabulous week, wherever you are!

It gives me great pleasure to be touring Jeri Smith-Ready and her latest book SHADE (how awesome is the cover).

About the Book:

Love ties them together.

Death can’t tear them apart.

Best. Birthday. Ever. At least, it was supposed to be. With Logan’s band playing a critical gig and Aura’s plans for an intimate after-party, Aura knows it will be the most memorable night of her boyfriend’s life. She never thought it would be his last.

Logan’s sudden death leaves Aura devastated. He’s gone.

Well, sort of.

Like everyone born after the Shift, Aura can see and hear ghosts. This mysterious ability has always been annoying, and Aura had wanted nothing more than to figure out why the Shift happened so she can undo it. But not with Logan’s violet-hued spirit still hanging around. Because dead Logan is almost as real as ever. Almost.

It doesn’t help that Aura’s new friend Zachary is so understanding—and so very alive. His support means more to Aura than she cares to admit.

As Aura’s relationships with the dead and the living grow ever complicated, so do her feelings for Logan and Zachary. Each holds a piece of Aura’s heart…and clues to the secret of the Shift.

And now for the usual questions:

What inspired the plot for your book?

It originally started as an idea for a world where the existence of
ghosts had been proven, and a law firm that specialized in wrongful
death suits.  As tickled as I was by my cheesy tagline, “I sue dead
people,” the idea went nowhere without a main character or a
compelling story to give it life.  (Besides, I know zilch about law,
so it wouldn’t have gotten far.  It wasn’t until the main character of
16-year-old Aura Salvatore came into the picture that the story took
off.  I thought hey, what if all people her age and younger could see
ghosts?  And then the biggest part of the story of all: what if her
boyfriend died and become a ghost?

Why did you decide to write in this genre?

Going from adult to young adult urban fantasy was a very natural path
for me to take, because all of my books have a young focus.  My Aspect
of Crow fantasy trilogy had 16 and 18-year-old protagonists, and the
heroine of my vampire books, WICKED GAME and BAD TO THE BONE, is only
24 and has a very young, contemporary voice.  My adult books have a
large teen readership because of these factors.

More important, in writing for teens, I get to focus on the elements
of storytelling I enjoy most and that I think I’m best at: character
development and voice, especially dialogue.  Writing for teens usually
requires a faster pace, and I’m all for that.  Whether I’m writing for
adults or teens (and I will continue to do both), I believe in following
Elmore Leonard’s #1 rule of writing: leave out the boring parts.

What is your writing process like?

Hmm, it tends to be different for each book, because each book forces
me to learn how to write a novel all over again.  But here’s the usual
process:
1. Set unrealistically high word count goals.
2. Meet those goals for roughly two weeks.
3. Burn out.  Panic.  Despair.
4. Re-examine plot, make changes to the outline, and move on with a
more realistic deadline.
5. Finish filthy first draft and send to critique partners, praying
they don't wonder which hole my talent crawled into to die.
6. Do massive overhaul second draft.  This is where the real writing
happens for me, where I discover the true story.
7. Submit to editor.
8. Repeat as necessary until I can look at myself in the mirror and
honestly say the book is as good as it can ever possibly be.

What are you working on now?

I’m writing the sequel to SHADE, called SHIFT, which will be out in
May 2011.  I also just finished page proofs on the third book in my
adult vampire series, BRING ON THE NIGHT, which comes out in August.
I can’t wait to see what fans of the series think of this instalment!
As soon as I turn in SHIFT, I'll be finishing the rough draft of the
fourth, still-searching-for-a-title vampire book.

What do you do when you're not writing?

I love to play with my dog or cats.  They totally live in the moment
and get so thrilled over the smallest things.  Our kitten recently
saw her first millipede.  She celebrated by jumping over it five or
six times in a row, chirping as she leaped, then doing a little dance. 
So far she hasn’t worked up the courage to actually touch one.

Who do you like to read?

What I really enjoy most these days are non-paranormal humorous books,
usually with romance or at least romantic elements. My current faves are
Victoria Dahl’s contemporary romances (her historicals are
wonderful, too, and I don’t usually read historicals) and Caprice
Crane’s romantic comedies (especially STUPID AND CONTAGIOUS). I also
really love Nick Hornby and Carl Hiaasen. Neil Gaiman is still my
all-time favorite author.

In YA, some of my favorites are Jennifer Echols, Stephanie Kuehnert,
Lisa McMann, and Lisa Schroeder.  My favorite books this year are THE
SKY IS EVERYWHERE by Jandy Nelson, SPLIT by Swati Avasthi, and WILL
GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON, by David Levinthal and John Green, two of my
other favorite YA writers.  I just got my hands on ARCs of Jennifer
Lyn Barnes’s RAISED BY WOLVES and Jackie Morse Kessler’s HUNGER.
Can’t wait to read them!

Bio:

Award-winning author Jeri Smith-Ready lives in Maryland with her husband, two cats, and the world’s goofiest greyhound.

Jeri’s plans to save the earth were ruined when she realized she was more of a “problem maker” than a problem solver. To stay out of trouble, she keeps her Drama Drive strictly fictional. Her friends and family appreciate that.

When not writing, Jeri she can usually be found—well, thinking about writing, or on Twitter. Like her characters, she loves music, movies, and staying up very, very late.

Jeri loves to hear from readers, so please visit her at www.jerismithready.com, or even better, on Facebook (www.facebook.com/jerismithready) or Twitter (http://twitter.com/jsmithready), where she spends way too much time.

Praise for SHADE:

“Shade is a hauntingly good story and an intriguing beginning to a new series. Jeri Smith-Ready proves again why she is one of my very favorite reads! — PC Cast, New York Times-bestselling author of the House of Night series

“The perfect combination of mystery, ghosts and romance, Shade left me breathless.” — Lisa Schroeder, author of I Heart You, You Haunt Me and Chasing Brooklyn

“Smith-Ready changes the world completely by simply changing our ability to see.”  PW  Starred review

So, what’s it about:

When you mess with Karma, Karma messes back…

Madison Kasparkova always thought she understood how Karma works. Do good things and you’ll be rewarded, do something bad and Karma will make sure you get what you deserve. But when Maddy’s boyfriend cheats on her, nothing bad comes his way. That’s why Maddy starts the Karma Club, to clean up the messes that the universe has left behind and get back at the people who have wronged them. Sometimes, though, it isn’t wise to meddle with the universe. It turns out Karma often has plans of its own.

Check this out:

And now for the usual questions:

What inspired the plot for your book?

This was definitely one of those ideas that just “came” to me. A friend of mine had told me some horrendous story about how a boy dumped her (I don’t even remember the story, I just remember it was infuriating!) and the entire time she was talking, I kept thinking, “Someone needs to do that right back to him. He can’t just get away with that. He needs a taste of Karma!” And then boom, the idea came to me. A secret society of girls who help each other out, dosing out Karma to those who deserve it when the universe is slow to do it on its own. And thus THE KARMA CLUB was born. Of course, as soon as the idea came to me, I also knew that my characters would never be able to get away with it. Karma is a tricky thing. And you definitely don’t want to meddle with the universe!

Why did you decide to write in this genre?

It was a total fluke, actually. When I first came up with the idea, I thought about it as an adult novel. I had already written two other adult novels so it was the only thing I knew. But as I started fleshing out the story, I realized it didn’t fit at all in an adult world. It was much more of a teenage story. So I wrote out 50 sample pages, sent it to my agent and said, “Does this have any chance of becoming a YA novel?” She wrote loved it and told me I had a very natural voice for young adult. As it turned out, I loved writing it so much that I’ve since sold two more YA novels. I adore this genre. It just feels like a good fit with my writing and storytelling style. Maybe that’s because I’m still a teenager at heart. 

What is your writing process like?

Coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. LOL. The writing process is actually very random for me. It all depends on the day. Because I tend to be equally right and left brained, sometimes I feel as though the writing process is just a constant struggle (or sometimes clash) between the two sides of my brain to come up with a consistent way to write a novel. I write outlines, because my analytical side tells me it’s the right thing to do, but then halfway through the story, I come to the conclusion that I only write outlines so that I’ll have something to deviate from. And yet, despite this seemingly random chaos, it all feels perfectly natural to me. As if it was designed specifically for a purpose. So I suppose, my lack of a defined process is a process in itself!

What are you working on now?

I’m working on a new YA book that will be out in 2012 called 52 REASONS TO HATE MY FATHER about a teen heiress who is forced by her ever-absent mogul father to take on a different low-wage job every week for a year if she wants any hope of getting her trust fund. I’m SO excited about it! Plus, I just finished the copyedits on another book that will be out in 2011 called MY LIFE UNDECIDED. And I’m also working on a new YA series that I can’t quite talk about yet. But it’s gonna be SOOOO cool! What do you do when you’re not writing? Think about writing. LOL! Seriously though, when I’m in the middle of a book, it completely consumes me. I live that book. I inhabit that world. I react to things as my character would. It’s actually a really cool process and I love it.

Who do you like to read?

Anything and everything! But I tend to only read fiction. I’m not much of a non-fiction fan, unless it’s research for a book. I love stories. And voices. And fictional worlds. I love to read within my genre. My latest obsession: The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. OMG…best books ever!

Bio:

Jessica Brody is the author of two books for adults. The Karma Club is her first book for teens. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California where she is working on her next novel. Despite what some people from her high school might claim, she has never sought revenge on an ex-boyfriend. Visit her online at: http://www.jessicabrody.com

Free Flip Giveaway:

To celebrate the release of The Karma Club on April 27, Jessica is giving away FOUR Flip Video Cameras (as well as TONS of other cool prizes!) on her site. Visit her website, http://www.jessicabrody.com for all the details and to enter to win!

What’s a girl to do when the glass slipper fits, but she doesn’t want to wear it anymore?

Sixteen year old Jess Parker has always been an outsider. So when she receives an invitation to join The Cinderella Society, a secret society of the most popular girls in school, it’s like something out of a fairy tale. Swept up by the Cindys’ magical world of makeovers, and catching the eye of her Prince Charming, Jess feels like she’s finally found her chance to fit in.

Then the Wickeds–led by Jess’s arch-enemy–begin targeting innocent girls in their war against the Cindys, and Jess discovers there’s more to being a Cindy than reinventing yourself on the outside. She has unknowingly become part of a centuries-old battle of good vs. evil, and now the Cindys in charge need Jess for a mission that could change everything.

Overwhelmed, Jess wonders if The Cinderella Society made a mistake in choosing her. Is it a coincidence her new boyfriend doesn’t want to be seen with her in public? And is this glamorous, secret life even what she wants, or will she risk her own happy ending to live up to the expectations of her new sisters?

And now for the usual questions…..

What inspired the plot for your book?
The Cinderella Society actually came from a magazine article about high school sororities. I’d never heard of that before and, once I started thinking about the kind of society I would create if I could, I realized I would’ve wanted it to be an organization devoted to fighting the everyday battle of good vs. evil. It all snowballed from there and The Cinderella Society was born.

Why did you decide to write in this genre?
I’d been writing adult fiction for several years but never seemed to find my fit there. A friend suggested that my voice would be a great match for YA, but I hadn’t read YA since I was a teen! So I headed on down to my local library. The teen librarian suggested three books: The Princess Diaries, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and How My Private, Personal Journal Become a Bestseller. I took them home, devoured them, and knew that this was what I wanted to write. The rest is history!

What is your writing process like?
I’m a big planner in general, so I naturally fall on the plotting end of the plotting/pantsing spectrum. I plot every scene in advance. Not in great detail, just a paragraph or so laying out what the purpose of the scene is. It helps me make sure the story hangs together and makes writing the first draft a ton easier for me because I never have to worry about the What comes next? issue. And I tend to write myself into fewer corners that way. That’s a pet peeve of mine that makes me crazy, so avoiding it is a definite plus of my process.

What are you working on now?
Right now I’m working on the sequel to The Cinderella Society, titled Cindy on a Mission. It follows the further adventures of Jess and the Sisters as the Wickeds launch an offensive that threatens everything the Cindys hold dear. Cindy on a Mission will be on shelves in Spring 2011.

What do you do when you’re not writing?
Mostly try to catch up with life. What I enjoy doing in my free time is reading and watching Glee and FlashForward (both of which I absolutely adore).

Who do you like to read?
I’ve branched out a lot in my reading in the last year. I’ve been reading dystopians, fantasies and chick lit (the YA versions). I’ve also been reading some mysteries, some Dan Brown, and some women’s fiction when I want to escape into the adult world for a peek into someone else’s life. My favorite series/related books right now are by Ally Carter, Suzanne Collins and Kristin Cashore.

Bio:
Kay Cassidy is the author of teen fiction she wishes was based on her real life. She is the founder of the national Great Scavenger Hunt ContestTM reading program for kids and teens and the host of the inspirational Living Your FiveTM web project. In her free time, she enjoys yoga, movies, music, and reading. Lots and lots of reading. She hopes her debut YA novel, THE CINDERELLA SOCIETY (April 13, 2010 – Egmont), will help girls embrace their inner Cindy.

Also, the book is edgy. As in when I first told one of my CPs about it she had a huge ewwwww moment…. but thankfully she’s over it now! This too isn’t a problem, because even though I can’t watch anything with blood in it (this doesn’t have any) I love all things Criminal Minds-like and read books written by Allison Brennan and Brenda Novak which definitely have some ewwww factor.

No, the problem for me is the way I’m writing this book…. it’s seriously scary…..     I DON’T HAVE A SCENE SPREADSHEET.

I have a fairly detailed outline….. phew…. but nothing else. I’m just wondering if this signifies I’m moving over to the ‘fumbling in the dark’ other world, of which my two CPs are a part!!!!!

I’ll report further if anything else starts to happen to me, although one of my CPS says it already has as when I was on holiday I actually did some writing….. quite a lot…. at expense of my reading. I usually read a book a day when on holiday and over the whole two weeks I only read about 6 books…..

OMG…. what’s next….