I'm Going To A Conference!

I am super excited! Tomorrow morning I leave for Utah to attend the LDStorymakers Conference. This will be my second writers conference I've been to and I had such a great experience at the first one, I can't wait for this one.

 Plus, a bunch of my fellow bloggers and critique partners are going to be there! I can't wait to meet everyone. (FYI, I'm terrible with names so if I stare at you strangely don't think anything of it... I'm probably just trying to remember who you are. :) So please come up and introduce yourself.)

One of the best parts of going to a writer's conference is being a writer. I mean, the whole time I'm not a nurse, I'm a writer! And around others who share my passion. So, when I go spewing off about my books or how a character did this they won't get a glazed over look in their eye. They're interested. (Not that my family and friends haven't been supportive they have.)

Another this I love is learning the craft. For three days I get to sit and listen to people talk about one of my favorite subjects and learn at the same time.

Did I tell you I was excited! I can't wait. Hope to see you there! Next week I'll post and tell you all about it.

Have you been to a conference? What's your favorite part? Going to LDStorymakers?

Cassie Mae's Cover Reveal- FRIDAY NIGHT ALBI

Today I am honored to be able to share the cover of FRIDAY NIGHT ALIBI by the amazingly talented, Cassie Mae. It is being published by Flirt (division of Random House) on July 29th. 

I had the opportunity to read this book and I have to say, it's awesome. Cassie is an amazing storyteller. Her characters are multidimensional and jump of the page. And it's laugh-out-loud funny. Great job Cassie and beautiful cover!

 Rising star Cassie Mae introduces New Adult readers to a practical soon-to-be college freshman who seems to have everything—until a special guy shows her what she’s been missing.

 
In the wealthy town of Sundale, Kelli Pinkins has hatched the perfect plan to capitalize on her sweet reputation. For a generous fee, she will be every trust-fund baby’s dream: a Friday-night alibi, the “girlfriend” or “BFF” that parents dream about. With college approaching in the fall, Kelli’s services are in demand more than ever, which means that her social life is nonexistent. But Kelli is A-okay with that. She’s raking in cash for school. Besides, relationships are tricky, and sometimes very messy. She’d rather be at home on Xbox LIVE, anyway. Then the unexpected happens: She meets college stud Chase Maroney.
 
Chase isn’t like the preppy, privileged guys Kelli usually meets in Sundale. For starters, he’s twenty-something, always wears black., and he shoots back one-liners as fast as she can dish them out. But Kelli’s attempts to drive Chase away falter when she realizes that he treats her like he really knowsher, like he cares about knowing her. When Kelli finally gives in to the delicious kiss she’s been fighting for so long, she faces a tough decision: make Chase a real-life boyfriend and risk her heart . . . or keep her clients and lose her first true love.

Advance praise for Friday Night Alibi
 
“Totally entertaining with as many swoon-worthy moments as hilarious ones, Friday Night Alibi is a must-read.”—Jolene Perry, co-author of Out of Play
 “A fun, funny, and fantastic story, this is one you will read in a day, and pick up to re-read again the next.”—Kelley Lynn, author of Fraction of Stone

Pre-order Friday Night Alibi: 

Amazon  |  Barnes &Noble   |  Google Play  |  Random House

What do you think of the cover? Sound like something you'd like to read? Adding it to your TBR list?

IWSG: Bad Blogger

This is my post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. It's a group thought up by the ninja himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh. The group posts the first Wednesday of every month and is a wonderful way to support and get encouragement from and for your fellow writers. If you would like to join the group or see the other blogs that participate in it go HERE.

I feel bad. I have been a horrible blogger. I've barely posted and I haven't visited any blogs in awhile now. Why? Because I'm writing.

And I suppose that's a good thing...If it wasn't for my damn guilty conscience. I like to blog. I like to visit other peoples blogs. This writing community has taught me valuable things and given me priceless support. I've met my AMAZING critique group through it. The things I've received from blogging, couldn't be more meaningful to me.

But it's a MAJOR time suck. And I think everyone knows sometimes somethings got to give and unfortunately for me that something was my poor, sad, neglected blog.

And after all it's given me and all it's done for me, I feel bad neglecting it this way. But, what else can I do? I can't magically make more time in the day or less things for me to do.

So, yes, I'm a bad blogger.

I keep telling myself I'll post a blog today or visit some blogs tomorrow, but when I comes down to it...I'd rather write. So, thus my conundrum. I feel like a bad blogger, taking all the wonderful things blogging has given me and not returning anything.

So, here I go again. I'm going to try really hard to be around a little more. Blog at least once a week and visit other ones. But if I'm not around... you know where I am, writing cave. :)

Are you a bad blogger? Do you have a secret to balance?

Secondary Characters Bloghop

I'd like to announce the Secondary Characters Bloghop! Rachel Schieffelbein is hosting this bloghop in honor of her book, SECONDARY CHARACTERS, which comes out May 28th. Theresa Paolo, Kelley Lynn, Jenny Morris,  Suzi Retzlaff, and I are her cohosts for the bloghop and you can find info at any of our blogs.

Sometimes secondary characters steal the show, (or the book) and become our favorites. On May 22nd we want you to tell us about your favorite secondary characters from books or movies, or both!

Whether it's the funny best friend or that goofy kid next door,

we want to know what secondary characters

you just couldn't get enough of and why.

Theresa Paolo, Kelley Lynn, Jenny Morris,  Suzi Retzlaff, and I

are offering critiques as prizes!

These ladies are brilliant, wonderful critiquers. (If you get stuck with me, I'm sorry. :)

Rachel Schieffelbein is also planning on giving away a three chapter critique along with an ebook

 of Secondary Characters,

which releases on May 28th.

Cassie Mae and Kelley Lynn will also pick a winner to get either an ebook of

Reasons I Fell for the Funny Fat Friend, or a signed copy of Fraction of Stone.

So sign up on the linky list and start thinking about your favorite secondary characters!

Are you going to sign up? Sound like a fun bloghop? Know who you're going to write about already?

Author Interview- Kelley Lynn

I am so happy to have my wonderful and talented collab partner and CP on my blog today for an interview. And It just so happens to be her book birthday today! Happy book birthday Kelley!

JS:  Your first book FRACTION OF STONE is coming out today, March 21st. Can you tell us a little about it?
KL:  Sure! Here’s the book blurb! (Is that totally cheating?? Haha)

Wind tunnels, torrential rains and earthquakes tear apart Casden. The cause of the world’s imbalance is unknown, but the mounting occurrences suggest there’s little time before life ceases to exist.

Rydan Gale and Akara Nazreth are the only humans with the ability to wield magic. The tattoo on their necks and the discovery of an ancient book, dictate they are the key to the world’s survival.

But the greatest obstacle for saving mankind isn’t the bizarre creatures, extreme betrayals and magic-fearing men hunting them.

It’s that Akara doesn’t believe the world is worth saving.

JS:  How many books will be it this series?
KL:  There will be four books in the Fraction Series. I’ve been saying for a while that I need to start the second one. I’m totally excited to write it. To watch the characters grow further, fight more.

I should really start the second book. Haha 

JS:  How long did it take you to write this book?
KL:  The first draft took me ten days. It was my 2011 NaNo project. Of course it took a little while longer to make it shiny, but it was on submission come January 2012. 

JS:  How many query letters did you send out for FRACTION?
KL:  Oh heck. A million. Haha. Not quite, but it felt like that. I submitted it to every agent I thought it would be good for. I had many full requests, almost all ended with “This is a good piece of work, but Epic Fantasy is a hard sell right now.” It was hard to deal with the constant rejection and I had other work I was ready to submit so I thought I would just shelve it. After telling my CPs, they freaked and told me not to give up. So I sent it to a few small publishers. Sapphire Star Publishing replied to my query in a matter of days and requested the full. Three days later, they offered.

And to think, I had almost given up. 

JS:  How did you get the idea for FRACTION?
KL:  This is the only story (out of the nine I have written) that was inspired by a character, not an idea or concept. Akara’s character, so broken and depressed that there was absolutely no reason to live, came to me on a plane when I was struggling with my current NaNo project. I wrote the first chapter, not having any idea what the story would be about, just writing a chapter about Akara. The first chapter has had almost no revisions. 

JS:  When did you decide to write your first novel? 

KL:  I decided to write my first novel in 2011. It was a YA Dystopian (though at the time I had no idea that’s what it was.) It was just for fun, because I had an idea that wouldn’t leave me alone. Once it was done, I wondered what it would take to publish, so I Googled it.

And the journey began. (Not with that story however. That story needs MAJOR rewrites to see the light of day.) 

JS:  You have two other books out on submission. Can you tell us a little about them?
KL:  I’d love to!
One that’s on submission is ALREADY THERE, a YA Contemporary which I wrote with the uber talented Jenny Morris. It’s about two sisters and how even though they are completely different, their belief in the other gives them the confidence to face their futures.

The other is a solo project called THE CRICKET PROJECT, a YA Science Fiction. It takes the idea, ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’ literally. The United States government has developed the ability to take stars from the sky and use the energy to alter reality, granting any wish we desire. 

JS:  What are you working on now?
KL:  Well…I’m working on polishing a SUPER fun collab with the crazy talented owner of this blog :). And, as mentioned above, sometime soon I will start the sequel to FRACTION OF STONE. I promise. :)

JS:  What book has been your favorite to write?
KL:  Oh gosh. That’s like picking a favorite child. (I would imagine… as I don’t have any children. Haha) They’ve all been super fun. I can say that THE CRICKET PROJECT was the most difficult for me to write. Lyra (the main character) and I just didn’t get along right away. But we’ve worked it out now.

JS:  What advice would you give to any unpublished authors?
KL:  You can do it. I know that sounds cliché and cheesy, but it’s true. Through all the rejections I told myself that if I never gave up, eventually it would happen. Because I wasn’t going to stop until I made it.

Random Questions
Vanilla or chocolate?  Hmm, this depends. I LOVE chocolate. But if we’re talking ice cream or cake, I would choose vanilla with chocolate toppings :)
Coffee or tea?  Coffee, as long as its got a bunch of other stuff in it.
Beach or snow?  Beach, because that means I’m on vaca!
Last book read?  Ordinary Heroes by Scott Turow 

Favorite author?  Hmm, I don’t do the ‘favorite’ thing. The author who inspired me to write FRACTION OF STONE was Laini Taylor, who wrote DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE. She is a genius with the written language.
Most played song on iPod?  It’s always on shuffle but… while writing FRACTION OF STONE it was the newest album by Evanescence. That album is EPIC. 

Favorite movie?  Again, don’t do the favorites thing but one of the best I’ve seen recently was Silver Linings Playbook. I also really enjoyed Pitch Perfect. 

Outliner or panster?  Panster. Extreme panster.

Flats or heels?  Both
Lipstick or chapstick?  Chapstick

Eventually the day came when the voices in Kelley Lynn’s head were more insistent then her engineering professor’s. So instead of turning to her Thermodynamics book, Kelley brought up a blank page on her computer screen and wrote. Somewhere along the way she became a Young Adult author.

Kelley was born and raised a Midwestern girl. She’s not afraid to sweat and fills her free time with softball, soccer and volleyball. (Though you probably don’t want her on your volleyball team.) She occasionally makes guest appearances as a female vocalist for area bands. Music plays a large role in her writing process as well as the characters and plot lines within her stories.

You can find Kelley hanging out at her blog, titled in her name, as well as the group blog she shares with her fellow critique partners, Falling for Fiction. Kelley is a member of the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators.

FRACTION OF STONE is avalable at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Amazon Kindle.

Do you know Kelley? Adding her book to your TBR list? Already bought it?