What I'm excited about and what gives me hives

Dear one and a half readers:

And now for a list:

Things I'm not excited about:

1. Revisions! Ba da bing. I could say I'm thrilled to do revisions and the words flow right off my fingers with perfectly formed sentences, but I would be lying. I do like the after-glow though, so yay.

2. The 200 mosquito bites all over my legs. Don't ask.

3. Writing two novels at once. A novel and a series, actually. Well, I'm sort of excited, but mostly scared to death and ready to dive under the covers with a bag of Skittles and a bottle of tequila.

Things I'm very excited about:

1. Revisions! Yes, I'm Schizo. I mean, sometimes revising for the three-hundreth time is fun. Plus, if it makes the novel better, then I'm all over it.

2. I've lost another three pounds. Yee ha. I'm not fat, but I have this sick, sick goal of wanting to be a just a bit underweight, so then I can eat here and there and not feel disgusting if I've gained a few pounds. I'm sorry. I know it's completely wrong.

3. My Ipad. It makes me happy, okay?

3a. The $101 refund I just received from ebay for the enormously over-sized fake sneakers from China.

4. The YA series I'm writing that Super-Nova Agent, Catherine, just loves. It's super-secret and promises to kick ass. I don't exaggerate. I'll reveal the name of it in another post. Oh, but then it won't be secret. Hmm. Must. Think.

5. WriteonCon, starting tomorrow. Yippers. I'll be lurking, but I'm excited about this great online conference organized by Elana Johnson, Laura and Lisa Roecker and many other brilliant authors who I know and others I'm hoping to get to know. Plus, Super-Nova agent will be making an "appearance."

Here's a description of the really cool happenings from the website:

WriteOnCon is an online writer's conference for kidlit writers. For more details you can check our about page. Write On Con will take place Tuesday – Thursday, August 10 – 12, 2010.
Interested in working with the writers of WriteOnCon for the conference? Check out our contact page. Finally, if you have any questions, hop on over to our FAQ section or shoot us an email at writeoncon at gmail dot com.

And a link to the schedule in case you need more convincing, but I know you don't: http://writeoncon.com/about/schedule/

Well, I have to keep this one short, people. Gotta write that rock-the-publishing-world-series, you know! So do tell: what are you looking forward to?

Book Cover Land

 I came across this fascinating article by Elizabeth Bluemle in PW Shelf Talker about book covers, a favorite topic over here in Fictionistaville.

In it, YA author, Nancy Werlin, (I'm fan-girling here!), gives us the actual exchange she had with her editor and designers about the cover for her upcoming novel, EXTRAORDINARY. It's fun to watch the process. Read it and see what you think. I knew my favorite from the moment I saw it. http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/shelftalker/?p=1788&cpage=1#comment-8780

Here's the final cover. Totally stunning isn't it? I love it. I'm a cover whore, though, so give me anything and I'll pretty much love it. The scrolly font of the book title isn't something I usually like, but in this case it really works. Anyway, check out the above link. 

Oh, I just realized you needed to see how pretty the first book in the series is and how well these two go together. Ta Da! Below the green one is the first one. I hope Nancy Werlin doesn't mind me showing these.

Still do read the article. You'll see how an editor, author and publishing house think when coming up with covers.

Don't they make you want to frolick in your prom dress in a field somewhere and drink a wine? The only problem in real life is that designer dresses and heals can get banged up when it's sweltering hot, and crickets and ticks and are waiting to leap into your hair.

But, hey, it's fiction and that's why we love it.
Congratulations on your beautiful covers, Nancy.     

More fascinating covers and cover discussions:

http://www.faceoutbooks.com

http://www.melissacwalker.com

http://readergirlz.blogspot.com/

I suck at updates

Sometimes it takes me a while to get where I'm going. Oh, you too? Then you'll know what I'm talking about. Yay. I knew we were practically twins.

Well here's my update. (I apologize to my one and a half readers for being late,) but you guys probably already know by now because it was on the national news (heh) that I'm.... agented! Yes, it's true. Squee! Yes, I know, I know: what did I do to deserve this? I have no clue.

But the birds are singing and my heart is still fluttering because not only am I agented by Super-Nova Agent, Catherine Drayton of Inkwell Management, but she also happens to represent Marcus Zuzak (THE BOOK THIEF)--hello?--as well as the mega-talented, New York Times Bestselling author,  Becca Fitzpatrick of HUSH, HUSH and now CRESCENDO fame, and LiLa, the hilarious and charming sister-writing team of Lisa and Laura Roecker of the upcoming sure-to-be-a-bestseller, LIAR SOCIETY, a super-hot, quick-witted mystery with a sleuth that will rock your world while giving great advice on fashion and pearls. (I did not mean for that to rhyme.)

Anyhoo, I had FIVE AGENT OFFERS (I'm still screaming it because I'm still blown away) last Fall, yet Catherine was the one who stole my heart. Every agent who offered was quality and fantastic, and I'll be writing more about all of this very soon.

I just wanted to restart this blog and tell you all about it, because we writers need to get out there so people will know who we are. So here I am, the Apple Fictionista blogging again. A little late, but better later than never.

Now to figure out how to do links and stuff. Oh, and so the moral of this post is this: Never give up, dammit. Just wait until you hear more of how I got those five offers. It was seriously serendipitous. Oh, and I'm on submission, while writing a new series. More soon!