Bitter End

Jennifer Brown has done it again!


I received my ARC in the mail last week, but was in the middle of another book, so I didn't get to crack Bitter End open until Sunday.

Here's my review:

Wow!

Okay, :) here's more:

Ms. Brown has taken another challenging subject -- relationship abuse -- and woven a story that is poignant, tragic, and gut-wrenching.

The story revolves around Alex, a senior in high school, who along with her two best friends (one a girl, the other a guy) is planning a graduation trip out to Colorado (the place her mom was headed before being killed in a tragic accident). But then, Cole starts at Alex's school, and she falls for him.

Hard.

Everything seems good about this new relationship at first, but little ugly jealousy heads start popping up and Cole starts to do things that go way beyond acceptable. But by the time Alex realizes she's being abused (physically and emotionally), she is so in love with the guy that she starts making excuses for him.

I read way too long into the night last night just to finish it. Trust me, the ending did not disappoint!

Way to go, again, Ms. Brown!

It was really fun to read the credits and see TS Ferguson's name (the editor who just free-lanced my book) there with a big thanks to him. Good job, TS!

Bitter End comes out in May. Publisher's Weekly gave a great review (and starred it) this week. Here's the link, if you're interested:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-316-08695-0


What's Up with Pearl Edda?

The agent emailed yesterday with a request for the most recent recent recent copy. I sent it last night. Fingers and toes still crossed. Seriously, it is in such a good place right now.

Hope. Hope. Hope.

It still needs a title.

Frost, Edda, and Messing with Fate are the top three choices (at least for me).

I Did It

Okay, I did it. I truly did it.

Writing Pearl Edda has been quite the adventure. Two years ago, an idea came into my head and I was forced to spew it out on the computer.

What did I know about writing a book?

Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Except that I always have known (well at least since 5th or 6th grade) that I loved YA books.

So, it really was no surprise that the story that came out of me was not meant for adults (although I've heard that adults like it), but for the young adult crowd.

What was surprising is that a book, a story, a complete novel was in me.

Me.

So I wrote. And wrote. And wrote some more.

And then I queried.

To those of you who are like me two years ago and don't know a whole lot about the publishing world, after one writes a book, if one wants to publish said book, one must find an agent to pitch the book to publishing houses.

A year and a half ago, I sent my first query. To Kristen Nelson (Hi, Kristen!). She promptly rejected it. Why? Probably many reasons, but the main reason is that the manuscript was not ready. Truly not ready. Embarrassingly not ready. (Sorry, Kristen.)

And I started to revise. And revise. And revise.

All the while, querying. (You're right, I didn't learn...Well, maybe I learned a lot through the process. Actually, I'm sure I did.)

Last summer, an agent requested the full manuscript. I whooped and hollered (afterall, I was in Montana at the time). And then she said no. But not really no.

Just a it's-too-long-I-can't-sell-it no.

Hmmmm....

So I revised. And revised. And revised.

And emailed that it was better if she wanted to read it again. And she responded with a yes, and she reread it, and she still thought it was too long. (I agreed.)

So she sent me to an editor. A really good editor. An editor who worked for a publishing house. An editor who gets glowing endorsements from authors.

And I emailed Pearl to him this evening.

And now I wait.

I can't believe I did it.

agents, and publisher, and facebook, oh, my...

Authonomy Update: 43!

agents, and publisher, and facebook, oh, my...

Pearl has had quite the roller coaster ride in the last couple of weeks.

First, I skyped with an agent and talked through Pearl's first chapter. He had read it and critiqued it, and this was a culminating exercise.

He had good things to say about the premise and had some insights on the writing (simpler is better). I think the meeting went well, but since he doesn't agent fantasy, he won't be picking up my book. Bummer. He seems like a really nice guy and would be good to work with.

So, these are some things I learned from the process:

1. Know your agent: This critique came from a seminar in Montana, and it was a very last minute submission, so I didn't have time to research Mark and find out if he would be a good fit for the book. Although, as stated, he was nice, if he doesn't rep my genre, he doesn't rep my genre.

2. Time is relevant in the publishing world: I submitted the first chapter in May, and didn't get the critique until last week. I totally understand the chaos of life and especially summer, but it seemed like a long time to wait. To his defense, he did apologize. To mine, I should realize that these things take time.

3. Simple is better: I had decided to add a bunch of things to my first chapter and it got bogged down. It really did. My husband in his infinite wisdom told me that I needed to go back to when I first wrote and look at the freshness of it. I did that and realized it was pretty good. With a couple of tweaks, it is back to the original. Simple.

Next on the ride:

I received a really nice rejection letter from an agent. Truly nice. In fact, she said she was probably crazy for rejecting it and gave me several things that she saw to improve, and I had an aha moment. I wrote back and thanked her (which you should always do), and she wrote me back (which they never do) and told me if I revise, to let her know. So now, I need to decide: To revise or not to revise, that is the question. Or aye, that's the rub.

On the same day she rejected me, a small publishing company asked for a full manuscript.

So here are the stats:

1 agent critigue
1 agent semi-sorta rejection
1 publishing company ask

Oh, and I also had another agent ask for the first 50 pages, so add 1 partial to the list. Annnnnddd....I now have 158 fans on my FB page.

Pretty good couple of weeks, I'd say.