Thursday, April 10, 2014

Book Announcement!

So the following little announcement appeared in Publishers' Marketplace late on Tuesday:


(Hmm...I can't figure out how to make it any bigger...)

If you can't read it, here's the text:

Gail Nall and Jennifer Malone's PLEASE RSVP, in which four tween friends start a party planning business and discover good friends are truly worth celebrating, to Amy Cloud at Aladdin, in a two-book deal, by Julia Alexandra Weber at J.A. Weber Literary Agency (on behalf of Nall) and Holly Root at Waxman Leavell Literary Agency (on behalf of Malone) (World).

Jen and I are so excited for these books! We're having a blast writing together, and we can't wait to share the adventures of the PLEASE RSVP girls with everyone.

If you're not familiar with Jen, go check her out here. Her debut, AT YOUR SERVICE, will be out this August from Aladdin, and trust me, it's a fun read!

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

My Writing Process Blog Tour

Hi everyone! Today I'm participating in the My Writing Process Blog Tour. My friend, co-writer, crit partner, and publishing sister (whew, enough titles, huh?) Jen Malone tagged me. So here goes...how I write:

1) What am I working on?

Three books. Four, if you count edits on DON'T FALL DOWN. Am I crazy? Possibly. All three are middle grade contemporary. One is the book I'm co-writing with Jen, one is in the revising/rewriting stage, and the third is a brand-new shiny!

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Middle grade contemporary is a HUGE genre. My work definitely falls into the fun and light end of the spectrum. If you were looking a table of food, my books would be the chocolate chip cookies. I find humor in everyday life, and I try to inject some of that into my writing.

3) Why do I write what I do?

It's what came out when I started writing! Seriously, I sat down at my computer one day in the law school library, and instead of working on an outline for Business Law or Constitutional Law class, I started typing a story. I had no idea then that I was writing middle grade. I didn't even know what middle grade was. There was a story in my head, and I had to get it out. Since then, I've figured out why I write MG -- it falls into that age group when I fell in love with reading. From ages 8 to 12, I was always reading. I read anything and everything -- contemporary, historical, fantasy, mysteries, choose-your-own-adventure, classics, adventure, series. Pretty much anything I could get my hands on at the library. So writing for this age group as an adult brings back those memories of escaping into a story. Basically, it makes me feel happy. :)

4) How does my writing process work?
I'm an early-morning writer. From 5 a.m. (or sometimes 5:09 or 5:18, depending on how many times I hit the snooze button) until 6:30ish, I write. If I'm on a deadline or on a roll, I'll write in the evenings or during kidlet naptime on the weekends. Also, I write first drafts Nanowrimo-style. I throw it all out there as fast as I can. I don't reread until I hit the end of the first draft. Even if I change a plot halfway through the book, I keep writing until I'm finished. This works for me, even though it means I usually have to do some massive revisions afterward. Because once I have a first draft, I have a complete book, which is something to work with. Even if working with it means deleting entire sections of the book and rewriting... *sigh*


And that's it! Have a great April Fool's Day!