Cover Contest!!

Teralyn Rose Pilgrim over at A Writer's Journey is hosting a "create your own book cover" contest! Here is my entry:

I clicked through a few of the covers already, and I won't lie, there are some seriously oober cool covers out there! Despite my love of photography, my skillzzzz with photo editing still range near the... well... amateur level! I'm not sure how my cover will hold up against everyone else... but it's STILL SO FUN!!

As you can see, my entry is numeral 31 below!! Click "like" if you like my cover (or if you just like me and don't want to see my cover suffer from a horrible and shameful loss!)

Guest Blog Post!

Hey Peeps,

Head on over to C.K. Bryant's blog for my lovely guest blog appearance! Here's the link.

And of course, a big THANK YOU to C.K. for allowing me to use up space on her blog! You rock, woman!

Once Upon a Time...

What every story needs, that is, what every fairy tale is simply incomplete without, is..... a handsome prince [OR, knight in shinning armor, sparkly vampire, hunky outlaw in tights.... insert applicable hero here!] Because, lets be honest, us princesses are nothing without the men we love... we get all weepy and sad without them. We loose a shoe, fall asleep for a hundred years, eat poison fruit and can't seem to find the scissors to cut the dang hair off already! The completely sappy, but honest to goodness truth is: we're just better when we're together!

And since every princess needs her dream hunk, what would my life story be without my own white knighted prince? Don't worry, I snagged him five years ago:

I'll forgive you for swooning, if you must. He IS, after all, a dream! AND a hopeless romantic...

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, Prince Rob rode into the Kingdom (aka: Paris, France) on his white horse (Delta Airlines) and with the aid of several sneaky and conniving handmaidens (my London flatmates), swept his princess (Me) off her feet with a completely romantic proposal in a beautiful park overlooking Paris at dusk!

The ecstatic princess, at awe in finding her handsome prince in the beautiful park, said yes (after getting over her initial shock, of course, at being so blindsided by a surprise... she had no idea it was coming, you see), agreeing to give her hand and heart to her handsome prince in marriage. Soon after, the handsome prince and his lovely princess bride were married on August 22, 2006:

Soon after which the entire Kingdom rejoiced (or, at least both sets of in laws), and the Prince and Princess lived happily ever after:

Happy FIFTH Anniversary, Robbie Baby! You put a dance in my step and a song in my heart! You make me laugh every day and bring me so much joy! I am--without a doubt--a much better person with you in my life. I love you more than words can say, and can't wait to share many, MANY more anniversaries to come!

Introducing: S.L. Hennessy!!!!

SOOOOOOO excited to announce that my writing bestie, LAUREN HENNESSY (or S.L. Hennessy, as she likes to pen name it up) from Pensuasion, just signed with her new agent JOSH GETZLER of Hannigan, Salky, Getzler Literary Agency!!!!!!!!!!

WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! GO LAUREN!!!!!!!! [happy dance]

I've been bursting with excitement to announce it on my blog the past few days, but didn't want to say anything until it was official. FINALLY, sweet release! The contract is signed:

That's Lauren. Isn't she cute? Haha ( :

Lauren met Josh at the Houston Writer's Guild writing conference in May, earlier this year. After submitting her ms and a nail-biting wait of several months, she finally heard back this week! Her YA novel, The Evil Overlord Society's Guide to Becoming an Evil Overlord has just entered the dreaded revision stage [cue dramatic music]. However, since she's brilliant and awesome, there shouldn't be too much to fix. I've read the whole thing already (perks of being friends with writers: getting sneak peeks) and must say it is fantastic! You all will love it, I'm sure!

CONGRATULATIONS, LAUREN!! I am SO excited for you, girlie!!!!

Now I must control my anxiety, and try to wait patiently as I wait for Josh to read MY ms!! Lauren and I met Josh at the same writing conference, and submitted our ms's to him around the same time. We've been through this roller coaster ride together, but I must say: she's the lucky one! Being second in line does NOTHING for your nerves!! Haha! ( :

Liebster Blog

So there I was... put-puttin' it up the 610 today in stop-and-go rush hour traffic, hating the fact that its Monday and that I'll have to do the said stop-and-go traffic routine at LEAST 4 more times this week (I usually get lucky if I'm up early enough in the morning... no traffic then! Just at night...), seriously contemplating just going to bed right when I got home (yes, at 7 o'clock at night, don't judge), when all of the sudden...

I GET A BLOG AWARD!!

From none other than my online-blogging-bestie, Barbara Kloss!

For those of you who aren't stalkin' Barb's blog, you should. She's awesome. He posts are always insightful, inspiring and humorous, and she always, always, ALWAYS has a big blogging smile on her face with lots of writing support to spare! THAT... and did I mention she is an up and coming YA author? Barb is publishing her fantastic, magical, YA masterpiece, Gaia's Secret in the very near future (sorry, Barb, I'm not sure the exact date!) Definitely jet on over to her blog and check out that amazing, go-getter woman!

FYI, this fantastic award is in German, so those of you scratching your heads wondering were you went wrong, never fear! "Liebester" means "dearest," and is a term for close friends (correct me if I'm wrong, Mike!) This award spotlights totally-rock-awesome bloggers with 200 followers or less. Now the Rules!

1) Thank the giver (I heart you, Barb! Thanks for thinkin' of me!), and link back to the blogger who gave it to you

2) Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog

3) Copy and paste the award on your blog

4) Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers!

5) Last, but far from least, HAPPY BLOGGING!

My five super-duper awesome picks are:

1. Lauren Hennessey--was my first Houston friend, who I met at none other than a writing critique group. Is there any better recipe for friendship than that? I think not! Lauren is FULL of encouragement and support, and is quite the rock-awesome, super hero-lovin' nerd, so those wanting to lose five bucks in a comic-book-or-nerdy-movie-trivia contest, she's your girl!

2. Nikki Loftin--MAY have more than 200 followers, I'm not sure (she doesn't have the follower counter displayed on her blog).... BUT... she's awesome anyway! Nikki gave a FANTASTIC presentation at the Houston Writer's conference in May. I could not get enough of her snarky humor, outgoing personality, and great advice! Her first novel, The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy, is being published in 2012. Way to go, Nikki (J.K. Rowling, who??)

3. Ru--cause she's freakin' hilarious. Her posts are not all writing related, but never fail to make me laugh! Plus, Ru was my first blog stalker (ahem--follower) whom I'd never actually met in person, so I figure that kind of gives us a weird cosmos connection of some kind. Woot, woot for lawyers who wanna-be writers ( :

4. T. J., aka The Frost Lord (he's a self proclaimed superhero... awesome, right?!)--who seems like such a dedicated writer! I'm always impressed at the effort that goes into his blogging, and from the snipits of his book I've read, he will be a YA force to be reckoned with at some point. Plus, his fav. book is HP. I mean, if that doesn't give him like a thousand and one brownie points right there, I don't know what does! Seriously, check out his blog, it's impressive!

5. Lana--why Lana, who lives clear on the other side of the world from me? (I've never been to Australia!) Lana is such a goal-oriented writer. She even has a little tabby thing on her blog with yearly and weekly writing goals. SO cool, right? She's an inspiration to dedication, and is definitly a fellow writer I could learn a few tricks in self-dicipline from!

What are you waiting for? Go check out these awesome writers! Happy Blogging, peeps!

I'm MELTING!

Channeling my inner-Elphaba today...

Because, really? Its just THAT hot.

Welcome to Houston.

(P.s. The only one who has claim to complain more than me here, is Barbara--[holla!]--in Phoenix. The rest of you, pitty me, please!)

The Nagger

I have now reached the point where--according to carefully calculated and time-tested studies (and by that I just mean from all the agent gossip I've gleamed)--I should be hearing back from the lovely agents I met at the May writers conference.

Now, I'm well aware that these agents accept LOTS of material at conferences (cause, honestly? Do they really want to miss out on the next J.K.Rowling? Um, no).  So I realize that in the grand scheme of things, a couple of ms requests isn't all that much to get excited about.

Still.... I gotta know. You know?

I've heard that the acceptable period to follow up with an agent is somewhere between 2-3 months. And, despite my incessant need  to KNOW everything and WANT everything NOW, I have dutifully restrained myself these past few months from nagging said lovely agents. 

And believe me, its been a battle.

I'm talking like hitting-the-refresh-button-on-my-email-every-five-minutes and jumping-at-every-UNKNOWN-caller-on-my-cell-phone kind of battle.

However, now that it has been exactly 72.9 days since I'd sent in my material (yes, I'm counting, don't judge), I THINK I'm safe in sending a follow-up email...

But before I accidentally plaster a big sign on my forehead that says "I AM A HUGE NAG, DON'T SIGN ME!" I wondered what YOU peeps thought of my time frame. Two to three months acceptable? Or is it bad forum to do a follow up email at all?

P.s. As a completely unrelated side note, I must tell you all how much I HATE rush hour traffic. I just started a new job. Which is great, don't get me wrong. Especially the double income Hubbs and I are now enjoying. But oh my sweet 'lanta, heaven on earth and above!!! I just can't handle the commute. Know what I'm sayin'? My sanity is under review.