Paperback Cover for Illumine!

SQUEE! (I feel like I've been saying that a lot recently.) Have you guys seen the front-and-back paperback cover for Illumine yet?!

All I can say is wow. And a whole bunch of other words like, "Flabbergastingly-wholy-moley-pickled-bacon-tongue AWESOME!"

Everything has been moving so fast since the 7th, I can't even explain it. Obumbrate, book two of the Illumine Series is already underway (yes Mom, that means you can read the draft soon) this week I'm popping up on a  couple of blogs, and from there it's only going forward! I'm still in shell-shock at how many bloggers have been kind enough to agree to read my book, given the no-name status. Book bloggers, you all rock!

I will keep you all up to date with where I'll be stopping at online, so check back often! These next few months are going to be one heck of a doozie.

My Creative Process is Messed. Up.

Projects suck.

Remember those days of Monster energy drink fueled High School when we got a ridiculous assignment about some ridiculous thing we'd never need to know later in life? (Hi Ecology chart of rain water and acidic content.) We'd get a pretty little sheet saying exactly what was needed to be in it for that shiny A guaranteed to save you from community college and its rifraff the councellors kept trying to scare you with to pay for the big pricey colleges where 'nothing bad happened.' (Except learning to binge drink, wake up next to someone you don't remember from the night before, and possibly explore the dark halls for pot.)

Anyway, I'm trailing.

Those pretty little project they had us do had a set-up. They had a start, middle, finish, and enough filler content inbetween to remind you of a piece of pie. You didn't need much thought to complete them since everything was already pre-laid out for you.

Somedays I wish writing was like that.

Don't get me wrong, I love writing, almost as much as I love decorating cupcakes only to watch half of them fall on the floor Thanksgiving day. There's a neat sense of person to opening a document or notebook, imagining people up and watching them get the living hell kicked into them. But every now and then I get a little frustrated, and High School is partly to blame.

Writing doesn't have everything laid out for you. You have to figure out the beginning, middle, finish and filler (and how much of it) to get that shiny A to prove to everyone who's paying 40k a year for college that you took the better road and didn't go off to college.

To me, writing is like one big picture, framed on a lovely matte background and signed. You know the sky is blue-ish purple, and you know the grass is sea grass and not grass-grass but you don't know what house is in the center of the shot. Colonial, Victorian, Modern? So many choices, so little time.

It's okay, though. This is why they invented sticky notes. And multi-colored sharpies.

Everyone Loves a Giveaway!

Yes, everyone loves a good giveaway, but first there is a trial. A trial of fire. A burning ball of flames so flipping hot there's nothing you can do but watch it slowly smolder to a heap of ash, only to re-start the fire all over again. Ahhh, fire. There's nothing like a good, old fashioned, burn-your-worries-away fire.

Specifically, one my manuscript notes from three years ago just went through this morning. 

Part of me wants to explain, and part of me doesn't. Maybe if I leave no explanation save for a few cackles you'll all think I'm insane, or maybe you'll just go through my Twitter, find out I was discussing burning it with a fellow writer CA Moulton, and do it partly for kicks, partly for giggles, and all for retribution. 

Big burning pile of paper aside, I didn't lie in my title blog post. Through a very wonderful blogger, Janina over at Synchronized Reading was kind enough to host a giveaway of two digital copies of Illumine!

Curious about entering? Here's where you go! Best of luck!

It's HERE! ILLUMINE is here!

Click here to get Illumine for your Kindle Device or App!


Phew! What a last couple of days. Anyone else feel like they've been steamrolled flat then re-inflated with buckets of nachos? That's probably just me.

Cheesiness, from the nachos or just natural we'll never know, aside I wanted to do a quick little blog post officially saying that yes, Mom, now you can go buy the book. And everyone else too. Not that you didn't already know that I'm sure, most people I know are tech-savvy enough to do a little Googling and find the link.

As for everything else going on right now, with my book finally released into the wild (may you all have mercy on me) I am very ready for a night of completely undisturbed sleep. I cannot tell you how weird it is to be sitting in front of a computer at 6:38am the second night in a row without sleep and trying to figure out why everything's moving when you just need it to stand still for a teeny, tiny moment so you can read the line over again and fix it. Again. Times a million.

When A Writer Forgets Her Notes EVERYTHING EXPLODES

You ever have that sinking feeling that you've forgotten something? You know, like when the back of your neck itches or all the hairs on your arm stand up and it isn't because it's negative one billion degrees outside? (Hello, PA weather.) And then you finally remember just as you sit down and start to write/paint/doodle on your notebook in Math class and it hits you so hard you...

Well, go kaboom.

Let's just say I'm there right now.

Yesterday I sat down to do a quick once-over on my precious book, thinking I could get it done in a few hours and make sure all my pieces make sense and fall into place and look pretty. So I went digging in my purse for the papers I was so-sure I had with me from work on Sunday. It's so perfectly envisioned in my head that I can see the blue ink and my ridiculous wannabe-high-school-girl handwriting bunched all over it.

But what's this? It isn't in my purse? ...of course not, because that would mean I actually didn't forget something for once.

This is the post I soon uploaded to Twitter following my spaz-out on the missing paper (aka MY FREAKING HOLY GRAIL)

Needless to say I quickly scrambled and tried to remember as much as the key details and little bits as I could and jotted them down. But next time I know better. Next time I make a plot sheet I'm taking a million pictures, sending them to various emails, and when that fails, well, I'll do what I told one person on Twitter...

Mustache time! 

Illumine has been added to Goodreads!

Check out the final cover and synopsis here!

I don't know about you guys, but I love this cover! Sure, it may have taken roughly seven hours (along with the synopsis) to complete but hey, it was worth it in the end. 

This is insane- it'll be three years ago on the 7th that I first came up with the concept of Illumine. Looking back I never would have thought I would be here right now counting down the hours until my book is released into the wild. Kind of nerve wracking, honestly. Anyone know a good paperbag wholesale guy? 

Hyperventilation aside, the link up top will take you to the new tab on my page that includes the full description and also has a link to Goodreads for making the book as 'to-read' on your digital shelves!  

And now I'm going to return to looking for that paperbag guy.

Why Holidays & Writers Don't Mix

I'm going to make one horror of a confession: I can't stand Christmas, and the New Year always makes me queasy. Now, before you go off and grab staple guns to stick me to the nearest Christmas tree while screaming 'HAPPY NEW YEAR ALIVIA, HAPPY NEW YEARRRRR!' let me explain why.

Think back to NaNo, back when November was running along and everyone you knew was fueled on coffee, Mountain Dew or whatever tea you sipped repeatedly from the testing kettles inside Tevana. Or maybe that was just me. We all hung over our computers and pen and paper, scribbling as furiously as we could manage to hit that 50k word count and declare ourselves victorious.

And somewhere along those lines, I failed.

The build-up to my idea for my NaNo novel fell completely flat on its face. And when I say it fell on its face, I mean it ate dirt, coughed it up, and ate it again. I hit only several thousand into it and choked as if a hot dog lodged itself in my throat. No matter how hard I coughed it wouldn't come out, and somewhere in the midst of that never-ending choking nightmare November ended.

What a mess, right? Humiliation is the only word I can properly use for the situation. I was actually afraid to visit the NaNo boards, my blog, Twitter (I'm coming back there, FYI, I promise) anywhere that I was connected to people who knew of my writing journey. I felt like if I shared my failure notice with everyone that they'd all walk away and leave me alone, forced to play endless hours of FarmVille with myself.

It's okay, I told myself. I'll just go back on tomorrow and move past it. The calendar told me it was only December 5th. I could still come back from that, right?

It's January 1st now. I took a whole month of sweating things out (and one random semi-tipsy promise to myself to blog every two days from here on out unless I'm struck by lightning or eaten by a shark) to bring myself back here, man up (do you really man up if you're a woman?) and do everything I was supposed to do weeks ago in the next six days.

See, if I remember right, Illumine, my little book of pure passion and love, is publishing digitally in six days. Yes, six. Print I'm guessing will be in another month depending on how much I play with the cover and the format types (and also it depends on how much sleep I'm willing to sacrifice this week). That means I have six days to upload my page on here, send queries to book reviewers online, double-check the manuscript and still have time to see family/friends/random pet.

Bring it on 2012, you don't scare me.