I’m a New York Times Best-selling author!
Honestly, can you all believe this is a post I get to write? It feels like a dream coming true. THE GRIMROSE GIRLS hit the New York Times Best Sellers monthly list for YA. The list counts all paperback sales. THE GRIMROSE GIRLS was the Barnes&Noble YA monthly pick, which means it got a featured […]
The process behind the stunning Grimrose Girls Title/Cover
You may be wondering, however, that I had another book coming out in 2021. You may recall that it was called A Beautiful Doom. So what happened?
The short story is: A Beautiful Doom is now called The Grimrose Girls. But how did this happen?
The Last 8 has a cover!
Hello everyone! I’m so excited to announce that my debut book, THE LAST 8, finally has a cover. The Last 8 is coming from Sourcebooks in March 5th, 2019. A high-stakes survival story about eight teenagers who outlive an alien attack—perfect for fans of The 5th Wave Clover Martinez has always been a survivor, which is […]
How to avoid “filter” and “crutch words” in your writing
Hey everyone! Today we’re again talking some more about writing craft. There are just so many different topics in which we can improve as writers, and this is yet another topic. “Filter words” and “Crutch words” are just things that slow down your writing, but they’re a lot more than that. We’re discussing exactly what […]
Prologue: yay or nay?
One of the many things about writing craft is that it can take many different forms, and it can be about big questions, or about small questions, such as the dreaded prologue. You’ll see a lot of agents and writing people talking about how much they hate prologues. And then writers going “but I love […]
Editing: the Big Questions
Hey everyone! Today I’m going to talk a little bit more about the editing process, which can leave so many writers confused. Everyone does writing differently–some people edit as they write their first drafts–and others don’t, so you always have to find which method is perfect for you. What I’m going to say here might […]
How to Get Published: A Guide
Hello, friends! This is a blog post that focuses on the steps of How to Get your Book Published — from getting it into the hands of agents and even a book deal. This is actually more of a big reference post to other posts of mine that are about the publishing process as a […]
Learning to Differentiate your POV
This is another post in my series I’ve done about POVs. You can find out the first post here, where I talk about how I choose which POV is best for my story, and the second post where I talk about possible POVs and how they work in each story. This week, I’m going to […]
How to Get a Literary Agent, part 6: I have multiple offers! Now what?
First of all: congratulations! Multiple offers is something to be excited about. I know it seems like a hard decision, and it is one. Choosing an agent is choosing someone who’s going to be your partner, who’s going to manage your career and help you on your way to get published. After the calls and […]
How to Get a Literary Agent, Part 5: Talking to Other Clients
One of the most important things after getting an offer is talking to the agent’s clients. You want to talk to other clients to see if they’re happy in their relationship with this agent, and to get a feel of what it’s like working with them. This part of the process can be enlightening. One […]