New Review and Website ReDo

Fellow teacher, Mrs. V from Mrs. V Reviews sent me a link to her SCREWBALL review. Thanks, Mrs. V!! :)

In the meantime....

I'm working with the fabulous Nur who is in the process of designing an amazing website. :)

And enjoying a bunch of beach and boardwalk time with my visiting family.

And learning some hard newbie author lessons. Urgh.

And feeling inspired by some amazing teens at the Teen Writer's Workshop.

And working on a super exciting submission.

So, it's time for a blog break.

See you in August for a huge book giveaway, more Pretty Tough blogs, pics from the Teen Writer's Workshop, a call for submissions, and a brand spanking new website. :)

My ultra talented writing friend, Colleen, landed an agent last week!! Don't miss her 'How I Landed an Agent' interview on Query Tracker. Congrats, Colleen!! :)

Wanna win some free stuff? Check out Stephanie Kuehnert's amazing Ballad of Suburbia cyber launch party here for amazing giveaways and guests.

Happy Summer! :)

Teen Writers Workshop and More :)

Happy Fourth of July! Hope everyone had a great long weekend! :)

As you know because I babble about it constantly, I love summer...

One of the many reasons summer rocks is I'm lucky enough to facilitate a Teen Writer's Workshop with Justin the Librarian at the Cape May County Library every year. We meet on Tuesdays and this year, Justin's publishing the anthology of our short stories and the book will appear in all the libraries across Cape May County. :) Tomorrow we're bringing in our

fave books (I'm looking forward to some new reads) to study what the best authors do right. :)

Besides the Teen Writer's Workshop, I'm also volunteering to teach creative writing at a Summer College for students in grades 5-8 in Atlantic City starting today. :) Then, off to summer teaching at Atlantic Cape Community College.

Speaking of teaching.. I'm teaching writing at Rowan University this fall!

Yay!!! I'm so excited to join the Rowan University writing community. Not only as a teacher, but as a student. I'm taking a class a semester to earn my Masters of Arts degree in Writing. :) :) :) It's been a looonnnggg time since I've been on the other side of the desk.

Rowan and I go way back. It's where I met my hubby. Except, we both weren't attending the college at the time. And we met off campus.. And we knew each other from high school.. Anyway, it's a long story. :)

Last, but certainly not least, stay tuned for a few exciting things..

Like, a teen and author call for submissions that's covered in pink. :)

Plus, Pretty Tough Tuesdays are back next week. Kudos to the L.A. Sparks' Candace Parker who returned to basketball 58 days after giving birth. Impressive.

And.. congrats to my writing friend, C. After many years of hard work, she snagged an amazing agent!! Congrats, C!!!!! :)

Happy Monday, everyone! ;)

Yay for YA Summer Giveaway Winner!!!

Wow!!! Thanks for all the amazing entries! I have more than enough songs to get my fingers hopping across the keys. :)

The winner of five books, including a signed ARC of CHANGE UP is.....

EMILY MABBIT!!!!

My daughter picked Emily out of her lego container and was super excited because Emily is the name of her babysitter. :) Back to my computer switcheroo.. I'm seriously hugging my brand new MAC right now as I type. Who knew a computer could be so stunning. :)

Happy July, everyone!

Sinfully Tagged

"Sometimes you can learn more about a person by what they don’t tell you. Sometimes you can learn a lot from the things they just make up. If you are tagged with this Meme, lie to me. Then tag 7 other folks (one for each deadly sin) and hope they can lie."

Stacy Nyikos tagged me with this one.. I'm sooo bad at lying, but I'll give it a try.. :) At least you can't see my expression. 

Pride: What is your biggest contribution to the world? 

The project I'm working on to combat global warming that combines International History, Physics, and Meteorology. Somehow, all the school subjects I tanked and dropped in college are now paying for my multimillion dollar beach house. 

Envy: What do your coworkers wish they had which is yours? 

Definitely, my Barbie bootie and it's not plastic.. (hee hee) :) 

Gluttony: What did you eat last night? 

A plateful of shrimp. :) 

Lust: What really lights your fire? 

A Ken doll type guy. Blond hair and blue eyes and nothing but air upstairs.

Anger: What is the last thing that really pissed you off? 

When my daughter cleaned up after herself this morning. :) 

Greed: Name something you keep from others. 

Gum. When someone has nasty breath, it's up to someone else to hand them a piece. I love, smelly, nasty breath blowing in my face like a fan. :) 

Sloth: What's the laziest thing you've ever done?

 

Once I slept for twenty four hours straight. 

Whew!! That was fun!! :)  

Okay, I'll tag anyone who wants to play and Carrie Harris..  

Carrie Harris

and six volunteers.. :) 

Happy Monday!! :) 

First Review and a Shark.. :)

I was thrilled to open up my inbox on Friday and find a link to this review of CHANGE UP.. 

The second book by Keri Mikulski is a strong, fun and real good new YA novel. In a sea of dark Ya novels that seems to be the trend now, Keri Mikulski has launched a fresh read, that is, in my opinion, THE book pick of this summer. It is really good. Screwball, the first book, was great. And with Change Up, Keri Mikulski has reached a new book peak. Even if you are not that into sports, you will love this new sunny novel. And for the second time, Keri Mikulski's book is rated 5 stars! Make sure you got this book in your beach bag!

Thanks, Marjolein!! :) 

Right now, I'm in between college teaching assignments, CHANGE UP promotion, finishing up revisions on a new sporty novel and spending some much needed down time with the family. 

Here's what we've been doing during our down time.. 

1. Quiet time on the beach before the vacationers roll down 

2. Walking and riding bikes on the semi-deserted boardwalk

3. Playing tons of basketball and soccer at the local field

4. Hanging out with visiting family and friends - love summer!

5. Looking up stuff that washed up on the bay - like this shark and the biggest sea turtle ever (didn't have my camera)..

What do you like to do during your down time? 

Cute Kaci Moment: Kaci just ran into my office jumping up and down, smiling, and screaming.. "Mommy, ice comes from water. Ice comes from water. I love ice and I love water." :) Gotta love three.  

Happy a fabulous day! :) 

A BFF Giveaway & The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading Takes Over for the Day

I'm honored to welcome the fabulous and super nice Darcy and Charity, authors of THE GEEK GIRL'S GUIDE TO CHEERLEADING to my blog today to talk about writing a book together. Not only are they amazing author partners, but they're also extremely generous. Go here to enter to win a Geek Girl BFF prize bag which contains a copy of their book, an IPOD shuffle, and lots more for you and your BFF.. 

Writing Together

Darcy and I met more than ten years ago when we each signed up for a free online writing class and then joined an internet writing community. We became fans of each other’s work, then critique partners, then friends. And then, through a few twists of fate, we became co-authors.

A few weeks ago, Darcy wrote down a few of the guidelines that helped us through the process of writing together. Today, I add my take as well--because this is the way we work. She sends me something, I tweak it, and then send it back (and vice versa).

Darcy says: Charity says on writing together:

Darcy says: Choose a partner that you genuinely admire, respect…and like. You will be spending a lot of time with your co-author.

Charity says: A word of caution: someone can be a great writer and not-such-a-great online communicator. We had the advantage of many years of online communicating already behind us before we started working together.

Darcy says: Stash your ego in the closet for the duration of the project. It isn’t about you and it isn’t about her (or him). It’s about the book.

Charity says: So true. I don’t have much to add to this one except stashing your ego in the closet is all around good advice for writing and publishing.

Darcy says: Examine your own strengths and weaknesses and understand your role in the project. Charity was the chief engineer of our novel due to her amazing plotting abilities. I was the “sparkly eyeliner applier” due to my generally goofy nature. The book needed both of us.

Charity says: We also found that when one of us didn’t understand something in one of our revision letters, the other did. And when we both didn’t understand, we could puzzle it out together.

Darcy says: Communicate, communicate, communicate. Don’t let trouble fester. If you are frustrated by some aspect of the story or the process, talk it out. Chances are, if you’re feeling uncomfortable, your partner is too—and that’s counterproductive to good writing.

Charity says: Also, if you’re frustrated with a scene, there’s nothing like handing it off to your writing partner to “fix.” But our best ideas came when we were working together, brainstorming via IM. What seemed insurmountable worked itself out when we worked together.

Darcy says: Enjoy the process! Writing a novel together is a unique and amazing experience. Have fun with it!

Charity says: And when you have something to celebrate, you get twice the excitement and joy. 

Thanks, Charity and Darcy!! Sounds like a blast. 

Here's the blurb: 

When Bethany -- self-proclaimed geek girl -- makes the varsity cheerleading squad, she realizes that there's one thing worse than blending in with the lockers: getting noticed. She always felt comfortable as part of the nerd herd, but being a member of the most scrutinized group in her school is weighing her down like a ton of textbooks. Even her Varsity Cheerleading Guide can't answer the really tough questions, like: How do you maintain some semblance of dignity while wearing an insanely short skirt? What do you do when the head cheerleader spills her beer on you at your first in-crowd party? And how do you know if your crush likes you for your mind...or your pom-poms?

One thing's for sure: It's going to take more than brains for this girl genius to cheer her way to the top of the pyramid. 

YA Summer Playlist

The amazing Dissecting Perfection gathered together a bunch of Young Adult authors and bloggers to contribute their fave summer song to a YA Summer Playlist. Check it out here. 

I don't pretend to be a music mogul and as some of you already know, I'm obsessed with nineties tunes (note my "Summertime" contribution), but I'm downloading a bunch of the recommended songs to my IPod right now and they're good. :) 

Have a fabulous Tuesday!