Into the Flames: the aftermath

Posted on May 8th, 2012

I’m sure you’ve all heard by now that I have a novel published. It is an interesting feeling, having other people read something I’ve worked so hard on for so long. Fortunately though, everyone seems to like it. If you for some crazy reason haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, you can buy it here for Kindle and here for paperback.

Now I wrote Into the Flames so that it has some resolution. You can read it and hopefully not feel like you want to hurt e because you don’t know what’s going to happen next and you have to wait an indeterminate amount of time to find out (basically how I feel every time I read a Scott Westerfeld or Rick Riordan novel. Great marketing strategy, but dudes, so not cool). However, you may be happy to find to that I am planning on writing a sequel anyway. Multiple sequels, actually.

You see, I’ve know Rahab, Scout, and Hawkins for a long time. They almost feel like real people to me. Like pen pals or internet friends. People I talk to often but have never met irl (in real life). So the cool thing is, I could basically write a novel for any point in their lives. I know everything that happens to them, I just have to decide how and when to write it down.

That’s probably why I already have two more Grover Cleveland novels written and two started. Someday you may get to read them all. For now, you will have to content yourselves with hearing about my journey into writing the direct sequel to Into the Flames. What to know what happens two weeks later? You’ll find out in this novel.

I’m working on the prewriting for it now. I’ve got a whole new villain for Rahab and her friends to face, and I’m hashing out the details of some subplots as well. I’m assuming you’ve all heard of NaNoWriMo, where writers are challenged to crank out 50,000 words in the month of November. Well, I’m also going to be participating in JuNoWriMo this year. It’s the same as NaNoWriMo only it’s in June, and it’s founded in part by my friend Becca Campbell (whose book I just finished editing, but I’ll tell you more about that later). I’m using JuNoWriMo to work on this novel. So if all goes well, but the end of the summer I will have my next novel’s first draft finished.

For now, happy reading everyone! I hope everyone spends more than a little time this summer out by the pool reading a novel or two.

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May: a month of promise

Posted on April 27th, 2012


I’m back!

I apologize for being silent for a month, but things have been quite hectic around here. But then, aren’t they always?

But May is going to be better, I promise! The main reason for this is because my last day at Tate Publishing is Monday, and after that I will have more time to dedicate to my writing. Leaving Tate makes me mostly sad, because I love working here and the things I’ve learned and the authors I’ve helped. But I’m also glad that this marks a new point in my life where I can move on to other things.

In May I will be concentrating on my prewriting for JuNoWriMo. JuNoWriMo is just like NaNoWriMo except in June! I’ll be working on the sequel for Into the Flames, and I hope you’re starting to get excited about it, because I am! Rahab and co. will be sewing up their superhero costumes and saving the day! Just kidding, but it will have lots of adventure in it.

I’ll also be editing two books for the Consortium: Becca Campbell’s Foreign Identity and Aaron Pogue’s The Dragonprince Heir.

I also hope to start chipping away at my to-read list on goodreads. However, what with two kids and all this editing adn writing going on, I may not get to it. This makes me feel guilty as I completely agree with Stephen King when he says, “You have to read good books to write good books.” The fact that I haven’t had time to read for pleasure lately makes me fear that my writing technique will start to sag. And we can’t have that! I still have so much to learn already!

Anyway, I hope you’re still with me after my unplanned hiatus. Look for more stuff in the following months as Iget my groove back on!

Posted in Into the Flames, Personal | 1 Comment

Flamin’ Friday: Being Published

Posted on March 30th, 2012

So this is my second week as a published author.

Sadly, I haven’t had time to really revel in this fact. This week Sean and I took on another child, so getting sleep and wiping runny noses have been my priorities.

Nevertheless, Into the Flames is out there, and people have been taking notice! If you haven’t had a chance to get a copy yet, you have two chances to win one. You can go to Goodreads and enter to win an advance reading copy, and you can go to Heather Sutherlin’s site, Kids Gotta Write, and enter there by commenting on today’s post.

Heather has also been gracious enough to read and review my book and allow me to say a little something to her readers. My topic is how to get started building a rich fantasy world.

In conclusion, thanks to everyone who has already bought Into the Flames; you are helping my dream to come true! For the rest of you <insert reprimanding glare>, the paperback copies should be available soon. I’ll keep you posted!

Posted in Into the Flames, book review | Tagged as: , , , , , ,

Into the Flames Out on Kindle!

Posted on March 20th, 2012

We always knew this day was coming, and yet sometimes it felt like it would never arrive. But here it is!

Into the Flames is officially released and ready for you to read it!

Get your fresh new copy right here. It’s just $2.99 for hours of reading pleasure!

Just to warn you, this is the Kindle version. If you don’t have an e-reader you can download the version for your Kindle Reading App on your computer or iPad, or you can wait two to four weeks for the paperbacks to be ready (or do both!).

It’s kind of hard to believe that I’m now published. When I was little I told everyone I wanted to be an author when I grew up, and I really and truly believed that I would be. Now that it’s finally here, though, it feels unreal. It’s like saying you want to be an astronaut and then one day finding yourself in outerspace. Okay, maybe not completely like that, but at least a little bit.

When I was six, my favorite authors were Laura Ingalls Wilder and whoever it was that wrote the American Girls books (I even wrote my own American Girl book when I was eight). Now I have joined the ranks of people with complete novels that anyone can pick up and read. It’s even got my name on the cover! You can’t say that much about an American Girl book.

Posted in Into the Flames, Personal

Persistance Rewarded: My Novel’s Release Date Pending!

Posted on March 12th, 2012

Rachael Lockhart as Rahab Carmichael, the heroine of Into the Flames

Hello, faithful readers! I sincerely apologize for the lack of posting for the past few weeks. Here’s what I’ve been up to:

  • Editing Ghost Targets 4: Camouflage
  • Writing a short story for the next volume of A Consortium of Worlds
  • Trying to read a book that’s not for work
  • Making sure all the pieces are into place for Into the Flames to be published
  • Participating in two book clubs at work

But all excuses aside, I really should have been posting, at least to let you guys know what was going on. The biggest piece of news is that Into the Flames should be released sometime next week! Now this will be the Kindle e-version, but rest assured that the paperback copy will be available soon after. I can’t tell you how weird it is to have this date looming so close. I remember quite clearly a year ago when Aaron set this date, and I thought I would never be able to finish my rough draft in time. But lo and behold…!

So here’s what I’ve learned through this whole process, and it might not be useful for you, but it’s something I need to remind myself of from time to time. It is this: It’s easier to get things done if you just sit down and do it. And it also really helps if you have a deadline (even an arbitrary one) hanging over your head.

I’ve got to remind myself of this even as I’m working on this short story for A Consortium of Worlds. I know what I want it to end up as, but I’m having a hard time sitting down and writing it. It’s so much easier to stare at facebook and “formulate” what I want to happen next. And to be fair, if I write without planning first, my characters often end up running wild and doing things improperly. But then, it’s always a lot easier to fix characters runnign off into the bushes than to come up with something from nothing at all. If I just make myself sit down and finish this stupid story, then at least I’ll have something to work with. My deadline, which I’m not sure whether it’s arbitrary or not, is the end of March. So! There’s my goal for the next couple of weeks.

Along with making sure my first novel gets published. Yay!

Posted in Into the Flames