Announcing PROM, MAGIC, AND OTHER MAN-MADE DISASTERS

So a few weeks back (many more than a few at this point), I signed with Curiosity Quills for another book!

This book is near and dear to my heart. I have quite writing to focus on my serious (non-writing) career many times, but this was the book that brought me back to writing. This was the first book I thought was good enough to query.

It became the first book I decided wasn’t ready to query.

So I rewrote it. I wrote other books (MANY other books) and they each had their own journey (some of them not finished yet!). I rewrote this book because I loved the story and the characters, and now I get to share them with the world!

I’m so excited about PROM, MAGIC, AND OTHER MAN-MADE DISASTERS! And it’s coming out November 21^st!

You can add it on GoodReads!

Valentines Day, a retrospective

I'm not gonna lie, V Day and I have spent many years not being on good terms. There was the singles awareness, the rough times in relationships, the missed day altogether, the exams from the pits of hell themselves. In short it never quite lived up to the hype.

When I was a teenager, it was sort of like the Ground Hog's day for Single people. The single person comes out of their cave, and if they see discounted chocolates, they'll stay single for the rest of the year.

Then, later on it became more of a "I know you love me, please don't buy the super overpriced flowers that will be 1/4 the price tomorrow."

There have been expensive dinners, "get aways" (hint, even when you get away, you're still you!), and then we stumbled across the one thing that really has been fun for a couple to do: The same things you would normally do. So one year, we went to an arcade.

Yup, most romantic Valentines Day ever.

The next year, we gamed with friends.

This year we gamed with friends, so we are definitely on a roll here.

My point is this: for many people, Valentine's Day will never live up to the hype because not all of us have the resources to rent the 5k a night cabin in the woods where the snow will be perfectly fresh, and have the box of chocolates delivered to the room with fifty red roses. More importantly, how would you really feel in that situation? Would you feel comfortable spending the same amount of money needed to get into a small car on a single weekend? Would you really feel more loved?

I don't, and I know a lot of people are put off by that sort of thing.

But the problem is the perception of this holiday continues to exist. We feel pressured to put on the big romantic show, and people are going to ask us what we did. Many will think we're crazy for gathering to roll dice and pretend to thwart an army because it's not romantic (to which I say, have you ever seen an elf shoot an arrow?), but in my old age, I've decided that fighting the crowds on V Day for an overpriced meal is no fun at all. So no going out for us. No flowers (who wants dead flowers anyways?), and if we weren't hanging with our friends, we'd be pouring money into an air hockey table. 

So, if you're feeling extra lonely this V Day, you are not alone in avoiding this terrible holiday! Even the people madly in love with this holiday think it's a bit whacked.

And you know what, if you are single, I have a helluva a date for you, last minute and everything: my book is free right now. And since I can't discriminate between singles and people with SOs, here's another link. (the second link also goes to my book, see what I did there?).

In all seriousness, if you're feeling even more alone than usual, please remember that this is one day out of the whole year, and one great big perk to not having an SO is that you get to pick exactly how you will spend your day.

It's here!

This is one of those posts that writers dream about writing:

My book published today.

Like Holy Cow, didn’t someone know they were supposed to shut the door before I got out?

Well, it’s too late. My book is out, and you can buy it here!

Need a little more convincing? How about this awesome cover?

Oh yeah, that’s amazing! (Thanks again to Amalia, her stuff is Ah-Maz-ING!)

And here’s the back cover for those still in need of convincing!

Allyson fights acne, not trolls. As an inhaler-carrying member of the asthma society, she just wants to meet the father who turned her mother into a paranoid, move-across-the-nation freak. Now she’s trying to fit in at yet another school, but for the first time in her life, she has a best friend, Beth. When Allyson accidentally spits fire at kidnappers in the mall, she realizes why her father isn’t in the picture: she’s half dragon. Her acne? Emerging scales. Her asthma? The side effects of her dragon’s fire breath. Instead of freaking out, unflappable Beth reveals her own troll heritage and explains how things work with the supernatural creatures hiding within the modern world of smartphones and skyscrapers.

When trolls kidnap a unicorn, Beth gets blamed. Allyson is determined to prove Beth’s innocence and keep her friend off the unicorn chopping block. When they start looking for the kidnappers, they get a call from the last person they expect: Allyson’s father. He tries to warn them off, but he’s been put under a spell by the kidnappers to keep the victims from escaping. Nothing short of death can stop him. Now Allyson must choose between killing the father she’s always dreamed of, or letting her best friend die for a crime she didn’t commit.

I'll be having a Facebook party here later today (between 1 and 5 Pacific time).  Stop by and say "Hi!"

The Hour Grows Near

So, maybe you've heard about how I have this book coming out?

I'm not posting my cover here (Soon, soon), but I have a ton of writer buddies helping me out and posting it on the internets. Most of them have books out, so dig around their blogs, add their books to your Goodreads shelves (or however you do it), and take a good look at my cover--which I absolutely love. While you're jumping around, go to the cover artist, Amalia Chitulescu's FB page and peruse some of her other work. Absolutely gorgeous work!

Without further adieu, the links - in no particular order!

Katie Teller,

Michelle Hauck

Sara Aheirs

Mason Matchak

Elizabeth Poole

Ann Noser

Rachel Schieffelbein

Samantha Bryant

Grant Eager

Elsie Elmore 

Tara Tyler

The Second in what I hope is a recurring theme

I mentioned earlier this week that it was a big week on the blog. First I got to help reveal an awesome cover! No seriously, if you haven't already seen it, go take a peek.

Second, I get to share a secret:

So last year, right around the time I was supposed to be working on my NaNo project, I was packing boxes. On my way to work one day, I had an idea. I told some of my writing friends about it, and they said "That's the one!"

I was pleased to have such an enthusiastic response, but then I entered a couple of writing contests--stop me if you've heard this one before. Those contests, well, they were rough. What made my story different? (didn't I say that in the first sentence???) The market is too clogged with YA contemp books, yours would "really have to be different." Everyone is writing sports books right now.

Right.

This is nothing new. I'd been in that place before, but I was hoping for a steady climb: first book, no requests, second book partials, third book fulls, fourth book agent. It seemed logical, but no one was biting for this book. I thought it was a goner. I was ready to hit Delete and move back to my happy space, but this character had me and demanded more of me. I don't usually tell contemporary stories. I like blowing things up, and there isn't a single explosion. HOW? How could I write something without aliens, unicorns, or explosions?? (also, no Dragons, and I'm Liz With Dragons; I can't write something without dragons!)

But this book had me in its clutches, so I took a chance. My publisher is just starting a new imprint. In the past, Curiosity Quills has focused on Genre Fiction, specifically, Science Fiction and Fantasy: my wheelhouse. As in, they have been on my radar since day one. Yes, they are small. No, they are not one of the big five.

So when I heard they were starting a YA contemporary romance line, I thought to myself: they'll never want to publish my book, right?

Right?

Somehow, I convinced myself that they would have ZERO interest in my most recent book. Zero.  I mean, my book wasn't even in their target genre set. It was YA contemporary with a splash of romance. In fact, it was really about the sport of Fencing (near and dear to my heart, FYI).

So you can imagine my shock when they said they wanted my YA contemporary with a hint of romance.

SWEET MOTHER OF SCIENCE, WHAT??

My Contemporary YA, OF PENS AND SWORDS by Bridget Adair is going to be published!

Here's the blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Cyra Berque wants two things in life: a date with Rochan and a chance to show the world a one-handed girl can fence in the Olympics. When Cyra’s coach tells her he’s taught her everything he can, he sets her up with another coach, one who could take her all the way to the top, but the new coach costs more. With her dreams slipping out of reach for lack of money, Cyra agrees to tutor a ballerina with a rich father and a D minus in English. He’ll pay Cyra three times her usual tutor rate if she can get his precious daughter to a passing grade. The ballerina only has eyes for Rochan, and she’s promised Cyra to turn her D into a full fledged F if Cyra doesn’t help her win the heart of Rochan.

OF PENS AND SWORDS is a YA contemporary retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac with the gender roles reversed. 

The next step in my bid for world domination: book two!

So yeah, happy dance, and there will be some changes around the blog here.

News, the Good Kind

So this thing happened over the summer.

Summer is for making pumpkins.

I saw a contest being held on the Aussie Owned and Read site. It looked pretty cool. Pitch your novel directly to editors from small presses.

I was ecstatic, except, I knew from reading Dahlia, that you HAVE to choose which way you’re pitching a book: agents OR editors. My current query bait was having a pretty good run, so I wasn’t ready to jump into editor land, since a no from a publisher is a burned bridge, and I didn’t want to have a bunch of those on a book I was querying. Agents might not be all that enthusiastic at having their stories head hunted by small presses (who usually offer small money, and agents have to eat, too).

But I had another story (news flash, if you’re a writer, you write: the longer you’re in the more manuscripts will haunt you from the trunk), a story I’d written back in 2011, entered into the 2012 Writer’s Voice. Stuff was going on in my life, so I put that book away, and hadn’t really chased all the rabbits down the holes―I was REALLY Busy. But it was collecting electrons on my hard drive. I had this vision of just dusting it off and entering it.

Ah, Naïveté, thy name is writer.

Some time between when I’d put that story away and when I opened it for the Pitcharama contest, the fairies had failed to clean it up and make it ready for the eyes of others (faeries don’t follow orders well, I tell you). I busted buns, cleaned up the manuscript, fixed up my pitch and posted it on the blog.

Then I waited.

And waited.

And then I saw that the other participants were getting picked to teams, and I had a sad face.

Sad face… until Stacy Nash posted on my pitch that she wanted me for her team!

Everything went live. Pretty quickly, I got requests from two editors at different presses. I gave my first three chapters one more read through, and sent them off.

I’d like to say that at this point, I happily went about my complicated and well adjusted life, but who am I kidding? I’m a research scientist by training. I looked up every scrap of information I could about the presses. I maybe wore out the refresh key on my computer hoping to get an email.

Then the editor from Curiosity Quills got back to me and said she loved it. Please send the rest.

Loved it? My book? I was pretty much in a state of shock.

I did the happy dance, then tried to talk some reason into my brain. I’ve had full requests before.

I’ve had full requests from publishers before. It’s a guarantee of exactly nothing, so I settled in to wait the long wait. The “Please love my book” wait.

After a month, she got back to me with a contract.**

!!!!!!!

That’s right, I sold my first book, ACNE, ASTHMA, AND OTHER SIGNS YOU MIGHT BE HALF DRAGON, a YA urban fantasy to Curiosity Quills!

Me, signing at the desk of awesome.

I’m so excited!

Thanks to Stacy for picking me for your team!

Thanks to Aussie Owned and Read for hosting Pitcharama. ALL THE FEELS.

And thanks to Kathleen for loving my book (like really, I’m still in shock!), and I'm super excited to be joining Curiosity Quills!

Okay, now back to work.

**Turns out, I have an odd response to too much emotion, good or bad: the part that feels shuts off. It goes into overload, and only the cold, logic remains. It’s the weirdest thing. It’s sort of like in that Star Trek movie where Data tells the Captain that he’s scared and he’d like permission to turn off his emotion chip. Apparently, that’s my default happy mode.