Hey there!

Whew! This blog is dusty!

It's been a while since I've posted anything--I've been working on polishing DEFENSIVE GUN nice and pretty for my agent. It's funny how you read your MS a hundred times and every time you do, you find more ways to fix it. I hadn't looked at DG since a few months before I signed with Holloway Literary and I strongly believed it was as good as it was going to get. Fast forward to January of this year and I decide to give it one last read through and low and behold, I find all these great ways to make it even better and even added 2k in word count! Then, a few days after I send my agent an updated version, I get this crazy, wonderful idea to write two more books in the world of DG...companion novels I guess you could call them. I'm working on the first one right now--it's in its early stages so I don't want to say too much in case it doesn't pan out, but I'm having a great time writing it. And if it doesn't work out that's ok. It's still a great way for me to improve my craft.

As for reading, I've been doing some of that, too. I'm on book five in the OUTLANDER novels and I recently finished SOME BOYS by Patty Blount as well as an adult novel by Diane Chamberlain called THE SILENT SISTER. I just checked out KALAHARI by Jessica Khoury and I can't wait to dive into that! 

So, what's been going on with you, reader? Read anything good lately? 

I have an agent!!

So here it is--the post that every writer wants to write. The post that makes it all official, that makes all the hard work worth it. It's the one that says, "Yay! I wrote a book and someone likes it enough to fight for it so that it can go forth into the world for others to read and enjoy!" Well, here it is--my story:

The Short Version

For those of you who just want the basics, I recently signed with, and am now represented by, Holloway Literary. I'm super excited to be working with them and thrilled they loved DEFENSIVE GUN.

The Long Version (it's epic)

If you've been to my blog before or read my About page then you know how much I love to read. This probably isn't surprising since, duh, I'm a writer and in order to write and create, you kind of have to read. But I never really considered writing, being an author that is, as something I could do until about 7 years ago. 

I'd spent several years after college rarely picking up a book. I got married, started a full time job, and had my first kid all in the first year I was out of college. I was burnt out on reading and pretty much had forgotten the joy of reading for pleasure. Years of forced reading for education had done that to me. So when my sister repeatedly insisted I read this great series of books called TWILIGHT, I gave in and bought the books and tried them out. I was hooked! I read them all in like 3 days. Those books helped me re-discover my love for reading and what was more, they re-introduced me to YA. (I'm a former SWEET VALLEY HIGH addict). Soon after, I devoured everything in YA that even remotely interested me and after another conversation with my sister about an idea I had that I thought would make a great story (that idea evolved into my first MS, I AM CARAWAY) she said, "You know, you should try your hand at writing." 

And that my friends, is where it all began.

I spent about four months writing I AM CARAWAY and another couple of years learning my craft and revising and editing my MS. (That thing was a monster, clocking in at the end of the first draft at 157k words). I queried CARAWAY for about six months and in the meantime, wrote and polished DEFENSIVE GUN. 

**And that's what you really want to hear about, right? The book that got me the agent... 

ok, ok, here it is:

The idea for DEFENSIVE GUN came to me when I decided I wanted to write a contemporary YA. That was what all the agents and editors were looking for so that was the kind of book I wanted to write. It was a challenge for me because my ideas were always fantastical in nature so I had no idea how I would find an idea or write something contemporary. I knew I wanted my story to have a hook (like 13 REASONS WHY's cassette tapes) and to be intense, realistic, and emotional. Somehow the idea to tell the story of a girl who'd been kidnapped just popped into my head. 

I wanted the girl's story to be a reflection on what she'd been through and I wanted the hook, the way she reflected, to be a TV interview. I mean, we've all watched some sort of Barbara Walters-like interview at some point so that was the feeling I was going for. I wanted my MC Amanda to be the girl everyone felt like they knew just because they'd seen her on TV--like Elizabeth Smart, JonBenet Ramsey, Laci Peterson and countless other victims whose faces and stories took over the airwaves when they went missing. I wanted that attention to play into how Amanda was handling everything she'd been through now that she was back home. 

Through the course of the interview, Amanda relays the events leading up to, and all that happened during, the two years she was held prisoner. And in the meantime, she has to deal with having survived those things and being thrown back into not only her life, but the public eye as well. And I didn't want this to be just any kidnapping. I wanted Amanda to be the victim of an attempt at human trafficking. I also wanted her to be a fighter. I wanted her to fight for her life no matter what the cost. Here's my inspiration for that.

Finally, because kidnapping and human trafficking happen primarily to young adult women, it was a no-brainer for Amanda to be a teen. There really isn't a better place to tell her story than the YA universe. 

**side note** I've done tons of research on kidnapping. I also have some personal experience with it as well. In the past four years, two members of my husband's extended family in Mexico have been kidnapped and ransomed. One of them was returned and the other one was, unfortunately, ransomed and killed. So I REALLY wanted to do Amanda, and others like her, justice.

Amanda's story poured out of me. I wrote it in about a month and then spent several months revising it. Then I started querying. I got a lot of interest with DEFENSIVE GUN. I even had three R&Rs which I was really hopeful over and which made my MS even stronger. Those R&Rs eventually turned into complimentary passes with an invitation to submit future work. I was bummed; I'm not going to lie. The full requests and ultimate rejections kept coming in after that so I took a break from querying for a bit while I figured out what to do about DEFENSIVE GUN and while I decided what to write next. 

After a few months, I decided to give DEFENSIVE GUN one final go-round of queries. I saw a Writer's Digest tweet about Nikki and Holloway Literary and after combing through the website, I took the plunge and submitted. I was thrilled when my query and sample pages turned into a partial request and then a full request and then a request for a bio and inquiry about future works. I didn't want to get my hopes up so I sent what was requested and patiently waited. Then one day I was getting ready to leave work and decided to sneak a quick peek at my phone to see if I'd missed any texts or calls. I saw I had an email so I did a cursory screen pull-down to see who it was from. I saw Nikki's name and the word "pleased" and I about lost it! I opened the email and started grinning like a fool as I read her kind words over and over again. This was it! This was the moment I had been hoping for. 

I spent the next week emailing all the agents with my query and full and got a few more requests and some interest to represent me. In the end, I decided Nikki and Holloway Literary were the best fit for me. I am so happy to start the next phase of this journey and I can't wait to see where it all leads. Inspired by all the good feels, I started a new WIP that I am so excited about and wish I could spend day and night writing. (Which of course is impossible because unlike with my first two MSs, I now have a part-time job which makes finding the time to write soooo much harder than it was when I was a stay-at-home mom). Well, obviously there are other reasons I can't spend 24/7 writing, like adult responsibilities and you know, sleeping and eating.

There you have it--the very long and detailed version of my journey to get an agent. Now if you will bear with me for just a moment longer while I thank every person I can think of who in some way, either big or small, has helped me reach this moment. Yes, it reads like an Emmy win speech for what's probably a minor milestone in the grand scheme of things but I always like it when people say thank you to me so I am going to do the same for them. Most of these people don't know me and may only recognize me by my Twitter pic but I felt the need to name them nonetheless. Here it goes:

The Obvious

• God
• My parents who always bought me books to read
• My sister for always listening to me rave about the books I love, for always encouraging me, and for reading that monstrous first draft of CARAWAY
• My husband and kids for putting up with my face stuck in my laptop all the time
• My brother-in-law Chris Spisak--a fellow writer and an amazeballs director who will always talk shop with me and who inspires me with his creativity
• My CPs: Courtney Gilfillian (who Google chats with me about all things writing which I love), Susan Gray Foster, Laekan Kemp, and my new CP, Amabel Daniels (who I am sure will be reading my next WIP). These ladies helped make DG what it is today and for that I am grateful.

And a handful of writers I follow on Twitter whose contests, interviews, websites, and support of fellow writers, as well as their generous sharing of their own journeys, has helped me tremendously: 

Michelle Hauck, Krista Van Dolzer, Dee Romito, Missy LaRae, L.L. McKinney, Taryn Albright, Natalie Aguirre, Angelica R. Jackson, Casey McCormick, Amy Trueblood, Lindsey Sprague, Stacey O'Neale, Dahlia Adler, Monica B.W, and Brenda Drake.

Whew! Ok, you've made it to the end. I'll stop now :) Thanks you so much for reading all the way through. I can't wait to tell you more as this journey for me continues!

xoxo,

Christie

Outlander!! (A sort of book review)

**Let me just preface this by saying that these books are not YA books and while I have been keeping this blog strictly YA, I decided to break that rule just this once with this post. These are adult books with adult content so if you are alright with that and want to hear me gush about how much I love these books, then by all means, read on!

If you haven't read the books or started watching the show on Starz, you are missing out! This wonderful story written by Diana Gabaldon is epic and adventurous and soooo good! I watched the first episode when it aired and was immediately hooked and when I learned it was based on a series of books I jumped in my car and went to my library and checked out the first one, OUTLANDER. Holy smokes! I couldn't put that thing down! I fell in love with the characters and the story and Scotland (the majority of the setting) and dove right in to the second book and the third book and the fourth book...

Let's just say I have spent the past month and a half immersed in the world Gabaldon created (getting little else accomplished in my life) and I have no regrets! These books are long and chocked full of one adventure after another and I love how you get to live in Claire and Jamie's and all the other characters' worlds for so long before one book ends and the next begins. I will be truly bereft when I get to the last book and have to wait for the next one to be published. If you like history, beautiful, rich settings, fully drawn out and unique characters and epic love and even more epic journeys, then these books are for you!

Go get them now! :)

Oh, and comment away. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Book Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Several months ago I was on Twitter reading through people's tweets and I found a tweet from Julie Plec (the mastermind behind The Vampire Diaries, among other things). She tweeted that she had just read We Were Liars and it was so awesome and everyone needed to read it. Well, if Julie Plec says so then that's enough for me! Fast forward to a few weeks ago and I see that my library has finally ordered this book. I quickly put a hold on it to be the first to check it out when it came in. Well, that day was yesterday and holy crap! it was as good as everyone (and sooooo many people on Twitter and elsewhere) said it was. I started it at 11pm and stayed up 'til 2am to finish. Yup. It was that good.

We Were Liars is told from the first person perspective of one of four "Liars," Cadence Sinclair Eastman. Cadence starts by telling us she is, first and foremost, a Sinclair. This means she has money and is expected to act the way a Sinclair would act. She then tells us how that is, and basically, it's how you would imagine a old-money, rich family on the East coast would be expected to act. 

Every summer Cadence and her mother go to the family's private island near Martha's Vineyard. Cadence's two aunts and cousins also go, as do her grandparents, the Heads of the Sinclair family. The aunts spend their time fighting over money and belongings and real estate and Grandfather eggs them on, picking favorites and pitting them against one another. The cousins are constantly thrown into these fights, forced to plead to Grandfather to give THEIR family more than the others. Each family has their own house on the island and every summer Cadence's cousin Johnny brings his best friend, Gat, along with him to the island. As you would expect, Cadence falls in love with Gat and at some point before their fifteenth summer, Cadence, her other cousin Mirren, Gat, and Johnny all become the Liars. They don't keep in touch during the school year but every summer the magic of the island brings them all together and they are the best of friends. 

Early on in the book we learn that at some point during their fifteenth summer, Cadence had an accident on the island. She was found half submerged on the beach and it was deduced that she had taken a late night swim and hit her head on the rocks. She suffered a brain injury and spent some time in the hospital. Cadence doesn't remember everything from that summer, like the days leading up to or immediately following the accident. She suffers severe and excruciating headaches and fails the following school year. For her sixteenth summer, her dad takes her on a trip through Europe rather than letting her go back to the island. 

All Cadence wants is just to remember what happened to her. So, come seventeenth summer, that is what she is determined to find out. None of the Liars have ever responded to her emails or letters or mailed gifts and so she begs her mom to let her go to the island for the summer. Her mom finally relents, hoping Cadence will remember things on her own and start to heal. By the books end, Cadence has remembered everything that happened to her and the Liars that fifteenth summer--and what she learns will break your heart.

**I so, so loved this book! Cadence is such a likeable and relatable character. She loves deeply and feels strongly about everything. Her story is at times happy but also incredibly tragic. The Sinclair family is THAT family; that one we imagine every East-coast-rich, beautiful, mysterious family to be. The setting of the story was almost a character in itself and Lockhart did a beautiful job making it so with minimal description. This book has that great summer feel to it when you read it. I highly recommend it!

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment below :)

Hi!

Sooooo... 

I guess I don't I don't really blog as much as I used to or even as much as I would like. Since the start of the new year, my life has been crazy busy! I started a new job (I work for my city at our rec center and I LOVE it!!) and we moved into our new house (which I also love but is impossible to keep clean because of it's size and the fact that my two kids are MESSY!). Now that summer is fully under way, just keeping the kids occupied and going to work are eating up all my time. I write when I can (I'm working on an old MS that I gave up on long ago and I'm falling in love with it all over again!) and I read only when something REALLY good comes out or is recommended. I used to read practically anything and everything that came my way but alas, those were the days of a stay-at-home mom who had a little more free time on her hands :)  

So, here's how things are looking for me:

I am still querying DEFENSIVE GUN. I know, STILL, you say? I think I am about ready to shelve it though. I'm still waiting to hear from some agents who have the full and a handful who have the query. I love this story but I just think it's time to move on.

I probably will only blog from now on with really good reviews of books and/or personal updates. I just can't seem to juggle it all...  ):

So thanks to all of you who stop by and read my posts! You are AWESOME!!

Pitch Slam!

Hey there! So I recently decided to jump back into the concert circuit with my Contemporary YA, Defensive Gun. I love contests and hadn't done one in a while and when I saw the deets for Pitch Slam I knew I had to enter. The aforementioned deets can be found here. Wish me luck!

Also, I'm hoping to get a book review or 2 up in the next week or so. I'd gone a while without reading because of lack of time and also because all the books I wanted to read weren't available yet at my library. So when they were available I dove right in and read like 3 or 4 books in a couple of weeks! Now to decide which to review...

Thanks for stopping by!

Book Review: The Trylle Trilogy by Amanda Hocking

So I've wanted to read this series for a while now because a long time ago I heard about how Amanda Hocking had self-published these books and how they had done really well and their success is (partly) what led to her getting her books in print. My library almost always has these books checked out but I was finally able to get the first two and read them over the past couple of weeks. They're very much what you would expect from a YA paranormal series--awkward girl finds out she isn't really human but a princess; leaves home to learn about her real people; finds out bad people are after her; must decide how best to save herself and those she loves. Even though parts of the story were cliche and sometimes the dialogue wasn't very authentic, I still found myself enjoying the plot and pleased with the main character and her voice. And as soon as I read the final installment, I will update to reflect.

Switched: When Wendy was a child, her father died and not long later, her mother tried to killed her. Her and her brother Matt were sent to live with their aunt and Wendy spent the rest of her years being a loner constantly getting into trouble. She always felt out of place with her picky appetite, unruly hair, short temper, and pension for going shoeless. It isn't until the strange and good-looking Finn shows up at her school and tells her that she isn't really human that things start to make sense. Wendy is a Trylle changeling--a troll that was switched at birth with the human baby born to the mom that tried to kill her. Trouble is, Wendy's "mom" wasn't really crazy. She recognized that Wendy wasn't her baby, or even human, and that was why she tried to kill her. After an attack on Wendy's life by a warring Trylle faction, the Vittra, Finn takes Wendy to the Trylle community where Wendy's real mom, the Queen Elora, rules. Slowly Wendy learns about the Trylle way of life as well as Trylle history. Wendy and Finn's attraction for each other grows but since Finn is considered lower class, he refuses to act on it. Then one day an attack on the Trylle occurs. Lives are lost and Wendy learns that the Vittra aren't going to give up until they get her. Frustrated with her real mother's lack of warmth and love and Finn's distance as well as wanting to keep the Trylle safe, Wendy decides to leave the Trylle community and return to her brother Matt and her aunt. What happens after that is more than she can handle.

Torn: Wendy arrives back home but she didn't come alone. She brought Rhys--the human boy she was switched with at birth. As a human in the Trylle community, Rhys has always been treated like the lowest of the low. Wendy wants Rhys to meet Matt, his older brother and Rhys is ready for a change so he agrees to go with her. Well, sort of. Wendy has a unique Trylle gift called Persuasion so she may have had to convince him some (: Wendy introduces the two boys and begins the process of trying to explain to Matt why she left and who she is. Not long later the Vittra show up and the next thing Wendy knows she's waking up in a dungeon with Matt and Rhys. The Vittra took them. There Wendy meets Loki, a Vittra royal who introduces her to his King--Wendy's dad! Wendy learns she's the heir to two thrones and she needs to decide which kingdom she wants to rule. While her mom's kingdom isn't the greatest, it is better than her dad's. So with some surprising help from Loki (who seems like a prisoner himself) Wendy and Matt and Rhys are able to escape the King's palace. They go back to the Queen where Wendy demands answers to all the questions her mother has avoided answering. Not long later, Loki shows back up. The Queen uses her power to keep him prisoner in the palace but it weakens her to a point close to death. Wendy seeks out Loki  for answers and the two get to know each other and even share a kiss. The Queen recovers some after Loki is exchanged for a peace agreement but the Queen tells Wendy that it won't be long before she will be dead and Wendy will be queen. She has even arranged for Wendy to marry a Trylle royal, Tove. Torn over who to love and where to rule, Wendy has some big decisions to make.

Well, hopefully I can get my hands on the last book today and update you on what I thought real soon. Thanks for stopping by and reading!!