So, yeah, I'm gonna be PUBLISHED!

Wow. Typing those words . . . it still doesn't feel real. I've had a few weeks now to supposedly get used to the idea, but I don't know if I ever really believed it would actually happen. But now I've spoken to my editor and discussed things like cover design, author bios, formats . . . and it's finally sinking in. And my whole body is just like one massive happy goose bump!

Ever since I can remember, I've loved the written word. I was born a bookaholic and made up stories fill my old journal. Creative writing classes were by far my favorite electives in high school, and to be honest I was pretty good. But I never let myself dream I could be published. That I'd get my own book, with my own name on the cover, filled with characters I created and a story world straight from my own slightly crazed brain. That someone else would love and believe in my writing so much that they would take a financial chance on me. The reality is so humbling, and that is exactly what the awesome people over at Entangled Publishing decided to do. To take a chance on ME! :-)

Last week I added my bubbly signature to an actual publishing contract for my YA Magical Realism/Historical, My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century, AND its spin off, A Tale of Two Centuries. EEP!

 

*jazz hands, happy boggie, little squeal*

The tentative expected publication date is summer 2012 for the first one, with a possible December date for the spin off, which means soon I'll be heading back into the writing cave to finish drafting the sequel, along with probably several fun rounds of edits on MSSSC. And to be honest, I'm excited, scared, shocked, and just plain out amazed. It just feels surreal, you know?

With all the excitement, I decided to move over here, to my brand new author site. I've imported my old blog Ending Unplanned over here, and I love having everything in one central spot for peeps to find me . . . BUT sadly I lost all the beautiful smiling faces in my follower box over there.

*sniffles. Looks back at all those gorgeous people. Now looks at my lonely empty one here.*

I'd be tickled pink if you'd choose to follow my publishing journey with me. I've met countless wonderful people who have made the last year so much fun, and I know my dream wouldn't be coming true if it wasn't for the amazing friendships I've made in the blogosphere. Thanks in particular to Trish, Tori, Lori Ann, Demetra, Hope, Lauren, Nancy, Mary, Rose, and Natalie. You chicas are made of awesome!

Q4U: So, that's my HAPPY news, now I'd love to hear some of yours! What's going just absolutelym, pinch yourself to prove it's real spectacular in YOUR life today?

Guilty Pleasures: Reality Pressure Cookers

Ever since The Real World New York (the first season) appeared on the scene, reality television has been a guilty pleasure of mine. At different stages of my life I've been addicted to Big Brother, The Amazing Race, The Bachelor and Bachelorette (okay, I'm still addicted to this one lol), My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance, and Temptation Island, just to name a few. Unfortunately, it appeared that the more cat fights that could've resulted, and the more drama that was present, made it that much more of a draw.

For the most part I've kinda gotten out of that stage--okay, okay, except for The Bachelor/Bachelorette, but as one of my good friends says, 'Mama needs her cotton candy'--BUT there is one form of reality television that has addicted my entire family: Food Network.

Now I'm not really talking about the individual shows that teach you how to cook a meal in thirty minutes or how to make a great bite or whatever. I'm talking the high drama, ticking time clock, crazy-surprise-ingredient basket type shows. Stuff like The Next Iron Chef Super Chefs, Chopped, Restaurant Impossible, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Worse Cooks in America. How can you not be addicted to a show that makes a chef create an amazing entree in thirty minutes out of candy bars, sardines, Brussels sprouts, and quail eggs? Okay, I think I made up that particular basket, but you get the point. And watching polished, famous chefs duke it out on national television and break a sweat? Nice!

And occasionally, I even learn a thing or two.

So there you go, my family's guilty pleasure. Watching people cook crazy food in a crazy amount of time, while we probably pig out on junk food.

Q4U: Do YOU watch Food Network? What is your favorite show? And if not, what is your guilty pleasure this week?

Got The Call and GIVEAWAYS Galore!

Whew!

The past few weeks have been CRAZY! There are so many changes and things happening and really, it's been a complete whirlwind. But things are finally getting back to normal and in some form of a routine, and I'm so happy to be back!

I normally don't post on Wednesdays, but I couldn't wait until tomorrow--I just had to come and shout out all my exciting news today. (I can be impatient that way). Really, there's THREE things I wanted to let all of you wonderful readers know about, so I thought I'd do it quick and fast bullet style.

• First, the biggest news that I never thought I'd get to say: I got the call!! Actually, I first got the email two Fridays ago, then a marathon three hour phone call last Monday, followed by a week of talking to a lot of other agents and pulling all nighters to finish my revision. But I can now PROUDLY say that I have an agent!! Lauren Hammond of ADA Management, the agent of awesome, believes in me and my writing, and is such an enthusiastic, passionate advocate that I honestly couldn't be happier. From the very first email, she made me feel so comfortable and it was like we've known each other for years. Equally exciting is that my CP and writing sister Trish Wolfe is also now my agency sister!

• Along with sharing an AGENT OF AWESOME, Trish and I have also now joined forces on YA Bound. Trish started that blog almost a year ago to review YA books, and over the last few months has been kicking it up a notch. Now we've decided to really focus our attention on spreading the YA love with LIVE Author chats, a fun new hashtag/meme on Thursdays (be sure to hop over there tomorrow!), interviews and tons of giveaways! Today is our kick off post and we interviewed each other random question style, so come hop over to discover which YA author I'd love to be for a day and all about Trish's favorite YA bad boy.

• And finally, the GIVEAWAY news! Over at YA Bound we're gonna have a ton of giveaways each month, but to CELEBRATE our new agented status and kick off the new phase of the blog, we're having FOUR giveaways this month alone! Come back every week for a chance to win a different ARC of a book coming out this month, and if you follow us over there and snag our snazzy button above for your blog (and let us know about it) you'll be automatically entered into all four! So excited about this :-)

Q4U: So that is what I've been up to--what about you? What has kept YOU busy and crazy this summer? Do YOU have any exciting news to share? If so, please leave them below! I'd love to celebrate with you!

Guilty Pleasures: Secrets and Wine

I thought I would start doing something fun on Fridays. Let the world get a glimpse into my private life. Scary thought, isn't it?

We all have Guilty Pleasures. Things that make you blush or bite your lip to admit to others. Vices or indulgences that are pure fun, or we use as a treat when we've had an especially bad--or maybe especially awesome--day. The sky's the limit when it comes to what kind of things can be classified in this category . . . which makes it an excellent regular blog topic, don't ya think? Yeah, me too.

So for the inaugural Guilty Pleasures post, I thought I'd go all out and do a two-fer. Because why not.

I adore The Secret Life of the American Teenager. And this truly fits into the bite your lip and turn all red faced category, at least when it comes to admitting it in front of my husband. I swear, every stinking time he walks past the room while I'm watching this show, the characters are talking about sex. And, okay, yes, they talk about it a lot, but there is other stuff going on. Whole plot lines and character arcs, and emotions explored . . . and and yeah, it's my cotton candy. But I love it.

Seriously, though, I was a huge fan of Seventh Heaven growing up and I love seeing several of my favorite actors from that show walk the halls on this one. And while not all the acting is that great, they definitely do have some talent--um, hello, Molly Ringwald is the mom? Who wouldn't want to watch just for that? And I'm not afraid to admit I was a blubbering mess at least twice this season already. (also, fun tidbit, the main girl Amy, Shailene Woodley, played Felicity in the American Girl movie).

There are a few shows that I watch on the CW that I'm sure I'll mention on here eventually, but really, Secret Life is probably my most favorite guilty pleasure, and one that I never miss. AND I'm super psyched because I'll be able to catch all the episodes I missed the first season when they start coming on every day later this month! Woop!

Hey, think of it as research . . . if you write young adult books like me. If not, um, well, think of it as a guilty pleasure :-)

My second guilty pleasure is red wine. Now the old Harris household is getting healthier, eating better and being more active lately, so I've cut the white wine that I liked to indulge in at times. But I've often heard red wine can be healthy . . . . in moderation, so it is a new occasional indulgence.

Of course, we limit it to a glass or two on the weekends, but we've also added a fun challenge to it. We never have a glass from the same bottle twice in a row.

One of the things my husband and I enjoy doing is learning about wine. On cruises, we are the couple that go to the wine tasting classes. We've toured a few wineries--my favorite is the Biltmore in North Carolina--and even have a few books to learn about wine and food pairings.

But since I'm also a little picky--hey, I just know what I like--right now we are sticking close to Pinot Noirs. And the first one we got for our new experiment is one I picked out. I got a 2010 bottle from the Cavit Collection from CVS. Yep, good old CVS. My husband goes to hoity toity places like the liquor store where he can talk with educated people about the stuff. Not me, I just go to the corner convenience store. Because it's convenient. But I did look at several bottles before picking this one out. The main things that grabbed me about this one is that it is imported from Italy--a country that I'm obsessed with--and it had a really pretty scenic picture of Tuscany on the label. Very important things to consider when buying I say.

Now for the important stuff for those who care. This wine is great with grilled meats, salmon, chicken and risotto. It has a stronger fruit scent (the label claims of berry and black cherry) and it's also quite tasty. Definitely recommend a nice glass of this and a warm bubble bath after a particularly eventual week with the kids.

Q4U: What are your guilty pleasures this week?

ARC Contest Winner and Thoughts on Community

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend--and survived the extreme heat if you're a fellow Texan like me. Man, it's getting to be brutal out there!

Today is the day we announce the WINNER of the ARC Contest for Elana Johnson's POSSESSION, which ended on Sunday. I want to thank everyone for dropping in, retweeting, posting, and following this past week. It was so much fun to meet new blog world friends. I always follow back, so it was a pleasure to discover so many new blogs :-)

Thanks to RANDOM.ORG, we have ourselves a winner . . . (Drum roll please) . . . 

Congrats LindsayCWrites over at Lindsay Writes . . . !!

Lindsay, I'll have the book in the mail this afternoon, so be on the look out!

An interesting tidbit is that I happened to have met Lindsay once before at a writer's conference we both attended a few months ago. We only talked briefly at the cocktail party, but when I matched the name to the number RANDOM.ORG spit out it sounded familiar, and then I spotted the fellow Texan address.

Lindsay, according to her bio and my fuzzy recollection (I was in a haze of starry-eyed agent excitement at the time) is a 19-year-old-writer who is very active in the writing community. She is out there networking, making connections and contacts, and attending conferences. That impresses me so much. She knows what she wants and she is out there making it happen.

That leads me to the second portion of today's post, my thoughts on Community.

No, not the show, although I love that, too! (When is Jeff gonna realize how awesome Annie is??)

I mean, the Writing Community.

Querytracker, Twitter, Facebook, other blogs, forums, conferences, organizations . . . thanks to technology, the opportunity to make a connection with other writers out there is almost effortless. Writers love to support one another. It is through groups like these that I have met all of my critique partners, almost all of whom I've never actually seen face-to-face.

I met my fellow @KappaDeltaWrite chicas on Twitter (and all these ladies rock so hard, I'm BLESSED to have them in my corner). My YA Sisters and Brothers in the YA Sisterhood meet over at Facebook, but I first met the Wonder Twins who started it all on Twitter, and we often chat there, too(#YASB). And, thanks to Kristen Lamb's new #MyWana hashtag on Twitter, I'm meeting even more.

Querytracker introduced me to many wonderfully talented friends--in particular, the lovely Anita Howard. And locally I belong to a writers group for Houston YA/MG Writers that not only has given me many 'in real life' friendships, but mentors as well.

Why am I rambling here?

The point is that we all need community. Writing can be so lonely--staring at a screen and a box all day, getting carpal tunnel and a stiff neck. We create imaginary friends every day and most of us talk to them. We need social interaction with others, and who better to understand our madness then a fellow writer? Who better to lift us up when we are discouraged and our minds are mush, or cheer us on when we meet our goals and/or get agent requests?

I guess what I'm trying to say . . . not very succinctly . . . is that all of YOU in the writing community at large have blessed me. I hope I've been able to be a blessing to others as well.

If you're reading this and are hesitant about jumping in with any of the places I mentioned, contact me. I'd love to talk with you about this crazy roller coaster and point you in some great directions. Don't be afraid to reach out. The rewards are priceless :-)

 

Question 4 U: What are your favorite Community Building resources?

 

Let us know about your experiences in the comments! If you'd like to guest post about a particularly great networking or community building experience, contact me at RachelHarris1 at Gmail dot com.

Happy Monday Everyone!