Today I have the pleasure of sharing with you a fantastic guest post by the fabulous Rachel Harris, the author of YA time travel romance, My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century. I have reviewed My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century on the blog today, for my review click here . It was funny, charming, and beautifully written and I highly recommend you checking it out!
Enjoy the guest post, folks, and don't forget to enter the giveaway at the bottom of this post!:)
The Crazy Ride to Publication, a Shocked and Delighted Newbie’s Take
a guest post by Rachel Harris
Evie, who’s absolutely fabulous for having me here today, thought it’d be fun if I shared my publishing experience and talk about how life has changed since I inked the deal. To be honest, life is completely different and completely the same, which I know makes absolutely zero sense, but it’s the truth.
Like, my kids are still my kids. I homeschool them, so they are with me all the time and just because I have a book coming out, it doesn’t stop their silly, occasional fights or the amount of attention they need from me throughout the day. On the other hand, our conversations are now filled with talk of turning points, climaxes, and black moments.
And dishes and laundry still pile up. What would really rock is if a little genie—or maybe Reyna, the gypsy from My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century—would appear when you got your contract, helping these things magically disappear. Deadlines are for real now, and guest posts for blog tours like this fabulous one need to happen….yet food is constantly being consumed, leaving mounds of dishes in the sink. Sigh.
But I am an author….a soon-to-be-published one. And it still doesn’t feel real.
My book journey started the summer of 2010 when I read the Twilight series. I grew reading like crazy, and I’ve always loved writing short stories and poems for fun, but I never thought about a career in it. And once I started homeschooling, I felt the need to catch up on all the classics right away so I could be ahead of the curve. But with Twilight, I recaptured that love of literature…the knowledge that reading can be purely fun. That giddy, okay yes, obsessive feeling you get about your favorite characters and book boyfriends. And I wanted in. I got the bug and thought, hey, I can try this thing. So I did. And I began writing my first YA novel around September of that year.
I plotted, drafted, edited, and queried, and while it out on submission with agents, I got a shiny new idea. It was about a twenty-first century girl who magically transports back to Renaissance Florence. I’d actually thought I would write a book about a girl dealing with the death of her best friend first (Rearview Mirror, which will be out December 2013), but My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century would not be quiet. Cat’s voice screamed in my head with an idea so sparkly and fun, I had to give in. I threw myself into research and began officially drafting February 2011.
Thank goodness I had my girls with me for the journey (Trisha Wolfe, Shannon Duffy, and Victoria Scott). With their help, I got this book drafted and edited in two months and sent it out on submission while some agents were still looking at the first book. There were several close calls along the way, but I found my agent, Lauren Hammond, in August. And she brought me to my literary home, Entangled Teen, in September. A year after I started writing my first book.
I’m blessed. The road was shorter than it should’ve been, I have an amazing support system, and I’m with a publisherthat has the best authors, publicists, editors, and friends a girl could ask for. Life is good. It rocks. But I’m still waiting on that dishwashing genie….!
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About the author:
As a teen, I threw raging parties that shook my parents’ walls and created embarrassing fodder for future YA novels.
As an adult, I read and write obsessively, rehash said embarrassing fodder, and dream up characters who become my imaginary friends.
When I'm not typing furiously or flipping pages in an enthralling romance, you can find me homeschooling my two beautiful princesses, hanging out with my amazing husband, or taking a hot bubble bath…next to a pile of chocolate.
MY SUPER SWEET SIXTEENTH CENTURY is my first novel. I did have my own fantabulous Sweet Sixteen in high school. Sadly, it wasn’t televised.
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Giveaway~!
We have one gorgeous finished copy of My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century up for grabs today!
Please enter via the rafflecopter below!
Good luck!!!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Please enter via the rafflecopter below!
Good luck!!!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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About the AuthorEvie is the Blogger behind Bookish. She enjoys reading many different genres, especially YA, Paranormal, Contemporary Fiction and Fantasy.She loves talking to authors and is always happy to welcome them for interviews, and guest posts. She also likes spreading the love for awesome books and chatting with fellow book-worms.
You can find Evie here: Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Shelfari | The Library Thing
9 comments:
Wow! Rachel is very lucky with how she became a published author and I'm very happy for her for that. I really can't wait to read this book and yes, many a reading/writing tales begins with Twilight. I'm not ashamed to admit that!
Its amazing how certain things work out! This was great, thank you!
Awww!!! How Twilight changed so many of us! It's incredible to hear Twilight over and over again! I also have so many fond memories of Twilight. Glad it inspired so many incredible authors and new stories :)
Thanks for the great guest post! Twilight seems to have gotten a lot of people writing. It's awesome how things work out sometimes : )
Great guest post. I am so glad that things went well for Rachel and she was able to get published. It seems like Twilight has been a big inspiration for a lot of authors.
Awesome Guset Post love it... hey Rachel when you find the genie please send him at my place, too much college work piling up... ;)
Very interesting post! Congrats!
Looks like a great book!
drakebdog@gmail.com
This book looks so fantastic!
I can't wait to read it. :D
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