2014 Writing Life Highlights

Happy New Year's Friends!! Is it really 2015 tomorrow?

It's time for my yearly review in all things writing for me this year and I waited too long to get to it today! There are little people all looking at me, waiting for the New Year's Eve party to get going. So, instead of the monthly breakdown of 2014, here's my fave moments:

2014 was SO great! This past fall all of my kids were finally in school full day which meant so much more writing time for me! This year I wrote two middle grade novels that I adore so much. I can't wait for you all to read them. I sketched out an adult romance series (under a pen name) and wrote half of book one. I'm plotting out 2015 now and have so much more I want to work on. So excited!! Here's the rest of the year in bullet points:

• I signed with a new literary agent in the spring, Andrea Somberg from Harvey Klinger Inc. She is so awesome and a total joy to work with.
• I had fun author visits.

• I attended the Anderson's Children's Literary Breakfast and met tons of cool teachers and librarians. And Henry Winkler!

• THE ESPRESSOLOGIST was chosen as a 2014 Illinois Reads book! I got to go to a cool ceremony at the Illinois Reading Council Conference in Springfield, IL. Signed loads of books, met other great authors, and did my first radio interview.

• Went to probably the best writing retreat ever. 21 authors, one literary agent, and one editor in a cabin in Michigan for three days. So much fun and learned so, so much!

• I did a really fun YA author panel in Chicago.

• And some local literary fests.

It was a great year and I know 2015 will be even better! 

xo,

Kristina

Some December Updates

My poor blog, I've neglected you so! If you ever come to my blog and it looks like I've been gone for awhile, find me on twitter or facebook because I'm on there all day. With tiny spurts of work here and there. ;-)

I actually have been getting lots of work done when my new puppy, Java the Mutt, isn't driving me crazy. Here she is when we first got her 6 weeks ago:

And here she is last week:

She was 12 pounds when we got her and now is 29 and growing fast! Java is a giant schnoodle (mom a giant schnauzer and dad a standard poodle) so we expect her to be a big girl! If she could just stop hurling herself at me and trying to climb over my head every time I sit down on the couch with my laptop to write things would be great.

I've been enjoying all of my free time now that the kiddos have been in school for awhile. Getting lots of writing in and finished another middle grade. I love writing for this age group! I'm editing and tweaking that now. I've also been working on an adult romance series for fun breaks in between middle grade books. Who knows if and when it will ever come out (or under what name for that matter) but it's just fun to try something new.

What else have I been up to aside from writing? Ummm, lots of reading, yoga, coffee drinking, addictive Hallmark Christmas movie watching, Christmas shopping, binge-watching episodes of Impractical Jokers (if you haven't seen this show yet you MUST watch!), and I even got to see my four boyfriends, who don't know I exist, last weekend at their show in Indiana.

They were so, so funny! Aside from that, I'm also thinking of trying to train the dog to do yoga with me. She already has downward dog nailed. If I could just get her to sit next to me instead of standing with her giant paws on my face  we would be so cool.

Ah, someday.

xo,

Kristina