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

Just because it's funny. And I love coffee. :-)

A Hundred Coffees from Haha hehe on Vimeo.

#BoySwap #FREE #Kindle

Boys, Band Nerds, and Backstabbers. BOY SWAP is FREE today on Amazon.

Will The Real Abi Saunders Please Stand Up by Sara Hantz

Will The Real Abi Saunders Please Stand Up by Sara Hantz is now available!

About the book: Abi Saunders might be a kickboxing champion, but when it comes to being the center of attention, she’d rather take a roundhouse kick to the solar plexus any day. So when her trainer convinces her to audition to be the stunt double for hot teen starlet Tilly Watson, Abi is shocked—and a little freaked out—when she gets the job. Being a stunt double is overwhelming, but once the wig and makeup are on, Abi feels like a different person. Tilly Watson, to be exact. And when Tilly’s gorgeous boyfriend, Jon, mistakes Abi for the real star, Abi's completely smitten. In fact, she’s so in love with her new life, it isn’t long before she doesn’t have time for her old one. But when the cameras are turned off, will she discover running with the Hollywood A-list isn’t quite the glamorous existence she thought it was?

You can buy the book here: Amazon Barnes and Noble Book Depository

What Others Are Saying:
"Abi Saunders is a kickass heroine with a story full of action and heart." Melissa Walker author of Ashes to Ashes and Small Town Sinners.

"Will the Real Abi Saunders Please Stand Up delivers the good stuff - kickboxing stunt double, Hollywood A-listers, mistaken identity, romance. This one is a contender!" Linda Gerber, author of the Lights, Camera, Cassidy series.

"Will the Real Abi Saunders Please Stand Up packs a delicious punch of realism and Hollywood magic in one hit." Allison Rushby, author of Being Hartley, the Living Blond Trilogy and Shooting Stars.

Author Panel in Chicago Friday night

Looking for something fun to do next Friday night? I'm doing a panel at 57th Street Books in Chicago with YA authors: Christa Desir, Elizabeth Fama, and Philip Siegel. We will be divulging ALL of the writer secrets. Details here- http://www.semcoop.com/event/scbwi-panel-57th-street-books

Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit starring: CRIMINAL, by Terra Elan McVoy

Terra Elan McVoy's Criminal, Out in Paperback!

Nikki’s life is far from perfect, but at least she has Dee. Her friends tell her that Dee is no good, but Nikki can’t imagine herself without him. He’s hot, he’s dangerous, he has her initials tattooed over his heart, and she loves him more than anything. There’s nothing Nikki wouldn’t do for Dee. Absolutely nothing. So when Dee pulls Nikki into a crime—a crime that ends in murder—Nikki tells herself that it’s all for true love. Nothing can break them apart. Not the police. Not the arrest that lands Nikki in jail. Not even the investigators who want her to testify against him. But what if Dee had motives that Nikki knew nothing about? Nikki’s love for Dee is supposed to be unconditional…but even true love has a limit. And Nikki just might have reached hers.

Beyond the Book: Terra's Thoughts

In advice to writers, Stephen King says, “Write the truth.” Ernest Hemingway also famously said, “Write what you know.” My thesis director and writing mentor, Mark Winegardner, went further to say, “Write what you most want to understand.” It was this thought that motivated me to start writing Criminal. In 2011, I heard about a murder case in which a young man was accused of killing one of his girlfriend’s parents, out in broad day. When I discovered he had an accomplice—another young woman with whom he’d also been romantically involved—I was even more intrigued. “Who would do such a thing? And why?” Of course I was thinking of the shooter, but really I was most perplexed by the second girlfriend—the one who allegedly helped him do it. Who was she? Why did she go along with it? Did she know about his other girlfriend? And what happened to her after the fact? Reading helps us to imagine things we haven’t experienced on our own, and to, ultimately, empathize with our fellow humans. In writing Criminal, I aimed to explain to myself—and to therefore understand—what it would be like to be a girl very different from me and most of the characters in my other books: someone without resources, without confidence, without an education or good family, and often without hope—so much so that she’d participate in such a horrible crime. The result of my imaginings (and my research) is in this book. I didn’t write it to justify, or excuse, any kind of criminal behavior in the slightest. Instead I hope that in doing so, my readers and I can get closer to understanding that people who make terrible choices like this are more than just the results of their crimes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcliVsSH_SA#t=52