I love this country. I love what we stand for, our brilliant founding Fathers, our freedoms, this land of opportunity, the wonderful people and our country's stunning beauty. I feel so blessed and thankful and proud.

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday of peace and family and love.

Let Freedom Ring!!!!!!

The final revised manuscript of THE HEALING SPELL was sent off yesterday morning and then I got an email from Gorgeous Editor that she'd like to send the Dedication and Acknowledgments along with it to the copy editor today and could I send ASAP?

Well, sure! But I haven't even really *thought* about the D&A pages, let alone drafted a potential D&A for this book, although I have been keeping a list of the people who have helped me along the way. 

I spent FOUR hours off and on writing and tweaking. Good grief. I am such a tweaker, but this seemed ridiculous. It was hard to get the words RIGHT. To say what I wanted to say about each person.

THE HEALING SPELL has had a seven year journey from concept to this point. A story I've always loved, but it took a lot of revision over the years and a long time to find the right publisher and editor.

And I NOW HAVE an OFFICIAL PUB DATE!!!

Drumroll please and confetti and balloons and fireworks . . . JULY 1, 2010! Whoo hoo!

I was hoping for June, but it's pretty close. Just in time for people to read over their 4th of July holiday - and Livie's older sister, Faye, has her wedding in the book  on the 4th of July!

We also have some cover comps!!! I think it's going to be gorgeous!!! Can't wait for the final to show off.

Off to hit SEND again! Have a great day everyone.

A few days ago, I eagerly ordered some books from Amazon. I shop online because the closest bookstore is 30 miles from me. There's a *very small* Hastings close by but their selection is *very small*, too, and they specialize more in movies and games anyway.

So I got my "they shipped today" email this morning! It's true that I wait for a big enough order so I can get FREE SHIPPING.

The Bad: It takes longer to wait for them to arrive.

The Good: I save a few bucks every time and can buy more books!



GO HERE TODAY: Harper Teen. Click on the A KISS IN TIME book jacket and read the FAB first pages - it's fantastic!!! The best first line! I've read all of alixwrites books and none of them disappoint. AND her book BEASTLY is going to be a MOVIE and it looks so cool! Major stars galore! And the hero/beast is WAY hotter than Robert Pattinson/Edward in the Twilight movies. JUST SAYIN'. 



I met mandywriter on Live Journal a year ago and she was so helpful during my agent search and I picked her brain a lot. Go Mandy and congrats on your first book!!!




I'm so happy for cyn2write !!! Cyn was also SO helpful in flurries of emails we exchanged about agents, the biz, websites, etc. Love her. So go read her book!



Aprilynne Pike is another debut author and a bestselling one already! She and I know a lot of the same people, but she doesn't know me. :-)

So my Gorgeous Editor LOVES all the work I've been doing on this final revision, but we are going after ONE particular scene ONE MORE TIME!

So I went to the shed and dug out my shovel and spade again to keep going deeper with Livie and T-Jacques - Livie's "love interest", although I'm not sure you really call it a *love interest* in middle-grade, although she IS off to Middle School a month after the book closes. At any rate, T-Jacques is cute and chops wood on the banks of the bayou and is the middle child between 8 sisters.

With all this digging into hearts and emotions and feelings and thresholds and themes, I'll soon I'll be six feet under myself.  I just keep telling myself, "I can do it, I can do it!"


This is the beginning of the 5 pages I need to revise again.

Livie's older sister, Faye, just got married in the backyard to her childhood sweetheart, Travis . . .

“They’re beautiful,” Faye murmured. I watched Travis put his arms around her waist as he bent to kiss her neck.

I glanced away, embarrassed, but then I peeked back again, curiosity getting the better of me. I wondered what it would be like to be that in love with someone. Since I couldn’t answer my own question, I went to go have some pain perdu and sausage. I’d just filled my plate and found a spot on the lawn when a tall, dark-haired boy walked up and sat down on the grass next to me. I looked up and stared into the eyes of T-Jacques Landry. I was so startled I swallowed a piece of sausage wrong and started coughing. T-Jacques thumped me on the back and then I took a gulp of punch.

 “What are you doing here?” I managed to splutter.

I heard from Gorgeous Editor this morning and she said that she is almost finished reading the revision of THE HEALING SPELL (Scholastic, June 2010). She called my rewrite "splendid" and said that she thinks it's ready to go to copy editing. Gulp. Hard not to panic when I want to look at it again!

But Gorgeous Editor needs to finish those last few chapters and she may definitely change her mind . . . 

Here's a nibble from Chapter Two:

Mamma usually wore a bit of cherry lipstick after breakfast, adding more makeup if she was going into town to shop. Since the accident, Mamma’s face was pale and splotchy, her lips colorless like a corpse. She didn’t even look real anymore.

I stopped three feet from the hospital bed and gave a shudder when Mamma’s legs started to jerk. I backed up as fast as I could, my head spinning like I’d just gotten off a roller coaster.

“Olivia Marie Mouton!” Faye exploded. “Mamma ain’t going to bite! She can’t even open her eyes.”

“Leave Livie be,” Daddy told Faye mildly through the doorway. “She gonna do things in her own time."
            Faye bit at her lips, ignoring me again, even when I clutched at my queasy stomach. I swear my sister had no heart.

It's been 8 months since my book sale - 5 since contracts were signed - and I STILL have these nights where I'm so excited I wake myself up dreaming about my book's cover, drooling over my catalog page, designing postcards and bookmarks and creating book trailers. There's a part of me that can't quite believe I'm going to see THE HEALING SPELL which I spent 6 years writing and revising actually ON BOOKSTORE SHELVES as well as SECRET RITES OF THE GODDESS which was about 2.5 years in the making.

Maybe all this excitement keeps stirring the pudding of my subconscious (on second thought - make that brownie batter) because it took 8 years to get here again . . . a road I've been down, a road I've visited before with three other novels, a road that crashed and sucked my beautiful books into a black hole. BLACK HOLE = getting orphaned, non-existent catalogs, publisher going under, before book trailers and blogging and internet tours and LJ and Blogspot friends.

I found myself trying to start my career all over again.

But I stayed focus. I stayed determined. I kept writing. I kept believing in my stories. I kept revising and submitting. And I kept dreaming the dream.

And I heard the other day that my agent called my writing beautiful and lyrical.

Tonight I'll be dreaming about my words dancing on a stage in a purple tutu.

My new book, THE HEALING SPELL, isn't slated for publication until June 2010, but I'm going to be so busy finishing production work on it and then doing revisions and production work for my YA, SECRET RITES OF THE GODDESS, coming out Fall 2010, that I'm thinking way ahead on the publicity stuff. I'm also writing a brand new book tomorrow. Yep, you heard right.  Although I'm not writing the ENTIRE book tomorrow, just a few pages a day until I finish - um, hopefully sometime in July!

So . . . . I started three months ago making lists about publicity ideas and contacting people because it will probably take me the next year to get everything in place with all the writing going on. 

First, I hired www.swankwebstyle.com to design a new site for me. It's moving forward beautifully! Got my FAQ written last week and off as well as a bunch of other tidbits, like the Welcome Message, my short and long Bio, etc.

Currently reading a GREAT book:




This morning I checked out: Blue Slip Media These gals sound like fun, have a TON of experience and have worked with some of my favorite authors.

Still searching for the right company to design POSTCARDS. I want something better than my last cards . . . Oh, and don't forget bookmarks and business cards. THIS is one of the best postcards I've ever seen. And Brooke - EMAIL ME AND SHARE WHO DESIGNED AND PRINTED THEM!!!





Last week I sent stuff for Teacher's Guides to my sister, the schoolteacher, who is a FAB curriculum writer and way fun!

Yesterday, I worked on a panel proposal for YALSA 2010 Conference which will be RIGHT HERE IN ALBUQUERQUE - WAHOO!!!! How lucky is that?!

I've hired a FILM MAKER who is going to make my book trailers. Very excited about book trailers. I love them!

I finally SIGNED UP FOR FACEBOOK!! Please friend me!

AND THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING . . . 

Parties, contests, blog tours, giveaways, it's all coming!!!!! I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS!!!!!

I'm revamping my website at the moment with www.swankwebstyle.com

I'm thinking about doing a Q&A page and want y'all's opinion.

1. Do you LIKE reading author's Q&A pages?

2. What are good questions to ask myself - that I will then answer very wittily and charmingly?

Thanks!!!

I'm almost done with my editorial revisions for THE HEALING SPELL (Scholastic June 2010) and it's been a much bigger haul than I first anticipated. I've been a month making *small* changes, but there have been about 100 of them! Eleven pages of editorial suggestions!

Gorgeous Editor made phenomenal and thought-provoking and insightful suggestions, but they've taken much more thought than I ever expected. And I had to write a new chapter. And add to the characters relationships. And add depth to my MC's internal life and arc. And foreshadow. And my brain is turning to mush.

I have a full day of some more fixes then I hope to read through all the changes again to make sure they *make sense*, *no accidental errors*, *could be tightened*, and * I didn't forget anything*.

Goal: To mail to my Gorgeous Editor tomorrow!!!

I find myself wanting to poop out . . . and my eyes are burning . . .

And the book is gorgeously written and tells a wonderful, heart-warming, heartbreaking story with characters that are achingly real! (Caution: hot boy inside!)

The cover is FAB, too! And the author is a FAB editor! And she's MY EDITOR!!!




Check out Lisa's super website and blog! She's got some fun stuff on the book page including a map of her favorite places in Manhattan. Besides being an editor for Scholastic, Lisa is also an artist and an award-winning sculptor and an award-winning author! And she's gorgeous.

Of course. 

LISA ANN SANDELL

I've been scarce because I've been REVISING for my new and wonderful editor.

Her line edits were very light, and her revision suggestions nothing major, mostly adding some depth and a few scenes throughout to add to the relationships in Livie's life, but figuring out WHERE everything should go and exactly WHAT to add and then make it all work together is STILL SO HARD!

My brain balks, like I'm a bratty kid again. "You mean I have to do more WORK? I don't wanna. I wanna go outside and play."

It takes me a long time to figure it all out and I was so fried from my amazing research trip that it took me 2-3 weeks just to decompress and process and go through more research and re-read some stuff.

Last week I asked my editor some questions I had about my first chapter, the first page in particular and we talked about it via email, and then I wrote her this: 

Me: I'm not set on any particular way to open the book, but honestly, I'm so worried about making this book *perfect* I may be losing my perspective. I'm starting to question EVERY LINE as I revise! But I might be way over-thinking this . . . aaah!




And eat this:





And then I'll feel better!

We had a fabulous conference this last weekend! One of our best in a couple of years. The visiting agent, Chris Richman from Firebrand Literary and Ruta Rimas, asst editor from Balzer and Bray imprint were fun and fantastic and well prepared. (Hit the link for a FAB interview with Ruta - she is WAY FUN and KNOWS YA).

It was Chris Richman's VERY FIRST conference and he did great. He was funny and friendly and gave some of my friends very encouraging critiques on their work. YAY!

Here are a few pics. I actually remembered to bring my camera! Course it's my NEW SPIFFY LUMIX camera I was tellin y'all about a few days ago . . . how could I possibly leave it at home?!



Me and Lauren Bjorkman who is a member of the Class of 2009 with her book, MY INVENTED LIFE



Here is upcoming writer, Kris Conover, who is way fun and you can see me laughing at what she just said.
(Are you working on your revision, Kris???)



Carolee Dean and moi! caroleedean blogged about the conference, too.
She was a presenter and is a good friend and critique partner.
Her new YA, THE ROAD TO HUNTSVILLE will be out in 2010 by S&S!!!



Shirley-Raye Redmond just sold her 21st book!!!
Her Random House Step-into-Reading books have sold about 200,000 copies!!!



Kersten Hamilton during her presentation on characters - showing off new tennies!
Bothcaroleedean  and I caught Kersten's glowing shoe laces. We must have *magic* cameras . . .

Why, here is Carolee's MAGIC CAMERA RIGHT HERE!!!



A good time was had by all!!!

1. I'm spending hours online researching for my editorial revisions of THE HEALING SPELL, but not blogging - or getting the treat of reading y'all's blogs and catching up! Darn.

2. Still doing trip recovery, catching up around the house, and downloading 950 photos - yes, you read that right! I took nearly 1,000 pictures with my new nifty Panasonic Lumix camera that my husband bought me as a treat for my trip. I LOVE this camera!

3. I'm also reading the 150 pages of copied research from books and newspapers and Master Theses from the Louisiana State University Special Collections. Did you know that they stay open until midnight? Very good news for us after a day of interviews and museums, but YEP, they had to kick us out at midnight!

4. Here's a photo of the azaleas in bloom. We were at the tail end of the season though, but I snapped up all I could! Gorgeous.



5. I'll be at our annual New Mexico SCBWI Handsprings conference this  weekend! Can't wait!

I'm back! I'm home! I'm safe!

But it feels so strange to be home again - like I just returned from Mars or something. Instead of Louisiana, just a hop, skip and a jump from New Mexico. After you get through 980 miles of Texas that is!

16 days of 5 hours sleep a night, non-stop gabbing with one of my best friends, traveling 3,000 miles, and meeting AMAAAAAAAZING people and staying in AMAAAAAAZING places.

LOVED IT!!!

Pictures and stories coming over the next few weeks . . . but first I am in desperate need of about thirty hours of sleep. And groceries. And clean clothes.

And I gotta call my mom.

The day has finally come! I'm off to Louisiana for my road trip, research trip, and two week gab session with one of my best girlfriends. (We're both researching books, hers more historical than mine but some of our research overlaps.)

Internet will be sparse, but I will have email via my nifty Blackberry so email if you need something - please! Or if you miss me! Or have good news! 

I hope I don't miss too much good stuff here with my blogging friends - but then again, I'm sure YOU are hoping for majorly, fantastic, out-of-this-world news - and I hope you get it, too!

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

I'm not actually DONE with the current WIP called MURDERING THE DEAD or as it's also been known, MURDER IN THE HOUSE OF EMBALMING or KING TUT or THE MUMMY TENT for lack of any truly provocative title.

This first big round of revisions means I got through some MAJOR character and plot changes and cutting and editing of practically EVERY SINGLE LINE. 

I still have a boat-load of NOTE TO SELF XXX's sprinkled throughout the manuscript that still need attention.

And then it needs another critique by someone to discuss a few more points and catch all the new errors which I know is going to mean a couple more minor scenes added somewhere, just don't know quite where or how yet.

AND THEN a final polish.

Ain't revisions fun? Not!

For those who are keeping track . . . I started drafting this novel August 12, 2006 wherein I wrote the first three pages. I began research and plot development about 4-5 years ago.

Writing a 400 page historical novel is a COLOSSAL undertaking of nerve, guts and bravado, and I'm pretty sure, sheer craziness.

Like I just needed a reminder . . . hee, hee.

But DANG, it's gonna be good. 

But, But, But,  I have a new book to write meanwhile under contract with Scholastic. From scratch. When I get home from Louisiana. And those lovely editorial revisions on The Healing Spell . . .

Wow, I just spent the last three days finishing up the major over-haul on MURDERING THE DEAD. I wrote from about 3:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon to nearly 11:00 p.m. Can anyone say EXHAUSTION? 

Yesterday I spent about 4 hours making some BIG CHANGES to the last chapter that I think will be more surprising, more of a twist, and more emotional. I feel drained, but pleased that I got to the end of this 400 page tome before I leave Friday for my trip to Louisiana. YAY!!!

I'm going to celebrate with some delicious beignets and crawfish etoufee and tour the swamp and see alligators and have a healing done by a traiteuse. CAN NOT WAIT!!!






I'm traveling with a friend who grew up in Louisiana and Alabama and so this is also a girlfriend road-trip. We're going to spend two weeks TALKING non-stop! No cooking, no cleaning, no babysitting. Lots of gabbing and beautiful countryside and meeting lots of cool people.

AND what's more - I contacted Cote Blanche Production Company that put out a documentary 10 years ago GOOD FOR WHAT AILS YOU, that was very helpful in locating some folk treaters for me - and yesterday I heard from the head writer and wife of the producer/director suggesting we have a meet-up for coffee while I'm there!!! Yahoo! I get to meet more movie people!!! They are super nice and their movies and documentary's all focus on Louisiana.

I'm feeling very blessed. And excited! Bet you can't tell . . . 

I'm hoping to finish this current major, mind-numbing, difficult, sweat-fill, agonizing revision by Saturday night. (I'm in an overflowing adjective frame of mind for some reason.)

Here's the end to the last chapter I revised yesterday.

Today might be my last Teaser Tuesday for MURDERING THE DEAD before I blog about my awesome research trip coming up in only two weeks! But you're *so* lucky (har, har!) because I'll give you slices of THE HEALING SPELL, first book up next year in June, 2010!! ;-D

             Queen Ankhesenamun gently placed the king’s hand back onto the table against his side. “I’m finished. I just had to see him one last time. And to know that he’s in good hands. You will take care of him?”

            “With my life, your majesty," Imarus told her. "And all my heart.”

            She gave him a small smile, a single tear making a path down her cheek. “I feel that I can trust you. Tutankhaten did, too.”

            Imarus realized that tears were filling his eyes as well. “I’m honored, my queen.” He stopped as his voice began to crack.

            Pesashet came across the small space between them and Imarus felt the touch of her hand on his arm. “Thank you for giving us these few moments with him. You have a gift, Imarus, and I don’t think you even know it.”
            Through the blur of his vision, Imarus realized that he felt closer to Pesashet, this girl that he loved, and the feeling spread through him with a sudden warmth. They were communicating in a way they never had before, but it wasn’t due to any private conversations or intimate caresses. Their souls had somehow collided in this awful moment in time.

            Somehow, Pesashet knew how agonizing it was for him to mummify Pharaoh. It was as though she read his mind, and his heart both.

            Queen Ankhesenamun drew the linen cloth back over her husband’s body, and raised her head. Lips white, she said, “May I see my baby now, please? And then I’ll be gone.”