An Incident We'd Rather Not Discuss

End of an era

anywherebeyond — Mon, 10 Apr 2017 23:32:24 GMT

Well, this big old queer chick is leaving LJ now. Damn, I had some amazing times here.

See you this weekend!

anywherebeyond — Wed, 27 May 2015 18:54:15 GMT

See you this weekend at Phoenix ComiCon!

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Forthcoming Events!

anywherebeyond — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 23:03:48 GMT

Welcome to the official website for Saundra Mitchell! I’m the author of SHADOWED SUMMER, THE VESPERTINE, THE SPRINGSWEET, THE ELEMENTALS and MISTWALKER. I’m the editor of the YA anthology DEFY THE DARK. I’m also the author of WHILE YOU’RE AWAY, writing as Jessa Holbrook, and WILD, writing as Alex Mallory.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Fan Fiction: Your Creativity, Other People’s Playgrounds
The Indianapolis Public Library

March 7, 2015 – 2:00 PM
Decatur Branch
5301 Kentucky Avenue,
Indianapolis, IN 46221

March 8, 2015 – 1:00PM
Wayne Branch
198 S Girls School Rd
Indianapolis, IN 46231

March 14, 2015 – 3:00PM
Central Branch
40 East Saint Clair Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204

March 21, 2015 – 11:00AM
Glendale Branch
Glendale Town Center
6101 N Keystone Ave
Indianapolis, IN 46220

March 28, 2015 – 10.30AM
Pike Branch
6525 Zionsville Road
Indianapolis, IN 46268

March 28, 2014 – 2.00PM
Franklin Road Branch
5550 South Franklin Road
Indianapolis, IN 46239

Southern Kentucky Book Festival
April 18, 2015, 9am – 3pm
Knicely Center
2355 Nashville Road
Bowling Green, KY 42101
Panel: Young Adult: Fresh Take on Classics
WithTracy Barrett, Carey Corp, Katherine Howe, Lorie Langdon, and me as Alex Mallory!

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Forthcoming Events

anywherebeyond — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 14:37:02 GMT

Fan Fiction: Their Worlds, Your Imagination
The Indianapolis Public Library

March 7, 2015 - 2:00 PM
Decatur Branch
5301 Kentucky Avenue,
Indianapolis, IN 46221

March 14, 2015 - 3:00PM
Central Branch
40 East Saint Clair Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204

March 28, 2015 - 10.30AM
Pike Branch
6525 Zionsville Road
Indianapolis, IN 46268

March 28, 2014 - 2.00PM
Franklin Road Branch
5550 South Franklin Road
Indianapolis, IN 46239

Southern Kentucky Book Festival
Knicely Center
2355 Nashville Road
Bowling Green, KY 42101
April 18, 2015, 9am - 3pm

Win These Books!

anywherebeyond — Tue, 26 Aug 2014 10:25:07 GMT

Don’t let the summer end! PenguinTeen is giving away a boatload of awesome YA paperbacks, including WHILE YOU’RE AWAY by my secret identity, Jessa Holbrook. And BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA by April Genevieve Tucholke, which is one of my favorites EVER, IF I STAY by Gayle Forman, and a bunch more nommy reads.

Come see the beautimousness that is a megaton of books just waiting for you to enter and win!

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

WILD Blog Tour!

anywherebeyond — Wed, 02 Jul 2014 14:19:30 GMT

July 1st

A Reading Nurse & The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club - Welcome Post

July 2nd

Reading and Writing Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, and Romance - Q&A

Confessions of a Readaholic - Review

Imagine a World - Review

Bookish Things & More - Promo

July 3rd

The Anonymous Book Life - Review

A Thousand Words A Million Books – Review

Enticed by Books - Pro

It’s A Book Thing - Review

July 4th

Always in our own world - Review + Dream Cast

ImaginativeMinds - Review + Excerpt

SimplisticReviews - Promo Post

Addicted Readers - Q&A

July 5th

Literary Meanderings - Guest Post

Boricuan Bookworms - Review + Excerpt

Curling Up With A Good Book - Review

Bookish - Dream Cast + Excerpt

July 6th

Such a Novel Idea - Review + Playlist

Debz Bookshelf - Review

IKari - Review

A Dream Within A Dream - Review + Excerpt

July 7th

YA Midnight Reads - Review

Library of a Book Witch - Revivew + Playlist

Behind the Pages - Guest Post

Crossroad Reviews - Review

July 8th

A Reading Nurse & The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club - Review

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

My Secret Identity Has a Book Coming Out!

anywherebeyond — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 17:22:01 GMT

I’m so excited! My secret identity’s books, WHILE YOU’RE AWAY, is a paperback you can hold now! It comes out May 20, 2014 and it’s so beyond incredibly pettable.

It will be available anywhere you love to buy books, so please do check it out!

It’s a great way to revisit Will and Sarah, this time in a bathtub-reading friendly format!

WHILE YOU’RE AWAY
Jessa Holbrook
ISBN-13: 978-1595147325

Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Book Depository | Powell’s |

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Becoming MISTWALKER

anywherebeyond — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 12:34:50 GMT

MISTWALKER comes out today, and I wanted to talk about where it came from. This is a special book to m

e. In my head, it’s a sort of companion to SHADOWED SUMMER. I’ve never wanted to write a book more than this one.

While I was drafting it, I disappeared into it. It’s a personal book, one that’s very special to me. But it w

asn’t a thunderbolt book, where it appeared in my head fully-formed and I just had to type fast enough to keep up. Nope.

The idea for MISTWALKER came in two entirely separate pieces. The book is written in two POVs, which reflect the dual inspiration:

PART ONE: GREY

So I told you that I write because I still have people to prove wrong. This is exactly where the mythology for this book came from. There was a blog post at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, talking about what the next big thing in YA would be.

This was pr

obably four or five years ago, back when paranormal was still the hugest of the huge. It was also when adult romance sites had just started reviewing YA novels as well. Which, as you can imagine, ticked off some of the romance-only readers. YA had invaded their space!

I was enjoying the comments until about midway through the comments. There, a couple of disgruntled readers started joking about the most ridiculous creatures that could be the next big YA monster. Somebody said leprechauns. Another suggested minotaurs. Then somebody said, far liath.

I had no idea what that was, but if I was going to be outraged at all these suggestions, I needed to know.

So I looked it up. Far Liath– the Grey Man. He appears as fog, lures ships into the rocks, and unsuspected travelers to their death over cliffs.

Oh. Ohhhh.

Immediately, I could imagine a backstory for a character like that. Something more human than just a spectral, hateful fae.

And because somebody said it was ridiculous and couldn’t– or shouldn’t– be done, I decided I was going to do it. That’s where Grey began, cursed to haunt the lighthouse on Jackson’s Rock until he took a thousand souls or convinced someone else to take on the curse.

PART TWO: WILLA

When I was sixteen, my younger brother took his own life. He was fourteen and it was a tragedy. Everyone agreed, it was unnatural for my parents to have to bury a child. That’s not the order of things. That’s not how the world is supposed to work.

And that, I suppose, is why so many adults said to me, “You have to take care of your parents now.” Or, “You need to be strong for your parents.”

Because to them, this was my parents’ loss, not mine. So many people said it, family members, family friends, adults I trusted, I believed them. I wasn’t supposed to grieve, I was supposed to take care of my parents.

That’s exactly what I did. I sat between them at the funeral, and forced myself not to cry. I stuffed everything down, over and over. I did what I could to be the strong one– this meant holding my mother’s hand while she talked to news reporters about it. Making dinner at my dad’s house while he sat in the back room and cried.

It’s a strange sort of hole to have in your life. When you meet people, there are small talk subjects– but I don’t know the answer to “Do you have any brothers or sisters?” I guess to be absolutely correct, the answer is no. But that feels like a lie, because I once did.

I was shocked, and relieved, and furious to discover that I wasn’t the only one. Apparently that’s just what people say to surviving siblings: take care of your parents. You have to be the strong one now. (So if you’re in that position, friend, please instead say, “I’m so sorry for your loss. Do you need anything? How are you feeling?”)

That’s where Willa’s story comes from: struggling under that hopeless, oppressive, endless sense that you have to take care of everything because your brother or sister died. Her story is all about the way people treat you when you’re the kid who survives.

FINALLY

My best friend and I agree that when we die, we’re going to get on a ferry and go to Maine. We love it there, and I can’t imagine MISTWALKER taking place anywhere else. That’s not really a foundational point; it’s just a little trivia. A little bit more about where the book comes from. You can see why I say MISTWALKER is personal, a book of my heart.

I’m both excited and terrified that it’s out in the world today, but I’m so glad I get to share it with you.

Indiebound | Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Powell’s | iBookstore

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Sorry guys

anywherebeyond — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 20:54:35 GMT

I'm trying to fix a comment issue on my Wordpress blog, and I didn't realize that it would repost everything to LJ instead of just updating the original versions of the post seamlessly. Sorry for the megaspam.

Everybody Starts Out Writing Bad Queries (I)

anywherebeyond — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 20:01:40 GMT

(This is a repost from August 2010; I’m still rebuilding my Helping Writer posts from the database loss.)

Everybody writes bad queries, at least at first. There’s no set way to create one, advice conflicts on what to put in one, and frankly, it’s a skill like any other- you must practice it to excel at it.

In light of #queryfail #queryslam and SlushPileHell, I’d like to take another approach. Most people don’t have their learning curve slapped up on the Internet and soundly mocked, and I don’t think writers should, either. But people are going to do what they’re going to do– what’s important is how we respond to them.

So I’d like to share with y’all my first query, for my very first novel. It’s NOT a good query. I’m not proud of it. But I want you to know that I learned from this lousy query. And I learned from my naively crafted* first book. And eventually, I got competent enough that my query sold my book, I got manuscript requests, and I signed with an agent.

So here it is, in all its awful glory, so you can learn from it too!

Dear Ms. Agent:

Short skirts, cheap gin, and jazz reigned in 1928, but they never made it past the front gates of Weston Prep. More gothic than ivy, Weston tried to make gentlemen of near-society boys, but when JT Keller, a sheltered Catholic boy from Baltimore, and Jesse Stein, a townie who preferred playing Juliet to Romeo, accepted places in the class of 1932, Weston pretty much failed.

Initially homesick and baffled by strange customs, JT slowly absorbs some of the best, and the worst, traits from his new friends in their quest to run the school, scheme a way for Jesse to move in, and at the same time, oust the roommate they never wanted. In “Weston Boys,” JT discovers his father isn’t perfect, friends keep secrets together and from each other, and that an entire world can end in a single, black Monday.

{TOO LONG! What’s the book about? Who the heck are all these random people?! And why should we care about JT and his daddy issues??}

My name is Saundra Mitchell, and I have been a working writer for twelve years. For the last four years (and currently,) I’ve been the head writer for Dreaming Tree Films’ short film series, “Book of Stories,” with over forty short film productions, and next year, principal photography will begin on my first feature, “A Rain of Blood.” I have also published fiction with ATM Magazine and Smokelong Quarterly, poetry with Poems Niederngasse, Doll World Magazine, and Parnassus, non-fiction with @Internet Magazine and The Familiar Magazine, among others.

{This is all completely random. Writing scripts is interesting, but has nothing to do with writing novels, or my ability to do so. Neither does writing essays or poems– and the one thing that really matters, the fiction publications, are smooshed in with everything else.}

“Weston Boys” is my first novel, a literary piece in the vein of O’Neill’s “At Swim, Two Boys,” and Wolff’s “Old School.” I would like to submit it for your consideration; it’s complete at 75,511 words, and a full or partial manuscript is available on request. Thank you in advance for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you.

{This is also a mess. First of all, one does not call oneself literary- and I should have used the full name of the authors I’m namechecking. Second of all, I haven’t told this poor agent whether this is a picture book, YA fiction or adult mainstream fiction. Third of all, saying it’s complete is all the agent needs to know- they’ll ask for a full or partial based on their needs.}

Sincerely,

Saundra Mitchell

{I got that part right, at least!}

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Even Successful Queries Aren’t Stunning (II)

anywherebeyond — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 20:00:39 GMT

(This is a repost from August 2010; I’m still rebuilding my Helping Writer posts from the database loss.)

So, I posted my very first query letter, which was a pretty bad query letter. Agent/Writer/Deb Extraordinaire Mandy Hubbard popped by to say it wasn’t half-bad. And it wasn’t- with some tinkering, I did manage to get a couple of partial requests with it.

Here’s the thing- I think most competent writers will produce an okay query letter. I know you’re scared, and your whole everything is tied up in your novel, and it’s a big deal to be searching for an agent and OMGSTRESS. But seriously– if you’re a competent writer, your query letter is probably okay. Not great, but okay.

That’s why it’s important to send your query out in small batches. I would send it to 5 or 10 agents at a time. If I got no response or instant rejections, then I’d revise the query letter until it got a better response.

So let me show you a successful query letter. Notice I’m not calling it a good query letter. Because at the end of the day- it’s still a query letter. I learned from the first one, I had a draft of this that I tested, I tinkered and this is the version that I sent that got several partial requests, which ultimately led to representation.

Dear Ms. Agent:

Nothing ever happened in Ondine, Louisiana, not even the summer Elijah Landry disappeared. His mother believed he ascended to heaven, the police thought he ran away, and his girlfriend felt he was murdered. Decades later, certain she saw his ghost in the town cemetery, fourteen-year-old Iris Rhame is determined to find out the truth.

Enlisting the help of her best friend Collette, and forced to endure the company of Collette’s latest crush, Ben, Iris spends a summer digging into the past and stirring old ghosts in search of the truth. What she doesn’t realize is that in a town as small as Ondine, every secret is a family secret.

{ The difference between this and the Weston query? It sets up the conflict immediately. This is what’s going to happen in this book, and this is who’s going to do it. It also sets the tone, because it confides in the reader, guess what– there’s something the characters don’t know, dun dun dun! }

My name is Saundra Mitchell, and I’ve been a writer for fifteen years, both in film and fiction. Currently, I write the Fresh Films short film series, and shorts from this series have been juried selections at Academy Award-qualifying festivals for the last three years. In fiction, I’ve recently published “An Accounting of Sins,” short fiction, with Edgar Literary Magazine, and “Revival Season,” flash fiction, with SmokeLong Quarterly.

{ I still include screenwriting information in this query because by then, I was doing well enough to name check the Oscars, so I thought it might help. (It didn’t.) But, this time, I had excised the random, extraneous publications and focused on my fiction as my primary credits. }

“Last Summer’s Iris” is a Southern Gothic young adult novel, complete at 50,400 words, and I’d like to offer it for your consideration. I’ve enclosed five sample pages; please feel free to recycle them if they’re unneeded. Thank you for your time; I look forward to hearing from you.

{ Hey look, I gave the title, I gave the genre, I gave the category. Now the agent knows exactly what’s on offer here. And by this point, I had figured out that no matter how good (or bad!) the query was, I got a better response rate if I sent pages. If an agent asked for more than five, I sent more. If they didn’t say either way, I sent five pages. I also gave them an out to just throw them away instead of trying to stuff them in my SASE and search for make-up postage. }

Sincerely,

Saundra Mitchell

{This part, I still got right.}

Since I wrote both of my queries, you can see that they’re pretty similar.

But now that you’ve seen both, I think it’s clear why one was more successful than the other. The Weston query contains shockingly little information about the book. It’s almost a query that says, “I wrote a thing. Will you look at it?”

Whereas this query, for the book that became SHADOWED SUMMER, says, “I wrote this book. It’s about X, it contains Y, and it features Z. Will you look at it?”

My bad query wasn’t half-bad. And my successful query is still a query letter; the pages mattered the most.

So please take a deep, deep breath, and relax just a tiny bit. Querying is incredibly stressful, especially lately– but don’t let all the talk terrify you into believing your query letter has to be the word of the Muse dripped in gold-blood ink on the page. It doesn’t.

Write your query letter, send it in small batches. If you’re not getting a good response, revise the query letter! Send five pages (or more if the agent requests them.)

You can do this! And if #queryfail, #queryslam and Slushpilehell are getting you down, here’s a gif by Omar Noory that I enjoy when I need some perspective:

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Give it to Me Short n’ Dirty: Bulletpoint Query Tips (III)

anywherebeyond — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 19:58:34 GMT

Maybe you don’t feel like reading an essay about queries. Why would you? You need to get one written, RIGHT NOW OMFG EMERGENCY NOW NOW NOW. Okay, yo. Cool. I can give you a short n’ dirty query bulletpoint list so that you can skim it real fast and get back to work.

A query letter is a BUSINESS LETTER. If you’re sending it by postal mail, format it exactly like your standard business letter. That link there will take you to Purdue University’s guide.
If by e-mail, you’re going to start with the salutation and leave out all contact information with your signature except your name, your e-mail address, and your URL.
WRITE IT LIKE A BUSINESS LETTER. Don’t print it on sparkly paper, don’t enclose confetti, don’t scent it with your favorite Axe spray, don’t. Don’t enclose food, bugs, hair, MONEY, character family tree– seriously. The only thing that goes in that envelope is the letter and SASE.
WRITE IT LIKE A BUSINESS LETTER. Do not attach documents, pictures, totally cute cat JPGs, no GIFs, do not doge or lolcat the subject line, do not ask people to follow links to your query letter which is elsewhere, do not ask them to read the book that’s posted on your website.
WRITE IT LIKE A BUSINESS LETTER. Don’t tell the agent about your aunt Suzie or how much your kids like your book. Nobody cares.
Do tell them if Oprah Winfrey personally promised to endorse your book and include her assistant’s e-mail address so they can verify that.
Your characters cannot sign contracts. Do not let them write your query letter.
Don’t write a query letter that’s longer than a page. If in e-mail, 3 substantial paragraphs should do it.
Paragraph One: My name is FROG WOBBLER SR, ESQ. I am querying you about my novel SNOT ROCKETS. It is a MIDDLE GRADE novel, complete at 45,000 words. I read in BABBLE DAILY that you’re especially looking for SNOT-RELATED MIDDLE GRADE, so I think this might be a good fit.
Paragraph Two: Concisely, in ONE paragraph, tell us who the protagonist of SNOT ROCKETS is, their conflict, and the resolution.
Do not explain your themes, the important lessons children will learn, discuss the symbolism, etcetera.
Don’t talk smack about other books. SNOT ROCKET may be middle grade for smart, discerning kids who don’t like paranormal garbage like SHADOWED SUMMER, but that’s something you say in your inside voice. You don’t know who the agent represents, or everything they love.
Only talk about what IS in your book, not what ISN’T.
Paragraph Three: My work has been published in (name of publication, and not “my mom’s gardening newsletter,” either.)
If you have REAL, substantial awards, mention them here. I am a PUSHCART PRIZE NOMINEE. Do not include super-local, dinky things. If the agent has to Google the SOCIETY OF LITTLE FREAKY FROGS OF THE MIDWEST to find out if it’s real, it really doesn’t count.
Paragraph Three (II): If you don’t have publications or real, substantial awards, then wrap this up short and sweet. This manuscript is available for your request. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
Paragraph Three (III): Even if you do have publications and awards, wrap it up nicely; see above.
Sincerely,
FROG WOBBLER SR, ESQ, frog@wobbler.com, www.frogwobbler.com
And now…
THE RULE THAT SUPERCEDES ALL RULES FOREVER AND EVER AMEN:
If the agent’s submission guidelines contradict this, DO WHAT THE AGENT SAYS. It is a test. It’s a test to weed out people who don’t pay attention, aren’t concerned with guidelines, and probably will be a pain in the ass to work with later because they’re just gonna do what they want alllllll the time and have to be wrangled and jeez, they only get 15% for this, and it’s not ENOUGH AND…

That’s it. Nothing else. No bells, no whistles, no foolin’ around, no extraneous detail. It’s a business letter with three paragraphs: about you, about the book, about your gratitude. The end.

(Get back to work, slacker!)

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

This Is Not the End; It’s the Middle

anywherebeyond — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 00:08:12 GMT

Right now, my computer backdrop is a simple white-on-black sign that says “I would quit, but I still have people to prove wrong.”

It’s the same thing as persistence, except with some spite in there for good measure. I’ve been a working writer since I was 19; I’m now 40. I’ve gotten one residual check in all that time. None of my books have earned out.

However, I’m further along than a lot of writers. I’m debt-free. I put a down payment on a house with an advance. I’ve seen actors say my words like they were living them. There’s a shelf in my office that has nothing on it but my books. Mine, mine, mine. I got to edit an amazing anthology; I’ve been privileged to write for others’.

Right now, I’m between contracts. I’m splashing around helplessly in the YA contraction, trying to figure out what I love writing that will also sell. My family’s income will probably halve this year, and two books of my heart that went nowhere later, I’m frustrated. Depressed. Demoralized.

Now would be a good time to quit. Get a nice office job and stop playing with imaginary friends. I’m an adult, after all. I got to go to the show. I could stop while I’m ahead, I suppose.

But you know what? I collected rejection letters on my wall until I sold my first novel. I had 1200 I took down and burned in 2007. Not because the hard part was over. It wasn’t– but I moved on to the next phase.

Now I’m a midlist author with little name recognition and no major awards under my belt. I have minor awards and great nominations, but no starred reviews, no royalty checks. No bestseller lists or book challenges or reviews in magazines my grandparents would have read. I’m not as good as I could be. I have voice and place, but man, I need to work out this whole plot thing to reach the next level.

I retired from screenwriting (my day job) in 2011, but I just finished writing a new movie to pay the bills. I’ve picked up write for hire pieces. Short fiction is once again something I’m writing and trying to sell. I sent my agent a list 15 miles long of non-fiction subjects about which I would love to write for hire for tween and teen audiences, if somebody’s buying.

Here I am, back to collecting rejection letters and plastering them on my wall. It’s a new wall, the rejections are different. Scrambling with all that to pay the bills, I’m still working on a new book. I think it’s a worthy one. It won’t shut up and leave me alone. So can’t stop. I won’t stop. I’m not done.

I still have people to prove wrong.

~*~*~

(I originally posted part of this on Metafilter in response to Kameron Hurley’s On Persistence, and the Long Con of Being a Successful Writer)

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Fanfic Workshop for Teens

anywherebeyond — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 17:08:29 GMT

I will be teaching a fanfic workshop for teens at the end of February as part of Butler University’s Butler Bridge program. You can register now online, or call up the Bridge program to register.

It’s open to any student in 8th to 12th grade. And just as a head’s up? I almost always bring cupcakes to my classes. So I’m just saying– workshop, cupcakes… what else are you doing on February 22nd?

Fanfic: Your Creativity, Somebody Else’s Playground

Saturday, February 22nd. 1-3 PM.
Cost: $25
Grades: 8-12

Where’s a great place to learn to write, get great feedback, and make lifelong friends? In online fan fiction communities. This two hour workshop will introduce fan fiction-what it is, how to find it, how to write it, and how to use what you learn with fan fiction in your own original fiction as well. It doesn’t matter if you’re a het, gen or slash fan-if you’re 8th grade and up, you’re welcome in this workshop.

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Authors, Self Promotion & Doing It For Yourself

anywherebeyond — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 19:33:45 GMT

Gwenda Bond wrote about the Battle of the Sexists and self promotion today, and it’s a fantastically worthwhile read. Sarah Rees Brennan explores the same topic here, and Malinda Lo adds her voice here.

A while ago, I lost almost 10 years of blog and website when I accidentally deleted my database files. I was so disheartened, I decided to just start over completely. Except, all of these posts lately about sexism and self-promotion have spurred me to recreate what was probably the most useful bit of my former website and blog: the marketing posts.

I come from a film background. For more than a decade, I’ve worked with Dreaming Tree Films on various teen filmmaking programs. (If you think YA novels get no respect, try marketing films that are primarily made by teens, holy spitweasels.) But I learned a lot in those years about marketing and self-promoting.

Originally, I wrote these entries mostly just to share. I was a debut author, I saw some of my debut colleagues flailing around trying to figure out what to do for their books, so you know, DIY to the rescue. I’m resurrecting them now because I do think they’re useful.

I’m also bringing them back because I realized something, while reading Gwenda’s post, and Sarah’s and Malinda’s, and remembering my own experiences as a debut: I was afraid of everybody. I’m very shy, introverted, and I have a stutter. Self promotion trifecta! When I started marketing for myself, I did the stuff that I could achieve without actually talking to anybody.

Over time, I’ve learned to put on a persona and go out there in the world. I will talk to strangers about my book. I do give librarians and teachers and booksellers my book. I will sign up for just about damned anything literacy-related.

But the first two years of being published were terrifying, and hard. Starting out with postcards, mailers, press kits, websites– that was easy.

So I’m bringing back the marketing guides. I hope that they can be useful for ANY author of any gender. But I would be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping that they can’t help my sister authors who are fighting more than one battle as they bring new books into the world.

The posts are:

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

You’re Not Gonna Spend a Lot Marketing This Book

anywherebeyond — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 19:17:42 GMT

So, I’m reading this absurd article on all the things you need to spend money on to market your own book. Oh noz, you have to pay a zillion dollars for a website, for a mailing list, for copy and editing for your website, wtf? I’m not even going to link to article because, seriously, WTF?

Here’s the deal. If you’re willing to put the time in yourself, you can do almost all of your book marketing for free. It may be worth it to you to pay for someone else to do everything- and if you’re in a position to do that, awesome! Go for it! But if you’re not, or if you’d prefer to have strict control over everything, here’s a brief guide to doing it yourself.

Blog/Website: More and more people are using Blog software to host their entire websites. WordPress is fantastically flexible, free and your URL can be an easily memorable yourname.wordpress.com. WordPress has about a zillion free themes so you can customize like whoa, and because it’s an integrated service, it shares your links on other blogs like yours to drive traffic. FOR FREE.

Blogger is another free host and software package that’s easy to use and customize for your needs. And you know what drives even more traffic to websites? Twitter. ALSO FREE.

Graphics: Graphics for your website, your bookmarks, your postcards whatnot- you can create them yourself for free, from the bottom up. Download a copy of GIMP image manipulation software, and play with it.

It’s not hard, and if you’re not design-oriented, download templates from a print shop, look at examples of other people’s bookmarks, and figure out the elements that you like from there.

Printing: If you have a really great printer at home, you can do your own business cards. You probably should pay a printer to make your bookmarks and postcards though. They’re not terribly expensive, especially if you buy in bulk.

Copywriting and Editing: This was possibly the stupidest point in the article. We’re WRITERS. Write your own copy for free- after all, you know your own bio and book better than anybody- and edit it yourself. Have a friend look it over for typos. Post.

Email Marketing: 1) If by e-mail marketing, they mean spamming a bunch of people, don’t do that. It’s annoying. 2) If by e-mail marketing, they mean create a mailing list for your readers– Google Groups and Yahoo! Groups are both functional, easy to use, and free to set up, use and moderate.

Review Copies: An unavoidable expense- even if you get a buttload of author copies, you still have to pay postage.

Publicity: You can post a press release for free on Free Press Release or PRLog, but don’t spend money on pay sites. Why? Because online press releases are an excellent way to beef your Google ranking and that’s about it. You know what else will beef your Google rating? Updating your blog frequently.

Learning: Oh hey look! This is where- if I were trying to make money off of you- I would ask you to send me money so I can send you all of my SPECIAL marketing tips that aren’t available anywhere else. Me, though, I’m going to give you links to my free marketing advice that you can use anytime you want at absolutely no charge to you.

Administrative: If you’re popular enough to need an assistant, you probably don’t need any marketing advice.

I know I sound a bit cranky, but it makes me crazy, crazy, crazy to see people imply that authors can’t possibly do any of this themselves, that authors should spend their entire advance and pawn their cars and firstborn children to promote their books.

It’s ridiculous, and it’s wrong. Yes, as authors, we do have to pay for our own promotion, but we do NOT have to pay for all of it. As you see listed here, you don’t even have to pay for most of it, if you’re willing to invest the time.

Or, more simply- please don’t let somebody selling marketing materials convince you that you need to buy marketing materials.

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

How to Build Your Own Press Kit

anywherebeyond — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 19:14:35 GMT

One of the most basic tools in your PR and marketing portfolio is your press kit. A press kit provides basic biographical information and information about your work, in an easily accessible kit for reviewers and journalists. It makes it easy for people to write about you- always a plus- and it saves work for you, because you can avoid collecting and providing the same information repeatedly- definitely a plus.

There are 5 basic elements in a press kit:

1) Your biography
2) Contact information
3) Your photo
4) A synopsis of your most current work
5) Representative art for your most current work

Biography

Your press kit biography is a chance to present and brand yourself as a particular kind of author. Ideally, you should include a short, medium, and long biography in your press kit- each serves a different purpose.

Short should be no more than 50 words, about what you’d put on a magazine byline. Medium can be about 150 words- ideal for reprinting on websites- use the bio that would be on your jacket flap as an example.

Long can be as long as you like, but one page single-spaced should be more than enough. No one will be reprinting this bio, but this is where you get to brand and present yourself. Include your professional successes, especially ones that you want to emphasize (bestseller status, awards, grants, fellows, MFAs, etc., etc., etc..)

But also include the personal information that makes you interesting- and that you don’t mind being asked about. Consider this document the base of every single profile and human interest story written about you. Hi, I’m Saundra Mitchell- I write books, but I also make paper! I’m a screenwriter, I’ve been a phone psychic, and I do radio shows about urban legends!

Present it in a voice that cultivates the image you want to portray of yourself. I’m a funny writer, I’m a literary writer, I’m an edgy writer- whatever. Take Meg Cabot’s writing vlogs for example- her voice is informative, but she doesn’t take herself at all seriously.

Once you have all three of your biographies written, compile them into a single document. At the top of the document, include your name, your e-mail address, and your URL. Don’t include your mailing address or your phone number, because you’re putting this on your website for any n00b to download.

Then, include your bios under these headers: SHORT BIO (WORD COUNT) MID BIO (WORD COUNT) and then just BIOGRAPHY (no word count required.) Don’t use special formatting (bold, italics, bullets, etc.,) and single-space.

You will want to provide this document (along with any others in the kit) in both Word .doc format, and plain TXT. It’s the standard showing of fealty to Bill Gates, because most people use Microsoft products whether they want to, but also a nod to the fact that some people like to use vi editor in UNIX.

One you have everything in your document, save it as a .doc . I don’t think there’s a single word processing program out there that doesn’t give you the ability to save cross-format into .doc (see abovementioned fealty to Gates,) but if you’ve managed to stumble across the only one that does, then have a friend convert it, and skip to the TXT instructions.

The reason we had no special formatting is because now you need to SAVE AS. Click on SAVE AS instead of SAVE. When you get the dialogue box that lets you put in a filename, keep the same filename (that way you don’t get confused later,) but select ASCII TXT (.txt) from the pulldown menu beneath it to save as text.

It will tell you that you are going to lose special formatting, but you can click okay with impunity because you don’t have any special formatting, right? Right!

Contact Information

No point in making a press kit if the press can’t find you! This is a simple document that should include:

Your name, your e-mail address, your URL: again, anyone can download this, and you don’t want whackadoos with your home address. If you have a PO Box for fan mail, go ahead and include that.

Then, include:

Your agent’s name, your agent’s company (if any,) and your agent’s e-mail address. Most people don’t need this information, but certain professional people will- namely, people interested in getting rights clearances for your work, people who want to acquire subsidiary rights, people who want blurbs, etc., etc..

Those folks would generally rather talk to your representation than to you, because all you can do is giggle wildly on the phone and go, “Seriously? You want to know if there are comic book rights left on my contract? WHEEEEEE!”

Don’t lie. You know it’s true.

Anyway, save this as a Word .doc and as ASCII TXT as well.

Your Photograph

Sorry guys. The media likes pictures, so you should include one in your press kit. It doesn’t have to be your official author photo, but if you’re like me, that’s the only photo you dare show the public.

Whichever photo you choose, you’ll want to include a high resolution (at least 1200X1200) version of the photo, suitable for being reprinted in newspapers and magazines.

Then, you’ll want to include a medium resolution version (around 300X400 or thereabouts) that people can use on their website. That’s large enough to let them add any frames or borders they might use for site consistency, or to resize as they need.

Finally, you need a thumbnail version (no bigger than 100X200, and a little smaller would be better.) This is suitable for use on forums, or in very short reviews or blurbs about your work.

Windows and Mac both have native image tools that will allow you to resize a large image file, or you can use online utilities like Shrink Pictures. I believe Flickr and Picasa will also resize for free.

Once you have all three photos, you’ll want to compress them so it doesn’t take 5 hours to download your press kit. Windows can do this natively, or you can download WinZip; Macs can also do this natively, or you can download ZipIt. (These are both pay-software titles, but they both include a free evaluation period.)

Zip all three files into a single file called portraits.zip, so you can keep track of the file later.

——-Those are the three elements which comprise your base press kit. Your bio, contact info, and photo only change when you want them to, so you can carry them over for each press kit you make. Each? Buh? Yes, you’ll want to keep your press kit current with your career. And that’s why we move on to:

Synopsis of Your Current Work

It’s exactly that- a document that has your name, your e-mail address, and your URL on the header, and then the synopsis of your book. You can write a long or short one- I use one that’s slightly shorter than what would be on the jacket flap. That way, if people just want to print a blurb about the book, they can use it wholesale.

Again, this too should be saved in .doc and TXT format.

Cover Art

Like your author photo, you’ll want to provide your cover art in three resolutions, for the same reasons. Again, you want a large one (at least 1200X12000), a medium one (around 350X400) and a thumbnail (100X200 or smaller.) These are approximate resolutions- each file has its own dimensions, but as long as the first number is around the suggested size, the second number will adjust itself accordingly.

Again, zip these together into a single file, named something like coverart.zip

Compiling Your Press Kit

You will want to compile your press kit into two versions- high bandwidth and low bandwidth.

High Bandwidth: Include all of your files in this one. You should have your biography in .doc and TXT, your contact info in .doc and TXT, your synopsis in .doc and TXT, and two zip files: authorportrait.zip and coverart.zip

Collect all these files and zip them into a single file, called yourname-presskithb.zip . This is suitable for folks on DSL or better to download, which should be most journalists and reviewers.

Low Bandwidth: In this version, include only the document files, leave out the two image files. Even when the images are compressed into zip files of their own, they’re still pretty large, so we’re omitting them.

Zip these files together into a file named yourname-presskitlb.zip . This version of your press kit will download even if somebody’s still on a 7600 baud dial-up Internet connection (or if they don’t need your pictures, just your text. I won’t judge.)

Distributing Your Press Kit

You (or your webmaster) can upload both files to your server, and then create links directly to them. When someone clicks on a .zip link, they will download automatically.

You can also e-mail these press kits, although I would suggest asking if they need a photo before trying to send the high-bandwidth version out.

Also, you can burn copies of your press kit to CD to send via postal mail. If you do this, I suggest burning all the files without putting them into a zip first.

You have 800MB of space on a writable CD, and putting more data on a CD doesn’t add to the mailing weight. It just makes it more convenient- someone can drop the CD into their drive and automatically access the files, rather than having to unpack them first.

And that’s how you create your own press kit. Costs you nothing but time, but it’s a great tool to make available to journalists and reviewers. It makes their job easier, which makes you an appealing subject for consideration! Have fun, and happy compiling!

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Your Bossy Self-Marketing Timeline (II)

anywherebeyond — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 19:06:24 GMT

So last time, we covered the long lead time before your book comes out with our marketing timeline. Things are going to speed up here a bit, but the upside is- once they get fast, they get over with quick, and then you can rest.

And as an aside- the most important thing to know about doing your own marketing is that you don’t have to do all of this. You don’t even have to do most of it. This is just a guide of things you can do, if you want to.

If it’s stressing you out and making you unhappy- stop!

I just like to be busy when I’m not writing and marketing can keep you busy like whoa.

So, let’s skip on up to about a month before your release!

Timeline: Author Copies

* Take half of those copies and sign them. Put them in the mailers you built earlier, and get them in the mail.

* Depending on how many you have, this is how I would spend the other half of your author copies:

1 or 2 for a GoodReads giveaway.
1 or 2 for a LibraryThing giveaway.
1 or 2 for a reviewer-hosted blog tour.
1 for your own giveaway, if you’re hosting one.
5 to a local book club.

That last one is technically marketing, but really, it’s just a nice thing to do. It’s fun to share your book!

* Write up any guest blogs and finish any interview questions from reviewers and bloggers in this month. There seriously will not be time once your book comes out, and you’ll feel like you’re drowning if you try.

* Send out invitations to your launch party if you’re having one.

* Write a press release for your launch party. Send it to your local media (print, television, radio,) to relevant groups (if you write romance, your local Romance Readers Club should get one, for example,) and to any available community calendars.

Your house may write a press release for you- if so, just modify theirs to include the date, time and location of your launch party.

Timeline: Debut

* Celebrate. Seriously, if you’ve done all your marketing ahead of time, and prepped all your mailers, all you have to do now is show up at your launch party and signings, and watch everything you put into action unfold.

You’re still going to be wicked busy- interview requests will come in, guest blog requests will come in- but by doing most of your marketing ahead, you will have time in your schedule to say yes to unexpected opportunities.

* Launch your personal giveaway if you planned one.

* Take pictures of your launch parties and signings; make sure to share them.

* If you get an especially good photo from your launch or signing- particularly if you get a photo with more than one author in it- send it to Publisher’s Weekly for their newsletters. There’s no guarantee they will run it, but they definitely won’t if they don’t have it.

Timeline: 3 Months Later

Don’t get upset, but this is about the time when your books will start disappearing from the chain stores unless you’re a bestseller. It’s the natural life cycle of books and it’s nothing personal. However, that doesn’t mean you should stop promoting.

* Shore up your relationships with the indie booksellers, and make some new ones. You can do another round of bookseller mailings, targeting stores you didn’t contact previously. You’ll have to buy the books this time, so think hard about the best way to use those books.

* Host other authors who are debuting. This has nothing to do with marketing, but like giving the books to book clubs, it’s nice to help out. Being part of the community is its own reward.

* Have you been nominated for anything? Has something happened in the news that makes your book topical? Write a press release, and send that sucker out.

Timeline: Holidays, Etc..

* There’s no reason to buy much advertising, but if you want to give it a whack, I suggest buying Google ads in the month leading up to, and the months after your book debut. There’s really no point in advertising to people too much before they can actually buy your book.

* If the content of your book ties in nicely to a holiday, host another giveaway. Halloween is a great revival time for paranormal and horror novels, Valentine’s Day for romance, Arbor Day for trees… I mean… well you know what I mean.

* Your book is always an appropriate gift for whichever December holiday people celebrate. Collaborate with another author or two and create a holiday gift pack.

* Your local library (and no doubt many other libraries) probably has a summer reading program. Offer your bookmarks or schwag as prizes.

* I like to send thank you notes and holiday cards to independent booksellers, bloggers, and authors who have supported my novel, and I think it’s a good practice to have. It’s not necessarily marketing, but being grateful and aware is never going to hurt you.

And that’s my bossy self-marketing timeline. Like I said- you don’t have to do all of this. You don’t have to do ANY of it. But if you want to, I hope these guidelines help demystify the process some, and give you somewhere to start. It’s your book- you love it best, and you’ll sell it better than anyone else.

Good luck and happy marketing!

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Your Bossy Self-Marketing Timeline (I)

anywherebeyond — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 19:06:00 GMT

I’ve written several pieces on marketing for authors, but the number one question I get is, “But where do I start?” My answer is usually, “Anywhere, just start somewhere.”

But I understand that marketing is a great big subject, and anywhere is too general. So I’d like to present a self-marketing primer. I’ll tell you exactly what to do, and when to do it.

My advice is YA-centric, because that’s what I write, and generally US-based, because that’s where I live. But I think most of it can apply regardless of your genre or location.

Timeline: Signed Your Contract

Congratulations! You sold your book- now you’re going to wait a while for your revision letter. During this time period:

* Buy your domain name. I suggest starting with your own name, because your book can be featured on your author website. Especially because your title can, and may well, change.

* Put together your barebones website, or hire a designer to do it. A blog, a picture of you, your name, name of your book, when it comes out, a nice biography. Start thinking about other content you might want to include. But be searchable early.

* Register your name at Myspace, Facebook and Twitter. Do this even if you don’t want to do Myspace, Facebook or Twitter- because then it prevents someone else from using your name on those platforms.

* Start blogging/Myspacing/Facebooking/Twittering – whichever one you want to do. I suggest Twitter + Blog, but that’s just me. No idea where to start with Twitter? This list of YA authors on Twitter might help. (Built by Mitali Perkins, updated by Alessandra Lee.)

* Start building your mailing lists. Start with all the independent booksellers in your region. Then build a list of independent booksellers in the region where you set your book. Now do the same for public libraries in your region.

Then, if you’re YA or MG, build a list of all the high schools and middle schools in your immediate area. Is your book a well-served genre? Build a list of those genre stores throughout the country. You now have four or five mailing lists, numbering somewhere from 75-300 addresses on each.

* If you’re on a PC, I highly recommend signing up for stamps.com. The $15.00/mo membership fee is more than worth it because you rarely have to go to the post office.

* Go to the USPS website and order a package of 25 Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate Boxes and Flat Rate Envelopes. The USPS will send you priority mailing supplies FOR FREE.

* Buy a box of Avery 5160/8160 labels. You’re going to burn through a lot of them.

Timeline: Got Your ARCs

* Buy your book’s title domain name. Redirect it to point to your author website if you don’t want to make a dedicated website for it.

* ARCs are not for your friends and family. Either take these in person to your local indies to introduce yourself, or mail them to your local indies to introduce yourself. You can also give one to your local newspaper, and your local librarian.

If you have a metric buttload of ARCs, you might give one or two away on your blog. SAVE THE REST, because invariably, someone will be hosting a contest/charity event/something big and ask you for an ARC. You want to have one available for that. (These are not for reviewer-hosted ARC tours, either. Use author copies for that.)

* Start planning your launch party, if you want to have one. Many booksellers need at least six months’ lead time for you to have an event in their store. Make those connections and arrangements now.

* Is your cover art final and public? Are you sure? Once your editor signs off on it, you need to make your cover synonymous with you. It should be your background on Twitter, your avatar everywhere, everything. If you can post somewhere, and there’s an image to identify you, it should be your cover art.

* Start building your press kit. Once it’s complete, upload it to your website. As you get more information, you’ll have to update the kit, but that’s okay. Go into this understanding that, like a resume, the press kit is never actually finished.

* Design, or hire a designer, to create bookmarks and postcards for you. The front of the postcard should simply be your cover. A bookmark front can be more artistic, as long as your cover shows up somewhere. The back of your bookmark and postcard should include:

Your title
Your name
Your house
Your ISBN 13
Your URL

If you want to include a synopsis, or blurbs from other authors, or special details, or your photo, that’s fine. But those are extra- it really must feature everything above. Leave room for a personal message on the postcards, because…

* Now is an excellent time to start writing your postcards. Note I say writing. You need to wait until your book is in the house catalog before you send anything to booksellers. So address your postcards, and start writing, BY HAND, a personal message on each.

Your region postcards: I’m a local author living in X, and I hope you’ll consider my novel Y for (YOUR STORE NAME).
Setting region postcards: I’m (NAME) and my novel Y is set in Z, and I hope you’ll consider it for (YOUR STORE NAME).
Public Libraries: Same as region card, only you hope they’ll consider them for their collection.
Schools: I’m a (YA/MG) author and my YA/MG novel Y is coming out (DATE). I will be available for school visits (DATE).
Genre Indies: My novel X is (YOUR GENRE) and I hope you’ll consider it for (YOUR STORE NAME).

* Think about (and perhaps order) your schwag. Stickers, rubber bracelets, dog tags, custom candy- whatever you want to give away when you do signings and bookseller mailers, start thinking about it now. Non-perishable items can be ordered now as well.

(The longer you write books, the less of this stuff you’ll buy– but you may as well go all out on your first!)

Timeline: Your Book is in the Catalog

* Mail your postcards.

* Put together bookseller mailings. Your contract should tell you how many author copies you’ll be getting- those aren’t for friends and family, either. Half of those author copies, you’re going to sign. You’re going to put them in an envelope with some bookmarks and some of your schwag, with a personal note, to independent booksellers.

But you don’t actually HAVE your author copies yet. This is working ahead so you don’t feel rushed when they arrive (usually a month before your book comes out.)

Choose stores in your region, or your genre, or that you’ve heard about. Just make sure they’re stores that carry your kind of book, otherwise you’re wasting time and money. Now write a personal note, BY HAND, and introduce yourself and your book to the bookseller. Put the address labels on, and put these aside until your author copies arrive.

* Start contacting book bloggers about interviews, reviews and schwag. They need lead time, too and you want to make sure you contact bloggers whose audience matches yours- and who are available at the time of your release. There’s NO point in doing an interview on a contemporary romance blog if your book is science fiction/horror with no romance. Use this YA Blogger Directory to start your search.

* If you want to have an online giveaway surrounding your book, start planning it now. Start buying the prizes now, as well. You don’t want to have to scramble at the last minute to find things that relate to your book.

* Add your book to the Young Adult Books Central database. You can also upload press releases, news, and other details here.

Next Time: Timeline: Author Copies, Timeline: Debut, Timeline: 3 Months Later, Timeline: Holidays

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Winter Mushroom Soup

anywherebeyond — Sun, 12 Jan 2014 23:01:43 GMT

I just made this soup and I can’t stop eating it. It’s rich and hearty and warm and buttery and silky and ugh, oh my god. So I have to share, because seriously, I think this is my new favorite soup.

WINTER MUSHROOM SOUP

32 oz beef or vegetable stock
8 oz Baby Bella mushrooms, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp butter
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp dried rosemary (or 1 spring fresh)
1 tbsp parsley (2 tbsp fresh)
1 tsp white pepper
1 cup whole wheat orzo
salt to taste

Put 1 tbsp of olive oil in your pot and add the mushrooms. Add salt, pepper and rosemary. Sweat those mushrooms on a medium heat until they soften and release their liquid.

Add the other 1 tbsp of olive oil and 1/2 tsp butter, then add the onions, carrots and garlic. Sweat those until onions are transparent and carrots start to soften. Stir in tomato paste and parsley, and leave on heat for 1-2 minutes longer to thicken. (If using fresh rosemary, remove sprig now.)

Add stock and bring to a boil. Allow to boil until carrots are cooked through, but still firm. Add orzo and boil 6-8 minutes, until pasta is fully cooked but still al dente. Finish with salt; serve with warm, crusty bread.

Immediately remove from heat and store in fridge if you’re not eating the whole pot in one night, to keep the pasta from disintegrating. Makes about 8 servings.

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Get to Know Zora!

anywherebeyond — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 20:02:30 GMT

This month, you can get to know Zora– the heroine of THE SPRINGSWEET– for just $1.99 at Barnes & Noble and $2.99 at the Apple iBookstore. THE SPRINGSWEET is a western companion novel to THE VESPERTINE, and takes place a year after events unfolded in Baltimore.

Heartbroken over the tragic death of her fiancé, seventeen-year-old Zora Stewart leaves Baltimore for the frontier town of West Glory, Oklahoma, to help her young widowed aunt keep her homestead going.

There she discovers that she possesses the astonishing ability to sense water under the parched earth. When her aunt hires her out as a “springsweet” to advise other settlers where to dig their wells, Zora feels the burden of holding the key to something so essential to survival in this unforgiving land.

Even more, she finds herself longing for love the way the prairie thirsts for water.
Maybe, in the wildness of the territories, Zora can finally move beyond simply surviving
and start living.

***

“A lovely historical romance takes readers back to the 1890 Oklahoma territory. (T)he author conjures a convincing picture of life on the Oklahoma prairie, painting an absorbing portrait of the landscape and of the people there. A high-quality, absorbing drama.” – Kirkus, 02/01/12

“A little bit The Luxe, a little bit Hattie Big Sky, and all swoon. Rowr.” -Leila Roy, Kirkus YA Blog, March 5, 2012

“Authentic historical setting and sweet romance.” – Booklist Online, April 2012

“Mitchell incorporates the magical elements of the novel believably, and the climactic scene… is compelling.” -School Library Journal, March 2012

“(Zora is) a tough and resourceful heroine; this novel is… a good read.” VOYA, 4Q 4P, April 2012

***

“The Springsweet will steal your heart. Zora is a wounded heroine who had me cheering as she rediscovers the strength she thought she’d lost. Blend in a smoldering, yet refreshingly subtle hero, and add a twist of magic and you have a perfect romance in the Old West with another of Saundra Mitchell’s signature rich and nuanced historic settings!”- Aprilynne Pike, #1 NYT best-selling author of the WINGS series</p>

“With Saundra Mitchell’s trademark evocative and gorgeous language, The Springsweet takes us across the plains, where the people thirst for love just as the land thirsts for water. I never wanted this book to end!”-Carrie Ryan, NYT best-selling author of THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH series.</p>

“I didn’t think YA historicals could get better than The Vespertine. The Springsweet proved me wrong. This is a gorgeous, unputdownable book that will stay with you long after it’s through. Saundra Mitchell just gets better and better.”- Sarah MacLean, NYT and USA Today best-selling author of the LOVE BY NUMBER series.</p>

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Indies First

anywherebeyond — Sat, 30 Nov 2013 14:43:00 GMT

I’m getting ready for my stint as an honorary bookseller at Kids Ink today as part of Sherman Alexie’s Indies First initiative!

The whole rest of the year, your smart and fabulous independent booksellers make recommendations and match books with their destined readers– so today, a bunch (and I mean like, hundreds!) of authors are swarming stores to thank them for their amazing work.

I’m not heading out to sell my books today (though if you want to buy some, I will sign them for you!) I’m going to sell you some awesome books– I have selections for picture book readers and reluctant middle graders and of course, I got something for any YA reader in the crowd.

So please head on down to YOUR independent bookseller today. I’ll only be at Kids Ink, but your most beloved author might be standing right there, ready to sell you your next new favorite book!

Honorary Bookseller, 12 – 1
Kids Ink Children’s Books
5619 N Illinois St.
Indianapolis, Indiana 46208
Come on by, I’ll recommend you books until you cry uncle!

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Part Six: Can a Cheater Ever Change?

anywherebeyond — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 12:30:50 GMT

This is it! Part Six! The big finale! Does Sarah give into temptation? Did Will? Can cheaters ever change? Find out in the final installment of WHILE YOU’RE AWAY!

And please join us on Twitter on Thursday for the Teen Vogue Book Chat. Guests on Thursday will include me and the fantastic editor of WHILE YOU’RE AWAY, Caroline D’Onforio! 7PM EST, all are welcome! Join us at #whileyoureaway!

Part Six: When I Heard the Truth

iBookstore | Barnes & Noble | Amazon
eBooks.com | Google Books | Audible

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

I’m in dis GRIM Anthology!

anywherebeyond — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 15:58:23 GMT

Inspired by classic fairy tales, but with a dark and sinister twist, GRIM contains short stories from some of the best voices in YA fiction. And also from me. Coming Feb 25th 2014 from HarlequinTeen, edited by Christine Johnson.

I did a retelling of Donkeyskin that, instead of skipping the horrifying part, I dwelt on it. Because that’s just who I am, y’all. And this is, after all, supposed to be GRIM!

Full List of Contributors:

Shaun David Hutchinson

Saundra Mitchell

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Part Five: BOOM!

anywherebeyond — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 12:35:02 GMT

Part five is out today! I really can’t wait to see what you guys think! It’s the one where everything goes wrong. Or right, depending on your point of view as a shipper.

Part Five: While You’re Distant

iBookstore | Barnes & Noble | Amazon
eBooks.com | Google Books | Audible

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.