New Year, New Directions

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Welcome to Author2Author! You're gonna like it here. I'm excited about this blog—these ladies are a fun group. But I'm nervous about writing the first post. After all, I'm Miss Apprentice Writer. My body of work is tiny. My works in progress are unorganized. I just started outlining novels beforehand a few months ago, for goodness sakes. How can I start out this blog?

But I think 2008 will be a turning point year. At least I hope it will be, because I did something crazy in 2007. I retooled the novel I had been working on for almost the entire year. Oh, how I agonized over its plot, too. It was realistic, excruciatingly so. I spent countless hours in medical research: me, who almost failed high school biology because I couldn't buy that "cell theory." And then one day, I woke up and said, wouldn't it be better with an entirely different plot? Yeah, a paranormal plot that would allow me to delete many characters and oh, 90% of what I wrote in 2007. It's all saved on the computer, right? I can always go back. All I have to lose is, well, 90% of my writing time from 2007. No big deal. With two kids and a full-time job, I have tons of time, right?

How do I know if I just don't want to finish this project or I really came up with a better plot? Has anyone else made a decision like this, to either move forward despite your doubts or voluntarily put yourself back at square one? I'd like to think that when I have a few novels done, I'll KNOW which of my ideas is best. I'll let you know how it goes.

Kate, Miss Apprentice Writer

Introducing Author2Author

People say writing is a lonely process but we say heck with that—it doesn't have to be! We are 5 young adult fiction writers, all at different stages of our career, our "journey", and we thought it would be cool to share our experiences, from our tumbles to triumphs, with other writers at all levels. We have 5 participating writers, Kate (Miss Apprentice Writer), our newest to the writing process, Emily (Miss Awaiting an Agent), our writer who has pumped out a couple of books and is at the stage where she is querying for an agent to represent her, Deena (Miss Recently Repped), our writer who recently signed with a literary agent, Kristina (Miss Soon-to-Pub), our writer with her first book due out in 2009, and Lisa (Miss Pinch Me I’m Pubbed) our writer with a published children’s book and her first YA book, I Heart You, You Haunt Me, released on January 8^th (http://www.lisaschroederbooks.com/books.html). We hope that whatever level of writing you are at, you can see yourself in us, and you can also see where you are going next. This will be an active blog and you can depend on hearing from each of our 5 writers on their respective days, Monday through Friday (Start date=12/31). And since we are an extremely chatty bunch of writers, we'd love to hear back from you too!

About the Author2Author Misses

Kristina Springer (Miss Author in Action) is the author of THE ESPRESSOLOGIST, MY FAKE BOYFRIEND IS BETTER THAN YOURS, and the forthcoming JUST YOUR AVERAGE PRINCESS (fall 2011). She has a Masters in Writing from DePaul University and she resides in a suburb of Chicago with her family. During the day, she is being thoroughly worked out and entertained by her four small children and in the evening you can find her at her favorite coffee shop working on her books. Her favorite things in life: her super smart/artsy engineer husband, her precious kiddos, lots and lots of coffee (current fave=dark chocolate mocha from Caribou), writing (of course!), reading loads of young adult books (and listening to audiobooks in the car), spin class, traveling, and watching cheesy lifetime movies, teen dramas, and reality tv (the various real housewives and Big Brother being her faves). She LOVES to chat so visit her at her Web site, http://www.kristinaspringer.com/ or follow her on Twitter, @TinaSpringer, or Facebook, www.facebook.com/KristinaSpringer
Deena Lipomi (Miss Subbing for Pubbing) writes both middle grade and young adult novels that run the gamut from historical paranormals to contemporary realistic books. When not working her day job as a young adult librarian (she tweets at @bmlkidsteens) or writing her novels, Deena can be found in step aerobics class, baking gluten-free recipes, traveling (especially to foreign and tropical places), and reading like crazy (anything she can get her hands on, including books to review for VOYA). She lives in Western NY with her husband. Read her book reviews at http://deenaml.livejournal.com/.

Emily Marshall (Miss Querlylicious) has wanted to write books for as long as she could remember. She just always thought she'd write non-fiction. When she realized she wasn't a celebrity, didn't have a platform, and wasn't particularly knowledgeable on any subject, she decided writing chick-lit for teens might be easy. Sadly, she was mistaken. Now she enjoys writing it so much, however, that she can't stop, and until she develops extensive knowledge on any one subject, she's going to continue. Emily is currently writing her third novel and looking for agents for her second novel: Don't Ask Ally. She lives in Michigan with her scientist/guitar-playing husband and loves teen movies, watching way too much TV, traveling, and playing board games. She also loves online mail and friends, so feel free to visit her at http://www.emilymarshall.com/.

Kate Fall (Miss Perfecting the Pages) started writing fiction in seventh grade, when her teacher read her funny story to the class and everyone laughed at the right parts. She got serious about writing MG and YA six years ago, writes short stories and novels, and is currently revising a science fiction novel. She also freelances as an editor, ghostwriter, promotional writer, and manuscript (slush) reader. She lives in Western NY with her husband, daughter, son, large Newfoundland, and demon kitten. Follow her on Twitter @katefall.

Megg Jensen (Miss Enchanted ePubber), a former freelance parenting journalist who specialized in fascinating topics like baby poop, wrote her first masterpiece at the age of seven and continued spinning stories for the next *cough* years. Even though she grew up on an idyllic farm, she lives in the Chicago suburbs with her hubby, two kidlets, and their miniature schnauzer, Ace. Megg's novels include the Cloud Prophet Trilogy and The Swarm Trilogy. She's proud to be a co-founder of DarkSide Publishing, a member of SCBWI, and a natural redhead. You can visit her on Facebook, Twitter, or her blog.