Three years ago, I was finishing up the second book in the
Violet trilogy and anxiously awaiting the release of my first book,
Violet on the Runway. Here's a quick rundown of the roller-coaster ride:
✩
The Good
Holding the first copies of
Violet on the Runway in my hands was like holding a new baby. Okay, I don't have kids yet, so I can't say that with authority, but I was pretty ecstatic and excited. I did lots of silly things with the books in an afternoon photo shoot, including making this Gargoyle shelter.
✩
The Hard
Not long after my book did come out in 2007, I learned that no one cares about your book as much as
you care about your book. Like my TFC pals have been saying, it ain't all wine and roses post-publication. I basically made it my part-time job to get press for my books -- I emailed other authors, editors, any publication the world has ever heard of (I had an angle for why each of them should write about me or my books). And while I'm not sure it sold copies, I know that it helped raise my profile among editors and other writers, which is valuable in itself. Authors I respected seemed to know my name, generally, and to have heard of the books. That made me happy, even though I was tired (and a little bit sheepish) after all the self-promoting. It did get me a
killer press page though -- here's a favorite little snippet from
NYLON.
✩
The Totally Elating
Here's the thing about writing YA novels: My 15-year-old self would be over-the-moon ecstatic to hear that this is my 32-year-old self's
job. That someone pays me to put words on a page and create characters and dream up stories. So all the rough drafts and the false starts and the revisions and the "Am I good enough?" moments (also known as the "What if I suck?" moments, of which there are many) is totally worth it because this writing life is a dream come true. I don't know how long I'll get to do it -- we all worry about when the next contract will come and if anyone will want another book from us -- but I'm going to enjoy every minute while I'm in the game. And I hope to be in it for a long time!
PS-What really makes it all worthwhile? The readers. A fan recently emailed me about my latest novel,
Lovestruck Summer, and she said, "I want to be Quinn! I want to dye my hair blue and live in headphones and fall in love this summer." And
that is why we do this thing.
♥ So what was/is your 15-year-old dream? Comment below and one random commenter will win a signed copy of
Lovestruck Summer!
She had this incredible over-the-summer transformation from 8th to 9th grade--I'm talking a full on makeover from thick glasses and braces to tan, lovely, white-toothed, blonde highlighted goddess of high school. A la the movie She's All That (see photo). 
I just discovered a great new blog called A Lot on Her Plate. 
I am a big fan of embarrassing moments, which is the topic of discussion on TFC this week. Without our goofy doofy moments, life wouldn't be nearly as fun.
For this week's News theme, I considered writing about the new gay character in Archie comics (yay! Meet Kevin, left) or Disney creating boy fairies for their online games (at the demand of kids who didn't get why there were only Tinkerbelles flying around Neverland).
It's a little weird how happy this PEOPLE cover made me. Of course she must be devastated over the terrible things her soon-to-be-ex-husband has done, but she's been working on adopting this baby, Louis Bardo Bullock, for four years (she brought him home in January) and now she's going forward with the adoption as a single mom.
✩ The Good
Not long after my book did come out in 2007, I learned that no one cares about your book as much as you care about your book. Like my TFC pals have been saying, it ain't all wine and roses post-publication. I basically made it my part-time job to get press for my books -- I emailed other authors, editors, any publication the world has ever heard of (I had an angle for why each of them should write about me or my books). And while I'm not sure it sold copies, I know that it helped raise my profile among editors and other writers, which is valuable in itself. Authors I respected seemed to know my name, generally, and to have heard of the books. That made me happy, even though I was tired (and a little bit sheepish) after all the self-promoting. It did get me a killer press page though -- here's a favorite little snippet from NYLON.
Here's the thing about writing YA novels: My 15-year-old self would be over-the-moon ecstatic to hear that this is my 32-year-old self's job. That someone pays me to put words on a page and create characters and dream up stories. So all the rough drafts and the false starts and the revisions and the "Am I good enough?" moments (also known as the "What if I suck?" moments, of which there are many) is totally worth it because this writing life is a dream come true. I don't know how long I'll get to do it -- we all worry about when the next contract will come and if anyone will want another book from us -- but I'm going to enjoy every minute while I'm in the game. And I hope to be in it for a long time!
The topic of the week here at TFC is schools, and I have had a peek into a very interesting school world lately through a friend's blog, Beauty Schooled. Said friend is a magazine writer who's attending Beauty School to learn the ins and outs of the beauty industry, and she's writing about it in a fascinating, weird, funny, insightful way.
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