i'm not dead

I'm not. I swear. If I were dead, would I be able to type this? Probably not, but then again, do we even have a definitive answer on zombies retaining the typing skills they had in life? Maybe tackle that one next, Robert Kirkman.

Anyway, yeah, not dead, just busy.

With this:

Baby H is keeping me plenty busy as he develops fun, new skills!

And this:

It's hard to get things done when a doll has been put to bed and is snoring on the ottoman. And no, I can't move her. The daughter will know/throw a fit if I move her.

And this:

New WIP: This Hideous Heart, a YA re-telling of Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart

So yeah, that's what I've been up to. And as a result of being busy with all that, I haven't had free time to blog, not even to do a Pretty Little Recap, though yes, I have been keeping up with the show and will probably make time to recap the finale. (Mini recap time! Hot Caleb was missing for too many episodes, but was awesome when he returned; wow, Spencer was really spicing things up in the UK; the scene with the guy suddenly rising up in the burn ward was freaky as hell and I'll have nightmares for weeks; Ali with no makeup in prison is refreshing and awesome; and holy crap, Hanna is in jail, and Hot Caleb is basically the fourth liar now. Whew!)

All of this is to say that I'm on a mini blog-hiatus while I get a few things sorted out. Primarily the first draft of my WIP, because the two kids? Not much to be sorted there. That's just life. But I'm very excited about the new book, THIS HIDEOUS HEART. It's coming along really well, and so far I'm mostly on track to meet my self-imposed first draft deadline of the end of March. But I need to neglect other things to stay the course, and yeah, blogs and recaps are part of that neglect because again, the kids can't be ;)

I will definitely share more about the new book once I have a synopsis to post, and in the meantime, I'll leave you with a bit of good news about another book of mine, Skin Deep, has been shortlisted for the the 2014 Dante Rossetti Awards! In an industry as challenging to break into as publishing is, it really is very exciting and such an honour to be recognized this way :)

S'all for now! xo

where i've been and why posts should be more regular

So my last post summed up a good portion of what kept me so busy for the earlier part of this year (ya know, finishing my novel, revising my novel, polishing my novel, querying my novel, LANDING AN AGENT!!!!! Can you tell I'm still excited?), but there was a second thing that kept me even more busy--motherhood.

In December 2011, I became a mother to this little babe, Emmeline:

I make mom's writing time unpredictable!

Okay, at the time, she looked more like this:

I am only one day old and yet-to-cause time management problems

You get the idea... I won't do the new mom thing where I gush about all the amazing things she does because though she does do amazing things, I know all human babies do amazing things and you've undoubtedly heard it before. She hasn't yet done anything that no baby in the history of ever has never done before (that I know of), but if she does, it'll probably warrant a post at that time. Just a warning that I'm not completely above bragging about my child, but she'll basically have to build a working rocket ship on her own before I'll force the details upon you. Isn't that considerate of me? :)

So there you have it: my two big excuses (I have several smaller excuses as well, but I think the two big ones kind of do the work just fine on their own). Moving forward, I'm going to be making a serious effort to blog on a more regular schedule, starting with once a week and hopefully, eventually, increase that. Mondays seem to be the day I usually spend getting myself organized for the week, which should make it also the best day to blog since I'm getting all topical on myself. That sounded kinda ick after I said it, but whatevs, I'm leaving it as is!

Here's what I've gone and done to make sure this happens:

Because we all know adding a reminder to your phone ensures something gets done, amiright?

Notice I even turned off the option to snooze the reminder. THERE WILL BE NO SNOOZING ON BLOG DAY!

If you have any questions for me about my writing, my query journey, or myself, feel free to send 'em at me in the comments or via the question form on my tumblr (linked to the right via the image of a book featuring a conspicuously large question mark). I'm open to blog topic suggestions if you have any!

Otherwise, see you next Monday!

okay so, yeah, i know...

I know. I know. I know I said I'd update soon and then an entire month went by, but it has been the craziest month for reals. Seriously. And because of said craziness, I will soon have an EVEN CRAZIER post coming soon. And by "crazier", I mean whoa, and possibly that I will require some sort of mascot moving forward who can be my advocate in the "seriously who can blog when their brain's exploding" game.

But since I feel like the worst blogger on the planet, let me give you a taste of my soon-to-be-fleshed-out excuses:

1. A very cute baby was involved
2. A very cranky baby was involved (who may or may not be the same baby mentioned above)
3. A book I'm extremely proud of was involved
4. Some very exciting communication was involved

So yeah, details on that SOON. And by soon, I actually mean SOON. As in before the spendiferous season of fall arrives. But almost definitely sooner. Like maybe next week.

So hang in there and I'll start thinking of mascots. Maybe even a mascot competition?!??

Yeah, that's totally happening.

This guy probably won't make the cut:

Dumpy the Snowman

Who needs a third snowball when you can hobble from your oppressors on two L-shaped legs? Hobble Dumpy the Snowman! Hobble toward freedom!