I HAZ AN AGENT!!!!

Yes, guys and gals, I have a new agent for my Young Adult books!!!!

It is the ever fabulous Leigh Feldman at Writer's House. Leigh represents one of my all time, hands down FAVORITE YA authors, Sarah Dessen. She also helped to bring Charles Frasier's Cold Mountain to bookstores as well as Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha.


Leigh fell in love with my latest book....which is somewhat a YA version of the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich. More like paying homage to my love of Dog the Bounty Hunter along with Savannah, Georgia high society!!

I know I'm going to work so well with Leigh because we've been through a round of revisions already, and I love her vision.

It's been a long 5 months since my agent left the business, and I was forced to start the dreaded querying again. I won't lie that it hasn't been soul crushing, mind numbing, panic inducing, lose your mind kind of ride.

But it's great when you can finally see the purpose of it all. Of course, it throws a wrench into my publishing RTD, but it's all worth it in the end!!

YOWZERS! I'm baaaaack

Holy smokes, peeps. I just realized my last blog was June 25?!!! How can that be? Oh yeah, life...it happens.

So, I'm excited to say that I did get a fabulous job! After four years in high school, I've gone back to teaching MS or 8th grade specifically. I did five years of 8th grade(and one year of 7th) before moving on up to HS. I love, love my new school. It's only 35 minutes from home. The kids are great, and I love my coworkers. MS kids have a lot more time for reading--Language Arts/English and Reading are two separate classes, and they also participate in Reading Countst through Scholastic. So, I'm looking forward to being able to share my writing, along with the writing of my writer buds and peeps in the YA community, with the kids.

Thanks to everyone who sent me prayers and love and support when my job got cut!! I couldn't have made it without you guys cuz it was some dark, dark times!!

As for the agent front, I'm still waiting. Have come close...working on some R&R's. I feel like at any mintue there will be good news...while other days, it feels like I'll never be agented again!!! You know, the normal agent agnt or submission angst!! It's also weird that we're still waiting for the final nos(okay, or maybe yes's!) from some pubs, so it feels weird to be agent searching and be on sub. PASS ME A DRINK AND SOME CHOCOLATE!!!

I know I've lost a couple of followers for not blogging. Sorry guys, but life just got in the way. I've had illness in the family as well, so that's made it hard to blog and keep up with blog. I even turned my back on Twitter for awhile.

When Things Go From Craptastic to Utter & Complete Kaka

So, I haven't blogged since Easter, and I've been meaning to rectify that one for awhile. However, the events of May have bogged me down to where I just couldn't function, least of all blog.

I guess I should be more specific and say the Week of May 3-8 was one that crippled me emotionally, and I'm still recovering from the aftershocks.

And here's why:

(1). My Agent Has Left the Building

Sorry, I love Elvis, and I had to go there! Anyway, my beloved agent is leaving the publishing business to begin consulting full-time, rather than half-time, with Technicolor Film. She was so sweet and so caring in her call, and she wanted to give me the heads up to begin querying(we're actually still out to a couple houses for my YAUF). No two weeks notice or anything because she wants it to be the smoothest transition for me. How can you not love that?

Business wise, Fonda was one of the best. She was great with communication(most of the time calling, rather than emailing), and she was knowledgeable of the business. But I've had more than just a business relationship with Fonda. She's been a cheerleader, a champion, and a friend. I don't think I could have made it through the "deal that was not meant to be" with Don't Hate the Player if it hadn't been for her guidance, support, and love. She was even there for me in the dark days that followed. And we even came close with The Guardians a month ago, but alas, another "almost but no cigar" type situation.

So after eighteen months being agented, I'm back in the saddle again....fortunately, I've had some agented friends do referrals, and I hope to be back and agented very soon.

(2). The Education Budget Sucks Ass

After getting the depressing news on Sunday night that I would soon be agentless, I was called into my Principals office the following Friday to have a bomb dropped on me. Five positions were being cut from my school, and as the latest hire, I was losing my job. To say I was stunned was an understatement. It's one of those moments where you want to go, "But I've been teaching ten years and I have a Masters degree and I've even won a teaching award and been on the news and I've even taught college English courses! NOOOOOO, you can't do this!!!"

But alas they did. The following Monday my principal(who had 30plus years) was also cut b/c he was making so much money.

So lets recap: I lost my agent and my job in the same week.

That picture pretty much sums up what that week was like as well as what the last few weeks have been like. Job searching and agent searching at the same time is kinda like being in the 7th Ring of Hell. More so on the job front because of the epic hiring freeze.

But you also get to the point where you think, "Damn, I'm already at rock bottom. I can only go up from here!"

So I'm bracing myself for GOOD & WONDERFUL things...

And as a person who their faith is the most important facet of their life, I'm shaken but not broken. I mean, I don't consider myself a steel magnolia for nothin'.

I will persevere....I just might whine a little more before I get there!!

Happy Easter & Good Friday

I just wanted to take a moment to wish you many blessings on this Good Friday.







And these picture of the crucifixion come from St. Peter's Catholic Church in Chicago, Illinois. It is special to me because my great-grandfather, who was a master stone carver, helped to create it. At home in the photo albums, I have a picture of him working on it. Cool, huh?

Waiting on Wednesday: Where She Went

Jill over at Breaking the Spine created the Waiting on Wednesday meme for us bloggers to showcase books we're waiting on.

This week the book I've been waiting on for a long, long time is Where She Went the highly anticipated sequel to Gayle Forman's If I Stay.

Is that cover not GORGEOUS! Simple but so powerful from the model's expression to the background.

In case you aren't familiar with the first book, here's the blurb about If I Stay from Publishers Weekly

The last normal moment that Mia, a talented cellist, can remember is being in the car with her family. Then she is standing outside her body beside their mangled Buick and her parents' corpses, watching herself and her little brother being tended by paramedics. As she ponders her state (Am I dead? I actually have to ask myself this), Mia is whisked away to a hospital, where, her body in a coma, she reflects on the past and tries to decide whether to fight to live. Via Mia's thoughts and flashbacks, Forman (Sisters in Sanity) expertly explores the teenager's life, her passion for classical music and her strong relationships with her family, friends and boyfriend, Adam. Mia's singular perspective (which will recall Alice Sebold's adult novel, The Lovely Bones) also allows for powerful portraits of her friends and family as they cope: Please don't die. If you die, there's going to be one of those cheesy Princess Diana memorials at school, prays Mia's friend Kim. I know you'd hate that kind of thing. Intensely moving, the novel will force readers to take stock of their lives and the people and things that make them worth living.

And then here's the blurb for Where She Went

It's been three years since the devastating accident . . . three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life forever.

Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Juilliard's rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia's home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future-and each other.

Told from Adam's point of view in the spare, lyrical prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.

If I Stay was AMAZING! I found myself laughing and crying through the story. The way Forman captures the essence of grief and loss and love and romance is phenomenal. The characters were so memorable from Mia and Adam to Mia's grandparents. I also enjoyed that we got to know the parents and brother in reverse through the flashbacks. It made the pain of their deaths all the more evident.

With that said, I can't wait to see what happens in Where She Went....Frankly, I'm gonna pitch a fit if she and Adam don't end up together in the end.

Waiting on Wednesday: Hourglass

Jill over at Breaking the Spine created the Waiting on Wednesday meme for us bloggers to showcase books we're waiting on.

There are a lot of books I'm waiting on, but there's one that's *cues the Pet Shop Boys and/or Willie Nelson* Always on My Mind. Just kidding.

Here's a summary of Hourglass.

For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn't there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents' death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She's tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson's willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.

Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he's around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?

If after reading that summary, you're not completely stoked and pumped, then let me give you a few more reasons!!

(1). Kickass Cover....I mean, how does that not just suck you in?

(2). A Southern setting and Allusions to the old South. I'm a life-long Georgia native, and I love the culture of the South--both new and old. Books like Beautiful Creatures & The Magnolia League really rock my socks with the Southern cultures of cultured ladies, sipping sweet tea, and old family skeletons.

(3). The Author....srsly, this should probably be the first reason because Myra is so amazing. When I first started on Twitter, Myra was a very approachable and hilarious author. I had the pleasure of meeting Myra at the Decatur Book Festival. She's just as funny and approachable in person. She's also got a great heart because she was one of the organizers of the Do The Right Thing for Nashville auction to help benefit flood victims.

So, there you have it. The reasons why May 24 can't come fast enough!!

What books are you waiting on this fine Wednesday?

Must Read Reviews: Wither

*I received this arc through Simon and Schuster....and boy am I grateful!*

Here's a quick plot summary for Wither in case you've been under a rock and not heard about the premise!!!

When scientists engineered genetically perfect children, everyone thought it would ensure the future of the human race. Though the first generation is nearly immortal, a virus causes all successive generations to die early: age 20 for women, 25 for men. Now, girls are kidnapped for brothels or polygamous marriages to breed children. Rhine is taken from her hardscrabble life and sold with two other girls to Linden Ashby. Though they live in a palatial Florida home surrounded by gardens and treated like royalty, the girls are sequestered from the outside world, and Rhine longs to escape. Her growing affection for her sister wives, her pity for Linden, and her fear of Housemaster Vaughn, Linden's manipulative father, keep her uncomfortably docile, until she falls for servant Gabriel.

I'll have to admit when I first started reading Wither, I wasn't sure exactly what to think of it. It hooked me in from the first chapter with a Dystopian edge...the next chapter moved into a more Historical novel feel. Then it yo-yoed between Dystopian, Sci-Fi, and Historical. While I do think there could have been a wee bit more development with the "world" of Wither, it didn't effect my appreciation of the story. In fact, it might have aided it a bit since we're just as clueless as Rhine is. I loved the aspect of "sister-wives" and a love quad, rather than triangle. It's just a different kind of book than I've read in a long time.

DeStefano has a great grasp of character development. Rhine is an easy MC to embrace, to have empathy for, and to want a better future for. I found myself rooting for her each time she got manipulative and devious, lol. There were times when I loathed Linden and others when I found myself very drawn to him. The evolving of Cecily's role as a Sister Wife, as well as Jenna's, was also very well done. I found myself really caring for these characters....there's an OMG moment where I had to fight my tears. There's also lots of roller coaster moments where you'll be sitting on the edge of your seat.

I'm totally stoked for the sequel!!!