New Project in the planning stages

I'm a sucker for matching actors/actresses to characters in my novels because it helps me really hone in on their physical descriptions. It's also fun to imagine those actors/actresses actually playing the characters. So, now that Chasing Forever is in it's editing phase, I'm ready to start planning out my next project! Yay!

Honestly, I don't have much "story" to go on yet, but the characters have been popping into my head lately and I wanted to share them with you.

First, is the leading man in the story. He's quiet and reflective, deeply passionate about his younger brother's success in the world even at the expense of his own possible failures. He's more interested in living in the moment than planning for his own future. He doesn't do relationships, he thinks they're messy and doomed to fail anyway.  At this given moment, he is nameless in this new story, but I'm sure it will come to me soon.

Jai Courtney (Terminator Genesis Jai Courtney, not Divergent Jai Courtney)




The leading lady is in a way opposite of our leading man. She's a planner, scheduler and likes things in a precise way. She's not afraid to go after what she wants when it comes to jobs or schooling.  She expects perfection in everything she does as well as those around her. 

Britt Roberston (The Longest Ride not Tomorrowland)





The younger brother is a senior in high school with excellent grades.  He's smart, amazingly athletic with a full scholarship for soccer.

Phillip Phillips (see, him and Jai Courtney could actually be real brothers)



The friends, what is a novel without it's supporting characters?  Well, these are the people who help our main characters get through the book.

Maia Mitchell


Chris Egan


The brother's girlfriend is clingy and doesn't want him to go off to college and leave her.

Elle Fanning


Alright - that's where I'm at right now with the planning, I have a long way to go, but it's a start.

This week in Twitter Contests

Oh man, this week has been crazy for me!  Which is a good thing, I promise.  It started on Saturday when my oldest son turned 8 and was baptized!  On the same day I took part in #CPMatch on twitter.  CPMatch is where you post a quick tidbit about your book and see if anyone else in Twitterland, who also has a finished manuscript, wants to become a critique partner.  Well, I ended up with two and both their books are so great so far!

Then fast forward to Wednesday.  Wednesday was holy-hecka crazy.  Two Twitter contests and I took part in both.  The first was #Pitch2Pub and then later in the day was #NewAgent.  Whew!

#Pitch2Pub required you to create a 140-character pitch to give to 27 publishers.  If they liked your pitch they would favorite it and then you submit your book to them.  Well, I had 6 publishers give my pitch a favorite.  SIX!

Here is my pitch:

20y/o fix everything Jemma takes in substance abusing rock star crush then finds love in the one guy she never coming. #Pit2Pub #NA #CON #R

Let me tell you, summing up your novel in 140-characters is NOT easy.  I wrote at least a dozen before settling on the one above.  I'm still researching the publishers and will be submitting my manuscript to at least two of them soon.

And back to #NewAgent.  So this contest is a little more intense.  It's a mentoring contest with published authors and new agents in the industry.  It sounds like an amazing opportunity and I hope I get selected.  For #NewAgent you submit the meat of your query letter and the first 250 words to the host and then the mentors read through them and select the ones they are considering mentoring.  They had over 250 entries, so my competition is fierce!

Here is what I submitted:

Title: Chasing Forever
Word count: 71,000
Genre: NA Contemporary Romance

Query:

Twenty-year-old Jemma Bowers always dreamt of marrying a rock star and when the rocker of her dreams ends up in her care she begins to feel she’s bitten off more than she can chew. Sex, drugs and rock-n-roll don’t have a place among the rules she’s created to avoid heartbreak.

Troubled by the death of her mother and then her father’s abandonment at an early age, not to mention a traumatic miscarriage at seventeen, Jemma finds herself caught between rock star, Jordan Capshaw, her teenage fantasy crush and the real-life affections of someone she never saw coming. A budding relationship with Vic Harper, a swoon-worthy firefighter from her past, and the failing health of the one person Jemma could always count on, just may be the driving force to push Jemma to break the rules she created three years ago in order to protect her heart.

CHASING FOREVER, is a new adult contemporary romance novel complete at 71,000 words, and is told from two points of view about a girl who tries to hard to keep her distance in order to save herself from heartbreak and a rock star determined to prove his father wrong.

First 250 Words:

I haven’t kissed anyone in over a thousand days, so when my date, Cody, leans in for the customary end-of-the-first-date-kiss, I step away, bringing my fist to my mouth and pretend to cough.

“Sorry,” I say, quickly trying to come up with a valid excuse as to why I dodged his kiss.

“I’ve been fighting a cold or something for a couple days.” Lame? Yes. Effective? Apparently. He backs away, shoves his hands in the pockets of his khaki Dockers and clears his throat.

“Alright, well…goodnight. I’ll call you.” He walks away from the door to my dorm and I have the distinct feeling I’ll never hear from him again; so much for Trish’s attempt to have me break my no dating rule.

“How’d it go?” Trish asks eagerly as she looks up from painting her toenails an obnoxious hot pink color. She’s wearing a thin-strapped pink camisole and matching pink shorts. Her silky black hair spills over her bronzed shoulders and not for the first time, do I wish I had her body. Instead, I’m stuck with my five foot four inch frame with subtle curves. I’m stacked well for my size, but if I had Trish’s height I might feel more comfortable in my skin.

I plop down on my bed, which sits across from hers, sigh and pull my pillow over my head. “It was fine until the end and I pretended I was coming down with something so he wouldn’t kiss me.” I cringe as I await her reaction.

Round 1 edits under way

Ahh editing, the joy of every writer.  Can you sense my enthusiasm?  Round 1 will likely take me a couple days and then its off to a few beta readers.  And then more edits, yay.

But the good news here, is the first draft is finishes which means it's one step closer to publishcation!

And the end is near

So the title has grown on me and Jemma, Jordan and Vic's story is coming to a close.  I'm so excited to be finishing up this novel though I can admit, I'm not looking forward to the editing phase.  Writing a novel is almost like adding another child to your family - a part of you feels very maternal about the whole thing.  The great thing about that is novels don't eat!

So what's next?  As I mentioned, editing Chasing Forever.  Then I will finish up Terry Tarantula and possibly do some more drawings so it can be ready for pitching in August to agents.  And finally, I have a story in the plotting stages that I'm anxious to start writing, but will hold off until Terry is finished.