Robin Mellom's DITCHED is becoming REAL!

Hello dear ones!

You may remember way back in January I did a blog interview (which you can find here) with the lovely Robin Mellom about her experiences in the publishing industry, and selling her first book DITCHED to Disney-Hyperion, in a 2-book deal. Which has since become a SIX-book deal.

I just wanted to help her celebrate as Ditched is nearly a real in bookshops book!

So far there are ARCs (Advanced Readers Copies), or Proofs as they're called in Australia out in the world. There are sure to be reviewers out there readng it as I write this. Oh how I wish I was one of them.

So what do you think of the cover? I love the fonts and how colourful it is. Looks like that dress has been through a hell of a night, huh?

Asta la vista,

Sairz

Proud as Punch: Success Stories

I love being a part of this community, the children's writing one. Everyone is so supportive and excited for each other's successes.

That said, I've had several friends with fantabulous news lately and I just wanted to share it with everyone.

Sara Wilson-Etienne who I met at the SCBWI LA conference 2009 because as I was coming down the escalator someone said "Sarah!" and I smiled and said "Hi!" to the stranger. She had actually been talking to Sara, at the bottom of the escalator. This was the beginning of a beautiful friendship :).

Sara got a 2-book deal recently. O.O Huge congrats and lots of warm fuzzies go out to Sara! It's a dream (a really really super AMAZING dream) come true.

Meagan Spooner who if I recall correctly, we randomly started communicating on Twitter and I consider her to be full of awesomeness and a good bud, she was in the process of revising a mammoth manuscript she had written and about to start the agent query process. Well that didn't last long - Meagan scored herself an awesome agent like THAT because she is THAT GOOD. I'm thrilled for you Meagan!

and finally, the debut success story of the century goes to Robin Mellom. For realz.

She is my agent buddy, represented by Jill Corcoran of the Herman Agency as well, and awhile ago she got a two-book deal (which was discussed in my interview with her here ) but since then, she has scored another...wait for it....FOUR BOOK DEAL. Can you believe that? She has a six book deal before her first book even comes out. Way to go Robin!

So Sara, Meagan and Robin: This is the writing community, to you.

Photo Courtesy of bostonofficemagic.com

I'm so proud of you all.

Love Sairz

I did it

There are a couple more Melbourne Writers Festival posts to go up, but in the meantime I have some very exciting news to report.

I finished writing my novel two days ago. This is a pic from the celebrations:

Okay, not really. I found it in Google Images. Real celebrations included me sitting on my bed with my lap top, smiling. And then watching some Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. And then going to sleep. You don't have to tell me - I know I'm hardcore.

But I totally smiled like this. This is a REAL PHOTO OF ME two nights ago when I finished writing.

You don't have to say it, but thank you. I know I have a really pretty smile.

Now comes the fun part (in an "oh God make it stop" kind of way) of revision! So this will technically be my second round of revision, but considering the first round of revision was essentially a complete rewrite, I don't think that counts as revision, right?

I'm pumped. I'm excited about this book. I think it's romantic. I think it makes you squirm and cringe when you're supposed to. And it's funny - and it's totally MEANT to be! Mind you I haven't read it back yet. But I'm going to within the next couple of days.

I don't want to send it to my agent until I know it's my best work. But the thing is...how do you know when something is the best it can be?

In puzzlement, I leave you.

Sairz

When you finally write "The End"

I finished classes for the semester on Thursday. I have a whole seven weeks to finish writing my Work In Progress. I figured I wasn't that far off the end so I would have it done by this Sunday.

Um, I gotta tell ya, when I have whole days free with nothing else planned? I am PRODUCTIVE.

I had it done LAST Sunday. The one that is 3 days after finishing classes on Thursday - that Sunday.

I walked around all afternoon like this

I live with my older sister now, and she's sick at the moment, and I kept going into her room where she was lying on her deathbed and I just smiled at her and walked out again.

Do any of you other writers get all giddy when you finish a book? It's so exciting, I actually did it! What a feat. It took me four months from coming up with the plot and having a couple of characters, to actually FINISHING it.

Writing a whole novel is a huge undertaking, fellow writers. I hope you realise this each time you churn out another one. You don't merely spend a couple of hours a day on the physical writing, but you spend the WHOLE FOUR MONTHS thinking about your book, your characters. You know? LIVING your story.

Writing for Middle Grade and Young Adult readers, my books are a bit shorter than adult novels, so I definitely hope you adult fiction writers out there get just what a big deal it is, what you accomplish. If you're a writer, whoever you are, reading this. If you're not a writer reading this, well, um... Writing is hard work and I guess I'm informing you of that.

Mind you, this is the first draft. I already know of a couple of scenes that I need to add in, and my awesomely wonderful beta readers are going to tell me if there are any big scenes that need to be slashed and cut out.

In the mean time, I have another book to edit! I'm having lots of fun dreaming up the NEW plot bits to replace the plot I'm choosing to delete. So I'll be deleting many chapters and characters, but inserting heaps of better ones!

So hopefully within the next couple of months I will have not only one but two brand new, polished books to send off to my agent. Hells yeah.

That's all I have for now. Woot for finishing my novel, yeah!

I finished writing my book today!

Okay, not 10 minutes ago, I wrote The End below 3,772 lines of text, or over 43,000 words.

It's not a long novel, but it's a complete long work which is actually a bit longer than the series of books I wrote it for are supposed to be but that's okay because soon comes editing!
Today comes celebration and relaxation and 'Oh my God I did it'-ation.
And a bit of mourning. I'm gonna miss those characters and thinking about what they're doing and thinking every day.

But NOW I'm thinking about my next lot of characters, and what THEY will be getting up to. Their personalities are coming through, and some stuff that has happened to them, but I don't have names yet. But that's what my baby name books are for. Writers get more use out of them than pregnant ladies. We need hundreds of names. New parents only need a couple and it gets dusty on the shelf.

Anyhoo, that's all I'm about today. Finished my book! With 3 days to spare! Ya-hay!

And I got my results for first semester this morning, and got 2 credits, a distinction and a high distinction which I'm completely stoked about. I didn't even think I was going to PASS Sociology, but I got 66% for the subject! Woo frickin hoooooo!

Oh and I went to the movies last night and saw Mamma Mia and it is awesome. Very funny and just plain fun! Enjoy.

Looking forward to Hancock which I'll see soon.

Ta ta! Gone to smile a lot and wonder what the hell to do now.

Sairz