Q&A & New Website!

Get to know me a little better and see what I have in store for one of my next YA novels! Read more from my Q&A at the UnCommonYA blog.

Also, if you haven't checked out my new website, what are you waiting for? You can order autographed copies of my books now too!

Happy Holidays and Looking Ahead to 2015!

May your holidays be filled with family and friends,

laughter, love, and good cheer!

I'm looking forward to an exciting and amazing 2015. I have numerous fiction projects in the works and you'll be seeing more from me!

My awesome agent has not one but two young adult manuscripts we'll be shopping to publishers after the New Year. I'm working with an amazing group of authors at The Keeper Shelf to publish in January a fun, sexy, flirty excerpt anthology! I'll also be re-issuing a newly edited version of my first novel Chasing Shadows (after my rights revert back to me from its original publisher) in April, and I hope to publish a second psychic romantic suspense novel to follow it later in the year (it's written, but needs extensive edits). I'll continue to contribute blog posts with the fantastic young adult authors over at the UnCommonYA site.

I have some great giveaways planned too! 

Don't forget to sign up for my new Newsletter. All subscribers will be entered into exclusive, subscriber-only giveaways. You'll also hear about my news first and have the opportunity to get freebies, including chances to read my books for free! Newsletter Signup.

Hope you had a wonderful 2014.
I look forward to seeing you all in an even better 2015!

 

Early Shipping & More!

VIGILANTE NIGHTS is here! I received my boxes of author copies (in hardcover!) a few days ago. I also found out that Amazon is shipping early copies for people who pre-order before its official release date of July 18! Woohoo! I will confess...I can't stop fondling & petting my book! LOL Come on. It's my first hardcover. A dream come true. You'd do the same, right? Buy links for Vigilante Nights.

The Kindle version is available on Tuesday, June 18. Click to order.

If you would like an autographed bookplate for your copy, please email me. Or if you want an autograph for your eBook edition, all my books are available on Authorgraph.

Early Reviews for Vigilante Nights

 

I received a wonderful review of VIGILANTE NIGHTS last week from a winner of my Goodreads giveaway.

"Vigilante Nights is brilliant for a Young Adult book. It faces the pressure and craziness of teenagers in horrible areas. It's a mystery book with twist and turns at every path, fake or real. Vigilante Nights had me guessing who was the real person who caused the death of Lucas's sister, Silver. For all those romance book lovers out there, Vigilante Nights is a romance, too. And it is a story of revenge."

Read the full review: KittiKat Says Blog.

"This story is also about his metaphorical swim back to the surface after being seized by the undertow. It's his gasp for air, his decision to fight for his life and for what he's lost, and ultimately, move on. He doesn't forget but he finds, with the support of his friends and family, that perhaps he can heal. Bravo, Ms. Richards. Bravo." Full Review.

"Vigilante Nights is a book you won't want to put down." Full Review.

"The story's good; it's well-written, with nicely developed characters. The plot moves along at a swift pace and never lets up. Overall, an interesting and entertaining read." Full Review.

"I was pleasantly surprised to find that I couldn't put it down. This turned out to be, essentially, a nicely paced thriller with some lightweight supernatural elements." Full Review.

2012 vs. 2013 Who will win?

WOW! What a year!

As I rounded the corner from 2011 to 2012 (a year ago, can you believe it?), my publishing prospects were dim. I wasn’t looking forward to another year of rejection after having spent the previous 3.5 years querying a million agents on 3 books and getting the big R. I decided 2012 was the year I’d concentrate on submitting my novels to publishers on my own. I didn’t want another year to go by without a book contract. Too much time had elapsed since my first novel CHASING SHADOWS was published in 2008 (in eBook form). 

I made the best decision to proceed on my own. Like one of those mysteries of life. The sun finally shone down upon me and all those years of drought led me to the crystal geyser. As they say at the AW Forum, “never give up, never surrender.” I’m so glad I listened and didn’t give up! Good things come to those who wait and work their tail off. Believe it.

Here’s a rundown of 2012:

1)     March 28: submitted WICKED PARADISE query & partial manuscript to new F+W Media’s imprint Crimson Romance. Another day, another submission.

2)     March 29: received a request to read the full manuscript from managing editor Jennifer Lawler. Not holding my breath…been there, done that. But it was still exciting as all full requests are.

3)     May 7: received (and accepted) offer to publish WICKED PARADISE from Jennifer @ Crimson! Woohooo! The best day ever! My drought had ended.

4)     May 25: submitted my young adult novel VIGILANTE NIGHTS to F+W Media’s new YA imprint Merit Press. I thought it fit their submission guidelines well, and I was excited about this submission from the start. Yet, it’s written from a boy’s point of view and not one of the hugely popular genres in young adult fiction. Even knowing this, something felt right.

5)     July 12: Jackie Mitchard @ Merit Press emailed me and said she wanted to talk to me about VIGILANTE NIGHTS! Talk? To me? OMG. Usually, when an editor wants to talk, it’s good. It doesn’t always result in a sale, so I tried to contain my excitement. Due to our summer schedules, we didn’t touch base until early August.

6)     July 21: I stumbled across CHASING SHADOWS on BN.com. With a NEW cover. In PRINT. Print? No one told me it had gone to print. I thought it was a mistake. I contacted the publisher and sure enough, no mistake. 4-years after CHASING SHADOWS was released in eBook form, it had gone to print! My dream to hold a print copy of one of my books just came true! I thought this day would never happen, especially with my first published book.

7)     August 13: WICKED PARADISE was released in eBook format.

8)     August 28: after some back and forth communication, then an excruciating 2-week silence, I received an email from Jackie Mitchard, offering to publish VIGILANTE NIGHTS! This was the real deal: an advance, hardcover, paperback, eBook, traditional print offer! Holy freaking cow! This was the best day ever now!

9)     August 28: I contacted agent Natalie Fischer Lakosil and told her about my offer. It was after business hours and she said something had compelled her to check her email. She responded quickly and dropped everything to read VN. Natalie liked 2 other books I had submitted to her in the past, coming close on both of them, but ultimately didn’t offer representation. Plus, I had met her at RWA Nationals in July as a fluke standing in line at a book signing. I had no doubt she would be the first agent I would contact. It just seemed meant to be.

10) August 29: received and accepted offer of representation from Natalie.

11) Need I say more?

12) November 1: WICKED PARADISE is released in print.

13) I met an amazing, caring, supportive group of authors at Crimson Romance. 

2012: Best. Year. Ever.

2013: I challenge you to top 2012!
 

Writerly Status

YAY!!! I finished my totally revised speculative romance novel, WICKED PARADISE, last Thursday! I'd previously called it a fantasy, but it has various "speculative" elements, i.e. fantasy, paranormal, utopian, space and time travel, and post-apocalyptic. "Fantasy" just doesn't cover it all. In the end, it's a romance no matter how you look at it....with lots of adventure and magic, though! WICKED PARADISE clocks in at 92,000 words, which puts it squarely in the accepted word count for a romance novel.

The always adventurous and somewhat daunting agent querying began, with my first batch of 10 queries going out between Friday and Monday. So far, I've received one request for a partial, and yes, the inevitable rejection has already arrived. Fear not! I don't let the rejections get to me anymore. Been there, done that. So over it, my skin is made of armour. With a few holes here and there.

And finally....I've started the revisions this week on my young adult slightly-ghostly contemporary (how's that for a tag?), BOOMERANG. I'm so stoked to be working on something fresh and new again!

There you have it...lots going on in my writing world, home life, day job...I don't have time to keep up on my blog much, but I'll post when I can. Until then...enjoy Spring, now that it's finally here!

January Update - Almost there!

I hit the 75K mark on my YA contemporary novel this past weekend. That was my original target word count. Yet, I tend to undershoot myself and always go over the target. I don't have much left to write to finish the ending, so I should be done with the first draft this coming weekend! Probably just a few 1000 more words!! YAY me!

Then I'll spend February adding the villain's point of view in my fantasy romance novel. Something I should have done when I wrote the original, and always thought I should do. This gives me a chance to let my YA contemporary percolate before I dive into revisions with a fresh mind come March.

First step in revisions: As I write a first draft, I always keep a running list of revisions, ideas, plot fixes, etc. Plots and sub plots always seem to change as Muse takes over my brain (or my fingers). So I have to go back and cut out characters I don't need, sub-plots that got dropped, expand sub-plots left weakened, cut scenes, move scenes, fix and sprinkle backstory, etc.

2nd step: stay tuned!

Agents, Holidays & Stats

All was quiet on the agent front last week. Everyone must be enjoying the hustle & bustle of the season.

Some agents are still working, though, but that may change this coming week. Last week I received a PARTIAL rejection, but then received a FULL request, so AgentLand hasn't shut down completely. However, there are many agents who shut down completely and post on the web about it, some take the time to catch up, others continue business as usual (excluding the actual holiday). So why stop querying unless you're super busy yourself? If you query now, and the agent is out of the office until after the New Year, one can argue that your query beats those who waited and queried after you. But then I've heard that some agents don't necessarily work from the oldest to the newest query. There are really no hard & fast rules. Just do what your head & heart tell you to do.

For whatever it's worth, I thought I'd provide an update on my slow agent quest: currently, I have 4 partials and 4 fulls being read by agents, which is a high ratio for me and just one short of my highest of a couple weeks ago. I'm hoping 2010 brings me an offer.

Happy Procrastination Shopping!!!

November Update

Whew! I finally got back to working on Boomerang Wars this past weekend, and tonight I hit the halfway mark! At least I hope it's the halfway mark. I tend to go over projected word count on a first draft. I had to rein in a sub-plot I contemplated adding, although it's still in the back of my mind. Which could be a bad thing...'cause Miss Muse takes over my mind sometimes and I have no control (over Musey, that is). Anyway, after working on something else for a while, it felt good to get back to BW. I'd love to finish the first draft by the end of the year, even though the holidays tend to get in my way. Egads...I'm even toying with the idea of killing off another character. I don't know if my other characters can handle it without complete destruction of the family unit. Magic, murder and mayhem...Musey's moto.

The agent search has slowed down because I just haven't had the time. I really need to focus my energies on WRITING, crafting, creating, the art. Obsessing over agents and queries, etc. was really putting a damper on Miss Muse. I still have queries, fulls and partials out there, and the hunt will go on, slowly but surely. I will snag an agent. I will snag an agent. I will snag an agent. Clicking my heels now!

October Update

I've been tweaking the layout, colors and updating graphics on my blog, so take a look around. I'm learning to use the latest and greatest version of Paint Shop Pro and having fun with text affects! My version of Photoshop is too old for my new computer and I'm not spending $400+ on the new version. So PSP, it is. Also, check out my new weekly feature on Agent News (for those of you looking for an agent).

Agent search: the interminable search continues. Someday soon I WILL have an agent.

Writing projects: Boomerang Wars has been on hold while I've been making a few revisions on another project. My intent is to get back to the first draft this weekend. I'm at the pivotal middle point, and to avoid the "sagging middle syndrome" I must keep the action going. Of course, putting the characters in peril is always a good way to thwart the dreaded SMS! As long as I don't kill them off...yet.

Other fun things: this week I learned how to make my own cellphone ringtones!! Screw spending $1 - $3 on a ringtone that isn't perfect. I downloaded free software to pluck out the 20 seconds of my favorite songs, found a free converter to convert snippet to a small MP3 file, and then "Bluetoothed" them to my cell phone. There you have it! Now I have favorite riffs of Second Chance by Shinedown and Never too Late by Three Days Grace as my new ringtones. Love it!!

And that's all she wrote, folks. See you on the flip side! Happy Autumn, Fall, Samhain!

September Update

I'm still looking for an agent...still have fulls and partials out being read. Sometimes I wish I had a crystal ball that showed me who to query, on what day, and with what manuscript, to save myself the torture of querying and waiting and more waiting. I'm definitely gaining a wealth of experience in the process and pretty much am at the point where I can offer my "expertise" to newbie's just starting the process.

Anyways...this query-go-around isn't interfering with my writing or my muse like it had earlier this year! YAY!!! Even though it's slow and steady, I'm about 40% done with the first draft of Boomerang Wars. I'm even at the stage where I'm creating scenes in my head on my commute and writing them when I get home. It's been a while since I've been at the new creation point rather than rewriting & revising other works, and it feels like real writing for a change. Don't get me wrong, I love to edit & revise, but sometimes I get a little of sick of going over the same mauscript a million times and need to work on fresh material.

So I spent the better part of today setting up my new desktop computer. Most people like the portability of a laptop. Me, I like both. As much as I loved my (originally) souped-up Gateway desktop (and still do), it's aging and has become frustratingly slow in opening programs, screen refresh rates, graphics work, internet browsing, etc. After 7 years, it was time. I bought a Dell with a nice widescreen (since Gateway is now owned by Acer and doesn't allow for custom configurations--yes, I'm a computer geek and must configure my own system). And I got suck with Windows Vista. Thank God, I get a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it comes out, or else I would have thought twice about buying now. Vista's not horrible, but I've had my share of problems on the Dell laptop with it. Whereas, I never had a lick of trouble with Windows XP.

After moving the old computer, cleaning and vacuming, I set up the Dell. Updated Windows, Norton and all that good stuff. After a couple hours of playing around, I put it in sleep mode. It immediately came back awake. I did this 3 times, and 3 times it woke up again. So after doing some troubleshooting, to no avail, I had to log onto Dell chat. After 4 freakin' hours dealing with this BS, including doing a factory restore (full hard drive reformat, losing all the stuff I'd tweaked and intalled), Dell and I finally figured it out. Gah...what a waste of a day! And I had a really fun scene in BW I didn't get to write. Bah humbug.

Onward and upward. Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend!

August Status Update

Not a lot of news on the agenty front. I received another request for a partial read on Thirteen this past week. It's always great to open an email and see a request to read more material!

I'm now 25% done on the first draft of my new novel, Boomerang Wars. The book is going off in a direction of its own, which my plots tend to do. There's a character I wanted to introduce, but in my previous version (the hiding under the bed version), she didn't have much impact except as a love interest to my MC's new neighbor. As of today...that's changed and I've introduced a subplot involving her and her mother. Yikes! Every time I add in extra subplots, my books tend to run longer than I anticipated.

Boomerang Wars is a young adult magic realism, written from the viewpoint of a 17-year-old boy. The book is about revenge, vigilantism, and street gangs, with a quirky ghost who actually likes living in the Afterlife. Now, I have the added element of trying to glue 2 devestated families back together.

Update and New Work!

As of yesterday, I'm now working on a new book, which is really an older paranormal that I'm rewriting from the ground up so it feels brand spanking new. My myth & magic has changed, and the characters are a tad different, so its essentially a new work. I love working on something new for a change. My working title is Dark Magic Rising.

That's it in a nutshell.

Happy Valentine's Day!!