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BIRTHDAY BASH GIVEAWAY 2020!

Well, it’s May. And a pretty strange one at that. Normally this time of year is my favorite. It’s getting warm! Everything’s green! The whole summer is ahead of us! But this year there’s a pandemic keeping most people at home and fearful of what’s to come.

May is my favorite month because it brings my birthday (today! yay!). Apparently I’m turning 40 this year, though I don’t *feel* 40 at all. But according to math, it’s true, so there you have it.

It feels a little strange to celebrate this year, but I always enjoy giving away books on my birthday, so I’m keeping up the tradition. And since this year is a “milestone” year and all, I’m changing the format up a little bit to a 4 for 40 Giveaway:

• I’ll be selecting 4 winners (one for each decade)
• Winners can choose ANY book published (or to be published) in 2020.
• Book must be available for purchase/pre-order at indie bookstores. (Books will be purchased from each winner’s favorite local indie or I’ll pick one of mine).

So while the actual party may be a little more solitary than usual, the celebration goes on 🙂 The giveaway will run from today (Saturday, May 16) through midnight EST Friday May 22, 2020 and is open internationally. So, stay six feet apart, grab a slice of cake, put on a party hat and mask, and enter to win. Good luck!!

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HOLLOW DOLLS Release Day!

I’m so delighted that Hollow Dolls is out in the world today! And I must thank you, my readers, for that! Your support of the Shadow Weaver series is what made this companion duology set in the same storyworld possible. It quite literally would not exist without you. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you love Simone’s story too!

As always, thank so much to the phenomenal teams at Sourcebooks Young Readers and New Leaf Literary! It takes a veritable army behind the scenes to get a book out there on shelves, and I’m so lucky I get to work with such awesome people! 🙂

BUY THE BOOK:

Hollow Dolls is available through any of these retailers:

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Hollow Dolls Launch Party

Saturday, January 11, 2020 @ 3pm
The Toadstool Bookshop
375 Amherst Street
Somerset Plaza
Nashua, NH 03063

Shadow Weaver & Comet Rising Paperbacks Available Now!

Haven’t read Shadow Weaver and Comet Rising yet? You’re in luck – the paperback of Comet Rising just released in December!

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A Year of Opportunity

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

2020 is shaping up to be a very exciting year! I get to launch two new series – including my first young adult one, which I’m super excited about – and edit the sequels for both Hollow Dolls and Twin Daggers. But once those are done, all my current contracts will be fulfilled. I have four books scheduled to release between 2020 and 2021, but after that, who knows?

That’s the wonderful/terrifying thing about publishing: every time you complete a contract, you start at the beginning all over again. There are no guarantees. Sometimes it’s the first option book proposal that sells. Sometimes it’s the fifth. Sometimes none of them do. It’s…a rather scary way to build a career, actually. But it’s also the nature of the business.

So, I’m approaching this as an opportunity. Once I’m finished with the sequels I’m working on, I can write anything I please. I’ve got several very shiny new ideas I’m looking forward to exploring, and several other older ideas that I’ve been tinkering with here and there between contracts. And I’ve been working with a co-author for the last couple of years on a really cool project. The possibilities feel limitless, and that makes me hopeful for what 2020 will bring!

Looking back at 2019’s goals, I completed everything on my Must Do list, but nothing at all on the Want To Do or Might Do Lists. With any luck, I’ll accomplish a little more this year!

MUST DO:

• Launch Hollow Dolls
• Launch Twin Daggers
• Edit sequel to Hollow Dolls
• Edit sequel to Twin Daggers
• Write MG and YA option book proposals
• Hopefully go on sub with secret co-authored MG project!

WANT TO DO:

• Read more!
• Finish drafting YA sci-fi retelling of Trojan War
• Revise YA cyborg novel
• Revise YA fantasy novella

MIGHT DO:

• Begin all-out rewrite of my very first novel (this has been on many, many years’ “might do” list – someday I really will do this!).

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR 2020? SHARE IN THE COMMENTS!

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2019 – Closing Out the Decade with a Bang

Photo by Wout Vanacker on Unsplash

It’s hard to believe it’s already the end of another decade! Time is very sneaky like that.

2019 was, overall, a good year. It was my first year with two books out, which was challenging, but also really awesome. And, thanks to those books, I had a lot of new opportunities and experiences for which I’m so very grateful.

But it was bittersweet in many ways too. Last year ended with several things up in the air that have now settled. My parents are both at care facilities, and while that’s sad, I’m grateful to the people who look after them day in and day out. My siblings and I had to clean out our childhood home and sell the house in order to help pay for that care, and it hasn’t been easy to let go of the place I’ve called Home for most of my life. But it was necessary and now I can put that phase behind me (I hope!).

Some highlights from 2019:

• We finally got our new kitchen done!
• Launched two new books – Comet Rising and The Star Shepherd
• Seeing a monster-sized backlit poster for The Star Shepherd at BEA (totally surreal!)
• The Star Shepherd 2 week national school visit tour – incredible and exhausting!
• Meeting lots of new, awesome bookish people (and re-connecting with old friends!) at various conferences and events

The Last Decade:

10 years ago, I wrote a looking back at 2000-2009 post, so I’m picking up the thread and doing it again. It’s interesting to see what I was excited about back then (writing more books! Past MK would be pretty pleased with Present MK) and how things have changed. So, here’s the last decade in a very tiny nutshell:

2010: Sold our condo, packed up our pug, and moved across the country to Phoenix, AZ.

2011: Realized we were miserable being 3,000 miles away from our friends and family, so we packed up our pugs (we gained a second one while in AZ) and moved back home to New England. Got new job in Boston – back to epic commute.

2012: Three BIG milestones: 1) Bought our first house! 2) Signed with super agent Suzie Townsend and 3) We sold my first two books to Harper Collins!

2013: Left job with a crazy toxic boss without another job lined up. Terrifying, but necessary for my mental health and well-being. (Was also very keen to stop working in Boston after being in the office the day of the Boston Marathon bombing only a few blocks away). Luckily, my last day was a Friday, and by Monday I had a job offer from my current employer, HILL for Literacy. Took the leap to working part-time.

2014: Paid off my student loans.

2015: Monstrous was published!

2016: Sold more books (Shadow Weaver duology! The Star Shepherd!)! Monstrous hit the NYT list…on the same day as the election results came in. Also, we finally took the honeymoon we always wanted to Hawaii. A few years late, but still amazing!

2017: Had my first child. Added 3rd pug to family, but lost our first pug not long after 🙁

2018: Sold two new duologies – Hollow Dolls + Sequel and Twin Daggers + Sequel! Parents both had sudden, unexpected health issues that left them in care facilities.

2019: Spent significant portion of year dealing with fallout from my parents’ declining health. Helped my siblings empty out and sell our childhood home. Wrote two sequels in one year while juggling multiple editorial deadlines for the first books in the series and somehow survived. Went on my very first legit book tour (probably will never happen again, but still a bucket list item)!!

All in all, it was a pretty decent decade. Lots of highs and lows, but I definitely can’t complain with where I’ve ended up. Here’s hoping the next decade is even better! 🙂

HOW DID 2019 AND THE LAST DECADE TREAT YOU? WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO IN THE NEW YEAR?

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TWIN DAGGERS Cover Reveal!!

I’m beyond thrilled to share the cover for TWIN DAGGERS, my debut young adult novel and the first book in a new fantasy duology set in a world of magic versus machines!!! PLUS I’m giving away a Signed ARC at the end of this post!

Twin Daggers has been a long time in the making. I began writing this book back in 2012, and it’s been that book of my heart, the between-contracts-guilty-writing-pleasure ever since. In short, I adore this story, these characters, this fantasy world so very much and it’s lived in my head for a very long time. I’m so grateful that this book will finally be out on bookshelves and to all those who’ve had a hand in bringing it there (in particular my agent Suzie Townsend and editor Hannah VanVels!).

Thanks so much to Blink YA and designer Faceout Studio for crafting a phenomenal cover to kick off this new series. It perfectly captures the idea of magic versus technology that’s at the core of the book and so many other fantastic elements. The machinery motif! The daggers that represent the main characters! The swooshes of magic! I love how dynamic the design feels too, how it evokes a feeling of perpetual motion. As an author, seeing your book cover for the first time is one of the best/scariest things, and they did such an incredible job – my jaw dropped when it appeared in my inbox! I hope you love it too!

So without further ado……

……

About the Book

Aissa’s life is a web of carefully constructed lies. She and her twin sister, Zandria, are Magi spies, magic users most believe to be extinct. And they’re on a mission for revenge. 

This action & adventure spy thriller—a fantasy spin on Romeo and Juliet from New York Times bestselling author MarcyKate Connolly—is perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer and Elly Blake and is about to become your new obsession!

By day, Aissa and Zandria play the role of normal young Technocrats eager to fulfill the duties of their new apprenticeships. By night, they plot their revenge to retake their city from the Technocrats. But then Aissa is given a new mission: find the heir to the Technocrat throne, who is rumored to be one of the Heartless, and kidnap her. Born without a working heart, the Heartless survive with a mechanical replacement.

Aissa is more likely to be caught than to be successful, but she’s never been one to turn down an assignment, even if the hunt is complicated by a kind Technocrat researcher who is determined to find a cure for the Heartless. But when Zandria is captured by the Technocrats, Aissa will do anything to get her sister back. Even if it means abandoning all other loyalties—and missions—and deciding whether or not it’s worth risk everything on getting help from her sworn enemies.

Win a Signed ARC of TWIN DAGGERS!

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