Conferences (#RT16) and Twitter Pitches (#DVPit): My very emotional post after doing both within a week

This is a writing post! So, sorry if you're one of my reader followers. I just need to squeal and dance about life.

First off, last week(end), I went to a conference, Romantic Times Convention (or RT Con). I not only got to meet some of my HERO authors (squeal #1) but I got to meet an awesome group of writers.

Scroll down for book suggestions I have based on the conference

Being a writer is hard, because it feels so solitary. You have your characters to keep you company on a daily basis, but you often wonder if they're only people that you could love (kind of like the saying that a baby is so unattractive only a mother can love it). I wonder this DAILY. And I have a group of critique partners that do give me a lot of boosting. But I am also randomly fierce in my protectiveness over my writing.

So, going to a writing convention kind of forces you to lay your soul bare. Once you've given in to the fact that you're going to put this book out there, you have to pitch it to agents (and potentially editors). This means TELLING an agent about your book (gasp!). Suffice it to say, I almost died inside a dozen times. And then I sucked it up and just did it. I got requests. And I died again (but this time I was a happy ghost. And also squeal #2).

Lessons learned: 

1) Just do it. You can't hold in your work forever if publishing is your end goal.

2) Don't be afraid to ask for advice. I met a lot of great authors who were more than willing to let me pitch practice on them.

3) Accept it if your story isn't for everyone. Some agents loved my pitch, some didn't. It's the fact of a subjective industry and you just have to keep trucking.

4) DO NOT try to fit your whole story into your pitch. Just tell the main gist and the main character. If you go cuh-razy, the agent will just go to their happy place and not follow your thread. I literally pitched my book as a concept instead of a full plot and I got requests. It was epic :)

Do not be Sheldon! Be you! Your awesome author self

Some advice given to me by Agents who requested:

1) Take your time! Do not send the MS right away if it is not squeaky shiny! It's hard not to just flood all of the agents that request, but it's kind of like being considerate that they want your best because you'd want their best if they were your agent. I went to the conference thinking "this is it." But I'll still give it read overs before I hit the send button.

2) Make sure you put in some info about the pitch you told them. A query is great, and it's usually longer than a conference pitch. Make sure that your story is what you pitched. And if your query is grossly different than your pitch...maybe reassess (when I think about it, this advice is something to be given before you pitch at all).

3) Be excited! This is happy times! You got requests! At one point I couldn't stop smiling as I spoke to an agent and I apologized about my face (yes, you're allowed to laugh at me). She said it was fine, that she was happy for me too. (Agents are super nice y'all).

Okay, so now we're onto Twitter Pitch contests.

I did #DVPit this week. The wonderful contest put on through Twitter by the Amazing Beth Phelan.

The gist of it was:

#DVpit is a Twitter event created to showcase pitches about and especially by marginalized voices. This includes (but is not limited to): Native peoples and people of color; people living and/or born/raised in underrepresented cultures and countries; disabled persons; people with illness; people on marginalized ends of the socioeconomic, cultural and/or religious spectrum; people identifying as LGBTQIA+; and more.

Can I just say, it was EPIC!

I love that it was for marginalized voices! Loved all of the #ownvoices out there. I would tell everyone who follows this blog to go to Twitter-->search #DVPit-->read the pitches. Because these books are the ones that will be in your bookstore in a few years, and you get the privilege of having a sneak peek!

This is what I learned:

1) Be simple with your Twitter Pitch. If you were simple with your conference pitch, do that times TEN for twitter. You only have 140 characters!

2) community is everything! Signal boost your favorite pitches. Many participants were paying it forward and it was magical to see. Seriously, I love my writer community!

3) It's full of hope! To see these unagented/unpublished authors right now and to KNOW that their books will be published in due time. It just makes you happy warm inside.

4) Take this opportunity to cultivate new relationships. Tweet at people if you like their pitch. Say thank you when they like yours back. And be respectful ALWAYS of the time put into a huge event like this! (Seriously #DVPit trended nationwide, that's epic).

5) Also, know that agents and editors are still professionals, don't ask them weird personal stuff. And when you query keep it as professional as if it was a cold, slush-pile query. 

Seriously! Everyone who did #DVPit was awesome, and everyone who was at #RT16 was epic. Thank you writing world for possibly the best writing week of my life! Kat. Out. 

Suggested Reading:

Zoraida Cordova's NA is awesome!

Obviously be on the lookout for Labyrinth Lost coming out in September 2016

Tiny Pretty Things is a BIG Beautiful Book! (See what I did there?)

I will always post this cover because it is gorgeous! Cindy Pon is an amazing fantasy writer!
Speaking of, her book WANT, set in a futuristic Taipei will come out July 2017. ADD TO YOUR TBR!

Leigh Bardugo and her books need no introduction. If you haven't read this, rectify that.

I'm going to assume you already read Wrath and the Dawn. The Rose and the Dagger comes out in LESS THAN A WEEK!

NaNoWriMo: Coming Soon to a computer near you!

Hey guys, it's that time of the year! Fall!

My favorite season because of apple cider, Thanksgiving, pretty trees AND NaNoWriMo! 

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo as the cool kids say, is a challenge to write a WHOLE BOOK(50,000 words) in the month of November. 

And fighting the slow pull of insanity while trying to meet word count. Just kidding, kind of.

It also brings the writer community together and can jump-start a new novel idea.

According to Nanowrimo.org:

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 p.m. on November 30. Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought fleetingly about writing a novel.

NaNoWriMo kind of reminds me of college because you have an excuse to be grouchy and crazy at 3 AM and there are likely other people doing that exact same thing! So you know what that means, 3AM coffee/wine and whine time with friends! 

I also always like to point out that some awesome novels were started and/or written during Nanowrimo (http://nanowrimo.org/published-wrimos).

Okay, so here are some of the fun things you get by signing up (FOR FREE) at Nanowrimo.org

Cool stats and graphs telling you how awesome (or, in my case, how lazy) you are:

Awesome Forums where you can connect with other authors. There are so many options to base the forums on (genre, hobbies, progress in your WIP, where you live, who you read):

And there are some Regional specific events:

I participated in NaNoWriMo for the past two years (and won *cough cough*). I loved it, I loved meeting new people and working on a new WiP. Fun fact, none of my WiPs from NaNoWriMo became full novels. However, I don't think that's a bad thing. I got super inspired (often times halfway through NaNo) to write MSs that DID become full books. And I queried the snot out of at least one (that means I thought it wasn't complete garbage and other people were allowed to read it). So, there you go.

Anyway, I love the idea of NaNoWriMo. I like anything that gets people to write and to get excited about writing. I am knee deep in a WiP, but it's actually split into 2 parts, so I'm writing part 2 of my YA contemporary fantasy during NaNo this year.

If you want, you can find me on the site and we can be nanowrimo pals! (I'm katjc589)

Waiting on Wednesday: An Ember in the Ashes

Breaking the Spine features a weekly event where we talk about the books we can't wait to read.

An Ember in the Ashes

By: Sabaa Tahir

Release Date: April 28, 2015

Publisher: Razorbill

Set in a terrifyingly brutal Rome-like world, An Ember in the Ashes is an epic fantasy debut about an orphan fighting for her family and a soldier fighting for his freedom. It’s a story that’s literally burning to be told.
LAIA is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire’s greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution.
ELIAS is the academy’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias is considering deserting the military, but before he can, he’s ordered to participate in a ruthless contest to choose the next Martial emperor.
When Laia and Elias’s paths cross at the academy, they find that their destinies are more intertwined than either could have imagined and that their choices will change the future of the empire itself.

I love that it's in a Rome-like world. I love that it's an epic fantasy. I love that it's a debut novel. So many things to love! Can't wait for this book to come out.

Feature Follow Friday: Fantasy vs. Contemporary

Every Friday Parajunkee and Alison Can Read hosts Feature Follow Friday. It's a great way to get to know the blogging community and they ask fun questions!

This week's question is:

Do you like fantasy or realistic books? - Suggested by The Realm of Books.

So...I answered the wrong question this week. But, it's already out there! So I'll just be the weirdo black sheep of this weeks #FF

BOTH!! But if I'm being honest, I read a lot more speculative fiction (that's sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal romance, urban fantasy, steam-punk, etc)

I just like the fantastical elements. How much the stakes are raised. The fast pace, the cool gadgets, the magical powers, and the friendships/relationships that are created when you're not 100% normal. Because in reality, not fitting in is a total fact of life, and knowing that some (non) people who also happen to be warewolves or wizards or robots have our problems with life/relationships too makes us feel just a little better. Also, the romances in those books just make me swoon.

Now, I will devolve into a list of my faves from some of these genres:

Fantasy/Paranormal Romance - Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Comedy/Sci-fi - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Light-ish Sci-Fi - Time Traveler's Wife

Middle-Grade Fantasy - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Middle-Grade Mythology Fantasy - Heroes of Olympus: The Son of Neptune

Epic Fantasy - Song of Ice and Fire

Sci-Fi/Space - Cinder

Dystopian Future - Darkest Minds

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten 2014 Releases I Haven't Read Yet

The Broke and the Bookish host a weekly meme of Top Ten Lists.

This week's question is:

Top Ten 2014 Releases I Meant To Read But Didn't Get To

This question is sadly easy for me to answer. Easy because I didn't get around to reading a lot of releases from 2014 and sad for the same reason. But a little bit happy because I still have so many great books to look forward to (glass-half-full yay!).

Zodiac (Zodiac, #1)

By: Russell, Romina

Publication Date: Dec 09, 2014

At the dawn of time, there were 13 Houses in the Zodiac Galaxy. Now only 12 remain….
Rhoma Grace is a 16-year-old student from House Cancer with an unusual way of reading the stars. While her classmates use measurements to make accurate astrological predictions, Rho can’t solve for ‘x’ to save her life—so instead, she looks up at the night sky and makes up stories.
When a violent blast strikes the moons of Cancer, sending its ocean planet off-kilter and killing thousands of citizens—including its beloved Guardian—Rho is more surprised than anyone when she is named the House’s new leader. But, a true Cancrian who loves her home fiercely and will protect her people no matter what, Rho accepts.
Then, when more Houses fall victim to freak weather catastrophes, Rho starts seeing a pattern in the stars. She suspects Ophiuchus—the exiled 13th Guardian of Zodiac legend—has returned to exact his revenge across the Galaxy. Now Rho—along with Hysan Dax, a young envoy from House Libra, and Mathias, her guide and a member of her Royal Guard—must travel through the Zodiac to warn the other Guardians.
But who will believe anything this young novice says? Whom can Rho trust in a universe defined by differences? And how can she convince twelve worlds to unite as one Zodiac?
Embark on a dazzling journey with ZODIAC, the first novel in an epic sci-fi-meets-high-fantasy series set in a galaxy inspired by the astrological signs.

A Thousand Pieces of You(Firebird, #1)

By: Claudia Gray

Publication Date: Nov 04, 2014

Every Day meets Cloud Atlas in this heart-racing, space- and time-bending, epic new trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray.
Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.
Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is more sinister than she ever could have imagined.
A Thousand Pieces of You explores a reality where we witness the countless other lives we might lead in an amazingly intricate multiverse, and ask whether, amid infinite possibilities, one love can endure.

Talon (Talon, #1)

By: Julie Kagawa

Publication Date: Oct 28, 2014

Long ago, dragons were hunted to near extinction by the Order of St. George, a legendary society of dragon slayers. Hiding in human form and growing their numbers in secret, the dragons of Talon have become strong and cunning, and they're positioned to take over the world with humans none the wiser.
Ember and Dante Hill are the only sister and brother known to dragonkind. Trained to infiltrate society, Ember wants to live the teen experience and enjoy a summer of freedom before taking her destined place in Talon. But destiny is a matter of perspective, and a rogue dragon will soon challenge everything Ember has been taught. As Ember struggles to accept her future, she and her brother are hunted by the Order of St. George.
Soldier Garret Xavier Sebastian has a mission to seek and destroy all dragons, and Talon's newest recruits in particular. But he cannot kill unless he is certain he has found his prey: and nothing is certain about Ember Hill. Faced with Ember's bravery, confidence and all-too-human desires, Garret begins to question everything that the Order has ingrained in him: and what he might be willing to give up to find the truth about dragons.

Stitching Snow

By: Lewis, R.C.

Publication Date: Oct 14, 2014

Princess Snow is missing.
Her home planet is filled with violence and corruption at the hands of King Matthias and his wife as they attempt to punish her captors. The king will stop at nothing to get his beloved daughter back—but that’s assuming she wants to return at all.
Essie has grown used to being cold. Temperatures on the planet Thanda are always sub-zero, and she fills her days with coding and repairs for the seven loyal drones that run the local mines.
When a mysterious young man named Dane crash-lands near her home, Essie agrees to help the pilot repair his ship. But soon she realizes that Dane’s arrival was far from accidental, and she’s pulled into the heart of a war she’s risked everything to avoid. With the galaxy’s future—and her own—in jeopardy, Essie must choose who to trust in a fiery fight for survival. 

To All the Boys I've Loved Before 

By: Jenny Han

Publication Date: April 15, 2014

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the story of Lara Jean, who has never openly admitted her crushes, but instead wrote each boy a letter about how she felt, sealed it, and hid it in a box under her bed. But one day Lara Jean discovers that somehow her secret box of letters has been mailed, causing all her crushes from her past to confront her about the letters: her first kiss, the boy from summer camp, even her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh. As she learns to deal with her past loves face to face, Lara Jean discovers that something good may come out of these letters after all.

I have no excuses for not having read this yet. The good news is that my cousin Axie over at Books Are Bread sent it to me so now I really have no excuses.

The Infinite Sea (The 5th Wave #2) 

By: Rick Yancey

Publication Date: September 16, 2014

How do you rid the Earth of seven billion humans? Rid the humans of their humanity.
Surviving the first four waves was nearly impossible. Now Cassie Sullivan finds herself in a new world, a world in which the fundamental trust that binds us together is gone. As the 5th Wave rolls across the landscape, Cassie, Ben, and Ringer are forced to confront the Others’ ultimate goal: the extermination of the human race.
Cassie and her friends haven’t seen the depths to which the Others will sink, nor have the Others seen the heights to which humanity will rise, in the ultimate battle between life and death, hope and despair, love and hate.

Salvage 

By: Alexandra Duncan

Publication Date: April 1, 2014

Ava, a teenage girl living aboard the male-dominated, conservative deep space merchant ship Parastrata, faces betrayal, banishment, and death. Taking her fate into her own hands, she flees to the Gyre, a floating continent of garbage and scrap in the Pacific Ocean. 

This is a sweeping and harrowing novel about a girl who can't read or write or even withstand the forces of gravity. What choices will she make? How will she build a future on an earth ravaged by climate change?
Named by the American Booksellers Association as a Spring 2014 Indies Introduce Pick.

Falls the Shadow

By: Stefanie Gaither

Publication Date: September 16, 2014

When Cate Benson was a kid, her sister, Violet, died. Two hours after the funeral, Cate’s family picked up Violet’s replacement. Like nothing had happened. Because Cate’s parents are among those who decided to give their children a sort of immortality—by cloning them at birth—which means this new Violet has the same smile. The same perfect face. Thanks to advancements in mind-uploading technology, she even has all of the same memories as the girl she replaced.

She also might have murdered the most popular girl in school.

At least, that’s what the paparazzi and the anti-cloning protestors want everyone to think: that clones are violent, unpredictable monsters. Cate is used to hearing all that. She’s used to defending her sister, too. But Violet has vanished, and when Cate sets out to find her, she ends up in the line of fire instead. Because Cate is getting dangerously close to secrets that will rock the foundation of everything she thought was true.

In a thrilling debut, Stefanie Gaither takes readers on a nail-biting ride through a future that looks frighteningly similar to our own time and asks: how far are you willing to go to keep your family together?

The Unhappening of Genesis Lee

By: Shallee McArthur

Publication Date: November 4, 2014

Seventeen-year-old Genesis Lee has never forgotten anything. As one of the Mementi—a small group of genetically-enhanced humans—Gena remembers everything with the help of her Link bracelets, which preserve memories perfectly. But Links can be stolen, and six people have already lost their lives to a memory thief, including Gena’s best friend.
Anyone could be next. Which is why Gena is less than pleased to meet a strange but charming boy named Kalan who claims that they’ve not only met, but that Gena knows who the thief is.
The problem is, Gena doesn’t remember Kalan, she doesn’t remember seeing the thief, and she doesn’t know why she’s forgetting things— or how much else she might forget. As growing tensions between Mementi and ordinary humans drive the city of Havendale into chaos, Gena and Kalan team up to search for the thief. And as Gena loses more memories, they realize they have to solve the mystery fast.
Because Gena’s life is unhappening around her.

The Blood of Olympus (The Heroes of Olympus #5)

By: Rick Riordan

Publication Date: October 7, 2014

Though the Greek and Roman crewmembers of the Argo II have made progress in their many quests, they still seem no closer to defeating the earth mother, Gaea. Her giants have risen—all of them—and they're stronger than ever. They must be stopped before the Feast of Spes, when Gaea plans to have two demigods sacrificed in Athens. She needs their blood—the blood of Olympus—in order to wake.
The demigods are having more frequent visions of a terrible battle at Camp Half-Blood. The Roman legion from Camp Jupiter, led by Octavian, is almost within striking distance. Though it is tempting to take the Athena Parthenos to Athens to use as a secret weapon, the friends know that the huge statue belongs back on Long Island, where it "might" be able to stop a war between the two camps.
The Athena Parthenos will go west; the Argo II will go east. The gods, still suffering from multiple personality disorder, are useless. How can a handful of young demigods hope to persevere against Gaea's army of powerful giants? As dangerous as it is to head to Athens, they have no other option. They have sacrificed too much already. And if Gaea wakes, it is game over.

Man, making this list is almost making me wonder what I did all of 2014?! I really fell behind on my TBR list... 

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books I want to Reread

The Broke and the Bookish host a weekly meme of Top Ten Lists.

This week's question is:

Top Ten Books I Want To Reread

I kind of mini answered this question with the meme of Top Ten Books that Stayed with Me. So I will try to name books that I didn't include in that list (and to be honest I reread almost every book I own at one point or another):

Sideways Stories from Wayside School

by Louis Sachar

Genre: Chapter Book Humor

Reason: Love the humor in this book, this was my jam in elementary school.

The Son of Neptune

by Rick Riordan

Genre: YA Fantasy

Reason: This is the second book in this series, so if you haven't read the first book then go read The Lost Hero first. However, I loved the characters in this book, the Roman camp, and of course the reunion at the end of the book was a total "awww" moment for me.

Spark

by Brigid Kemmerer

Genre: YA Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Reason: I love the romance in this story and I really like the relationship between the brothers. Gabe is my favorite of the brothers though because he's like a misunderstood bad-boy.

Honest Illusions

by Nora Roberts

Genre: Romance

Reason: The world is awesome (New Orleans and magicians, awesome!) and the romance was epic! Also, there was some great mystery and intrigue.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

by J.K. Rowling

Genre: YA/MG crossover Fantasy

Reason: This book marked the end of an era for me, and for that it will always make me cry. Yet, I can't stop rereading it!

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

by Douglas Adams

Genre: Science Fiction/Humor

Reason: Hilarious. Enough Said.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone
by Laini Taylor
Genre: YA Fantasy
Reason: Loved this series, and this first book did a superb job in introducing awesome character, settings, and relationships.

Animorphs (Megamorphs #2): In the Time of Dinosaurs

by K.A. Applegate

Genre: Chapter Book Sci-Fi

Reason: I wrote a whole review about why this series is awesome, but this megamorphs edition involved traveling back in time to the dinosaurs. That's like everything I love in one book!

Whitney, My Love

by Judith McNaught

Genre: Historical Romance

Reason: For a while in my teens I went on an historical romance binge and Judith McNaught was the author responsible for it. Her romances are sweet and risque at the same time, they're also ridiculously awesome because of some epic misunderstandings (I also love soap operas if you can't tell yet).

Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs
by Chuck Klosterman
Genre: Non-Fiction/Humor
Reason: Some of the most hilarious and accurate observations of the pop culture that I grew up with.