Cover Blurb Reveal - Joy Preble

Day Four of my cover blurbs to mark my thankfulness for my #YAlit debut, WAIT FOR ME, and for all the new friends it has brought me. Today is from Joy Preble, the Children’s Specialist at Houston's wonderful indie Brazos Bookstore, and author of the bestselling Dreaming Anastasia series, The Sweet Dead Life, Finding Paris, and It Wasn’t Always Like This.

Cover blurb reveal - Anne Blankman

Day Three of my cover blurbs to mark my thankfulness for my#YAlit debut, WAIT FOR ME, and for all the new friends it has brought me. Today is from Anne Blankman, author of the frighteningly prescient The Prisoner of Night & Fog series & Traitor Angels.

Cover blurb reveal - Sarah Alexander

Day Two of my cover blurbs to mark my thankfulness for my #YAlitdebut, WAIT FOR ME, and for all the new friends it has brought me. Today is from the lovely Sarah Alexander, author of THE ART OF NOT BREATHING, a gripping and very moving YA novel set on the Black Isle in the north of Scotland, one of my favorite places in the world.

Cover blurb reveal - Kathi Appelt

Requesting cover blurbs from other authors, especially well-known ones, is one of the most terrifying jobs for an author. I was, however, incredibly lucky to receive wonderful endorsements of WAIT FOR ME from four amazing authors. So in thankfulness for their time and kindness, and for the whole of this book deal excitement, I'll be revealing each blurb, one a day, up until Thanksgiving Day itself.

First up, Kathi Appelt, Newbery Honor Winner and National Book Award Finalist, who mentored me through substantial revisions of WAIT FOR ME after I won her in the SCBWI's Joan Lowery Nixon Prize in 2014.

Thank you, Kathi!

By the way, this photo is Coffin Lane in Aberlady, which leads up from Craigielaw to the Church, past the kirkyard on the left, and appears in WAIT FOR ME several times.

Guest blog - FIRST DRAFT ROAD TRIP

I've been guest blogging again, this time specifically for writers taking part in NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. My YA debut, WAIT FOR ME, started life a a NaNo book several years ago, so I know exactly how hard it can be to stay focussed on keep that number count rising throughout November.

As a guest on YA Interrobang, I've been talking about the trials of writing a first draft, likening to to a road trip. To read more, click on picture below...

Thanks to Nicole Brinkly at YA Interrobang from inviting me to take part, and lots of cheers and whistles to you, if you're NaNoWriMo-ing right now!