Blogfest Contest with Agent Ammi-Joan Paquette!

Title: FireFlys
Genre: YA Paranormal
Word Count: 65,000


Pitch: I knew that losing my dad and moving to MiddleOfNowhere, GA would change my life. What I didn't know was how much it would change my heart.


I often think of that summer. When the sun hits the trees just right or the sound of a whippoorwill floats to me on an evening breeze, the memories come flooding back like the Saint Mary’s river after a hard rain. Even after all these years, now that I have children of my own, my memories of those long, hot days are more vivid and clear than they should be. I think they’ll always be with me, reverberating in every movement I make and for that, I am glad.

It’s time to share my story, that’s why I’m writing it down now. Maybe I’ll read it to my girls; maybe I’ll just save it for my own eyes on nights when I can’t sleep. Either way, I’ve started. And there’s no turning back now. Is this a true story? I’ll leave that for you to decide but I can tell you this; it is, without doubt, the story of the summer that I lost my dad and somehow, managed to find myself.

2011 - Year in Review

On the whole, I would say 2011 was…ehh. The mixture of bad
and good blended together like my Granny’s sauce and meatballs so they became an interchangeable dish of…ehh. I’ll break it down like this. Low point – husband losing his job and the threat of losing our house (which is still very real). High point – tie between getting promoted to a writer position at my day job and publishing my fourth novel, True North. There were lots of bumps and bruises along the way. A few fits of joy and moments of bliss, but they were always peppered with…ehh.

I’m looking forward to 2012. I’m releasing a book under a pen name. It’s an adult book and I don’t want my YA readers to search for me and get a little surprise so I thought it best to separate myself from it a bit. It will be out it March(ish). I’m also really moving forward at work, which is honestly more than I’d hoped for. I’m currently working on some content for our IT staffing brand and hope to present it soon. You know me; it’s a little…different. If they like it and start to use it in the proposal responses, I think that could be the last push I need to do away with the ‘Jr.’ in front of my title. I keep telling them, “I will write, so you might as well let me write your shit.” ;) I’ve got three YA projects in progress. FireFlys, True North #2, and The Lady, The Lake, and The Locket. By April I’ll make a decision on which one I’ll finish this year. I’m still undecided. Who knows if any of them will ever be published?

My main goal is still to be in print (though I did have an article published in a local paper here) and I won’t give up on that. All I can do is my best. Polish my MS to a pristine manner (i.e. have Courtney edit it! LoL) and hope someone sees the potential in the never-ending array of fictional characters that fight for attention in my head. No, I’m not crazy. That is very normal for a writer.

To all of you I say:

1) Thank you. Thank you for reading, thank you for encouraging, thank you for being my friends. My Twitter family: I love you all. Book Bloggers, what can I say? What little success I’ve had is because of all of you. When I’m all famous and stuff, I’m soooo taking all of you with me. Might I add, I hope everyone knows that I love honesty. I love to hear if you think my stuff sucks, because that’s one of the ways I move forward in my writing; hearing your opinions and suggestions. In short, to me, there is no such thing as a bad review.

2) Please don’t give up on me. I’m getting better every day. I’m working hard to master my craft so that one day you’ll read something I’ve written and feel that twinge in your heart that you feel when you’ve read something that has truly touched you. And finally,

3) Don’t forget to believe. Believe in yourself, believe in your dreams. Believe in your family, your friends. Whatever it is that you’re doing, do it 100% because if you don’t, then what the hell is the point of doing it at all? I wish you all a healthy, happy, and prosperous new year.