TODAY IS THE DAY!
I can hardly believe it! After twelve long years, Petals is finally published! Before I tell you about the crazy long journey this book has been on, I want to share a couple of exciting ways you can celebrate with me.
First, in honor of Petals' release, I am giving away a $25 AMAZON GIFT CARD!!! The giveaway begins today (which is my mom's birthday) and ends on April 18th (my dad's birthday). Scroll all the way to the bottom of this post to enter.
Second, consider this a personal invitation to join me for my FACEBOOK LAUNCH PARTY on Saturday, March 18th from 10:00am - 1:00pm (PST). Not only will I be chatting about Petals and sharing sneak peeks, but I will also be giving away Amazon gift cards and swag (promo goodies)! Stop by my FB Author Page or RSVP here for updates: https://www.facebook.com/events/1819315451675626/
Finally, would you like to win a copy of Petals? How about if I
told you that if you win, you will receive not just one book but 30??? I
recently joined up with Booksweeps, and this month they are giving away a set
of 32 young adult novels (including Petals) to two lucky winners!
Now for the story of Petals...
About thirteen years ago, I'd been writing for magazines and newspapers for a decade, and I was burned out. My dream had always been to write fiction, but I hadn't ever done it. But it was time.
So I quit journalism cold turkey and started on my first novel. It was called Eight Letters, was set in Guatemala, and was about a girl who had lost her mother in an accident. I wrote the book and was pretty proud of myself. I sent it to several agents and was told on more than one occasion that, well, in essence, it was crap.
I scrapped that book and wrote another, which became The Rock of Ivanore, my first published novel. The years went on and I wrote more books. Every once in a while, I'd go back to Eight Letters and rewrite it. The plot changed drastically every time. At one point, it was about foreign spies trying to kill the main character because she had some priceless ancient artifact in her possession. Another time it became the sequel to another novel of mine, Contact. All those ideas stunk.
[P.S. The Rock of Ivanore & The Last Enchanter are available for .99 cents for a limited time!]
I kept hearing over and over that first novels are almost always worthy of the trash bin. I tossed out the manuscript many times, but something inside me kept digging it out again.
Eventually, I changed the title to Petals and went back to my original idea for the story. My inspiration had been a novel I'd read in college decades earlier called Surfacing by Margaret Atwood. I don't want to say too much, but the protagonist of that story intrigued me, and I wanted to try to write a character of my own with a similar problem. I worked on it all last year, and finally a few months ago, I had a story I was proud of.
I'm thrilled to share this with you. I hope you enjoy reading Petals as much as I did resurrecting and polishing it.
Petals is available in both print and e-book formats, and can be ordered by clicking the links below:
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