THE CINDERELLA STORY OF “SEDUCING CINDERELLA”

(or, How I Went From Aspiring Author to NYT Bestselling Author in only 5 Months)

It still blows my mind that I can add that title after my name. A little over a month ago I couldn’t even claim to be a published author, much less a bestselling one. I went from being aspiring, to contracted, to published, to bestselling all in a matter of less than six months. I did it without an agent, without a traditional publisher, and without prior writing experience…and if you’re an aspiring author, I believe you can, too.

This is my story.

 Starting Clueless

When I say I had no prior writing experience, I mean that before I started my journey to publication I’d never tried my hand at fiction writing other than the short story assignments in school. English had been my favorite class and I enjoyed writing the stories, but it never entered my mind to go to college for writing. Writing novels and getting them published is what “other people” did. Other people who were meant to do big things and be a part of that big opportunity stadium that someone like me can only hope to tailgate in the parking lot without getting thrown out for not even having a parking permit. Even when I started writing, it was only meant to be a hobby; another way of immersing myself into a story other than reading. But the more I wrote for fun, the more I started to wonder if I could get published. And so began the journey.

Since I had no formal training I made myself a sponge and researched every article I could find on Google about writing good fiction and how to get published. I signed up for newsletters and RSS feeds for writing advice blogs so I’d get the latest advice sent right to my inbox. I started my own blog and met other aspiring authors with blogs and we traded snippets and regular support. I joined online writing groups and learned all the proper writing vernacular and acronyms like MS (manuscript), WC (word count), CP (critique partner), POV (point of view), and WIP (work in progress). I tried out several CPs until I found just the right ones with strengths in the areas I was weak and learned how to write better with every swap of our MSS (manuscripts). I networked my butt off and made every connection I possibly could. I researched literary agents and how to query them properly. And I did all of that while writing my first book.

Ready to Submit…Sort Of

Three years, six CPs, fourteen major rewrites, and hundreds of smaller revisions later, I finally had a product I felt was ready to be queried. I actually started querying a little earlier than I should have (I was a bit of an Eager Beaver), meaning my query letter wasn’t the best it could be, nor was my manuscript. According to my data (I used QueryTracker.net to keep track of everything) I queried approximately 30 literary agents between May and August of 2011. Some requested additional pages, some requested partials, but in the end, they all rejected my manuscript. Based on the feedback I received, I took the next three months to tweak things and polish it all up. Again. Then I started querying again in January of 2012 with a hook-tastic query letter and shiny manuscript.

While waiting to hear back from several agents, one of whom had requested a full and shown great interest in my book, I started to hear buzz through the author grapevine about Entangled Publishing, a new boutique publisher that accepted submissions from unagented writers. Remember when I said I networked my butt off? Well, it paid off in several instances, but never more than this particular one. Along the way I’d made friends with paranormal romance author, Dawn McClure, who also heads up the Savvy Author newsletters. (Savvy Authors is a fantastic website run by writers for writers. It’s a veritable font of writerly information. Get thee to the site straight away.) Early last year she’d mentioned in passing conversation that her best friend was starting up her own publishing house. 

Then early this year I asked her if she’d heard of this new publishing house called Entangled that everyone was talking about, which is when she informed me that that was the company her best friend had opened. It really can be a small world sometimes, and the more people you know, the smaller it gets.

After weighing the pros and cons of submitting my manuscript to Entangled versus holding out for the possibility of selling to New York with a literary agent—which incidentally also brought about a list of pros and cons concerning what a traditional publisher could offer me versus a more intimate publisher—I decided to go for it and submitted directly to Liz Pelletier, founder and senior editor.

The “Call”

Before Liz was a third of the way through my ms she sent me a Direct Message on Twitter telling me how much she loved it and wanted to know who else she had to beat out in order to acquire it! After I picked my jaw off the floor and stopped running around my bedroom like a crazed lunatic, I DMed her something semi-coherent and we continued to discuss for some time about the book, the trilogy it was a part of, and when we could speak on the phone. By the end of our stream of 140-character messages, I knew Entangled planned to contract me for my entire paranormal romance trilogy for digital and mass trade paperback release, and on March 7^th I signed on the dotted line and became a contracted author.

New Project & New Heights

Since my Prophecy of Souls trilogy isn’t set to release until Summer 2013, Liz suggested I write a category romance for one of their digital lines to release this summer. I admit I wasn’t even sure what a category romance was, nor had I ever heard the word “trope” before, but Liz was great about encouraging me and answering any questions I had.

I wrote Seducing Cinderella in two months—which was mind-blowing to me, considering I’d spent three years on my first book—and it launched the Brazen line July 20^th, marking that one of the happiest days of my life.

News of SC and its great reviews spread quickly throughout the romance world and in only seven days it reached the #9 spot on Barnes & Noble. The week after that it broke the Top 100 on Amazon and made it onto the extended USA TODAY Bestseller list at #113. Over the course of its third week it climbed to #13 for Kindle books overall on Amazon, #1 for Kindle Romance Series, #60 on USA TODAY, and—shockingly—the extended NY Times Bestseller list at #27!

My new cover w/the NYT title above my name!

To say that I was blown away by SC’s success every time I turned around is the understatement of the century.

And then this past week I received the craziest news yet: not only did Seducing Cinderella jump up on the USA TODAY* list to #33, but it also shot up to #9 (e-books) and #14 (combined) on the NYT** list!

I was fortunate enough to be on the phone with Liz when I received the email from my one of my publicists with that news. There was a lot of screaming and “Oh my Gods!” for a good ten minutes and then sporadically throughout the rest of our call.

Dare to Dream & Bring Others Along

This might sound strange, but I prefer to say I’m the “author of the NY Times Bestselling novel, Seducing Cinderella” instead of the other way around as you see it on the nametag up there. Sure, I’m the one who wrote the book, but there are so many others who had a hand in the final product and those who work hard to get it into the hands of readers. People like my editor, the cover designer, blurb writer, copyeditor, and my publicists. Without their expertise, my book wouldn’t be where it is today. I know that for a fact. And before that I have my CPs to thank for helping me write tighter, better stories.

The last month has been a surreal whirlwind of dreams come true for me, and if people can be believed, this is only the beginning, and I’m excited to see what the future holds. I know it’s cliché to say, “If it can happen to me, it can happen to you,” so I won’t push that down your throat. But if you come away with anything from my story, let it be this: learn everything you can, and immerse yourself in the world of writers. I don’t think there’s any other industry in the world where people who are technically your competition are as supportive as your own mother and will do what they can to help you and lift you up. Take advantage of that, and in turn, pay it forward whenever you can.

None of us reaches our dreams on our own. It truly does take a village to raise a book—even an author—and I’m so incredibly grateful for mine.

Ciao, bellas!

* The NYT list for ebooks is 1-25, with the extended list going through 35. The combined (print and ebooks together) list is 1-15, with the extended list going through 35.

**The USA TODAY list is 1-100, with the extended list going through 150. You cannot legitimately print that you're a NYT or USA TODAY bestselling author if you remain in either of the extended lists.

Word Count vs. Words That Count

As many of you know, I'm in major crunch mode. I gave myself a deadline of finishing my first Indulgence category romance by Monday the 16th. As you can see by the handy-dandy word counter in the side bar, I still have a ways to go. BUT, I do my best work when under the gun, so I'm doing a-ok.

What's really been suffering is this blog! Poor bloggy has been grossly neglected as of late, since I just don't have the time to write epically long posts (What was that? Write short posts, you say? *snort* Yeah, right, as if.) while trying to exceed my daily word count goals in order to make my deadline.

SO...I decided to RE-post one of my oldies-but-goodies (originally posted on 5-25-10) that has a huge relevance to what I'm going through in my writing at the moment. I haven't edited the original content of this post even though I feel the writing is sub-standard and it's killing me not to make changes to make sure it's up to snuff. However, I think either way, it'll get my point across. Make sure you weigh in on the comments section! I'll take the time to respond and discuss. :)

Ciao, bellas!

P.S. Now that I'm a writer with contractual deadlines, I absolutely and positively understand the need for word count goals. But I still think we need to evaluate our obsession with high counts versus slightly less counts with higher quality. End verbal disclosure. :)

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It’s in the progress posts on our blogs. It’s in little widgets in our sidebars. It’s what we obsess over. It’s our Literary Odometer.

It’s our WORD COUNT.


As writers we measure our progress by this term. It’s universally understood in the writing community as the success – or lack thereof – of our daily, weekly, or cumulative progress on our current Works In Progress (WIPs).

It seems that the majority of writers have a specific goal in mind. Whether it’s 500 words a day or 5000 words a day, it’s a way of keeping oneself motivated and on-point with an estimated date of completion for a rough draft.

But at what point does that ever-present, ever-looming Word Count goal become counter-productive?

If we get wrapped up in how many words we can “put on paper” as opposed to the QUALITY of those words, we’ll officially be hurting ourselves when it comes time for revisions. I can write 2000 words in one day and feel like I accomplished a whole helluva lot, but when I go back to revise that section, if the words weren’t quality to begin with, I bet I’m going to be spending a lot more time trying to fix them than if I would’ve just taken a little more time to make sure they were somewhat decent to begin with.

I’m not saying that our rough drafts will be all but flawless and revisions will be a piece of cake with this method – the day that happens will be the day I turn down dark chocolate (NEVER). But what I am saying, is that maybe we should find a happy medium.

If I sit down to work on my WIP and I only have a few hundred more words than when I started, I shouldn’t have to feel that “OMG, I suck” sense of failure. I should be able to look at those few hundred words and say, “That was a really good addition to that section – nice job, Maxwell.”

So I propose that we change our concerns of a generic Word Count, to a positive mindset of putting down Words That Count.

What do you think?

Do we have too much emphasis on our Word Count? Do you feel that sometimes a high Word Count compromises the quality? Or do you feel that a strict Word Count goal is the only thing that keeps you moving forward at a steady pace?

**This post has a word count of 424, and THE shortest post I've ever written, ironically enough.**

I wish I was an under-achiever...

Before I continue, let me state that my use of the term “under-achiever” in this particular post is not in its usual derogatory tone, but rather something I aspire to be as a writer in reference to the dreaded Word Count.


For example, if a novel in your genre is typically 90K words then you have achieved that goal when you reach approximately 90K words. If you finish your novel significantly less than that, then you have quite literally under-achieved. Right?

Contrarily, if you were to write…oh, say, a Paranormal Romance novel…and comes in at almost 135K WORDS, then you’ve by far surpassed the status of over-achieving and gone straight to, “Oh my God!”

That’s right, you guessed it. I went WAY over an acceptable first-novel-word-count. Now, I’ve looked at my scenes from every angle possible and tried to picture my story without them and just can’t bring myself to cut any of them except one. But as I was going through my MS this time I realized something about halfway through. Cutting scenes isn’t my problem. It’s cutting words.

I was always confused when I heard authors say, “I’m doing line edits now.” What the heck were line edits? Who, in their right mind, would go back and analyze every line in their book? I’ll tell you who. A writer who knows what the hell they’re doing, that’s who.

The first run-through of my MS on these latest edits (which were complete overhauls, I might add) I was taking out all of the unnecessary “that” uses and correcting paragraph breaks. Easy stuff like that. Because after all, I thought, I've done so much work on this thing, there's only going to be MINOR edits that need to be done now. It's basically a done deal.

But once I started getting closer to the middle I realized there was A LOT of text I could cut just by choosing different words. For instance, I could take a sentence like this:

“Your body can’t digest regular food now that you’re a vampire.”

And change it to this:

“Vampires can’t digest regular food.”

For my purposes, the second sentence works just as well as the first, but it knocked 6 words off of my count. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but they add up fast.

Another habit I have that adds to my superfluous word count is my love for description. But I go overboard. I add in so many adjectives and adverbs that it turns a perfectly succinct sentence into an entire paragraph. I wax poetic until the reader forgets what the hell it is I’m waxing about. (Okay, maybe I’m not that bad, but you get the picture.) But whether you call it babbling or embellishing, it all has the same result.

Too. Many. Words.

So, even though I had the first half of my MS marked up with red pen, I went back to beginning and started marking it up with purple. I looked at every sentence as an individual. If it wasn’t pertinent to the story, I cut it. If they were unnecessary descriptions, I cut it. If I could think of a different word – or set of words – that would say the same thing in less, I cut it.

At this point I’ve only fixed about a quarter of my edits in the computer version of my novel and I’ve already knocked off about 2K words. That’s not bad at all. My goal is to not have anything more than 130,499 words, so when I query I can say 130K (you’re supposed to round to the nearest 500), but I’m hoping I can get it into the upper 120s.

What have I learned from this experience? With my next novel I have a feeling I’ll be analyzing my sentence structure and word choices a lot earlier in the game to prevent such a gross over-achieving status. I don’t hold out any hopes for ever being an under-achiever with word counts. I’ll just never be that person that can throw down a skeleton and flesh it out after.

But maybe, with practice and time, I’ll eventually just be a regular ol’ achiever.

Ciao!

P.S. My earlier post boasting about my new website is now obsolete. I cancelled that account with VistaPrint. Loved the template, hated the price. I'm still on the prowl for the right hosting company for my website. I'll let you all know when I make my final decision. Sorry for the tease with the other one!

Occasional Update

**Update: I canceled my trial website. I'll give you an updated link when I have a permanent one to give. Thank you!**

Hello to all of my blogging friends!!!  I can't tell you how much I miss all of you.  I miss all of our interactions and camaraderie super-duper mucho much.  :)

I don't have much time to post much of anything except a quickie update, so here goes (if there are any of you out there that are still listening)....

I have a website!  I'm not sure if it's a permanent thing yet since this is just a trial period, but I love how it looks for now.  The problem is that it's through VistaPrint (yes, that annoying place that advertises the free business cards), which isn't known for their webhosting.  I love the way the site looks (the template is pretty much perfect for me), but in order to get very fancy or do anything like email campaigns or anything extra...they charge you for every extra feature over the $10/month.  That's freakin' expensive!  I've tried very hard to research all of the web hosting companies out there and I'm very torn as to who to go with.  I need cheap, easy and design-flexible...so if anyone has any opinions or information for me, please share!  You can leave it in the comments or email me!

Anyway...here's the website!  Visit and sign my guestbook!

As far as editing Desires of the Soul goes...it's going awesome. My betas, the JBs, have helped me SO immensely!  Thanks a million girls!  I'm still working on it and I'm about half-way through, but the ending is going to take some work.  Unfortunately, I can't seem to get my word count down, so I think it'll still end up being somewhere around 133-134K words!  Yikes.  But I'm SO excited about the changes I've made already.  I know it sounds biased, or even egotistical, but I can't help it...I LOVE THIS BOOK!  I can't wait until the day comes where I can share it with all of you.

Well, I have to go.  I hope you're all doing fabulous and please don't hesitate to contact me via email.  I'll always have time to correspond through email!

Ciao for now...

Wee-Bit Wednesday

Welcome to the 5th installment of

Wee-Bit Wednesday!

Today is the beginning tidbit from Chapter 13. This is a dream (hence the use of italics to differentiate it from the rest of the chapter) that Angelica is having, which she discovers a little later is actually more of a telepathic communication than a dream. Jenni is one of her leukemia patients at the hospital, and the one she feels most bonded with by far.

As always, honest feedback is appreciated!

**************************************

Angelica walked through a summer field of lush green grass that brushed against the fabric at her knees. She looked down at her blue hospital scrubs and white doctor’s coat. That was strange, she thought. Why would she be dressed for work while taking a leisurely stroll through a field?

The tinkling laughter of a child danced faintly in the breeze past her ears. She turned in a slow circle, but tall blades of grass sprinkled with wildflowers swaying gently on their thin stalks were the only ones that greeted her.

Just then the sun’s rays seemed to intensify, distracting her easily from her search. She closed her eyes, lifted her face to the azure sky and drank in its warmth as it spilled onto her skin. The delicate scents of the utopian flora swept through her body, leaving her more relaxed with every breath she took. Angelica could not remember a time when she had been more at peace.

Again she heard the peels of delight like an echo in the sky. Then a tiny voice called from behind her.

“Hello, Dr. Hart!”

Angelica spun around to see her favorite patient skipping waist deep in the tall emerald blades, wearing a beautiful yellow sun dress. Her golden brown curls danced around her face, her form had filled out with a healthy dose of baby fat and her amber eyes twinkled with the cherubic mischief of a happy child.

“Jenni!” she gasped in disbelief. “What happened to you? What’s going on?”

Jenni giggled as she gave Angelica’s hips a fierce hug. “I knew you would come. He told me that you might not, but I knew you would. You always come when I need you. And now here you are!” she exclaimed in an innocent matter-of-fact manner.

Angelica knelt down in front of the little girl and lightly held her shoulders. “Where is here, Jenni? I don’t understand.”

She smiled a baby-toothed grin that pushed her chubby cheeks up higher onto her face. “This is where I come when I sleep. Isn’t it pretty? Look, Dr. Hart, I’m not sick here.”

“No, sweetie, you’re not. You’re absolutely beautiful,” she agreed with a beaming smile, lifting a hand to finger some of her curls. “Jenni, who told you that I might not come?”

“The nice man that’s been talking to me today. I think he’s like your friend. I like him a lot, but he doesn’t talk to me very much. Not like you, Dr. Hart. You come talk to me even when you don’t have to. And I like that very, very much.”

Water rippled over the child’s eyes and spilled onto her cheeks, framing the smile that refused to diminish in this place of tranquility for Jenni.

Angelica swiftly pulled her into a loving embrace. This child had touched her in more ways than she would ever know. She didn’t understand why Jenni was meant to suffer so much in her short little life and sometimes it infuriated Angelica’s Mortal half, even as her Angelic half accepted He had a reason for everything.

“I’ll always be here for you, Jenni. I swear it to you.”

Jenni pulled away slightly to look into Angelica’s eyes. With a small smile that threatened to falter she pleaded softly, “Then wake up, Dr. Hart. I need you. Wake up…”

*****************************

And there you have it. That segues into Dominic gently waking her up with the same verbal encouragement. She wakes up slightly discombobulated and then feels at a loss on how to act in the “awkward morning after” situation, not to mention she’s appalled that he’s there before she can correct her morning breath and shove a comb through her hair. It’s a super cute scene between them. One I really enjoyed writing. :)

Just as a small update about my WIP, I'm currently revising Chapter 14 out of 30. That's almost the half way point!!! I had hoped to be done with my revisions by the end of July, but it looks like I might be on track to finish sooner than that. I hope, I hope, I hope! I'm SO eager to get this puppy in the hands of my Betas.

Anyhoo – I know I may be letting you all down with this next announcement, but I’ve become a victim of my own success, so to speak. My FAN-tastic Fridays have gotten pretty popular and somehow I’ve managed to entertain all of you while promoting some of the greatest people in my blogosphere. Unfortunately, in an attempt to keep them fresh and individually tailored for each of my guests, they take a significant amount of time to put together.

I know I promised you an interview with the amazing and fabu, Shannon Whitney Messenger, but I’m pushing it back a week. She’ll be here next Friday, June 18th – I swear! And then, moving forward, I’ll be doing my FAN-tastic Fridays every other week to ensure each of my guests gets my utmost attention.

I can’t tell you how much I love that you all stop by my little ol' blog. And reading your comments make my day more than you can imagine. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Have a great rest of the week!

Tanking and Taglines and Titles - OH MY!

** Author Note: Hey there, everyone. I'm sorry I've been MIA lately. I'll try to make up for it in the coming weeks here. Don't give up on me yet!  Oh, and you’ll want to make sure you read this one all the way to end. Trust me. **

Tanking

Well, first thing’s first. In regard to the ABNC (see previous post), I totally tanked the first round. But don’t cry for me, Argentina. I’m not surprised and I’m certainly not upset. The truth of the matter is, it was a last-minute decision, mainly just for (pardon my French) shits-n-giggles. As I mentioned before, I had very little time to whip up my entry, and even less knowledge on how to write the (evil, sucky, brain-draining) pitch, which is what the first round was based solely upon. Next year (unless of course I’m published and on a very prestigious book tour - lol) I’ll be all the wiser and give myself ample time to properly enter a finished piece. I wish all the best (and plenty of sedatives to calm their nerves over the coming weeks) to the entrants that made it through to the second round. Congratulations. You are better pitch writers than I.

Taglines

Taglines, also called signature lines, I believe, are things most of you are probably familiar with. They’re the witty one-liners of the web savvy and the promotional punch lines of every author. In just a few words it says, “This is what I’m about. Get interested.”

So, for me, this has to be something creative that says, “I write paranormal romance novels and you want to read them.” Only, it should probably be a little more eloquent than that. I told one of my non-writing friends about this and she gave me the following suggestions:

Gina Leigh Maxwell…barely in touch with reality.
Gina Leigh Maxwell...she's out there, but in a good way.

Updates and Blog Award

I'm very honored to have received a Superior Scribbler Award from Chasing the Moon over at Dancing Down Serendipity Street. Moon is a fellow writer (who is extremely talented), a loyal fan of my book (and main character), and definitely a kindred spirit of mine. So thanks again, Moon! I can't express enough how glad I am we found each other in the vast expanse that is the blogosphere. :)  Much moon love, girlfriend.

I'd also like to bring you up to speed on my recent activities. Last week I made a last-minute decision to enter Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Contest (ABNC) as a type of experiment. Since I'm currently in the rewriting stages, my book is not nearly ready to be reviewed with a fine-tooth comb, or even a wide-toothed pick, but I figured I had nothing to lose. The contest is free to enter (most of them are not), and I'm curious to see how far I can get with an unfinished product.

C'est Fini!

It's true! I can hardly believe it. My goal was to finish it before the end of the year and, at approximately 2:30 pm today, I completed the rough draft of my manuscript!

It's been a long and crazy ride, my friends. I started this crazy idea sometime in February or March (I can't remember exactly) of this year. It originally began as just a rough storyline in my mind that I entertained during my daydreams for fun. I decided to start typing the story on the computer for a hobby. I spent a lot of time on the first three chapters and was so excited about them. I started to feel like maybe I could make something out of my modest story.

Then those first few chapters were accidentally deleted. I was devastated and cried for several days. But I picked myself back up and rewrote it as best I could. I found that most of the rewrites were better than I remembered the original version. And so I kept on.

Now I've created an entire novel, complete with good guys, bad guys, action, romance and plot twists. I have the entire manuscript printed, ready for one last read-through from beginning to end. Then it's off to my editor.

Mission 2009: Write a Novel...completed
Mission 2010: Publish My Novel...has just begun.

New Moon and Wrenches

Happy Saturday everyone!

Well, I saw New Moon last night. After a long day of working two jobs my daughter and I went to go see it at the last show of the night. Everything about it made Twilight look like a low-budget independent film. The special effects were awesome - particularly with the wolves - and my daughter and I left the theatre as new members of TEAM JACOB. Holy crap, that kid beefed up! Those of you that have kids may remember Taylor Lautner from Shark Boy and Lava Girl. Now little Taylor isn't so little anymore. No offense to Edward/Robert Pattinson, but he made Rob look like an emaciated corpse. And the chemistry between Jacob and Bella was great.

There were lots of funny moments that I really appreciated and a few of the super cheesy "oh, gimme a break" moments as well. Unfortunately, I don't think those can be avoided when you're talking about vampires that sparkle like diamonds in the sun and a girl whose nightmares apparently don't just scare her, they also shove bamboo shoots under her finger nails (or least that's the way she made it sound). Luckily, it's pretty easy for me to overlook silly things like that and just appreciate the book/movie as a whole. I loved the Volturi and can't wait to see more of Dakota Fanning as Jane. In summary, the movie was great, I loved sharing it with my daughter and we're now waiting anxiously for June when the next installment comes out. :)

As for my book, I have been getting a lot of writing done. I only have a few chapters left and then I'll be able to start the rewrites and edits. At least, that's what I thought until yesterday afternoon when I threw a huge wrench into my own gears!!  While writing one of the climax chapter of the book I realized another way I could keep the mystery more throughout the book and give the readers one of those "Oh!" moments at the end. This is something that hasn't come naturally to me during this process. I've come to realize that when it comes to the relationship/romance part of the writing, I have that down pat. But when it comes to holding information back from the reader to keep them guessing - well, let's just say that I've been learning about it over the last month or so. Originally I let the reader in on everything. I don't think it necessarily hurt the story, but it definitely makes things more interesting if you keep some things until the end. As a reader, I know and appreciate that in a good book. As a writer, it took me until the end to realize I was failing miserably in that department.

About a month ago I added a new character to the book that shook up the predictability of the sub-plot, or relationship between Angelica and Dom. I had to write him into certain memories and dialogues and add completely new scenes for him. I was VERY pleased with him joining the cast. :) Then yesterday I realized something that I needed to take OUT. When I took inventory it means that I'll have to rework 5 different scenes. 4 of them are minor edits, but 1 of them is a huge climactic scene for Dom and it's in the middle of the book. I don't want to lose the scene because I think it's imperitive for his character development, but I think I'm going to have to work it so it can be transplanted towards the end. Either way, I've got my work cut out for me. This has been a great learning experience and one that I'm sure will help me with the next book. I'll know better and can be on the lookout for my tendency to super-divulge information.

Thanks for catching up with me and I'm hoping the next time I post it'll be to announce that I'm onto strictly editing! Have a great weekend everyone, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

Full Steam Ahead!!

Hello Everyone! I just wanted to send a quick update to let you know that I've gotten A LOT of writing done the last several days. I'm finally at the home stretch and closing in fast on the end of the book. Of course, that will only be the first draft and after that I'll have to go back over it several times to do some re-writes, but that's the easy part. Then after that I'll be pushing hard to get this puppy published and in print to all of you. I'm also pretty excited because I thought of a new character to add in the storyline that's going to shake things up a bit and add a little bit more depth to the plot. It'll take a little extra work to write him into the necessary scenes, but in the end it'll be completely worth it. Thanks for checking in and I'll keep you posted!

Time to Buckle Down

I want to send out a huge Thank You to all of you have signed on to be Followers of my blog, or even just stop by to visit and check it out once in a while.

Now that I've started the blog and the Facebook Fanpage (if you're on Facebook you can look up my page by searching Gina Leigh Maxwell) and gotten the word out on my writing, I'm going to really focus on finishing the book.

It's almost completed with a only about six more chapters to write and then some heavy editing of the last half of the book before I hand it off to my editor. My goal is to finish it before the end of the year, which may sound like a lot of time to you, but considering the other demands on my time (and some allowances for temporary bouts of writers' block!) my timeline should be right on target.

So now that I've posted excerpts and gotten your interest, I'm going to focus on living up to my promise of completing a great Paranormal Romance novel so I can then focus on getting it published and out to the world as soon as possible.

Thanks again for all of your support! I can't tell you how much it means to me. I'll post periodically and let you know how things are going. Ciao!