The Marvelous Adventures of Gwendolyn Gray

Hello imaginauts! Sorry for my absence: real-world work and grad school have kept me away. But I've been tagged in the 7/7/7 challenge by Sara Letourneau , and I'm here to accept! The rules of the 7/7/7 Challenge are super-simple: Go to page 7 of your WIP. Scroll down to Line 7. Share the next 7 sentences in a blog post. After the excerpt, tag 7 other writers to continue the challenge. So here it is! " Every child in The City was required to attend, from the wealthy students in the nearby Central City, to the poorer ones who had to travel an hour by mono from The Outskirts. Gwendolyn lived in Mid-Town, close enough to walk, but only just. Hundreds of other children swarmed around her, jostling her as she stood unmoving against the morning tide. Each of them wore The School’s uniform: grey skirt or slacks, charcoal jacket, and a pair of shiny black shoes that clicked with each step. Gwendolyn hated those shoes. No matter how many pairs her mother made her try o...

Hey guys! I'm super excited to introduce you to FEARLESS by Elliot James. This is a great new book, part of a great series, but it stands well on its own. Go give it a try! Scroll to the bottom for an amazon gift card giveaway! Fearless  (a stand-alone novel and #3 in the Pax Arcana series) by Elliott James Release Date:   08/11/15 Publisher: Orbit Summary:  When your last name is Charming, rescuing virgins comes with the territory -- even when the virgin in question is a nineteen-year-old college boy. Someone, somewhere, has declared war on Kevin Kichida, and that someone has a long list of magical predators on their rolodex. The good news is that Kevin lives in a town where Ted Cahill is the new sheriff and old ally of John Charming. The attacks on Kevin seem to be a pattern, and the more John and his new team follow that thread, the deeper they find themselves in a maze of supernatural threats, family secrets, and age-old betrayals. The mo...

Ah, New York City. Bustling metropolis and home to the Writer's Digest Conference 2015, the third stop on my world-travelling Lilly Grant tour.  I arrived on Friday morning and hopped an express bus from Newark Airport to Grand Central. On the way, I struck up a fascinating conversation with a woman from Israel, and made a new friend. She just happened to be reading this: The Lightning Thief, in Hebrew. Printed from right to left. I made a new friend, and she walked away with a few chapters of my book to read on her connecting flight. Then it was on to the Roosevelt Hotel for the conference! Oooooooooo, so excited. Day one keynote was Chuck Sambuchino  and his keynote on how to write an effective query letter, followed by some furious revisions on the pitch for Gwendolyn Gray. NEED MORE CHARACTER DEVLEOPMENT. What does she want? What stands in her way of getting it? I thought I had mastered desire+obstacle=story from Lou Berney  at the IU Writer's C...