Giveaways
Erin L. Schneider
Goodreads Giveaway: SUMMER OF SLOANE
Goodreads Giveaway: SUMMER OF SLOANE

Writing Goals

YA Buccaneers: Spring Writing Bootcamp Check-In

Since the beginning of April, we've been busy over at the YA Buccaneers, hosting our 2nd annual Spring Writing Bootcamp!

Which has been perfect timing, because I've been crazy busy with revisions for my editor, since February -- and with my looming deadline of 4/17, I knew I'd need a little motivation to make that final push to finish.

And finish I did!

I'm beyond ecstatic to get through this first round of heavy edits. A lot was discussed up front on how to make WTWF the best it could be and I love the direction we settled on. In the end, I cut a lot of the muck and am really happy with where my MS is at now. Granted, there's still a lot of work ahead, but that first initial sweep is done, done, and DONE!

Next steps: I expect to have round 2 of editorial notes somewhere around next Friday, 5/1 and then it'll be back to the revision cave.

I also found out my expected publishing date (if everything stays on track) will be:

May 3, 2016!!!

May is such a good month for me, from my birthday, to when I sold my book last year -- so I couldn't be happier with a 5/3/16 pub date!

I've also heard that cover options should be ready to see sometime soon...and I can't wait!!! Whenever that happens, I'll announce the cover reveal information as soon as I can.

Until then, I'm busy reading an ARC of fellow Mouse-House author, Marci Lyn Curtis, THE ONE THING!

Guys, this book is so much fun and Marci's snark is AWESOME! I can't wait for this to come out on September 8th!

What else am I busy with? Well, some of you may know I'm expecting...and Baby Boy is due the first week of August! My husband and I are BEYOND excited and I can't wait to meet the Lil' Putter!

I've been working on the nursery and now that I'm sans edits for a couple of weeks, I'll be able to get a lot of it done! Our theme is Monkeys / Jungle and I'll be busy this week getting the walls done.

So with that, week 3 of our Spring Writing Bootcamp is complete and I successfully scratched off a big goal! 

Spring Writing Bootcamp Goals:

  1. Finish first round of edits for Disney-Hyperion -- Due date: Friday, April 17th.
  2. Finish second round of edits for DH -- Due date: TBD.
  3. Read ARC of THE ONE THING by Marci Lyn Curtis
  4. Read / critique new MS for fellow CP (still waiting for the updated version to start)
  5. Work on new WIP (Read / revise current chapters): NOTG
  6. Plot new WIP: WITNESS
  7. Non-writerly stuff: Work on nursery!

If you're joining us this year for Bootcamp, I hope you've been making great progress in your writing goals -- and I'd love to hear all about them!

Spring Writing Bootcamp: Survivor!!!

Wow, how crazy have the last three months been? So many goals, so many new writer friends, so. much. awesome!

I'm very proud of everyone who participated in this year's Spring Writing Bootcamp, particularly my teammates on Team Rainier -- we not only set fantastic goals for ourselves, but we knocked them right out of the park!

Don't believe me? Well you should...

Because we participated in mad Word Sprints, shouted BINGO across the Twit-o-sphere, typed thousands of USABLE words, started new WIPS, finished whole manuscripts, readied edits for the eyes of our CP's, found a new CP or two, released a-mazing new book covers, went out on submission, and yes, I even managed to sell my own debut YA Contemporary to Disney-Hyperion!

I'd say we accomplished quite a bit! 

So now you want your own badge to show off for surviving bootcamp? Well stop on by the YA Buccaneers to pick one up! And definitely don't forget to tweet your achievements using #YABbootcampWIN -- we've got all kinds of fantastic prizes up for grabs!!! 

So much in just three months. Imagine what we could do with more time?

Oooohhhhhhhhh. *imagines BIG* *imagines GIGANTIC!*

Which of course leads me right into what's on the horizon over at The YA Buccaneers: We'll be doing some fun things over the next three months - including the celebration of our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY in July!!! Can you believe it's almost been one year already? But all that's only the beginning, because we have something EXTRA CRAZY AWESOME planned for the Fall -- believe me, you'll want to check back to see what we've got on deck! 

Congrats to everyone on all the awesomeness that you achieved! And way to go TEAM RAINIER for being the best. team. ev-ver!!!

Thanks so much to everyone who buckled down and wrote on! 

Spring Writing Bootcamp Check-In #10

It's the first YA Buccaneers Spring Writing Bootcamp check in for May and yes, I'm a day late - but only because I was tagged by the ever awesome Kathryn Holmes to participate in the My Writing Process blog hop that's been going around -- and my post went up yesterday. You can read it here -- or, yanno, just scroll down one more on my blog. 

Everyone is saying this and I have to agree: I can't believe it's already May. We've covered two months already in our Spring Writing Bootcamp and so much has been accomplished by all! But...we've got one more month to go, so batten down those hatches, man the torpedoes, and hang on to your boot straps! Because we pirates have LOTS in store for you! 

MY MAY GOALS:

  1. My birthday is coming up this Thursday, so my goal for the first day of May is to just ENJOY THE DAY!
    UPDATE: My birthday was wonderful! Born and raised in Seattle, I've never been to the top of the Space Needle...but my husband changed that on my birthday! AND! it was sunny and 85 degrees!
  2. New WIP NOTG writing goal:
    Minimum of 10,000 words for the month.
  3. Continue to read / finish CP's MS!
    UPDATE: I finished my second read through on one of my CP's newest manuscripts last night and am compiling the notes to email her today - be on the lookout, Heidi!
    Also, I'm waiting on TWO other CP's to send over manuscripts they said they'd be sending over. Eh-em. I'm waiting. Yep, still here. *cough*
    Red rover, red rover, send your manuscripts on over!
  4. Host / participate in a Word Sprint or two! 
  5. Same goal as April: Cheer on the awesome that is Team Rainier!
  6. Read 5 books minimum. 
    UPDATE: One book down (Heidi's MS) and 4 more to go! 

Soooo Bootcampers, what do you  have up your sleeve for May?

Spring Writing Bootcamp Check-In

My last check-in for April! You can see what everyone else is up to in today's YAB post!

APRIL GOALS:

  1. Work on my new YA Contemporary / Adventure WIP: NOTG 
    UPDATE: I haven't had a chance to do much on my WIP over the past few days, but...I will for sure have time to get to this in the coming weeks! I'm really excited about this new story and lots of great ideas are hitting me at the oddest times (gotta love my note taking app on my phone for cases like this!) - here's to a productive May!
  2. Continue to read / finish CP's MS!
    UPDATE: I was hoping to have my CP's manuscript done this past weekend, but with celebrating 90th birthday parties, ferry rides (see my chilly ferry pic there to the right!), and all kinds of other things, I didn't hit this goal - but I will get this finished, this week!
  3. Host / participate in a Word Sprint or two! 
    UPDATE: Last week I hosted THREE FOUR Word Sprints! Many of you wonderful writers joined me and we got so much done, in so little time! I may pop in for an impromptu word sprint this week, who knows?
  4. Cheer on my fellow Team Rainier writers!
  5. Read 5 books minimum. 
    UPDATE: I'm still reading DREAMS OF GODS & MONSTERS by Laini Taylor (that is a LONG book!) in addition to my above mentioned CP MS. Not sure if I'll hit my goal of 5 books for April, but we'll see!

MAY GOALS:

  1. My birthday is coming up this Thursday, so my goal for the first day of May is to just ENJOY THE DAY!
  2. New WIP NOTG writing goal: minimum of 10,000 words for the month.
  3. Host / participate in a Word Sprint or two! 
  4. Same goal as April, cheer on the awesome that is Team Rainier!
  5. Read 5 books minimum. 

It's the last month of our Spring Writing Bootcamp so what are your goals for May?

Spring Writing Bootcamp: Check-in #6

As part of the YA Buccaneers Spring Writing Bootcamp, I posted my goals here when we first started in on this crazy adventure. 

And then the past few weeks / month kind of took a turn for the worse and things have been, well, they've been pretty hectic to say the least.

But...I am happy to say this past weekend I did jump back into the swing of things and started working on my new WIP -- which has me all kinds of excited!

So without further adieu, here are my goals as of today:

APRIL:

1. Work on my new YA Contemporary / Adventure WiP -- working title: NAME OF THE GAME.
Goal for now = 2,500 words / week (TBA: To Be Adjusted!)
2. Continue to read / finish CP's MS!
3. Host / participate in a Word Sprint or two!
4. Cheer on my fellow Team Rainier writers!

MAY:

1. NAME OF THE GAME writing goal: minimum of 10,000 words.
2. Host / participate in a Word Sprint or two! 
3. Same goal as April, cheer on the awesome that is Team Rainier!

TEAM 2 / Team Rainier 

FYI: If you haven't joined a team yet and you're still interested - hop on over to the YA Buccaneers and let us know! It's never to late to join and we'd love to have you! If there's a specific team you'd like to be a part of, don't forget to mention that too!

So how are your writing goals coming along? Post a comment here, give a shout out on Twitter using #YABBootcamp, or hop on over to the YA Buccaneers and let us know so we can cheer you on!