Happy One Year Anniversary To The YA Buccaneers!

A huge shout out to the YA Buccaneers on their One Year Anniversary!

So much awesome has happened over the past 365 days and I'm so thrilled to have started this adventure with the ever-amazing Bridgid Gallagher! But B. and I didn't do it all alone and I'm so thankful for the fantastic crew that decided to share in this crazy journey with us: Kris F. Oliver, Heidi Sinnett, Sara Biren, Kelly Loy Gilbert, Ghenet Myrthil, Rachel Searles, Caroline T. Richmond, Kathryn Holmes, and Ellen Goodlett! I love every single one of these ladies like they're my own sisters and I couldn't think of better writer peeps to have gone sailing with!

Please join me in celebrating the Buccaneers one year and stop by the YA Buccaneers all July long -- I promise there will be lots of activities to participate in and tons of swag up for grabs...which includes books from some of our very own Buccaneers! 

Happy One Year Anniversary, Buccaneers - I can't wait to see what's in store for the next year!

Happy Book Birthday to Elizabeth Briggs: MORE THAN MUSIC

A HUGE congratulations to Elizabeth Briggs who is celebrating her book birthday today, with her release of MORE THAN MUSIC!

Not only have I gotten to know Elizabeth through the YA Buccaneers Spring Writing Bootcamp -- GO TEAM RAINIER!!! -- but she and I share a very funny story back in my querying days for WHERE THE WATER FALLS that I'll save for another time...because today? It's all about MORE THAN MUSIC!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Music major Maddie Taylor seems to have her life all figured out. She’s just finished her junior year of college, has a summer internship lined up with the LA Philharmonic, and plans to go to grad school to write movie scores. Only her roommates know she practices guitar every night and secretly dreams of a louder life. But geeky girls like her don’t get to be rock stars.

Tattooed singer Jared Cross has a new girl every week, but when he catches Maddie playing one of his songs, she attracts his attention in an unexpected way. His band needs a fourth member for The Sound, a reality TV show competition—and he wants her. Though Maddie refuses to be another notch on Jared’s bedpost, she agrees to risk everything for the chance to be a rock star.

Once on the show, Maddie discovers there’s more to Jared behind his flirty smile, and with each performance their attraction becomes impossible to ignore. When the show pressures Jared to flaunt his player image, they’re forced to keep their relationship secret, but Maddie can’t help but want something real.

As the competition heats up, Jared will do whatever it takes for his band to win, and Maddie must decide if following her dream is worth losing her heart.

Add to Goodreads Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo | Smashwords All Romance

If you buy the paperback on Amazon, you'll get the Kindle version for free, too. You can also order a signed paperback copy from Elizabeth!

Read the first chapter and check out bonus goodies like teaser images, playlists, and more. And scroll down to enter her giveaway of a signed paperback copy of More Than Music, plus a paperback of Fifty First Times: A New Adult Anthology, edited by Julie Cross (who was kind enough to blurb her book)!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

LizAuthor

Elizabeth Briggs is a Young Adult and New Adult author who lives in Los Angeles with her British husband and a bunch of fluffy white rescue dogs. She's a guitar-playing geek who loves books, rock music, and video games, goes to Comic Con every year, and is still hoping to be a Jedi when she grows up.

Elizabeth currently works with WriteGirl to mentor at-risk or pregnant teen girls in writing, to help them get through high school and into college. She also volunteers with Bichon FurKids to help rescued dogs find a new, loving home. She previously worked as an intern for literary agent Jill Corcoran of Jill Corcoran Literary Agency, an intern for Entangled Publishing, and an editor for Curiosity Quills Press.

Elizabeth is represented by Kate Schafer Testerman of KT Literary and is a member of SCBWI and RWA.

Check out these interviews:
By Stephanie Garber, on More Than Music
By Rachel Searles, on random fun stuff
By Aimee Salter, on interning with Jill Corcoran
By Cupid's Literary Connection, on writing

Website   |   Facebook   |   Twitter   |  Goodreads


ABOUT THE GIVEAWAY

To celebrate her book launch, Elizabeth is giving away the following (open internationally):

1) paperback copy of FIFTY FIRST TIMES: A New Adult Anthology
1) signed paperback of MORE THAN MUSIC + bookmarks

To enter, go here!

Congratulations, Elizabeth -- I'm so happy for you and can't wait to read MORE THAN MUSIC!

So head on over to Elizabeth's blog, enter her giveaway, and without fail - GO AND BUY MORE THAN MUSIC!!!

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! 

The Best 4-Letter Word Ev-ver: SOLD!!!!

Super Agent Lisa Grubka and I went out on submission for my YA Contemporary, WHERE THE WATER FALLS, on May 1st / my birthday -- believing this would bring all the good publishing ju-ju in the world. And you know what? It didn't fail because...

MY BOOK SOLD!!! MY BOOK SOLD!!!!!!!!!!

And if that didn't make it official, here's the announcement in Publishers Marketplace:

May 27, 2014
Children's: Young Adult

Erin Schneider's debut WHERE THE WATER FALLS, about a girl who discovers her boyfriend and best friend's ultimate betrayal just before leaving to spend the summer in Hawaii; while nursing a broken heart, she meets a boy who is equally troubled, but just might be the key to learning how to forgive - and live, to Lisa Yoskowitz at Disney-Hyperion, for publication in Spring 2016, by Lisa Grubka at Fletcher & Company (World English).

I can't tell you how excited I am right now!!! Like three exclamation points to end every single sentence excited!!!

Because Super Agent Lisa sold my book to Disney-Hyperion!!!

Disney-Hyperion, PEOPLE!!!

Everything happened so fast - 17 days from start to finish - I think my head is still spinning!!! And can I tell you how hard it was to sit on this news for the past week? Because really, they shouldn't do that to debut authors!!! They really shouldn't!!!

And now I get to work with Awesome Editor Lisa Yoskowitz, Senior Editor with Disney-Hyperion!!! I've seen Lisa's name in the acknowledgments of some of my absolute favorite novels: IF I STAY by Gayle Forman, Ally Carter's PERFECT SCOUNDRELS, and John Green's PAPER TOWNS -- not to mention, she also happens to be the amazing editor of Tess Sharpe's debut, FAR FROM YOU!!!

How cool is it that I don't have just one a-mazing Lisa in my publishing corner, but now I have TWO!!!!! Ever since I signed with my agent, I dubbed her Super Agent Lisa -- and now I have Awesome Editor Lisa on the team as well!!! You'd think I'd be running out of adjectives here, but really, there's no possible way

I am so happy to get to share this news. I'm so thankful to Super Agent Lisa for being the BEST AGENT EV-VER. I'm thrilled that Awesome Editor Lisa - along with her amazing assistant, Julie Moody (who just so happens to be from Hawaii and went to the H.S. that's in my novel!!!) along with everyone else at Disney-Hyperion - took the time to read my story and fall in love with it...and then buy it!!! 

Wow. Just, wow. After six long years of dreaming, I finally get to say my book will be out in book stores in Spring 2016. And there's just no amount of exclamation points that could be added to that to really do it justice. 

Spring Writing Bootcamp Check-In #12

MY MAY GOALS:


  1. Bikini Boot Camp Day #9:

    I mentioned in last week's post that I joined the ever-fabulous Jennifer Jordan's For The Glow's Bikini Boot Camp - and yesterday marked the start of week 2! I'm sleeping better, I'm working out 5 days a week, and I'm loving everything that Jenn has slated for us to eat -- which includes my absolute favorite green smoothie, BEE GORGEOUS! This one is SO good, I could actually drink it every morning! For those of you interested, here's the easy recipe:
    1. Handful of greens (I use kale)
    2. 8oz. coconut water
    3. 1 banana (preferably frozen)
    4. 1 tbs. almond butter
    5. 1 tbs. bee pollen
    6. 1 tbs. raw honey
    7. 1 teas. alcohol-free vanilla
    Tip: I'll add a cup of ice if the banana isn't frozen. Blend all until smooth...and ENJOY! **Jenn mentions a good point, please do an allergy test for bee products before consuming!
  2. New WIP NOTG writing goal: 
    Minimum of 10,000 words for the month.
    UPDATE: I put together a play list over the weekend and I love listening to it while I write! Here's a snippet of some of the songs (my favorite is song #3!):
    YA Contemporary: NAME OF THE GAME by Erin L Schneider on Grooveshark 
  3. Continue to read / finish CP's MS!
    UPDATE: Still waiting for a couple of CP's to send over their manuscripts - looks like I'll be getting one of them towards the end of this month and I can't wait!
  4. Host / participate in a Word Sprint or two! 
  5. Cheer on the AWESOME that is Team Rainier!
  6. Read 5 books minimum. 
    UPDATE - THREE books down:
    1. CP Heidi's MS
    2. I finally finished DREAMS OF GODS & MONSTERS by Laini Taylor
    3. I also knocked off Abbi Gline's newest release, RUSH TOO FAR.
    I'm now reading FAR FROM YOU by Tess Sharpe, which I'm really liking. Like A LOT.  
  7. We've only got TWO more weeks of bootcamp left -- what do you have in YOU?

    Spring Writing Bootcamp Check-In #11

    MY MAY GOALS:

    1. Dinner: Quinoa & lime-marinated chicken bowl!
      Green Smoothie: Bee Gorgeous!Bikini Boot Camp Day #1:

      Because I evidently can't get enough of bootcamps, I decided to join For The Glow's Bikini Boot Camp this year. But instead of motivation for writing, this one's for my health - which in turn, makes for better writing, right? RIGHT! 
      It's six weeks of turning my diet around (I love kale!), getting a little exercise (burpees anyone?), being motivated by others, tracking it on Pinterest!, and overall, just doing good for this 'ole body of mine. I started eating clean(er) (I'm not vegan or vegetarian, but I am opting for gluten free around 95% of the time) and following the recipes a week ago to acclimate -- and aside from some of the ingredients being a little on the expensive side, I love everything I make (green smoothies, egg & kale breakfast scrambles, hummus = YUM!) and I definitely feel full and happy! 
      So be prepared for some great recipes / photos over the next 6 weeks -- after all, I've got my 20 year H.S. reunion in August and this girl plans on going with a lot less me! 
    2. New WIP NOTG writing goal: 
      Minimum of 10,000 words for the month.
      UPDATE: I'm at 5,103 words so far, a little over half way done for the month! 
    3. Continue to read / finish CP's MS!
      UPDATE: I finished and sent over notes on the last MS I was reading and now 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*
      I'll sing it again in case you missed it last week: Red rover, red rover, send your manuscripts on over!
    4. Host / participate in a Word Sprint or two! 
    5. Cheer on the AWESOME that is Team Rainier!
      UPDATE: Did you all see Elizabeth Brigg's exciting cover reveal for her NA Contemporary MORE THAN MUSIC? Yes, that's it over there - but make sure to check it out here and enter to win some great prizes!
    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?