So, what makes a great cover? Great question! I’ve posted some YA covers below (of recent and upcoming releases) that I think are rocking it in the cover department.

*ETA It seems that my preference tends to be covers with only two or three colors. What about you? What grabs your eye?

SISTERS RED by Jackson Pearce

What I Like: This is one of the coolest covers I’ve seen in awhile…and this actually led me to the artist’s website where I ended up buying two of her prints which now hang on my living room wall!

Anyway, I love how the illustration flows together, and that there’s more than one thing going on here. We have the two sisters in contrasting colors, and we also have the wolf. Speaking of contrasting colors, the color scheme in particular is very eye-catching. Red on black! Which is cool because this is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.

CANDOR by Pam Bachorz

What I Like: It’s a pretty basic cover as far as color goes. The photo is in black and white, and the only color on the page is orange, which makes it really pop. And you immediately get the sense that something kind of shady and mysterious is going on by the look in the guy’s eye, and the lower half of the image gives off a little bit of a sci fi vibe. It’s simple, but it says so much. And having read the book, I think the cover is perfect for the content, especially in the details. Like how the title looks spray-painted…

Also? Awesome book. I highly recommend!

HUSH HUSH by Becca Fitzpatrick

What I Like: I don’t know what to say. This is just plain gorgeous.

SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater

What I Like: I usually like covers with people on them, but this cover has not even a smidgen of toenail, and I love it.

It’s another cover not using a lot of different colors. It makes that one red dot really stand out. And the light blue does a fantastic job of portraying a sense of cold…which is a big thing in this book. And the artsy vibe it has going on matches the tone of the writing and the story really well….I loved how the temperatures were chapter titles!

FIRE by Kristin Cashore

What I Like: This one is harder for me to put into words. I just think it’s a really gorgeous cover. The colors, the bow, the font. So pretty!

HATE LIST by Jennifer Brown

What I Like: Okay, so I’m seeing a pattern here. Another one with a basic color scheme. I love the black and gray art with the blue font. I also love how the title is inside the teardrop.

MY SOUL TO SAVE by Rachel Vincent

What I Like: Another one with a basic color scheme! I love the how the dark shadowy background makes her blue dress pop.

My favorite thing about this cover is the swirly text wrapping around the girl. It says “SAVE” while the text wrapping around the girl on the first book’s cover says “TAKE”. Very cool.

I started reading FIRE by Kristin Cashore this week, the anticipated companion to GRACELING. I loved the first book so I’ve been looking forward to this one. I also read LEVIATHAN by Scott Westerfeld before I started FIRE. Very fun steampunk with awesome illustrations.

WATCHING:

I’ve gotten really into Glee, Vampire Diaries, Dollhouse and The Office. It took me awhile to get into the American version of The Office, but I’ve finally fallen. So, I’ve been watching reruns to catch myself up on everything that’s happened so far. Jim + Pam = Awwww.

LISTENING:

The new Paramore album! I saw them in concert, and they rocked.

WRITING:

Great news! I did some small revisions for my agent on BONE DRY, and it’s going out on submission! Yay!

As far as new writing goes, I was sick with the flu last week and got no writing or revising done. It’s hard to weave words together when you have a pounding headache and the Neverending Cough of Doom. I’m feeling much better now though so I’m hoping to get some good work done in November. I plan to keep working on my new summer camp book. Maybe the thought of warm summer nights will help get me through this cold fall we’re having.

WISHING:

I’ve been feeling very hopeful since learning BONE DRY is going out on submission, but it’s a mixture of high hopes and realistic expectations. I so, so, so hope to see this book on the shelves someday, and right now, at the beginning of the submission process, that dream seems right at the edges of my fingertips. As time passes, it’ll seem further and further away. My wish is that one day I can hold it in my hand.

I love Rachel Vincent’s Shifters series so I couldn’t wait to pick up her debut YA, My Soul to Take, about a teenage banshee who knows when someone around her is about to die. Unfortunately, girls around her do start to die, and she has to figure out what the heck is going on and, hopefully, stop it.

As in all her books, Rachel weaves together mystery, romance and unique fantasy elements seamlessly. Can’t wait to read the sequel!

As You Wish by Jackson Pearce

This is a great YA fantasy debut by Jackson Pearce, about wishes, love and finding your place in the world.

I loved the format of this book: switching between narrators each chapter. Both voices were different and authentic, and the ending happened in a way I wasn’t expecting. I thought I had it all figured out, but oh no! I love when I’m surprised.

I got so into the book that the pages just kept turning, and I read this in only one sitting!

Rampant by Diana Peterfreund

Two words. Killer. Unicorns.

I loved pretty much everything about this book: the awesome history and mythology, the cool Italian cloisters setting, the strong personalities of the girls and the unicorns themselves. Not to give too much away, but there is a certain monstrous unicorn that I couldn’t help but love.

My favorite thing about this one is the mythology. I am in awe of the world-building. There are so many details and nuances about the creatures, the girls and the cloisters. I could tell a great amount of research and creativity went into writing this book, and I hope there is more of this in the sequel!

I also spent a good portion of this past weekend in PUMPKIN LAND. Pumpkin Land is where you get to try all sorts of yummy homemade pumpkin dishes. I’m not sure what came over me, but I had the sudden urge to buy a pumpkin and make things, even though I’ve never been much of a cook or a baker or anything that requires spending more than 30 seconds of prep time. But, because of my insane love of all things pumpkin, I tried making a pumpkin pie this weekend, from a real pumpkin, not the canned stuff. It was actually…fun? And the pie is absolutely delicious. And with the leftovers, I made some pumpkin pancakes. Ohmygoodness, yum! And I also roasted the pumpkin seeds. You would think I’d be sick of pumpkin by now, but I don’t think there is any need to worry about that. There can never be TOO much pumpkin.

I’ve also been getting going on the new manuscript, involving summer, secrets, illusions and sibling rivalry. And, of course, a paranormal creature. This one is of a different sort that I found through hours of wikipedia mythology research. I spent some time this weekend doing more research, planning things out and getting about 2.5k words written. I’m feeling pretty exciting about where this one is going although I am still missing BONE DRY. I’m thinking about writing a short story set in that world, but I don’t know what to do with it. I might just do it for me, as a fun writing exercise.

But right now I think I’m going to eat a slice of pumpkin pie.

And once again, I’m learning every book goes differently. With the last one, I dived in for 5k of crazy typing before I took a breath to plot and really plan. For this one, I’ve been doing all the development up front. Research, character info, location, etc. I wrote the first few pages, but ended up scrapping them and starting over from scratch to get the voice right.

It’s always a little daunting at this point. The empty Word doc. The blank page with the blinking cursor. The possibilities. The knowledge that there are sooo many words to write. But it’s also the most exciting. The idea is fresh and new, and there’s still so much to discover about the characters and the world.

So, here I go. Diving in again.

Thanks Realm!

1) I accepted a job offer! I’ll be working for an academic publisher, developing websites and CDs for some of their educational material. I start next week!

2) I finally finished revising and tweaking BONE DRY and have sent it off to my agent!

So, for fun, I thought I’d post a couple of my favorite snippets from this manuscript.

Snippet One:

Once the clock snapped to midnight, I pushed myself off the floor and over to my open window. I hopped outside and grabbed my bicycle I’d left leaning against the back of the house. I hadn’t used it in months. I used to sneak out almost every week, but it’d been a long time since I’d done that.

I pedaled my way over to Laura’s house, the night breeze rolling across my bare arms. I shivered. It wouldn’t be long before the leaves would start changing colors, and the ocean would be too chilly for swimming. Summer was fading fast, right along with my hopes that everything would turn out okay.

Snippet Two:

“Here we go. This is an office.” Nathan poked his head out from another door.

I followed him inside and scanned the messy room. Papers were piled on every surface of an old mahogany desk, and boxes of books were stacked in every corner. Envelopes and more papers were tossed on the floor, and I had to work hard to not step on any as I moved over to the desk. A computer monitor sat in the midst of the jumbled papers, its screensaver scrawling images of fish and bubbles across it.

I eased into the chair as quietly as possible. Nathan leaned his face over my shoulder while I brought the screen to life. I tried not to pay attention to how close his cheek was and how I could almost feel his skin brushing mine. If I moved my head just a fraction of an inch to the right, our faces would be smooshed up against each other.

The desktop flashed up in front of me, covered in dozens of icons for folders, files and programs. I let out a long sigh. “This might take awhile.”

But, I could tweak forever, so I’m planning on sending this off to my agent this week so I can hear her thoughts on it. I hope she likes it as much as I do!

And then…new book time again. I have a few ideas percolating. I just need to pick one. One is big and dark and will be a stretch for me to write, and I’m thinking it would be good for me to push myself. On the other hand, this other shiny idea is really cool. Oh, there’s also this other one, but I haven’t figured everything out about it. And then…

You see this is going to be a difficult decision.

In the non-writing world, I’ve had a couple of promising job interviews, and Kiki, the cat, is doing so much better! She’s gaining weight, and her hair is all soft and fluffy again. Crossing my fingers this is a permanent improvement.

BONE DRY: Second Draft
34 / 34 Chapters (100% Done!)

Of course, I’m not done yet. My manuscript is in the heads of my CP and two beta readers. I have chapters back already so I’ll probably start on the third draft today. Cause I’m crazy. And then once I have all the chapters from them, I’ll plow through to the end. Then, unless there are major problems I’m missing, it’s off to my agent!

I celebrated yesterday by going to a Mets game. They lost. All my favorite players are injured. But I did get to see Billy Wagner back for the first time since his surgery last year. Go Billy!

Okay, pretty lame, I know. Anyway, I don’t usually talk about my cats on my blog because there are already plenty of blogs dedicated to cats without me getting involved. But, lately, my cat, Kiki, has been having some problems.

I adopted Kiki four years ago this month. I was told by the woman I adopted her from that she was eight years old at the time. So, that makes her pretty old now. But, she hasn’t changed much. She still likes climbing inside cardboard boxes, perching on the window sill, sitting on my lap, rolling around in catnip and chomping on kitty treats.

Lately, she’s lost some weight and can’t keep dry cat food down. And then when I gave her a bath the other night because her hair has been a little oily, I noticed just how skinny she is. And I got worried. So, she got to go in her least favorite thing ever–the cat carrier–to the vet yesterday. They did some tests, and it turns out she has an infection.

We have some antibiotics now, and it sounds like this will probably clear up the problem. But, it turns out, that medicine is Kiki’s second least favorite thing in the world. Or at least the dropper is. If I so much as get it within a few inches of her mouth, she tries to run away. And since I have only two hands, this creates a very difficult scenario. Just imagine me doing the cooing baby voice thing with a dropper of milky medicine, taking a single step toward Kiki before she darts away and flies over the couch like a furry bullet.

And this was just the first dose. I have to give her two doses a day until Thursday. I’ve been trying to come up with some alternate solution, but the only idea I keep coming up with is the addition of an extra arm.