News

Jun

Play

Happy Friday! This week I’ve been looking over some beta readers’ comments (helpful, perceptive, awesome) on the first half of Thrice. Armed with some ideas on where its weaknesses lie, this weekend I intend to jump back in. I’m participating in Kaz’s Summer Camp and I’m determined to kick some ass. My goal is to finish the second half (probably 35-40K) by the end of July. I’m over-the-moon excited about this story. When I reread the last chapter, I just giggled with joy. The revisions for Garolass were hard work–satisfying, certainly, but it didn’t feel like play. Returning to this first draft after two months away feels like play. Exciting, engrossing. I’m not so caught up in "Am I doing it right?" I’m just doing it. That’s where the joy comes in, I think. My goals for my day off include writing at least 1500 words, getting a massage, making blackberry sage sun...

Jun

Teaser

Jessica

A snippet from the first chapter of my WIP: Tess runs off again, skidding to a stop before a plot of white rosebushes. Their petals are brown and crumbling, tired heads bowing toward the ground. “Everything’s dying,” she complains. I realize what she intends a scant second before she acts. “Tess!” I shriek, decorum forgotten. I’m too late. Tess is an advanced caster for her age—for any age, really. The deadheads spring up, whole and white and luscious. The oaks thrive with heavy, swaying green boughs. Magnificent peonies and lilies sway toward the sun, glorying in their resurrection. “Theresa Elizabeth Cahill,” I hiss. “You put that back.” She pouts at me. “It’s prettier this way!” “And what will the gardeners think, half the garden springing back to life overnight?” “I’ll fix the rest, too!" “Tess.” My tone doesn’t brook any argument. “I don’t see why anyone should mind. What good...

May

Question Friday: Right Now Edition

Jessica

I haven’t done one of these in ages. So, tell me, for the upcoming long weekend: What are you reading? What are you writing/revising? What are you listening to? And just for fun, what are two of your current favorite words? My answers: Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead; delving back into my YA witch/sisters/gardening/feminist/ bookshop book Thrice-Blessed; A Fine Frenzy’s "Almost Lover" on repeat; surreptitious and splendid.

May

Pretty Peonies

Jessica

Maybe it was inevitable. My mom is a gardener. It’s her passion. She pores over gardening books and magazines, goes to gardening expos, creates spreadsheets to detail what she planted and when and how it fared each season. When we visit during the summer, if we want to spend time with her, we trail her from one flowerbed to another. Some of my strongest memories from childhood are of following her around as she weeded or watered, the grass cool on my bare feet in the golden hour before dark. Her knowledge of plants is encyclopedic. Her gardens are a thing of beauty. But I’ve never been interested before, not really. Not until this summer, the first when I’ve had my own house and yard. I planted roses and herbs and watched them sprout up. Excitedly reported on their growth during every weekly phone call. Crooned to them encouragingly in...

May

Fear

Jessica

Most of my posts are cheerful. That’s how I like to think of myself: optimistic, bouncy, generally good-natured. But I also wrestle with a lot of anxiety. It used to be worse. There was a constant chatter in the back of my mind. An ironclad need for control. New situations, traveling, large social events where I didn’t know people–all of those things made me anxious. Still do, to some extent, but with the help of anti-anxiety meds, I can handle and even enjoy them. I think the scariest thing sometimes is being happy. I’m married to a brilliant, funny, generous man. I have wonderful friends. I love my house and the city I live in. And now I’m doing something I love, something I feel is my calling–and sometimes it terrifies me. My book is going on submission again. What if it sells? That’s the point, I know. But it...

Play

Teaser

Question Friday: Right Now Edition

Pretty Peonies

Fear

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