Two of our very own need us.

I have always been so amazed at how supportive, loyal, encouraging, and helpful the writing community is. Writers rock, big time. Whenever someone's in need, writers rally the troops, which is why I'm posting this. Guys-- we need to rally the troops for two of our own.

First: Chad Morris.

I've gotta say, a debut year is extremely busy and stressful. But there are a lot of very rewarding and fun parts of it, too! Chad Morris, a blogger many of you might know, has willingly given up all the fun and rewarding parts of his debut year for something infinitely more important-- his 9 year old daughter. Last Tuesday he and his wife Shelly (a writer who many of you might know, too) took her to one of the best neurosurgeons in the nation to get a tumor removed from her brain. Dang! I'm getting teary-eyed just typing this! *deep breath*

Chad is in a hospital, being there for his daughter as she recovers. He can't promote his book, but we can! We can give him the book launch that he deserves. His book releases tomorrow. If you feel so inclined, think about mentioning his book on Twitter, Facebook, on your blog, on Pinterest, or on whatever other form of social media you enjoy.

Here's the quick details:

Book: CRAGBRIDGE HALL: THE INVENTOR'S SECRET (Shadow Mountain, 3/5/13)
The blog post where Chad talks about his daughter: http://writingwithshellyandchad.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-more-important-dream.html
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/chad.morris.5
Twitter: @ChadCMorris

The longer details:

About THE INVENTOR'S SECRET:

Imagine a school in the year 2074 where students don’t read history, but watch it happen around them; where running in gym class isn’t around a track, but up a virtual mountain; and where learning about animals means becoming one through an avatar.

Welcome to Cragbridge Hall, the most advanced and prestigious school in the world. Twin siblings Abby and Derick Cragbridge are excited as new students to use their famed grandfather’s inventions that make Cragbridge Hall so incredible. But when their grandfather and parents go missing, the twins begin following a trail of clues left by their grandfather. They must find out where their family is, learn who they can trust, and discover what secrets are hidden within Cragbridge Hall.

Abby and Derick soon realize they are caught in a race with a fierce adversary to discover their grandfather’s greatest secret–a dangerous discovery that could alter both history and reality.

About Chad:

Chad Morris grew up wanting to become a professional basketball player or a rock star. (Inspired by Animal from the Muppets, he’s been banging on drums since he was eight years old.) After high school, he wrote and performed sketch comedy while going to college, and eventually he became a teacher and a curriculum writer. He lives in Utah with his wife and five kids. Chad would love to teach at Cragbridge Hall.

Unlike Oscar Cragbridge, however, he hasn’t really invented anything, though his son once sketched out blueprints for a machine that would turn celery into cookies.

Blog | Website | Twitter | Facebook

Second: Bridget Zinn

Bridget's debut novel, POISON, releases a week from tomorrow. Sadly, Bridget died from cancer in May of 2011, and never got to hold her book in her hands. Being published was her dream, and her husband and friends would love some help putting the finishing touches on her dream. Her husband has set up a website that talks about all the ways you can help. It's a pretty awesome thing. You can find his plea for help here: http://bridgetzinn.com/help/index.php

Here's the quick details:

Book: POISON (Hyperion, 3/12/13)
Twitter Hashtag: #poison

The longer details:

About POISON:

Sixteen-year-old Kyra, a highly-skilled potions master, is the only one who knows her kingdom is on the verge of destruction—which means she's the only one who can save it. Faced with no other choice, Kyra decides to do what she does best: poison the kingdom's future ruler, who also happens to be her former best friend.

But, for the first time ever, her poisoned dart…misses.
Now a fugitive instead of a hero, Kyra is caught in a game of hide-and-seek with the king's army and her potioner ex-boyfriend, Hal. At least she's not alone. She's armed with her vital potions, a too-cute pig, and Fred, the charming adventurer she can't stop thinking about. Kyra is determined to get herself a second chance (at murder), but will she be able to find and defeat the princess before Hal and the army find her?

Kyra is not your typical murderer, and she's certainly no damsel-in-distress—she's the lovable and quick-witted hero of this romantic novel that has all the right ingredients to make teen girls swoon.

About Bridget:

Bridget grew up in Wisconsin. She went to the county fair where she met the love of her life, Barrett Dowell. They got married right before she went in for exploratory surgery which revealed she had colon cancer. They christened that summer the "summer of love" and the two celebrated with several more weddings. Bridget continued to read and write until the day she died. Her last tweet was "Sunshine and a brand new book. Perfect."

Bridget wanted to make people laugh and hoped readers would enjoy spending time with the characters she created. As a librarian/writer she loved books with strong young women with aspirations. She also felt teens needed more humorous reads. She really wanted to write a book with pockets of warmth and happiness and hoped that her readers' copies would show the watermarks of many bath time reads.

Website | Blog | A remembrance of her by her agent

I am positive that anything you want to do to get the word out about these two fabulous books--- no matter how small--- will be greatly appreciated.

I'm honored to be part of the troops with you all.

The Origin

Thank you Chris Allinotte at The Leaky Pencil for the Versatile Blogger Award!

Six months ago, I participated in the Spark Blogfest, and wrote about what gave me the spark to write. I had a blast! A big part of that was because it was SO MUCH FUN to read everyone's Spark stories. (So I'm really hoping that a lot of you are posting your story today!)

The Origins blogfest is very similar, which makes me so excited! I can't wait to read everyone's Origin story. Last time, I wrote about what gave me the spark to write. This is what gave me the spark to BECOME A WRITER.

I did NOT grow up wanting to be a writer. (In fact, I had a high school Honors English teacher who was awful and horrible and mean-spirited, and after her class, I never wanted to write even a single email in my voice ever again, let alone anything else. It was only about five years ago that I recovered from the damage that one teacher caused.)

Of course I did recover, and then came the Spark story. And then, my Origins story.

I love the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I've said it before, Joss Whedon is a genius. GENIUS! Anyway, a couple friends of mine discovered, watched, loved, then worshiped the show Firefly, so I dangled Buffy and Angel in front of them. It only took the words "Joss was a genius even before Firefly," and they were sold. After sticking with both series for a total of 244 episodes, I figured they deserved to have a book written with them in it! I put them both as the main characters in that world and *ahem* I gotta say it was pretty magical.

I've always created things with my hands. Physical objects that I could hold and say, "Look what I made!" I lived off the high I got from it.

But I discovered that the creative high I got from writing exceeded everything I had ever experienced with any other creative endeavor. I was hopelessly hooked.

But wait! That's not actually what made me want to become a writer. (I'm sure that, eventually, it would have. I mean come on! It's writing!) I read MG to my kids every night, and have done so for 6 or 7 or 8 years, and I love it. After I finished the book I wrote for my friends, I read it to my kids. Because that's what I do.

Oh.
My.
Gosh.

I seriously had no idea there could be something so great in the world as reading a book to my kids that I wrote. I had no idea that the thrill of reading it to them could outshine the thrill I got writing it. From that moment, I wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of my life writing books that I could read to my kids. And that someday they could read to their kids. As I hugged them goodnight, I made a choice to embark on a journey I knew would be painfully hard and that would take me years and years.... and there was no part of me that wasn't okay with it. I've been living off that high ever since.

I love my kiddos. Not only were they the impetus in my Origins story, but they continually offer me an insane amount of support and encouragement.

How about you? What's your ORIGINS story? If you posted one on your blog, let me know! I want to make sure I read it.

(And if you didn't sign up for the Origins Blogfest, go check it out. It's probably not too late!)

The Way We Are: Your First Novel

You hear all the time "Your first novel is for practice," and "Don't expect to sell your first novel." But the funny thing is, once we decide we want to get published, we fully expect that first novel to do it. There's something inside of us that says But this one is different. The rules don't apply to it / me.

If you ask me, that kind of thinking is actually hugely important. It's what makes us work as hard as we can. And do you know what? A lot of people actually get their first novel published.

So that's my question for the day. What's the status your first novel?


Still writing it?
Haven't started it?
Revising it?
Querying it?
Saving it for posterity?
Shoved it in a drawer to revise sometime later?
Plan on it never seeing the light of day?
Published it?
Burned it?

I want to hear all about it in the comments!

As for me: My first novel had an intended audience of two. I wasn't even thinking writing for real at that point. The writing for real started two months later, and you can bet that publishing it was in the back of my mind the whole time! It was a story I wrote with my kids as the main characters, and I figured that I'd just change them a bit during revisions. I wrote it purely off instinct. Then came my REAL first book. The one with an intended audience of thousands and thousands. :) I jumped off the diving board very deep into the writing world. I took incredible writing classes, went to lots of conferences, read every blog and book on writing I could get my hands on, and worked on writing every spare moment.

The problem was... when I got to the end of the book, I realized I had improved SO MUCH from when I started the book. Revisions were daunting, to say the least. (I kind of felt like this guy here.) Plus, there was this fabulous NEW idea calling my name. Someday I might pilfer ideas from the story, because the concept was great, but I wouldn't revise it. I'd be so much easier to start from scratch.

So what about you?