NOOKcolor = My Favorite Gift. And Some Photos...

Well, party people, I can't believe it's January 6th. Huh? Six days already gone. Let me tell you that I have been spending a lot of time wiping the drool from what my husband got me for Christmas...the NOOKcolor.

Let me back up and say first that holding an actual book, cracking its spine, breathing it in...is still a sacred experience for me and can never be topped or replaced by an ereader. But, and this is a fairly big but, convenience is King in my life. And my new ereader is wickedly convenient.

My agent suggested I read Ender's Game for a bit of inspiration as I plow through my complete re-write of my MG sci-fi trilogy (book 1 & 2) and it was the first book I purchased. Beth Revis' Across the Universe was #2.

And I love this thing. It's ridiculously easy to use, light, has color and I can even put my own manuscripts on it in pdf format. So cool. I bought a magazine the other day and flipped through every page - electronically!!! Wild, wild stuff.

So, now you know why I've been so 'absent' round these parts. I've been a reading/re-writing fool. This re-write has been one of the most challenging and exhilarating and exciting writing experiences I've had yet. Challenging because it's, you know, re-writing. And this was the very first novel I wrote so I've had my hand in it 100's of times. You should see the amount of printed drafts I have from Staples - dating all the way back to April 2007!! A stack.

Starting from scratch was scary. But once I got going - and talked to that brilliant agent of mine - it morphed into exhilarating and exciting. My authentic (and way better) writing voice is so strong this time around and it all feels dang right. It's all coming together.

Something else that came together were my author photos. I had about 8,654 photographs taken - two 'costume' changes - two location changes and bingo-boingo-bammo...two fairly decent head shots. One for the math book I co-authored (shiny new link up above BTW) and one for my YA - EVERYTHING'S NOT LOST.

Unveiled here, now, for the first time. I think they turned out pretty good...and my husband was the photographer. Yay for husbands that know how to not make their wives heads look ugly. And yay for graphic designer sisters who live in Australia who know how to manipulate the lighting in a photo that's already been taken - see her handy work in the second photo below.

The YA one...


The Math book one...