Our Lady of Guadalupe Day

Today is Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe. May all of you be showered with book miracles.DD

Three books in '13

 For me, 2013 will be the year of having three new picture books published, including

How Martha Saved Her Parents from Green Beans...

 Arlo's ART-rageous Adventure!

(the first book I both wrote and illustrated)

and Moo!

My own writing and illustrating seemed to get pushed aside too often. If I want to celebrate future books, I need to take a lesson from Stephanine and ramp up my productivity in 2014!

A look back at 2013

For me, 2013 was a little crazy on the personal side, with a move from Oregon back to the Midwest. The relocation is still a bit of a nightmare, but it is fun to think about the highlights of the year where the writing is concerned. Here we go, a countdown:

5. My first-ever book tour for The Fallout. The Fierce Reads tour sent me to eight cities in nine days and I had such a great time getting to know the other Macmillan authors and meeting avid readers at every stop. Here I am at the Austin Teen Book Fest.

4. Receiving the ARCs of my middle grade novel Shipwreck Island, the first in my four book series.

3. I got to see some of the Spuds this year! John and Christy at ALA, and David at The Red Balloon. I am so excited for 2014, and the first ever All Spud Retreat.

2. I wanted to be more productive in 2013. I wrote five entire novels this year (2 MG, 3 YA). Not including all the revisions, I estimate that I wrote about 240,000 words. Three of those novels are under contract, two aren't yet. Fingers crossed.

1. Two days ago, I signed contracts for my ninth and tenth novels with Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan. The first is my YA novel The Detour. I drafted it last month, during National Novel Writing Month, and it will hit shelves Fall 2015. Which will be here before we know it...