This is the cover for I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A SPY.
Maggie’s spy training began when she was 4. As a librarian, her observation skills threaten a lucrative criminal venture.
Publish date: January 2019.
Tag: novel
The Girl Who Saw Clouds
THE GIRL WHO SAW CLOUDS is a SEMI-FINALIST in the 2018 Royal Palm Literary Award Competition in the Young Adult Fiction Genre!
New! The Girl Who Saw Clouds
The Girl Who Saw Clouds is a story of conspiracy, family, and survival. The novel is available NOW on Amazon in both ebook and paperback.
Link to The Girl Who Saw Clouds on Amazon
AIMEE LOUISE is a bright, quirky 14-year-old with autism who doesn’t recognize facial expressions, but instead sees clouds that reveal a person’s true intentions. After a cyber-attack takes down the nation’s electrical grid, can her ability to see danger where no one else does expose the secret plot to take over the U.S.?
Acknowledgments
The novel’s done. The final draft has been copyedited, proofed, and formatted for publishing. Now for the Front Matter and the Back Matter. Somewhere in the Front Matter or the Back Matter, it depends on which template you use or source you listen to or read last, is the Acknowledgments.
I’ve read that writing the Acknowledgments is a drudge. Harder than writing the book. It took me a year to write the book. Don’t need a year to write Thank You, right?
I did a little internet search on how to write an Acknowledgement for a novel. I learned I spelled it wrong. The next thing I learned is that I shouldn’t bore the reader or be superficial. Of course, I immediately decided anyone who can’t even spell Acknowledgment correctly must be superficial, so I’m doomed.
The Ack – we’ll call it – is supposed to be specific, walk the reader through the entire process of writing the book, but not be too long, must be witty, and again with the not boring. Also, mention names, but respect people’s privacy…ACK!
So here ya go….
ACK!! THANKS Y’ALL, FOR EVERYTHING!
There. That should just about cover it. Didn’t even split an infinitive or invoke a gerund. Nailed it!
Soon! The Girl Who Saw Clouds
NOW!
Published and Available on Amazon
Link to The Girl Who Saw Clouds on Amazon
The Girl Who Saw Clouds will be published in June. Want to be the first to know the publish date? Subscribe to the enewsletter!
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Pink Baby Alligator, Marketing Assistant
#FlatRose took her new assignment as Marketing Assistant seriously at the I Heart Books signing event in Jacksonville, FL.
When folks stepped close enough to snitch a piece of candy, Rose directed them to the opportunity to be eligible for our drawing for a free book, Sweet Deal Sealed, and the opportunity to be among the first to know when The Girl Who Saw Clouds is published. Triple bonus!
She was a little embarrassed for the balloon creature that was supposed to be an alligator, according to the balloon guy. Rose was heard to whisper it looked more like an anteater.
You Know You’re A Writer When…
Your sweet Daughter sends her sweet Mama a nice Mother’s Day present.
Thank you, Honey!
How Writing Is Like Making Jam
When I make jam, I pull out the Ball Blue Book of canning and check the recipe even though I’ve made jam dozens of time over the last several years. I crush the berries, dump in the sugar, turn up the gas, and stir. And stir and stir. I don’t use pectin to thicken the concoction, and I don’t have a jelly thermometer. I stir and after 30 or 45 minutes, it feels done. If I quit too early, I have berry soup. If I stir another two minutes, I have berry concrete. It’s all in the timing, and it all comes together—boom!
So this is my Writing blog, not my Farm blog, right?
I wrote a story on January 6, 2017. The story was 727 words. I added a few more words, and the name of my story became Novel Needs a Name. N3 became The Girl Who Saw Clouds last summer. I have a total of 106 versions of Clouds. Different people have read different versions over the past year. One faithful reader has seen every single one! We’ll refer to her as Saint Rabbit. Writers have critiqued different sections, and I wrote and revised.
I read Don McNair’s Editor-Proof Your Writing and followed his twenty-one steps. Clouds was ready for a copy editor. Not too soon, not too late. Now I have to leave Clouds alone and let the copy editor do his work; otherwise, I’d have Cloud concrete, right?
Yesterday I read Guido Henkel’s Zen of eBook Formatting and made blackberry jam. Today I designed the book cover. Only twenty more days before the copy editor’s work is due. Maybe I’ll make some more blackberry jam. Boom.
Confessions of a Story-Teller
I was born a story-teller. The story words bubbled up inside me and strained to escape. They detoured my brain and flew straight to my mouth or my typing fingers. For years while my words and I struggled to survive in the corporate world, we were feared and labeled frivolous and irrelevant. Wordy, even. My brain suggested I was not a story-teller, and I turned to conforming by slaughtering words. Dark times. I popped the action, sights, sounds, tastes, feels, and detail bubbles. Even when words bolted through the typing exit, very few survived.
My story words and I abandoned the corporate world for the world of fiction. My empowered stories shoot from my typing fingers, leaving room inside for new words to incubate and grow in my brain. First Draft. Second Draft. The only slaughter is Killing the Darlings, but that’s another story.
Quick JAB
I started blogging online about 15 years ago. I started with a now-defunct MySpace competitor. I soon changed to WordPress. The earliest blog I can find is 2005. Its title is Gotta Run.
People frequently tell me that they have an interesting story to tell, and they plan to write down someday. Maybe something you see here will encourage you – today might be someday!
Judith A. Barrett - Author 