I'm a traditionally and self published author. I write in the genre of children and YA at the moment but working my way up to adults.
I'm a sports loving, photo taking gal who loves to sing/dance to my own enjoyment. I love to laugh even at myself. I am also owned by 8 birds and 2 hamsters, and yes they know it. :)
I have been sitting on some news for a small bit now. I wanted to make sure every thing was done right. But I been told I can announce it. My book Jasper,Amazon Parrot:A Rainforest Adventure has been picked up by a publishing house out of San Francisco
Let me tell you about how it went down. I came across the company off a contact in Linkedin. Sending an email to see if they were open for submissions I received the reply that they were. That same day I sent a query letter with the first three chapters attached. I was told that the publisher and her business manager cleared the afternoon. They wondered if I could send them the rest of the MS. I happily did.
Soon I received word they were interested in publishing my book. My first reaction was sitting back in my chair at my desk and going numb. This is what I been working for. This was my end point. I had not once for a minute thought of self publishing this book. I believed in it so strongly, whether that belief was correct or not, that I kept at it.
I will over the next few weeks post on the aspect of this. There are a few levels. But I just wanted to let you all know that I have found a home for Jasper. This is still surreal to me even though I have known for short period of time. Maybe when I see the book in the stores it will hit me. It has been a journey for Jasper and me.
When I learned my friend was having a release party I knew I wanted to host her on my blog. This was to give her the spotlight so people can hear about her latest work. She is such a sweetie.
Here she is.
Maters, Taters & Grits gives you a peek inside the lives of those who live in and love the South. Everything from mud runs, bonfires, and Southern hospitality to how you should treat your mama. Maters, Taters & Grits invites you to take a trip down a country road, have a seat on the porch of a stranger, have a Mason jar of sweet tea, and lose yourself in the country life awhile.
Available now at Amazon.com!
B.S. Johnson resides in Georgia with her husband and children. She’s been published in The Rusty Nail Magazine, Onefortyfiction.com, and her first non-fiction, Being Kind In An Unkind World, can be downloaded for free at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/256101
I know there are tons and tons of links about why authors need to get an editor. Today’s post is why I need one. I am fortunate to have an amazing woman as my editor. She works tirelessly fixing my bunch of words to where they sparkle. I will be perfectly honest. I am not a fan of commas. I don’t know where to put them with accuracy. I wrote once on my FB something along the line to how I was sure glad as punch that she knew where they went for I sure as hell did not. I don’t. Something so simple but if you do it wrong it will completely mess up a paragraph, page and eventually a chapter if you make enough mistakes.
I am not always sure when to make a chapter break. I get these right a good portion of the time but not always. Nancy will swoop in and leave in the margins where one should be and I am grateful for that. There has been times I have not made any chapters at all. A great example of this was NaNoWriMo 2012 where I have 60k plus works but no chapters. I did separate them so it did not look like a hot mess. The sad part is I am still adding to this story I fear what it will look like when I am finally done and have to hand it over to her. I will do my best to separate it where it should be. I had gotten so wrapped up in this story, I wrote the required 50k words in two weeks. I just wrote and wrote not caring about editing but about the words.
Nancy has spoiled me plan and simple. She lets me be an author without worrying about edits as I am writing down the latest story or MS. Knowing that about her I can be free and just work on my craft. I know a lot of editors heck majority of editors would probably kick me to the curb and say I need to find someone else. At which point I would have to man up and do a better job.
She has polished my query letter and my MS so well that publishing houses even in the rejection letters are saying how polish my work is in content, yeah me, and in edit which is yeah Nancy. We make a good team. She allows me to write without worry about what I am going to do after. I am so grateful for her. I hope my fellow writers have a great person in their corner. It truly makes a huge difference in where I started to where I am at now.
Sharon C. Williams-Author 