Author Heather McCorkle

I'm very excited to present to you this month's featured debut author, Elle Strauss. Her time travel young adult novel, Clockwise , just released and it sounds fantastic! Because Elle is so awesome she's doing a giveaway to celebrate. Here are the details: To celebrate, Elle Strauss is giving away five debut books by authors that you can meet on her blog tour which is happening now. LOSING FAITH by Denise Jaden THE CLEARING by Anne Riley THE SECRET OF SPRUCE KNOLL by Heather McCorkle PERILOUS by Tamara Hart Heiner THE HATING GAME by Talli Roland How to win? Sign up for Elle’s newsletter to enter. For extra entries just comment on any blog in the tour. The more blogs you visit and comment on the more chances you have to win. Five books, five days, five winners! Now I'd like to introduce you to Elle. From your blog I know your cat Tiger inspired you to write a YA novel about a girl who could time travel. What I'm dying to know is why? Elle: Sadly, Tig...

I haven't been able to make it on Twitter nearly as much as my tweeting addiction demands so I apologize for the small selection of tweets that I have for you. But they're good ones! This first one is from agent Jill Corcoran on closing to queries and getting published: @JillCorcoran CLOSED TO QUERIES +UpPDATED: THE HOWs AND WHYs OF GETTING PUBLISHED nblo.gs/mWqHa Agetn Sara Megibow tells us that reviews sell books, and proves it by adding a few based on reviews she read: @SaraMegibow good reviews DO sell books! I added UNHEADS by @SophieFlack and AMPLIFIED by @AuthorTaraKelly to my BUY pile based on recent PW reviews. This book sounds awesome, you want to win it, trust me! @HeatherMcCorkle  Win an arc of GLOW by Kathleen Ryan: tinyurl.com/3sh787l via@cvaldezmiller Great looking sci-fi YA! #WritersRoad #writecampaign Writer's Digest brings us word of another new agent: @WritersDigest New Agent Alert: Barbara Scott...

This week I had the distinct pleasure of reading a friend's manuscript so that I could give her feedback before she started querying widely. I've read a lot of really good books this year but I've got to tell you, her manuscript is the best one I've read so far. I was so blown away by it that I can hardly wait for it to get picked up by an agent and publisher so all of you can read it too! I feel so honored that I got to be one of the first people to read it. Though this is her first step into the realm of fiction, my friend is an accomplished non-fiction author of self-help books for parents and children. Go follow her now so you can get ahead of the pack because her first young adult fiction novel is going to rock the YA world! Now back to my own editing and reading Spirit Bound by Rachelle Mead (which is getting really good by the way!). Don't forget to click on my links to the right for chances to win books, and to celebrate banned books week by honored bann...

Today I'm post-poning the creature feature to take part in a very important blogfest honoring banned books. It was brought to my attention by the fantastic I Am A Reader Not A Writer blog . Nearly every one of the great Ellen Hopkins's novels has been banned somewhere. She writes about things that challenge kids today, sex, drugs, prostitution, terrible things for sure, but things kids are dealing with whether we like it or not. Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, about a girl who is raped, is banned in many places. Others may surprise you such as The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, The House of Night novels by P.C. Cast, The Golden Compass novels by Philip Pullman, and the Vampire Academy novels by Richelle Mead. There are so many more that it saddens me to go on. I've recently learned that my own novel, The Secret of Spruce Knoll, will not be carried in my most local bookstore because of an intense scene in it. I unde...

Does your novel need to end in a happily ever after scenario? That's a question we discussed this week on the #WritersRoad chat and people came up with many different answers. The general consensus was that most people liked a happy ending, they wanted it to feel natural, as if it wasn't forced by the author. But there were many different version of what exactly a happy ending is. Some genres are more likely to have a happy ending while others are not. Cozies almost always tie up neatly with things turning out well for the protagonist in the end. One never knows with sci-fi and fantasy (which I discovered is a big reason I love it so much), and horror almost never ends well. So it's clear that there are some genre-related expectations. Does that mean we have to follow them? Heck no, we're fiction writers after all. But it is good to be aware of what the industry may expect.  It took me a few books to realize I wasn't the one who got to decide how the ending ...

For my Twitter Tuesday fans, sorry but I'm throwing a new re-occurring post into the mix. No worries, you'll still get your Twitter Tuesday updates, it will just be every other week now instead of every week. There were weeks I was struggling to find tweets for you and I also decided that I wanted to add in a little something for the readers among my followers. But I'd love for my writer friends to participate too. I'll put a teaser of either my novel or something I'm working on, then I'd love your comments and links within your comments to your own posts on your teasers! Here we go. This teaser is from my debut novel The Secret of Spruce Knoll:      Eyes on the road ahead of her, she crossed the bridge without slowing~and was blindsided. The second she hit the blacktop on the other side of the bridge, a figure stepped into her path. Whatever it was must have been downwind and moving very fast; otherwise, she would have noticed it. She and the figure tum...

Last week I was inspired by friends, coffee, and good books. My critique sisters are having me over on Monday October 3rd to visit and have a belated post-release party for The Secret of Spruce Knoll. But it isn't only their generous spirits that have been inspiring me lately, it is all of yours. I'm touched by each of you who has purchased my book, said kind things about it, put it on your to-read list, or who has just dropped by here and followed. Thank you all so much. *wipes away tear.* My visit with my critique sisters in Seattle Washington will also be my first unofficial author appearance. I'd like to invite all of you who will be in the area to join us at Tully's Coffee in Seattle Washington (the one on Western Ave. Click on the store name for a map) to chat, have coffee, or even get your copy of The Secret of Spruce Knoll signed between 5:00pm and 6:00pm. I'll be armed with fun swag and hope to see many of you there as I'd love to meet you in person....