Wednesday, May 9, 2012

My Dear Teen Me Guest Post & Other Exciting News

I'm thrilled to be a guest today over at Dear Teen Me, a website where authors write letters to their teen selves. I've written a message to the fourteen-year-old version of me, when I had just moved to a new city and still hadn't recovered from my middle school-era insecurities and often-crippling shyness.

If you're arriving here from Dear Teen Me, welcome! Please make yourself at home. I have links to my Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads accounts all over the place, as well as info about my newsletter, which I'll be launching this summer when I have more In the Shadow of Blackbirds tidbits to share. 

In other news, I'm ecstatic to announce that I finished the first round of revisions for In the Shadow of Blackbirds! I just sent the book back to my amazing editor, Maggie Lehrman, yesterday afternoon. The next stage will be line edits, where Maggie goes through each page more thoroughly instead of concentrating solely on the bigger issues like character relationships and setting. I'll write an in-depth post about how I made it through the editorial letter stage later this week, and on May 30 I'll offer some revision tips over at The Lucky 13s.

More news: I'll be launching a website with other debut kidlit authors in the near future. If you're a fan of historical fiction, you'll want to check back for more info on that particular endeavor.

Speaking of historical fiction, Veronica Rossi, author of Under the Never Sky, will be moderating Let's Chat! Historical Settings in YA Fiction, this Saturday, May 12th, at 9PM EST. Here's the info from The Apocalypsies website:  

We’ll be featuring J. Anderson Coats and Katherine Longshore, authors of THE WICKED AND THE JUST and GILT, respectively, with guest appearances by Jessica Spotswood, author of BORN WICKED, Jay Kristoff, author of the upcoming STORMDANCER, Genn Albin, author of CREWEL, Suzanne Lazear, author of INNOCENT DARKNESS, and more!

That's all the news for now. I'll be back soon with tales from the revision cave.

4 comments:

Emma Pass said...

Congratulations on making it through your edit letter! It's a great feeling, isn't it? Loved your Dear Teen Me letter, and I'm really looking forward to the launch of your new site and your next Luckies post! :)

Cat Winters said...

Thanks, Emma! It is a great feeling being done with that stage. My brain is a little confused right now because it's so used to being immersed in edits. I almost need to remind myself I'm taking a break from the book.

I'm glad you enjoyed my Dear Teen Me letter. Now I need to actually get everything done that I said I'd accomplish before the next revision stage arrives!

Congrats on finishing your latest edits!

Ara Burklund said...

That's so awesome you got invited to do a DEAR TEEN ME letter!!! Heading over there to read it right now...

Cat Winters said...

I saw your comment over there. Thanks so much for stopping by!

I actually contacted them about writing a post. They have a link for authors on their website, but they do book pretty far in advance. I contacted them around January, and they scheduled me for May 9 way back then. I was thrilled to be on the site!