Anne Riley's Blog, page 3

A Weird Author-y Place To Be

Back in 2010, I thought I was about to hit the big time.

I’d written a book, you see. A novel, actually. A YOUNG ADULT novel. Because dang it, if Stephenie Meyer could do it, I could do it, too. And with the optimistic encouragement of my then-agent, who truly felt that my book would sell quickly and easily, I set off for a family vacation in the mountains feeling kind of like this:

Yes, quite. QUITE, my good fellow.

OBVIOUSLY, my book was going to sell while we were in the mountains, and OBVIOUSLY, it would sell to the highest bidder at auction, and OBVIOUSLY, I was a hugely superior author and would soon be rolling in piles of royalty cash, etc. etc.

The first day passed with nary a word from my agent.

Then the second, and then the third.

On our way back to Birmingham, I remember smiling and participating in conversation while feeling quietly stunned and not a little offended.

(I also remember making my mom pull over so I could throw up on the side of the mountain because HOLLA CAR SICKNESS, THANKS MOUNTAINS FOR BEING RIDICULOUSLY SWIRLY.)

How was it possible that my book had been on submission for THREE WHOLE DAYS without getting snapped up for a six-figure advance? Something had clearly gone very, very wrong.

It would take me months to come to terms with the fact that I was not quite as superior as I had thought.

Over the course of the next year and a half, as my agent and I went on round after round of submission, revising after every flood of rejections, and hoping that this time, somebody would bite, I began to realize something.

Are you ready for this?

WRITING BOOKS IS HARD.

Like, it is so much harder than I ever thought it could be. There is SO much to learn. There is SUCH thick skin to develop. And there is SO much pride to push aside in the name of learning more, being better, picking yourself up yet again.

I didn’t know any of that back in 2010.

But now, as I sit here and look at the mere five months between today and the release date of my second YA novel, I know.

I know what it takes. And I know I’ve yet to arrive there. Am I better than I was five years ago? Oh, heavens yes. But in this case, I think “better” means something different than we assume.

“Better” means I know how I write, how I plan, how I revise. I know myself. I know to give myself room in the schedule, but I also know it’s vital to make myself a schedule.

“Better” means I know that when I reach the point of thinking, “There, that’s as good as it can get,” it can actually get at least 25,000% better with the help of beta readers, my agent, and professional editors.

“Better” means I know that if I want to be an author, I can be one, come jobs or babies or moving or whatever. The only thing that can ever stop me, is me.

It’s a weird place, this little spot I’m in, where I’m looking back at my first book and looking ahead at my second. What totally different experiences they have been. How much I’ve learned. How much I have yet to learn.

There are probably a lot more challenges in my author path, but now, for the first time since I ever sat down and wrote the most abysmal first draft ever in the history of first drafts back in 2008, I feel like I am ready for them.

I have been working on a semi-secret project for a few months now; maybe I’ll be able to talk more about it soon. And in October, once my pregnancy nausea is gone for good and I’ve regained some of my energy, I will begin to write YA again.

I can’t wait.

That Time June Turned Into September And I Hardly Noticed

Grasshoppers:

I write to you today from the comfort of my living room sofa, where, thanks to my new part-time work schedule, I have been quite happily camped out for the past two hours with this week’s issue of In Touch magazine. The sofa has been a delightful experience; the magazine, a most regretful one.

In spite of subjecting myself to Kim and Kanye’s shamefully childish antics, it thrills me to report that morale, in general, is high.

…What’s that?

I hear whispers among the people… whispers that perhaps I should be using my newfound time for writing instead of lounging about with trashy magazines.

(Wait, those aren’t whispers. That’s just the guilty voice in my head.)

But I should tell you, Grasshoppers, in case you haven’t heard already: There is a third Riley child percolating in my belly, and at this point–a mere ten weeks in–well, I must admit that I struggle to stay awake after work, and lo, I nap. And I eat popcorn chicken. And I try to stop gagging because of random gag triggers, like diapers or t-shirt collars or talking.

(Yes, talking. TALKING makes me gag sometimes.)

All is well on the book front; you may have heard that PULL’s release date has moved from December 8 to February 2. This has been confirmed and is, in fact, 100% cold hard truth.

BUT DO NOT FRET, MY LOVES.

I am working on several very exciting things for you.

The first: An ongoing Instagram project (that took a brief hiatus during the weeks I was unable to look at a computer screen for fear of vomiting) that features quotes and locations from PULL. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can follow me on Instagram @annerileybooks, or you can search the tag #PullByAnneRiley.

The second: An official PULL playlist that will be available on Spotify. This is, perhaps, the most fun I’ve ever had making a playlist, and as someone who used to make mix CDs like it was her job, that’s saying quite a bit.

I’m making a valiant attempt to get back into the world of regular(ish) blogging, though this will surely be a less consistent process than I would like, as is the case with most things in my life.

Stay cool, Grasshoppers.

Stay cool.

Pull Words & Places: Episode 2

(This series is for my dear fans and readers who don’t have Instagram. To see Episode 1, click here.)

Alrighty! Who’s ready for FOUR MORE snippets from PULL? We did 1-4 last time, so here are 5-8.

5) Camden Row. 

Rosie Clayton is half American, half English. Her father’s parents live on Camden Row in London, which is such an unremarkable street, I had to take a Google Map screenshot to get this image. Inside one of these houses sits a girl who’s deeply worried about her brother, deeply grieved about the state of her family, and deeply confused about which version of reality is the correct one…

6) This quote from Rosie, our main character.

Pretty much.

7) All Saints Church. 

Photo by Flickr user Ewan Munro. Licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

The shadows of All Saints Church can hide a lot of things. On the night Rosie watches a crime unfold–and then unfold again, but with an alternate ending–the church’s shadows conceal a mysterious stranger who will not only risk his life to save someone else’s, but will also change Rosie’s life forever.

8) This quote from Edward Clayton, Rosie’s grandfather.

At its core, PULL is a story of actively, bravely, and selflessly fighting evil. Are the characters in the story afraid? Of course. Anyone who’s smart fears danger. But to me, courage is fighting in spite of fear. And if she wants to save her brother, that’s what Rosie will have to do.

*          *          *

Stay tuned for Episode 3 of our Words & Places series! If you’re on Instagram and you’re not yet following me, I’d love to have you along for the ride; I’m @AnneRileyBooks. Also, if you haven’t yet pre-ordered PULL, why, you can do so HERE!

I hope you enjoyed Episode 2 of PULL’s Words & Places. See you next time!

Because When The Camel’s Back Is Breaking, You Should Probably Remove That Straw

Do you guys remember that super awesome plotting system I started using a few months back? Man, I LOVE THAT SYSTEM. It has worked better than anything else I’ve ever tried. I have HALF of a first draft written!

It’s exciting.

It’s rewarding.

It’s…

…half of what I was supposed to have at this point.

Because when I made my drafting schedule, I projected that I would be done with the first draft by my birthday, which was June 18 (happy birthday to meeeeee!).

And really, I was well on my way to that deadline. Somehow, after a full day of work and a full afternoon/evening with our two small kidlets, I was meeting my writing goals every single night.

Until I wasn’t–

–because the end of the school year is a straight-up nightmare, y’all. It sounds great–half days! no teaching!–but in reality, it is one of the busiest times for teachers.

–because we decided to put our house on the market, which meant suddenly having to throw all the dirty dishes in the freezer and stuff all the laundry under the beds and take the kids somewhere else to nap, tragically forgetting to bring my computer with me. Oh, and I had to take down my wall charts, which really put a cramp in my style.

Apparently, wall charts are unacceptable when one is selling one’s house. :(

–because when both of the above things are happening, it becomes a feat of superhuman effort to keep up with regular housework, errands, cooking, etc.

–because I also had to work on edits for PULL, which, let’s face it, took priority because I signed an actual contract on that one.

Here’s the good news:

ALL of my plans, but especially the writing ones, come with a big fat grain of salt. I create these schedules with the hope that they will actually happen. A schedule gives me a goal, a dream, and when I combine that goal with a sticker system, it is exhilarating to actually move in that direction.

I also need room for the schedule to adapt. And that’s what I’m having to do now.

So instead of focusing on the fact that I have only written half of what I hoped to write by this point, I’m focusing on the 25+/- chapters that are drafted. And I’m calling it a win.

I’m calling it a win because today, I realized something had to change.

I simply cannot take care of my family, pack up everything in my house, coordinate with loan officers / real estate people / contractors / buyers / sellers, gather all the documents needed to actually make this transaction happen, complete edits on PULL, spend time with my friends, make a temporary move to an in-between place while we have work done on the new house, work on things for school in the fall, and write new material.

One of these things had to go. The camel’s back was breaking.

So I’m taking a sabbatical from writing for the rest of the summer. It’s hard to do, because all I can think about is how much writing I COULD be doing. But it has to be done. And that’s okay. Flexibility is okay. Adapting is okay.

IT IS OKAY.

One last thing, and then I promise I’ll be done–

It occurred to me today, as I was making this decision, that I have been comparing myself to the wrong people when it comes to book production. In particular, I was comparing myself to a very lovely and well-known YA writer who has written and edited three books this year.

It is only June.

THREE BOOKS.

And I started to feel like SUCH a failure because I have edited one and halfway written another. That is, like, 1/4 of what she has done.

But then I realized that this girl is single, has no children, and her job is to write books. Like, that is her actual dayjob.

I am married, I have a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old, and I have a dayjob that is not writing. (Even when school is out, my job is “momming.” Not writing.)

Neither of us is in a “better” stage of life. And I’m not saying her life is any easier than mine, because she is VERY busy and important, and I only know her public persona; I really have no idea what she deals with on a daily basis.

But is it fair of me to compare my output to hers when she has 8+ hours a day dedicated to writing, and I have maybe 1 (if I’m lucky)?

Of course not.

That’s when I decided to give myself permission to take a break. Because as much as I’d like for time-turners to actually exist, they in fact do not.

My bad–they DO exist on Etsy. I should have known.

So here’s to summer, and moving to a wonderful house, and spending time with my family while I send my fictional friends on vacation.

Bon voyage, fictional friends. I’ll see you again in the fall.

PULL Words & Places: Episode 1

It has occurred to me in the past few days that not everyone has Instagram. Which is fine, of course, but it does mean that non-Instagrammers are missing out on something REALLY COOL.

Well–I think it’s really cool, anyway.

As PULL’s release date approaches (that’s Dec. 8, as you may remember), I’ve been posting quotes from the book and photos of the story’s locations every Tuesday. But I’ve only been posting them on Instagram.

So if you’re not a ‘grammer, you may be missing out. Except that now you aren’t, because I’m going to post the first four in the series right here on the blog!

1. London Bridge Station. 

Photo by Flickr user Gerry Balding. Creative commons license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

The story of PULL starts in a train station. London Bridge Station, to be exact; a station I’ve found myself in many times. When Rosie arrives here, everything is cast in shadows, just like this picture. As she journeys through an unspeakable adventure, the contrast between light and dark grows so strong it nearly rips her world in half. It all starts here: London Bridge Station.

2. A quote from Rosie, our main character:

For a girl who hates lying to her parents (especially when they’re already dealing with a crisis), Rosie sure is having to do a lot of it. But when you’re trying to save your brother’s life, is deception justified?

3. Guys Hospital.

Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Smuconlaw. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International.

Looks like a boring picture of a hospital, doesn’t it? You’d never guess this is where Rosie Clayton begins to realize that “reality” is a relative term. Past one of these nondescript windows lies a hospital bed containing her grandfather–a man who, while struggling to live, speaks shocking words only to her. It’s not so much what he says that shoots holes in Rosie’s grasp of reality; it’s how he says it.

4. A quote from Paul, Rosie’s younger brother: 

Paul Clayton feels a lot like this styrofoam cup: empty, easily discarded, and hazardous to the environment. His zingers, however, are always in top form–especially when they’re aimed at Rosie.

*          *          *

Stay tuned for Episode 2 of our Words & Places series! If you’re on Instagram and you’re not yet following me, I’d love to have you along for the ride; I’m @AnneRileyBooks. Aside from cool book quotes and location images, you’ll also get some wicked double-chin selfies and photos of my dirty dishes.

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

Also, if you haven’t yet pre-ordered PULL, why, you can do so HERE! The paperback is only $9.95 and the e-book is most likely much cheaper than that, though I am currently failing to find its price. #techfail

I hope you enjoyed Episode 1 of PULL’s Words & Places. See you next time!

That One Time I Decided To Do Everything At Once

So, it’s May. The end of the school year is nigh (here in Alabama, anyway; to the rest of the country who has to wait until the middle of June before you see the sweet light of freedom, LOL SORRY GUYS GOOD LUCK), I’m working on Creepy Faces while I wait on my final (!!!) round of edits on Pull, and for some reason, we’ve decided to try to sell our house.

(I say “for some reason” as if we just casually decided to put it on the market for fun, which is not at all true. The Rileys can be somewhat devil-may-care about many things, but real estate is not one of them.)

The antsy-ness at school is expected. I’ve been teaching for a decade, so I know what May is like, and it no longer surprises me. We’re just pushing through as best we can right now, and soon, exams will be over and the bags under our eyes will be a distant memory.

But the house-selling part?

I was NOT READY for that.

We’re landscaping. We’re cleaning. We’re repairing. And this is after working a full day and then hanging with our kiddos when we get home. None of this even starts until 8pm, at which point I would really just like to crawl in bed with a book and–oh, who am I kidding, I don’t even have the strength to read right now.

A couple years ago, when we sold our first house, it was done in an unconventional and completely stress-free way. This time, we’re touching up paint at 9:30pm and shoving clutter in the dryer like our lives depend on it.

And they don’t, of course. Not at all. In fact, we don’t have to move. It’s just a really good time for it, and we’ve done lots of things to the house that could earn us some cash. So we’re trying.

But there are times when I feel like my entire identity rests in how the next showing goes, you know what I mean?

Anyway.

All that to say: Things are a bit busy around here, guys. And Mrs. Riley needs for summer to HURRY UP.

(You don’t even want to know how many times it took me to spell “hurry” correctly. I typed hooray, hurray, hurrey before I got it right.)

(This is sort of like yesterday in class, when I kept starting sentences on the whiteboard in English and ending them in Spanish without realizing it. Feeling scattered is even more dangerous when you speak more than one language.)

Counting the days until summer,

Señora Riley

Pre-Ordering PULL: Why Should You Bother?

There are two things you should know about publishing. First, its inner workings are a mystery to most of the world. Second, its inner workings are a mystery to authors until we actually start doing it and then we learn things along the way, mostly by accident.

This would be known as “building the plane while you’re flying it.”

(Incidentally, when you have an agent as terrific as Agent Emma, you don’t have to worry about all the things you don’t know. Because guess what? She does the knowing FOR you.)

One of the things I’ve learned about publishing, mostly just by watching other books release, is that pre-order sales are MUY IMPORTANTE.

(That means “very important” for you non-Spanish speakers out there.)

Why are pre-order sales so important? Well, there are some small reasons (early word-of-mouth publicity, for example), and then there is one really big reason. And the really big reason is this:

Pre-order sales count as part of first week sales. 

That means that any pre-ordered copies of a book count toward that book’s sales numbers in its first week after release.

Okay. So what?

Guess which sales numbers are used to populate bestseller lists? Yep, you guessed it. It’s the sales numbers from the first week, which includes pre-orders.

So, to put it into mathematical terms:

Pre-orders + First Week Sales = MAYBE HITTING A BESTSELLER LIST, LIKE, I DON’T KNOW, THE NEW YORK TIMES ONE, I HEAR THAT ONE IS PRETTY POPULAR.

Now, let me go ahead and say this: ALL sales are important to an author and their publisher. It’s not like you shouldn’t buy a book after the first week. YOU SHOULD. Authors’ careers can be launched off the charts by hitting a bestseller list, but steady sales keep their books selling to publishers, which, in turn, keeps their books on shelves.

I think I speak for all authors when I say we appreciate every single sale.

But those pre-orders–well, they can really make a difference for us. If we debut on a bestseller list, it’s MASSIVE exposure, which can result in…

…steady sales,

which helps solidify our careers,

which keeps our books selling to publishers,

which keeps our books on shelves,

which keeps our books in your hands.

My awesome friends, family, and readers often ask me: “I know I can buy your books anywhere, but where do you make the most money? How can I buy them in the way that benefits you the most?”

This is one of the biggest answers to that question: Pre-order it. Or buy it the first week. Use your local bookstore if you can, because I’m a big supporter of local businesses. But if you can’t, there’s this other website called Amazon, where you can pre-order it right this minute, if you’d like.

You can also click this lovely screenshot of PULL’s Amazon page and be taken straight to the pre-order thingy (technical term).

So there you have it: Pre-orders And Why They Matter, by Anne Riley.

Thank you for all the support, Grasshoppers. To those of you who have already pre-ordered the book and then told other people about it, gosh darnit, I just wanna give you a hug.

Until next time…

VLOG: My Awesome New Novel Drafting System

BEHOLD. I HAVE MADE YOU A VIDEO. It is about my new system for organizing and drafting a novel. Warning: it is almost 8 minutes long and I filmed it in my bedroom. Enjoy!

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait

PULL releases in 233 days. That sounds like forever, although I know that the next time I look up, it will only be 210 days, and then 185 days, and then 70 days, and then it will be THE DAY.

Isn’t it strange how each day feels endless, but the weeks and months somehow fly by? The time between New Year’s Day and the end of the school year feels like ten minutes, every single year. And I’m caught off guard by it, every single year. Pretty soon I will be ninety-four years old and asking people how in the world this happened.

(This reminds me of my friend N., who recently wrote a check with “2002” in the date and was shocked when her husband informed her that it is, in fact, 2015.)

(Additionally: Did you know that you can scroll endlessly on your iPhone calendar? The other night I went all the way to the year 3,000, and then all the way back to the years 1 B.C. and 1 A.D. Then I stared at them, saying things like, “Oh my word. It’s basically the beginning of time. Look at this. LOOK AT THIS.”)

So anyway, 233 days might feel like an eternity, but I have a feeling it will go by much faster than we think it will. And in the meantime, here are some things you can do / think about / plan for.

1) First and foremost, I hear SHADOWS OF THE HIDDEN is a mighty fine piece of YA lit. If you’re looking for something to read, the paperback is only $9.95 on Amazon, or there is the Kindle version for a cool $4.99.

Oh! And, you can find it on Goodreads. LOOK.

Doesn’t that look fun?

2) I’m currently brainstorming some really fun things for PULL’s release this December. It’s too early to give any details, but there will be some pretty sweet swag packs, and a super fun release party in my city of Birmingham, Alabama.

PLUS: I am gathering creative commons images of some of the places around London where PULL takes place. I want to do an Instagram/Facebook/blog series of these locations leading up to the book’s release, talking about their significance to the story (without spoilers!) as well as my own personal experience with them.

Do you want a preview?

OH OKAY.

This is The Hare & Billet. It’s a pub in Blackheath, which is a tiny, adorable town tucked into the southeast corner of London, near Greenwich. Most people have never heard of this pub or the magical town of Blackheath. After December 8, that will no longer be true.

Albert and Rosie, PULL’s main characters, have a very…interesting…evening in this pub. And it was one of my favorite pubs years ago, when I spent a lot of time in that neck of the woods. Plus, the NAME. Isn’t that just the greatest pub name ever?

Leave it to the English to have on-point pub names.

3) Speaking of PULL, If you haven’t added it on Goodreads yet, I’d be ever so grateful if you did. And since I posted a screenshot of SHADOWS’ page on GR, I suppose I should do the same for PULL. Don’t want them fighting over it, do I?

There you have it.

So gear up, Grasshoppers, because there’s going to be a lot of fun stuff happening in the next 233 days. If you’re in the Birmingham area, or even if you’re not, keep an eye on this site for details about the release party and other fun things. I can’t wait to celebrate all of this with you!

I Blew All My Creativity Into A Kleenex

Well, we’re sick. All of us. My husband had some kind of devil-infection that made him hack and splutter for about 72 hours straight, and Baby J, to absolutely no one’s surprise, seems to have caught it.

(Girlfriend is like germ Velcro. If a germ passes within a radius of one mile from her body, SHE WILL ABSORB IT.)

M and I have something that people usually refer to as “just a cold,” although that description seems a bit trite for something that is straight-up devouring my sinuses from the inside out. I’m going to start saying, “Oh, it’s just a flesh-eating virus,” because that feels more accurate.

Anyway.

Naturally (because if the Rileys are known for anything, it’s getting sick right when we really shouldn’t, like that one Mother’s Day when I started throwing up at the exact moment our entire family arrived for the lunch we were hosting), Rob and I are supposed to go to Nashville on Friday.

To a marriage conference getaway that we received as a Christmas gift.

For the entire weekend.

That we have been looking forward to for more than four months.

Basically, we need a Germ-Busting Miracle so that we can drop our kids off at our parents’ houses WITHOUT saying things like, “Now, when she has a coughing fit…” or, “Here’s her antibiotic; she needs it twice a day, and PS, she will try to TEAR YOUR ARMS OFF YOUR BODY when you give it to her.”

Because no one wants to say those things to one’s parents as one is leaving one’s kids with said parents.

I’ve been working a lot on my Creepy Faces book lately, and actually keeping up pretty well with my writing schedule (half a chapter per day), but today, I just lost my motivation. The rainy weather, my cold, my sick kids–it just sucked all the creative life out of me.

And it reminded me: We need to be gracious with ourselves.

The sticker system is awesome, and for me, it works. I don’t know why I’m so deeply motivated by stickers, but I am. Lots of you are, too. DON’T PRETEND YOU’RE ABOVE STICKERS.

But on days when you’ve slogged through all your tasks in an Aleve-D haze, and the kids are sick and therefore grumpy, and your husband has been trapped in the house, sick, for three days–

It’s okay to miss a sticker.

IT IS OKAY.

Because you know what I’ve learned? That sticker can be made up later. Sure, I’m a couple days behind right now. But I’ll get there. One way or another, Creepy Faces will be written, revised, and beta’d by November.

It may not go exactly according to the plan I’ve so neatly outlined in my planner, but I will get there anyway.

Just as soon as I get over this cold… *sneezes*