Cover Reveal Day!

Happy Thursday! I hope you're all enjoying the summer with beach visits and popsicles and lazy days spent reading. I'm so happy to have made it to July after three and a half weeks of travel and an accelerated move across town. I survived! We're all settled into our home, the cats approve of their new digs, and I can finally hunker down and prepare for the arrival of our newest family member next month. New words like Dreft and diaper pail are starting to make their way into my vocabulary, and I'm rearing and ready to start this new phase.

But let's get to the main event, shall we? Today the cover for my second Lost Planet book, THE STOLEN MOON, is being revealed over at the YA Buccaneers!! Hop on over and check it out: http://www.yabuccaneers.com/blog/2014/7/9/cover-reveal-the-stolen-moon-by-rachel-searles. To celebrate, I'm also offering up a future ARC of the book. I haven't gotten them yet, but when I do, the winner will be at the top of my mailing list. Writing this book was an experience I'll never forget, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I can't wait to share it with the world in January!

A NaNoWriMo Tip Treasure Hunt!

The time for National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo, is nearly upon us once again! This year, we lady pirates of YA Buccaneers have put our scurvy heads together to come up with a treasure hunt of advice for all you brave NaNo participants. And we have a prize drawing for you at the end of the journey! To learn more and get to the start of the treasure hunt, go here:

www.yabuccaneers.com/blog/2013/10/17/nanowrimothe-pirate-plan

Now, for my tip. Writing is solitary work, but one of the best parts of it is meeting other writers and sharing mutual support for the joys and the difficulties of the craft. NaNoWriMo is a prime example of how that support can help people accomplish amazing feats of writing! So take advantage of this time, and use the forums and Twitter to make new friends and participate in that group energy.

And now you must head on to the next leg of your adventure with our smiling pirate Curly McGee! Don't forget to comment below and enter the Rafflecopter to get your prize entry. I leave you now with this very NaNo-relevant quote from Jane Smiley, one that you may have seen me use before. I repeat it to myself regularly:

"Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist."

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Introducing the YA Buccaneers!

Greetings from Istanbul! I'm jumping online mid-vacation to share something new and fun! Some fantastic writers have been working on a secret project for a while now, and just recently I was thrilled to accept an invitation to join their merry crew.

And now the big day is here!!! We are so excited to announce the launch of our new group blog:

 The YA Buccaneers!

A combined effort by ten amazing ladies, we've put together some pretty awesome content that we hope you'll come on by to check out!

Today's the official day of launch -- over the next two weeks we'll be introducing you to each member of the crew, not to mention, hosting a pretty incredible giveaway for all those that would like to join us on our journey!

Adventure awaits and we can't wait to set sail with you!