A quick thank you

Posted January 20, 2014 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Uncategorized / 4 Comments

It’s been almost exactly a week (give or take a few hours) since I announced the coming publication of Threats of Sky and Sea and I just wanted to take a quick moment to say THANK YOU to all of you. The YA blogging community has been incredibly supportive of the decision and there was a point (okay, more than one) this week where I was so overwhelmed by how WONDERFUL you all were that I teared up. I found fellow writers and authors offering their support and congratulations. I realized that I’m now a part of the self-published author community too, which has been warm and welcoming. Some kind self-pub authors who know what they’re doing far more than I do have already helped me out with some advice (shout-out here especially to Tammy Farrell and Jamie Grey). So […]

It’s a big, big, big day!

Posted January 13, 2014 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Self-Publishing, Uncategorized / 17 Comments

I always assumed that my first book would be a traditionally published one. To that end, over the years, I spent a lot of time researching query letters, synopses, and pitch contests. And I wrote a book. I revised (and revised and revised) it. My amazing beta readers and critique partners told me that my novel about a teenage barmaid in a world filled with Elementals and royalty, was ready to meet the world. So, I began querying, jumped into pitch contests, and waited. And waited. And waited. While I waited, I closely followed the paths of Leigh Ann Kopans and Jamie Grey, who both self-published their debut novels last year. Game-changer. I saw that they were putting out quality novels. I heard about the speed of self-publishing, the control that’s available to them, the decisions that they get to […]

A look back and looking forward in 2014

Posted January 1, 2014 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Uncategorized / 1 Comment

As 2014 opens, I’m realizing something: I’m not where I want to be with my life, and you know? That’s okay. Because all things considered, I had a pretty good year. I have my ups and my downs. Sometimes my downs are really low and it’s hard to remember the good in my life. But when I put it in a list like this, the good overwhelmingly outweighs the bad and I think focusing on the good things in my life will help when those times inevitably roll back around. I transitioned from a temp job to a permanent position, where (some days) I actually get to use my English degree. My best friend lives several states away, but we still managed to see each other for four different trips. The bevy and I talk more than ever and it’s […]

Homecoming

Posted November 18, 2013 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Uncategorized / 0 Comments

As I so often do, last weekend, I journeyed to Orlando, home to my alma mater. Although this time, it was for Homecoming. Homecoming as an alumna is (not unexpectedly) an altogether different experience from homecoming as a college student. For one thing, Homecoming at UCF is a competition. It’s not just students concentrating on one football game and hoping that the team emerges victorious. Instead, the whole week is rife with events like Philanthropy Knight or Skit Knight. As a student, I was INTO Homecoming. I loved it. I tried to participate in every event possible with my sorority; helped write the skits and performed in them. The night before the game, participating organizations had to build a float for the Homecoming parade. I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, helping to build our float, caught […]

November, November.

Posted November 7, 2013 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Uncategorized / 1 Comment

How is it possible that we’re in November already? It seems like New Year’s was last month; like BEA was last week; like my trip to Virginia and D.C. to see the BFF was yesterday. And even that was already two months ago. October was a pretty calm month. I elected not to do much in the way of Halloween– I didn’t relish the idea of going out on a Thursday when I still needed to be at the office by 9 A.M. No costumes this year! My one concession to the Halloween season (besides the candy. So. Much. Candy.) was an afternoon spent carving pumpkins with my friends. Alas, art is not my calling. My pumpkin was supposed to be a graveyard scene. But my pumpkin wound up with a very odd sort of… face instead. My adventures in […]

A happy list

Posted October 18, 2013 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Uncategorized / 0 Comments

Stuff that’s made me happy in the past week: This song: Best Day of My Life by American Authors– It’s just such a HAPPY song, and I’d be lying if I said that the band name didn’t also make me smile. Celebrating a friend’s promotion with a nice dinner at Salt. Seriously, one of the best burgers and mac ‘n cheese I’ve ever tasted. Plus I got to wear a new favorite maxi dress for the evening. On Saturday, I Skyped with Angel and Aimee to watch Itazura Na Kiss: Love in Tokyo, which is a J-Drama based on one of my favorite anime (and which I’m convinced is secretly an AU of Sailor Moon). I also grabbed lunch with a couple friends on Sunday. Friend-filled weekends are nice sometimes, y’know? This happy pink sweater which is so “me” […]

3 places in about 3 days

Posted October 3, 2013 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Uncategorized / 2 Comments

A few weekends ago, I visited my best friend and her boyfriend for the first time since they moved out of Florida. I had to keep my trip pretty short since we all have only so much time that we can take off of work, but I had such a great time! I basically traveled to Virginia, D.C., and Maryland in about 3 days. I arrived in Virginia on Thursday night, and on Friday morning, I woke up prepared for my first trip to Washington D.C.! The leaves were just starting to change colors, and I was excited that fall was starting to inch its way in. We don’t really have seasons in Florida, unless you count Hot (spring), Scorching and Humid with a chance of STORMS (summer), Pretty Dang Warm (fall), and Downright Pleasant (winter). Suffice to say, I […]

Title Angst

Posted July 26, 2013 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Uncategorized, Writing / 1 Comment

Titles. They make me all adlkjslijsiou daufcsvhshflcj I am not a writer who’s ever been good at titling my works. Even in my fanfiction days, I struggled to title the fics I posted most of the time. I settled with APPARENT for my manuscript. It’s not a title I’ve ever really loved. I think it works on some levels, but it’s not… it’s just not. And of course, I always have THIS conversation when I talk about it: Other person: What’s your book called? Me: Apparent Them: A parent? Like a mom or dad? Oh, so is it like lit fiction about being a single parent or something? Me: Um. No. Not exactly. It’s A-P-P-A-R-E-N-T. And it’s a young adult fantasy. Them: Oh. A beat. Them: Is that like porn for teens? *headdesk* I want a GOOD title. Something that […]

#LV13 Blog hop

Posted July 14, 2013 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Uncategorized / 8 Comments

SO. The Like a Virgin pitch contest starts tomorrow and since I’m one of the entrants, I figure I better hop on this whole blog hop deal! 1. How do you remember your first kiss? Lord. It was okay. I was 18. It was my first month of college. I was in a nightclub. That’s all you get. 😉 2. What was your first favorite love song? THIS (song starts around 0:42): (In case it wasn’t obvious, I have pretty much always been a Sailor Moon fangirl) 3. What’s the first thing you do when you begin writing for the day? Hahaha. Um. Procrastinate? I.e. Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, food… 4. Who’s the first writer who truly inspired you to become a writer? So, okay. This is a bit of a convoluted answer for me because my instinct is to say Tamora […]

That’s so fetch.

Posted July 2, 2013 by Jennifer Ellision in blog, Uncategorized / 2 Comments

Stop trying to make fetch happen, Jen. Okay but really, this post was supposed to be about trends– specifically writing to trends. So you can see where I veered off a little because I believe that one should always seize the opportunity to work in a Mean Girls quote where one can. Ahem. But moving on. So a couple of things happened recently that brought this topic to mind for me as a blog post. The first that I’ll mention is the #MSWL or Manuscript Wishlist Twitter tag. Because a few writers that I saw in the tag were trying to jump on writing things that the agents and editors tweeting requested. If they were simply inspired, nbd, writers, do yo thang. But if they’re specifically trying to address a trend, we’ve got a problem. And that brings me to […]