Or should that be an old (new) release? I’m not sure, but hang on and I’ll tell you why.
A few months ago, I received the rights back to my short story The Trouble with Firsts that appeared in the 2009 Debs e-anthology The First Time (per the contract). I didn’t think much of it until I remembered that I had another YA short story that didn’t currently have a home. What if I used those two stories to walk through the process of publishing something online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble?
Advantages? Here’s what I thought:
Clean, edited manuscripts pretty much ready to go
Short length, making the formatting and technical review easier
Low risk
It was surprisingly fun along with being educational. My goal isn’t to earn a lot of money with these stories–or even much at all–but to learn how the process works.
And it is also a low risk way to have some of my writing available to new readers as well. A 99-cent short story sampler versus $8.99 for Geek Girl? Some readers might want to go with the 99 cents to start. It’s nice I can give them that option.
The Trouble with Firsts: a story about first dates, prom, and humiliation–not necessarily in that order.
First published as part of The First Time e-anthology, October 2011
Speechless: a story about not speaking up–and what happens when you finally do.
First published online as part of the launch for The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading.
So, there you have it. My new (old) release. Or my old (new) release. It’s available on:
You can also find more information on the event here. I’m excited, and nervous, and all wound up in general. With a little luck, I’ll be able to give a report sometime next week. I also hope to share a little bit of news as well. We’ll see.
In the meantime, I’m excited, and nervous, and all wound up in general.
In fact, I’m so excited, I keep checking the list–and then zooming past our listing. Then I’m all: Oh, no! I just announced this to the world and look, we’re not there!
Then I check again. Yes, yes. We’re (still) there.
Day 11 of 25 Days of Debs and we hit my story in the table of contents. I know. 11-11-11 is some kind of lucky.
My Firsts:
Anthology story: The Trouble With Firsts
First line:
The first time I rode a rollercoaster, I ended up with vomit in my shoes.
First dates, prom, and humiliation–not necessarily in that order.
2009 Debut: Hint: see the sidebar
The Trouble With Firsts story trivia:
This story represents the first time I’ve written something on contract. That is, I agreed to write the story and signed the paperwork long before I had even a glimmer of an idea. And sure, no panic was involved with that.
I brainstormed a whole bunch of firsts, but an idea hit me while I was unloading the dishwasher.
The first time I saw the cover art, I knew I had to work that dress into the story somehow.
The story begins and ends with vomit. (I know. Romantic.) I may have taken that sage writing advice “the end is in the beginning” a little too literally.
Remember, The First Time is available for Kindle and Nook.
The First Time Trivia: Although I don’t mention the song the cafeteria string quartet is playing in my story The Trouble With Firsts, I spent a lot of time listening to Vitamin String Quartet trying to find the perfect one.
Didn’t know there was such a thing as a cafeteria string quartet? Well, the answer to the why and how is somewhere in The Trouble With Firsts.
The release date is scheduled for October of this year. My story is (tentatively) titled The Trouble With Firsts. It’s about first dates, prom, and humiliation. Not necessarily in that order.
I’m so very excited about this anthology and so in love with this cover, I think I want to go steady with it.
Two our our 2009 Debs, Cindy Pon and Malinda Lo have put together a Diversity in YA book tour, possibly coming to a city near you starting May 7th!
Where, you ask? Well, in these cities here:
San Francisco | May 7, 2011 at 3 p.m.
— Focus on Asian American YA with Cindy Pon, Gene Luen Yang, and J.A. Yang
San Francisco Public Library (Main Library)
Latino-Hispanic Room
100 Larkin St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Austin | May 9, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.
— With Bethany Hegedus, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Cindy Pon, Dia Reeves, and Jo Whittemore, and moderated by Varian Johnson
BookPeople
603 N. Lamar
Austin TX 78703
Chicago | May 10, 2011 from 5:30-6:45 p.m.
— With Claudia Guadalupe Martinez, Nnedi Okorafor, and Cindy Pon
Barbara’s Books
1218 South Halsted Street
Chicago, IL 60607
Boston | May 12, 2011 at 7 p.m.
— With Holly Black, Sarah Rees Brennan, Deva Fagan, Cindy Pon, and Francisco X. Stork, and moderated by Roger Sutton
Cambridge Public Library (Main Library)
Lecture Hall
449 Broadway
Cambridge, MA 02138
New York | May 13, 2011 at 6:30 p.m.
— Focus on LGBT YA with Cris Beam, David Levithan, and Jacqueline Woodson
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center
208 West 13th Street
New York, NY 10011
New York | May 14, 2011 at 1 p.m.
— With Matt de la Peña, Kekla Magoon, Neesha Meminger, Cindy Pon, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Rita Williams-Garcia, and Jacqueline Woodson, and moderated by Cheryl Klein
Books of Wonder
18 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011
Want to hear more? Check out Malinda’s vlog:
Even if you can’t make the tour, check out the vlog. How else are you going to learn about the Chinese Twilight?
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
This week, I’m reading Rose Sees Red by Cecil Castellucci. In short:
Rose has given up. She’s given up on friendship, on happiness, on life being anything other than black, black, black. Yrena wants out. She’s a dancer who doesn’t want to dance, a prisoner in her own home, a resident of New York who never gets to see the city. To Rose, Yrena has always been the Russian girl who lives next door, seen through the window but never spoken to.
At least not until Yrena crashes into Rose’s room-and Rose’s life-and sets in motion a night in New York City that none of them will ever forget. From YA superstar Cecil Castellucci, this is the story of cold hearts and cold wars warmed by simple human connection and the liberty of being young and free in the early hours of a new day.
You guys, this book is all 80s, all the time. It has leg warmers, KGB and CIA agents, Dungeons and Dragons, and is so chock full of 80s awesomeness, it’s making me dizzy just thinking about it.
It was difficult to pick a teaser (and mine’s a little long, but really, you need to read all of it–no spoilers, promise), but here it is:
There were perverts in the Bronx. I knew this to be true because my brother, Todd, was a pervert and he lived in Riverdale. I also knew that his dorky friends were perverts, and they were all downstairs in the garage playing Dungeons and Dragons. Right now, my house was Pervert Central.
Pretty excited about this! Here’s the press release for the 2009 Debutantes e-anthology:
New York Times bestselling author Jessica Verday announces an e-anthology featuring 25 authors from the writers group 2009 Debutantes
The bestselling author of THE HOLLOW Trilogy, Jessica Verday, has gathered 24 other authors for a kind of Young Adult sampler featuring a theme of “Firsts.” The eBook will be published by Verday herself and she will be co-editing with Rhonda Stapleton author of the STUPID CUPID series.
This eBook will give readers a chance to sample the stories of 25 different authors exploring what it’s like to experience something for the first time. From first kiss to first love, there’s no time like the first time.
“This is an innovative way for authors to reach out to readers in a single book that anyone can afford. Readers get the chance to find a new story from some of their favorite authors, and while they’re at it, be introduced to other authors they may not have been able to get to know yet,” says Verday.
The e-anthology will be available on Amazon Kindle and Smashwords. The tentative release date is October 4, 2011.
Contributing authors are: Jessica Verday, Carrie Ryan, Rhonda Stapleton, Cyn Balog, Lauren Bjorkman, Leigh Brescia, Teri Hall, Stacey Jay, C. Lee McKenzie, Janet Gurtler, Jenny Moss, Jackson Pearce, Kristina Springer, Charity Tahmaseb, Jon Skovron, Heidi Kling, Saundra Mitchell, Cheryl Renee Herbsman, Kirstin Cronn-Mills, Lara Zielin, Shani Petroff, Kurtis Scaletta, J.A. Yang, Jennifer Brown, and Sydney Salter.
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