There's nothing like a pair of braces to make you feel like a teen-ager again. I don't have a bad perm and now wear contacts, but I still feel like I'm fourteen all over again. What's been interesting is that people stare. They stared at 14 and they stare at 47.

I have clear braces on top and metal ones on the bottom. My rubber bands on the bottom are turquoise because it's my daughter's favorite color. They didn't have fancy colors when I wore them the first time.

If the braces weren't bad enough, I have an expander in. Once I have my SARPE surgery tomorrow, it will help expand my narrow upper jaw. Right now, it only serves to make me talk weird  and is a haven for food getting stuck.

Thanks to YouTube, I've been able to get the 411 on the SARPE surgery. I got some tips like using frozen peas for the swelling since they'll mold to your face.

I also recently watched the movie, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, on Netflix and loved it. I bought a juicer and have been enjoying some delicious juice. It will come in handy for my liquid diet post surgery.

A stack of books is on my nightstand waiting to be read. I hope I feel up to it because I relish the time I'll have to just heal and read.

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In honor of my characters' Hispanic heritage, we are celebrating Cinco de Mayo by having the Kindle version of  Unraveled on sale for .99 cents.

The sale runs from May 3-May 8th.

http://www.amazon.com/Unraveled-ebook/dp/B00BCRL8ME/ref=tmm_kin_title_0

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I'm doing a blog tour this week and next. Hope you can drop by one of these sites. A few of them have giveaways, so you can enter for a chance to win my book, Unraveled.

April

15 – Spotlight @ Dana’s YABook Pile

15 – Guest Blog and Giveaway @ A Little Bit of R & R

17 – Spotlight and GIveaway @ The Rambling’s of a Toddler’s Mom

17 – Interview @ Laurie’s Non-paranormal Thoughts and Reviews

18 – Spotlight & Review @ Lindsay’s Scribblings

18 – Spotlight @ The Bootheel Cotton Patch

19 – Spotlight & Extended Excerpt @ Laura Diamond

19 – Guest Blog & Review @ My Guilty Obsession

22 – Guest Blog @ Karen Y.Bynum

24 – Interview & Review @ Out There Reviews and Stuff

25 – Interview & Review @ Girls Heart Books

26 – Spotlight & Review @ Falling into Reading Reviews

29 – Spotlight @ New Age Mama

30 – Character Post & Review & Giveaway @ Reader Girls (Post from Autumn's Point of view: What makes a great FBI profiler and what she expects to gain from becoming one?)

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Happy Valentine's Day to all my fellow YA & Mysterybook lovers.

In honor of Valentine's day, I am giving away an Ebook or paperback (You choose) of my new YA mystery novel, Unraveled.

Sixteen year old math whiz, Autumn, spends her days reading about serial killers and dreaming of becoming an FBI Profiler. She never dreams her first case will be so personal. Her world is shattered when she comes home from school and discovers her murdered sister’s body on the living room floor. When the initial evidence points to a burglary gone wrong, Autumn challenges the police’s theory because of the personal nature of the crime. Thinking that finding the killer will bring her family back together, she conducts her own investigation using her affinity for math and forensics, but her plan backfires and her obsession with the case further splinters her family.

When her investigation reveals the killer is someone she knows, Autumn offers herself up as bait and sets a dangerous trap to unmask his true nature and to obtain a confession for her sister’s murder

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Forensic Friday is being replaced with Freak-Out Friday.

Unraveled now has a cover and is on the front page of www.evernightteen.com

It's a milestone as a writer to see your book cover. I wish this feeling on all the writers out there.

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Forensic Entomology is the study of insects found in and/ around a dead body. Think of Grissom on CSI: Las Vegas. He loved his bugs and used them to solve crimes.






• Necrophagous are the insects that are found on corpses.

• Insects can disturb and affect the crime scene. They can walk through blood and leave tracks. They can ingest blood, and then leave deposits elsewhere.

• Insects found on a body may point to a specific location based on the natural habitat of the insect and the material they eat.

• You can determine time of death based on insect activity and life cycle stage

• Forensic entomology can be used in helping to solve criminal, civil, food contamination, and abuse cases.

• The use of forensic entomology was started in the 14th century in China

• In the novel, Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris, the rare moths were one of the ways the FBI was able to find the serial killer

• Child killer, Kevin Neal, was convicted using forensic entomology

• Dr. Neal Haskell is one of the most renowned forensic entomologists and has participated in hundreds of trials.

• If you are a forensic entomologist, you can join NAFEA (North American Forensic Entomology Association.


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Resources:

http://www.forensic-entomology.com/

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/forensics/kevin_neal/13.html

http://www.saintjoe.edu/academics/biology/haskell.html

http://www.nafea.net/

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1. The study of fingerprints is called Dactylography

2. Fingerprints are identified using three patterns: whorls, loops, and arches.

3. No two fingerprints are alike even on identical twins.

4. Most commonly used forensic evidence worldwide

5. The AIST (Academy of Investigation Services & Training) offers a fingerprint identification course.

6. IAFIS (Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System) database is used by more than 20,000 agencies worldwide for the identification of fingerprints

7. Fingerprints are produced by the sweat and oil in your fingers

8. Normally, when you injure a finger, the same fingerprint pattern appears on the new skin. If you damage the inner skin layer, you may have a new fingerprint pattern.

9. Gangster John Dillinger tried removing his fingerprints but dipping his fingers in acid. It didn’t work

10. Fingerprints are the “pegs” that connect your outer skin to the inner skin layer

Resources:

http://www.forensicsciencecentre.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=40&Itemid=48

 http://odyb.net/forensics/5-facts-about-the-fingerprint/

http://fingerprintcourse.com/

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2004-08-06-wonderquest_x.htm

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I'm so excited to announce that my first young adult mystery will be published by in Spring 2013. I plan to resurrect my blog and chronicle the journey to publication while working a full time job, plus being a mom, and continuing my MFA from Seton Hill.

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One of my favorite things about my Writing Workshop class is reading the amazing work of my classmates. One of our directives is to note three things that we love and then we post three questions we have about the pages. I like this approach alot better than picking out something positive then picking out something negative, then ending with something positive.

I don't think it's our place as a critiquer to point out the negative. Is there really a negative? Isn't it really about helping the author produce the best manuscript possible? That's why I like the question approach. Maybe something isn't clear or it didn't come across as the author intended.

For my own critiques, I plan to focus on the similar comments that several people mentioned. Those are the areas that obvious aren't working.

It's interesting that I feel like I'm becoming a better writer by critiquing 70 pages a week. I also love reading the critiques that I'm getting from my classmates and an instructor. I'm always amazed that I have looked at my pages hundreds of times and have not seen something so obvious.

There's such a level of trust in handing over your literary babies and saying "Okay, tear them apart, so I can make them better." It's scary but it's so worth it.

So go out there and find a great critique group.

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I'm taking an 8 week Writer's Workshop through McDaniel College. I'm learning so much about receiving and giving critiques. It's amazing how I can read something a hundred times and still not see something that my classmates have point out.

Our instructor is the fabulous Jill Santopolo who is an author and and editor for Philomel.

On the SCBWI front, the Central and Southern Ohio is planning a fundraising Bookfair at Barnes & Noble on Saturday, June 25th from 11:00-4:00. Hope to see you there.

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The 2010 Agatha nominees were announced today and I'm so glad to see two familar names on the list:
Amanda Flower, Maid of Murder , (Best First Novel Nominee)
Heather Webber, Truly, Madly ,(Best Novel Nominee)

I've had the pleasure of meeting both of these talented writers at my Sisters in Crime meetings. At our Fall event, I won a critique from Heather for my novel, Unraveled. I can't say enough good things about her.

Here is the complete list of nominees and it's always so exciting to see the Best Children's/Young Adult category. We need more mysteries for children which means I better get back to writing.

Congrats to the nominees, especially Amanda and Heather. I'll be cheering for you both.

Agatha Award Nominees

2010

Best Novel:
Stork Raving Mad by Donna Andrews (Minotaur)
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny (Minotaur)
The Scent of Rain and Lightning by Nancy Pickard (Ballantine)
Drive Time by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Mira)
Truly, Madly by Heather Webber (St. Martin's Paperbacks)


Best First Novel:
The Long Quiche Goodbye by Avery Aames (Berkley)
Murder at the PTA by Laura Alden (Signet)
Maid of Murder by Amanda Flower (Five Star/Gale)
Full Mortality by Sasscer Hill (Wildside Press)
Diamonds for the Dead by Alan Orloff (Midnight Ink)

Best Non-fiction:
The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum (Penguin)
Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: 50 Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran (Harper)
Sherlock Holmes for Dummies by Stephen Doyle & David A. Crowder (For Dummies)
Have Faith in Your Kitchen by Katherine Hall Page (Orchises Press)
Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang (W.W. Norton & Co.)

Best Short Story:
"Swing Shift" by Dana Cameron, Crimes by Moonlight (Berkley)
"Size Matters" by Sheila Connolly, Thin Ice (Level Best Books)
"Volunteer of the Year" by Barb Goffman, Chesapeake Crimes: They Had it Comin' (Wildside Press)
"So Much in Common" by Mary Jane Maffini, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - Sept./Oct. 2010
"The Green Cross" by Liz Zelvin, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine - August 2010

Best Children's/Young Adult:
Theodore Boone, Kid Lawyer by John Grisham (Dutton Children's)
Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus by R. L. LaFevers (Houghton Mifflin)
The Agency: A Spy in the House by Y. S. Lee (Candlewick)
Virals by Kathy Reichs (Razorbill)
The Other Side of Dark by Sarah Smith (Atheneum)

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I attended a work meeting today where the topic was strategy. Our speaker noted that 9 out of 10 times, we write down and design a perfectly great strategy. But here's the kicker, 80% of those strategies will fail.

Why? Why? Why?

You spent all that time writing down your strategy on pretty paper then hanging it on the refrigerator or you've created some nifty spreadsheet in Excel to manage what you want to accomplish. How could it possibly not work?

So why do most of our strategies fail? Because we fail to execute what we planned.

This got me thinking. As writers, should we have a strategy for managing our writing career? These strategies could even be broken down into mini strategies such as Strategy for Writing Book 1, Strategy for Revising, Strategy for Querying, Strategy for Marketing your book,etc.

From personal experience, I know I had a 'plan' of sorts in my head. Did I execute that plan? Hell, no. Not even close. Why? Because I let my emotions and the heat of the moment get in my way. This is why it would have helped to have a well developed, thought out, and written plan in place before I took the next step in my writing.
I would have created the strategy when I wasn't so emotionally invested in the outcome so logic and reason would have a stronger voice.

Most of us plan our careers, have an idea on how we want to parent, have a strategy to buy our first home, get our of debt, etc.
It seems reasonable that since we should be treating our writing career as a business, we should have a written business plan or strategy.

Here's an example of one that I just made up off the top of my head to get the juices flowing.

Querying:

*Research literary agents and create a list of agents that respresent what I write and that would be a good fit for me
*Create a spreadsheet so I can track my submissions (Yes, I love Excel)
*Decide on the 6 agents I want to query first.
*Find out more about those 6 agents, read their blog, interviews, tweets, etc.
*Submit to 6 of those agents and wait for feedback/response.
*Promise not to check e-mail every 5 minutes looking for a response
*If I get no requests for a partial or full, revise query. Get some query critiques.
*When I get the first rejection, I will treat myself to something pretty then use the rejection letter as kindling.
*When I get my first request for a full, I will jump, sing, and tell all my writer buddies
*If fulls and/or partials are requested and I get the same consistent feedback such as Plot doesn't work, characters don't keep me interested, take another look at the novel and possibly revise
*Lather, rinse, repeat

So back to the example, if you had create a strategy before you start querying, you'll have an idea on how you want to handle the query process and how to best leverage the responses or non responses. It provides a back-up plan to help you handle the feedback/rejections and move on to the next step. It can help keep you focused and on track toward your end goal.

We all know rejections are hard and painful. They can send your day into a tail spin and plants the seeds of doubt. By having a written strategy, you've given yourself a way to move forward and tackle the next challenge without acting like a crazed serial querier.

So what are you waiting for? Get our pen, your Excel spreadsheet, your iPad and start creating strategies that will lead you toward your writing goal.

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I read a discussion forum today about an author's struggle with privacy. We're not talking, "Hey I want to hide from my fans" but more of "Why are you showing up on my doorstep and how do you know where I live?".

For years we write. We query.We get rejected, defeated, and heartbroken because we haven't found an agent or publisher. We keep our eyes on the prize though. A gorgeous, solid, hardback book with a stunning, artistic cover and our name written in bold letters. Finally an author's Holy Grail has been achieved.

But now what? Hopefully, you'll sell the book, gather a few fans here and there. During this euphoric time in your life, the googling will start. People that love your work want to know more about YOU. So they search and with an overload of cyber information at their disposal, it should be easy to find out everything from your favorite meal to where your children go to school.

It's a scary, scary thought. Hell, it's scary even if your not famous. Stalking occurs for a variety of reasons and not just to famous people.

It's important to be savy now, before you get 'The Call' and before you're on the NYTimes bestseller list.

Some of the suggestions were:

*Have your personal information removed from spokeo.com
*Use a PO Box or have all fan mail come through your publisher
*Have an unlisted phone number
*Have multiple phone numbers. One for personal use and one you can give out and change easily if you need to.
*Have multiple e-mail addresss. One for personal relationships, another for fans, journalists, etc
*Don't post information or pictures of your children on the web
*Use a Facebook Fan Page rather than a personal page
*Have all your Facebook setting set to friends and family only
*Don't link to your family on Facebook and review your privacy settings or turn some information off like the city you live in
*Have home security
*When asked where you live for book jackets, press release, etc. give a vague geographic location or state like MidWest, Texas, New England

With all the info out there, it's important to protect our privacy and loved ones now and not wait until our name appears on a book cover.

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This is from her website

To celebrate the completion of her manuscript for Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies, the Editor is giving away a FREE Substantive Edit of one YA or MG fiction manuscript. Deadline: January 31, 2011. Read on for rules….

You can enter and view details at Dear-Editor.com

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It seems like I have so much to say and I think of a ton of things I want to blog about but then something happens and I don't write.

So it's a promise to myself to be a better blogger because I really do enjoy it.

It's way too easy to let life get in the way and use it as an excuse to procrastinate. There's never enough time to write, to get fit, to do household chores, on and on. So one of my goals for 2011 is to be able to find time for the things that I'm passionate about and just stick to those.

My 3, which don't include spending time with my child because that's a given, are 1) Finish current WIP which is another YA mystery, 2) Continue on my Weight Watcher path because I love it and the results I'm seeing, and 3) be a terrific regional advisor to my SCBWI chapter.

They all make me happy and as fellow moms know, we never put ourselves on the list but I think a happy mom is a better mom.

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Okay, so I had no idea on what to expect since I've never formally pitched a story to anyone. The one thing I can say is that Thankg God I was prepared and had some key bullet points listed on a notecard.

My elevator pitch went okay even though it wasn't exactly what I'd written down. I also discussed the bullet points I'd prepared and answered some questions. One of my bullet points was to emphasize my YA mystery had series potential and I shared the ideas for Book 2 & 3. My other bullet points included my hook, the key elements that I felt made my book unique, and why it would speak to a teen audience.

We only had 7 minutes and it was amazing how quickly they passed. There was a person with a stopwatch outside the meeting room and at the 6 minute mark, she knocked on the door.

The editor was so nice and she put me at ease, so I'm grateful for that.

I'm also proud of myself for going through with it. After the COFW conference, I realized that we writers should really applaud ourselves for following through on our dreams of becoming a full-time writer and on being persistent when it comes to trying to get published. It takes alot of courage and alot of picking ourselves up off the floor when we face the rejections that come with wanting to be a professional writer.

At one point, Suzanne Brockman, asked everyone who had completed a book to stand up and we received a round of applause. It's easy to dream about getting an agent or being published or being on the best seller list, but it all starts with finishing and polishing the writing.

So if you're writing, stand up and give yourself a hand.

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I've always wonder about this. In fact, I resurrected my blog so I could use it as an online journal but with the hope that others will find the content useful.


So if you've wondered whether you should have a blog or not, here are some thoughts.

Jane Friedman wrote a great article on her blog about this.
http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2010/04/26/WhyStartAWebsiteOrBlogIfYouHaveNothingToPromote.aspx

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LINGER is the sequel to SHIVER which was one of my favorite novels of the year. It's a beautifully written love story and I can't wait for the sequel.

Here's the book trailer so you can check it out for yourself.

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There's another contest on the Guide to Literary Agent Blog. This one is for fantasy or science fiction (adult fiction and/or YA fiction; no MG please).

Here are all the details: http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/Dear+Lucky+Agent+Contest+Fantasy+And+SciFi.aspx

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Registration for this amazing free online writers conference is now open. Yep, you read correctly, it's free. Several writers have teamed up with agents and publishers to bring you this opportunity.

Register now:

WriteonCon

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If you haven't discovered smories.com, you should head out to their website and check them out. Smories are basically online videos of children reading children's stories. Children can listen to the story and read along. All kinds of stories are published from retold fairytales to original works.

This month, I have a smories published. It's about what happens when a stuck up kitty meets the aquarium's newest family member, a dolphin.

You can watch it at:

http://www.smories.com/watch/when-sasha-met-polani/

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Lately, I've been feeling as if I can find no time to revise my current WIP, a YA Mystery. I love, love, love the story and am committed to trying to get it polished up so I can re-submit it.

Summer was full of activities, classes, and To Do Lists, but my original deadline of Sept. 1, 2010 has come and gone. I'm in desperate need of finding 30 minutes a day, just 30 minutes. I could then do a few pages at a time.

The main culprit, if I can call it that, is that I'm now seriously focusing on getting healthy. I've joined Weight Watchers and now use my lunch hour to work out. That used to be my writing time.

I now need to find that 30 minutes elsewhere. It's like balancing a budget. If you overspend by $30, then you need to make up the $30 from somewhere else.

Finding that 30 minute make up time is my writing goal for the week.

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I got all high and mightly about censorship back in high school when the PMRC was trying to censor my heavy metal rock music. Well, now individuals are attacking my reading list and favorite authors.

The latest is Laurie Halse Anderson's incredibly moving novel, Speak. Speak deals with the issues of teen rape and the effect it had on the main character. An associate professor from Missouri State University considered it pornographic. Seriously? I don't even know what to say about that, other than shame on him. You can read Anderson's account on her blog Mad Woman in the Forest

If you remember it wasn't too long ago that YA author, Ellen Hopkins, was 'disinvited' from the Teen Lit Fest due to the content of her novels.

Sherman Alexie's brillant novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Tme Indian was recently banned in Missouri.

What bothers me the most about this is that all these novels deal with real issues that teens face everyday. It reminds me of High School Health class. No one thought teachers should teach sex education because it would lead to promiscuity. News flash, kids were still going to do what they wanted, but at least this way they'd be educated about being safe.

Teens have access to more information than they'll ever need but it's different reading in the privacy of your own bedroom about a character who has gone through the same things you have. Connecting to the words on the page and knowing that you are not alone is key.

Please consider doing something to combat censorship today. You can visit the National Coalition Against Censorhip for ideas on how you can help.

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