Category: Take the Reins

X-posted from Teen Fiction Cafe

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Surviving Adolescence: Riding!

***The WINNER of the Daphne Grab giveaway is…LENORE! Congrats! You have 48 hours to email me with your name and info of where you’d like your book shipped so I can pass the info to Daphne. If I don’t hear from you by then, I have to draw a new winner. Thanks, Daphne, for an awesome giveaway!***

For me, growing up in the 90s meant one thing…horses!


After school, I couldn’t wait to get out to the stables and ride, groom and learn how to train horses. I lived in a small suburban part of Tennessee (Greenbrier) and was lucky enough to have this riding arena right behind my house. When I did homework after school, I could look out and watch boarders ride and train their horses. I often had to move to the front of the house so I stopped watching them out the back windows.

That Appaloosa, AJ, was my first lesson horse. Oh, he was old and yes, he was was stubborn. But he was the best teacher. He taught me how to be a rider and how to listen to a horse’s needs. He was a great partner and he helped me learn how to impress the girls at my new school with my riding skills. 🙂

Before we moved to Tennessee, we lived in Ocala, FL. This was a horse from a horse fair my family and I attended. I made my parents sooo nervous because I was always walking up to strange horses (even the occasional stallion!) and talking to them. I was a tiny kid, but if you had a horse, I’d ask for a boost so I could ride.

One of my absolute favorite horsey things to do was trail ride. My friend Amy and I would take our horses into the woods and get lost riding. We guided our horses through people’s backyards (Sorry!), over creeks (Kind of dumb, now that I think about it) and along roads that saw a car a day. That was in the mid-90s and before cell phones were so inexpensive. Imagine how far my mom would have let me ride if I’d had a cell!

Horses were my most precious thing during childhood. They gave me the inspiration to write Take the Reins and the rest of the Canterwood Crest books. Name something from your childhood that inspires your writing.

Working on a new Diary of a Debut Author Video

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I’m working on a new video that I’ll post within a couple of weeks. I’ve been getting a few e-mails and MySpace messages from people wanting to know how to break into magazines, read mastheads, write a query, etc. So, the video that I’m working on will tell you how to do all of that. If anyone else has freelance questions they want answered, let me know and hopefully I’ll know the answer!

I’ve realized, too, that I love making videos! They’re a break from writing and it’s fun, creative and a new medium to reach people. In November, for NaNoWriMo, I’ll be doing a weekly video to share my progress each week and give myself a video pep talk. ‘Cause you know, it would be embarrassing not to hit 50k after vlogging about doing so. I’d toyed with the idea of doing a daily video in November, but I think that’s too much.

It’s a busy time for freelancers to get winter queries in, so I’ve been doing a little of that and getting ready to dive back into writing a new Canterwoood Crest book. There’s something…warming, I guess you could say, about writing a sequel. I already adored my characters, but now I love them even more! Sasha, my MC, is spunkier, funnier and smarter than she was in Take the Reins and it’s an interesting process to grow along with her and the rest of my CC gang. I can’t wait for you guys to meet them! 🙂 These characters have been with me since November 2006 and it will be a blast to share them with others when 1/09 rolls around.

I thought the summer and fall would trickle by and time would just stall before Jan. But nope! What happened to May? It’s almost gone. June’s going to be a month of intense writing, as is July. Not to mention on July 27…six months away from publication. Six. Months. OMG. Yeah. That’ll be the start of the PR plan and all of the crazy/exciting/busy stuff that goes along with it.

Okay, back to writing.

(I’m also testing out the Blogspot feature of having this post when I tell it to in advance, so apologies if it doesn’t work. It might post twice for today (5-27).

Diary of a Debut Author video and Frenemies winners

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Okay! We have two lucky winners of FRENEMIES! Drumroll…. Sara and Book Adorer! Congrats! You two have 48 hours to e-mail (jessica [at] jessicaburkhart [dot] com) me your name and an address for Alexa to send the book. If I don’ t hear from you within two days, I have to draw a new winner. Thank you to Alexa and check the sidebar for new contests!

Onto other things…

This is a new video that I made over the weekend. It’s almost my one year anniversary in publishing since I got The Call that TAKE THE REINS was going to be a book. So, this video looks back at my year and shows a few things that I love and keep close to me. I hope you enjoy the video! 🙂 (And isn’t my shirt SO TTR appropriate?!)

Fall Florida Book Festivals

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It has almost been a week since I’ve been home and things haven’t slowed down for a day. In between outlining and writing an assigned article for Children’s Writer, I also had one of those middle of the night ideas on Tuesday.

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been wracking my brains for a new MG idea because now I’m on a MG kick. Sure, they can’t be worked on for a while but I like to have them in my brain to toss around and flesh out. That’s how I worked on my new YA. Whenever I needed a break from my current project, I switched over to the YA and wrote a few pages a week. That quickly added up and soon it equaled a book.

Then. It. Hit. Me. I’ve got 4 Agent A approved YA ideas that all can be morphed into MG ideas. Woo hoo! 🙂 Now, at least, the what MG idea is next thought is gone. Whew.

I got one rejection on a mag query yesterday, but not for the VIQ (very important query) I’m most waiting for.

I also got out my big (pink!) wall calendar and started marking off fall dates. It’s unbelievable but on July 27, it will be six months until Take the Reins hits shelves. OMG. The Jessica Burkhart Super Sized (and not at all insanely detailed with pretty pen colors) Publicity Plan for Take the Reins or (TJBSSPPFTTR—yeah, you try to remember those letters, LOL) kicks into action on that date. Eeeep.

I’ve also been looking at lots of cool festivals to consider for the fall—Festival of Reading (St. Petersburg), Sarasota Reading Festival, Vero Beach Book Festival, Midsouth SCBWI (Nashville), Southern Breeze SCBWI (GA, AL and MS), Florida Writers Conference and the Georgia Literary Festival.

Anyone been to any of those? I think it would be fun to check out the exhibits, walk around and meet people.

PS–Is there anything YOU’D like me to blog about in the near future? Questions? Comments? If so, leave me a comment.

Take the Reins is on S&S’s Website! Woo hoo!

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Just found this on S&S’s Website… eeee!!! 🙂

Take the Reins

(Canterwood Crest)

By Jessica Burkhart
Cover by Monica Stevenson

This Edition: Trade Paperback
Publication Date: January 27, 2009
Our Price: $5.99

Availability: Ships on or around January 27

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Product Details

Aladdin, January 2009
Trade Paperback, 224 pages
ISBN-10: 1-4169-5840-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-4169-5840-6
Ages: 9 – 13
Grades: 4 – 8

Or, view it here. It’s a real book! 🙂 Almost! Yay!

Big surprise reveal!! :)

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It’s a double post day!

Okay, everyone!! Finally! I’m ready to reveal the super-secret surprise! 🙂 I was waiting until more details firmed up and while I’m not going to give a date just yet, I WILL tell you why I’ve been bouncing up and down for the past couple of weeks. It has been torture not to share, but I wanted to be one hundred percent sure I could make it before I spilled the news.

So, here we go…

Sometime very soon, I am headed to New England for the photo shoot for the four covers for Canterwood Crest! I’m BEYOND (there will be lots of capitalized words, sorry) excited and the best part is that I’ll be sharing the trip with you via Diary of a Debut Author videos! Yep, I’ll be taking photos and video of some behind the scenes stuff and will share what I can without giving away spoilers. I should be able to make a video when I get into town and will keep you guys updated via blogging when I can get online. It’s going to be an insane day and I can’t wait! (There may also be video from the car when, after 17 hours of driving, I just need to ramble. Okay?)

I’m already obsessing about this. What will the models look like? Will the horse be calm? Will it be warm outside? Windy? See…questions, questions.

As a typical girly girl, I’ve been trying to figure out THE outfit for the photo shoot. I’ll be meeting Agent A and Editor K (major excitement!) for the first time and I want to find an outfit that conveys: professional, fun, fresh, young and serious all in one. Yeah, try to find clothes that scream all five of those things. It’s not easy. I’ve been in and out of my closet practically every day since I got the news about this and am still not settled on the right clothes. I’ll try to get a pic of the outfit I’ve decided on. If I ever decide. 🙂

There you have it! I’ll keep updating about this when I can and I hope you guys are as excited as I am. And no, even though several people were convinced Paris Hilton was coming along on this trip and we were new BFFs that’s just not the case. But your guesses were close. 😉

Happy Friday!

Get Ready for Clue #1 :)

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Have you guys heard about Boys Blogging Books? If not, go check them out. They’re a cool group of young guys who review books. Yay for guys who read!

My brother Jason, who’s sixteen, just joined BBB. He’s going to be reviewing a book a month. Thanks for having him, guys! He’s excited to join and is already thinking of his review. I’ll let you guys know when he posts his first review so you can give him some comment-love. 🙂

I’m enjoying the 80 degree temps this week and am getting stuff done before I go on Super-Secret Project Trip. My to-do list is loooong. I’m bouncing out of my chair to share my first clue with you guys and that’ll be posted on Monday.

You’ll get the next clue a week later. After that, all clues (to be explained in Monday’s video!) will come from the road whenever I have wireless access.

And then. The BIG one. A video (or group of videos) will be posted when I get home that will hopefully be fun, exciting and informative. I feel like I’ve been drinking 10 coffees a day since I heard about this project. Date of this video is TBA. Yes, yes, I know I’m being a tease. I’ve been told. 🙂

One of the things I’m working on this week is a new author photo. I’m going to schedule a visit to a local horse farm and will have my photo taken with a gorgeous, sweet palomino gelding. I like my other pictures, but it just makes sense to have a photo of me with a horse. 🙂

I was also looking at the calendar and the very first hint of PR work for Take the Reins starts in May. My promo plan is H-U-G-E and going to be oh-so-time-consuming. Eeek! But worth it. I want to go all out so I don’t look back and say, “Damn, I wish I’d…”

The first wave of pre-publication promo includes querying all of the magazines on my list that have a lead-time of 8 months. That means I’ve got to get out about 75 queries between May and June. Yeah. Thankfully, I’ve been writing them here and there when I have a free moment and I’ve got about half left to write. I’m not writing on spec anymore, but have to make an exception for a couple of magazines. I’m going after bigger mags this time and finally feel more confident about targeting magazines I wouldn’t query last year. Even now, with the book deal, my confidence meter is a little low when it comes to pitching to glossy teen mags. But I’m going to give it a shot!

I’ve fired up my Power Tracker and am prepping to send those babies. The really crazy part comes with keeping track of follow ups and deadlines. Thankfully, there’s software to track that. I used to track in a notebook, but finally plunked down the dollars for software and now I couldn’t live without it.

J.A. Konrath swears freelancing is the Number One way to get attention for your book and I have to agree. This is my…what…seventh year as a freelancer and it MADE my platform when I started looking for an agent. I swear by freelancing.

That is all.

Workin’ on edits

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I’m excited! I’m days away (maybe 3 days) from finishing up a huge set of edits. Y-A-Y! That’s the best feeling, isn’t it? To be this close to giving up the manuscript and passing it along to an agent, editor or critique partner to read. I’ve been working super-extra-crazy hours to make this draft as best I can and even though I go all out on all my drafts–this one got an extra oopmf from somewhere.

Also…I can’t say much at this point, but work on the cover for Take the Reins has commenced!! 🙂 As I get details that I can share from Editor K, I’ll pass them along. It’s so, so exciting to dream up a cover and think about the jumble of pages and words becoming an actual book. That people will read. And hopefully like. 🙂

As you noticed, there’s no guest this Friday. On April 4, however, the fun and fabulous Debbie Reed Fischer is stopping by. Don’t miss that.

Finally, I’m working on plotting a 3-video set just for aspiring freelancers. If you’ve e-mailed me before about how to get into freelancing, these videos are for you. They’ll take you from choosing a market, to formatting and writing a query to fulfilling the assignment. Watch for those in April or early May. If you’ve got freelancing questions you want answered, e-mail me within the next couple of weeks and I’ll be sure to try and tackle your questions.

Back to work! TGIF!

Finished Blackheart Mountain!

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I’m sooo excited that I just finished the draft of my first ever YA novel, Blackheart Mountain!! Yay! I started it last May while Take the Reins was on submission and thought I’d work on it all summer while waiting for TTR news. Well, you guys know how that turned out so I had to shelve Blackheart while I did edits for TTR and wrote Chasing Blue. But since edits are mostly wrapped up on my end for CB and I felt like a change, I switched over to Blackheart and finally finished it.

It’s really, REALLY different from the Canterwood series, I must say. The protags are both sixteen, instead of thirteen, so that alone is a huge shift. Plus, they’re allowed to swear and engage in older teen behavior, so that’s fun to write! 🙂

All right. I’m going to watch a movie and then start the editing on Blackheart. Starting edits at page one is always a little scary. You have those moments of “what was I thinking when I wrote this?!” and then those rare “wow, I love that line” thoughts.

Anyone else writing both YA and MG and feel a difference? What’s your preference?

And go congratulate Lauren Barnholdt. Her new YA, Two-Way Street, is in its THIRD printing!

The Call

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So, lots of authors have been sharing their stories about their road to publication. I’ve done that before, (I think), so I thought blogging about where I was when I got “the call” would be fun.

Getting “the call” from one’s agent that there has been an offer on a manuscript is one of those moments I’ll never forgot. I remember exactly where I was, where my family was and my jaw dropping.

So, it’s May 2007 and my book has been on submission for a few days. I spend all day at my desk writing and check my phone at least every hour to be sure it is on (it is) and that Agent A hadn’t called (she hasn’t). Tired from typing on a new manuscript, I leave the table and head to wash my face. My dad is working in his office in our house and my mom and brother are at the dentist. It is just about 6pm. So, I get into the bathroom and have a face full of soap when I hear a sound. Not just any sound, mind you, but the ring. This fabulous NYC-ish ringtone that I have set for Agent A. Oh. My.

I tear out of the bathroom, covered in Loreal face wash and without my glasses. Therefore, I’m blind. I grab my phone with soapy hands that are shaking like crazy and put it to my ear. Then, I hear the sweetest words known to an author. “We have an offer!” Dripping wet, unable to see and trying not to pass out and/or vomit, I grab a pen and start to scribble every word Agent A says so I never forget that moment. I’m doing all of this on the back of a recliner because I was in too much shock to make it to the kitchen table.

My dad emerges from his office, sees me soapy and scribbling, and I try to motion to him to stay there while barely saying two words on the phone. When I hang up with Agent A, I turn to my dad and tell him what the offer was. He staggers backwards and then I start shrieking that I have to call my mom. She’s in the waiting room while my brother is getting his teeth cleaned.

She says “wait a minute” and leaves the waiting room. Once she’s outside, I tell her and she cries. Then, apparently she hangs up and goes to tell everyone in the dentist’s office. More crying ensues.

And those were the minutes surrounding “the call.” If you’ve had one, you know the feeling. If you haven’t, when you reach that moment, you’ll realize it’s the most indescribable feeling ever. And you can’t wait for it to happen again and again. 🙂

Onto other things: The Golden Compass did $26.1 million at the box office which was disappointing to most. Sigh. I really thought it would do better, but it did outstanding overseas. Better than LOTR, apparently.

Later, I’ll post a 2k9 announcement.