I know, I know.

I'm a terrible blogger. Always have been.

I plan on doing a series of posts about ABNA and Spookygirl's progress; I'm just waiting until I have a little more info (like whether Spookygirl will still be called Spookygirl once everything's finalized!). The publishing industry operates at its own unique pace.

Also, August through January is my busy season over at Mint Conspiracy. At the moment I'm trying to put together something resembling a winter collection while still keeping the Halloween spookies and everyday monsters in stock.

So... Soon, I promise! ABNA recaps, publication progress. They're on the list.

I do have a little Spookygirl content to share. Freelance writer Rosy Moorhead recently interviewed me for her blog. Here's the link!

Drive-By Post

Just wanted to toss out a quick thank you to Lindsay Grant and nanowrimo.org for the congratulations! I might never have written Spookygirl without NaNoWriMo.

Got a murmur of a story in your head? Are there characters tugging on your sleeve? Remember, November's only 135 days away...

ABNA Gets Spooky!

It's official -- Spookygirl is the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award winner in the Young Adult Fiction category!

To everyone who voted during the final round...

To everyone who helped spread the word...

To everyone who kept their fingers crossed for Violet (and for me)...

And to everyone who has already pre-ordered the book...

Thank you!

I  deeply appreciate your support, and I couldn't be prouder of my spooky little girl.

Thank You!

Just wanted to post a quick but sincere thank you to everyone who voted for Spookygirl and helped spread the word. I appreciate your support so very, very much. Now, as a very wise friend recently suggested to me, it's time to trust the universe. Amazon and Penguin will announce the ABNA winners June 13 -- let's see what that day brings!

NaNoWriMo Gets Spooky

If you're a writer, you've probably heard of National Novel Writing Month. Maybe you've even participated -- posted on the forums, gone to local write-ins, and written an entire 50,000-word book in thirty days.

I love NaNoWriMo. Why? Without it, Spookygirl might not exist. Spookygirl was my 2008 NaNo project. Or was it 2007? Yep, just checked my records. I've been giving out the wrong year all this time. When you've NaNo'd as many times as I have, sometimes the years get a little fuzzy. I wrote my first NaNo novel in 2003, and I've participated every November since then. I even have my very own mascot -- remind me to post a pic of NaNoMonKey sometime. The only year I didn't reach my goal was 2010, and that's only because I landed in the hospital for a week with appendicitis. Yeah, yeah. Excuses.

NaNoWriMo is a fantastic program, especially if you have a story in your head but lack the compulsive determination to get it down on paper. Check out the site for all the details -- and if you haven't given it a try in the past, consider joining in the fun this November. Hey, if I can finish 50K words while also keeping up with the monsters during one of the busiest months of the retail year, so can you! I already have this year's story brewing in my brain...

Big ABNA News!

I'm a finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition! The winner in each of the two categories will be decided by popular vote, so please go to the ABNA page and vote for Spookygirl by Jill Baguchinsky in the Young Adult Fiction category. Violet and I would both appreciate your support!

(I found out on the 16th. Do you know how hard it is to keep a secret like that for over a week?? I thought I'd burst before the official announcement!)

Also, Violet's new domain, RileyIslandParanormal.com, is up and running. It'll be some time before the site has real content, but feel free to visit if you're curious.

Franklin's New Gig

Back in 2009, Blood Blade and Thruster Magazine published a zombie-comedy story of mine called "Fresh." Fresh is about a down-on-his-luck undead actor's attempts to avoid decay and keep his agent. Franklin made a living as an extra in zombie movies and supplemented his income with roles in (mostly local) commercials, and when he'd accidentally snap off a finger (which is an all-too-common problem for animated corpses), he'd reattach it with spackle.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this Honda Civic commercial a few weeks ago:

Watch for the shots of the zombie. It's like my Franklin finally got a gig in a national ad. He even snaps off a finger at one point -- get the spackle!