Charming Academy Update

I figured since in my first post I mentioned that one of my goals with this blog is to keep my readers up to date with what's going on with my books, it was time for an update. :)

This is a picture of the first proof copy from July 2011

First off, Charming Academy has been revised and submitted to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest (ABNA). The cut off date for entries was yesterday, but I got it in on Jan. 25th, so I was well before the deadline. Now we're playing the waiting game. ABNA has four rounds: initial submission which judges your pitch. (A pitch is basically the letter you would write to a publisher telling them why your book is so awesome.) Around Feb. 23, I should hear whether or not Charming Academy will make it to the second round. That round judges your book on the excerpt, the first 3000 - 5000 words of the novel. Next is quarterfinals in which the entire manuscript is reviewed. From there is the finals which will be voted by Amazon.com customers. Of a maximum of 5000 entries, only three will make it to the final round. I'm horribly, horribly nervous, but really excited too. Keep watching for announcements regarding where Charming Academy is in the contest. I'll be sure to let you know!

Anyway, so that's that on the contest. With the revision process finished, I am now waiting for the proof copy to arrive from CreateSpace before making the revised copy available for sale. For those of you who already own Charming Academy, the revised version keeps all of the important story elements and is still the great story it was before. It is now more succinct and put in an easier-to-read format. Ironically, it is the same number of pages, however there is more space between lines and it is now a smaller trim size (that's the height and width of the book). Again, watch for announcements, because it will be available soon!

And now for what many people are anxious to hear: the sequel. Well, obviously with having so little time to prepare for the contest, Finding Prince Charming, the first sequel to Charming Academy, was temporarily put on the back burner. However, now that Charming Academy is submitted, I am back to working full-force on writing Adrian and Allegra's story. Thanks to all of you who participated in the Facebook vote on the name of Allegra's horse. I am now working on writing the actual quest and Obsidian is very grateful to have a name now and not be simply the highlighted word "Horse". :) Keep an eye out for new excerpts and tidbits on this new story.

Well, I think that's everything that needed to be updated. Hope you're all well and having a great day!