Big News!

Last week, a little after posting my last entry, I received some very exciting news. My novel, The Shifting, has been accepted for publication! The publisher is a small, new one called TM Publishing, whom I met at a Publisher's Fair on campus. This is the YA fantasy I wrote for my thesis. Here's my query letter for it:

For a world that has magic down to a science, the rules are about to change.

Sixteen-year-old Sarah Flinn thinks she wants a change: she is a “double recessive” and lacks the gene for controlling the power known as magic. It doesn’t matter how many As she gets in her physics class or how many prizes she wins running cross country; to the rest of the world, she is handicapped.

Twenty-six-year-old Thomas Carter is not as crazy as everyone thinks he is. At sixteen he had an accident that gave him the ability to see into a parallel realm that is full of a wilder, more ancient kind of magic than what humans use. For ten years he has served the Other Realm, saving lives but losing his reputation in the process. For all this, he would like things to stay as they are.

But then Thomas’s wife vanishes and Sarah’s magically gifted friend Ryan casts a spell that not only causes him to be possessed by an ancient evil but also brings the human world into a dangerous collision with Thomas’s Other Realm. Sarah, Thomas, and Ryan must end the spell by journeying across a wilder, more magical America than they have known before, fighting against dragons, skinwalkers, and ultimately the dark being known as the Shifting that would use Ryan for its own evil ends.

Everything is changing, and if a magic-less teenager and a man who has a darker past than he knows can’t bring back stability, two worlds will die.

And then I list the word count (74,400) and some personal details. Well, I'm excited. The title may change, and I don't know anything about the timeline for this being published, so stay tuned for more news. I will not hesitate to share what I know.

In other news, I'm now writing an interesting story that is actually live-action. I don't mean like a play. In order to keep my friend entertained over a long, hot summer I have put together a little quest, or adventure, to get her out of the house and exploring the town. It's kind of fun to do since my main character is a real person - this is a story where I won't be able to control all the variables. The game has just begun, so nothing has happened yet. But that will change, my friends, that will change. I hope my friend can keep up!