Inspirations

Today I've been having fun collecting pins for my book inspirations board.

These photos may help better describe what was taking place in my head while writing The Echoing.  Is anyone else like me where you LOVE watching movies based on books so you can yell at the screen, "That's exactly how I pictured this moment!"?

STEVENSON, WASHINGTON

"The town of Stevenson resided on a steep hillside along the Columbia, separating the Oregon and Washington border.  To the south, one could always see the massive flowing river and tree-covered hillsides of the other shore."

STEVENSON HIGH SCHOOL

"Stevenson's modest population allowed the residents only one high school, small enough to fill the entire student class in seven crinkled yearbook pages.  Though I walked these halls every day, it felt like a distant part of my life.  I had no attachment or welcoming feelings associated with the school doors I entered daily."

SIDENOTES: I don't know how big their yearbooks actually are.  I'm also sure it is a very welcoming school.  Main characters always have to start out with some sort of complex, right?

MERRITT'S INTRODUCTION

"Well, if it isn't Rylee Perry!"  He grinned with a half smile... leaning back against a row of paint-chipped, red lockers.

WALK IN THE WOODS

"The overcast of clouds glazed the scenery with a whitish-gray coat.  Even though it was deep cold, the crisp brightness was pleasant.  My lungs welcomed the chilling air, and my eyes watered as the breeze brushed lightly past my face."

BECK

"Beck's nose stayed glued to the ground while she roamed back and forth smelling every crack and crevasse that bordered the trail.  Her white tipped tail bounced in the air as she zigzagged through the trees.  She was supposedly a mutt-mix with her short hair sprinkled in every color of spots imaginable, but based on her pattern of sniffing everything in her path, I always suspected a majority of hound in her bloodline."

Sidenote: Becky was my dog from my childhood that we adopted.  I loved her so much!  So, I thought it would only be appropriate to make her a side character in my story.

DRIVING PAST THE DEAD MEADOW

"Naked trees from fallen leaves reached out toward me with an eerie vibe.  Through the tree lining, I could see a dead, yellow valley of dry grass clumped with wet mud and mossy weeds.  The fog stretched across the field like an ocean of rippling white foam and crept over the roots of the tangled tree trunks..."

THE FOOTBALL GAME

"On the dry, grassy field, a tall player jogged to the bench and unbuckled his helmet.  As he effortlessly pulled it off, steam rose from his wet hair as it mixed with the cold autumn weather."

THE STEAMBOAT DOCK

"I leaned against the railing and closed my eyes.  Inhaling the fresh air, I soaked in the surrounding silence.  My mind deflated and aired out everything that had happened around me."

THE WATERFALL HIKE

The bright green trees clung to the colossal stone walls.  As we crawled over fallen tree trunks and ducked through the wild vines overhead, I truly appreciated the nature that surrounded me for the first time.

SIDENOTE: This is Oneonta.  This is actually where the book cover setting comes from.  I love this hike so much!  I hate how popular it's getting though and how everyone is discovering it.  I guess adding it to a published book doesn't help much.  Argh!  I've become my own worst enemy.

Let me know what you think!  Do these photos go along with the scenes you imagined while reading?  

And if you haven't read it yet...

Well, um, *cough* click below, new friend.

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THE ECHOING Promo Video

Here is my awesome niece being my movie star for my book promo video.  Enjoy!

Thank you readers for everything!  Love you all.

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My Writing Adventure

I wanted to post this because I remember once thinking, "Hey!  I want to write a book!" and found it so helpful visiting other authors' websites and reading their experiences.  One of my favorites who was extremely helpful was Veronica Roth.  Click HERE for her post that helped me out A LOT.

Also, there are so many ways to do this.  Some people self-publish and do awesome.  Different things work for different people and I am certainly no expert.  I'm completely a noob.  But here's my story...

I've mentioned before how I had an idea that turned into a character and kept growing into a story inside of my brain.  I shared this with my mother-in-law and how writing was bringing me happiness and she was the first person who really sparked the idea of writing a novel.  She believed in me and gave me faith to believe in myself.  On my birthday she gave me the book White Bees by Amy Jo Wilde and highlighted one of the acknowledgement quotes at the back of her novel:

And thank you to God for whispering into my heart the simple word, "write..."

Oh, how those words stirred my soul.  

I began writing a little bit everyday.  It was like exercising.  There were days where I was NOT in the mood and it sounded more like a chore than a pleasure, but I kept at it.  And I became stronger because of it.  Even if I was having writers block, I noticed after about 20 minutes of tasteless writing, I would eventually get in the zone and my fingers lit up on fire and pitter-pattered across the keyboard.

I didn't write The Echoing in chronological order.  If I was in a depressed mood, I would write a sad scene.  If I was feeling goofy, I'd write a funny scene.  If my hubby happened to look extra handsome that day, I found myself focusing on the make-out scenes.  LoL.

H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICK-YES!  This is definitely a kissing book.

When I had really, REALLY bad writer's block I would find ways to get inspired...

Taking hot showers with the lights off, surrounding myself in nature, the rain, or going to the beach would always help.  Pretty much anything involving water.  I genuinely believe water has some sort of energy in it that helps us unlock our creativity.

Eureka moments were so funny!  I would drop whatever I was doing, shout out in triumph, and sprint towards my laptop to get it out of my brain as fast as I could.

I would keep my notes on my phone and reach over multiple times during the night to record my "light bulb" moments.  Drove Mitch nuts.

Revising was super fun!  The 3rd and 4th draft were my favorites to go through.  The first draft was just... embarrassing.  The second one helped fill in the holes.  But after the bones and organs were functioning and in place, I was able to go in and massage the words into the little details and really turn it into "me".

Beta readers.

More editing.

Then, when I felt like it was polished, I sent it off!  ...which probably goes into my top three scariest moments of my life.  You feel naked.  In front of a stranger (and this was pre-pregnancy, so I wasn't familiar with this type of experience).  I felt so insecure taking this hidden part of me that no one knew and sent it off across the Internet desert to some blah-blah-blah literaryagent@emailaddress.com and hope that they would be nice to my sweet baby.

AAAAAAAAND I got rejected... A. LOT.

And then one day, the beautiful email finally came...

"Dear Jessica,

... We would like to publish your book!  Congratulations!"

Tears.  Forgot how to breath.  Danced with the baby.  More tears.  Uncontrollable laughter.  Apologized for scaring the baby.  Called the hubs.

My advice for sending out a query letter: First, be ready for the rejections.  If you do your research, the Internet prepares you for this very well.  It's still hard no matter how ready you are for it though.  Have a good family of cheerleaders to back you up because you're gonna get down on yourself.  Mitchell was amazing at this for me.  And, second, send it to people who are very passionate about your genre and what you're writing about.

When I first sent emails out, I was sending it to any agents or publishers that fit in the YA fiction genre.  But when I worked with Cedar Fort (Emma was my main editor and she was just lovely) I felt like I was in such good hands with someone who believed in me and believed in my story.  It's so important to work with someone who is just as excited as you about your book!  If I could have gone back and done this part again I would have researched better and found very specific people who catered to my story to save myself a lot of reject letters.  Everyone was so nice, but it was always "this story isn't a fit for me" which was so true, and so right, and I'm so glad I didn't get a chance to work with someone who wasn't quite the right "fit".  It's all about the passion from everyone on the team.

Two more revisions through CF editors.

Goes to press in one week!!!!!!

CALENDAR TIMELINE

The first word of my first draft was typed on November 30th, 2013.  

First draft was finished March 5th, 2014.  

Sent revised draft out November 15th, 2014

Got my acceptance letter November 17th, 2015

Comes out to purchase Aug 9th, 2016

This adventure has been so. stinkin. fun.  

And ultimately, for me, it was all in the hands of God and having Him open the right doors of opportunity that I needed.  

Anyone who has ever thought "what if" about writing a book, DO IT.  And START DOING IT NOW.  Because it can be quite the process.  But it is so fun and so totally worth it.

The Cover Reveal

Oh my HEAVENS TO BETSY!  Things just got real.  WAY real.

Presenting the book cover to my soon-to-be novel:

I am just crazy excited.  And I have to tell you why...

The story takes place in the pacific northwest.  The setting of one of my scenes was specifically inspired by the Oneonta Trail in the gorge.  In my book I described the hike and the waterfall without ever saying the name of the location.  When I got an email from the team showing the picture they planned on using for the cover I was ecstatic!  This is LITERALLY Oneonta.

It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.  I am just so happy that people will be able to visualize EXACTLY what it is the characters are seeing.  It just puts giddy butterflies in my tummy.

Hooray writing!

What Is The Purpose Of Life?

I had so much fun with this lesson. It may have been my most favorite one yet! 

Get this week's lesson here.

The topic was introduced with a lively game of Family Feud. There was lots of clapping and "Good answer!" cheering taking place.  Not really.  But that's how I always remembered it when playing the old computer game.  Can't remember the game show host being this good looking though...

Basically I took the answers from the first paragraph of the lesson and google searched the blue number cards to print out and cover the chalkboard.

Afterwards, we read Gary E. Steven's talk "Your Four Minutes" and had a great discussion about how fast time flies and what we need to be doing TODAY to make the most out of everyday.

I ended with a personal story:

We were camping at the Oregon coast and late one night Mitchell and I went to the beach so he could get shipwreck pictures with the dazzling stars.

It took him a while to set up his equipment, so I went off on my own for a walk in the darkness. There was no one else on the beach and all I could see were the stars in the sky.  I fell back in the sand and listened to the soothing ocean creep up and down the shore line.  As I stared at the sky, my soul tugged at the deep questions, "Who am I?", "Where did I come from?", and "Why am I here?"

I felt this overwhelming homesickness for a place far away that I had forgotten. Tears fell off my cheeks and soaked in the sand as the galaxies smiling back at me made me feel so small, like a speck in the universe.  Even though I felt so insignificant, an overpowering love from my Heavenly Father swept over me and I knew I had a purpose and was meant to be here on earth at this time.

I told the girls to ponder to themselves those deep questions about what their purpose was and turned off the lights.  The ceiling glowed with little plastic stars and we sat quietly and listened to the following...

It was such a magical experience for me. I could feel the love our Heavenly Father had for each of these girls and from each of their families.  This song, Lift Your Eyes, is available to download from the LDS youth web page, but I made a version available here with the talk quotes and room at the end so anyone could personalize messages for their YW individually.

So grateful for this gospel.  So gratefully for how this calling has helped my testimony to grow so much!!!