Who’s That Girl? The Secret Identity of my Cover Girl

September 16, 2016.Reading time 1 minute.

A lot of people have asked me if the face on the cover of my book, The Tokyo Cover Girls belongs to me. I get it. With my youthful skin and sleek physique, I basically look like I’m still a teenager. Alas, I thought I should probably give credit to my cover model and introduce […]

The Tokyo Cover Girls: Making of a Book

May 18, 2016.Reading time 2 minutes.

I may not yet be done with this book birthing process (yikes marketing!) but I thought it would fun to look back on how I created the actual hard copy now that I have that part under my belt and in case anyone else is about to undertake the same thing. My first step? Shooting […]

The Tokyo Cover Girls in Real Life

May 17, 2016.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Da da da da! After many many years (why put a number on it?) my indie published book is now a real thing. The Tokyo Cover Girls is a young adult novel about three teens modeling in Tokyo who are trapped in a competition where the only escape is to uncover the truth behind a […]

My Self-Publishing Experiment: THE COVER

August 11, 2015.Reading time 2 minutes.

First off, let’s be clear: I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING. However, I spent enough time waiting for boys to call when I was 15 (note to teen self: they never do) to know when it’s time to stop doing the same thing with literary agents. That’s right, I have decided to embark on […]

Something I learned about writing today: It’s okay to have fun

March 24, 2013.Reading time 1 minute.

Writing groups. Like blogs and sea monkeys, they are born with such enthusiasm and yet so often stall and die after a very short time. I have been a member of at least three that have long since expired, which was why I was very much inspired to read this post by Alaya Dawn Johnson, […]

Things that inspire me to write #98: How I live now

October 21, 2012.Reading time less than 1 minute.

We have all read books that changed our lives, and for me one of those was Meg Rosoff’s How I live now, which made me first realize that there was more to Young Adult fiction than Sweet Valley High–and that I might just want to contribute to it. Yes, it is that excellent. Even now, several years later, […]

Mental gatorade: 100 things that inspire me to write

October 19, 2012.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Writing is hard: the rejection part, the critique part, and just the sitting down to do it part (especially when you have experienced a lot of the first two) Since completing my latest novel manuscript I have been finding it especially difficult to get back at it. Which brings me to this: a daily challenge to list […]

Writing and the hunger for swine blood

October 17, 2012.Reading time 1 minute.

Congrats to me. Like some angry bird with a hate on for smirking pigs, I have just launched yet another manuscript (my third) into the publishing stratosphere. And it was not easy. Sure, there was a lot of work involved–especially when combined with my many new mommy duties–but that really wasn’t the hardest part. The hardest part for me: […]