Learning to Let Go

Courtesy of littlekata

It begins with the words The End, and it's something that all writers have to learn.

Publishing--whether commercial or self--is a roller coaster ride with plenty of ups and downs--with the end goal of releasing your book out into the world.

Just as writers must learn how to craft words into sentences, and those sentences into characters and plots and stories, they must also learn the craft of letting go.

Letting go begins by finishing a piece and sending it to a new set of eyes. It means stepping back so that someone who has never walked in your world before can poke and prod, pointing out holes and tangles and things that don't work.

After you let your story go to beta readers and/or editors, and after you've fixed and mended and made the story shine, you're ready for the next step of letting go: querying--condensing your novel into a hundred or so words and sending it out to agents and editors. This is a hard step, because whether or not an agent steps forward to offer representation or an editor makes an offer--both of these things are 100% out of your control. The only thing you can control is telling the story the very best way you know how and making sure it gleams. The fate of your novel (if you pursue trade publishing) will depend on other people, and this will mean letting go a little more.

Then, once you've found an agent and have landed a publishing deal, you might have to let go a some more when it comes to edits and your cover. Small things, comparatively, but sometimes they can feel so big. Other times, they can feel just right.

And then comes the biggest step in letting go: when your book is in the hands of your readers.

So much of what can make or break an author (popularity, sales, etc.) is out of our hands. All we can really do is write a good story, edit hard, and let people know it exists. Sometimes it can be tempting to try to help things along, but in my opinion, it's vital that authors learn how to let go when their book is in the domain of readers.

What are some of the things we need to learn to let go of?

• The need to please everyone. No book is capable of pleasing everyone, everywhere, all the time. Your book is going to be for some people, but not for everyone. Many 1 or 2 star reviews come when your book falls into the hands of someone who is outside your target audience. And while this might be a hard thing if you read your reviews (I definitely do not!), it's a good thing in that your book is traveling to readers rather than languishing, invisible and unread.
• The need for 4 and 5 star reviews. This ties in closely with the previous point. Most authors seem to consider anything lower than a 4 star review a failure, but readers often see things differently. As a reader, I've found that 2 and 3 star reviews are the most helpful in determining whether or not I'll read something. The very thing that bothered another reader may be something I love, and vice versa.
• The need to help your book along. Sooner or later, your story is going to have to stand on its own feet. It can be tempting to call for backup when things aren't going exactly as you planned. Please resist the urge to rally your readers/friends/colleagues to down vote critical reviews and up vote positive reviews, ask them to post positive reviews, or any number of other tricks there are to inflate how your books ratings appear. None of those things are ethical, and while they may benefit you in the short term, chances are good they'll come back to bite you later. This has already been an eventful year for authors that are both trade and self-published. Learn from their mistakes. It's a lot less painful that way.

In all of this letting go, it's important for an author to hang on to a few things:

• Be daring and willing to learn. This will involve making mistakes, some of them spectacular, but your mistakes can teach you a lot if you're listening. Publishing is changing and evolving as we speak. It's important to be willing to learn how to do new things, see the world in a different way, and be courageous enough to do things that might seem frightening. (Querying is definitely not for the faint at heart. :))
• Stand tall. Be proud of the work and effort you put into your stories--even if you're the only one. Writing and editing and polishing is hard work. Work that can consume you even as it feeds you. And it's not something everyone can stick with.
• Be strong. Know where you stand ethically and don't be afraid not to budge. It can be hard when you're first starting out, or even if you have a number of books under your belt. Few, if any, careers run smoothly. It's easy to do the right thing when things are going well, but it can be hard when you hit what seems like bump after bump. During those times, keep your integrity close and remind yourself that now is not forever.
• Choose to laugh. Sometimes, at the end of a long, hard day, you can either laugh or cry. Crying is okay, but when you learn how to unearth small delights along the difficult road that is publishing--especially if you have someone to share those delights with--you will find a joy in the journey that no bump or setback can completely erase.

One of the very best things about letting go--besides maintaining your sanity--is that letting go of your novel allows you to make room for another. And another. And another. :)

Danyelle Leafty| @danyelleleafty writes YA and MG fantasy. She is the author of The Fairy Godmother Dilemma series (Catspell, Firespell, Applespell, and Frogspell),  Slippers of Pearl, and Bitten: A Novel of Faerie, and can be found on her blog. She can also be found on Wattpad.

Publishing Pulse: 10/12/2012

Success Stories

Congratulations to our latest success stories, Angela Quarels, Richard Thomas, and Janet Johnson!

Amazon Author Rank

If you're a published writer with a book on Amazon.com, you've probably already been traumatized by your personal Amazon Author Rank email, which said:

Today we have added a new feature, Amazon Author Rank, the definitive list of best-selling authors on Amazon.com. This list makes it easy for readers to discover the best-selling authors on Amazon.com overall and within a selection of major genres. 

Amazon Author Rank is your rank based on the sales of all of your books on Amazon.com. Just like Amazon Best Sellers, it is updated hourly. The top 100 authors overall and the top 100 in selected genres will be displayed on Amazon.com. You can see your Amazon Author Rank trended over time in Author Central.

Essentially, this new feature benefits the top best-selling writers...and that's it.

The people I've talked to have received rankings in categories that don't even remotely resemble what type of book they've written. For example, my Writer's Guide to Psychology is listed under Diet, Fitness, and Health. Whut?! Where did you end up?

If you haven't yet heard of Amazon Author Rank, you can read more about it in the Los Angeles Times, and on Darcy Pattinson's blog.

Around the Internet

Planning on participating in this year's NaNoWriMo? Rachelle Gardner gives you 4 Tips on Writing a Quick First Draft.

Are you stuck on your story, unsure where to go next? Author Jess Keating suggests creating an imaginary panel of authors (and characters) you admire to help you out: Creating an Imaginary Panel to Get Unstuck.

Meanwhile, Janice Hardy urges you to "force the issue" and Add Conflict to Your Scenes. Her suggestions are different from most!

Need help with characterization? Adventures in Children's Publishing brings you Five Tips for Writing Brilliant Characters: Guest Post by Nicole from the Word for Teens blog.

Or maybe you need help with your story premise. Here's a great post called Six Tests of a Solid Story Premise and Eight Ways to Write One.

Have a great weekend and we'll see you next week!

Carolyn Kaufman, PsyD's book, THE WRITER'S GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGY: How to Write Accurately About Psychological Disorders, Clinical Treatment, and Human Behavior helps writers avoid common misconceptions and inaccuracies and "get the psych right" in their stories. You can learn more about The Writer's Guide to Psychology, check out Dr. K's blog on Psychology Today, or follow her on Facebook! 

Interview with Author Melissa Landers

Today we have a chance to chat with author Melissa Landers. (Her success story can be found here.) She writes contemporary romance as Macy Beckett and is celebrating the release of her debut SULTRY WITH A TWIST. (Ms. Landers is also looking forward to the release of ALIENATED, a YA sci-fi novel forthcoming with Disney Hyperion.)

Ms. Landers shares the secrets of her success and offers valuable advice for aspiring authors. Spoiler alert: she makes it sound amazingly easy!

Read on to learn how Melissa turned writing as a creative outlet into the brilliant start of a double-genre writing career.

How long have you been writing?

I have an English degree, so I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, but I didn’t start crafting fiction for my own amusement until NaNoWriMo 2009.

Are you a born writer or did your interest in crafting stories emerge later in life?

Definitely later in life! Writing always felt more like WORK than play for me. The last thing I wanted to do after a long day of teaching junior high was come home and use my brain. It wasn’t until I “retired” to stay home with my babies that I felt the need to write. I craved a project—a creative outlet—to challenge me intellectually.

What influenced you to work towards getting published?

Like most writers, I fell in love with my characters and wanted to share them with others. It was that love that propelled me to rewrite my first book five times. I simply had to give those characters their best shot at making it into the hands of readers.

One of the highest highs for a writer is The Call. Please tell us about yours.

I’ve had two Calls so far, and they were equally thrilling. When my agent (Nicole Resciniti) called to tell me SULTRY WITH A TWIST (written as Macy Beckett) had sold in a three-book deal, I started jumping around and squealing. Then my kids came running into the room, completely terrified. Oopsie. The second Call came five months later, when Nicole sold ALIANETED to Disney Hyperion in a two-book deal. I was sitting the New Orleans airport waiting to board my flight home, and once again, much bouncing and squealing ensued. I attracted the attention of everyone at the gate. It’s a miracle they let me board the plane.

What process did you have to go through to get your first book published? How long did it take?

Even though I wrote ALIENATED first, it was the second to sell. It wasn’t ready when I queried—but like most writers, I didn’t realize that—and it still needed one more rewrite. SULTRY WITH A TWIST was much cleaner, so it went on subs first and sold in three weeks. I can’t complain—it was a pretty smooth process.

Tell us more about your upcoming releases.

SULTRY WITH A TWIST is the story of an Austin bar owner who’s forced to return to her tiny Texas hometown for a month of community service…under the supervision of her first love. If you enjoy hot and humorous romance—especially involving friends-to-lovers and second chances—I think you’ll like it. It’s available in stores now…just sayin’...and two more Sultry Springs books will release in 2013.

ALIENATED follows the misadventures of high school valedictorian Cara Sweeny, who gets more than she bargains for when she agrees to host the nation’s first interplanetary exchange student. It’s full of romance, mystery, sabotage, and some good ol’ fashioned political backstabbing.  It releases in February of 2014.

Can you give us a teaser?

Sure thing! Here’s a short blurb for SULTRY WITH A TWIST:

When June Augustine hightailed it out of Sultry Springs, Texas, with her heart in pieces, she swore she'd never return. But nine years later, one thing stands between June and her dream of opening an upscale martini bar: a month of community service under the supervision of the devilishly sexy Luke Gallagher, her first love and ex-best friend. As lust turns to love, June must decide where she belongs: in the glorious anonymity of Austin or back in Sultry Springs with the man who intoxicates her like no other.

Did you work with an editor? What was the experience like?

I have two wonderful editors: Leah Hultenschmidt (Sourcebooks) and Laura Schreiber (Disney Hyperion). They each have a good eye for detail, and because I trust them to guide me in the right direction, I do what they ask. It’s that simple.

What do you hope readers take with them when they read one of your stories?

A smile! Seriously. My favorite reviews are the ones where readers say they smiled during the whole book. That’s what I want—to make you happy.

What are your goals as an author? Do you have a plan to reach them?

I want to be a bestselling author in both genres (YA and romance). Hey, if you’re going to set a career goal, you might as well aim high! Do I have a plan? Aside from writing the best books I possibly can and connecting with readers, no. There’s little else within my control.

How do you feel about the daunting task of self-promotion?

I don’t like asking for things. I’m fiercely independent, and it feels unnatural to email a bestselling author and ask for a blurb. Or ask people to buy my books. Or contact a blogger and request a review. (In fact, one blogger turned me down and then publicly mocked me on twitter. That was pretty sh*tty.) But my motto is “You can’t win if you don’t play.” When I’m faced with the uncomfortable task of selling myself, I remember that the worst anyone can do is say no. Or make fun of my book on twitter. J

What do you feel is the most important thing new authors need to remember when writing their own stories?

To be patient and persistent. Many of us have a tendency to want success now—I’m no exception—but the path to publication is a marathon, not a sprint. It might take one year to hone your craft, or it might take a decade. But if you quit, you have zero chance of meeting your goal.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

You bet I do: Get off the internet—after you read this interview, of course—and write more books! I see too many aspiring authors throw all their time and effort into tweeting, networking, blogging, building a platform, etc. You can’t tweet your way into a publishing deal. You *must* keep your forward momentum going and always have a WIP. Did you just finish your first manuscript? Your fifth? Great, congrats! Now get to work on the next one. You never know which book will result in getting your foot in the door. Once you accomplish that, it’ll be easier to sell the others.

If a book was written about you, what do you think the title would be in five words?

She lives inside her head. J

Is there any place that our readers can get more acquainted with you?

I’m all over the place, but my favorite spot to hang out is Facebook. Feel free to “like” me for sneak peeks, giveaways, and the latest news on all my books. I love hearing from readers and writers! Thanks so much for having me on the blog today. It was a pleasure!

Ready to check out Macy Beckett's SULTRY WITH A TWIST?

Find Sultry with a Twist (Sultry Springs) on Amazon

Barnes & Noble

and 

Indie Bound

 

 

How to Ask for a Blurb (Even When You’re Intimidated)

By Sarah Pinneo | @SarahPinneo

Asking an author to blurb your book takes guts, and for good reason. When you ask for a blurb, you’re asking another person to shine a little of his or her credibility down on you. By definition, you’ll most often ask writers who are (at least for now) more well-known than you are.

It’s perfectly rational to find the prospect more stressful than, say, oral surgery.

But the book publicity process will prove, over time, that many worthy things are initially terrifying. Asking for blurbs is one of the very first book publicity acts you’ll perform, which doesn’t make things any easier. But there are a few things you can do to make the process less intimidating.

1. Polish Your Pitch. Remember that query you worked so hard to write? Dust it off. In your request, you should be no less professional and forthcoming about your manuscript than you would be in a query. Never be vague, even if you know the author well. Make it easy for him or her to say “sure, I’ll read it,” by writing a request that is polished, professional and complete.

2. Make The Connection Obvious. Is your manuscript in the romantic suspense genre, just like the author’s? Say so right up front. Did you sit next to her at a conference luncheon? Mention that too. If you can’t state clearly why you’re asking this author specifically, perhaps you should rethink the request. A true connection between their work and your book is the most promising ingredient in blurb matchmaking success.

3. Be Clear About Your Needs. Before you pick up the phone, or fire off an email, make sure you can supply the blurber with all the relevant information. You’ll need to say in what format the manuscript will arrive (loose pages? Bound galley?). Most importantly, you’ll need to give a firm deadline. If you’re not prepared with these details, you’re making it easy for the author to say “no.”

4. Think Big, But Ask a Small Question First. If you’re too intimidated to ask a famous author directly for a blurb, there is a less terrifying way to broach the topic. This method works especially well if you happen to meet the author in person. Try starting with: “O famous one,  can you tell me your parameters for blurbing new books?” That question will break the ice, allowing you to broach the subject without asking the author to make a snap decision about your book’s worthiness. Besides, successful authors who receive frequent requests may have already made some rules about how they’d like to receive manuscripts, and what deadlines they can meet. The better you can tailor your request to the author’s expectations, the easier it will be to hear a “yes.”

5. When You Hear “No,” Ask Someone Else. Authors cannot say yes to everyone. They have deadlines and obligations, just like you. Nobody likes to hear “no,” but everybody hears it sometimes. The best medicine is to try again.

6. Feel Free to Admit Your Fear. It’s okay to tell an author, “I’ve never had to ask this question before, but I was wondering…” Even bestselling authors will remember their early, vulnerable days. Also, ask yourself how you’ll feel in five years when a newbie author approaches you for a blurb. You’ll be flattered, right? Chances are, the author you’re soliciting is flattered, too.

7. Show Your Appreciation. When an author provides you with a blurb, write a thank you note, on paper, just the way your mother taught you when you were eight. Buy a copy of that author’s book, too. “I just gave your latest book to my sister in law,” is a fine sentence to include in your thanks. Then, think about thanking the author again on publication day. When Julia’s Child hit bookstore shelves, I sent a finished copy of the book and a jar of dark chocolate peanut butter to each of my blurbers. Not only did I want to show my thanks, the timing of my gift helped to remind them that a tweet or a Facebook “share” of the book would not go amiss.

For further reading about blurb requests, see: Daphne Uviller’s “To Ask for a Blurb is to Feel Like a Turd.” See also Carolyn Roy-Bornstein’s “When the Blurb is on the Other Foot.”

Sarah Pinneo  is a novelist, food writer and book publicity specialist. Her most recent book is Julia’s Child. Follow her on twitter at @SarahPinneo.

The Publishing Pulse: October 5th, 2012

Great Writing

KM Weiland explained how you can use adverbs to create music for your readers’ ears.

Author Natalie Lakosil examines ‘showing’ verses ‘telling’ from a unique angle that will help strengthen your story.

The Edittorrent had three posts this week (one, two, three) to help you strengthen your sentences so they are no longer confusing.

Marketing

Here are twelve mistakes to avoid when asking for a book review.

Are you making these five obnoxious marketing techniques? Hopefully you won’t be after reading Jody Hedlund’s post.

The buy me buy me buy me repetition on social media can annoy your potential readers to the point they won’t buy your book. Dan Blank has a solution that can by-pass this issue and lead to more sales.

Do you need a platform? Agent Rachelle Gardner weighs in on this frequently asked question. 

Around the Internet

If you're planning to participate in NaNoWriMo next month, now is the time to start preparing. If you are unfamiliar with the annual event in which you write 50,000 during November, check out the website for more information. 

Google and publishers have settled after seven years.

Have a great weekend, everyone. And for those of you living in Canada, have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. 

Stina Lindenblatt @StinaLL writes young adult and new adult novels. In her spare time, she’s a photographer and blogging addict, and can be found hanging out on her blog.  

Using Life's Disasters to Add Authenticity to Your Writing

Not where you planned to spend your night...

Bad things – sometimes terrible things – happen to us all. While they’re happening, we’re focused on surviving them.

After you manage to do that, for better or worse, you’ve learned something new about the human condition. And if there’s one thing writers do well, it’s share how hard it is to be human.

I have this little voice inside that I call The Writer. When something really awful happens, it’s the part of me that’s yelling “Oh man, you can totally use this in your stories!” Don’t get me wrong, a lot of times panic and horror mostly overwhelm the Voice, but for me, it’s always there.

Whether you have a mouthy The Writer voice or not, after you survive the emergency, disaster, or tragedy, you’re going to have to process it. Most people do that by talking with others, but as a writer, you may also want to…well, write about it. Whether you’re journaling in the first person or incorporating your experience into a character’s journey, if you do a good job of sharing what you went through, including your struggle to find meaning in it all, that will resonate with your readers.

There's nothing like reading something that makes you think, "Wow, the author really knows what she's talking about. That's exactly what it's like!"

The loudest I ever remember my The Writer voice being was during college, when my long-term boyfriend got into a fistfight with his identical twin brother. Everyone had been drinking. My boyfriend took the keys away from his twin’s girlfriend, and his twin took offense. Hence, the fistfight.

That was the first (though certainly not the last) time in my life that I was genuinely hysterical. Most of me was freaking out, trying to decide how to intervene, but in my head The Writer starts jumping up and down and shrieking, “Wow, this hysteria thing is fascinating. You’re laughing and crying and feeling like you’re half-outside your body. We have got to remember this so we can use it in our writing!”

So now when I have an hysterical character, he or she gets to be hysterical in full the-writer-has-experienced-it Technicolor.

Another example:

A couple of weeks ago, I got out of bed, put in my contacts, and promptly started to go blind.

Over the next few hours, my surroundings appeared to be filling with more and more smoke, which nobody else could see. I changed my contacts. That didn’t work, so I got online, Googled it, and concluded I must be getting a migraine. I’ve never had one with hazy or cloudy vision before, but the magical Internet assured me that such things happen. I’d had both my eyes and my physical health checked the previous month and I’d come through with flying colors, so a migraine made the most sense.

The problem was that over the next few hours, everything became so hazy that I couldn’t see myself in the mirror, which is not normal for a migraine. ("Ocular migraines" only occur in one eye, and the blindness passes in an hour or less.) I went back on Google and (with great difficulty, at 300% magnification) searched some more. If you’re going blind and it isn’t a migraine, the warnings on the internet are dire. As in, permanent blindness. And death.

Terrified, I broke down sobbing and called my mother to take me to the ER.

Though the storyteller in me would love to give you all the gory details about my visits (plural) to the ER (I was misdiagnosed the first time I went), that isn’t really the point here. My point is that I now know all about multiple conditions that can cause sudden cloudy and blurry vision, as well as blindness. I know how the ER handles emergencies like this. (They make you read an eye chart. Which is very difficult when you are blind.) I know what kinds of medications they recommend (antibiotic eye drops if the surface of the eye is involved), what kinds of specialists you’re supposed to see (ophthalmologists if the eye is involved; neurologists if the brain is involved), what it’s like to get a CAT scan (pretty cool), what it’s like to feel like your eyeballs are on fire (very not cool), and what it’s like to get your corneas dyed so the doctor can look for abrasions. I also learned that sometimes when you go blind, everything doesn’t go black. It goes white.

And soon, unfortunately, I will learn how much all of that stuff costs.

If you’re wondering what the final diagnosis was…turns out I had managed to chemically burn both of my corneas. How did I pull that off? Over the past 15 or 20 years, I have always washed my contact lens cases in the dishwasher. I got a new dishwasher, and apparently it didn’t wash all the detergent out of my lens case. I put the lenses in the lens case, they soaked up the detergent, I put them in my eyes, and…voila, chemical burns. Interestingly, it didn’t hurt a bit. The pain came later, after I’d removed my lenses. The theory is that blinking sloughed off the burned part of the cornea over the next few hours, which eventually resulted in dead-of-night second-trip-to-the-emergency-room agony.

Fortunately, I have fully recovered from the experience (typically corneal abrasions resolve themselves in 24 - 72 hours), and I can see and read and drive (and write) again.

But now my characters can experience all of these things realistically. Likewise, your characters can experience the types of disasters you have. Sure, we had to go through something miserable to learn what we did, but since we had to go through it…we might as well figure out how to get a story out of it!**

** After we survived The Great Scorched Eyeball Incident, my mom said, “I bet you’ll at least get a blog post out of this.” She clearly knows me – and The Writer – well! 

Carolyn Kaufman, PsyD's book, THE WRITER'S GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGY: How to Write Accurately About Psychological Disorders, Clinical Treatment, and Human Behavior helps writers avoid common misconceptions and inaccuracies and "get the psych right" in their stories. You can learn more about The Writer's Guide to Psychology, check out Dr. K's blog on Psychology Today, or follow her on Facebook! 

No protagonist? No problem! (but don't try this at home)

Red Letter Media has a long, detailed and extremely rude (read Not Safe For Work Or Children, which is why I'm not linking it) review of The Phantom Menace during which the reviewer explains that the movie has no protagonist.

(My husband and I can recite this part, and often do: "Your movie should focus on someone. A prota... pro... protaGONist.") Plinkett continues by saying that the protagonist is the one who faces the main story question and in solving the main story problem, changes in ways that are good for him or her, and that this is called an "arc."

As soon as he said this, it occurred to me that this is why Phantom Menace failed in places where Star Wars so admirably succeeds: because you care about Luke, and unfortunately the viewer in no way cares about the characters of Phantom Menace. At least, I didn't. I should have, and I wanted to, but it all felt so flat. Plinkett even runs down the main characters to show why none are the protagonist.

This weekend, my Patient Husband and I watched The Avengers for the first time. We'd worked up to it by watching all the other movies, and despite the hype, the movie delivered. We loved it and we're going to watch it again, and then we did what geeks do, which is discuss it at length.

And last night, my Patient Husband said to me, "You know what's odd, though? There was no prota... pro..." and I gasped.

Think about it, if you were one of the 50 million people who saw the movie before I did: there isn't one main character in the movie. No one changes. There's a flimsy attempt at a character arc with Iron Man's decision at the end, but really, no one changed. No one person's decision hinged the movie.

Put on your writer hat. What would the QueryShark say to this? I'm not in her league, but I'd guess she'd say that if querying your book with an ensemble cast, you focus on one character so we care.

Now, did I care? Heck yeah. I felt for these characters. I was pulling for them the whole way through. And not just because of the action or the peril. I also don't think it's owing to watching the previous films and getting to know the characters then because others who hadn't seen all six films also cared. Since the film grossed something like one and a half billion (so far), it's a good bet that peopel cared.

What did Joss Wheadon do right?

Let me take a guess here: the team itself is the protagonist. The Avengers team is, in and of itself, your main character.  It starts as something formless, something with officials lined up against it, and in its most nascent moments it knows it's needed but at the same time struggles to exist. It's internally conflicted. It's got both a hidden need and an external need. It sets aside its random individual needs and yet at the same time, tries to meet or resolve them for a greater good. It's got an antagonist who wants nothing more than to sow self-doubt in order to undercut it.

In its darkest hours, it doesn't even exist any longer, and yet it overcomes that. It's got a journey. It faces a decision.

I used to say this about the Battle of the Planets/Gatchaman team, that the team itself was my favorite character in the series, but here it was so much more intensive.

This is a black-belt level writing trick. I would not recommend attempting this unless you're driven to do it and nothing else will make you happy. As I said above, most ensemble casts do focus on one as the primary protagonist. But in this case, I have to say: learn. Watch and learn, because I'd love to be able to do that someday, and I'd wager that most of the rest of us would too.

---

Jane Lebak is the author of The Wrong Enemy, to be released by MuseItUp on October 5th. She is also author of The Guardian (Thomas Nelson, 1994), Seven Archangels: Annihilation (Double-Edged Publishing, 2008) and The Boys Upstairs (MuseItUp, 2010). At Seven Angels, Four Kids, One Family, she blogs about what happens when a dis