THE GOAL

"The goal is not to get published but to stay published!"

I have no idea which of my talented author friend's said that to me, but it has been my creed for the last year. No matter what I was writing, which marketing plan I was hashing out, or which the thousand WIP ideas I was toying with writing, that one phrase has been my guiding point.

These past twelve months, I have gone through content edits, line edits, first pass pages. I have spoken at the NESCBWI conference, ordered SWAG, and had the required everybody-is-going-to-hate-this author meltdown. But none of those things made me feel like I was a REAL author as much as seeing my solo YA Contemporary, THE SECRETS WE KEEP, go up on Goodreads. Something about having it listed there means I am a half-step closer to reaching that goal of staying published.

I can't wait to share the cover with you all.  It is beautiful. and poetic, and locked away in my publishers vault until they give me the okay to share it with the world! In the meantime, I have attached the Goodreads link below (just in case any of you want to add it to your TBR pile) as well as a quick blurb about the book. And here's to reaching all of our writerly goals no matter what they may be!

Goodreads Link:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18309670-the-secrets-we-keep

Book Blurb:  Seventeen-year-old Ella Lawton spent her entire life living in the shadows of her identical twin sister's popularity, but she never dreamed of having Maddy’s life; never wanted it. In fact, she’s spent the last three years trying to separate herself from the group at school Maddy has chosen, preferring the quiet, safe confines of her sketchbook and the company of her best friend, Josh, to the constant battle for attention and popularity that has defined her sister’s life.

When a heated argument and a tragic accident leaves her sister dead, Ella wakes up in the hospital surrounded by friends and loved ones who believe she is Maddy. She is overwhelmed by their joy when they realize she will live - a joy Ella is sure she would not see if they knew the truth, that it is Ella who survived, not her lovable, popular sister. After what she has done, she cannot bring herself to cause even more heartache and in that moment she makes the gut wrenching decision to assume her sister’s life. Navigating her sister’s popularity and boyfriend are hard enough, but Ella soon realizes that Maddy’s life is full of secrets that have kept her popularity intact while slowly destroying her from the inside out. Caught in a web of lies and with no escape in sight, Ella is faced with two options - confess her deception and risk the hatred and betrayal of those around her, or give up all of her own dreams and continue down the destructive path her sister's life has mapped out for her.