Life Update & Oops, I Haven’t Blogged in a Long, Long Time

Hello friends! I know I haven’t posted a blog update in many, many months, but I have my reasons which include:

1.) website troubles (is anyone even getting these blog updates? not sure)

2.) my work hours have increased (waahh!!)

3.) it’s been a bit of a rough year, health and stress wise (but the good news is I’m doing better)

4.) and yeah, that’s about it

But here I am with a new post and a little life update, in case you care to know. 2023 began well–I had a book I was hoping to soon put on sub with my agent, and I had an idea for a new project that I was excited about. Enter, February, when my agent terminated our contract due to personal conflicts. She’s since left the business, so no hard feelings. It happens. However, it was quite a blow at the time, and it’s left me agent-less and on the hunt again because no agent means virtually no chance of getting picked up by the big publishers.

Once upon a time, I thought that a previously agented and published person like myself wouldn’t have much trouble finding a new agent. But, boy these are different times and let me tell you, querying is ROUGH right now. I’ve had some interest in my book, and my querying stats have been pretty good, all things considering, but here it is, November, and no bites. I don’t want to be all “woe is me” because I know that things can change in an instant. That’s how it worked with Not Our Summer. One day, I was ready to give up on that book and move on, and the next, I had a publishing offer in hand! I know things are slow right now, so I’m trying to keep the faith.

Anyhoo, I’ve spent most of the year querying, revising, and then querying again. I’ve written a few short non-fiction pieces in between, but made little progress on the new book project. However, to give myself the kick in the pants that I desperately needed, I decided to do something I’ve sworn off until now: NaNoWriMo. Yes, that’s right: that thing where you attempt to write a whole freaking book in one month. Fortunately, I was already 18k words into my WIP (work-in-progress, for you newbies) so I had a head start.

Writing to produce a certain word count each day is new for me, but I’m never one to back down from a challenge. This is sure to be the $hittiest first draft I’ve ever produced, but by the end of this month, I’m hoping that it will, at least, exist. Then, I will begin the new challenge of molding that piece of you-know-what into something actually readable and entertaining. Writing books is fun! (*said with a slightly unhinged cackle*)

But here’s a mood board and pitch of the NaNo WIP for your reading/viewing pleasure:

Still grieving the death of her father, Laramie distracts herself by teaming up with her new co-worker Nixon to search for his missing brother. The two teens unexpectedly find love, but when they discover that their losses share a tragic connection, it may be enough to tear them apart.

In other news, my horror short story will come out in an anthology with Inked in Gray Press next May, and we’ve just been told that the title will be As We Convene: An Anthology of Time and Place. I’m quite proud of the creepy little story I wrote a few years ago when I was in a Halloween-y mood, and I’m excited to tell you more as the anthology release date approaches!

If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time (and it is, indeed, still reaching you), then you probably know that I do a post each December in which I share my 5 Favorite YA Books of the year and give away one of those books. Never fear, I still plan on doing that post toward the end of next month. This is a test post, if you will, to make sure that these things are still reaching people. If not, I’ll have to go a different route, perhaps by way of Substack, which I’ve been using for my quarterly newsletters.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you. I was once a prolific blogger, and I truly enjoy writing these posts. It’s just that life gets busy and other things sometimes get in the way (looking at you, malfunctioning website). I’m hoping to get back to more regular posting though. If there’s something book or publishing-related that you’d like to see me write about, please let me know in the comments. Also, I’d love to know if this post has made it safely to your inbox, so just a quick “hello” in the comments would be very helpful!

Ta-ta,

Casie

P.S.: Have you read Not Our Summer yet? If not, what are you waiting for?!?

Five trips, two cousins, one family feud, and a summer that will forever change their lives . . . 

Available wherever books are sold (Amazon link below).