Not every scene makes it into the final book. Here’s a never-before-released prologue that I wrote for A WEEK OF MONDAYS that was deemed “entertaining, but not necessary.” It was definitely a darling that I had to cut but the book was already long and my editor and I both agreed that it wasn’t completely  … Read more

A WEEK OF MONDAYS, my new young adult novel is out in the world! Hoorah! The book is about sixteen-year-old Ellie Sparks who finds herself reliving the same horrible Monday over and over again, in which her boyfriend breaks up with her. And although yes, that does sound horrific, it’s actually a comedy! Click here  … Read more

ELLISON “ELLIE” SPARKS: An idealistic, ambitious sixteen-year-old junior with a lot on her plate. Those were the first words I ever wrote about Ellie Sparks. They were written in a synopsis for my publisher when I was first trying to sell them on the idea for a book called A WEEK OF MONDAYS. Of course,  … Read more

My new book, A WEEK OF MONDAYS, hits stores on August 2 (WOOT!) and to celebrate, every Monday leading up to release week, I’ll be unveiling one of Ellie’s 7 different “looks” from the story! When Ellie Sparks realizes she’s reliving the same horrible Monday over and over again (in which her boyfriend breaks up with her), she decides  … Read more

I’ve been waiting SO LONG for this day and now it’s here! I finally have permission to share with you the super amazing awesome-sauce cover for A WEEK OF MONDAYS, designed by the insanely talented Elizabeth Clark! I honestly think this cover absolutely nails the spirit, voice, and humor of the book while also telling you a little bit  … Read more

This is it! The FINAL week of the first draft of A WEEK OF MONDAYS! I finished the draft this week and it was sent to my editor for her comments! I just want to say, this was SUCH a fun project–blogging my progress of writing a book. And if you’ve been following the posts,  … Read more

YAY! I’m back to drafting! If you remember from a previous post, I’d stopped drafting and went back to start revising from the beginning. I feared that I was starting to lose the trail of the story and I needed to start fixing up the first 3/4 of the book before finishing the last 1/4.  … Read more

I hope everyone’s having a great NaNoWriMo! I’m busying revising away and trying to fill in the countless blanks in my manuscript. Sheehs, Past Jessica! You really left me some big work! Here’s a recap of what I did this week! WEEKLY SUMMARY: Date: 11/5/14 – 11/12/14 Word Count at the end of Last Week:  … Read more

This week is going to look a little different as I actually stopped drafting and went back to the beginning to start to revise. So the word count is not building, it’s actually getting smaller as I start to cut things and rearrange. So instead of giving you a day-by-day play-by-play, I’m going to sum  … Read more

Okay, so this is technically week 8, but week 6 and 7 I got absolutely NO writing done because I was on tour. So I’ve combined all three weeks into this one! But really, there’s nothing to report for weeks 6 and 7! As always, below is my weekly summary (with chart!) and my daily  … Read more

Wow! Week 5 was a surprisingly good week! As always, below is my weekly summary (with chart!) and my daily breakdowns in case you’re interested in the more day-to-day process of writing. Click on chart to see it bigger. WEEKLY SUMMARY: Date: 10/1/14 – 10/7/14 Weekly Words Written: 14,356 Total Words to Date: 57,993 Number  … Read more

Week 4 and more than halfway through the rough (emphasis on ROUGH) draft! As always, below is my weekly summary (with chart!) and my daily breakdowns in case you’re interested in the more day-to-day process of writing. And notice the MASSIVE drop in mood this week! YIKES! Click on chart to see it bigger. WEEKLY  … Read more

Okay, wow. Week 3 is already complete. Sorry for the delay in posting! I can’t believe I’ve been working on this book for nearly a month! It has FLOWN! As always, below is my weekly summary (with chart!) and my daily breakdowns in case you’re interested in the more day-to-day process of writing. Click on  … Read more

In case, you’re wondering, I’ve switched to posting weekly instead of daily. The daily posts just seemed a bit excessive. However, I’m still recording my daily stats and notes, I’ll just be consolidating them into one weekly post for ease of reading and following. So, in this post, you’ll find my weekly summary (WITH CHART!!!)  … Read more

Stats: Date: 9/8/14 Words Written: 1492 (Columbus sailed the ocean blue?) Total Words to Date: 10532 (10k! Milestone reached!) Pages Written: 7 Total Pages To Date: 43 Chapters Completed: 2 Total Chapters to Date: 10 Time Elapsed: 1 hour (speedy gonzales!) General Mood (1-10): 8 Notes: WOO HOO! I bounced back today! Bounce Bounce Bounce!  … Read more

Week 1 is almost over! Here’s my recap for day 5! Stats: Date: 9/7/14 Words Written: 1649 Total Words to Date: 9040 (almost to 10k!) Pages Written: 5 Total Pages To Date: 36 Chapters Completed: 1 Total Chapters to Date: 8 Time Elapsed: 1.5 hours General Mood (1-10): 6 Notes: You’ll notice my word count  … Read more

Day 4! Stats: Date: 9/6/14 Words Written: 914 Total Words to Date: 7391 Pages Written: 4 Total Pages To Date: 31 Chapters Completed: 1 Total Chapters to Date: 7 Time Elapsed: 1 hour General Mood (1-10): 7 Notes: I’m glad I pushed myself to go beyond my daily word count (1500) the last two days  … Read more

Day 3! Here we go! Stats: Date: 9/5/14 Words Written: 2622 Total Words to Date: 6477 Pages Written: 10 Total Pages To Date: 27 Chapters Completed: 2 Total Chapters to Date: 6 Time Elapsed: 3.5 hours General Mood (1-10): 7 Notes: Today was my best day so far,  word-count wise, but my lowest “mood” rating.  … Read more

In case you missed my post yesterday, I’m live blogging (diary style) the progress of writing my new manuscript,  A WEEK OF MONDAYS (which will be released by FSG/Macmillan in Spring 2016), to give fellow writers (and readers) an inside look into my writing process. Click here to read the first post or you can  … Read more

Today I started a new book. It’s technically the 12th book I’ve ever written but the 8th that will be published. (You do the math about my rejection-laden past.) The book is called A WEEK OF MONDAYS. It won’t be out until Spring of 2016. But I get so many questions from fellow writers about  … Read more