Hi all! A YA writer here!

Hi there, my name's Diana and I write YA. I'm another lurker from AW, Querytracker, and more agent/industry blogs than I can name. Emily dragged me out of lurkdom and into the nice light here at Writer's Chronicle, it feels great but forgive me if I ever go back to my lurker ways. A pm will snap me out of it! Emily's also the very first person to comment on my blog, so I have two things to thank her for

There are all types of writers out there; I'm the typical kind that always loved books (been reading fantasy since third grade and romance since sixth) and I started about a dozen stories during Science class in high school but never finished them.

My books:
I'm a little reserved about posting tons about my stories. Genre-wise here are the stats: I have four projects in varying stages. Currently I'm revising a YA supernatural about a girl who discovers powers connected to the stars. When I'm not revising that one, I'm plotting another YA supernatural about best friends who find a centuries-old painting of themselves and the school enemy. I also have a completed YA fantasy that I may or may not continue to query, and it concerns a girl who's mom and sister are spirited to another realm. And lastly, there's my "first" book; the one that's six hundred pages long, never been revised, queried directly to editors because that's how brilliant I was, the list goes on and on. It hasn't seen the light of day in at least six years, and needless to say I'm never querying it again!

Myself:
The first book I actually finished was a medieval romance novel. It was many things, but publishable was not one of them, and it took me a while to figure that out. I wondered if I was in the right genre and wrote some short stories to see if I found a better fit. One of them was accepted for publication in Arabella Magazine (a romance fiction magazine). Finally! The validation I needed! But the magazine went under and the issue never went to print. At about this time things got way hectic with baby number three and my husband finishing nursing school. I went more than a year without writing or even reading anything, which, if you knew me, is absolutely bananas! I finally made it to a bookstore and looked for that special book that would give me the feeling I was looking for...the sensation of being completely transported that I remembered from when I was a kid. So I headed to the children's section and as I did I passed YA, and a book caught my eye. Actually a whole bunch of books caught my eye. I became an addict! The crazy-intensity, the angsty romance, and the freedom of the stories really appealed to me and that's where I plan to stay

If you ever want to drop by my blog you can find me at www.writingrollercoasters.blogspot.com

All the best everyone!

Diana

Hi Diana!

Woah, what a great introduction!
I'm Daeonica, and I'm a mod here, so you can PM me with any questions, suggestions, or if you just want to chat.

It sounds like you've had an interesting time with your writing so far! Please get stuck in to the forums, it's great to have you here.

~Daeonica

Welcome Diana,

If you have any questions or queries feel free to pm me or the other mods here - none of us bite

wow!! your books sound amazing, especially the one with the MC powers being connected to the stars!


I wonder if you ever considered going back and looking at your old work? I read a blog post by Janet Reid (i think it was) about how you should never query your first ever book because by the time you've gotten another under your belt - you'll be a better writer and be able to go back over your old work and maybe rework it over completely.

I'll try and find the post

Edit: here it is http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2009/06/is-this-your-first-novel.html

and

http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-soon-is-too-soon.html

Thanks Daeonica, I feel so welcome! I can see how posting on a forum can become addictive! As if lurking and blogging wasn't enough of a distraction, right?

Thanks for the link Emily. I love Janet Reid's blog and that post is so true! I don't know if I have the stomach to return to my first ms, though... there's probably enough distance now so I won't want to die of embarrassment at every other scene, but it would be a very rough revision. A lot of cliches, contrived scenarios, yuck I don't even want to think back. Interestingly enough though, it started as a YA but at the time I'd never heard of a YA historical romance so I wrote it to "sound like" all the romance novels I'd always loved. I guess I doomed it from the start!

Diana
www.writingrollercoasters.blogspot.com

well i never think of anything as being doomed - as long as you learned something from writing it then it was worth the effort

Hey and welcome! I'm Novel, one of the mods. Feel free to PM me if you need anything.

Your works sound way awesome. And I must say that you did a great job with your intro post. A lot of people hardly post anything.

I look forward to seeing you around the boards!

Thank you Novel, I keep saying it but it's true: I love how positive the boards here are I hope you guys don't mind me sticking around!

Diana

Definitely not Diana, you can stick to us like Velcro

Welcome welcome!

Thanks gobble, I feel very welcome and am having loads of fun

Lol...I saw and followed your blog before I replied to your intro thread. Shows how harum-scarum I am...

Ha ha Renu, harum-scarum is EXACTLY how I've been feeling lately!

Welcome, Diana. I love your blog!