Winning!

Today I get to announce the winners of my Too Many Books Giveaway! First let me say, I was SO excited at the amount of entries and participants for this contest. I'm so thrilled to have met so many new people. :) Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter and spread the word. You all made it so much more fun!

And without further ado:


*drumroll*



Prize Package 3 - A copy of SHADOW & BONE by Leigh Bardugo...the winner is:

Rachel T.


Prize Package 2 - Both UGLIES and PRETTIES by Scott Westerfield...the winner is:

Ilima T.


Prize Package 1 - A signed copy of both POSSESSION & SURRENDER by Elana Johnson...the winner is:

Stephanie W.

Thanks to everyone! I'll be contacting the winners about sending their prizes.

Have a happy Monday! :)

Dear Postman, How I Love Thee -- ARCs!

Yeah, that's a blog title I never thought I'd write. Please, someone stop me before I write an ode to my postman like I did to my agent.

Neither of us want that...believe me.

Why do I love my postman so much, you ask?




Because he brought me THREE gorgeous ARCs in less than two weeks!!




Then I sat down to write this blog post...


HAHAHAhahahaha...haha...haa...





Sorry, that was funny. As if I'm really going to take enough time away from reading these little beauties to write a full blog post. Yep, I find this amusing.

So, yeah...that's why this blog post is full of just me laughing and love for my postman.

What ARC are you dying to get your hands on these days? And even more important, if you got it...how would you thank your postman? ;-)

P.S. You have just over two days to enter my Too Many Books Giveaway! Don't forget!

Yeah, I'm That Girl

I have a secret. It's something I try to hide as much as I can. I never talk about it here, or anywhere in public. Only my closest friends and family are in on it.

Here it is: as an author, I can be very insecure.

And I highly doubt I'm the only one.

I work extremely hard at my craft. I strive to improve with each book and I spend as much time reading and learning from other authors as I can. I've spent up to 18 hours in one day working on revisions or edits. I'm lucky enough to have amazing critique partners and I do not take them for granted. Any feedback I get from them I take seriously. But I don't give my book to them until I've made it as good as I possibly can without help. By the time I'm ready for beta readers, my book has already been through several rounds of revisions and more hours of work than I can count. By that time, I'm more than invested, I'm in love.

When I send my book off to my beta readers, it's like introducing my loved ones to my fiancé. Do I realize that he might have a few flaws? Of course. Do I want more than anything in the world for them to love him anyway? Absolutely.

I bite my fingernails to tiny stubs, dive into reading two books a day to distract myself. I go on long drives (but not out of service for my smart phone, of course...that would be insane), start drafting new projects, put together outlines for the next three books down the line...anything to keep my mind off of what is happening.

I become a puddle of insecure writer goo. Yeah, I'm that girl. The one that twiddles her thumbs in the corner and watches her e-mail and phone with sad puppy dog eyes hoping for good news.

It isn't easy. It's actually quite miserable and nerve-wracking. But I wouldn't have it any other way, because that would mean I don't care as much as I should.

How much do you care? Do you become a puddle of goo?

And if you missed my Too Many Books Giveaway, don't forget to go enter! :)

Too Many Books Giveaway!

To celebrate my blog hitting 400 followers, passing 5000 tweets on twitter (turns out, I talk a lot), and um...summer and stuff. I wanted to do a giveaway!

Follow the directions on the Rafflecopter below and you might win some of these awesome books!



And *drumroll please* more than one person is going to win. Yay!

1st name drawn will win TWO books: A signed copy of both POSSESSION and SURRENDER by Elana Johnson.

2nd name drawn will win TWO books: Both UGLIES and PRETTIES by Scott Westerfield

3rd name drawn will win ONE book: the spectacular SHADOW & BONE by Leigh Bardugo

I will announce the winner next Monday. So, enter and spread the word! I want to give away some books! :) And don't forget to leave a way to contact you in the comments!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Forward Momentum

In publishing, there are times where it seems that everything is happening at once. And there are times when it feels like nothing is happening at all and you're just sitting there, waiting on a query, or on sub, or for your book to come out...

We do a lot of waiting.

I just wanted to use today to say -- enjoy the journey. The slow and the fast all rolled into one. Each step or leap moves us forward. Every bit of it sculpts us into the person we will be tomorrow.

What is your favorite part of your journey this summer?

Some Fun With Covers and Anagrams

If you haven't heard of (and entered) our giveaway of thirteen awesome books over on Friday the Thirteeners, you might be the only one with internet access who hasn't...

This should be remedied, forthwith.

Yep, I used the word forthwith. That's how I roll. ;-)

As part of the giveaway, we did anagrams of our names (on this awesome site) and titles of our books. Mine was a little tricky, so I ended up using my full name:

Jennifer R. Johansson  - which came up with a great title name:

NINJAS SNEER FOR JOHN

and my title, INSOMNIA - gave me a great author name:

A. Minions

And so, we have... *drumroll please*

Dude. How awesome does this book look? Any suggestions for a killer blurb?

And it was SO much fun! So after some joking around with the other Thirteeners, I decided to make another mock cover for... 

Are you ready?

FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC...IN SPACE

I put "Friday the Thirteeners" in the anagram maker and came up with:

A. Resented Thrifty Heir - which felt appropriate.

Anyway, clearly, I've missed my calling. My covers are stellar. ;-) Did you try an anagram? What did you come up with? 

And don't forget to enter in the giveaway! You have until Thursday night. :)

What's the Most Challenging Part?

A few weeks ago, I asked for topics you wanted me to post about. You came up with some great questions, because you're geniuses like that.

Today, I'm answering a question posted by Randy Lindsay. He asked:
"As a published author, what is the most challenging part of the process? Is it writing, or promoting, or something else?"


I think it absolutely depends on the author. My book isn't out for several months still, but I think I can give you an answer anyway. For me, this answer has been the same since the first day I started writing. The hardest part is balancing all of the roles involved in this job. As I move closer to my release date, it doesn't get any easier.


To be honest, I think I've gotten pretty good at balancing. And I work on it every day. As an author, we wear so many hats. Creator, out-liner, drafter, editor, reviser, reader...and then we move into marketer, social-media-expert, public speaker, presenter, teacher, mentor...all of this on top of anything outside of writing. It's a massive balancing act.

For me, I take one day at a time and I have a plan. I've grown to know my own strengths and limitations. I understand that I can only spend one hour drafting for every 3 hours editing. I know that I work better with a very loose outline and some time to mull it over before I dig in.

Most importantly, I understand that I can't do it all by myself. I have an amazing family and friends that help me and have my back. And even if everything else falls apart, I know that I will still have them. This is what gives me the strength to keep balancing, to keep putting on all my hats day after day, and to keep doing what I love.

What about you? What do you struggle with and what keeps you going?