First Publication!

I will forever celebrate July 16 because on this day in 2014, I went from being a writer to a published writer! My first publication is a devotional called "Obstacles in Our Adventures" on Whole Magazine, a online Christian magazine for women.

I found Whole Magazine on July 10, 2014 when someone new followed me on Twitter. I checked out her profile and saw that she, too, was a writer. I followed her back and saw that she had just had an article posted on Whole Magazine. I went to the website and fell in love with the magazine. It's full of women writing about real life and God stuff. Swoon! This is right up my alley because it's the type of thing I love to write about on my blog, This God Who Makes My Heart Explode with Happiness.
The articles written there are relatable and encouraging, and I wanted to be a part of it.

That same day, I applied to be writer. And I waited.

This morning I woke up to an email sent to me last night saying my post went live at 11PM! So, I guess, technically I was published yesterday. But it feels like today for me, so that's what I'm going with!

I am elated. I've been jumping around, squealing and laughing, crying, and thanking God because this is what I have been striving for. I am published. My words are out there in the world, and they may encourage someone today. That's amazing.

This may get corny, but I want to give thanks right now. First to my Father for giving me a passion and a gift for writing, and for using them. For working in me, through me, and for me. Next, I want to thank Carmen Miller and Emily Lauren of Whole Magazine for giving me this beautiful opportunity, and for putting such a lovely magazine out there. Thanks to anyone else on the team. Thank you, Brittney Moses, for the follow on Twitter because it's through you I found this magazine! Thanks to my husband, Gary, who gives me huge support so I can write full time, and who encourages and inspires me daily. Thank you to everyone who has ever read my blogs because it would be harder to write if no one was reading. There are too many people to thank whom I know personally and have been encouraged by, and I know I would miss some if I tried to name everyone. That said, thank you to anyone who has been encouraging and supportive. You know who you are. (I promise this will be much more extensive and specific when I get my novel published...I've started a list.) I do want to give a shout out of thanks to my family, though, who have been especially and constantly wonderful to me. Thank you to my parents, Phil and Nikki, to the best siblings in the world, Jen and Bugy (Chris), and to Heavan.

If you sat through the acknowledgements, good for you. haha. (Am I the only one who reads the acknowledgements in every book?)

Now, because this post isn't long enough (ahem), I wanted to share that there is something else incredibly exciting happening today. I get to attend Veronica Roth's Q&A tonight at 7 in Lansing with my momma! If you're not into YA books, Veronica Roth is the genius author of the Divergent books. She's one of the authors I most admire and adore. I've already cried, like, three times just anticipating it. I'm going to be a wreck when I actually see her. I'll have to try to reign in my inner fan-girl a bit so I don't scare her away. (Not kidding.) I'm trying to think of the one question I will ask if given the opportunity. Also, I'm wearing all black and considering getting a tattoo (or maybe not) so I can attend this in Dauntless attire. Anyway, yes, I'm thrilled!

Today is wonderful. I'm going to celebrate this day for all of time.

Thanks for reading!
Please like my author Facebook page here and follow me on Twitter @Je55ieMullin5.     

Updates and Horse Tranquilizers

Here's what is happening with Capture Me Strong:

This is the novel I've been working on since 2010. It's finished. Kind of. How on earth do people decide their novel is truly finished?? It has gone through revisions. I sent it to some Beta Readers, who gave me feedback. I chewed on said feedback and applied it to the novel to make it better. And then I took the entire manuscript and changed in from past tense to present. Which sucked. I did that in about a week because I needed to have that done before I sent it to Amazon for this contest they had going on. This was in December.

I didn't make it past the first round, which was based solely on Pitch. A Pitch is kind of what you read on the inside flap of a novel when you decide whether or not you want to read it. Except...it's not really like that. The pitch sells your book to the agent, so it has to have voice, show why they should care about the protagonist, show the main plot--with the ending!--and tell why this story is different from any other story. And all of this has to be told in as few words as possible. Some say 500. Some say 200. It depends on what the agent requires. Oh, and it has to really wow off their pants.

Try this. It's hard.

So, I learned I'm not skilled at pitch-writing. I'm soaking up anything I can find about this art so I can send a much better pitch next time. 

I haven't yet touched Capture Me Strong since December because all of that was so intense I just needed a break from it for the sake of sanity. It is now time to pick it back up and give it one last thorough round of edits before I send it back out to agents whom I admire.

I've started the next novel in the meantime. I worked it out for a few months before I finally started a messy first draft this month for Camp NaNoWriMo. My goal is a rough draft of 40k words by the end of July. As I write this (with seven days remaining), I stand at 10,275 words. I don't know if I will make this deadline because I've been busy with my best friend's wedding! Yay! Also, my back is inflamed, so my doctor prescribed a muscle relaxer which I think they got confused with a horse tranquilizer. But I am trying my best. This is practice for when I have real-life deadlines one day, so I take it seriously. But some things are unavoidable. Like my bed while I'm on horse tranquilizers.

For four days last week, I worked as a freelance writer, writing articles for websites. I hated it mostly because I was getting paid $0.60 per 500 words, and it took up all my work time so I couldn't work on my novel. I'm sure freelancing works for some people, but I don't have it in me to work my way up to the high-paying stuff, and I value creativity too much to write about dentistry in Fayetteville, NC. So, I finished everything assigned to me and told the guy I was moving in another direction.

I'm also trying to build a platform so I have a built-in audience when an agent does agree to work with me on my book. Would you be so kind as to Follow me on Twitter @Je55ieMullin5 and Like my author Facebook page? Thank you a million times for those of you who already have!

Finally, the hot topic with authors today is traditional publishes vs self-publishing. I'm leaning toward traditional because that has always been my dream, but people say self is a good way to get to traditional. So, what do you guys think? Leave a comment below!

Much love,
Jessie

PS, here's a picture.