Interesting times at the B&N

What I'm doing: relaxing after dinner
What I'm listening to: Barney (oh joy)
What I'm reading right now: Shiver (I'm thinking it's going to be a good one)

Staci and I meet about once a week at Barnes and Noble to write.  Usually if it's not too hot, we sit outside the Starbucks.  We've had some interesting encounters outside the B&N over the last few years and have made some interesting friends out there, including a very large group of Italian men (we've decided in the last months that they may be Greek-we're not really sure, but they speak very little English and are very nice) who play chess constantly and a couple of guys who have very loud trucks and motor cycles (expensive toys).  Lately there has been a group of thirtyish men and one 18ish girl who meet, and they apprear to be some kind of self-help group.  I'm guessing AA.  The girl showed up last week and said she only had $4 and couldn't decide whether to buy cigarettes or dinner.  She apparently decided on cigs because the asked the guys if she could borrow some money.  Those are the regulars, but every time we meet, it never fails that we have to endure one or more people smoking extremely stinky cigars (yuck!) and someone always seems to have body odor.  With all of this, it's amazing we ever get anthing done.

So, last Friday, the most interesting thing yet happened.  Staci and I were just getting going on chapter 13 when a semi-homeless looking man rolled his Sam's shopping cart up to one of the tables near us and parked it.  Inside the cart was a huge black backpack.  He lugged the heavy backpack over his shoulder and walked inside of Starbucks.  Then about 10 minutes later, the man busted through the door (without the backpack!) and took off through the parking lot in the opposite direction from which he came.  And he left his shopping cart.  Staci and I looked at each other, and she says, "Where is his backpack."

So, now we are sitting there wondering if the Starbucks is about to blow up from a homeless guy who is "sticking it to the man".  Not a fun feeling, in case you're wondering.  I looked in the window to see if I could see the backpack, but it wasn't in view.  I called my husband Jeremy, who is a police officer in Webster (the city we were in), and he had the nerve to say, "Well, call the police," which in case the idiot didn't realize, was exactly what I did.  Loser!  Staci went inside to check things out and to look in the women's restroom.  One of the guys we see up there often, asked what was going on, so I told him.  He went to look around the store and in the men's restroom.  The good new was that we had yet to blow up.

A few minutes later, I looked in the window again and saw the crazy guy with his backpack.  He must have come in the B&N front doors.  The crazy guy came out (with his backpack) and proceeded to tell us that he got kicked out because he cussed out the barrista.  He must have stormed out forgetting his backpack.  What a freak!  Thankfully he was just crazy, and not a crazy bomber.

The strangest part was that as soon as he headed towards the parking lot (with his cart and backpack), the wind picked up and I swear the tempt. dropped about 10 degrees.  Everyone was holding down their belongings to keep them from blowing away.  A major storm rolled in complete with quite the lightning show.  Good times.

Being the creative types that we are, Staci and I came up with all kinds of theories as to who the crazy non-bomber (whew!) was.  We definitely feel a short story coming on.

Sara 

Back to School . . .

What I'm doing: relaxing after a very long day at school (classroom is ready!)
What I'm listening to: my husband and son playing baseball in the kitchen
What I still have to do tonight: exercise, laundry, take a shower, get stuff ready for school tomorrow, give Gavin a bath, and probably a few other things I can't remember

So, Staci and I are back to school tomorrow.  A whole new crew of 7th graders are coming, and we are ready . . . I think.  This time of year is always crazy, and now even more so as we try to maintain two jobs at once.  Actually, three.  Teaching, writing, and promoting FALLEN.  So now we have to figure out how to fit it all in. 

I want to welcome any of our students who come and visit our blog, Myspace, and Facebook (see links for MS and FB on the right).  We hope you all follow along on our journey.  This all started over two years ago and the students who were in our class when we started FALLEN are now going to be freshmen.  We hope they find us too.  It's been very exciting and now when our students ask when our book is coming out, we finally can give them an answer. 

Well, wish Staci and I luck as we get back in the swing of things.  And next on our list is our website.  If you have a minute, leave a comment about any suggestion you might have.  All tips are welcome for neither Staci nor I are techno-savvy. 

Don't forget to click the follow button to follow our blog or scroll all the way to the botton and subscribe.  Then an email will be sent to you each time we post something new.  Your support means everything!

Sara

A Few of Our Favorites . . .

I thought I'd share some of Staci and my favorite YA novels that we've read over the years.  Lucky for me, Staci reads several books a week and then passes on the good ones to me.  I think she's about 50+ books ahead of me (and that's just YA) but I try my best to keep up.  Staci, feel free to add on.

13 Reasons Why

Unwind

The Hunger Games

Beastly

Wicked Lovely

Blood and Chocolate

Venomous

And last but not least, An Abundance of Katherines

I know there are lots more that we loved, and I'm sure I'll think of them as soon as I hit the publish button.  There are just so many fabulous YA novels out right now, and lots more to come in the future.  Can't wait!

Sara

FALLEN

What I'm doing: trying to keep my eyes open (it's 2:25 am)
What I'm listening to: silence, sweet silence
What I'm thinking: why the hell am I still awake?
What I'm reading: Bad Moon Rising . . . still!  (this whole having to work thing is really interfering with my me-time)
***Please excuse all typos for I am tired, so very, very tired!


Staci and I have our first novel, FALLEN, coming out in late 2010 from Mundania Press.  We couldn't be more excited.  Lucky for us, we have a fabulous editor, Skyla Dawn Cameron (author of River and Wolfe-check them out!).  And an equally fabulous artist, Niki Browning, who designed an eye-catching cover.  Here it is:

To the best of our abilty, Staci and I came up a book jacket summary (I have no idea what that's called, btw-you know those words on the back of the book that tell you what it's about).  Here it is:

After the death of her mother, seventeen year old Elizabeth Carrington is starting over. In a new city, at a new school, with a dad she hardly knows, it isn’t going to be easy. Trying desperately to find her way and cope with her unceasing grief, she finds herself surrounded by a force so compelling, so comforting, so captivating that she can’t deny its presence and soon fears that if it were to leave her, she might loose her very self. But is it all really happening or has her wavering sanity finally found its breaking point?

Michael’s role in this world has been the same for centuries, but now something is different. He is inexplicably drawn to an intriguing stranger so alluring that he can’t force himself to resist her. Is he willing to risk everything to be with her, even falling?

A dark force, hell bent on destroying any chance of happiness for his arch nemesis Michael, is lurking in League City, TX, and there is no limit to his need for vengeance. How far will he go to seek revenge for his sworn enemy’s betrayal?

Caught in a clash of good versus evil, Elizabeth soon finds herself in the crosshairs of a battle that has been brewing since long before she was even born.

I doubt that's what will actually be there when the book comes out, but hey, we tried.  I'm sure Skyla will whip it into shape and make everyone want to run out and buy it! 

There will be more to come as the release date gets closer.  Right now, Staci and I are waiting for FALLEN to be edited and sent back to us for revisions.  In the meantime, we are hard at work on our next novel (12 chapters written!!!) 

Gaining an audience is our next big hurdle.  We'd love for you to follow our blog (hit the follow button there on the right-yeah, that one!)  This lets Staci and I know that you came!  Also you can subscribe and receive the post by email each time we post something new.  You should see something that says SUBSCRIBE TO SARA AND STACI'S BLOG if you scroll all the way down to the bottom.

Also, you can find us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sara-Dailey-and-Staci-Weber/102330932229?ref=nf

And MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/fallennovel

More to come . . .

*So how many typos did you find?

Sara

All about Staci

What I'm doing: Relaxing after cardio

What I'm listening to: Hannah Montana coming from upstairs.

What I'm reading in my spare time: I just picked up Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. I'm so excited!

Hi everyone! I’m Staci Weber, a wife, a mother, a teacher, and now a writer. How cool is that? I have always been somewhat of a dreamer, but I never imagined that one of those crazy dreams would turn into FALLEN. We are all so excited about this book and we hope that many more will follow. So, spread the word! Tell all your friends!! FALLEN 2010!!!

All about Sara

What I'm doing: Watching Big Brother 11 (Wooo hoooo. Good-bye Chima!)
What I'm listening to: Natalie complain about Chima getting kicked out
What I'm reading in my spare time: Bad Moon Rising


This is me, Sara Dailey. I've been married to a great man named Jeremy for 8 years and have a beautiful 4 year-old son named Gavin. I've taught 7th grade language arts for 6 years, but a year and a half ago, I started my first novel with my good friend Staci Weber. On some level I always wanted to be a writer, though I never thought I'd actually do it. I decided a few years back to take a writing class from the Institute of Children's Literature. I saw an ad in a parenting magazine and thought it sounded interesting. We had 10 assignments, and the final assignment was to write the first three chapters of a novel, which obviously made me a little nervous to say the least.

Lucky for me, I walked into Staci's classroom one morning (we work next door to one another) and she said, "Hey, I have an idea for a book." Appartently, Staci has some interesting dreams, which is great because it is from her funky dreams that our novel FALLEN was born (as well as about 10 other book ideas). She asked me if I wanted to write it together. Considering I had my final assignment coming up, I jumped on board. Did I honestly think we'd do it? No way! But lo and behold, we did. We worked almost every weekend at Barnes and Noble knocking out a chapter or so each time we met. And before we knew it, we were done. Or at least we thought we were. We did our research and began sending out queries to literary agents. Little did we know, it is really hard to get a novel published (okay, we knew; but it was harder than we thought). Originally, FALLEN was to be two books, but an agent we queried suggested that we make it one long novel. The advice was a blessing because FALLEN is a much stronger novel because of it.

After a full year of writing, we began querying literary agents again, as well as seeking publication straight from a couple of publishing companies. The day before Mother's Day, I received an email from Mundania Press. I couldn't have gotten a better Mother's Day gift than that. So, thank you Skyla if you ever read this. I read the email at least 10 times and then immediately called Staci. Of course, she didn't answer, and I wanted to kill her. But finally she called me back, and I couldn't have been more excited to tell her.

So here we are now. FALLEN is coming out late 2010, so we have quite a wait, but it's all worth it to know that we will actually get to see our first novel in print. There were many times that I didn't think it would happen. But it did and now I can't wait for what the future holds.

That's all for now.

More to come.

Our first post

Where we're at: Barnes and Noble
What we're doing: getting kicked out because they are closed
What we're listening to: some man ramble on and on about his book idea and what he should do to get his book published

So, here we are blogging world. My name is Sara Dailey and my partner in crime, Staci Weber is sitting here on my right. We are brand new authors. Our debut novel, FALLEN, is set to be released in late 2010 by Mundania press.

This blog will be dedicated to chatting about our lives as new authors, how we got here, and where we're going. While we wait for FALLEN to be released, we are working on our second novel, so I'm sure we'll talk about that too. And not only do we write, we read lots and lots of YA and adult novels, so we are sure to mention them too.

More to come . . .