Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Character Interview: Jordon Piers of Fitzgerald

Sarita C. Day: Hey everyone! Welcome back to my blog! Quick note. As you can tell, my name has changed because... well... I got married a year ago. I decided to use my new name instead in place of Waldorf. So that explains the change. Now, on to the real reason for this post. I'm here to interview a special character from the book I am currently trying to publish. He is the one... the only... Jordon Piers!

Jordon Piers: Hi, Sarita. Thanks for having me.

Sarita C. Day: You are the star right now. The leading man. Are you ready to have your story put out there?

Jordon Piers: To be honest, I'm kinda worried. I've never been the type who love the center of attention.

Sarita C. Day: It must be hard when so many people-- girls-- want your attention.

Jordon Piers: *Goes quiet* Yeah. It's tough.

Sarita C. Day: What's your opinion of the Closet Within the Closet?

Jordon Piers: It's strange. It's scary. It's beautiful. Without the Closet Queen it wouldn't be so horrible.

Sarita C. Day: Is she really that bad?"

Jordon Piers: Imagine a snake, a scorpion, and a spider. Okay, now, pick which one you find the scariest. You have it?

Sarita C. Day: Yes.

Joron Piers: The Closet Queen is all of them combined.

Sarita C. Day. So, she's really that bad.

Jordon Piers: That's what I'm saying.

Sarita C. Day: Gotcha. Let's move on to something less... horrifying. So, I notice that you spell your name differently than most boys with your name. What's the story behind that?

Jordon Piers: Uhg! Yeah, that's annoying with spell check. *laughs* My dad's name is Gordon so he and my mom thought spelling my name with an extra "O" would be a nice connection or something. So I'm J-O-R-D-O-N.

Sarita C. Day: There are parents who spell their kids names with worse spellings.

Jordon Piers: I guess my name could've been spelled G-O-R-R-D-D-O-O-A-N-7-8-9.

Sarita C. Day: *Laughs* Oh yes! That's how it should always be spelled! So, you've lived all over the world. Where would you say was the best city you've lived?

Jordon Piers: That's hard. Top three would be Istanbul, Chicago, and Sydney. Istanbul is by far the prettiest city I've ever seen.

Sarita C. Day: I'd love to travel. I'll put Istanbul on the list. Ah, well, our time is up. My last question to you is... what is your favorite color?

Jordon Piers: Red or purple. I go back and forth a lot. Red is powerful and purple is royal. I love them both.

Sarita C. Day: Thank you so much, Jordon. I look forward to seeing your book in stores.

Jordon Piers: That's the dream. Thank you, Sarita.



I hope to find the right agent to represent me and Jordon soon and that my readers can step into the Closet Within the Closet. Be on the lookout for more new of my journey of publishing "Fitzgerald".

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Why Writers Need to Take Chances

This is a transcript of my YouTube video.


Don't be afraid!
Take chances!
People have given this advice tons of times; they have given it to me tons of times. And yet... I have never actually taken any of this advice. Until... a few weeks ago.
When I went to Dragon*Con here in Atlanta, there was this writing panel that I really wanted to go to. It talked about the industry, it talk about writing YA books... it was everything that I needed to-- wanted to hear!-- right at this moment in my career. And so I rushed to try to find this panel. My husband and I ran all over two different hotels, across tons of busy streets with tons of sticky nerds trying to find the panel.
And then, there it was! We finally found it! I was so excited! And there was a sign outside the door the said...
Panel Full.
...
Uh... okay....
I was so irritated. I was tired. My feet were hurting that day because I wore the wrong shoes to this sort of convention. I was so upset and my husband could just see it in my eyes. I. Was. Furious!
Not too long later, a man and his son came by and saw this dreadful sign....
Yeah. Panel still full.
They had the same looks on their faces that I had. It was really irritating that we traveled really, really far, crossing all these busy streets with tons of people everywhere just to be told that the panel was full.
Well, my husband, being the wonderful man that he is, told me that I should go in anyway, and stand in the back. Sit on the floor. DO SOMETHING! In my head, the type of person I am is, "No, it says the panel is full. It says I shouldn't go in. I can't go in. IT'S FULL!
But he would not listen to me. My husband went over to the door, he opened it, peeped inside and said, "Yeah, there's people standing in the back, we should go stand in the back."
By this point the man and his son had left with sad faces and I did not want to leave with a sad face. So, my heart beating, everything in my head saying, "No! You're not supposed to go into the panel!" I went into the panel. And you know what happened?
It was okay.
I went in. I stood in the back really quietly and just paid close attention to what the panelists were saying. I listened to every single word and even by the end of the panel I asked a question which was answered for me.
Afterwards, I stood out in the hallway with my husband and just thought, Nobody kicked me out. It said panel was full but they didn't kick me out. I just got very valuable information that could possibly help me progress my journey of publication.
I was dumbfounded. I could not believe it! And what I learned from it, aside from all of the information that the panelists had to give, was I should take chances. You need to take chances to further your career. Go outside of your comfort zone.
I have a feeling that if I continuously step outside of my comfort zone more opportunities will open up. I will have more chances of getting published. My dreams may come true if I take more chances.
Don't worry about what other people say. I'm still working on this myself. But by just being me and being the person that I want to be and following my dreams I have already felt this huge weight lift off my shoulders. All because I don't care and I take chances.
My advice is, if you love writing then you should write. Write in your own way. Put you on the page. No one knows your style better than you.
So take chances. Go on out right now. I want you to go out and take a chance. Take a chance and make your dreams come true.