Announcing - Adventures in Publishing!

Some of you have no doubt already heard all about this but some of you might not have yet. I have announced this everywhere but here, at The Unocked Diary, so this is long overdue. Even if you have heard about my announcement you haven't heard it all, so stick around!!
I am so excited to share that back in August I recieved a publishing contract from Otherworld Publications to publish my debut novel Masquerade!!

As you can imagine I am super excited and I cannot wait to see this book in print and hold it in my hands. I'll probably cry all over it and sleep with it (hope the hubby doesn't mind!). I'm sure most of you have noticed the cover pic over there on the right with the countdown beneath it. That's my baby - I mean book.

But just because I am so proud of the cover design here it is for your viewing pleasure:

Isn't it awesome? I cried when i first saw the design which was done by Regina Wamba over at
Mae i Design. http://www.maeidesign.com/ She is super talented and she not only designed the cover but she took the photo. I would recommend her times 1,000. She seriously knows her stuff. So if you ever need a cover, a website a logo or a photo she is seriously your gal. :)

Aren't you wondering some things? Like what's this book about? How did i manage a publishing contract? or maybe When can I buy this most awesome awesomeist piece of literary genius? I know, I know, calm down. I am excited too. :)

I have been writing for a long time. I actually wrote my first book back when I was like 15 or 16. It was horrible of course, but I loved sitting at my ancient desktop computer and disappearing into the story. It was about a blond girl (Nikki) who lived at the beach and had a great group of friends and a hot boyfriend (LOL!). She drove a white Jeep Wrangler (my dream car back then, lol!!) and had awesome clothes. Anyway, the story was really about how she gets this music box that whenever the music is played the kids kind of turn into mindless zombies.

Yeah, I know. Totally original. I mean, what do you want from me, I was 16. lol.
I still have that book at the bottom of my closet. Someday I might fish it out and see what I can do with it....

I was heavily influenced by R.L. Stine. I think he is FANTASTIC. His Goosebumps series as a kid was my absolute favorite and I also enjoyed his Fear Street Series. I would love to sit and talk with him, I bet his mind is crazy!

Anyway, after that book I went through a poetry phase (ahhh, teenage angst! Lmao) and then kind of stopped writing. I got married, went to college and had two kids. I tried for a long time to figure out what I was "meant" to be doing with my life. I knew that I wanted to do something creative because sitting at a desk all day made me want to cry.

Then I saw an Ad (yea, people I'l telling you my life story. keep reading) in a magazine. You know one of those "So you want to write for children" Ad's and I said "well, yea, I'd like to do that." So i sent in the little Ad with my info. They sent me this "test" with a bunch of questions and a few little paragraphs to write and I sent it back. They contacted me saying that I passed the test (Of course I did! They wouldn't turn away a paying customer. I could drawn stick figures all over the test and prolly would have let me in. But thats beside the point. I'm, talented, I tell you!). I enrolled in a course that was about learning to write stories and magazine articles for children. My purpose for this was just to learn the basics. You know, how to properly write dialogue, the formatting for a book, etc. I didn't really want to write magazine articles and short stories I wanted to write a book. But i had to learn something first. So i signed up.

I have a bunch of stories on my laptop that will probably never see the light of day. They are all for young readers. But I passed the course (it was all done by mail, I never had to leave home, which i liked because I had a two year old and I was pregnant with second child - and it wasn't that expensive) After that course I got invited to another course they were teaching, it was a course where at the end you were guaranteed to have a book manuscript finished and polished enough for submission to places for publishing. I decided to go for it. At that time I was still unsure of my ability to see a book through and I thought since I had to do it for course work and I would have a deadline, I went ahead and signed up.

From that, The Secret Ingredient was born. Its a young reader's book about a boy (Remy) who discovers the lunch ladies (AKA the Slop Slingers) at school are drugging the baseball teams food. Its a cute little novel about 15,000 words in length. It isn't published yet, but it will be someday. Either self published or traditional published. Its a great story that I think boys and girls will both enjoy.

After that book, I had my son and I stopped writing again. Fast forward about 3 years and we had moved to NC (where I currently reside) and my husband, a US Marine, was being deployed to Iraq. I had only lived here maybe 6 months in a new state where I didn't know anyone and I had a 5 year old and a 3 year old. When my husband left (it was a year long deployement) I took care of the kids and mostly read at night. Thats when I started to think about writing again. It was a great escape from reality. I started dreaming of this guy and hs story...and my first series was born. Its 4 books total and I wrote them furiously, writing at night while the kids were asleep and sometimes during the day if they watched a movie or I would take my laptop outside and sit while they played in a baby pool. When Shawn came home from Iraq I was 3 and half books onto that series. I finished the fourth then a new idea dawned....

That new idea is Masquerade. All I knew was that I wanted to write a story about a girl who was disfigured. A girl who was seriously hurting inside, who was just trying to get through her days....

I tried to get an agent for 2 years...starting with my other series. I sent out Query after Query and the rejections piled up. At first the rejections hurt my feelings, but I am a stubborn girl and i wasnt about to let one opinion take away my dream. After I finshed Masquerade and the rejections started coming for it too, I got tired. I mean at least 100 rejections total begins to weigh on a girl. So I decided to by pass the agent (who need em anway? lol) and I started querying small publishing houses (the big ones won't look at your query or manuscript unless you have an agent and it was pretty safe to say that I wasn't getting an agent). I also started networking. My stubborn butt decided that if no one would notice me then I would MAKE them. I decided to learn as much as I could about publishing and meet people who were like me. Up until this point I had been doing it all alone and I was tired. I got this blog and took a few seminars at the local college about netowrking and publishing... and through them I met an editor. An editor (Crystal at http://www.crystalclearproofing.com/) who believed in my book enough that she sent it to Lynn at Otherworld Publications.

6 months (did I mention that publishing takes patience?) later Lynn contacted me to see if I was still interested in publishing my book. Well, that was a big fat Hell YES!!!! And so my publishing journey continues. I won't say began because these last 3 years have been a journey too, a journey that got me where I am today. I have learned so much about myself and about publishing and now when I get that book in my hand I will be able to say to myself, "this feels great, and I earned this."

Sometimes luck doesn't happen. That's where hard work and perserverence comes in.

Here is the link to view the press release that Otherworl Publications put out announcing my book.
http://www.i-newswire.com/otherworld-publications-announces/130560


But enough of my inspirational spew.... how about some info about Masquerade?
You know you want it.

It is scheduled for Release on Decmeber 16, 2011 it will be available everywhere online and also at my Publisher website http://otherworldpublications.com/ It will be in paperback, hardback and Ebook. I am currently putting together a package for Barnes and Noble to try and get them to carry it in their stores (this is a long shot but I've already been told no 100 times, whats one more?)

It will be available for pre order (I don't have that date yet) and you can get merchandise like t-shirts, posters, journals, water bottles and stickers all about Masquerade at :
http://cafepress.com/cambriascloset
If you do buy any merchandise take a photo and email it to me at cambria409@gmail.com and I will put up a post of you with your merchandise. ave the iphone cover so far and I love it. ;)

I am available for interviews and any kind of marketing. If you would like to set something up with me email me at cambria409@gmail.com. I will be giving out review copies, I will have a set number (not sure on that # yet) and i would love to have as many reviews as possible. If you would like to throw your name out there for a review copy and possibly an ARC please email me at the above email address.

I would also like to say that Adventures in Publishing will be a reoccuring thing here at The Unlocked Diary. I will be posting interviews with Amy Eye (my editor) and Regina Wamba (my desinger) and also with Lynn Tincher (My publisher). I will be doing posts about my experience with publishing as well and also I may get some other authors to weigh in as well. It will be informative, a real "Behind the Scenes" look at publishing and it will be fun! I hope you all come back and join in.

I will leave this enormously long post (sorry about that) with the synopsis for Masquerade.
Please feel free to leave me a comment at the end of this post! I love hearing from you guys!

Blurb:

Before. Everything was so much better Before. I wasn’t haunted by nightmares, my place at school was secure and my face was flawless. Now, I’m a freak and everything has changed. The worst part is that I can’t remember the night I was sentenced to the shadows. The memory has been stolen from me and I just can’t shake the feeling that someone, something is out there -watching.

Just when I think I have my life handled, Sam, with his intimidating golden stare and shiver inducing voice, makes me realize that I don’t know anything. He makes me see that my scars don’t matter. That they never mattered. I can’t help but fall for him, completely unknowing that he knows exactly how I got this way. Not knowing he was involved.

***

Heven has no idea how closely death stalks her. She has no idea what I have done to keep her alive. I fear the day she learns my secrets, finds out what I really am. But even then I cannot stop, I vow to make things right. Finally her hunter will be hunted, Heaven and Hell, faith and sin will battle, and we will be victorious. But first, Heven must learn to be what she never imagined.  I know her strength is there – I feel it. If we are to overcome all odds, she must push past her flaws - her frailties - to become much more.

Want to know more about my book and the characters? Visit my website at http://www.cambriahebert.com/
OR you can just click on my website button at the top of the page on the right hand side. Thanks!
Have a great Monday!!!!