Chelsea M. Campbell

The Renegade X sequel has a title!

by Chelsea CampbellFebruary 10, 2012

I updated the title on Goodreads, so I thought I’d do an official announcement here!

The title is….

THE TRIALS OF RENEGADE X

Did I mention I got to see the rough sketch of the cover a while ago? Â I don’t think I did, but it is kick ass. Â I’m not going to show it off until it’s done, though believe me I am itching to share the awesome. Â Newsletter subscribers will get to see it early, so be sure and sign up if you want a sneak peek before anyone else.

In the mean time, I am writing away and loving spending time with these characters and this world again! Â I might try and write up a blurb about the book soon, or I might put it off because blurbs are not my favorite things to write and I just wrote one for the Harper Madigan book–that gets me a blurb free pass for a while, right? Â Right?

I’m also going to be putting up a Renegade X sequel FAQ, so be sure to comment or email me (Chelsea@ChelseaMCampbell.com) your sequel questions, and I will do my best to provide answers!

Good News Publishing writing

Harper Madigan: Junior High Private Eye

by Chelsea CampbellFebruary 4, 2012

I am proud to present the cover and description blurb for one of my upcoming March releases! The blurb was written by me and the amazing cover art was done by Chloe Tisdale.

7th grade detective Harper Madigan works alone.Â He doesn’t need the vice principal assigning him a new partner to keep him in line, especially a stuffed-shirt wannabe-journalist.

And he especially doesn’t need his troublemaker ex-girlfriend showing up out the blue and asking for his help. She’s accused of attacking the star of the school musical, and with her less-than-sparkling track record, she’s only one suspension away from getting expelled.

Only Harper believes she’s innocent, and now it’s up to him to prove it, even if it means making an enemy of the PTA mafia, risking his agency, and facing the mistakes of his own dark past. But when his new partner insists on doing everything by the book, and his old nemesis–the one bully he can’t catch–starts harassing his clients, it’s going to take more than just detective work to solve the case.

Daily Life Good News Publishing

A Gaggle of Announcements

by Chelsea CampbellFebruary 3, 2012

Loud honking announcements that will chase you around the lake and beak you to death for a crust of bread!

Er… probably not. Â These are actually very lovely announcements that don’t resemble geese in any way. Â But gaggle is a cool word. Â It’s right up there with gusset.

Anyway, onto the announcements!

In exactly 28 days I will turn 30! Â (That’s March 2nd, for those of you who forgot it was leap year.)
I have TWO–count them, TWO–new books coming out in March!
One is GROWING UP DEAD, a humorous MG about a vampire trying to survive 8th grade.
The other is HARPER MADIGAN: JUNIOR HIGH PRIVATE EYE, a noir detective novel set in junior high.

I know, neither of these is the Renegade X sequel. Â But it’s coming! Â And in the meantime you can tide yourself over with some more great reading. ;) Â Each of these will be available in both ebook and paperback.

Blurbs and covers will be up very soon! Â If you want to be notified when these books are available for purchase, you can sign up for my newsletter in the top right corner of my site. And if you’re a book blogger interested in reviewing either–or both–of these books, please email me at CampChelsea@gmail.com or through the contact sheet on my site.

Daily Life Good News writing

Too many projects + my 24 hours of fame

by Chelsea CampbellJanuary 22, 2012

As I’m trying to manage my time and projects and whatnot, it’s kind of dawning on me that I have a LOT of stuff going on right now. My list, let me show you it–not necessarily in any particular order:

–edit three books for self-publication
–after editing, format them all for printing and ebook formats
–learn to format self-pubbed books for printing and ebook formats
–write the Renegade X sequel
–finish/keep up with all my crochet commissions
–keep up with two grad school classes
–do enough tasks to keep my online job because I like having a safety net
–wait for agent notes on my proposal book, then do edits so it can go on sub

Whew! It’s a lot to do, but I kind of love it. Okay, I definitely love it, but there are times when it’s a bit overwhelming how much stuff I’ve given myself to do.

And yesterday was absolutely crazy. I woke up to over 500 feedback messages on DeviantArt. The day before had been free Premium Membership day, so I thought maybe there’d been some kind of malfunction when it switched my account back to the free version. But I pretty quickly realized that wasn’t the case and that something was driving a bazillion new people to my account, specifically to this picture:

These are the main characters from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (which is an awesome show–go watch it if you haven’t seen it). It turned out it had been picked as a Daily Deviation. I didn’t know what that meant, but I started to piece it together when I saw my picture show up on the bottom of site, along with other artwork that was being featured. So, for those not in the know, basically DeviantArt selects images to feature each day. And they picked mine. O__o I was shocked they picked me, once I realized what it was, and it’s still kind of sinking in.

Publishing

Want to get exclusive news about my books?

by Chelsea CampbellJanuary 16, 2012

Good news! You can now subscribe to my brand new newsletter and get exclusive information on the Renegade X sequel! You’ll be one of the first people to find out the title, see the cover, and read an excerpt before any of it goes live on my website. There will also be subscriber-only contests you won’t want to miss, including a chance to get a character in the sequel named after you! You’ll also stay informed on when my next book is available, so you won’t miss out.

To sign up, go to my website (if you’re not already there) and enter your email in the top right corner, then click “Subscribe now!”

Daily Life Knitting

Ponies!

by Chelsea CampbellJanuary 4, 2012

As some of you probably know, I crochet. A lot. And in the last two months I started doing design work, which before then I thought I kind of hated. Because it was hard and I wasn’t passionate about anything enough to *want* to put in the work to get past that stage. And then along came My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I LOVE this show! I’m a proud brony. Or, well, pegasister. I’d been obsessed with this show for some time, and then a friend showed me some pics of crocheted ponies on eBay. And at first I was like, “It would be cool to make stuff like that, but I don’t like designing things.” But I couldn’t stop thinking about them and got really excited about trying my hand at it.

And I did! And it’s been going really well! Designing was hard at first, but now that I’ve learned the basics it’s become super addicting. I’m at the point now where I can sit down with and idea and start making it and have it actually turn out how I pictured. I even made sea ponies from the old 80s show (which I also LOVED, even if, sadly, it doesn’t hold up for me as an adult).

I also got over my laziness/annoyance about uploading and posting pictures, so here are some of my creations (you can see the rest at DeviantArt).

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters Rainbow Dash, Pinky Pie, and Rarity as sea ponies:

Fluttershy in her gala dress:

And my newest creations, baby versions of Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy:

And I promise I’m still writing, even if ponies have kind of taken over my brain, or at least my apartment, which is now full of pony-colored yarn.

Daily Life

Happy 2012!

by Chelsea CampbellJanuary 1, 2012

2011 was a pretty crazy year. It feels like it dragged on forever and at the same time was a huge whirlwind of hectic chaos that flew right by. I started grad school (a master’s program in Library and Information Science) and spent a week in Syracuse, NY hanging out with other people in the program, who were all amazingly awesome. I had jury duty the day I got back (again!), but thankfully I didn’t actually have to go in.

Writing wise, it’s felt like a pretty slow year, but maybe that’s just the last couple of months talking. I wrote about 90k over three books (not including notes and throwaway material). One of the books I finished, one of them I put on hold indefinitely, and the other is going out on proposal. And while I sold Russian rights for Renegade X–not sure if I ever announced that–and Disney renewed their movie option, I didn’t sell anything new in 2011, just like I didn’t in 2010. In 2010, that was devastating. In 2011, it was frustrating and sometimes discouraging, but I’ve more or less come to terms with it and learned a lot about myself in the process.

Actually, I learned a lot about myself in 2011 and about what makes me happy. I discovered I like having a variety of odd jobs. And I like jobs you sign up for and test into rather than interviewing for. I suck at interviews, but I’m great with tests. I don’t want writing to be the only focus in my life, but I do want to be able to focus on it when I choose to. So I like having my own schedule.

And I never thought self-publishing would make me happy, but in fact I’m ecstatic about it! (In case you missed it, I recently announced that I’m going to be self-pubbing a sequel to Renegade X.) Everyone’s been super supportive of it, and while I still want to be traditionally published as well, getting to work at my own pace and keeping myself as busy as I want to will be a nice complement to traditional pubbing.

I also finally started crocheting plushies for my Etsy shop. which I’d always sort of wanted to do but never really thought I would. And it turns out it’s wonderfully fulfilling. So between the Etsy shop and the self-publishing epiphany, I’ve been really taken by surprise about what makes me happy. I always thought I’d *know* ahead of time what would make me happy, and it’s kind of pleasantly surprising that I was wrong.

So that was my year in a nutshell. I hate making New Year’s resolutions, plus if this year’s taught me anything, it’s that I don’t always know what my goals are, so I won’t make any. But I can tell you I’m looking forward to the new year. I’ll be turning 30 in March and starting a new decade of my life, and I’m ready to embrace it.

Uncategorized

BREAKING NEWS about the Renegade X SEQUEL!!!!

by Chelsea CampbellDecember 4, 2011

I announced some exclusive information about the Renegade X sequel over at Laura’s Review Bookshelf, mainly that there WILL be one. Head over and check out my post to find out what this means for readers and what the book’s about.

Also head over there to enter to win a special annotated copy of The Rise of Renegade X! I’ve gone through a copy of the book and scribbled behind the scenes notes and drawn pictures all over it. It’s the perfect Christmas gift for the Renegade X lover or aspiring writer in your life, if you, you know, aren’t selfish like me and wouldn’t want it for yourself. Three runners up will also win swag packs. The contest runs from now until December 11th, so go check it out!

Here are a few teaser pics of the annotated book:

The first page.

A close-up of the cake building.

Don’t cry, PB&J, you’ll taste even worse if you’re soggy!

Three winners will also win a swag pack like this one!

Daily Life writing

The secret to success, as demonstrated by my cats.

by Chelsea CampbellNovember 26, 2011

I was watching my two cats fight yesterday. Teisel, the big one that looks like an ocelot, refuses to attack unless he’s *perfectly* calculated exactly how he’s going to do it. When he’s going to pounce, where he’s going to bite, and, most importantly, whether or not he thinks he’ll be successful. He only wants to attack if he’s going to win. But he loses every fight.

Kitten (the black one in the pic–you can see his eyes–who isn’t actually a kitten anymore, but the name totally stuck), on the other hand, has a completely different fighting style. He’s quick and bold. He makes lots of frequent attacks, even if a good percentage of them never make contact. He tackles and lunges and snaps his jaws at Teisel, not bothering to calculate whether he’ll actually hit him or not. Like I said, a lot of them don’t actually find their mark. You could say his attacks fail a lot, though it’s obvious he doesn’t see it that way. And yet, he kicks Teisel’s ass every time.

I think you can see where I’m going with this, because it applies not just to cat fights, but to writing. When writing a book, a lot of writers subscribe to Teisel’s methods. They don’t want to fail or be embarrassed or have anything go wrong so badly that they meticulously plan, and calculate, and make sure their attempt is going to be *perfect,* whether that means taking years to painstakingly craft their first book – because they want their first book to be good enough to get published, so they won’t have any “failures” – or if it means never submitting any books until they think it’s a “sure thing.” But Teisel hardly ever gets any attacks in. And when he does, no matter how perfectly he thinks he’s calculated everything, it’s never a sure thing. Sometimes he makes contact, sure, but never as much as Kitten does, and he always loses. And it’s obvious he always feels embarrassed and angry and like a failure.

Kitten’s method takes more guts. His first attempt might not be successful, and even if it is, it takes more than one attack to win a fight. But he doesn’t waste time worrying about failure–I don’t think Kitten even has a concept of what failure is (though Teisel is very conscious of it). Kitten attacks often, not waiting for the right time or calculating how to win without making any mistakes. In fact, technically he makes lots of mistakes, but never as big of a mistake as Teisel, who’s too cautious to make a move. Kitten wins every fight (seriously, EVERY fight, and they tackle each other pretty often), not just because he’s not afraid to make mistakes or fail, but because he doesn’t even see his mistakes as being mistakes.

They’re just part of the process of kicking ass.

And so, if mistakes are necessary to win, does that really make them mistakes? At the end of a fight, Teisel’s attacks might have made 100% contact, whereas Kitten’s are more like 50%, and yet it’s clear who feels like a loser. I’m not even saying that Kitten feels like a winner, because he doesn’t really care. He just wants to have fun. It’s Teisel, the one who cares so much about failing that he’ll never take a chance, who sets himself up for disappointment

writing

There isn’t just one “The One”

by Chelsea CampbellSeptember 5, 2011

I have to preface this post with a little story. Once upon a time, about 6 years and 6 books ago, I read Donald Maass’ Writing the Breakout Novel, and it changed my life. No, seriously, it did. And I’m not big on how-to books when it comes to writing. But that’s a post for a different day. Anyway, I read that book, and it’s companion workbook, and did all the exercises. And the book I was working on was SO much better than anything I’d written before, and I loved it SO hard.

So, so hard, you guys.

And I even sent in the first page to Miss Snark’s first page critique, and, while it wasn’t her genre, she thought it was good. I did not get Snarked, I got approval. And when I finished the book and sent it out, I got my first ever requests from agents. One for a partial, and one for a partial and THEN for a full! This was it. I was so in love with that book and its characters, and it was much better than anything else I’d ever written, and it was actually getting requests, which no book of mine had ever done before. It was definitely The One.

But you can probably guess how this story ends, since the book in question is not the one that got published. No, the partial and the full got rejected. With form rejections. And more form rejections came in from agent after agent, until I had about 50 of them. I revised my query letter a million times and drove everyone nuts with it. Eventually, I had to admit that this book was not going to be The One, and it broke my freakin’ heart.

It took a long time to get over it. I know because even after publishing another book, I’m still not over it. Not completely. Obviously, I’ve moved on, but there is still a tiny sliver of me that holds me back from ever loving a book so wholeheartedly again. Because I believed in it, and I was stupid. And it messed me up.

But that’s not the end of the story either, so bear with me. Because, you see, I have this tendency when a book “fails” to tell myself that book is dumb and not any good, so I can let go and move on. And since I’m never exactly sure what it was about the book that supposedly failed, the types of characters and the things that happened in the book become unofficially off-limits. What. this book was fantasy and it sucked? Don’t write fantasy anymore, duh! And this character you loved that had X, Y, and Z qualities? Don’t write about X, Y, and Z qualities, obviously.

Kids, don’t be like me. Because lately I’ve been rethinking this policy, and of course it is stupid, not my ideas. And the book that was supposed to be The One and turned out to be The One that sucked and betrayed me and broke my heart? Well, it was flawed, but maybe it was my writing that was so flawed, and the only reason it got any requests at all was because of how great the characters and ideas were. Or at least how passionate I was about them.

I don’t make a habit of resurrecting old books, because they’re hard enough to let go of as it is, and I’ve found it usually better to move on and not look back. But the other day–okay, maybe more like a month or so ago–this book popped into my head again, and I just knew how I would rewrite it if I was working on it again. The words for the new opening filled my head, and I started writing. And it was good. Really good. My critique partner thinks it’s awesome, and hopefully my agent will, too. And hopefully somewhere down the line a publisher will love it, and then maybe lots of people will have the chance to love it. And maybe it wasn’t meant to be The One that got published first, but it could still be The One that takes off or The One that makes a bestseller list. Or just The One that makes somebody feel good when they’re having a crappy day.

My point is, a writing career isn’t about any one book. And just because this book I loved so much wasn’t first doesn’t mean it has to come in in last place.