7 Dress Sizes: The Authors!

Seven Dress Sizes is a remarkable collection of short stories highlighting the intrinsic value of loving yourself, no matter what size or how little your little black dress is.  Each story is a story about body consciousness and overcoming body image issues.  These stories are about finding yourself and learning to love yourself just the way you are.  No matter what your size, you'll find a character you can relate to.

Available in ebook and paperback on Amazon. Available in paperback at Barnes and Noble, will be available for Nook in about a month and a half!

The Authors:

A.T. Russell:  A.T.hails from the greater Chicago area, and his upcoming Alpha Rising Saga will be published by Twisted Core Press.  The first book in the series, New Alpha Rising: Ascension Part I, is available on Amazon. More info on A.T. can be found at his website, click here to see it!

Dawn Kirby:  Dawn is the author of the Serenity Series, also published by Twisted Core Press.  The first book in the series, Secrets, is currently available on Amazon.  Dawn calls Texas home, and you can find her website here.

Jude Johnson:  Jude resides in Tucson, Arizona, and her books are nearly as hot as the weather there! Jude's Dragon and Hawk Series is available on Amazon. Click here to see her website. 

Tina Carreiro:  Tina is from Florida, and the first book in her Power of the Moon Series is available on Amazon!  Tina also has a website and a blog!

Michelle Horst:  Michelle offers our book an international flair! She is writing all the way from South Africa! Her book, Vaalbara, is also available on Amazon.  Michelle has a ton of social media sites and you can find them all posted below:

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Michelle-Horst/e/B007BBSJR2/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1 

Twitter: @MichelleAHorst

FaceBook: Michelle Horst:  http://www.facebook.com/MichelleAnnHorst

FaceBook: Vaalbara: http://www.facebook.com/VaalbaraVisionsAndShadows?ref=hl

BlogSpot: http://authormichellehorst.blogspot.com/

Freado: http://www.freado.com/users/29738/michelle-horst
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/vaalbara-visions-shadows-michelle-horst/1112501370

La-Tessa Montgomery:  La-Tessa is truly one of the most enthusiastic people I've ever had the pleasure of working with.  I'm embarrassed to say I somehow never got around to finding out where Tessa is from, but we had lots of fun commiserating as the token "skinny bitches" of the series!  We're thin and we rock our curves, or lack thereof with pride! La-Tessa is also a social media junky and she can be found:
Author Site: www.LaTessaMontgomeryAuthor.com
Personal blog: www.LaTessaMontgomery.com
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/LaTessa25
FaceBook Page: La-Tessa Montgomery, Author

And, finally, I suppose I should say something about myself.  I'm a southern girl. I'm addicted to sweet tea. I lack that filter everyone else seems to have, and that means I don't have any tact.  I am an editor, and when I'm not writing I'm also a social media junky.  Of course if you're reading this then chances are you already knew all that, didn't you?  Here are my links (minus this website because you've obviously already found it):
Twitter: @WordsmithJenn
Facebook: Jennifer Welborn
Amazon: Author Page

Writing Scared

Lots of people think getting published is easy.  Lots of people think they could write a book and get it published.  Lots of people say, "You know I have this idea for a book" and then finish that sentence with some lame excuse like, "but I just don't have time to write it."  They think writing a book is easy.  They think publishing a book is easy.  They think selling a book is easy.

It's not.  It's not easy.  It's hard and it's scary.  I've worked for more than a year to finish my first novel.  I wrote the last page.  It's done.

Except that it's not done.  Now I have to revise it. I have to edit it.  I have to erase parts of it.  I have to chop scenes I loved into little pieces.  I have to kill pieces of my baby, and that's what this manuscript is--my creation, my baby.

Perhaps that sounds overly dramatic to some of you, but I can assure you it's not.  Writing a book is fun.  Editing a book is downright painful.  I've been told to put it in a drawer and forget about it for a month, then come back and edit.  Jennifer Laughran of Andrea Brown Literary Agency (whom I shamelessly follow and talk to on twitter and who has an awesome blog) told me to do it.  Stephen King (in On Writing) told me to do it.  So I'm gonna do it.  I'm putting my story away for a bit and then I'll come back to it.

But what if I don't want to come back to it? Okay, okay.  So I want the book to be published.  I want my book to end up on a bookstore bookshelf like the one in the photo at the top.  I think that photo is of a Borders (I stole it from Jill Corcoran's blog--which you should also follow), but I don't just want my book on shelves at Borders.  I want my book on shelves at Books-A-Million and Barnes and Noble. I most especially want my book on shelves at independent booksellers across the country (c'mon--inde bookstores are AWESOME people). And I know that in order to see my book on shelves, I first have to edit it (and find an agent and a publisher and a whole slew of other little details. I also know I shouldn't start sentences with 'and' but I just did so sue me.).

I know what I have to do.  What's the problem then?  I'll spell it out for you: F-E-A-R.  If I edit my book then it really will be done.  It will be finished.  I'll have to send it off for other people to accept it or reject it.  I won't have any excuses left, any other ways to avoid sending my baby manuscript off to more critical eyes--eyes that might not like it.

What if it doesn't get published?  What if everyone I send it to hates it?  What if I suck?  Worse yet, what if my writing sucks?  That's scary.  I am ashamed to admit that my heart has stopped beating (yes, literally) and I find the idea of rejection more frightening than that was (Yes, I know.  That's ridiculous.  I can't help it.  That's how I feel.).

But I'm going to do it.  All of it.  I'm going to wait a month and then I'm going to start editing.  I'm going to murder my babies--slash scenes that don't further my story, kill words that are unnecessary, get rid of the amazing description of this one thing that I thought was so awesome but is really kind of pointless.  Then I'm going to send that edited manuscript to the prying, critical eyes of literary agents whom I respect and fear.  I'm going to do all of it--in hopes that my dream of publication will be achieved.  In hopes that conquering this fear will be worth it.  In hopes that one day a teenage girl will read my novel and squeal with delight and cry with sorrow and laugh with joy and pass it on to her friend because omg you just have to read this great book!