About Unhooked:
For as long as she can remember, Gwendolyn Allister has never had a place to call home—all because her mother believes that monsters are hunting them. Now these delusions have brought them to London, far from the life Gwen had finally started to build for herself. The only saving grace is her best friend, Olivia, who’s coming with them for the summer.You know you're with me now, eh? :D Anyway, on to the goodness you're here for, Lisa's post:
But when Gwen and Olivia are kidnapped by shadowy creatures and taken to a world of flesh-eating sea hags and dangerous Fey, Gwen realizes her mom might have been sane all along.
The world Gwen finds herself in is called Neverland, yet it’s nothing like the stories. Here, good and evil lose their meaning and memories slip like water through her fingers. As Gwen struggles to remember where she came from and find a way home, she must choose between trusting the charming fairy-tale hero who says all the right things and the roguish young pirate who promises to keep her safe.
With time running out and her enemies closing in, Gwen is forced to face the truths she’s been hiding from all along. But will she be able to save Neverland without losing herself?
Hi Rachel!
Thanks so much for having me on Paper Cuts to talk about my writing goals for 2016.
I’ve just come off a really rough deadline, one that had me working straight through most of Christmas and New Years—all in the middle of getting ready to launch UNHOOKED—so thinking about my goals for the upcoming year has been on my mind. In the last two years I’ve written and edited five books: three that are in print, a Middle Grade that’s on submission, and one that’s sitting on my editor’s desk (that would be the deadline-of-doom book). I also have a full-time teaching job, two kids, and a husband who would like to see me occasionally, so my biggest goal for 2016 is finding some kind of balance.
Since I started writing in 2010, I’ve been kind of pedal-to-the-metal. I’ve been working all out and all the time, because I wanted make a real run at writing to make a living. But while I’m one of the truly lucky who has gotten to see my words turn into book-shaped objects, I think I’m still a looooong way from being able to make a living from my writing. If ever. When I first started writing, I was basically unemployed. I’m not anymore. I have a great job teaching writing and literature, and part of my goal for 2016 is accepting that it’s okay for writing to be the thing I do to fuel me instead of the thing I do to pay the bills. Doing that is hard, though. It means stepping back from the goal I once had and reevaluating. And it also means maybe pulling back a bit on my output and finding more of a balance between the teaching I do (and love), my family, and my books.
For 2016, I’ll be revising the deadline-of-doom book for a 2017 publication date. I love that book—or I will once it stops sucking so much—but I don’t think I ever want to ignore my family that much, for that long, again. I forget which author said it now, but she was absolutely right—books won’t love you back. I’ve got a couple of great kids and an amazingly supportive husband, but I want to make sure that I’m making time for the real people in my life…not just the ones I make up in my head.
Which isn’t to say I want to slow down too much. I pitched deadline-of-doom book as “Gangs of NY with magic.” I did an amazing amount of world building for that book, and I’d love to see it turn into something more than a book. So another one of my goals for 2016 is to write a proposal for my option book with Simon Pulse, which I’m hoping will be deadline-of-doom book’s sequel.
But whatever happens to those books, my main goal is making sure that my primary relationship in life is no longer with my MacBook Air. I mean, I love it to pieces, but I think 2016 is going to be about making writing one of the things I do and focus on instead of the thing I do.
Thanks so much for having me! I’d love to know what some of your readers’ goals are for 2016—writing related or otherwise. I’ll choose one person who comments to receive an UNHOOKED swag pack.
About the author:
Lisa Maxwell is the author of Sweet Unrest, Gathering Deep, and Unhooked (Simon Pulse, 2-2-16). When she's not writing books, she's an English professor at a local college. She lives near DC with her very patient husband and two not-so patient boys.
This July, she will be teaching a writing workshop for a week in western Ireland. You can check out more information at http://www.irelandwritertours.com/.
And all the biggest thanks to Lisa for visiting us today! I hope your launch day is the best! :) And, as Lisa mentioned, she's giving away a swag pack to one of y'all in the comments! So please let us know about your goals--you know I'd love to hear--and make sure I've got a way to get in touch should you win!
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