March 24, 2016

Blog Tour: The Lingering Grace (The Looking Glass #2) by Jessica Arnold – Guest Post and Giveaway

Hello Readers!  Welcome to our Tour Stop for

The Lingering Grace by Jessica Arnold

presented by Month9Books!

We are so excited to have Jessica back on the blog with a great post on writing.

Follow the rest of the tour by clicking on the banner above,
and be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

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If I Knew Then What I Know Now About Writing

The Lingering Grace is my second book to reach publication. This newest book release will mark a full eight years since I started writing my very first manuscript. It took me about a year to finish that project, and what I created was, at best, unpublishable. But at the time I didn’t know that. When I started querying agents about seven years ago, I thought the journey to publication would take a year at most.

Looking back, part of me wishes I could travel back in time and shatter my delusions. But, on the other hand, I’m glad no one told me at the time exactly how many years it would be before I got an agent, before I got a book deal, before that book was released, and so on. Knowing the size of the hurdles ahead is less important than knowing why you’re jumping them.

I get asked sometimes what my advice is for writers fighting their way towards publication. My answer usually is something along these lines: Write because you love it and don’t give up.

Your journey to publication might be shorter or longer than mine. But if you know why you write—if you write because that’s what makes you happy—and if you refuse to give up, you’ll get there.

One of the biggest secrets I’ve learned as my friends have gotten book deals and as I’ve seen my own books reach publication is that the hurdles don’t disappear. Everyone still struggles with the same things—revisions, crises of confidence, lacks of inspiration, and self doubt. Whether you’re just starting the querying process or you’re looking a pub date in the face, it’s knowing why you’re doing this crazy amazing difficult hard thing that keeps you going.

So keep going! Say it to yourself when you’re pushing past writers block. Say it to your friends when they’re trying to get up the courage to query again. Say it, and we’ll all get there.

Good luck and love to all of you!

OTHER BOOK(S) IN THE SERIES:

Find the diary, break the curse, step through The Looking Glass!

Fifteen-year-old Alice Montgomery wakes up in the lobby of the B&B where she has been vacationing with her family to a startling discovery: no one can see or hear her. The cheap desk lights have been replaced with gas lamps and the linoleum floor with hardwood and rich Oriental carpeting. Someone has replaced the artwork with eerie paintings of Elizabeth Blackwell, the insane actress and rumored witch who killed herself at the hotel in the 1880s. Alice watches from behind the looking glass where she is haunted by Elizabeth Blackwell. Trapped in the 19th-century version of the hotel, Alice must figure out a way to break Elizabeth’s curse—with the help of Elizabeth’s old diary and Tony, the son of a ghost hunter who is investigating the haunted B&B—before she becomes the inn’s next victim.

Google Play | BAM | Chapters | Indies | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | TBD | iBooks

[about-author author=”Jessica Arnold”]

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