Please Welcome Ann Herrick,YA & Kids Author

Ann Herrick is the award-winning author of several books and short stories for kids and teens. Included in the awards her books have won are the ALA Recommended Book for Reluctant Readers, IRA/CBC Children’s Choice and EPIC Best YA Novel Finalist.

Ann Herrick

Ann grew up in Connecticut, where she graduated from The Morgan School and Quinnipiac University.  She now lives in Oregon with her husband, who was her high-school sweetheart.  Their wonderful daughter is grown, married and gainfully employed, and has given Ann her only grand-dog, Puff, a bloodhound-rottweiller-beagle mix and six grand-kitties.  While she misses the East Coast, especially houses built before 1900, she enjoys the green valleys, fresh air and low humidity in the Willamette Valley of Oregon.  Ann loves cats, walking, the Oregon Ducks and working in her back yard.  In addition to stories and books for children and young adults, Ann also writes copy for humorous and conventional greeting cards. She loves to hear from her readers and can be contacted through her web site:  http://annherrickauthor.com  

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/ann.herrick

Twitter: @ann_herrick 

Blog: http://annherrick.blogspot.com

Ann Herrick Shares: Turning Points in My Life as an Author 

   People often talk about THE turning point in their lives, but I feel I have had several when it comes to writing.Some will sound small, others large, but to me they are all important.

   One of the first "turning points" came early on when one day the (all too common) form rejection letter for a short story arrived, but scrawled at the bottom was "Sorry, nice effort," followed by the initials of the editor. Now, that may not sound like much, but editors are very busy people and they don't take time to write on every rejection! I took that as a sign, however small, that the editor had found something she liked in my writing!
   Not too much later I got a note that was a couple of sentences long from the same editor on another story I had submitted. Needless to say, I kept trying at that magazine! Unfortunately, I never did sell to that editor or that magazine, but it kept me going.
   Then there was the day I received a letter in response to a status query I'd sent about a short story. Instead of the by then usual rejection it was a "mea culpa" for "taking so long" and the news that my story had been accepted!
   The next occasion came absolutely unexpectedly. I had sent off a manuscript for a novel on a Thursday and Tuesday I got a phone call. Yes, it was an offer to publish. Talk about a major turning point! That was Practice Makes Perfect, published by a YA imprint of Harlequin. The book has since been reissued by HSWF as Summer Replacement.
   Since then, EVERY sale has felt like a turning point. The second book felt like validation that the first book was not a fluke. I have never taken subsequent story and book sales for granted. They are all turning points, because in the world of publishing there are no guarantees.
   So keep an eye out for those first, small turning points. You never know where they'll lead.

About Ann's Most Recent YA Book:

Trading Faces by Ann Herrick

What if you went to sleep plain and woke up beautiful--or vice versa?

 An "Ugly Betty" and a Popular Beauty wind up trading faces—and lives—and the situation is not what either one expected.

When 15-year-old Darcy Doane wakes up as Cybil Sheffield, she is thrilled. Cybil is everything Darcy has ever wanted to be. Pretty. Popular. Only… all the attention isn’t exactly what Darcy expected. Especially when her own brother, Joey, is crushing on her. Gross.  But then there's Devon, the real Cybil's boyfriend ....

Cybil is shocked when she looks in the mirror and sees a face she totally doesn’t recognize. She thought not always being the center of attention might be a good thing, but being invisible is hardly bearable. Even her boyfriend, Devon, looks right through her! How can she survive when the only people (except a family of strangers) who even know she's alive are three dipsticks she can't remember ever seeing before? And why hasn't she ever noticed her new "brother," Joey, before?

With the school play, potential boyfriends and an A-List party coming up, Darcy and Cybil have a lot to work out. There’s a learning curve for both of them, especially after they are caught fighting at school and forced by the principal to help her at a Return-to-Work project for displaced women.

Trouble is, how do they get their own lives back? And who ends up with what guy?

Attached are my author photo, cover, Author Bio (with links to website and blog), and a post about turning points in my life as an author.

Buy links:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009JQFO7K

Nook - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/trading-faces-ann-herrick/1113074092?ean=2940015537055
Smashwords - http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/240648

Please leave a comment to welcome Ann Herrick to Sweet Not Spicy.