January has been a great month for me. Touch of Death released on January 15th and Love All released on January 22nd. I hope you'll check them out and consider reading them or recommending them to someone you know.

Jodi Marshall isn’t sure how she went from normal teenager to walking disaster. One minute she’s in her junior year of high school, spending time with her amazing boyfriend and her best friend. The next she’s being stalked by some guy no one seems to know.

After the stranger, Alex, reveals himself, Jodi learns he’s not a normal teenager and neither is she. With a kiss that kills and a touch that brings the dead back to life, Jodi discovers she’s part of a branch of necromancers born under the 13th sign of the zodiac, Ophiuchus. A branch of necromancers that are descendents of Medusa. A branch of necromancers with poisoned blood writhing in their veins.

Jodi’s deadly to the living and even more deadly to the deceased. She has to leave her old, normal life behind before she hurts the people she loves. As if that isn’t difficult enough, Jodi discovers she’s the chosen one who has to save the rest of her kind from perishing at the hands of Hades. If she can’t figure out how to control her power, history will repeat itself, and her race will become extinct.

ISBN: 978-1-937053-30-7

Formats: Trade Paperback, e-book

Add TOUCH OF DEATH to your Goodreads "to read" list.

Order it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Seventeen-year-old Meg Flannigan wasn’t very lucky at love. In sophomore year, her idiotic boyfriend dumped her by making out with another girl in front of her locker. Ouch! Now a senior, and with a little more self-confidence, Meg catches the eye of not one, but two guys at school. Lucky! Both attend her tennis matches, vie for her attention, and are each gorgeous in their own way. So what’s the problem? Meg has already chosen one of them, and the one waiting in the sidelines will do anything to change her mind. She’s enjoys the attention right up until it’s her heart that’s caught in the middle, and she risks losing both. Can Meg Love All, or will choosing be her undoing?

Add it on Goodreads.

Order it on Amazon or B&N.

I've been dying to share this new. I signed another two-book deal with Spencer Hill Press. Here's the Publisher's Marketplace announcement:

From Publisher's Marketplace: Kelly Hashway's THE MONSTER WITHIN, in which a teenage girl is magically brought back to life by the boy who loves her, but she comes back "wrong" and has to face the evil now growing within her, to Trisha Wooldridge at Spencer Hill Press, in a nice deal, in a two-book deal, for publication in April 2014, by Lauren Hammond at ADA Management Group (World English).

If you want to add it on Goodreads, you can here.

My two-part short story ebook, THE IMAGINARY FRIEND, is now FREE! (middle grade reading level)

Samantha and Tracy have been best friends since kindergarten, but now that Tracy has gotten over her shyness and made new friends, Samantha is feeling left out. This is nothing compared to how she feels when a strange girl named Jessica tells Samantha that she’s actually an imaginary friend. Tracy has outgrown Samantha, and it’s time for Samantha to help another child who needs her. But will Samantha be able to move on and fulfill her duty as an imaginary friend?

To get your FREE copy, click here.

Enjoy a sneak peek at Santa Bunny...

I hope you enjoyed it!

My newest picture book is here! 

When the Easter Bunny feels children love Santa more than him, he decides to take over the Christmas holiday. The Easter Bunny shows up on Christmas Eve to deliver baskets to all the good children, only Santa is delivering gifts, too. But little Tommy catches them and wants to know who will hide eggs on Easter? Can Tommy convince the Easter Bunny he's loved before it's too late?

This is an Easter/Christmas crossover story for ages 3-8. Here's a trailer for a sneak peek:

Santa Bunny is now available in a 6x9 print book (perfect for Easter baskets or Christmas stockings) and on Kindle (Kindle version is only $2.99).

Find it here in print or on Kindle.

Since signing with Spencer Hill Press and even more so after the cover of TOUCH OF DEATH was released, I've been overjoyed by the support I've received. I just want to say thank you to everyone who hosted a cover reveal, who added TOUCH OF DEATH to their Goodreads To Read list, and who has voted for the book in the various Goodreads lists (YA Debut 2013, YA Cover Lust, Beautiful Book Covers of 2013, YA Novels of 2013, and Much Anticipated 2012 and 2013 Books). You guys are awesome!

You may have noticed on my homepage that I have a countdown widget. Yay! I love it. It's counts a little too slowly for me, but hey, you can't speed up time. ;) Please feel free to snag the widget for your blog or website as well.

And thank you, thank you, thank you again for all the support. It means the world to me.

That's the gorgeous cover Spencer Hill Press made for TOUCH OF DEATH! I'm in love with it. To celebrate the cover reveal and having over 200 followers on my new YA blog, I'm giving away 3 YA books. So head over to my blog and enter. Giveaway ends next Friday. Good luck!

Here it is! The synopsis blurb for my debut YA, TOUCH OF DEATH!

Jodi Marshall isn’t sure how she went from normal teenager to walking disaster. One minute she’s in her junior year of high school, spending time with her amazing boyfriend and her best friend. The next she’s being stalked by some guy no one seems to know.

After the stranger, Alex, reveals himself, Jodi learns he’s not a normal teenager and neither is she. With a kiss that kills and a touch that brings the dead back to life, Jodi discovers she’s part of a branch of necromancers born under the 13th sign of the zodiac, Ophiuchus. A branch of necromancers that are descendents of Medusa. A branch of necromancers with poisoned blood writhing in their veins.

Jodi’s deadly to the living and even more deadly to the deceased. She has to leave her old, normal life behind before she hurts the people she loves. As if that isn’t difficult enough, Jodi discovers she’s the chosen one who has to save the rest of her kind from perishing at the hands of Hades. If she can’t figure out how to control her power, history will repeat itself, and her race will become extinct.

Yay! You can add it to your Goodreads shelf if you haven't already.

It's official. I've split my website in two. Why? Because this site was quickly becoming about my children's picture books and short stories for readers 12 and under. Now that I have an agent and am actively seeking publication for my young adult and middle grade novels, I thought it was time to have a place just for them.

And that place can be found here. I will be blogging from my young adult and middle grade author site every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And the topics will include everything related to writing and reading books for this age group.

Here at this site, which is now strictly for my children's books and short stories, I will not be blogging as often. And the topics will only pertain to writing and reading books for kids 12 and under. I will continue posting information about my picture books here and helpful tips for writers of this age group, so don't think the site is going away. It's not.

So I hope you'll check out my new YA & MG author site, and feel free to let me know what you think about the split I've made.

Happy Monday! Here's what 's on my mind today:

1. Book signing  I have a signing this Saturday from 2-4pm at Panera Bread in Stroudsburg, PA. I'll be signing all three of my picture books.
2. Long weekends  I got a lot of reading done over the long weekend. I finished two books and started two more. That's a good weekend in my book. (Oh, bad pun!)
3. Two websites  I felt funny having one website for such an array of books, so I decided to break my publications in two. One site for children's picture books and short stories and one site for YA and MG books. More on this on Wednesday.
4. A huge To-Do List  Ugh. My daily planner is full. I can't seem to keep up lately, mostly because I choose writing over the other things on my list. ;) 
5. Revisions  I'm revising a manuscript that has sat for months. It's amazing what that much time away will do. I definitely have fresh eyes on it.

Since Thanksgiving is over and the end of the year is fast approaching--let's face it, this part of the year flies by--I thought I'd take the time to reflect on some of the great books I've read this year.

Now, this is not a complete list of what I've read. These are just the books that I loved the best. And not all released in 2011. I've been playing catch up on my TBR list. So here it is.

*If you click on the cover, it will take you to the book on Amazon.

And here are some books I'm looking forward to reading since I have them in wait or they are on my birthday/Christmas lists:

What books have you loved this year?

I started a new WIP this past weekend. It's been nagging me, and even though I'm revising a manuscript, this idea demanded I write the opening. So I gave in. When the idea came to me, I immediately thought it had to be written in present tense. Okay, no biggie. Wrong.

I tried to write this in present tense. It started out that way. But every once in a while, I realized I wasn't in present tense anymore. I was in past tense. I couldn't help it. Past tense is what I'm good at. Want to know the funny thing? Back when I first got into writing novels, I wrote a book in present tense. I loved present tense. Now I can't write it.

I love the story quality of past tense. And I have a thing against the word "say". I don't know what it is, but I dislike the word. Yet I can read books in present tense with no problem. I read He Loves Me... He Loves You Not by my amazing agent, Lauren Hammond, and I loved it. But I can't write it.

Do you have a tense you stick with in all your manuscripts? Can you write both?

Well, it's happened again. I shouldn't be surprised, but yet I am. Every time I finish one manuscript and am about to dive into revisions, a shiny new idea pops into my head. Now you're probably thinking, well that's good, right? Yes and no.

I jotted my idea down and even used my digital voice recorder to record thoughts that were coming too quickly for me to write. I should be happy. I know what I'll be working on when I'm finished with revisions on my current WIP. Not quite.

This new idea won't leave me alone. It's not satisfied sitting in my writer's notebook and on my recorder. It is demanding to be written. And not just that, it's demanding to be written in present tense, something I've only done once and even then I wound up converting it to past tense. 

So I'm at a loss. What do I do? Revise? Give in to the shiny new idea?

Do you get new ideas at bad times like this? Is there really such a thing as a bad time for a shiny new idea?

*Today is the last day to enter my Goodreads Giveaway for a copy of MAY THE BEST DOG WIN COLORING BOOK EDITION.*

I figured since it's NaNo time we should talk about deadlines. I set deadlines for all sorts of things: 

• word count per day
• number of days to complete a manuscript
• number of submissions (for short stories) per month
• amount of time to revise
• amount of time to edit for a client

Happy Monday! Here's what's on my mind today: 

1. Goodreads Giveaway I'm doing a giveaway for May the Best Dog Win Coloring Book Edition. You can enter to win here.
2. Research  I'm researching a new WIP. It's always exciting to come up with a new idea and explore all the places you can go with it.
3. Revising  I have an 83,000 word YA novel to revise, and I'm looking forward to jumping into it and seeing how my first draft came out.
4. Reading  I'm reading Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn, and I'm loving her writing style. If you haven't checked it out yet, you should.
5. Recording  I bought myself a digital voice recorder for those times when I can't write down my ideas. I love it! I use it while cooking, driving, getting dressed... Don't know how I lived without it.

Right now I'm writing a YA novel and it's totally throwing me. I'm used to my characters surprising me, but this is beyond that. The synopsis I wrote before I began my draft is NOTHING like the story that's coming out of me. Why? My characters pretty much laughed in my face. They let me know that they are 17 years old and they are full of emotions.

Am I beating around the bush? Yes. My face is probably red right now, too. Okay, I'll say it. My characters can't keep their hands off each other. I can't tell you how many times I've stopped typing and said, "Really, you're kissing again?" And a few times, I've had to step back and ask, "Um, are you going where I think you're going with this?" 

Here's my dilemna. As a mom, I'm afraid to write a YA novel where the characters have sex. As a former 17-year-old, I'm not stupid. I know that age is riddled with raging hormones. But do I want them in my novel?

So basically, I've held my characters back. I'm letting them feel things without fully acting on those feelings. But am I doing the right thing? That's the question I'm posing to you all today.

Should our manuscripts and characters be true to the age they are intended for? Or should we try to hold back from exposing kids of any age from certain topics like sex? What do you think?

Happy Halloween Mishmash! That totally made me think of the song Monster Mash. Remember that? Okay, here's what's on my mind today:

1. Halloween  You probably saw that coming, huh? I love Halloween. Any holiday where I don't have to travel is awesome in my opinion. The costumes are a plus, too.
2. Snow  I'm not a snow person. Yes, it's pretty, but other than that, I don't need it. My parents' flight was delayed on Saturday because of the snow. They sat on a plane and didn't move for 3 hours only to be sent back to the airport. They officially hate snow now.
3. Broken refrigerator  My fridge is acting up. Ugh! Thankfully we have two, but why do things keep breaking in my house? I'm starting to think I'm cursed.
4. Candy & dentists  Someone please tell me why I scheduled a dentist appointment for November 15. I'm not going to be able to eat a lot of Halloween candy now. :(
5. NaNoWriMo  I'm not doing NaNo because I'm 60K into my WIP and don't have 50K more to go, but good luck to all those getting ready to type up a storm starting tomorrow.

Thank you to all who entered my giveway for signed copies of May the Best Dog Win Coloring Book Edition and The Purrfect Puppy and SWAG. I appreciate everyone helping me celebrate the releases of both books. Without further ado, the winner is...

Katrina DeLallo!!!

Yay, Kat, you won! Please email me with your mailing address and the name of the person you'd like the books signed to. Congrats!

Now, for today's topic "Never Say Never." I've learned a lot this past year. In fact I blogged about it a few weeks back. And one of the things I learned is never to say you'll never do something in connection to your writing. I swore I would never write a novel out of order. And I swore I would never do NaNoWriMo because I couldn't write that quickly. Well, I was wrong.

First, I still haven't officially participated in NaNo, but I did completely shock myself by writing three books this year. And one was drafted in 13 days. I swore I couldn't be a NaNo candidate because I couldn't write without editing along the way. But I was wrong. This August, I broke every writing rule I had, and the manuscript is the best I've ever written. Lesson learned. Never say never.

I also swore I'd never write whatever scene struck me at that moment instead of going in order from chapter one to whatever chapter ended the book. Enter my current WIP. Yesterday I wrote a scene from about four chapters away. I had to. It was coming together completely in my mind and if I didn't put it to screen, I would've lost it and written something less stellar down the road. So I gave in and broke my usual pattern of writing every scene in order.

So now I know never to say never. When was the last time you said you'd never do something, only to have to eat your words?

Okay, I think I've become addicted to vlogging. Here's a peek at the May the Best Dog Win Coloring Book Edition, which released October 1. I hope you enjoy it!

And just for fun, if you could make any book into a coloring book, which one would you choose?

Every once in a while I like to reflect on what I've learning in this industry. So today I'm listing some of the important lessons I've learned this year.

1. There will ALWAYS be something else to strive for.  No matter what I was trying to achieve and thought I'd be content once I achieved it (finding an agent, getting a book published), I'm never satisfied. Our careers keep developing, and we have to keep reaching higher.
2. Pre-release is exciting and post-release can be stressful.  Before May the Best Dog Win came out, I was counting the days for the release. I just wanted the book out, and I didn't take enough time to enjoy the pre-release. After the book was published, I stressed about rankings and getting the word out. Enjoy the pre-release because that's the really exciting part.
3. There's never enough time in the day.  Before my daughter started pre-K I thought I'd have plenty of time to write and edit when she was at school. Um, sure. There is NEVER enough time in the day. Those extra hours fill so quickly and you're left wondering how you got by before because it's still not enough.
4. It's fun to have more than one book out, but it's double the work, too.  Having more work published is great, but it's also more time consuming. This year, I sold all my picture books (that were completed). I have several under contract and set to release in the next two years. That's exciting and a bit overwhelming. I'm really going to need more time in the day.
5. Every book I work on is written and planned differently.  No manuscript I've worked on has ever been completed the same way as the one before. You have to adapt to each manuscript you write.

It's Monday. My mind is a mishmash of thoughts today.

1. 10/10  It's October 10th or 10/10. Dates like this are always fun.
2. 50 Authors You Should Be Reading  Voting for this contest has extended to midnight tonight. If you haven't voted, you still can by clicking here. 
3. October Newsletter  My October Newsletter goes out later today. Want a copy? Sign up free in the sidebar or click here.
4. The Purrfect Puppy Teaser  If you missed Friday's post, I had a vlog of me reading a little of my upcoming picture book. You can find it here.
5. Death  Last week one of my lifelong friends lost her mother to lung cancer. I grew up on the same street as her and spent a lot of time a her house. My only comfort is that she's no longer in pain.

I've had my Kindle for ten months now, and to be honest, I've only read a total of 13 books on it. Why? Plain and simple, it's because of formatting issues. I've yet to read a book on my Kindle that didn't have formatting problems.

To be honest, this doesn't stop me from enjoying the book. But I have to wonder why formatting ebooks is so difficult. Now, let me come right out and say that I don't blame the author or the publisher. My picture book went up on Kindle after my publisher used the proper technology to format it. And you know what? There were problems. So it came back down. 

I've heard other writers complain about the same thing. Their print books are perfect and the ebooks are littered with formatting errors. Honestly, I don't understand it. Wouldn't places like the Kindle store and Nook store want to make it easy for publishers to post ebooks? I mean it's more money for the estores, right? So why is it so difficult?

This is just one of the reasons why I prefer to read print books. There are fewer errors.

What about you? Have you read any good ebooks that had formatting issues? Does it make you shy away from using your ereader as much as you'd like?

Happy Monday, everyone! This is an exciting week for me, so I have a lot on my mind.

1. MAY THE BEST DOG WIN COLORING BOOK EDITION  The coloring book edition of my picture book released October 1! Yay! It includes the original story and a full coloring book. I'm kind of in love with it. You can find it here.
2. 50 Authors You Should Be Reading  I'm a finalist in this contest. The top 50 authors, selected by vote, will be in a book titled 50 Authors You Should Be Reading. If you'd like to vote for me, you can do so here. And thanks to all those who have already voted. Voting is open through October 8.
3. THE PURRFECT PUPPY  I'm counting down the days until the release of THE PURRFECT PUPPY. It's right around the corner. Stay tuned for a giveaway right here on my blog.
4. My Anniversary  October 9 is my wedding anniversary. Wow, it's going to be six years I've been married.
5. My husband's birthday  October 6 is my husband's birthday. Lot's of celebrating this week.

That's it for me. What's on your mind today? 

*Reminder, this month's newsletter goes out on October 10. Sign up in the sidebar if you don't want to miss it.

My love of writing began with my love of reading. Growing up, books were my favorite things. Something about the written word was magical to me. It still is. Everytime I hold a book in my hands, I marvel at how it was created. Going from blank pages to a full-blown story is definitely a thing of magic.

If you've been reading my blog for a while then you've heard me say how I would get eyestrain from reading so much. My parents used to have to take my books away from me to give my eyes a rest. I'd also read while my parents shopped at the mall. I loved books. And that love made me want to write. I wanted to perform that act of magic in creating something from nothing. 

Even in high school when I had to write research papers on topics I really didn't care about, I'd marvel at the finished product. Why? Because I'd created something--something that was formerly just blank pages. I feel this sense of wonder every time I write a story. Writing and reading remind me that there is magic in this world. And writing allows me to create my own magic.

How did your love of writing come about? Is it a thing of magic for you, too?

Happy Monday! Here's my mishmash of thoughts today:

1. First pre-k field trip  My daughter had her first field trip last Friday. It was an outdoor hike at an envirnomental center. It rained, and we got wet, but it was still fun.
2. The Purrfect Puppy  My latest picture book is in the final stages. We had a little set back, so the release date might get pushed back a bit. Not much though.
3. Submission  I'm on submission with my YA novel now! Yay! My amazing agent got requests for this one before I even wrote it, so I'm crossing all my fingers and toes.
4. Christmas shopping  I've started my shopping already. I have a bunch of stuff for my daughter already, but I have to find a way to get some stuff from Santa. She's always with me when I go shopping, and she's sneaky!
5. Planning a new WIP  I'm working on notes for a new manuscript. My agent wanted me to plot the sequel to the book out on submission. I love coming up with ideas.