Dear Publisher, I'm sorry for the things I did while on deadline

Now that I'm basically out of the woods (as T-Swift would say) with my deadline for "Silver Lined" I feel like this open letter of apology to my publisher is safe to post. I mean... don't get me wrong, I had to kill myself to get this book written and edited in time for its release... but when I wasn't killing myself, I was procrastinating. Big time. And so, without further adieu, a letter to my publisher.

Dear Publisher,

I'm sorry for the things I did while I was on a deadline to get "Silver Lined" written. Things like:

Rearranging my closet to look like "The Paradise".

Actually WATCHING "The Paradise" and shipping Denise and Moray, hardcore.

Watching an entire season of Pretty Little Liars.

Then proceeding to make my own Stiles-esque clue board about who "A" is. (PS, I totally cracked that nut!).

Trying to learn Spanish (again).

And then giving up and admitting I really want to learn French but probably never will because seriously? Why is nothing said the way it's written? Come on France, get your crap together.




Teaching myself to learn a few songs on my new Ukulele (his name is Yonezy, by the way. See video for details).



Taking almost two hours out of my day to complete the AWFUL SilverWastes jumping puzzle with my trusty guildmates Dan, Monica, and Hope.

Completing nearly 80 levels worth of personal story in Guild Wars 2 (PS, Trahearne and I are totally tight (even though he's not a real person or whatever). We basically saved the world together. NDB).

(Epic dragon thing I killed)

(Trahearne saying I'm the best ever)

Designing book covers for my other books, Parrish and Beyond Lyra.

You totally thought I was going to post a picture of them, didn't you? Nice try. I promise to reveal them soon!

Writing about 5,000 #CreepyJeffersonTexts with Ashlee to further delve into the weird inner workings of Jefferson Parrish's mind so I can write him properly.

Writing basically ALL of Beyond Lyra (okay more like 3/4 of the book) when I should have been working on Silver Lined (BL is SO much easier to write. It's not my fault Dystopian requires so much attention!).

And just generally having panic attacks when I sat down to write this book because I wanted so badly to do it justice and I was terrified I'd mess it all up. But I think we're good, people. I was able to actually write the things I meant to write and I'm really going to miss writing these characters. Now I'll just have to write my own personal side-stories for them whenever I miss them :) I don't know that I'll ever have another character as messed up and fantastically fun to write as Eris.

So please accept this former apology, Publisher. I promise that 'bidness' actually got done by the time it needed to!

Until next time,

Shannen