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Welcome to the official website for Saundra Mitchell! I’m the author of SHADOWED SUMMER, THE VESPERTINE, THE SPRINGSWEET, THE ELEMENTALS and MISTWALKER. I’m the editor of the YA anthology DEFY THE DARK. I’m also the author of WHILE YOU’RE AWAY, writing as Jessa Holbrook, and WILD, writing as Alex Mallory.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Fan Fiction: Your ( Read more... )

Maybe you don’t feel like reading an essay about queries. Why would you? You need to get one written, RIGHT NOW OMFG EMERGENCY NOW NOW NOW. Okay, yo. Cool. I can give you a short n’ dirty query bulletpoint list so that you can skim it real fast and get back to work.

• A query letter is a BUSINESS LETTER. If you’re sending it by postal mail, format it ( Read more... )

(This is a repost from August 2010; I’m still rebuilding my Helping Writer posts from the database loss.)

Everybody writes bad queries, at least at first. There’s no set way to create one, advice conflicts on what to put in one, and frankly, it’s a skill like any other- you must practice it to excel at it.

In light of #queryfail #queryslam and ( Read more... )

(This is a repost from August 2010; I’m still rebuilding my Helping Writer posts from the database loss.)

So, I posted my very first query letter, which was a pretty bad query letter. Agent/Writer/Deb Extraordinaire Mandy Hubbard popped by to say it wasn’t half-bad. And it wasn’t- with some tinkering, I did manage to get a couple of partial ( Read more... )

Right now, my computer backdrop is a simple white-on-black sign that says “I would quit, but I still have people to prove wrong.”

It’s the same thing as persistence, except with some spite in there for good measure. I’ve been a working writer since I was 19; I’m now 40. I’ve gotten one residual check in all that time. None of my books have earned ( Read more... )

I just made this soup and I can’t stop eating it. It’s rich and hearty and warm and buttery and silky and ugh, oh my god. So I have to share, because seriously, I think this is my new favorite soup.

WINTER MUSHROOM SOUP

32 oz beef or vegetable stock
8 oz Baby Bella mushrooms, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 ( Read more... )

I’m getting ready for my stint as an honorary bookseller at Kids Ink today as part of Sherman Alexie’s Indies First initiative!

The whole rest of the year, your smart and fabulous independent booksellers make recommendations and match books with their destined readers- so today, a bunch (and I mean like, hundreds!) of authors are swarming stores to ( Read more... )

moonlitpines and I texted furiously after last night's episode of Teen Wolf. Spoilers for last night's ep, but we're totally spoiler free and predict:

( Solving Teen Wolf... )

I am a bad dogsitter.

The dog in question is a lovely little beagle; she belongs to my daughter’s best friend. Puppy is staying the night at our house, and I am totally beside myself.

First. I am afraid of dogs. Not, like, deathly afraid. They make me anxious. My eldest spent a week in the hospital when he was a baby because of a dog bite. So now I ( Read more... )