12 Steps Cover Reveal

Hello, Writerly Friends!

One of my real life Writerly Friends is celebrating this week. MG/YA author Veronica Bartles is having some kind of WOW year.

In 2012, Veronica was a pre-published author packing up her family for a move from Maryland to New Mexico. How do I know? This talented lady was in my critique group. Veronica had been sharing a few different manuscripts with us. One was a YA romance called Kissing Frogs.

In June, I dropped off a turkey lasagna at Veronica's house (the kitchen was packed a few days ahead of the move), hugged her goodbye, and wished her the best.

But Veronica was too good for our critique group to lose! She keeps coming to  meetings via Skype and reports back to us about her life in New Mexico and her involvement in online pitch contests.

In the year since she left us (sob) for life in the desert, Veronica did something amazing with her Kissing Frogs manuscript. She played around with telling the story from a supporting character's point of view. That "playing around" became a YA romance called 12 Steps. Which sold to Swoon Romance early this fall.

You can read about Veronica's road to publishing at the Sub It Club.

I am so excited to be part of Veronica's cover reveal for 12 Steps. A HUGE shout out to my Writerly Friend, critique partner, cheerleader, awesome knitter, and cookie baker extraordinaire Veronica Bartles on her first published book!

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Twelve Steps

by Veronica Bartles

Release Date: 03/25/14

Book Summary:

Sixteen-year-old Andi is tired of being a second-class sibling to perfect sister Laina. There in Laina's shadow, Andi's only noticeable feature is her pretty awesome hair. And even that is eclipsed by Laina's perfect everything else.

When Andi’s crush asks her to fix him up with Laina, Andi decides enough is enough and devises a twelve-step program to wrangle the spotlight away from Laina. After all, great hair must count for something.

Step 1: Admit she’s powerless to change her perfect sister, and accept that her life really, really sucks. OK, maybe that's two steps in one.

Step 4: Make a list of her good qualities besides great hair. There have got to be at least three good qualities, right?

Step 7: Demand attention for more than just her shortcomings, and break out of her shell. Easier said that done, but worth the effort in the long-run. 

When a stolen kiss from her crush ends in disaster, Andi finds that her prince isn’t as charming as she'd hoped, and realizes she may need a new program--perhaps with less steps!

As cracks in Laina’s flawless façade begin to show, the sisters work together to find a spotlight big enough for both to shine.

About the Author

As the second of eight children and the mother of four, Veronica Bartles is no stranger to the ups and downs of sibling relationships. (She was sandwiched between the gorgeous-and-insanely-popular older sister and the too-adorable-for-words younger sister.) She uses this insight to write stories about siblings who mostly love each other, even while they’re driving one another crazy.  When she isn’t writing or getting lost in the pages of her newest favorite book, Veronica enjoys knitting fabulous bags and jewelry out of recycled plastic bags and old VHS tapes, sky diving (though she hasn’t actually tried that yet), and inventing the world’s most delectable cookie recipes.

TWELVE STEPS is Veronica Bartles's first novel.

Author Links:

http://vbartles.com/

https://twitter.com/vbartles

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorVeronicaBartles

Cover Reveal Organized by:

YA Bound Book Tours

Thanks for YA Bound Book Tours for including me in Veronica's cover reveal. 12 Steps definitely looks Swoon-worthy.