Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Three Years Later!

I almost want to cry as I write this...

It’s three years since the Buzz Girls began and I couldn't have dreamed what wonderful friends we would become.

It all started back in the summer of 2006 when Simone Elkeles, Dona Sarkar and I were batting about the idea of a group blog. We decided to go for it - so each girl invited a talented YA author they knew to the party -- Tera Lynn Childs, Stephanie Hale, Tina Ferraro, and Marley Gibson -- and that fall, Books, Boys, Buzz debuted. At the time, there weren’t many YA group author blogs out there, so "the bees" as we called ourselves, quickly filled a niche in the blogosphere.


For Dona and me, it was a gift. We were two unpublished writers (critique partners for each other) who in our own minds were very close to selling. Dona was a hard-working software engineer and I was a substitute teacher living in a tiny town I was about to leave forever.

The fact that these wonderful published women would blog with us still blows me away. And you know, not soon after the blog began, a little pixie dust fell from their shoulders on to our laptops. Dona and I each made our first sale within six months!

Here is a photo of me and Dona at the August 2006 RWA summer conference. She was my date to the Golden Heart awards for unpublished manuscripts and ended up being my lucky charm! I'm wearing two corsages - one from my RWA Seattle chapter and one from my other wonderful critique partner, Pat White.


Anyway, so the Buzz Blog began that fall. Skip three years ahead and my life is completely different. I live in a new town, have a new day job, and a whole new life as a published author. The only thing standing in my way is myself. (And I’ve learned to politely ask her to move over from time to time.)

As you know if you read the blog regularly, my book Never Cry Werewolf debuted at the start of this month – and this Friday will be my launch party at Queen Anne Books in Seattle. http://www.queenannebooks.com/ I literally can’t believe my book is real.


But to show myself (and you) that is exists, here is Daisy the Pug reading it on Kindle with her human companion Alyssa Day. (Thanks for the photo, A!)



And finally -- here at last is the cover for my April book, The Clearing. I can’t wait for this one to come out. It’s moody, dark and very romantic – and it’s set near my former home in the country. I just turned in the page proofs (galleys) so it won’t be long before it feels like a real book, too.

Anyway, I’m grateful for three years of friendship, support, and fun on Books, Boys, Buzz! I love that readers can connect with us here, and I love that we are still together.

To enter to win a copy of your choice of ANY book from the Buzz Girl’s collection of twenty books – please leave a comment about your longest friendship. How have you kept that friendship going strong through the years?

I will choose a winner on Sunday morning, so post away until then!




Love and Light,


Heather

http://www.heatherdavisbooks.com/
NEVER CRY WEREWOLF – HarperTeen 09/09
THE CLEARING – HMH Graphia 04/10

25 comments:

Jess (The Cozy Reader) said...

Awww Kindles rock! :)

Congrats on your debut! Enjoy your launch party!

My longest friendship would be my two friends from grade school. We've all grown up and had a few of our own kids but we get together at least once a year for lunch. We don't mingle much throughout the year but we always seem to meet up for lunch! It's great. At least we still have that.

MD said...

I have known my longest friend since kindergarten! We are always e-mailing each other, even though we rarely see each other in person anymore!

TinaFerraro said...

Congrats, Heather, on all your successes these three years. And thanks so much for letting me be a part of it!

My longest friendship goes back to 4th grade, to the girl who befriended me when I was The New Girl at School! She and I are meeting up in New York next month as roomies for our high school reunion, and we still talk on Facebook almost every day!

Wendy said...

Aw, Heather! You almost made me teary-eye.

My longest friendship is my best friend from High School. We met Freshman year, hated each other for about two years then somehow became fast friends and have been that for 3-4 years now.

We rarely see each other because she lives 4 hours away but we text each other constantly and keep in touch by email and such plus whenever she comes into town we go out for dinner and book shopping. She's a big reader, too! :)

Brodie said...

I'd so love a Kindle... but I think I want that dog more, cute!!

Congratulations on all your success! Reading these blog posts really are an inspiration and it's amazing what you have all achieved!

My longest friendship would be from grade 3. I met him when I switched schools and we become friends, then went to the same high school together. We weren't best friends then, but we were good friends. Now over past two years we have both changed so much and our outlook on life has taken a 180 degree turn, which has managed to bring our friendship closer and stronger because we bond on a spiritual level now and can talk about all that kind of stuff in life. Which I think is really great and I'm so glad we've kept the friendship going all these years!

Lexie said...

Congrats on your debut and having such wonderful luck!

my friend Kinbrae, we've known each other for 11 years now online. We've met only once, for a week long sojourn to her visiting me, but I think by far she's my best friend. She grounds me in a way very few people can and is very very tolerant of my crazy hijinks. We met through a PBEM (play by e-mail) called 'Senshi Academy', an RPG about Sailor Moon, and wrote together for a number of years before the group disbanded.

We don't talk as much (she's very busy with school, her health and her job) anymore, but I know that if I im her or call her she'll be there for me, just as I'd be there for her. Its great having that sort of knowledge and reassurance.

Kelsey said...

My longest best friend I've known since I was a baby!

Thanks for this contest(:

Marjolein Reads said...

Congrats on your debut and the anniversary.
The person i call my best friend now I now know for twelver years. And this person always came up when I needed him the most. That relly shows he is the best friend I have ever had!

Marley Gibson said...

Your book cover from HMH is awesome!!! CONGRATS!

Sara said...

hmm, I think my longest friendship is from pre-school, we don't see each other that much anymore, but when we do we're still get along great.

sara

Ellz said...

What a fun launch party. My longest friendship is with a girl from high school. We actually lost touch for a while, but you gotta love the internet. We are still exchanging pictures.

Emi said...

That cover is gorgeous!

My longest friendship lasted from kindergarten to 8th grade. We stayed friends even after she moved two hours away. I used to drive two hours every Thursday morning to do volunteer projects with her.

Tynga said...

My longest friendship went on from Kinder Garden until the end of High School and it ended with her stabbin me in the back (not literaly) unfortunately.

I think the key to friendship is honesty!

Kathleen MacIver said...

Congratulations!

My longest friendship has to be my sister-in-law. She wasn't my sister-in-law when we met, and at first, the three years difference in our ages kept our friendship to a lesser level. But years went by, we both grew up, I married her older brother, and we've now been close friends for over 20 years.

Cara King said...

My longest friendship started in second grade. I was at a new school, and had just got switched from one classroom to the next, where all the desk were in long rows. The girl to my left took one look at me, turned to the girl on her other side, and said "do you want to switch with me? I don't like her." The other girl looked at me, decided I looked okay to her, so they switched. And the girl who was willing to sit next to me became my best friend throughout my childhood.

She lives far away, but we still keep up via Facebook. :-)

Cara

DeNiSe said...

I fished I had a friendship like your's I used to have a friendship that lasted 5 yrears but then i moved and havent had a true friend in a long time but last year i meet my friend kelly were are complite diffrent but we always have so much fun with each other and even though we all wil be going our own ways soon I email her everyday !!!!

Denise

denisemadness(at)yahoo(dot)com

Sara and Staci said...

Congrats on all of your success. You're are all an inspiration to me who recently sold her first novel and just started blogging with my co-author. While my co-author, Staci, is one of my closest friends, she's not my oldest. My oldest friend is Shari and I refer to her as my HLM, hetero life mate. We see each other often and talk on the phone most nights. Having a family, a day job, and writing makes it tough to find time, but Shari always stays in touch, and I am truly lucky to have her in my life.

Lori T said...

Congrats on all your success and on the release of Never Cry Werewolf which I am really looking forward to reading.

I have recently connected with one of my childhood friends and when talking with her I remembered all the wonderful and great times that we shared. It is so nice to be back in touch with her.

Anonymous said...

my longest friendship was from kindergarden to the end of high school.We still see each other here and there but not like we were when we were kids.We hung out all the time and liked the same things.Just as we got older and went out different ways, its been harder to keep in touch.But its nice when we do.

Llehn said...

My longest standing friendship dates back to high school! We weren't exactly the type whom we thought would click but we did and we stayed in touch all our lives. I just spoke to her last week via Skype. Hooray for technology!

lesly7ch(at)yahoo(dot)com

Unknown said...

my longgest friendship is when i move to a new town i had no friends. i was in 1st grade and i went up 2 her and said "do you want to be my friend" and i am still friends with her. i am in 7th grade now and we are still bff's she is in g&t so we dont have class together and in 4th grade she went to a different school but we were still the best of friends. we staed friends by girl scoutes i guess and we are very a like. so that my story love your books.

Danna T said...

Heather,
It was an honor to be at your QA book signing. I think we bought the most books and will keep the Upper Valley hooked so they'll buy even more.

My longest relationship is kept aglow through monthly phone calls. Linda and I have been friends for 27 years.. a record for an Army Brat! The best thing about us is that no matter how many years pass between our visits, we pick up right where we left off.

Erica said...

My longest freiendship would my friendsip with my best friend in the whole world. I met her in kindergarten and we're still extremely close today.

Jess Capelle said...

Congrats on the debut and having the 2nd coming close on its heels!

my longest friendship is with a friend from junior high. We sometimes don't talk for a few months, especially when I was living on the other side of the country, but we stay in touch with email and Facebook. Now that I'm back in Houston, we are concert buddies!

Letter Garden said...

My longest friendship is with a girl I met at my first book convention eight years ago. Since when we always go to convetions together but she's moving to another country this month so I'll miss her deeply. :(