We have even more book to celebrate from past Wordsmith Workshop attendees, and we hope you love all their books as much as we do! Before we get to that, though, we have a truly unique success story to talk about—our own Beth Revis wrote the majority of her upcoming Star Wars novel, The Princess and the Scoundrel during Word Lab and the Wordsmith Workshop Fast Draft course! When we tell you that Word Lab produces a calm, productive work environment that gets results, we really mean it!
You can read more about this novel below, but first we have even more success stories to celebrate!
First up, Ashley Schumacher just launched her sophomore contemporary novel, Full Flight:
Everyone else in the tiny town of Enfield, Texas, calls fall football season, but for the forty-three members of the Fighting Enfield Marching Band, it’s contest season. And for new saxophonist Anna James, it’s her first chance to prove herself as the great musician she’s trying hard to be.
When she’s assigned a duet with mellophone player Weston Ryan, the boy her small-minded town thinks of as nothing but trouble, she’s equal parts thrilled and intimidated. But as he helps her with the duet, and she sees the smile he seems to save just for her, she can’t help but feel like she’s helping him with something too.
When her strict parents find out she’s been secretly seeing him and keep them apart, Anna and Weston learn what it truly means to fight for something they love. With the marching contest nearing and the two falling hard for one another, the unthinkable happens, and Anna is left grappling for a way forward without Weston.
Ashley Schumacher’s Full Flight is about how first love shapes us—even after it’s gone.
Help us welcome The Secrets We Keep by alumna Cassie Gustafson!
High school freshman Emma Clark harbors a secret—a secret so vile it could implode her whole world, a secret she’s managed to keep hidden away. . . Until the day her best friend, Hannah, accuses Emma’s father of a heinous crime.
Following her father’s arrest, and torn between loyalty to Hannah and to her family, Emma is devastated to learn she must testify against Hannah’s word in order to keep her family together. As Emma wrestles with this impossible decision, her fractured past begins to resurface piece by painful piece—causing the line to blur between her present-day reality and the dark fairytales she writes to survive, all of which threatens to expose Emma’s long-buried truths.
The Secrets We Keep explores the complex, powerful bonds of friendship and family, asking the difficult question: at what point does Emma’s loyalty to another become a betrayal of herself? And perhaps the toughest question of all: Can Emma find the strength to finally unbury her secret?
Rachel Griffin became our first alumni to hit the NY Times bestseller list with her debut, The Nature of Witches. We are so exicted about her upcoming novel, Wild is the Witch!
After a night of magic turns deadly, Iris Gray vows to never let another person learn she's a witch. It doesn't matter that the Witches' Council found her innocent or that her magic was once viewed as a marvel—that night on the lake changed everything. Now settled in Washington, Iris hides who she really is and vents her frustrations by writing curses she never intends to cast. And while she loves working at the wildlife refuge she runs with her mother, she loathes Pike Alder, the witch-hating aspiring ornithologist who interns with them.
When Pike makes a particularly hurtful comment, Iris concocts a cruel torment for him. But just as she's about to dispel it, an owl swoops down and steals the curse before flying far away from the refuge. The owl is a powerful amplifier, and if it dies, Iris's dark spell will be unleashed not only on Pike, but on everyone in the region.
Forced to work together, Iris and Pike trek through the wilderness in search of the bird that could cost Pike his life. But Pike doesn’t know the truth, and as more dangers arise in the woods, Iris must decide how far she's willing to go to keep her secrets safe.
And finally, Beth was able to reveal the project she worked on with Word Labbers and the Fast Draft Workshop she hosted in October and November—the next Star Wars novel, featuring the marriage and honeymoon of infamous Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa!
The announcement happened on Valentine’s Day, and the book will be available in August! You can read about it’s inception here. Throughout the Word Lab in October and November and the Fast Draft workshops hosted by Wordsmith Workshops, Beth worked on this project, revealing nothing more than “it’s a science fiction romance” and the word counts while she worked. And talk about fast drafting—from idea to published novel is going to be less than a year!
Word Lab: March
Join us as we continue writing into the new year with Word Lab in March! We’re eager to help you write more words and reach your goals. Word Lab is a fun, productive group that consistently writes on target and gets more words down with each session. Sign up here, or contact us with questions!
Behind the scenes, we are hard at work finding new ways to help best serve you and your writing career. Never hesitate to let us know what programs you’re looking for and what else you’d like to see from us.