writing – Rebecca Balcárcel

In Fall of 2022, I started drafting a new novel about an adoptee who visits her home country of Guatemala to meet her birth family for the first time. With ten chapters and an outline, my agent submitted the book, and by December we had a handshake agreement.

Now it’s official! Neal Porter Books will release SUNCHILD in fall 2024. I’ve just finished the first draft, and it’s on my editor’s desk. (which always makes me nervous! will she like it?)

Next steps: Editor Taylor will analyze the whole book — characters, themes, and wording — and send me feedback. After a couple of rounds of editing, we can move on to copyediting, proofreading, and cover design. Hopefully, we’ll have a new book on the shelves in Fall 2024!

(banner photo is Arco Santa Cristina in Antigua, Guatemala)

Writing Life, Writing Tips

Staying Motivated to Write — how I do it!

March 11, 2023 Rebecca Balcarcel

These are tricks that are worked for me as I slogged through my newest novel draft.

Uncategorized

Abacus Method

March 11, 2023March 11, 2023 Rebecca Balcarcel

THIS is how I made it through the long middle of my novel draft!

Writing Life, Writing Tips

The Sophomore Book Slump

March 28, 2022March 28, 2022 Rebecca Balcarcel

When I talked to other authors who had one book out, we discover something: we all struggled to get that second book finished!

For some of us, the problem was coming up with a second idea worthy of a novel; for others, it was writing a whole second book only have it rejected by the publisher. All of us struggled with fears over whether this book would be as good as the first. Would readers shake their heads, saying, “Too bad. Her first book was so good!”?

Join me and author friends Anika Fajardo and Laekan Zea Kemp for a discussion of the slump that often happens when we go write that sophomore book. THANK YOU, Las Musas, whose Sophomore Social podcast series includes this episode to which I was graciously invited: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5rarIG0zVRhuYyqgj7QSXc