What a busy year it has been for the Writer’s Block Party CP group! There’s so much that we want to look back on and celebrate, so let’s just dive right in to take a moment to appreciate the moments that we worked so hard for. We hope you all have had an amazing year as well and we will see you in 2020!

Janella Angeles

The cover was released for Janella’s debut YA fantasy novel, WHERE DREAMS DESCEND (Add it to Goodreads) which is slated to release June 2, 2020. You can pre-order here! This year, she also attended her first book festival as an author, among other events, and did not completely make a fool of herself on panel! Along with her full time job of writing, she’s survived juggling her other full time job in publishing which she’s also risen the ranks in with a recent promotion.

Erin Bay

Erin had her white coat ceremony marking her classroom work officially complete! She will be going on clinical in 2020! Congrats, Erin!

Alexis Castellanos

Alexis sold her debut middle grade contemporary graphic novel, ISLA TO ISLAND (Add it to Goodreads) which is set to release from Atheneum in 2022.

Kat Cho

Kat debuted with her YA fantasy, WICKED FOX (Buy It Here) and announced the sequel, VICIOUS SPIRITS (Find Out More Here) which is coming August 18, 2020 from G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers/Penguin Random House. She became a full time writer and had the pleasure of going to Switzerland to meet international readers. She also attended NYCC as a panelist and celebrated one year co-hosting Write or Die Podcast!

Mara Fitzgerald

Mara spent the year working on edits for her debut YA fantasy, BEYOND THE RUBY VEIL (Add it to Goodreads) from Disney Hyperion. She hopes this will pay off in 2020, her debut year. She has deliberately cultivated a calm debut mindset and is totally not going to spend all of next year panicking.

Amanda Foody

Amanda published KING OF FOOLS (Add it to Goodreads), the highly anticipated sequel to ACE OF SHADES. She also drafted and completed the final novel in the trilogy, QUEEN OF VOLTS (Add it to Goodreads).

She signed with a new literary agent and sold her first middle grade fantasy series WILDERLORE (Add it to Goodreads) to Margaret K. McElderry Books for a 2021 release!

Saving the best for last, Amanda traded Philly winters for harsher ones by moving to Boston but it’s all good because she gets to sit by the fireplace with her fiancé!!! Congrats, Amanda on your engagement!

Amanda Haas

Graduated with her Accounting degree! Congrats, Amanda!!!! She also bought her first house and was promoted to supervisor at her day job, a start-up company specializing in short- and long-term rental properties around the world. Also, she and her partner celebrated 10 years of marriage! Congratulations!!!

She is currently drafting a new project that she hopes to query in 2020.

Christine Lynn Herman

Christine released her debut novel, THE DEVOURING GRAY (Add it to Goodreads) and the cover was released for its sequel, THE DECK OF OMENS (Add it to Goodreads) set to release from Titan Books on April 21, 2020. She also moved to Boston and sold a new YA contemporary fantasy, THE DROWNING SUMMER (Add it to Goodreads), slated for Spring 2021 release from Disney-Hyperion! Congrats, Christine!!!

Meg Kohlmann

Meg was promoted at Radish Fiction, a serialized reading application, to be the Live Operations Manager and Story Lead. She’s worked on stories with Emmy Award winning writers and on stories with over 1 million reads. She’s excited to be part of a new way to read the stories we love! (You can download Radish on the Apple and Google Play stores!)

She also finished the draft of her YA fantasy novel and plans to revise in the new year. 

And, probably Meg’s favorite part from this year… she moved in with her boyfriend in April, who was an audio engineer on the Grammy Nominated Moulin Rouge! The Musical soundtrack this year!

Axie Oh

Axie released, ROGUE HEART (Add it to Goodreads), the sequel to her killer YA sci-fi debut from Tu Books, REBEL SEOUL! Congrats, Axie!!!!

Claribel Ortega

The cover was released for Claribel’s debut middle grade novel, GHOST SQUAD (Add it to Goodreads) along with an exclusive Scholastic edition cover. Coming April 7, 2020!

It was also announced that Claribel will be making her graphic novel debut with the middle grade title RIZOS (Add it to Goodreads), illustrated by Rose Bousamra and coming from First Second in 2022.

Katy Rose Pool

Katy published her debut YA fantasy novel, THERE WILL COME A DARKNESS (Add it to Goodreads) which went on to earn four starred reviews (Kirkus, BCCB, Publishers Weekly, Shelf Awareness), become a Kirkus Best Book of 2019, and a Morris Award Finalist! Amazing! She also went on the Fierce Reads Tour and attended a number of festivals including the Texas Teen Book Festival & Portland Book Festival!

Tara Sim

Tara closed out her TIMEKEEPER trilogy with the release of the highly anticipated FIRESTARTER (Add it to Goodreads). She also published a short story in the COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES anthology (Add it to Goodreads) and will have another short story published in the YA SFF anthology, FANTASTIC WORLDS: IMPOSSIBLE PLACES (Add it to Goodreads) brought to you by We Need Diverse Books, coming Spring 2021 from Random House Children’s Books. Tara also had the cover reveal for her next highly anticipated novel, SCAVENGE THE STARS (Add it to Goodreads) which releases January 7, 2020 from Disney Hyperion!

Melody Simpson

Melody published her first short story, “The Guardrail Disappears” in the BETTY BITES BACK: STORIES TO SCARE THE PATRIARCHY anthology (Add it to Goodreads).