Bumpdate: Week 27 aka How the Jench Stole Christmas

I'm saying "cheese", but I'm thinking that this stomach still has THREE MONTHS to go.

Bumpdate: Week 26

Baby is the size of... English cucumber. I'm sure that wild night at the VeggieTales afterparty about five and a half months ago is totally unrelated.

Weight gain... scale says thirteen pounds, but it feels like that number should be inverted.

I'm bitchy because... a cashier asked me if I was having a Christmas baby or a New Year's baby. I replied, "Um... I'm not due until March. Late March." (To which her eyes bulged and she informed that I was going to "pop.")

Maternity clothes... I will be squeezing into my Grinch t-shirt this week, even if it means he looks more like Horton.

I'm looking forward to... CHRISTMAS!

Bumpdate: Week 25

I've had my fill of these weekly photo sessions, and my waistband has had its fill of me.

Baby is the size of a... a rutabaga. Fun fact: I have no idea what a rutabaga is. New fun fact: Apparently, it's just a turnip. Why not just say turnip, baby books?!

Weight gain: Fourteen pounds.

Exercise: Walking one mile a day, prenatal pilates three times a week.

A video simulation of my pilates class

Maternity clothes: Oh, how I hate maternity jeans. At first, I was excited that they make jeans with an elastic waist because - ELASTIC WAIST JEANS! JUST IN TIME FOR THE HOLIDAYS! But the thing about elastic is what goes out, also goes down. Which means with each step, they sag, and sag, and sag... until I have to oh-so-gracefully pull them back up in the middle of the mall. Classy.

Belly button: I guess I thought it was going to pop out like a Jack-in-the-Box, but instead, it seems to be slowly unfolding itself from the top down. (It's freaky.)

Sleep: Very tired this week. Supposedly, this is when my energy should be back. I think those baby books should be filed in the fiction section.

Cravings: Just lots of cold stuff. Ice water, iced tea, ice cream.

Movement: Hmm...

My latest ultrasound.

I miss... getting up off the couch without grunting.

Bumpdate: Week 24 (the official freaking out edition)

Didn't even plan the utter cuteness of the Seuss quote behind me.

Baby is the size of a... an ear of corn. But corn doesn't kick you all. the. time.

Weight gain: Thirteen pounds.

Exercise: I've resumed my treadmill hell. Woohoo! Walking to nowhere!

Stretch marks: Not yet, but my stomach is ITCHY.

Belly button: Couldn't be any more shallow.

Sleep: I had a cold this past week, soooo no.

Symptoms: So very tired, but hopefully that's mostly the cold.

I'm freaking out about: the fact that I'm two-thirds into this! How is time moving so fast? And FIFTEEN's release date is a mere five and a half weeks away? I can't do any of this!

I'm looking forward to...finishing the nursery. As you can see, the Dr. Seuss theme is underway and the furniture is supposed to be here Saturday afternoon.

My Cover and Trailer Reveal!

It's here! It's here! Today is the cover and trailer reveal for FIFTEEN, my debut YA fantasy and first in The Dreamwalker Diaries series and I'm so excited that I'm sharing it with you at the first possible second. 

FIFTEEN will hit the physical and digital bookshelves on January 15, 2015 (repeat after me: FIFTEEN on 15 in ’15…) but in the meantime, please consider adding it to your Goodreads list. I'll be eternally grateful - like, name-my-firstborn-after-you-grateful. (Did I mention we don't have a baby name picked yet?) 

Legend has it if you die in your dreams, you die in real life.

Fifteen-year-old Ashling Campbell knows that’s not true because when she closes her eyes each night, she doesn’t dream about public nudity or prom dates. Instead, she's catapulted to the front row of her future self's execution - fifteen years from now - where monsters have taken control of her hometown and she, or rather, her 30-year-old counterpart, is their public enemy number one.

For three months and counting, it's been the same dream... until she hangs a dreamcatcher above her bed. Ash falls asleep to discover she's no longer a mere spectator in these dreams - now she's actually astral-projecting into the body of her future self. Each night, she goes on the run with a ragtag group of rebels - who have no idea she's really a high school sophomore and not their noble warrior. With the help of her best friend and a mysterious somnologist, Ash learns to manipulate her sleep through lucid dreaming. She has to make it through each night so that she can wake up and find a way to change the future. For every action she does in the present day, she falls asleep to discover it had an equal impact fifteen years later. It's up to her to manage her two worlds and make sure she's still got a place in both.

About the Author: Born and raised in the Midwest, Jen had to choose between staring at corn or reading books. Corn husks just didn't have the appeal of the Baby-Sitters Club, and so a bookworm was born. Reading later turned into writing and in 2011, Jen published her first novel with Camel Press. After releasing four books in the mystery genre, Jen finally gave in to the literary demands of her inner teenager with her YA debut, FIFTEEN (coming January 2015 from Curiosity Quills). 

Jen is an active member of the National Writers Union. When she isn't writing, Jen enjoys sci-fi in all its mediums, attempting yoga, using her passport, watching baseball, and reading a good book. She lives in Illinois with her husband Nathan under the tyranny of their three cats: Wrigley, Ivy and Captain Moo. To balance the feline:human ratio, they are expecting their first child in the early spring, who will probably be named after someone Joss Whedon has killed. 

Find Jen online: Website * Twitter * Facebook * Tumblr * Goodreads * Amazon