We've made it! It's the final post in my series on how I got an agent and book deal. Thanks for sticking with me. Now onto the exciting part!

My first offer of representation was via email from Hillary Jacobson at the incredible ICM Partners. She told me how much she loved my book and wanted to jump on a call to discuss representation. For over five years I’d been working towards this goal and I couldn’t believe I was this close to achieving it. I quickly wrote to Hillary and we organized a call a few hours later.

Like all terrifying and extremely exciting moments in life, the call was a blur. What I remember most is Hillary’s passion for my book. She said all the things I hoped an agent would say; she loved the world I’d built, the characters, the twists, and she’d read it all in one sitting! I was blown away by her enthusiasm. Also, my gut told me this was right. She was my agent.

Lesson fourteen: write down or record any important calls with agents and editors as you’re likely to forget everything after you hang up the phone!

I floated around my house in a daze before reality sunk in. Now I had to let the other agents who had my manuscript know I had an offer, which was over 30 people! I told Hillary I would need two weeks to decide due to my decision falling over the Thanksgiving break.

During these two incredibly stressful weeks, Hillary and I emailed back and forth and setup more calls for any further questions I had. It became clear that my gut reaction was correct, Hillary was the perfect agent for me. Still, it was a very strange position to be in, for the first time I was in control—somewhat—of my fate. And stranger still was having to decline offers from other amazing agents, who were just as passionate about my book and said the most wonderful things.

Lesson fifteen: having multiple offers is a very stressful, but exciting, situation to be in. Read all you can on the agents and agencies, listen to advice from other authors, but also listen to your gut. You’ll know what’s best for you. People talk often about landing their “dream agent”, but a dream agent is the one who loves your book and gets your vision. Your dream agent might be a new agent, like Hillary, who is a fast rising superstar!

Calling Hillary to let her know I'd decided to sign with her over my other offers was the most exciting call I’d ever made. And we wasted no time, jumping back into edits on FOUR DEAD QUEENS. Hillary notes were spot on and I revised my manuscript until it was ready for submission.

I’d heard time and time again that being on sub is a horrible experience, and while I can’t divulge many details about my process, it was a breeze with Hillary by my side. When I first read the list of editors Hillary planned to submit to, I teared up. These were editors who'd worked on some of my favorite YA novels and they were going to read my book! It was an incredible, overwhelming feeling. The next day, Hillary sent my manuscript out into the world and we prepared for what could be a long wait.

But I was lucky. In seven working days I had an offer!

Lesson sixteen: Hillary is a granter of wishes and a fairy godmother of publishing dreams.

I’d gotten into the (bad) habit of checking my phone around 5am, which is 3pm NY time. While I knew it was too soon to receive any editor responses, as authors are usually on sub for 1 month to a year, I couldn’t help but check. So I was half asleep when I read Hillary’s email saying Stacey Barney from at Penguin Random House loved my book and wanted to chat with me. I blinked a few times, making sure the words didn’t disappear. Could I still be dreaming? But the words remained. This was real!

I started shaking. Could this be an offer from a publishing house that I’d been waiting for? And it was Penguin - PENGUIN!!! The publisher of my favorite YA authors and a childhood favorite of mine. As my non-reading sister would later say, “Even I know Penguin!”

I had to wait an agonizingly long day before I could chat to Stacey. Stacey Barney is an senior editor at Putnam/Penguin books and has edited some incredible, bestselling YA books. I wondered if she could love my book as much as she did when she first read THE WRATH AND THE DAWN, OUR CHEMICAL HEARTS or THE READER?

Some of the wonderful books Stacey has edited

(source:

During our call, it became clear that Stacey was not only a huge fan of my book, incredibly passionate, but also super lovely. I could easily see us working together.

Two weeks later, I could hardly contain my excitement when I announced my two-book deal with Putnam/Penguin books, starting with FOUR DEAD QUEENS in Spring 2019, followed by an untitled sci fi/fantasy in 2020. I received such an amazing response from everyone, it's a day I'll never forget. Thank you for all your support!

The announcement as it appeared on

And that’s my story!

I’m not really into listing stats, as everyone’s journey is different, but my story is like many authors'—a story of never giving up. More importantly, my story is also about knowing when to give up. If I’d stuck with DREAM OF ME, I never would’ve written two superior books. If I’d never written FOUR DEAD QUEENS while waiting to hear back from agents on SEASONS OF STONE, I never would've been accepted into Pitch Wars. If I hadn't been in Pitch Wars, I might not have found Hillary. And there’s no doubt in my mind that if Hillary wasn't my agent then I wouldn’t have signed with Penguin Random House and have the wonderful Stacey Barney as my editor!

Lesson seventeen:

While this is the end of this particular blog series, it’s just the beginning for me as a published author. Soon I’ll begin revising FOUR DEAD QUEENS based on Stacey notes and I’ve also been working on the first draft of my untitled sci fi/fantasy, which will be released in 2020. It has a title, but I’m a too shy to share it. Yet…

If you want to continue following me on my publishing journey and be the first to hear about all the exciting milestones such as:

COVERS! SAMPLE CHAPTERS! ARCS! RELEASE DATES! BOOK LAUNCHES! BOOK TOURS! SWAG!

Then please subscribe to my .

Lastly, if you'd like to, please add FOUR DEAD QUEENS to your . Thank you!!!

FOUR DEAD QUEENS awaits you in 2019!

You're still with me? Great! Let's continue.

I should've been excited for my first Pitch Wars request, but instead I was filled with dread. I mistakenly thought the mentors made their decision on who to mentor based off the first chapter, query and a synopsis, which would have provided me with two more weeks to polish the manuscript before I had to send the full. But I was wrong. They wanted the full. Now.

Lesson ten: make sure you know a competition's rules before entering.

But FOUR DEAD QUEENS wasn’t ready! The beginning was fairly solid, but the rest wasn't near where I wanted it to be. The next morning, I had another request. Something was obviously resonating with the mentors and I didn’t want to waste this opportunity, so I revised all day Saturday and all day Sunday, late into the night, ready to send first thing Monday.

By Monday morning, I was a shaking mess. I hadn't had a decent night sleep in three days and the manuscript still wasn’t ready. I'd worked so intensely I was burning out, no longer spotting the mistakes and improving my prose. My eyes were glazing over and I was reading what I wanted to read, rather than what was written.

I needed to face the truth: I had to pull out of Pitch Wars. I contacted the mentors who’d requested my manuscript and let them know I wasn’t ready to submit. One replied quickly and was incredibly kind not to admonish me with, “Silly girl, didn’t you know the manuscript had to be complete before entering? Can't you read rule guidelines???” I wouldn’t have begrudged her if she had said that, for it was what I was saying to myself, over and over. I prepared to slink away into the night, my tail between my legs, when the second mentor replied with: “Do you think you could have it ready in a week?”

Of course I would've liked to do another round of revisions, but after a week, FOUR DEAD QUEENS was ready. I sent the full manuscript to the mentors who’d requested and prepared for the Pitch Wars announcement in a week.

Again I had that feeling. This is it. This is it.

This time, I told that little voice to be quiet. I’d learned my lesson and was taking this manuscript one step and a time. Being accepted into Pitch Wars would be amazing, but if I didn't get in then I would send the manuscript to a beta reader for feedback and revise some more. This was one path for my manuscript to take, and certainly not the end of the road.

But I got in!!! I couldn’t believe it, especially as I'd almost quit the competition. After so many rejections, it was the belief of one mentor which had kept me going. I owe her so much for my success in Pitch Wars. Thank you, thank you! (I hope you're reading this!)

Not only was I accepted into Pitch Wars but I got two amazing mentors, Mara Rutherford and Joan He as part of #TeamPusheen. Over the next two months, I brainstormed, revised and polished my manuscript thanks to my mentors' insightful notes. It was the kind of critique I’d craved for my previous manuscripts and FOUR DEAD QUEENS so much stronger because of it.*

#TeamPusheen forever!

It was Pitch Wars that I realized I would never give up on becoming an author. Even if FOUR DEAD QUEENS wouldn't land me an agent, I would write another manuscript, then another and another.

Lesson twelve: Don’t give up. If writing is part of who you are, then giving up will feel worse than all your rejections combined.

In November, I traveled to LA to go to Disneyland with my sister, Mum and niece for a girl’s trip. It was perfect timing as I’d finished my Pitch Wars revisions and the agent round was the same week, which meant I couldn't obsessively check my emails as I didn't have global roaming on my phone. It also meant any bad news would be buffered by Disney magic.

On November 4th, my pitch and sample went live on the Pitch Wars site. I spent the day at California Adventure, dressed in my Pusheen t-shirt for good luck, and tried not to fixate on whether I'd receive any agent requests. I forced myself to revel in the distraction of Disney, but a part of me wondered what my Pitch Wars fate would be.

At California Adventure in my Pusheen t-shirt

When I returned to the hotel that evening, I ran to my computer to check my Pitch Wars submission.

0 requests.

I told myself that was okay, I still had a few days for agents to read, and hopefully, request. Then I checked the Pitch Wars Facebook group and read that the submissions had only gone live 20 minutes ago. Mentees were just starting to receive requests! I flicked back over to my Pitch Wars page and there it was. My first request! I danced around the hotel, so happy to get one request. More than for myself, I was happy for my mentors as it showed their hard work had paid off.

Over the next few days, I received 22 agent requests. I couldn’t believe it! It was the most requests I’d ever received for a manuscript and having them come in all at once was overwhelming. Still, it didn't mean I'd receive an offer from an agent. I’d had full requests before and they'd all turned into rejections. I'd already learned this lesson, so I told myself to stay calm and not get too excited.

During the flight back to Australia, Brenda gave the go ahead to send off our manuscripts to the requesting agents. I'd read the email immediately after the airplane landed and couldn't think of anything else on the long car ride home. I'd taken the day off work so I could recover from jet lag and to focus on sending my submissions. What I didn't plan on was a visit to the hospital.

Lesson thirteen: don’t eat airplane scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Thanks to some dodgy eggs, I ended up with salmonella poisoning—don't worry, I'll leave out those details—and I was forced to wait a 24 hours before I could send out FOUR DEAD QUEENS. It felt like an eternity! Usually, it takes around 3 months to hear back from agents on fulls so I sat back and prepared myself for the long wait.

One week later, I had an offer.

That's it for this week! There's only one more post to go!

*Read more on my Pitch Wars experience here.

Last week I began the story of my publishing journey. Settle in folks, because we still have a ways to go…

At the end of 2014, I’d shelved my first complete manuscript, DREAM OF ME, and turned my attention to a significantly better manuscript, my YA fantasy, SEASONS OF STONE. But I wanted help this time, I wanted to fix any weak points before querying. I signed up for a weekly writing workshop with Nicole Hayes (an amazing YA author) to highlight the holes in my plot and any weaknesses in my prose. Nicole was honest and insightful and my manuscript improved dramatically.

The more I revised SEASONS OF STONE, the more I loved the characters and world I’d built. Armed with my list of agents from querying DREAM OF ME, I was ready. I broke the list into groups of 10 agents. The groups were a mix of “dream agents”, those I’d admired for a long time or represented my favorite books, along with agents at smaller agencies or newer agents. If I didn’t receive any requests in the first round of queries then I'd go back and rework my query letter.

But the responses were different this time around. After sending off my first batch of queries, I received multiple full requests, including a request from a top agent at a dream agency. I couldn’t help but feel a buzz deep in my bones.

This is it. This is it.

Lesson five: Requests are not offers. They're merely a request to see more of your work. It's difficult not to get your hopes up but staying levelheaded takes the sting out of rejections. A little.

My writing space plus helpful assistant.

Requests continued to come in as I sent out more queries, but then, so did the rejections. I continued querying for over a year and when I breached 100 rejections, I had to accept that SEASONS OF STONE wouldn’t be the book to sign me with an agent.

It was one of the hardest lessons to learn. I’d written what I thought was a great story, one I was sure YA readers would enjoy. I’d worked hard on it, revising and polishing for over a year and everyone who’d read it had enjoyed it. And I’d read countless YA fantasies over the years and could see how easily SEASONS OF STONE would slot in among them. But that was the problem. It was too similar to existing YA fantasies, a sentiment echoed by agents in my rejection letters.

Lesson six: it’s not enough to write a good book, you have to stand out from the crowd.

I needed to write something fresh. Unique. Surprising. But how could I write something different when there were so many YA books out there?

I’ve always had a vivid imagination and memorable dreams, which is what led to my first book, DREAM OF ME, and while that book failed to hook an agent, there was plenty of inspiration I could find in my dreams. One of which was the beginning to FOUR DEAD QUEENS.

Like many writers, I keep a notebook of random ideas that float through my head, scraps of concepts, snippets of inspiration and chunks of dialogue. With the writing on the wall for SEASONS OF STONE, I looked to my notebook for a new book idea. I’d give this whole publishing thing one more go, one more book, one more shot.*

Notebooks upon notebooks

Lesson seven: no ideas are ever wasted.

In the beginning of 2016 and I started with a nugget of an idea; a world without time where eras mixed together, forming a unique, but also divided, culture. But that was just the setting. What would this book be about? I’d always loved murder mysteries so I thought, why not combine both? I’d never read a YA fantasy murder mystery before, so that meant it was unique, right?

I’m a pantser, which means I don’t know what will happen in the story until I start writing—or typing. This leads to very messy, confusing and unfocused drafts. And yet, the first draft of FOUR DEAD QUEENS (called THE MURDER DISK at the time) was surprisingly focused with the main character’s voice formed clear in my mind.

And there were other voices. Four queens, four dead queens, which demanded their story be told. But I’d never written a multiple POV book before and I didn’t think I was a skilled enough writer. I decided to push away the self-doubt and write the book. Just to see what happens, I thought. No pressure.

Lesson eight: don’t listen to the negative voices in your head. But do listen to those other voices. The ones with a story to tell.

Around April, I began seeing posts about Pitch Wars on Twitter. I’d heard about the writing competition the year before, but I hadn’t been in the right place to participate. I'd received such useful feedback and critique through my workshop group with Nicole so the idea of winning a dedicated mentor appealed greatly. I wanted someone to pull my work apart. I wanted someone to help me get the manuscript to that next step, the step of signing with an agent.

The Pitch Wars' August deadline, if nothing else, provided motivation to complete FOUR DEAD QUEENS in time to query by the end of the year. And boy, was I motivated. I wrote, every night, every weekend, every spare moment. By August I was ready, kind of, to submit. I selected the mentors I thought would enjoy my book and sent a query letter and my first chapter. I didn’t think my chances of being accepted were very high; FOUR DEAD QUEENS was still extremely rough.

Half an hour after clicking send, I received my first full request.

Lesson nine: take chances. Don’t self reject!

That’s it for part two. Join me next week to hear what happened in Pitch Wars and how I signed with my agent!

*(A friend of mine scoffed at me when I said this, saying that I’d never give up. She was probably right...)

I’ve long dreamed of the day I could write this post. The day I could write the words:

My book is going to be published!!!

No, I'm not crying, there's something in my eye...

But it's been difficult to put fingers to the keyboard and actually write this. Perhaps it's because this moment, this declaration, means so much to me. It means my dreams have and are continuing to come true. How do I encapsulate that feeling? But I’m a writer, right? I should be able to do this.

Warning: this is going to be a long post.

To explain the gravity of this moment, I have to go back to the beginning. Cue flashback music...

At fourteen years old I decided I wanted to be published before I turned the ripe old age of eighteen. I'd wanted to be an author since I was five, so that seemed like a legitimate time-frame. I loved fantasy and science fiction and had read everything I could get my hands on from my school’s library, which wasn't much at the time - oh to be a teenager now! To the surprise of no one (expect me), eighteen came and went and I was not published. In fact, I never finished my amazing (note: terrible) portal sci fi, giving up after only three chapters.

Lesson one: writing a book is hard.

My first "novel" written at five years old

At university, I threw myself into achieving my other childhood dream: to work in animation and visual effects. I still wrote, I couldn't imagine not writing, but I didn't push myself to develop a story and complete it. I wasn’t dedicated, I waited for the moments to want to write rather than creating them.

But I achieved one of my goals. Two weeks after graduation, I started working as a 3D modeler and rigger on a children’s TV show called Erky Perky. It was cute and fun and I loved being a part of a creative team. Still, I couldn't deny that writing itch. In 2007, I tried my hand at creating a YA paranormal after reading Twilight (yes, I declare that without embarrassment.) I surpassed three chapters this time, writing around 11K words before giving up.

Lesson two: writing a book is really really hard.

2009 brought a sea change, and along with it, a wealth of creative ideas when I moved to Wellington, New Zealand to manage a department of artists at Weta Digital. I worked on James Cameron’s Avatar, Stephen Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin and District 9, among others. I’d never had less free time, working 6-7 day weeks. Yet, I was inspired. It was during this stint in New Zealand that I came up with the idea which would become my first complete manuscript, Dream of Me.

Running with Tintin at Weta Digital, NZ.

When I returned to Sydney to work on Happy Feet Two, I was determined to finish this novel. I signed up for courses at the Australia Writers’ Centre and wrote. All. The. Time. I wrote on the train to and from work, I scribbled ideas in my notebook at lunch and dinner, I sacrificed watching TV and wrote late into the evening, every evening. I lived and breathed my story. I had to find out what happened next. I didn’t know where the endless ideas were coming from, but I wasn’t about to let them pass by and planned to finish my manuscript as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, fate intervened. My health declined suddenly (most likely from working too hard) and my vision was severely impacted. I worried I’d never write again. During this time, I felt like half a person—perhaps less. It was terrible. I couldn't even read—the one thing which could bring joy even in the darkest moments.

A year and a half later, my health began to improve. It wasn’t a full recovery, but it was enough for me to start reading again, and then, writing. That lost part of me was returned and I was more determined than ever to be published.

Where's Astrid?

Over the next year, I attended every conference, festival, book launch, writing course, anything to feel closer to my dream. And while a few local Australian publishers showed interest in Dream of Me, I never received an offer. I was told numerous times by publishers that genre YA was a difficult sell in Australia, but not so much in the USA. I’d always wanted to be published in the States but knew how competitive it was. So I had to do the one thing I feared most.

Write a query letter. The process in the USA is different from Australia, where most authors approach publishers directly. In the USA, you must first sign with an agent and they approach publishers for you, which is fantastic, if you can manage to snag an agent. To grab an agents attention, you need to write a 250 word pitch. The query letter is an art in itself. An art I’d yet to master.

I wrote and rewrote about ten different versions of a query letter. Shortly after sending off my first round of queries, I received a request to read the full manuscript. The request was from an amazing agent at a dream agency so I was thrilled. Even though it ended up in a rejection, I was convinced another agent would snap it up.

Lesson three: just because one agent requests a manuscript, doesn’t mean another agent will. Like every form of art, taste is subjective and there are no certainties when playing the querying game, except rejection.

No matter how many times I revised,

Dream of Me was nothing more than a paperweight.

In November 2014, after receiving over 100 rejections and no subsequent requests, I decided to distract my sad self and participate in Nanowrimo where you write 50K words in a month, roughly the first draft of a novel. Over the month, I began to realize my new YA fantasy was already better than Dream of Me. And although I was months away, I couldn’t wait to query it. This would be the manuscript to land me an agent, I was sure of it!!!

Lesson four: I was wrong.

To be continued next week...

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Hello!

I've extracted myself from my writing cave to write a quick update on what's been happening over the last few months. It's been such a whirlwind! If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you'll already know I was chosen as a Pitch Wars 2016 finalist for my new manuscript, working title: THE MURDER DISK.

Pitch Wars is an amazing competition for authors hoping to be published. All you need to do is submit a query letter and the first chapter to 4 mentors (or 6 if you donate to the competition) of your choice. The participating mentors are either published/agented authors, editors, or industry interns who kindly offer their time to help polish your manuscript ready for agents.

Each year I've wanted to enter Pitch Wars but the timing wasn't right, and again this year I was hesitant as I felt my WIP wasn't ready, however, I couldn't give up the opportunity so I decided to take the risk and send my submission to 6 mentors - all who I would've been thrilled to work with. Half an hour after I submitted, I received my first full manuscript request, by the next morning I had another. Cue excited dance routine!

I ended up with 4 requests out of 6 submissions, which is the best response I've had in my querying experience. To say I was excited was an understatement. And so I waited and hoped and waited and hoped...

When I received the news I got into Pitch Wars, I flipped out. This book was so new, so fresh and there was so much still to do! But lucky for me, I have two mentors to help me through the next two months. My wonderful mentors are Joan He and Mara Rutherford of #TeamPusheen and we were prepared to battle!

I'm now half way through Pitch Wars revisions and it's been the most amazing experience. Not only have I connected with other authors aspiring to be published, but my book feels stronger and more fleshed out than I could have hoped for. My mentors are my rock, reassuring me whenever I have doubts and their revision notes and suggestions could not be more spot on!

Writing is such a solitary pursuit and it's often hard to explain why I devote so much of my time to friends and family—especially during the harder times of rejections. But for me, writing is a kind of therapy, which brings much joy, and to connect to others who feel the same has been a wonderful part of this experience. I'm so thankful to have been chosen to be a part of Pitch Wars 2016!

So what's next? Well, I'm currently waiting to hear back from my mentors on my revised manuscript and then I'll dive into more revisions for my 31st of October deadline. On the 5th of November, my pitch and the first 250 words will go up on the Pitch Wars website for participating agents to peruse. If they're intrigued—which I hope they will be!—they'll ask to read more.

While this is not my first rodeo, I'm hoping this will be the book to land me an agent!

Ever since I was a child, I've loved maps. They weren’t merely a tool for visualizing a fictional land, but something tactile to help transport me into the world I was reading about. The maps further connected me to the story, allowing me to imagine how I would traverse the environments myself. I mostly read adventure novels where kids would explore distant countries, different eras and far-off locales. The illustrated maps were my favourite part. I would study each and every detail carefully until the world felt as real as my own.

And often I would recreate the maps, so I could roll it into a scroll and carry it in my bag like a real adventurer. Below is a map I made around 8 years old based an Osborne Puzzle Adventure book. I honed my technique, including scrunching, ripping, burning edges and expertly spilling coffee so not to wash away the drawings.

During my travels over the years, I've collected every single guidebook or pamphlet if there was a map inside. My favourites were the Disney Park maps. And though the park doesn't tend to change significantly from year-to-year, I add to my collection upon each trip. For it seems, one can never have too many maps of the same park!

Disneyland's 50th anniversary map has pride of place in my home.

As I got older and began reading fantasy, I was thrilled to discover many included illustrations depicting the imaginary worlds. Many are undeniably works of art; such as the maps in the Grisha books by Leigh Bardugo (drawn by Keith Thompson). In fact, I’ve been known to buy a book simply due to the gorgeous map inside!

Reference: http://grishaverse.com/

The Grisha books are as wonderful as their stunning maps!

I dream of the day when I'm to open a book and find an intricate map designed around the worlds and words I've created, combining two of my passions: fantasy novels and maps.

Are you a collector? What are your prized trinkets? Please let me know in the comments.

The process of writing a book is different for all writers. Some begin with a character or a voice which begs to be written. But for me, it’s the whisper of a concept—either the idea of fictional world, or an impossible scenario my characters will find themselves in. And concepts never arrive full formed—how useful that would be!—but rather are fluid, morphing from one thought to another until something sticks. This process of brainstorming, or daydreaming, can take months before I put fingers to the keyboard, making it difficult to remember exactly when or where an idea first struck. But for my latest book, I remember the light bulb moment with great clarity. Around two years ago, my father and I were driving from Sydney to Melbourne when we passed a forest which had been destroyed by a bushfire. The gum trees were now black splinters against the blue sky, the earth turned gray, no life in sight. I couldn’t help but worry how many animals had lost their homes or perished in the fire. And the devastation looked so fresh; the black of the bark still ink-dark with no emerald buds of life to be seen. I was sure I could smell smoke as we drove by, but my dad informed me the bushfire had been years ago. I was shocked and saddened that the trees would never regrow—branding the incident onto the landscape for all time. This idea of a land striped of life sparked a story within me. A story which wouldn’t let go. And for the remainder of the trip, the concept unfolded in my mind. I began wondering what circumstances could’ve led to such a dry and desolate land. And, most importantly, how such a lifeless environment would impact a society forced to endure it. And so my YA fantasy was born!

Happy Halloween everyone! As you probably know, Halloween is one of my favourite times of year. Although I grew up in Australia, I spent some of my formative years in the USA, which is why I believe Halloween is a justified celebration. In the States, we’d visit a pumpkin farm and pick the perfect pumpkin, just like hunting for the perfect Christmas tree.

Halloween is slowly becoming a recognized holiday in Australia and this year Coles, Woolworths and Aldi all sold carving pumpkins. I couldn’t contain my excitement and bought a pumpkin two weeks before Halloween. Inspired by a visit to Disneyland, where designers carved into the pumpkin’s skin without breaking through to the middle, I decided to put my rusty carving skills to the test.

While I was happy with the results, this method wasn’t as easy as I’d thought! So yesterday I attempted my second jack-o'-lantern, armed with the knowledge from my first effort. I thought I’d document my process as many people asked how I made the first Disney castle jack-o'-lantern. So read on for tips! :)

Step one:

Find/create a stencil. I wanted to create Beauty and the Beast’s enchanted rose as it’s one of my favourite Disney films and the glass cloche would make for a perfect silhouette for the rose. Unfortunately, there weren’t any free stencils online so I had to make my own. I designed the below stencil in Photoshop from an image in the film:

Step two:

Cut out the stencil and stick it onto the pumpkin with hobby glue. Some sites recommend drawing the stencil on the pumpkin’s skin with a whiteboard pen, this seemed like it could wipe off too easily. Hobby glue sticks well to the skin without sticking too well.

Step three:

Time to cut off the top of the pumpkin! For this, I used my biggest knife, making sure to cut away from my hand. Note: make sure you cut on an angle so the top doesn’t fall back through.

Step four:

The messiest part! Scoop out all the gunk from the inside. I mostly used my hands and a small ladle. This takes time and feels completely gross but it’s quite fun. If you have kids, this is the part they’ll enjoy!

Step five:

Now onto the carving! Cut a section along the stencil with your smallest and sharpest knife. Create a small rectangle, making sure not to cut straight through the pumpkin skin—only around 3mm into the flesh. Next slide the knife under the skin. It will easily lift away, leaving some of the flesh underneath:

Step six:

Continue cutting and lifting small sections around the stencil. Don’t worry if it’s not all the same depth—as some will lift easier and deeper than other sections.

Step seven:

When you’re finished cutting around the stencil, use a sculpting tool to scrape at the exposed inner flesh to smooth it out .

Step eight:

Remove the stencil and make any final changes and additions. I added the outline of petals so the rose didn’t look like a large blob!

Step nine:

Pop in a candle. And voila! Your jack-o'-lantern is ready for prime position in your home.

Did you make a jack-o'-lantern this year? What did you carve? I'd love to see pictures!