My young adult contemporary Sleeping Around is one of the 25 semifinalists in the Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize! 
To even make it this far in the competition is an honor–and an inspiration for me to keep working on my next book. (I’ll let you in on a secret. It’s a companion novel following one of the secondary characters in Sleeping Around!)
As my main character Corey would say, keep your fingers crossed for me!
About the BookLife Prize
The BookLife Prize is an annual writing competition in two Contests (Fiction and Nonfiction) sponsored by BookLife and Publishers Weekly. The Prize seeks to support independent authors and discover great written works in nine categories across the two Sections. The categories in the Fiction Contest are: Romance/Erotica; Mystery/Thriller; Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror; General Fiction; and Middle-Grade & YA Fiction. The categories in the Nonfiction Contest are: Memoir/Autobiography; Self-Help; Inspirational/Spiritual; and Business/Personal Finance. The Prize is judged by PW reviewers, editors, acclaimed authors, and publishing veterans, and awards are given to finalists in each Contest’s categories, with a grand cash prize of $5,000 going to the most outstanding finalist in each Contest.
About My Book
Sleeping Around follows teen violinist Coralee (Corey) Reed who hopes to leave her foster care baggage behind at college. Instead, she starts sleeping around campus—from air mattresses to random couches—after a roommate nightmare.
Foster care always promised her a bed. Now she doesn’t even have that.Â
Coralee (Corey) Reed can’t wait to trade her current foster house for Harmony Hall, the dorm for music majors. Corey arrives at Borns College with her pawn-shop violin and a borrowed duffle bag, ready to leave her foster care baggage behind.
But Corey’s first day on campus starts on a sour note. She runs into her arch-nemesis-violinist Dylan Mason, then her name’s not on the dorm’s roster. Worst of all, Corey can’t live at Harmony Hall. Period. Because she’s not yet accepted into the music program. Instead, Reslife shoves her into a temporary triple with two unsuspecting (and beyond different) roommates.Â
When one of her roommates does the unforgivable, Corey starts sleeping around campus—from air mattresses to random couches—while waiting for an open room. But how can she beat Dylan for first chair if she can’t keep her eyes open? How can she pass her finals without a good night’s sleep? Will college, the place she thought would launch her dreams of becoming a professional violinist, be the place her dreams end all too soon?
Morgan Vega 