Season Vining – 2014 People to Watch

Occupation: Novelist
Hometown: Baton Rouge
Age: 36

On the roof of the Houma library at the Jambalaya Writers Conference last March, sipping wine served from book carts, Season Vining put her networking savvy to the test.

“I got liquid courage from the wine,” she jokes.

Vining was working as a designer for Lamar Advertising and writing any time she could get a free minute. By the time the annual writers’ conference, which gains steam each year, came around, she’d polished her novel, Beautiful Addictions. And she’d practiced how to pitch it to editors and agents.

Looking out over the lights of Houma, Vining managed to win over New York-based editor Rose Hilliard of St. Martin’s Press.

“She said, ‘I love it. I’m obsessed with it. We’re going to make you an offer,'” Vining recalls. “My brain was exploding.”

Vining ended up with an agent, a three-book deal and a $100,000 advance.

Beautiful Addictions will be released electronically in January. The paperback comes out in July.

“Just keep swimming.”

For more on Vining, visit seasonvining.com.