Exciting super cool news!!

So you all know that Michelle Krys is my critique partner and general internet bff, and that she signed with Adriann Ranta recently? These are excellent things and good reasons why you should follow her blog, but on top of that, there's this from Publisher's Marketplace:

Michelle Krys's THE WITCH HUNTER'S BIBLE, in which a snarky sixteen-year-old cheerleader is forced into a centuries-old war between witches and sorcerers only to uncover the first of many dark truths about her life, to Wendy Loggia at Delacorte, in a good deal, in a two-book deal, by Adriann Ranta at Wolf Literary Services (World).

News like this calls for this:

I'm pretty certain Michelle won't mind if you visit her blog post about it. Or if you send large expensive gifts. Either is fine : D

The How I Got My Agent series: This week's guest post by Nick Cook.

It's time for the next installment of How I Got My Agent. This one's a little bit different, which I like. You know I'm a big advocate of the slush pile, but as Amy showed us earlier this month, it's not the only way to get an agent. I'll hand over to my Twitter friend Nick, to tell you how he did things a little bit differently, but got the result he wanted. Over to you, Nick!



My route to securing an agent was some time in the making and maybe not the standard journey (if there is such a thing) that most experience who succeed. 

In my former life I was the art director at a very successful games studio. The best thing about that job was working with such a talented creative team, but there was also a little voice inside me telling it was time to start getting serious about my writing. Eventually it got so loud there was no ignoring it any longer and one bright sunny autumn day in 2006, I walked out of my studio for the last time ready to pursue a full time writing career. I was fortunate that I had sufficient funds to finance that creative itch for some time without starving. So I started working in earnest.

A couple of drafts into my first book, like many who've been there in those early days, I was convinced my work was a masterpiece. I also happened to have a contact at Chicken House and within a short space of time became the proud recipient of a personal reject email (albeit a very nice and encouraging one) from Barry Cunningham no less. This was one of the best wake up calls I could have had... I realised I was just one of hundreds of manuscripts that had probably landed on his desk that week and had I really fully learned the craft to start putting my work out there yet? This needed a rethink on my part. 

I looked seriously at taking an MA in creative writing, even had an interview and was shortlisted but had left it too late for that academic year. So I sat down and considered what the priorities were for me... that mental conversation with myself took about a minute. What I obviously needed was an agent, but not just any agent, but a great agent of course. So the small matter of how that could become a reality started to occupy my mind... there had to be a way to avoid getting lost in the slush pile?

Having rifled through the Writers and Artists Yearbook a number of times and having filled it with coloured post-its identifying agents I would have sold a kidney to work with, I noticed one name appearing a number of time. It was a company that some agents took referrals from for new authors. That company was called Cornerstones. 

Cornerstones are a manuscript agency who will, for a fee, provide a detailed report on your manuscript. They also act as talents scouts for agents. This sounded perfect to me and so started a very rewarding collaboration with them. I paid for a report on my first book and it was a real eye opener, so much useful feedback identifying both strengths and weaknesses in my work. I was instantly hooked. I continued to work with Cornerstones and eventually although we both felt my first book showed real promise, the senior editor there, the wonderful Kathryn Price, told me she wasn't sure that it was necessarily the right book to launch my career with. This is where Cornerstones are brilliant. They look at your work holistically and in terms of whether a book is really the right one to establish you. Consequently, I took the tough decision to park the first book (actually three in the series by that point) with a mind to returning to it later on. In the meantime I had this new concept bubbling away and when I sent the first three chapters into Cornerstones, they were immediately excited by it. I was too. I could feel it was the right book, the one that would grab people's attention. It was at this point Cornerstones signed me, a real boost to my self confidence at the time (doubts inevitably start to creep in over a prolonged period). So began a period of intense writing and Kathryn pushing me to deliver my very best work. By December of 2011 we both agreed we had a draft ready to send out to agents. One month later I was signed with the totally wonderful Eve White... I couldn't have asked for a better agent. 

So there you have it. Lots of writing, false dawns and perseverance, combined with the guiding light to develop my writing that a manuscript agency can provide. I certainly feel I served a very rewarding writing apprenticeship working with Cornerstones. It's an alternative route to an agent, but a great one even if you just decide to get a report from them and nothing more. As a signed author Cornerstones take ten percent of my first advance as a fee. But for me this been earned times over. As you can probably tell, I can't recommend their services highly enough.

 You can follow Nick on Twitter and via his blog.

And lo, it was awesome.

 Now as some of you know, I've been working on Book The Third in between revisions on the book I got signed for (Yes, it would be easier if they had cool titles. No, they don't have cool titles.)

I even wrote a query and synopsis for Book The Third before I started it in an attempt to avoid previously experienced meandering and rubbishness in my writing. And then I started my lovely new book and wrote 19k words of it.

And then I stopped. Because Book The Third has no plot. A shocking oversight on my part, I know, but I really thought it had one when I started. I knew my characters; they had backstory (not in the book, of course), they had complex realtionships and problems and motivation. The setting? It was great. But plot? Yeah, MIA.

I'm not prepared to let go of Book The Third though. I'm happy to put it aside while I attempt to come up with a plot to go with the great setting and the great characters, but can I actually ditch it? Not finish something I started? (This would be a writing precedent for me.) I don't know.

While I was considering whether abandoning my work made me a big loser or just a pragmatic writer, I had a NEW IDEA. A fully-formed, packed with plot idea that had great characters to boot. I wrote said shiny and exciting idea down and asked my critique partner Michelle Krys what she thought of it and what I should do whilst I pithered and prevaricated about ditching Book The Third.

And here's why I love Michelle >

OMG! I F***ING LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't read (Book The Third) yet but I can already tell you that you need to write this. NOW! I want to read it now so I can tell you that you'd have a best-seller on your hands. Please write it now??

Somewhat bolstered by the amount of exclamation marks, I wrote a synopsis.

And lo, it was awesome (even if I do say so myself.)

I fully intend to start Book The Fourth this week. But Book The Third is looking at me balefully, forlornly, plotlessly. And I'm feeling like it might look at me like that until I finish it.  

So my question is this - have you ever set a work aside? Did you go back to it afterwards?

A selection of books that are cool and you should really read.

The number of books I read in 2011 was, frankly, pitiful. I've never actually kept track of numbers before, but in April I joined Goodreads (which if you don't know about is a website you can use to berate yourself for how few books you can remember having read. You can also create a virtual to-be-read pile which will become insurmountable and make you feel inadequate. I think that's what it's for anyway.) Here's my profile. You can friend me as long as you don't look at said pitiful record in 2011.

I'm already doing A LOT better in 2012, which is because I'm on a huge YA fest of brilliance, and because - as I might have mentioned before - I heart my Kindle. And when I read great books, I feel the need to make YOU read great books too. So here's a quick visual of four books you should go and get right now and read immediately.





Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins


I think I love it more than The Hunger Games. Mockingjay purchased immediately upon finishing. If you're one of the three remaining people on the planet who hasn't read this trilogy now that I have, then you really need to do something about it.


Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins


Totally blown away by this series. Just LOVED it!







Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma


Reading this hurt my heart. 5 stars, just...5 stars.

Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson


Incredibly readable, interesting, intriguing, other stuff beginning with 'i'. Very much a page-turner. I'm the world's slowest reader and this took me three days. Loved it!





Right now I'm looking for YA sci-fi or ghost stories to read. Any recommendations? Or have you read something else that you think I should read RIGHT NOW or I will fail to be a complete human being? Give me the best YA book you've read this year so far. 

The How I Got My Agent series: This week's guest post by Natalie Parker.

This week's post is from a fellow Greenhouser from across the pond, one of Sarah Davies' clients : ) Over to you, Natalie!

I began my pursuit of the elusive agent in high school. Only, it wasn’t much of a pursuit. It was more like a half-hearted gesture in their general direction.

It went like this:

I wrote something.

I called it a book.

So did my mother.

And so I printed it out and mailed it off to one or two agents (I honestly don’t remember how many) along with my Hopes and Dreams of becoming an Author. It didn’t take long to receive rejections (I only clearly remember one) and that was the end of that. I set novel-writing aside and instead went to college, which later became grad school, which then became a career.

Basically, my creative self was off sitting in a corner tapping her toe, occasionally calling me names and making frustrated gestures (possibly, some of them were obscene).

So! I decided she needed some exercise and with the support of my partner, I began to carve out time here and there for things like writing and playing my cello and hoarding nail polish. Each of these was satisfying to Creative Natalie P, but writing quickly rose to the surface taking precedence over all other endeavors.

By the early months of 2010, I’d written something that was vaguely book-shaped. It had all the right pieces in all the right places and I was resoundingly proud of it. I handed it over to a few readers (oblivious to the duct tape holding key pieces together, the persistent droop in the narrative arc – it was positively replete with mediocrity) and felt relatively sure it would blow their minds. 

It did not.

They both returned the vaguely book-shaped manuscript to me with the same words: “This is really good, but you can do better. Put it down and write another.”

I never queried that project. Not even once.

In an instant, I went from Ready to Query to Starting from Scratch. And that very day, I started brainstorming a very different project. Creative Natalie P wasn’t feeling defeated, as I’d expected she would, but anxious and inspired. In fact, there was a certain amount of glee involved in shutting the drawer on that novel and opening a blank document. Much as I loved that first novel, I knew my next one would only be better, and I wanted to be better just as much as I wanted an agent.

The new project took a fair bit of time – nearly a year. I was still balancing full-time work with learning this craft and other daily adventure sorts of affairs. I drafted and redrafted and re-redrafted until once again I was certain I had something that would blow minds.

This time when I handed it over to readers, it looked much more solid. It had all the bookly pieces in all the right places and I could see they fit together really, really well. And my readers agreed. It blew their minds….but still we went through rounds and round of revision until finally (FINALLY!) they called it ready.

And it was.

I sent queries to my top seven agents. Six requested the full, and four offered representation.

Three weeks after sending those queries, I made an utterly terrifying, utterly exhilarating choice and signed with my agent (who, for what it’s worth, pulled me from the slush).

When I think back on it, I am so, so glad that I had readers who were willing to tell me I could do better. Listening to them was hard. I was anxious to move onto the next step. I wanted to believe that first manuscript was it. But I’m so glad that I waited.

So, I think if I were going to boil all of this down into a piece of advice about finding an agent of your very own, it would be this: Take your time.


Natalie's blog and twitter!

It's competition time!

This competition is now closed. Thanks for taking part. Next month's will be something different again :)


It's time for February's crit round because I <3 ripping your work to shreds helping you out with my sage advice and whatnot.

This one's going to be a beta-reading-of-your-ms competition and it will work a little differently to the others that I've held.

1) This is for YA writers only. It can be any genre, but this month is all about the YA, so no adult or MG entries on this one please.

2) You need to be a follower of this blog for this one. I don't normally insist on this, and I may not in the future, but the rules are a little different this month!

3) All you need to do is put your name, the name of your ms and your email address below and I'll beta read the first 500 hundred words of your YA ms. If you bring a friend to the party, ie you tell another YA writer about the competition and they join this blog, then you get a 1000 word beta read. All you need to do is put their name in the comments section to tell me they joined because of you : ) If you bring two friends, I'll do 1500 words for you.  If said friends/new followers want to enter this month's contest, then that's great - they need to follow these rules too : )

If you won one of my other competitions in the last three months, then please let someone else take the slot, because I won't choose you! Otherwise, go ahead : )

Ok, that's it. I'm not going to do the usual 'I'll get it back to you in a week' thing because I don't know how many words I'm going to be critting and I like to be really shreddy thorough.

Good luck!

The How I Got My Agent stories: This week's guest post by Amy Christine Parker.

How I Signed With My Agent Lucienne Diver

First and foremost, thank you, Ruth, for allowing me to tell my story. My husband thanks you too since he is sick to death of me recounting everything for the one hundredth time. And it’s probably a little sad that the kids can recite the story by heart…

So, where to start? I guess at the very beginning is best. I didn’t start writing seriously until about two and half years ago.  I think that I only began to wonder what it would be like to write when I began telling my children stories that I made up every night at bedtime. I was carrying on a family tradition since my grandfather used to tell stories to me this way. In the back of my mind I think I always wondered secretly what it might be like to write full time and to be published, but I never saw it as practical and so never allowed it to become something I seriously pursued. But once I thought about it I knew that I was at the perfect stage of life to try. I didn’t have a full time job other than being a mother  (which, let’s face it, IS a full time job, but what I mean is I didn’t have a paying one so no one had expectations of me earning anything right then) and I had some free time during naps and late at night. If ever there was a time to make a go of it, this was it.

And so I just decided to dive in, like sky diving without a parachute kind of diving in. I had an idea for a novel and I just went with it even though I’d never written anything longer than a term paper in my life. After a year and a half, I had a finished manuscript. Not a sellable one, mind you, but a complete story. I did query it, but only briefly and mostly just to see how the process worked. Deep down I knew it was not really publishable; it was my college so to speak. But by now other novel ideas were coming fast and furious and I had one in particular that I thought could be really good…provided I had the chops to write it the way it deserved to be written.  I got busy on it, writing and rewriting in radical ways until I was satisfied that I had done my best.

Now, the one thing that made my journey unique is that at a local writer’s group (one I started and hosted when I couldn’t find one for novelists), I met an agent, Lucienne Diver. She lived nearby and knew someone who attended the group and just decided to check it out one night. Over time I emailed her here and there and commented on her blog whenever something resonated with me. She came to group some months later once again and very slowly we got to know each other. She is a young adult author herself (The Vamped Series, the latest, Fangtastic came out in January) and so we bonded as fellow writers. I told her about what I was working on and when she heard the general pitch, she asked to consider it.

Now fast forward to this November, when I finished my manuscript. Lucienne had reiterated her wish to look at it and I was ready to take her up on it. I queried her first and exclusively. She had taken an interest in me as a writer long before she needed to and I felt that she should be able to look at it before anyone else.  And if I was lucky enough and she was interested? I would sign immediately. I liked the idea of signing with someone I knew personally, someone who I already really liked. She read my manuscript on Friday the 13^th in January (very appropriate since it’s about a girl in an apocalyptic cult and the end of the world) and she offered representation the very next day. I signed officially two days later. And the rest is shall we say…in the works! 

So there you have it, my story in a very large nutshell. Hmmm, that was so much fun I think maybe I might need to tell it all over again. Honey? Kids? Are you there? Anyone???

You and Mr P are very welcome Amy! I'll even forgive that you broke the run of slushpile success tales because that's such a cool story, and in some ways similar to my own (at least the writing the books part, if not the meeting-your-agent-in-person bit.)

You can stalk find Amy's website here and twitter here.

Competition time!

This competition isn't one of mine, (although I'm holding one VERY soon) this is one run by my lovely writerly friend Gemma Cooper, Literary Agent at The Bright Literary Agency.

Here's the link to the blog launch and competition. And check out those prizes!

What do you have to do?

Just tell us in the comments what types of things you would like to see on our blog - what sorts of posts are going to be helpful?

There are two prizes:

Commenter prize - One random commenter will win a first chapter critique or critique of a full picture book.

Follower Prize - One random follower will win a critique.

• If we get 50 followers by the end of the contest, you will win a one chapter/one picture book critique.
• If we get 100 followers by the end of the contest, you will win a two chapter/two picture book critique!
• And if we get over 150 followers you will get a three chapter/three picture book critique!! 

All critiques will be done by Gemma Cooper, Literary Agent. Winners to be decided by random number generator. Competition closes on 21^st February 2012.

(The above is taken straight from The Bright Literary Agency blog, so you need to click on the link and do your commenting over there! Although you're most welcome to leave me comments too, you won't win anything from me - not just yet anyway : ) )

Good luck!

The How I Got My Agent stories: This week's guest post by Kimberly Welchons.

Ok, so it's only slightly later in the same week, but I love these stories, I have more to schedule, and I want to do another beta reading contest this month too. So this slightly-later-in-the-week's guest post on How I Got My Agent is here today, and it's by another of my new writerly friends, Kimberly Welchons.

I think she's the one on the left, but don't quote me

My “How I Got My Agent Story” is terribly exciting and full of unicorns, dragons, and mortal danger. Okay, okay, there weren't any unicorns.

About this time last year I was in New York at the Writer's Digest Conference where I could take part in a Pitch Slam, which was described as speed dating with agents. That was a lie. It was more like "Stand in line in 4 inch heels and a pencil skirt and listen to some guy talk about how his trip to Peru changed his life because that's where he first met the aliens" with agents. This was also where I met a group of girls who like changed my life dude (which is the best thing about conferences).
I pitched to a handful of agents and they all requested my material. Which wasn't done. Oops.
I went back to California and wrote like a mad woman. See, if I have deadlines I can do some incredible stuff. If I don't, I spend all day watching Daniel Radcliffe interviews. I finished and immediately sent it to my critique partners, their major consensus being "Why GOD is this in present tense?"

I had my reasons.
I sent it out.
I got rejections from every agent that requested it at the Pitch Slam.

FINE. I spent two weeks changing every single verb. My friend Michelle went through and read every singly verb. I got to the point where I couldn't figure out if the word 'cut' was in present tense or past (it's both). I also did some other fixing and trimming, things I had missed because I was trying to get it out before the Pitch Slam agents forgot about me. In reality, the manuscript I had rushed to get out wasn’t my best work and I hurt myself because of it. This is the part of the story where I stress taking your time, letting your book breathe, and letting yourself breathe. Also, listen to your critique partners.

Then I sent it out again in small bits. I spent a lot of time on my query letter, making sure the tone of the book really came through in each line, even in my bio.
A few weeks later I got an email from an agent who had pulled me out of the slush pile and wanted to talk. I was in a coffee shop that I go to because it's full of screenwriters and I like to gloat that my prose makes me a real writer to them. We all danced around.
30 minutes later I got an email from another agent who also wanted to talk. The screenwriters glared at me for being so noisy.

I talked to both of them, talked to their clients, emailed and asked questions. I even made a little excel sheet with their answers. They both had very, very different visions for my manuscript. I debated endlessly over sangria, did some research, and found childhood pictures of both agents (beware my googling ability). Everything about them was so different, and it was an incredibly tough choice.

What it ultimately came down to were the revision notes. I knew I wanted someone who was more editorial, who would dig her heels into a work and get it in the best possible shape before submitting to publishers. My book is much stronger with Meredith’s notes, and I’m glad I took the time to do the work with her.

So that’s how I signed with Meredith Kaffel at Charlotte Sheedy Literary. Not from a conference, from a pitch slam, or even in an elevator, but from good ol’ fashioned slush. It happens people!





More evidence that the slush pile works! All four of the stories featured so far on my blog - including mine - have been about success from the slush pile. I like what that says about your chances, don't you?

Here's where you can follow Kimberly's blog and tweets which you'll be wanting to do because she's nice. And funny.

The How I Got My Agent stories: This week's guest post by Stephanie Winkelhake.

This week's story comes from a new writerly friend of mine, the lovely Stephanie Winkelhake, so I'll hand over to her!

My aspirations to become a writer began when—as a kid—I attended my father’s book signings. He’d published a novel with an imprint of Random House, and I’ll never forget the amazing feeling of walking into a bookstore and finding my father’s book on the shelves.

My first attempt at writing a novel happened the summer of 2007. It was a young adult adventure story about oracles, magic, and treasure, and it was wrought with all sorts of POV and plot problems. So I had a lot to learn. That was okay. The important thing was that I’d completed a novel. And finishing a novel is like finishing a marathon, right? Once your mind wraps around the fact that you can do it once, you can do it again. (Or so I’ve been told. I’ve never actually run a marathon. I’ve just heard these things.)

I decided my next manuscript would be great. In 2009, I sat down and hammered out a YA dystopian. There was action! There was romance! There was…a lot of info dumping and poor character development. A few agents read it, but of course, there were no bites. But good things came of this experience—I learned more about queries, synopses, and submissions. I learned about the ups and downs of requests and rejections and how to handle them. Eventually, I also learned to let go of a manuscript I had believed in, and I knew that if I wanted to continue toward my goals, I’d have to work harder.

So at this point, I needed to step it up. I bought books about self-editing. I devoured YA novels like crazy. When I finished my third manuscript, I reached out and found beta readers. I joined an online writing community (YALitChat) since there wasn’t a local writing group in my area. I entered contests (there are plenty of free pitch and/or critique contests on online blogs). I joined RWA and entered some of their local chapter contests. As a result, I received a lot of great critique advice I could apply to the rest of my manuscript.

When I started querying for my latest project, I was lucky and managed to get a few requests from agents right off the bat. After several rejections on my full, I paused to re-examine the story. Based on critique feedback, I reworked the pacing in several parts and rewrote a few sections. I started querying again, and then I was encouraged when the next agent to reject my full had good things to say about my writing. She had liked my writing and my manuscript. She just didn’t fall in love with it. It was the best rejection I’d ever received.

Shortly after this, I placed first in a few contests. I added the wins to my query letter and around Thanksgiving, a new slew of requests came in. Marie Lamba of The Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency was one of the requesting agents.

It was about this time when I realized I’d reached a turning point—I finally felt confident when it came to my writing. It was as if a light switched on inside of me, and I can’t tell you how happy I was to be in this place. And bonus, I found another YA writer in my local community (she’s now my critique partner). We started hanging out, and it was so nice to bounce things off someone who understood things my non-writerly friends might not.

And then, I got THE CALL.

On Jan 2^nd, Marie called me out of the blue. I’d slept in that day (we’d driven 16 hours the day prior) and I missed her call. Yup, I missed THE CALL. Marie had left a message saying she’d call back later in the day. So I gnawed on my fingernails for a few hours. The phone rang again that afternoon…and Marie offered representation!

I can’t say I was coherent.

I immediately emailed the other agents who had a partial or full of my manuscript. I told them I’d make a decision on the offer by Jan 9^th. Then I waited. In the meantime, I woke up every morning thinking THE CALL had just been a dream. I must have pinched myself over a hundred times that week.

Halfway through the week, I called Marie with a list of specific questions. By the end of the phone call, I was confident Marie and I shared the same vision for my manuscript. Without a doubt, I knew she was the right agent for me.

So on Jan 9^th, I picked up the phone and accepted Marie’s offer. A few days later, I signed the contract. I’m still walking around with a silly grin on my face!

Thanks for gracing my blog with your great story Stephanie!

You can follow the rest of Stephanie's story over on her blog and follow her on twitter here. You should probably go and do that now. 

New mini-series: The How I Got My Agent stories. This week's guest post by Michelle Krys.

Everybody loves a How-I-Got-My-Agent story - at least I assume they do, because I know I do. I'm thrilled that the first guest post in this mini-series is by my lovely crit partner and all-round internet bff, Michelle Krys!

So, you want to know how I got my agent?

Short answer: The old-fashioned way. Via the slush pile. 

Long answer: I’d like to take you all back to January 8^th, 1985. I was born naked and helpless…okay, maybe let’s skip a few years. In January 2010, I had a baby (a wonderful, magnificent, sweet baby named Ben). He slept through the night from under 3 months old, in addition to napping 3-plus hours in the day. Being on maternity leave, I had an AWFUL lot of free time on my hands that I was COMPLETELY not used to having (a year—I live in Canada). So naturally, instead of relaxing, I decided to write a book—something I’ve always wanted to do, but had been too intimidated to try. 

In 3 months time, I wrote a book.  I joined a website, Writersbeat.com, where I met my internet bestie/crit partner, whom you all know as Ruth Lauren Steven. After an initial major bitch moment from me (which we shall not discuss!), Ruth and I began exchanging critiques and became fast friends. We moved on to another website, Scribophile.com, where I met a ton of amazing friends who were, in addition to Ruth, completely invaluable in honing my writing. This book needed the rest of the year to edit, as it was sucky. Boring and sucky and will never see the light of day. But I learned a lot.

After this book I began another, which I gave up after a whopping 26,000 words because I had AN IDEA. An idea for a YA Urban Fantasy that I couldn’t ignore. I needed to write it—now. So I did—3 months later, my 81,000-word book was complete. And it needed less than a week of editing until I felt ready to start querying. I felt confident! I loved the book and my query letter felt strong. I knew this was going to be IT. Then the rejections started rolling in. After the first 15, I was starting to feel pretty dejected. I know 15 is not that much in the bigger picture, but 15 in a row after I’d felt so confident? Well let’s just say my confidence waned. But then I got a partial. From a major agent. The next day, another partial from a major agent. A few weeks later, the first partial-requester wanted the full. I almost died! That meant she read the first 50 pages plus synopsis and liked it. My book??!! A huge happy moment for me. But it wasn’t the first. Over the next few weeks, the full requests started rolling in. Six in total (Nine if you count the 3 requests I got after I’d already landed my agent!)

Then came the holidays, when all of the literary world shuts down from December 23^rd to January 3^rd. This was a dark time. There was a lot of internet stalking involved, which I’m not proud of. Then came January 11^th. I got a reply from one of those agents. She’d just finished reading the book…and completely loved it! She wanted to set up a time to talk on the phone. AHHHHHHH!! She called the next day and offered me representation (in addition to giving me a HUGE ego boost with all her compliments about the book). My initial reaction was to say “YES! WHERE DO I SIGN? MWUHAHAHAH I’VE GOT YOU NOW!” But there were other agents who had my full. In order to be professional, I needed to give them the courtesy of replying to my manuscript.  I alerted the other agents, and holy crap, several of them were interested, too! But in the end, it was the first agent’s major enthusiasm and extreme likability that sold me. So now I’m repped by Adriann Ranta at Wolf Literary. Woohoo!!

Hey, it's me, Ruth, again. Isn't that a cool story? But never mind the amazing sleeping baby (not jealous of that. No, not at all) or the fact that said first book was neither boring nor sucky; no, let's dwell on the little moment that we shouldn't discuss, just briefly. In fact, oh, what's this I have here? A blog post on it, you say? Well, if you insist : D Post in which I recount the nature of Michelle and Ruth's first encounter

Right, now that Michelle may never forgive me, who needs a crit partner?? I kid : D 

I couldn't be happier that you're all going to get to read Michelle's books, and I can confirm that she likes a stalker almost as much as I do, so here's her blog and right here is twitter

Thanks for sharing that with us Michelle!

Help a writer polish their query please?

Remember the Query Crit Contest? Well when I contacted the owners of the queries I was going to crit, I told them I'd also post the query up on my blog and throw the critique out to all of you if they'd like me to.

A couple of days ago I sent Laura the crit I did. She revised her query and sent it back to me, and...it's looking good!

So now Laura and I would LOVE to get your opinion on the new version.

Be kind.

Be constructive.

You don't need to be an expert to have an opinion. And don't be a stranger to the tweet button at the bottom of this post - we want this thing so polished no agent out there can resist!

Dear Agent,

 

Farrah knows she is not human even if she looks it. She is a biologically manufactured soldier, who, by the age of seventeen has killed several people, knows how to drive a tank and could effortlessly outrun a grown man. Farrah also knows she's not supposed to have emotions or think for herself, and yet she does.

  

Having escaped the grey and bloodred life at Ares Industries Farrah hides in the small town of Riverfront, where she finds herself an ally in Sage Foster, a young astronomer. Even with her new identity as Sage’s stepsister, keeping a low profile isn’t easy.  After all, putting a bullet in someone’s head is not a solution at the local high school.

Slowly, and with the help of three friends and a boy who might understand her better than anyone else, she learns there's more to being human than acting like one. But Farrah can’t concentrate on becoming normal when operatives from Ares Industries, who want their expensive project back, are closing in on her. Having touched many lives, Farrah has more to keep safe than her identity and her newly discovered freedom.

 

BEING HUMAN is an urban science fiction novel for young adults, complete at 78,000 words. It is well able to stand alone but has series potential.

 

Thank you for your time and consideration.

 

Sincerely,

 

Laura Fey

 

 

 

Winners of the Query Crit Contest : D

I just realised that I'm pretty fascinated by the query letter as a form of writing. I don't know who thought of it in the specific form it takes right now, but whereas I used to think of that person/those people as masters of torture and cruelty, beings possibly formed from the tiny remaining particles of Sauron, I now suspect that the QUERY is genius.

Of course that's not to say I haven't indulged in my share of wailing and rending garments over the ones I've written; but that didn't stop me writing one before I even started any kind of detailed thought about Book #3. No need to rub your eyes, you read that right - I wrote one just 'cos. I didn't need it. It may never see light of day. But what it has done is make me focus on what I want Book #3 to be about, right at its core. How I'm going to go about writing that book is a different matter for a different day - the point is that the query isn't there to torture you (stop narrowing your eyes, I can see you doing it.)

Maybe, instead, it's your opportunity to show that you know how to write, no matter what anyone asks/needs you to write. Maybe it's your chance to show how well you know your story, how thoroughly you understand what your characters choices are and how you can make someone else understand that in less than two hundred and fifty words because you're good enough to do that. (Even if, like me, you write seven million and forty three drafts before you come up with a query you think might fly.)

You already wrote 50k words, or 150k words to finish your novel. What's another 250, right?

So now that I've lured you into reading my mini-ramble, here are the queries I'm going to read and crit. Emails on the way to:


Laura Fey - Being Human

Boo Irwin - Tattooing Angels


and let's make it three because, well, why not?


Matthew Turner - Beyond Parallel


Thanks to all for entering! February's crit round will be another beta reading and March might hold a return to the queries, so check back, join in, tell Twitter or...the whole world, you know, whatever you feel like :)  

Catching Fire. I loved it and must proclaim it to you!

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think I love it more than The Hunger Games. Mockingjay purchased immediately upon finishing, but I'm holding that one back as a treat (punishment?) Either way, I'm reading it soon.

If by some small chance you have been living in an underground bunker for some time (like me) and haven't yet read this trilogy, then firstly go and see a hairdresser (seriously, look at the state of you) and then go forth and buy this.

New Year Query crit contest!

 This contest is now closed! Winners announced above : )


So, as promised, here it is! Wanna win a query crit from me? See the little gift tag on the present there? It's got your name on it. Well, maybe.

New year, new set of rules for this one.

Firstly, I'm going to open it up for the whole week.

Secondly, you must have the query down to 300 words or less all by your lonesome, or with help from voodoo rituals. Your choice.

This is my little New Year pressy to you, so that's it for rules. 

All you need to do to enter is put your name, the name and genre of your ms and your email address in the comments section below.  I'll choose a winner, or maybe two, from the list and critique the hell out of your query.

And like my other contest, I'm not going to insist you follow my blog to enter, but it's appreciated if you do. I'm not going to insist that you tweet about it either, but it's cool if you do.


Good luck to all, and Happy New Year to my lovely followers. I'll close the contest after one week and choose a winner or three :D Plus I'll get your query back to you within a week. It's all good, right?

Oh! Available for pre-order! Yes, I think I will. Thanks very much.

I AM going to post Part 2 of the agent story, I promise. But in the meantime, you need to know this:

Amaleen Ison's debut YA novella The Trouble with Nightingale is available for pre-order right now from Musa Publishing

You should really go and buy it immediately. I'll wait while you do.