Welcome to My Official Web Page!

Welcome to My Official Web Page!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

If I Could Go Back and Not Shoot Myself in the Foot...

I made a lot of mistakes when querying my first book. We're talking Mt. Everest-during-monsoon-season sized mistakes.

Go big, or go home, right?

Of course, if you'd asked me at the time, I would have assured you I knew precisely what I was doing. Because I'm always right. (If you don't believe me, just ask my husband).

So here's some unwanted, unasked-for advice so none of you have to climb up Everest during monsoon season, with altitude sickness.


1. "Genius is eternal patience." -Michelangelo

(I'm going to ignore the fact that this quote sounds terribly pretentious, even if it does come from Michelangelo).

I am neither a genius, nor patient. In order to keep from rocking back and forth with an apron over my head while querying, I felt the need to send out oodles and oodles of queries.

(Imagine the scene in Harry Potter where Privet Drive is inundated with owls and you'd be pretty close).

I tore through my list of agents in record time. This was not a good situation to be in when I'd finally gotten the book in agent-ready shape.

Oops.

2. Find beta readers who write your genre (or at least read it).

Seems obvious, but I had a number of beta readers who wrote MG, YA, or fantasy. They were all amazing writers, but I ended up taking some advice that was the opposite of what I should have done for historical fiction.

Case in point: a MG writer suggested I scale back all the world-building details because they dragged down the story. True for a MG book, but those details were critical for adult historical fiction. But I slaughtered all of them mercilessly.

Oops.

3. Find critiquers who are MUCH better writers than you.

I had numerous requests from agents, but they all came back with the same comment:

"I just didn't fall in love with the writing."

*stabs eyeballs with forks*

It wasn't until I had a published author, and then an agent, slash every word I'd written that I realized how un-wonderful I was. I owe those two humans an arm and a leg, and my first-born child. (Fortunately for them, I can't send any of those items FedEx).

I ended up re-writing my book (amidst much whining and chocolate pretzels) before receiving my first offer from an agent. (I didn't accept the offer, but that's a story for another post). The point is, I really needed an expert (or in my case, two--I'm a stubborn nut) to ream my book up one side and down the other before I could see what was wrong with it. By then, it was almost too late.

Oops.



Fortunately, my story has a happy ending. I set aside Book #1, wrote Book #2, landed a fabulous agent, and am now working on Book #1 for what I hope will be the last time for the foreseeable future.

So let's all laugh at ourselves today. What mistakes have you made while trying to get published? (And if you'd rather not share, feel free to make fun of me instead).

Monday, February 13, 2012

Origins: Being Hatshepsut



My writing origins started probably ten years ago when I discovered Ancient Sites, an ancient history role play website. People would make up a character from ancient history, real or fictional, and then write short fiction and interact with other writers.

I loved it.

I especially loved it when I auditioned and landed the role of Hatshepsut. (Woohoo!) Unfortunately, Ancient Sites didn't last long, but many of the writers created a new site that's still around, PanHistoria. I wrote all sorts of characters, but couldn't get the rest of Hatshepsut's story out of my mind. (Writing with other writers means you're beholden to their schedule). Then, a few years ago, the site was temporarily down due to a storm.

That's when I decided to start writing Hatshepsut's story on my own. It took me two years, but I finally finished. (Strangely enough, I just picked it up a week ago to complete one last edit).

I've since discovered that I have a passion not just for ancient Egypt, but for telling the stories of strong women neglected, or forgotten, by history. Hence my book about Theodora, one of the most awesome women ever. And my newest WIP, about not one, but FOUR totally kick-butt women.

I want to be them. Instead, I write about them.


And in other, totally unrelated news, the winner of last week's grand prize package is...

DAWN SIMON!


And the winner of the Querytracker Premium Membership is...

JADE!


Congrats, ladies!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

How I Got My Agent + GIVEAWAY!!!

Let me just start by saying that my query experience with my second book was night and day from querying my first. (And by night and day, I mean the 20 hour Alaskan Winter Solstice night versus the 20 hour Alaskan Summer Solstice day).

What I learned from querying Book #1 will fill several posts (all soon-to-come!), so this one will cover how I found and ended up signing with the fabulous Marlene Stringer.

Here's my timeline:

October 2010: I started the first draft of THEODORA: THE SECRET HISTORY, urged on by an opening line blog contest.

May 2011: To the Revision Cave, Batman! I knew I wanted to enter the Baker's Dozen Auction at Miss Snark's First Victim so everything had to be ready by December 2011.

November 7: My logline and first 250 words were accepted as MSFV!

December 6: The bidding war on THEODORA at MSFV! Woohoo!

January 3, 2012: I sent my query to Marlene. I would have queried her sooner since she was at the top of my agent wish-list, but she was closed to queries through the holidays.

January 4: Marlene requested the full. She wrote, "You had me at Istanbul." (How cool is that?!)

January 11: I received the email requesting "The Call." (Cue much re-reading of email and an Egyptian happy dance!!!)


All told, I sent 21 queries for Theodora with 8 requests. Before Marlene and I spoke, we were emailing stories back and forth about our visits to Istanbul. I'm beyond thrilled to have an agent who really "gets" my work!

And now we need to celebrate! Amid the craziness of the last two weeks (I'm talking EPIC craziness, people), I've put together two writerly prizes to say thank you to this amazing blogging community. I never would have been able to keep at this had it not been for all of you out there!

Writerly Prize #1

- A QUERYTRACKER PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP
- The Pocket Muse: Endless Inspiration by Monica Wood
- Publish This Book: A Premature Memoir by Stephen Markley
- Alaska Wild Fireweed Honey (great on cheese platters!)

Writerly Prize #2
- A QUERYTRACKER PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP (Compliments of Patrick at Querytracker. Thanks, Patrick!)


I seriously don't know how I would have kept my sanity while in the query trenches had it not been for Querytracker's ability to see each agent's individual requests and response times, a super cool feature of the Premium Membership. (It's kind of like stalking, but not as creepy).

How to Enter

1. Leave a comment on this post.


Seriously. That's it. The contest will close Sunday, February 12th at 11:59PM. International entries are welcome!

Thank you again to everyone for your warm wishes--you guys are the best!