Welcome 2018!

Happy New Year!

2017 was a pressure cooker for me and my family, but good things came out of it. Not anything monumental. Small, subtle things. Hardship can either make you hard or it can make you change into something softer yet stronger. I don't know if that makes any sense to you. I don't suppose anyone who hasn't gone through such a metamorphosis is capable of understanding.

Now, looking forward to this next year, I am hoping to make the announcement of my second book's publication date at some point. I'm getting closer and with the long hours and trial and error behind me from book 1, I am able to pull things together faster with book 2. Stay tuned for updates as the year progresses.

On a personal level, I've decided to work on having more hope. Things look so crazy and black sometimes out in the world, and sometimes in my life. In growing upon what I learned last year, trying to increase the perspective of looking on the bright side and hoping for the best in people rather than the worst is my aim.

I'm also hoping to find wonderful new books to read and new authors to discover. My big new (fiction) author discovery last year came through my daughters, who introduced me to Tui T. Sutherland's Wings of Fire series. I also really enjoyed Brandon Mull's latest offering, Dragonwatch (although you should read his Fablehaven series first to understand this second series better), and I look forward to the next installment. Another good book I recommend is The Twistrose Key by Tone Almhjell.

If so inclined, tell me your new book recommendations from last year or what your writing goal for this year is.

Guest Post: How Science Fiction and Fantasy Have Changed Over the Years

I'd like to welcome author Scott Seldon to the blog today to share his thoughts about a topic I've begun to investigate. It's good to share ideas and the thoughts of others and I hope to be able to add to them when I relay my own findings in the future. This is a starting point and I'm grateful to Scott for kicking it off. Please share your own thoughts in the comments.
 
What we think of as genre fiction didn't really exist a century ago. Jules Verne did not write science fiction, he wrote fantastical adventures based on his knowledge of science and where it could lead. H.G. Wells projected his hopes and fears of the future, again based on science. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote romances (then the term did not mean what it means today; it referred to stories like Le Morte D'Arthur and Ivanhoe) set on other worlds. Today we consider all three and their works to be the foundations of science fiction. Their stories stand the test of time, but they are nothing like what we see modern writers producing.

You just have to look at the changes in our world to understand some of the changes to science fiction. In 1915, WWI raged in Europe. Einstein was a German. His Theory of Relativity had yet to be proven and was only ten years old. Atomic energy and weapons had not been dreamed of yet. Airplanes and automobiles existed, but were not much more than toys of the rich, though there already was an electric car. Spaceflight was a dream and Goddard hadn't even conducted his experiments yet.

Language has also changed, as has education. Latin was nearly always included as were the classics. It was to this world that science fiction and fantasy were born. Science fiction pushed into the future and to the other planets then known. They were swashbuckling adventures and their science was questionable by today's standards, but they let their imagination fly. Isaac Asimov was born in 1920 and grew up on the short stories produced in that period. C. L. Moore set out to write westerns, but ended up writing science fiction and fantasy. The stories for both genres bore some similarities because they still relied on the romance model. The difference was they were stories set in the future in space or in the past. Nearly all of the authors that would become well-known icons of science fiction and fantasy were growing up or starting their first works. J. R. R. Tolkien was about to begin his construction of Middle Earth as he manned the trenches.

But a century ago, none of this had happened yet and what we think of as a complex genre had yet to really be born. People did write what we today consider to be genre works, but the genre had yet to even be born. Typically the founding of science fiction as a genre dates to 1926 with the publishing of Amazing Stories.

Let's jump forward 50 years to 1965. Science fiction was in what I think of as a golden age. The greats were publishing stories and new writers constantly sprang up. Isaac Asimov had retired from fiction while Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein were going strong. The Lord of the Rings was complete and the seminal work of fantasy. The space age was on. Satellites orbited our planet and astronauts and cosmonauts had been in space. Science fiction graced our TV and movie screens. In fact, 50 years ago as I write this, both Lost In Space and Star Trek were in the works and Doctor Who had been on the air for well over a year. 2001 was still a few years away as was the Apollo program.

Gone were the Romances in space that filled the early years. Monsters, aliens, strange worlds, amazing sights, and incredible encounters filled the pages (and screens). Writers looked to the future, hopeful that we would soon be doing these things. Stories were set 20-40 years in the future with incredible ideas of where we could be. Some dreamed further and created the civilization they hoped we would develop into. Science fiction roamed the universe, peeing into every corner and finding amazing things. I would use one word to describe the tone of most fiction from this period - hope.

Language has changed. Latin was not yet gone but the classics were being studied less and less. Instead there were new topics to cover in schools. Science abounded with new discoveries. Medical, chemistry, and physics textbooks were filled with new things that previous generations had been forced to learn the hard way. We spoke in a more direct manner and the writing reflects that. Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein and the others used simple and clear language.

Some things in life had just begun to change. The Civil Rights Act had only been passed the previous year. No one had heard of LGBT and marriage equality referred to interracial marriage. Gene Roddenberry was forced to cede his female second in command and had to fight to keep the alien character. Uhura had yet to be cast and he had to fight for that. What we see today as a token African American and Asian American on the Enterprise bridge were hard won fights for diversity.

Which brings me to today. I feel that science fiction has lost that hope. 50 years on and the space program is routine. We have not even started a lunar colony or sent a manned mission to Mars. We are 15 years past 2001 and we have done none of these things that movies and novels projected. Science has come down hard on some of the old tropes such as FTL, time travel, anti-gravity, teleporters, and the like. Consequently, you don't see these those things as much any more, though Star Trek and Doctor Who refuse to give them up. Instead of professional scientists churning out the likes of Foundation, Caves of Steel, 2001, and many others, they stick to the facts, what could be real. Hard science fiction is no longer just for scientists, but it is braked by what the scientists deem possible. Our dreams of the future have gotten closer to home and are less fantastic.

Fantasy, on the other hand, is having its own golden age. The publication of some very epic tales by Robert Jordan and George R. R. Martin are truly incredible in scope. Terry Brooks and Stephen R. Donaldson have given us some great dark evil in their stories and given their heroes the talents to overcome. The likes of Sam Sykes and Mark Lawrence are currently showing us how dark the world can be. The adventure continues in the pages of the many fantasy writers out there as they explore ever more interesting worlds.

Tolkien still inspires. His language, as fitting a professor of linguistics, is an art of its own and that pushes fantasy writers to make good use of language. His world building set the bar high and few truly come up to his level, but not for want of trying. That isn't to say that it is in any way out of reach of readers, but I have noticed writers spend a few more words to help paint the picture.

Science fiction is producing some truly great works as well, but the tone is different. The sense of the incredible that was there a century ago and the sense of hope from 50 years ago has been replaced with exploring society. Science has cut off many from exploring the limits of theory, but they make good use of practical science and weave incredible tales. There is no lack of story telling skills.


Scott writes science fiction and prefers that idea of hope found in mid-20th century science fiction. He is currently writing about a space trader in the far future and looking for interesting ideas for his next novel. He is a big fan of Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Jack McDevitt.

You can find him at his blog and on Smashwords.

Cover Reveal for Trefury: Mendi’s Curse

And here it is, the first cover for my novel, Trefury: Mendi's Curse, coming out September 2014. This will be for the hardcover edition.

This cover is original artwork and copyright protected.

An ancient legend is remade.

Meet the oddest, most-likely-to-fail partnership the planet Niyhel has ever known. He’s cunning, intelligent, and dangerous. She’s slow to trust, reckless, and loyal. And both of them have their own ideas about how to do things.

Thssk, a six-thousand-year old norhendra, has unwittingly caused the near extinction of his kind. Then he abandoned his handler, momentarily forgetting that she was an astral. She curses him as he flees the battlefield: the next handler he chooses will avenge her. Hunted by his past, it takes a divine summons and a volcanic eruption to rekindle Thssk’s competitive spirit after a long hibernation. Racing against his enemies to rescue a boy from another planet?—he’s the only one capable of pulling it off. But there’s a catch, he has to select a new human partner to work with.

Tech savvy Cortnee Feyandihar is tracking down the people responsible for her mom’s death while trying to gain a footing on a career path in the fields of music and dance. But when she goes too far with a corruption exposé, a last-ditch effort to salvage her future sticks her in the middle of an inter-world showdown and right into Thssk’s coils.

On a world where starships are born, homes grow, and flowers can flatten entire cities, the fates of two lands hangs in the balance, as do the lives of millions of people. Yet it all pales in comparison to Thssk confronting the repercussions of discarding his previous partners as he struggles with his unpredictable new one. Everything Cortnee thought she understood has turned inside out and she must utilize every skill in her arsenal to get a grip on her new reality. If they can’t learn to communicate and work together, he won’t achieve the great future he was promised, but if they do, Cortnee could fall like her predecessors—into madness.

Stay in the know with the book's release by following this blog, my page on Facebook, or my Twitter account. A couple of giveaways are forthcoming.

If you love the look of the cover and want to know more about the artist, come back next week when I interview her. 

Enter to win a copy of the book. 

The End is in Sight

It's been a slow blogging summer, as you may have noticed. There are a couple of reasons, one being health related, but the second reason is much more relevant to you, my readers and friends: I'm getting ready to publish my first book.

It's not much of an announcement these days; thousands of people are publishing every year, whether traditionally or on their own. With a plethora of novels hitting the marketplace each year, the advantage belongs to readers. You can find just about anything you want to read. I have a handful of writer friends who have books that have come out or will come out this year. It's exciting to be among them.

Here are some of their books (in no particular order):

Coming Sept. 9th from Month9Books

Thyra Winther's seventeen, the Snow Queen, and immortal, but if she can't reassemble a shattered enchanted mirror by her eighteenth birthday she's doomed to spend eternity as a wraith.

Armed with magic granted by a ruthless wizard, Thyra schemes to survive with her mind and body intact. Unencumbered by kindness, she kidnaps local boy Kai Thorsen, whose mathematical skills rival her own. Two logical minds, Thyra calculates, are better than one. With time rapidly melting away she needs all the help she can steal.

A cruel lie ensnares Kai in her plan, but three missing mirror shards and Kai's childhood friend, Gerda, present more formidable obstacles. Thyra's willing to do anything – venture into uncharted lands, outwit sorcerers, or battle enchanted beasts -- to reconstruct the mirror, yet her most dangerous adversary lies within her breast. Touched by the warmth of a wolf pup's devotion and the fire of a young man's desire, the thawing of Thyra's frozen heart could be her ultimate undoing.

CROWN OF ICE is a YA Fantasy that reinvents Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" from the perspective of a young woman who discovers that the greatest threat to her survival may be her own humanity.

Released July 2nd from Forever Yours

DARK LEGACY 
Mala LaCroix has spent her whole life trying to escape her destiny. As the last in a long line of "witch women," she rejects the notion of spirits and hoodoo and instead does her best to blend in. But when she finds a dead body floating in the bayou behind her house, Mala taps into powers she never knew she had. She's haunted by visions of the dead girl, demanding justice and vengeance.

DEADLY SECRETS 
Landry Prince has always had a crush on Mala, but when Mala discovers his sister, murdered and marked in some sort of Satanic ritual, he wonders if all the rumors about the LaCroix family are true. Yet after Mala uses her connection to the spirit world to identify his sister's killer, he starts to form his own bond to her . . . a very physical one. As they move closer to each other and closer to the truth, Mala and Landry must risk everything—their families, their love, and even their lives.

Coming Aug. 5th from Forever Yours

A GIFT AND A CURSE 
Mala LaCroix sees dead people—really. After using her psychic gifts to catch a killer, she's locked in a psych ward and must strike a deal with the devil to secure her release. Apprenticed to a dark arts practitioner, Mala vows to free herself and save her loved ones from danger. But she doesn't know who to turn to when her crush on Landry Prince turns into something more serious.

A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH 
Landry has sacrificed everything to protect Mala. A near-death experience changes him forever, and now he, too, possesses supernatural powers he doesn't understand. Mala and Landry must band together to defeat the dark forces—both human and otherworldly—who would use their abilities for evil. Even as they fall for each other, they must prepare to battle for their very souls . . .

Coming Sept. 9th from Forever Yours

Deep in the Louisiana bayou, Mala LaCroix cannot escape the mysterious things she's seen. Haunted by her otherworldly past, she only wants to hide her special abilities and care for the man she's come to love. But the dark swamp she calls home holds more than just Mala's secrets, for a killer is leaving behind ghosts trapped between worlds, hungry for vengeance . . .

Landry knows Mala could never turn her back on those in need. It's part of what attracts him to her. But now that he's wrestling with his own demons-and losing-he fears that just being near the woman he loves endangers her life. And that traps him in a terrible dilemma: leave Mala alone to catch a murderer by herself or stay close-and risk entangling her in the brutal battle for his very soul.

Coming July 22nd from St. Martin's Griffin

Clementine has spent her whole life preparing for her sixteenth birthday, when she’ll be tested for Extraction in the hopes of being sent from the planet Kiel’s toxic Surface to the much safer Core, where people live without fear or starvation. When she proves promising enough to be “Extracted,” she must leave without Logan, the boy she loves. Torn apart from her only sense of family, Clem promises to come back and save him from brutal Surface life.

What she finds initially in the Core is a utopia compared to the Surface—it’s free of hard labor, gun-wielding officials, and the moon's lethal acid. But life is anything but safe, and Clementine learns that the planet's leaders are planning to exterminate Surface dwellers—and that means Logan, too.

Trapped by the steel walls of the underground and the lies that keep her safe, Clementine must find a way to escape and rescue Logan and the rest of the planet. But the planet leaders don't want her running—they want her subdued.

Released Feb. 2014 by T.J. Loveless

After a bloody tour in Iraq, all Karen Barnes wants is a simple life, surrounded by horses and the mountains of Wyoming. But when a stranger tries boarding a famous horse worth millions at her stable, Karen grows suspicious that the horse has been stolen.When her worse fears are confirmed and her life is threatened, her instinct for survival kicks in. But things are far worse than she could have even imagined when she discovers that the theft is just a coverup for espionage.

With the lives of those she cares for at stake, can she find the courage to fight one more battle, or will the violence and carnage tear her to pieces?

Released Jul. 7th from 7DS Books

(Anthology, including author Darke Conteur.)

slay verb (used with object), slew, slain, slay·ing. 1.to kill by violence. 2. to destroy; extinguish... A Slayer has but one purpose. 7DS Books debuts the newest collection of short stories in SLAYERS. Seven short story missions of your not so typical slayers taking on highly unusual targets. These captivating stories slice through tales of aliens, super slugs, demons, and beyond. Did that say super slugs? Yes. Read something dripping in fresh plots and bizarre characters.

Released Mar. 1st by Elephant's Bookshelf Press

To be human is to have regrets, to question decisions, even to doubt our own abilities and capacities. Whether it’s because of a path not taken or a decision made for selfish or – perhaps worse – unselfish reasons, we all have had moments and decisions we regret. We might regret not recognizing an opportunity. In the end, the choices we make help shape our future. The final anthology in Elephant’s Bookshelf Press’s “Seasons Series,” Winter’s Regret includes stories from P.S. Carrillo, Liz Coley, Sakura Q. Eries, Morgan George, Michelle Hauck, Kelly Heinen, Amanda Hill, Precy Larkins, Robert Wayne McCoy, Mindy McGinnis, A.T. O’Connor, Jeff O’Handley, Paul Parisi, Matt Sinclair, A.M. Supinger, Charlee Vale, and Cat Woods.

Released Apr. 23rd from Createspace

Lucy London puts the word genius to shame. Having obtained her PhD in microbiology by the age of twenty, she's amassed a wealth of knowledge, but one subject still eludes her-people. The pendulum of passions experienced by those around her both confuses and intrigues her, so when she's offered a grant to study emotion as a pathogen, she jumps on the opportunity. When her attempts to come up with an actual experiment quickly drop from lackluster to nonexistent, she's given a choice: figure out how to conduct a groundbreaking study on passion, or lose both the grant and her position at the university. Put on leave until she can crack the perfect proposal, she finds there's only one way she can study emotions-by experiencing them herself.

Enter Jensen Walker, Lucy's neighbor and the one person on the planet she finds strangely and maddeningly appealing. Jensen's life is the stuff of campus legend, messy, emotional, complicated-in short, the perfect starting point for Lucy's study. When her tenaciousness wears him down and he consents to help her, sparks fly. To her surprise, Lucy finds herself battling with her own emotions, as foreign as they are intense. With the clock ticking on her deadline, Lucy must decide what's more important: analyzing her passions...or giving in to them?

(no picture available yet) Dark Light by Rick Pieters
Coming this Fall from Cliffhanger Press

Carter Collins doesn't much like the taste of fame or his glamorous, gay Hollywood life, and his father's stroke hands him the reason to leave—to return home and help. No more spotlight. Just family, old friends, the family business . . . and interdimensional aliens staging a hostile takeover.

Avebury, Ohio has a new evangelist who's silencing opposition as he builds his tabernacle, and it was no stroke that felled Carter's father. The Reverend's prayer cubes can kill or control. Now Carter finds his mother clutching one, ready to sign over the family's TV station and hand the preacher the pulpit he seeks. This evangelist is a Trojan horse for sinister beings not of this Earth.

Aided by a discarnate guide, Carter pieces together the real reason he's here. The town protects a prime portal, an entry point for Earth's life-force energy. That gateway needs a guardian against invaders who would invert the energy and plunge the planet into a new age of darkness. If Carter accepts his role as guardian, he'll draw in friends, family, even his life-partner. This time, the spotlight could well mean his death, or theirs. But not accepting it could be much worse.

Coming Aug. 3rd on Amazon KDP Select

Set sail with Captain Carvin on four voyages on the magic seas of Ryuu.

He faces pirates early in his career. The King sends a sorceress with him on a voyage to a far land to recover precious artifacts. He must deliver the King's sister to her future husband through treacherous seas. Years later, he is reunited with the sorceress on a scouting mission in a sea controlled by the enemy.

Coming Nov. 15th wherever ebooks are sold

Intergalactic trader, Ven Zaran, contracts for a cargo that takes him to one of the few non-Confederation worlds. It is a danger he thinks he is ready for, but in a flash his ship is seized and half his crew arrested on minor charges. With corruption at every level of government, Ven has to resort to more drastic measures to free his ship and crew. He's fought gangsters, pirates, and false charges before, but taking on a corrupt planet might be more than he bargained for.




(no picture yet) Billy Bobble Makes a Magic Wand by R.S. Mellette
Coming 2014 from Elephant's Bookshelf Press

Everyone needs a little magic in their lives

Twelve-year-old Billy Bobble and his best friend Suzy Quinofski didn't mean to change the universe. Billy just wanted to find a way to help his hoarding, schizophrenic mother, and maybe impress a coven of older girls in high school. Suzy wanted to help her friend and cling to her last remnant of childhood: a belief in magic. None of this would be noteworthy if Billy weren’t a quantum physics genius, and Suzy his equal in microbiology. Together they make a real, working, magic wand and open a door to the Quantum World, where thoughts create reality, his mother isn't crazy, and all things – good and bad – are possible.


Everyone's publishing journey is unique, including mine. Right now, I'm finishing up my edits based on copy editing feedback from someone else, and then I'll start going through the proofreading and formatting process. My cover artist is already at work, and if everything goes as planned, my first book will be out in September.

When we pick up a book to read, we really don't think about how long it took the author to write and polish their story. We don't think about how long it took them to publish through a traditional publisher, or to do all the edits and formatting in order to indie publish. No, we pick up a book and devour it within a very short time. And while we read, we're oblivious to the author's long hours, tears or anger, triumph over writer's block, or the many parts they've torn out or rewritten. We see only the finished product. We read it. Then we move on to the next book. As readers, we're spoiled and we take a lot for granted.

A little while back I was looking through the books on my bookshelf, checking out how other people have designed and formatted their novels, and I got thinking about all the books I've read over the last five years. How many of them do I want to go back and reread? Which characters still stick out in my mind? Which situations or worlds would I want to revisit? It seems like people grab a book, read it, and then hurry on to the next new thing without ever looking back. Ignore your To-Read pile for a moment and ask: which books that you've read recently would you like to go back and revisit?

Maybe it's just me. As a reader, I only buy books I've already read and want to reread (the library is my friend). This is mostly due to money, but I think not having a large budget for books is a blessing in disguise, because I don't have the temptation to spend frivolously on books I may end up not liking or which were cool for a one-time read. You gain favorite, trusted authors. You find yourself quoting those books, or going back to them to fulfill a special emotional niche.

As a writer, I haven't focused on speedily churning out novel after novel after novel (even though I have plenty of completed first drafts waiting to be polished), and I don't intend to. My goal is to write rereadable books and I hope that my first one will be a novel people will want to revisit again and again, that you'll discover something new each time you read the book. So what does that say about my debut novel? No, it's not an easy-breezy, consume-in-one-afternoon read. It's the type of book I like to read, and a type which most of my beta readers and critique partners have said they like to read.

Taking this step to publish is huge. My dad died this past April from cancer. He was brilliant, but very few people knew it. He was a modest man, a man of great ideas and solutions. He just had one problem: he was good at starting things and coming up with the ideas, but he wasn't good at finishing those projects or promoting his ideas. During his last days he expressed his regret over and fought to stay alive in order to finish some of those things. The moment he relaxed, realized he'd run out of time, and let go of those tethers, he passed away. It taught me that I was in danger of doing the same thing. Oh, I didn't have a stack of unfinished first drafts leering at me, but I was terrified of actually publishing, of actually finishing a book as far as anyone can finish it. So, I set a publishing date and notified the right people, got to work again, and heart-in-throat I'm now nearing the end.

Thank you again for being a blog follower and for sticking with me even though I didn't have a product for you to read yet. That's about to change, and I hope that if you choose to read this book or any others that come after it, that you feel comfortable approaching me to talk about it, or about the writing process. I do have some more in-depth Behind-The-Scenes posts coming up, as well as a few other things that go with a book launch. In the meantime, check out the books by my friends and stay tuned for further updates.

My questions for you this week are: Have you ever conquered a fear, or are you working on conquering a fear right now? What was/is it and do you feel stronger now?

Or - What are your favorite books to reread? If you're a writer, how does knowing the long writing process intimately affect how you approach reading?

Front Matter, Back Matter, Why Does It Matter?

*Edit: This blogpost is geared toward print books rather than ebooks.

Okay, so you're putting together the finishing touches on your manuscript. It doesn't matter your route to publication here, except that if you are going the traditional route, follow your publisher's guidelines to the letter.

You have the text of the book, but then there are the other things that go into a novel and new terminology called front and back matter to grasp. Basically, front matter is what goes in front of the actual text of your book and back matter is what comes after the text.

These can include:
Your copyright page
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Maps, Tables and/or Charts
Pronunciation Guides, Glossaries
List of Characters
List of Illustrations, List of Tables (contained in the text)
The Principles of Magic (if applicable and your readers need a chart)
List of other works you've published
Title Page
About the Author page
Table of Contents
Bibliography/References
Preface or Foreword
Epigraphs (Quotes, Sayings, or Poetry connected to your book)
Introduction
Chronology
Appendix
Notes
List of Contributors
Excerpt from the text to entice readers

If you're publishing a novel it can be a head scratcher as to what you need and where it goes.

So let's talk about needs and wants.

The two pages which are definite musts are a title page and a copyright page. The title page restates the title of the book before the reader plunges in. The copyright page contains pertinent information regarding the copyright of the book and its publication. Both are front matter.

If you want to dedicate your novel, you can have a separate page for a dedication or you can include it near the top of the copyright page. I've seen it done both ways. Some people opt out of the dedication because they plan on an extensive Acknowledgement page(s). Or you can have both. Dedications are front matter usually. Acknowledgements can be either front or back matter, although for novels, I usually find them in the back.

A quick word about Acknowledgement pages; novels didn't use to have them. Then authors started using them to recognize the help of their agents, editors, or to replace a dedication page at the front. Nowadays it's common to not only list everyone involved in the creation of a novel but to include the author's quirks when around those people. It's kind of like sitting through five minutes of credits after a movie. The only people reading through the entire list are the people mentioned, or their relatives. Express gratitude, acknowledge that putting out a novel is a team effort, but then think about editing your Acknowledgements page for the sake of brevity, just as you would the actual text of your novel. It's your personal preference, just know that most people won't care about the people you mention or what you do during late-night critique sessions. I've seen novels that have an Acknowledgement section at least four to five pages long.

Maps can be either front or back matter. Tables and charts are usually back matter, along with pronunciation guides and glossaries; lists of characters, principles of magic; bibliography/reference material; chronologies; appendixes and notes; and list of contributors.

Do you need all of these things? No. In fact, less is more. I've heard of writers who want to include all the bells and whistles of their world-building with their novel and what it does is add extra cost for extra pages. From a personal point of view, I can't count how many times I've read a large novel only to find pages of world-building information at the back where I no longer need it because, well, I've finished the book. So should you include the world-building stuff at the front to make sure readers know about it?

Well, that's a problem too, because the more pages you put between the front cover and the actual text of your novel, the more readers aren't going to actually get to that text because you've weighted the front matter with too much information. You want your readers to get to that hook on your first page as soon as possible.

It really boils down to what is necessary. Many readers know to check the back for further world building info and sometimes when they finish the book they want more in order to savor the experience.

Maps are pretty much the one thing you can get away with stowing in the front matter. They don't give away spoilers and can pique reader interest before they start the story. Pronunciation guides are useful tools if you have difficult names but putting it at the front is a red flag to readers that their ability to blissfully read at their own pace through the text might be impeded by a lot of unpronounceable names. You don't want to place anything at the front that might deter readers from getting to that first page of your story. The same thing goes for Glossaries.

Not all novels need a map. They're fun to come up with and are a great tool for the author, but readers don't always need them. Consider the world of the novel. Is it a made up place? Is it huge? Do you have settings in many different places? Are your characters traveling a lot? If you answered two of those questions with a yes, then you might need a map. If you answered three or more with a yes, then a map is a good idea.

List of your other published works; a very useful promotional tool. I've seen these either in the front matter or the back matter. Sometimes its helpful to the reader to see that list before they start the book so they can take comfort in knowing they've picked up book #1 in your series and not #7. If the story's not in a series, you can keep your front matter nice and sparse by putting your list of publications at the back where you can entice the reader to check out more of your work after they've finished this book. You could also split it, if you're prolific and have a lot of books out, by having the series list for this book at the front and promotional lists for other series and books at the end.

Likewise, an About the Author page is a great promotional tool for back matter. I've never seen it in the front matter. The reader has just finished your novel and is now curious about the person who wrote it and there you go, you have a brief bio for them to look at. Links to your website, blog, or author pages on social media go great here.

Prefaces and Introductions aren't common in fiction unless a novel has been annotated, abridged, or re-released for a special anniversary edition. Another person usually writes these. Don't think that you have to have one if this is the first publication of your novel.

Epigraphs are front matter. A quick word about using them: they can be another great enticement for the reader to get to page one and start the novel, but often readers skim past them. I think I've only seen a couple of instances where an author used an epigraph to their advantage, usually sharing pertinent backstory or world-building in lieu of a prologue. Cute quotes, poetry, and sayings from other people don't have the same effect. You should want to immerse the reader in your world and your voice. Epigraphs are another feature that are often gratuitously applied by authors. You usually don't need one. They're extra candy flowers on the icing of a cake.

An excerpt from the book: I've only seen these done in paperbacks. They are one page and typically found right when the reader opens the book as another trick to capture their interest in the story. You don't have to use this tactic, but can, if you're putting out a paperback novel.

The Table of Contents is a front matter element. Do you need one? Chapter books for kids and middle-grade novels usually name their chapters and a table of contents is a handy tool to help kids navigate through a book. It's less important in young adult and adult novels. It boils down to the style of your novel. Think again about weighting your chapter openings. A title can be an enticement or a spoiler. If you are using epigraphs or location information before your chapters (which some people do effectively) you might want to avoid chapter titles because it's a case of too much information at the start of every chapter.

I do recommend naming your chapters for your personal use when writing and editing, since it can help you as a basic outline. That doesn't mean those chapter titles have to appear in the printed version of the story. Numbered chapters streamline the reading experience and let the reader flow from one chapter to the next without stopping to process other information.

Deciding on front and back matter is a matter of personal style (or the style of your publishing house) and something I haven't seen discussed too much online. Consider your reader and get them to the story as quickly as possible. Balance that out with information the reader will need or might want in connection to your story and you as the author. Don't give in to the temptation to use every front and back matter device known to man.

Questions for you:
What front and back matter elements do you like to see in a novel?
Do you know of any other front or back matter element I didn't cover and where it usually goes?
Are there any front or back elements you think are used too much or that aren't necessary in particular genres?
Do you have questions regarding front or back matter that I didn't cover?

Accentuate the Positive: What If ... ?

When you've been writing for a long time and hung around the vast writing world, it's easy to see a lot of negative things bantered about. Consequently, it's easier to start thinking negatively about others and even worse, about yourself as a writer. So much emphasis is placed on nailing a query letter, your opening pages, your synopsis, your social presence, etc. that it becomes a quagmire of shadowy rules, rejection, deception, and negativity.

Think about your realm of influence for a moment. Are you often a beta reader or an established critique partner? Do you edit or help with PR? I'd even be so bold as to add, are you a literary agent or publisher?

How happy are you? How happy are the people around you? Is daily snark regarding other people the norm? Do you pick up someone's manuscript prepared to be a skeptic?

What if this next week you could only mention the positive things about someone's work?

What if instead of tearing someone down, you show them that they aren't hopeless or crazy but that they do have some things going for them. It may be a lot, it may be a little, but think how much of a boost you could give if that other person knew what they did right for a change.

What if you set a goal not to speak disparagingly of anyone else? What if you decided not to listen to or share gossip?

Focusing on the negative is a piece of cake. While we do need to know what we have to work on to become better writers it doesn't always have to come in a negative or derogatory package. It takes strength of character to be a positive person, someone who is genuinely concerned about helping someone else.

It's as simple as dealing with a child. If you always focus on what that child is doing wrong or where the child is lacking, you destroy their motivation and self-esteem. If you focus on what the child is doing right and point out their strengths, it motivates them to do even better.

Sure publishing is a business but people aren't. Sure you run into delusionals who have an ego the size of Brazil, but most people aren't that way. There is a hopeful person on the other end of that manuscript, someone who is trying to do better and whose basic desire is to share something they created.

Don't assume that they are getting positive vibes from other sources. You may be their only outside influence that day, week, or month regarding their work.

I find it very disturbing that as a society we're obsessed with perfection without having a concrete definition or outline for that perfection. If stripped down to our very core, we are all imperfect people, and you know what, it's okay. As long as we're trying to be a better person each day, isn't it time we chill out and admit that we're never going to reach perfection? Why would we expect everyone else to?

There is enough room for everyone to express themselves. There are so many subjectively diversified tastes out there, don't assume that your subjective tastes are what must be the rule. You may be tired of a premise, but that doesn't mean others are. You may think writing X + U is a bad idea, but that doesn't mean someone else won't think it's a brilliant pairing. Your style won't be the same as someone else's, and that's okay. Their voice will differ from yours as well. It's okay.

Now, I'm not saying you have to love, accept, or buy every story, query, or synopsis that you get. I'm not saying to you have to write a detailed letter of explanation for every rejection you give. But can we ditch the snark in social media for a week? Can we ditch it in our conversations? Can't we write a blogpost saying why we love writers or what they consistently do right? Instead of the "reasons why I'm rejecting this" feeds can we focus on "reasons I love this" feeds instead? If you're critiquing someone else's work, is it so difficult to highlight all the many more places they are getting it right instead of the fewer places they are getting it wrong?

Perhaps I'm the crazy one. I'm guilty of succumbing to the writing world negativity at times too. It's something I intend to change. If any of this has agreed with you, will you join me in a positivity week starting today?

Guest Post: Sunset on the Perimeter: Being a Brief Reminisce on Early Influences

And now, another episode from the imagination and background of author/artist Aaron Bradford Starr:

It was evening in the closing days of summer and I was being hosted by my good friend, Joyce Alton. She and I were launching sentry dirigibles over the mangroves that surround her family's secret estate and watching as the inflated shapes rose high enough to catch the last orange light of the day.

"And that," I was saying, "was how my first story came about."

"But," she protested, "surely you wrote something before?"

"No, no," I answered her, clipping stiff fabric above the gas jets and giving them a loud burst of flame. The final dirigible fluffed out, slowly filling with hot air thus created. "The first time I realized I might want to be a writer was in fifth grade, but it wasn't until sixth grade that my main influences were introduced to me."

Sitting on one of the upholstered chairs scattered about the security deck, I stretched out my feet and considered the fading light as crocodiles rumbled in the darkening swamps all around. The dirigible continued to fill on its own.

"My brother, David," I said at last, "is very close in age to me, but somewhat different in temperament. I would put him into a class far more ready to step off into new territory than I. He was always introducing me to the very newest music and literature."

"Disco?" Joyce asked, with a smile.

I laughed at the thought. "No, we were too young for disco," I said with a wistful sigh. "This was the eighties already, and metal was all the rage among the youth of the day. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, surely you remember these musicians?"

"Why, Bruce Dickenson and I used to play soccer in my London days," Joyce replied.

"Really?" I asked, startled.

"Perhaps not."

Puzzled and intrigued, I continued, "Well, it was not long before David had brought home daring new literary efforts by the rising stars of the day. Chalker, Anthony, and Donaldson were the main authors I remembered from that time. He was always reading something. I, as a youth, had eschewed reading, for the most part, save for comic strips and the occasional Dr. Seuss."

"Ah!" Joyce exclaimed. "I used to play whist with the good Doctor!"

"You did?" I exclaimed, startled anew.

"Not exactly," she responded, sighing. Brightening at once, she stood and worked the brass lever that released the last of the dirigibles into the sky. "So he was bringing home fiction for adults, was he?"

I nodded. "It took awhile for me to actually start reading one. I remember that the cover painting for The Source of Magic caught my eye, but I didn't read it for some time. The first book of adult SF or fantasy I remember reading was Quest for the Well of Souls by jack Chalker. It was book three of five, so I didn't understand a lot of the backstory, but the adventurous nature of it hooked me at once."

"And the sex might not have hurt, either," Joyce added, her eyes twinkling.

"Certainly not," I answered, "though I haven't emulated that in my own writing."

"Chaste as fallen snow, if I hear correctly," Joyce said, opening the hummingbird shelters and whirling the bird call over her head, silently summoning the tiny creatures from their daily rounds.

"As plowed snow, perhaps," I allowed. "But beyond the stories, I also found David and I talking about the books we were reading. He'd read one and then give it to me and we'd talk about them. Reading, he showed me, could be a very social thing, not simply lonely page-turning in some dim corner. Soon the entire family was at it."

"Cuts into dinnertime conversation, I imagine," Joyce replied.

"Entirely, some nights. I remember entire meals with all of us reading books one, two, and three of our latest series, and everyone waiting for the others to finish so we could all talk about characters and such."

"And reading habits are writing habits," Joyce said with a nod. Hummingbirds flitted near enough to whirr against her hair as they arrived at their cages. "I can see how this is an important writing influence."

"Yes," I nodded, musing. "Not only was I reading the sort of thing I would like to one day write, but was surrounded by like-minded people within my very own family. This was an important development. Who knows how many more years might have elapsed before I found these authors, if David hadn't brought them home from his many voyages overseas? I might have gone in quite another direction."

Joyce nodded, clipping the last of the bird cages shut. "Just so," she said.

Satisfied the night's perimeter was in good order, she suggested we retire to the billiard room, where fine brandy and cigars were waiting, and I thought that sounded splendid.

For more from Mr. Starr, see his previous post: What Justifies a Larger Word Count in Speculative Fiction. And What Doesn't.

Aaron can also be found at his blog, Imaginary Friend, or roaming the corridors of Agent Query Connect.

The Marketing Power of One

When you think of one person and their impact on the world around them, for most of us, that impact is small. For authors trying to promote their novels, they walk a fine line between crass advertising and letting everyone know they've written a book. I'm not going to talk about self-promotion today. I have little experience with it. I do have some experience with promoting other people and recently I came to realize that my impact was larger than I had thought.

Everyone finds new books to read differently. For me, the library is my primary source of discovering new stories. So it makes sense then that the library is my easiest place to promote books and authors I enjoy.

A few years back I heard about a new book by a relatively unknown author through their agent's website. I don't normally find books that way, but this one had a premise that really intrigued me. I jumped online to see if I could reserve it at my local library. They didn't have it. They didn't have any books by this author at all. My library's pretty neat, in that they let people request books for purchase. I requested this particular book and in due course was able to borrow and read it. I really liked it.

About a year later the next book in the series came out. I again checked the library. They hadn't automatically bought it. Apparently the first book wasn't in high demand locally, although I knew it was making waves in reader circles elsewhere. So I requested the library buy the second book.

The same thing happened with the third, and the fourth, and the fifth books. By the time the last book came out this year, I finally didn't have to request that the library purchase it. They had bought four copies already and the series had caught on locally.

Now, that's not to say that my local librarians wouldn't have discovered this series (a New York Time's bestseller) eventually. But because I requested the books as soon as they came out, it gave them exposure locally much faster. I was helping to promote this author's books, helping them achieve that bestsellerdom.

I request the library purchase many books each year, either based on favorite authors, or premises I like the sound of. Some books have turned out to be duds, subjectively. Others have been great finds. Sometimes the library's brought in the first book but doesn't purchase the rest in a series. I'm then able to build up that author's presence through requests.

That's become my niche.

For other individuals there are lots of other ways to promote the books you love. We may not feel like anyone else will notice or share our enthusiasm, but we never know. Maybe you like to write reviews online, maybe you do shout-outs on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, or Pinterest. (Which if you do, please try to mention the genre and what the story is about. Gushing over a title tells no one anything enticing.) Others join book clubs, or do in person recommendations when friends or relatives ask what to read. The point is word of mouth works. Authors can't really buy that kind of publicity, and it's what works the best.

Don't underestimate your sphere of influence, no matter how small it may be. If you like a book, you have the power to let others know about it. When the authors and books you like hit those bestseller lists, you were part of putting them there. Their success is also, in a smaller fashion, your success. Just another angle to consider.

So what's your promotion niche? How do you like to tell others about the books you love? What are you reading right now that you're excited about?

Interview with Author Michelle Hauck - Newly Represented!

Continuing with encouraging and heart-warming journeys into the world of publishing - this week let's welcome author Michelle Hauck back to Yesternight's Voyage. Michelle recently accepted an offer of representation from an agent. Her personal experience is more varied than the usual story, and there are nuggets here to help even the most discouraged querier keep at it.

1) How long have you been writing? What are your favorite genres to write in?

I’ve been writing five or six years. Time has a tendency to slip away so I wouldn’t be surprised if that number was higher. My writing tends to involve magic or the fantastic of some kind which puts me squarely in the fantasy genre. I like to branch out with age categories. My books span the gamut with adult, YA, and now middle grade.

2) What are your favorite genres to read? Which books have had the greatest impact on you?

 When I read for pleasure I tend toward epic fantasy or urban fantasy. I’m not a great fan of paranormal or fantasy based strongly on romance. Think Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, and lately, The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.

But I’m also a fan of biographies and non-fiction about history, especially the American Revolution and 16^th century English royalty. While I guess you could say classics made up the backbone of my reading. I started with Jane Austin, Alexander Dumas, and the Bronte sisters and moved toward fantasy as I got into my late teens. Gone with the Wind and The Wheel of Time series all had an influence on my writing as I loved the involved and detailed characters of those worlds.

3) Aside from writing, what do you love to do?

Aside from writing and reading, I guess I’m a couch potato. I enjoy watching movies and TV at night with my husband. I’m a big sports fan for my local teams. Go Bears and Irish! I absolutely love football and baseball. And I like to make my yard colorful with all kinds of annuals and perennials, though I’m not so keen on the yard work. I might be a tiny bit addicted to twitter and running query contests. I’m a co-host of Query Kombat and Nightmare on Query Street. Those are my ideas of fun. Notice I didn’t say eat chocolate, but you can put that right up at the top.

4) May we see your agent-winning query letter?

This is the actual query that went to my agent, along with the personalized chit-chat I put at the beginning. Sarah used quite a bit of this query in the pitch letter she crafted. I’m kind of proud of that.

Thanks so much for volunteering to join my Agent Greeting contest. I’m looking forward to it on August 5th. I saw on Writer’s Digest that you were looking for middle grade and decided to send you my query in hopes you will find it interesting.

Tom, the classroom hamster, wants to escape from the h-e-double-hockey-sticks otherwise known as school. His military training at the pet shop didn’t include playing house or being sentenced to a boot camp of never-ending Show ‘n Tell, math facts rap, and story time. But he’s learned a lot behind the bars of his cage. For example, if you want to keep breathing, never trust a pygmy who has earned the nickname Squeezer. Somehow he has to get away before the pygmies dress him as Strawberry Shortcake again—or worse.

When a “subspatoot” teacher fills in, Tom sees his chance to put Operation Escape the Pygmies into action. He makes a run for the border, hamster style. Bad news. The principal says a rodent on the loose is a distraction to learning and better off flushed. The way out is turned into a battlefield of snapping mousetraps, sticky snares, and poisoned pellets.

Tom seems doomed until the friendless Squeezer lends an over-excited hand. She quickly goes from supervillain to super sidekick. Now, the greatest obstacle to his freedom may be Tom’s soft spot for this lonely pygmy.

A cross between Toy Story, Monsters Inc., and those cute AT&T kid commercials, PYGMY HAZARDS is a MG fantasy complete at 34,000 words. My epic fantasy, Kindar’s Cure, was recently released by Divertir Publishing. My short story, Frost and Fog, was published by The Elephant’s Bookshelf for their summer anthology, Summer’s Double Edge. I’ve worked at an elementary school as a special needs assistant for over ten years, giving me lots of experience with pygmies.

Thanks for your consideration.

5) How long did you query before finding your agent?

With Pygmy Hazards I entered a contest in April and started to query soon after. That would make it roughly five months before I got an offer. I will say that I got tons of rejections in that time period. Probably more than forty, though a good number were personalized about how cute the idea was and my very first query got a request. I got a whole lot of ‘just not for me.’ It wasn’t an overnight success by any means.

And Pygmy Hazards was my fourth manuscript to be queried. I was actually still querying for my YA dystopian, Dodge the Sun, when I started to query with my hamsters. And when my offer came, I had two partials out for Dodge that I had to notify. My journey to get an agent was a long and painful one.

My first manuscript was an epic fantasy which got three requests and over a hundred rejections. That’s about the time I began to get on the internet more and discovered critique groups. I soon found my manuscript was full of fatal flaws, not to mention a word count of double the usual length. The rejections were painful, but understandable given the writing.

My second manuscript was also an epic fantasy, but this time I did everything right. It was extensively beta read. All the writing flaws of my last manuscript had vanished. I got a grand total of THREE requests yet again. I was actually certain I was cursed. Cursed by the number three. Ask my CPs, they’ll vouch for that. Each rejection was like another stamp on my heart. When it queried out, I decided my manuscript was worth the effort and ended up getting an offer from a small press to publish. Validation! Kindar’s Cure came out in July 2013.

My third manuscript was a goldmine. I’d seen the trend in YA and lowered my main character’s age to go for the YA market. I still told my story, but I adjusted it a little for a new age category. Dodge the Sun got nearly twenty requests and most of them were fulls. I also set this story in the ‘real’ world. Agents jumped right over partials and asked to see the whole thing. But that’s when the market let me down.

Dystopian was a dead end. It was so crowded, that no publishers wanted it anymore. Full after full came back with ‘just didn’t connect.’ My last two fulls came back as rejections of, you guessed it, ‘just didn’t connect’ on THE SAME FREAKING DAY! It wasn’t that the agents found anything wrong with the story or the characters, they just couldn’t sell it. It was a heartbreaker for me. I used to stare at myself in the mirror while getting ready for bed and try not to cry it hurt that much. I wanted the big time tradition deal for this story so I put Dodge on the shelf, hoping the market would change.

While I waited on some late partial for Dodge, I had an ace in the hole. A little middle grade I’d finished that was nothing like any of my other books. The main characters are animals. There’s no magic, unless you count talking hamsters as magic. It is set in an everyday world inside a school. And it’s humorous! The whole story started as part of a short story contest started by Joyce for something with a talking animal. It was never meant to be a serious contender. I started querying without high hopes. The daily grind of querying has a way of squashing confidence and inflicting pain that makes me defensive about keep my expectations low.       

6) What can you tell us about your new agent and the process of signing on with her?

I sent a lot of my queries for Pygmy Hazards to new agents with the expectation that new agents were more interested in building their client lists. Sarah Negovetich was one of those new agents. She’d spent some time as an intern, learning the ropes, and was now accepting her own clients. She’d actually reached out to me first. I was having a small query critique contest where people could win critiques from agents and Sarah wanted to be a part of it. Shortly after, I sent her a query for my middle grade.

But the first offer I received came from another agent toward the end of August. Agent A had requested Pygmy Hazards from that very first contest I entered back in April. As you see, it took many months for her to get around to offering. After about a week of trying to find a time, we had the call on a Friday and talked for two hours. It was a great conversation, but I told her I needed to notify other agents and think her offer over. I just wasn’t sure because she didn’t rep fantasy and most of my writing involved fantasy.

I put out a nudge to all the agents with my material and any outstanding queries that were less than a month old. Things started moving very fast. I woke up Saturday morning to a request from Sarah to see the full. Another agent asked for a partial. Those with my material promised to get back to me within the week. Several polite congratulations but passes came through my inbox. I was honestly so busy deciding what to do and checking my inbox that I didn’t have time to celebrate. It didn’t really seem real.

I believe by Monday afternoon Sarah wanted to talk. I had a second Call with her on Tuesday. Her call actually caught me out on a walk with my husband and dogs. Let me tell you, we high tailed it home at double speed! We meshed well, and Sarah preferred speculative fiction! She had an answer for all my questions and they were very honest. She was a hands-on editor for her clients, and I loved that about her. I thought her ideas about an agent helping with their client’s marketing were a new and needed diversification for agents.  

My deadline passed, and I decided to go with Sarah. It was a perfect decision for me. We get along great and have the same ideas for Pygmy Hazards. She really keeps me informed on how the submission process is going.

I don’t think the whole process really hit me until about two weeks later. Sometimes I lay there in the middle of the night and get a little shiver that I have an agent after so long.

7) What advice would you give to those who are actively querying or getting ready to query?

It’s pretty cliché because everyone gives this same advice, but I’d say write another story while you query. That way you have something new ready to go if the querying doesn’t work out. Also do some networking and try to let agents get your name in their radar. Plus most importantly, don’t give up.

8) What have you learned from querying and writing that you didn't know before?

Writing pushed me to come out of my shell. I was always a very shy person and this process has given me a new confidence. Not only do I start up conversations with writer’s I don’t know, I’m not afraid to approach agents for invites to contests or interviews.  

9) How important were your beta readers/critique partners?

My critique partners were so important and not just for finding flaws in my manuscripts. CP’s are the ones you can turn too when you’re cursed on three requests and can never, never get any higher. They are the ones who understand what you’re going through. They are the people you forward your requests to and the ones who talk you off the ledge when you’re ready to quit. I do believe the q-word came up for me a few months ago.

10) What are you most excited about regarding the whole being agented experience?

Why now I can run more contests! Wait, no. That’s not it.

I’ve always been a curious person. I want to see behind everything to how the process works. Now I get to see behind the agent curtain to what happens during submission. So far it’s a lot like querying as far as the waiting—only now I have a filter. Sarah is between me and those rejection letters! It’s so wonderful to have a cheerleader in my corner!

Thank you, Michelle, for sharing your story and your wisdom with us. I know personally, I'm looking forward to reading all of Pygmy Hazards with my kids.

Michelle Hauck lives in the bustling metropolis of northern Indiana with her hubby and two teenagers. Two papillons help balance out the teenage drama. Besides working with special needs children by day, she writes all sorts of fantasy, giving her imagination free range. A book worm, she passes up the darker vices in favor of chocolate and looks for any excuse to reward herself. Bio finished? Time for a sweet snack.

She is a co-host of the yearly contest Query Kombat. Her epic fantasy, Kindar's Cure, was published by Divertir Publishing. Her short story, Frost and Fog, was published by The Elephant's Bookshelf Press in their anthology, Summer's Double Edge. She’s represented by Sarah Negovetich of Corvisiero Literary.

Twitter: @Michelle4Laughs

Blog: Michelle4Laughs: It’s in the Details

Facebook: Michelle Hauck, Author

Goodreads: Kindar’s Cure

Kindar’s Cure on Amazon Paperback

Kindar’s Cure on Amazon Ebook

Kindar’s Cure on Amazon UK

Kindar’s Cure on Barnes and Noble

Kindar’s Cure at The Book Depository

Interview with Margaret Fortune - Newly Represented!

Hi everyone. I'm really excited for the month of October. It's the sixth year anniversary for the Speculative Fiction Group on AQC and this month I'll be bringing you some great interviews with writers from that group who have found agents and publishers.

And I'm super super excited for this first interview with one of my own critique partners, Margaret Fortune. So here we go!

1) How long have you been writing? What are your favorite genres to write in?

My very first story was written in first grade. It was called "The Numbers' Birthday Party" and made a huge splash at my elementary school. I remember having to sit in the front of my class and read it to everyone while they followed along in their own copies--these lovely purple dittos, for those of you who are old enough to know what a "ditto" is. :) I think it was the most terrifying and embarrassing experience of my life!

While I wrote some in my youth, I didn't start writing seriously until the summer after I graduated college in 2003. It was that summer I started writing my very first novel. So I guess I've been writing for about 10 years now. My favorite genre is speculative fiction. Whether it's short stories for adults; books for middle grade and YA; serious or humorous; fantasy, dystopian, sci-fi; as long as it falls into speculative fiction, I'm there!

2) What are your favorite genres to read? Which books have had the greatest impact on you?

I read a lot of YA speculative fiction, as that's the main genre I write in. Aside from that, I read a variety of books including adult SF, romance, and historical fiction, as well as non-fiction including biographies and books about travel and sports. Oh, and I have this special spot in my heart for non-fiction books about how to survive extreme conditions--don't ask me why!

I've read a lot of books in my life, and rather than having a few that impacted me significantly, I think I've taken a little bit away from every book I've ever read. Even if what I took away from it was--Don't do that! However, I can say that my favorite short story of all time is Ray Bradbury's "All Summer in a Day." I'm also very partial to Dr. Seuss's "Oh, the Places You'll Go!"

3) Aside from writing, what do you love to do?

I love to read, of course. Other hobbies include music--I play the piano and sing. I also like to hit the gym, swimming approximately 3 miles a week as well as running, walking, rowing, climbing on the stairclimber, weightlifting--whatever strikes my fancy on a given day. When I have time, I like to design and sew purses and dresses for myself.

4) What can you tell us about your new agent and the process of signing on with her?

My agent is Lindsay Ribar of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. She joined the agency in 2007, and represents YA and MG. As well as being an agent, she's also a YA author herself. So far, I've found her to be friendly and enthusiastic, as well as a good communicator. She also seems to be knowledgeable and on top of her stuff, as things are moving along nice and quickly.

I queried her on a Tuesday, she requested the full on a Friday, and on Saturday night around 11pm I had an email from her saying she wanted to represent me. Less than a week from query to offer! Her email was a writer's dream come true--she'd been unable to put the MS down, she loved every character, she knew the moment she finished she had to have it. As a writer, you dream about having an advocate with that sort of passion and enthusiasm for your book. Even though I had to give everyone else a couple weeks to request/read/make an offer, I knew from the beginning that it would be very hard for anyone else to top her passion.

So the process of signing with her was extraordinarily fast once I queried her, as I officially accepted her offer within about three weeks after querying her. As I'd already been waiting around for months on other agents, it was nice to have things finally moving.

5) May we see your agent-winning query letter?

Yes, you may.

Ohhh, you mean you actually wanted me to provide it here?? Oh, okay! Here is is:

Sixteen-year-old Lia Johansen is a genetically engineered human bomb with just one problem. She’s a dud.

Her task seems simple: to strike the next blow in an ongoing galactic war by sneaking onto New Sol Space Station with a group of released POWs and exploding. But her mission goes terribly wrong when her inner clock malfunctions, freezing her countdown with just two minutes to go.

With no Plan B, no memories of her past, and no identity besides a name stolen from a dead POW, Lia doesn’t know what to do with a life she was never meant to have. When she meets Michael, the real Lia’s childhood best friend, she learns what it means to have friends and family. She learns what it means to live. It is only when her clock begins sporadically shedding seconds that she realizes—

Even duds can be dangerous. Even duds can still blow up.

Now Lia must find a way to unearth her past and the truth behind her mission before her time—literally—runs out.

NOVA is an 84,000-word YA science fiction novel which may appeal to readers who enjoyed Beth Revis’s Across the Universe and Amy Kathleen Ryan’s Glow. My short fiction has been published or is forthcoming in multiple magazines, including Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine and Space and Time Magazine.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

6) How long did you query before finding your agent?

A looooong time.

To be more specific, I began querying my book Nova at the end of January, when I sent out 20 queries as a trial run. When I began getting requests, I sent about another 30 or so during the month of February. I got about a dozen requests out of the those queries and settled down to see what would happen. Well, August finally rolled around and everyone had rejected me with the exception of a few agents who had literally had the manuscript for anywhere from 3-6 months. That was the point where I threw up my hands and said, "This is ridiculous. This one agent has had it over 6 months!" So I decided to query everyone else in the world I wanted to query, and que será, será. So I queried another 25 agents in the last week of August and another 25 in the first week of September. I queried my agent Lindsay Ribar on the last day I sent out queries, and had an offer from her within a week. So while the process with Lindsay went very fast, overall the process was very slow.

Oh, and did I mention that Nova is the THIRD book I've queried now? So yeah, I think a looooong time covers it.

7) What advice would you give to those who are actively querying or getting ready to query?

a) Don't skimp on your query. If you have to write 50 hooks to get a good one, WRITE 50 HOOKS. Don't give up and use a crappy one because you can't think of a good one. If you have to write 100 pages of query material to get a good query, DO IT. You don't get any do-overs; once you query an agent, you can't query them again. At least, not until you write another book! So do the work and make the best query you can, so that even if you don't get requests or an agent, you know you did the absolute best you could.

b) Have a checklist for when you're sending out queries. There's nothing more embarrassing than spelling an agent's name wrong or having the wrong agent's name on your query letter. So have a checklist you go down right before sending each query: is it addressed to the right person, is their name spelled right, are the email address and subject line right, etc. So by having a checklist you go through before hitting the "send" button, you may save yourself from making dumb mistakes. And since I know everyone's probably wondering now--No, I did NOT spell anyone's name wrong or put the wrong name on a query letter. Why not? Because I had a checklist! ;)

c) Be persistent. Nova was the third book I queried, and even once I queried it, it was over seven months before I had an offer. I didn't get an agent with my first fifty queries for Nova; I had to go out and query another fifty. So it wasn't easy, it wasn't quick, and there was plenty of emotional suffering involved. Querying is tough--you go through cycles of hope and desperation and despair all in their turn, and it's hard. Yes, some people do get lucky and get an agent right off the bat or meet their agent at the first conference they attend, or get a foot in the door through a friend/family member. But for a lot of us, it's not quick and it's not easy. But if you really want it, you'll keep at it.

As you can tell from the query, Nova was an easy book to query because it's so high concept. I knew agents would read the first line and immediately be all over it or else know it's not for them. But a lot of books are not easy to query--I know because I queried two of them with little luck. Some stories just don't lend themselves well to a query. So if you're unable to get anywhere querying, you may need to be really savvy about planning your next project. I purposely chose to pursue my Nova project because I knew it would be easy to query. YA sci-fi was starting to trend in the market, and my book had such a high concept, I knew people would be interested even if YA sci-fi started to fade. Don't get me wrong--I made that project my own and I absolutely love my book. But I was savvy about the market and smart about choosing my project. So if you find yourself at the end of the query line with no requests or offers, be smart. Don't keep writing books in the same passé genre hoping things will change. Find a way to take your ideas and make them fresh and salable. Make sure you can write a great query before you spend a year writing the book. If you want to be more than a hobbyist, you have to remember writing is a business, and you need to supply something people will want. Which isn't always easy to figure out, but it's worth trying.

8) What have you learned from writing and querying that you didn't know before?

I think it's easy to get intimidated by literary agents. After all, they have the power to make or break our careers simply by saying 'yes' or 'no.' And we get radio silence or form rejects from a lot of them, and it only feeds our frustration. But honestly, a lot of these people are super-nice! They're friendly, and even when they pass they'll say kind, encouraging things. One agent who passed even encouraged me to keep in touch, even if it was just to let her know where my book finally sold or if I wanted someone to brainstorm with. I never realized agents did that! Unfortunately, radio silence and form rejects are going to remain part and parcel of the query process, but that doesn't mean that the people behind them aren't fabulous people.

9) How important were your beta readers/critique partners?

They did me absolutely no good! (Ha, ha! Just kidding! ;)

Beta readers that aren't afraid to tell you the truth are worth their weight in gold. Period. I remember getting feedback from an agent with my full. He loved my characters, concept, and writing, but hated my plot. He wanted me to rewrite the whole book! Panicked and having no idea what to do, I went to the coolest, savviest beta reader I know and begged her to read it quick and tell me if I was crazy for choosing the plot I did. Well--that beta reader who shall remain nameless (Starts with 'joy,' ends with 'ton,' and rhymes with 'Boyce Dalton') helped saved me from making the biggest mistake of my life. Enough said!

10) What are you most excited to experience in the whole being agented process?

Seriously, I have to pick just one thing? I'm excited about everything!

I think what I'm most excited about is the fact that I'm finally getting to move forward to a new point in my career. For the longest time, I've been writing and writing with very few tangible marks of success to show for it. And that can be pretty tough at times. By finally getting an agent, I'm taking huge leap forward and I'm excited for all the new things to come.

Oh, and I've cherished this long time hope of having my books published in Italy. See, I read a bit of Italian, so then I could read my books in Italian and be like, "They translated that line like that?!" I'm especially interested to see what they would do with "Nova" since "No va" literally means "It doesn't go" in Italian!

 

Thank you, Margaret! (And I can't wait for Nova to find a publisher next.) In all fairness, she's one of the sharpest, best critique partners I've had and as anyone who has read Margaret's work can attest, she's practically flawless in her writing. My first thoughts on finding out her good news were "It's about time!"

 

To connect more with Margaret:

Her blog

On AQC