Fall Traditions
Oct 22, 2012 
Growing up, one of my favorite October family traditions was making caramel apples. We’d buy a bag of caramel cubes and my siblings and I would race to see who could unwrap the most before they were gone.
We’d dump them in a pan and wait and wait and wait for the cream and caramels to go from this:
. . . to this.
Yumm!
I was the fourth child so I had to wait FOREVER for my turn, but then I’d get to drip (what was left of) that melty goodness over my apple on a stick.
The tradition is so ingrained in me, it’s like it’s not really Fall until we’ve made caramel apples.
I could go on about how important traditions are and ask you what your characters’ traditions are, etc., but my mind can’t focus that far when the gooey caramelly picture is staring me in the face. So instead, I’ll keep it simple: What’s your favorite Fall tradition?
P.S. The fabulous, wonderful, amazing Brenda Drake invited me for an interview on her blog. If you’ve got time, check it out! 🙂
Lenny’s Birthday Bash
If you haven’t noticed from all the blogosphere love, today is Lenny Lee’s 13th birthday. Happy Birthday Lenny! So I wanted to share my Lenny Top Ten. You ready for this?
- Be yourself. If you’ve had contact with Lenny, you know that his bright soul shines through all his posts and comments. He’s so purely him,
- Be positive. A corollary to #1. All the positivity not only makes others happier, but it makes you happier, too.
- If you want to improve your writing, study hard then share what you learned with others. If you haven’t read Lenny’s posts on writing, you are missing out. I learn a ton from him!
- Old-fashioned snail mail letters never go out of style. I have gotten a letter or two from him, and gosh they put a goofy grin on my face!
- Raccoons are cute. Well, not so cute when they tear open your garbage and throw it everywhere, but I can love them anyway because Lenny does. 🙂
- Nightshade City by Hilary Wagner is awesome. I read this book because Lenny so highly recommended it. A very fun read!
- You reap what you sow. Okay, this is a corollary to #1 and #2. Lenny gets so much love from the blogosphere because he gives so much love.
- It’s always a good time to eat Reeses’ Peanut Butter Cups. Okay, I knew this one before I met Lenny, but he really reinforced it for me. 🙂
- Southern charm is real! And Lenny has it. What with his “Miss” Janet (or whoever), and his “hugs” . . . Gosh it’s all so charming it just melts my heart.
- You’re never too small/young/insert-other-limiting-adjective-here to make a difference. Lenny has influenced so many people, it’s amazing. I hope to be like him when I grow up. (Though, do children’s writers ever really grow up?)
Happy Birthday Lenny! I hope it is a happy one. 🙂
How I Got My Agent
First of all, thank you to everyone who stopped by to wish me congratulations last week! It’s such a great feeling having so many supportive friends. 🙂 I’m still working through the comments, but I might be slow. So in the mean time, know that every comment was VERY appreciated!
Anyhoo, last week you got the short version of my news, so today, for those who like this sort of thing (I always do), I give you the long version. I totally understand if you skim. Because it’s long. Especially for me!
Many moons ago, when I was but a wee lass, I wrote a book. It was amazing. A best seller. Humorous. Touching. Emotional. Gripping from page one. (Okay, I’m lying. It was TERRIBLE. But that’s how I felt about it.)
I queried precisely one agent. And I got precisely one partial request . . . and then an exceedingly kind rejection. And I KNEW. I put that book on a shelf and moved on to the next book.
The next book took me . . . um, A LOT of years to write. Because by golly, I was going to get it right this time! I entered one pitch contest, and got one full request (I know! Crazy, right?). And then I got the rejection. And I KNEW. This book was not ready. I tried to fix this one, but just never felt ready to let it go. So I moved on to the next book.
Except, really, I moved back to the previous book. I re-read it. Groaned at how awful it was. But I saw the spark in my characters. I replotted. Made my darling husband talk plot points on date night. Carried a notebook with me everywhere so I could write in every spare minute. But before I was done, I sent the first ten pages to be critiqued by an agent at a conference.
And people, you are going to laugh, but I got a full request! So I worked even harder and finished the first draft (I use the term loosely). I edited it, polished it, and finally sent it off (Jan. 2011). And then . . .? Nothing. So I took a deep breath and began querying in March. Slowly. V-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. And I got some requests, but one by one, they all came back as rejections.
Something had to be done. Come October 2011, I battled in an online auction for an editor critique. I paid my money, and got some fabulous advice. But alas, it meant major revisions. So I dug in, and by February 2012, I was raring to go again. So I sent off ten more queries, and got a couple of requests. I even e-mailed some agents who had rejected the full, and they all agreed to look at it again. I was feeling good!
But when those rejections came, I was crushed. CRUSHED. I came to the only conclusion I could. My book was not ready. Irrational, I know, but there we have it. I stopped querying last April.
So I threw my heart into my next book which I am absolutely in love with. And this time I was feeling it. This was going to be THE book. My breakthrough.
Halfway through draft two of THE book, I got an email from a former CP telling me how she had given her novel one last shot and actually gotten an agent. I was so happy for her, and so humbled. Deep down, I knew I hadn’t really given my previous book a chance. So I told myself: “One last hurrah. And then I can’t say I didn’t try.”
Right about this same time Brenda Drake was starting Pitch Madness. 300 entries. 60 finalists. 9 agents.
I entered, and was lucky enough to be pulled from the slush by Dee and chosen as a finalist by Erica Chapman.
Now see, I had read all the agent bios. One had already rejected this ms, and 3 or so didn’t do Middle Grade. Of the remaining 5, based on interests, I thought I’d probably get one request. Two if I were particularly lucky.
That week I bit my nails (which I DON’T do), followed the #pitchmadness twitter conversation religiously, and tried my best to sleep at night. And of course I told myself, “It’s not like anything’s going to come of this. Even if I do get a request.”
Yeah. Pessimist, much?
The day arrived. With shaking hands I went to twitter for the announcement of which agent won each entry. But my entry didn’t come up. They skipped right past my number. I felt sick. But wasn’t it just the inevitable? No interest. More of the same.
Dejected, I went to my entry just to make it real, and my jaw dropped to the floor to find that SIX of the nine agents had expressed interest! SIX!!! Including the one who had previously rejected it. And including an agent I KNEW didn’t rep middle grade. There had been a tie, which is why my entry hadn’t been announced.
I was agog. I must have stared at that screen for a full minute with my mouth still hanging open.
Anyway, to bring this epically long post to an end, I ended up with three requests in addition to the winner. One of those being the agent who had previously rejected this book.
So when I received an e-mail from the said agent a mere six days later, I assumed she had finally realized her mistake.
I could not have been more wrong. She wanted to talk representation!
I know!
We had a wonderful telephone conversation in which she told me what she loved about my ms (among other things), and though I tried to keep an open mind for the other agents still reading, I knew I wanted to work with her. And if you haven’t guessed by now, yes, this was Victoria Marini. SHE WAS THE AGENT WHO HAD REJECTED THIS VERY SAME BOOK! Form rejection of the query, no less.
I tell you this because I had written her off. She hadn’t like it. So even though I’d done a major revision, I had no plans to re-query her.
Mistake.
Writing a book is a bold endeavor. It takes hard work, patience, and lots of courage. And querying is no different. Be bold! Be brave! BE BRAVER THAN ME. Don’t be afraid of a ‘no’ . . . or even a second ‘no’.
And there I shall end, but for those who like stats, here are mine. I’ve combined contest requests with queries, just to make it less convoluted:
Time spent querying: 9 months actively (over span of 1.5 years)
Total queries sent: 63 (fyi, I only sent 55 queries, the rest were requests from contests)
Query Rejections: 28
Non-responders: 20
Partial requests: 8
Full requests: 9
Offers of Representation: 1
It just takes one, right? Don’t give up. And BE BOLD!
My Big News!!
Yes!!! This is THAT big news: I. Have. An. Agent! *insert cheesy grin and maybe a squee or two*
I know! Cool, right?
And do you know how hard it was not to say anything last week?!! Well I assure you, it was hard.
So who is this agent you ask? The wonderfully fabulous Victoria Marini of Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents, Inc.
She read my manuscript in one sitting guys. And when she e-mailed me, she used words like “wonderful,” “marketable,” and “fabulous.” I’ve read others’ experiences so many times, and wondered if an agent could ever really love my little book enough to offer representation. Seriously, I am all agog at the fantastickness of it.
I have a whole long “How I Got My Agent” post written out in my head with all kinds of thanks involved which I’m sure will be coming shortly, not to mention a celebration of some sort, but for now I give you the mandatory ‘I’m-signing-my-contract’ picture. (And yes, my desk is always that clean. Why do you ask?)
So what is your good news, today?
The Next Big Thing
Last week I was tagged by both Amy Sonnichsen (my Hacky Sack Club Partner-in-crime) and Stina Lindenblatt (one of my favorite bloggers) for the latest tag game going around: The Next Big Thing! Like Stina, I’m going to hold off on my WIP, but I will share about one of my labors of love:
What is your working title of your book?
The Peanut Butter and Jelly Friendship
Where did the idea come from for the book?
Forever ago I wrote a terrible book about a girl whose best friend had to move. Terrible. It may or may not have come from personal experience. 😉 So when I pulled it out and reexamined the plot, foreclosures were ravaging the US, and a new story was born.
What genre does your book fall under?
Contemporary Middle Grade.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
I don’t watch TV and I’m horribly behind on watching movies, so all the kid actors I once knew of are now grown up, so I don’t know. Yeah, yeah, cop out answer, but honest!
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
When selling her appendix on e-bay doesn’t work,
ten-year-old Annie Jenkins seeks other ways to save her best friend’s house from
foreclosure.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Hopefully represented by an agency. 😉
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? May we see an intro?
If you count that horrible, awful version I mentioned above, I wrote the bulk of it in a month, though the first chapter had been written about 7 years prior to that.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I think it has similar themes to WHAT HAPPENED ON FOX STREET, but Annie is very much like RAMONA.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Egad. I’m a little embarrassed to admit (which I think you’d understand if you read the book), but much of what happens was inspired by my own childhood. However, the larger themes are very much influenced by the rocky economic situation the world is going through. I really wanted to explore how foreclosures were affecting the kids who are touched by them.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Well after that last answer, I better come up with something good before ya’ll fall asleep on me. So let’s just say that this book involves pirates and lost treasure, not to mention prune juice and turkey poop. What’s not to love?! 😉
And I am tagging (no pressure tags here):
Melissa Sarno
Old Kitty
Theresa Milstein
Vicki Rocho
Lenny Lee
***
Rules of The Next Big Thing:
*Use this format for your post
*Answer the ten questions about your current WIP (work in progress)
*Tag five other writers/bloggers and add their links so we can hop over and meet them.
Ten Interview Questions for the Next Big Thing:
What is your working title of your book?
Where did the idea come from for the book?
What genre does your book fall under?
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? May we see an intro?
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Include the link of who tagged you and this explanation for the people you have tagged.
Be sure to line up your five people in advance.
This vs. That: Stay-up-late vs. Get-up-early
First, I want to thank everyone for their great reading suggestions from last week. In fact, I think you are inspiring me to add another page to my blog. Something along the lines of “Book Suggestions.” The idea is definitely swirling in my brain.
Now on to the subject at hand as a This vs. That post is LONG overdue. So, without further ado, I will jump to the numbers. As you recall, we were debating the finer points of staying up late vs. getting up early:
Total votes: 21
Stay up late: 10 votes; 47%
Get up early: 7 votes; 33%
Neither: 2 votes; 10%
Both: 2 votes; 10%
Clearly we have a couple of crazies with us. Both? Egad you two are gluttons for punishment. At the very least, I hope you sneak in a nap somewhere. OR, I guess if you have superpowers, that would work, too.
Ooh! Random thought: Next time someone asks, “If you could choose any superpower, what would it be?” I am totally choosing the superpower of not needing sleep. Wouldn’t that be awesome??? Think about how much you could accomplish!
Okay, okay, back to the subject . . . Other than those two bizarre votes, these results are as they should be (so hopefully you can guess where I voted). As one commenter said (and I’m paraphrasing), the glory of staying up late is that you have this huge supply of extra time you can take advantage of! And don’t we all need extra time? (*wink,wink*)
On the other hand, if you get up early, the day starts at the same time, just like every other morning and you get no extra time. Why not? Because you had to get up early to make up for the lost time of going to bed early. Seriously. Think about that.
But not for too long, because you have to make some decisions on the next debate:
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| Picture courtesy of Reb Sumner |
Winner and a Question
Today I have winners for my giveaway of Leigh Moore’s The Truth about Faking.
And drumroll please . . . . .
Hurray and congratulations! Just let me know what format you would like (see that “Contact Me” page up top?) and I’ll have it off to you.
Now, next item on the agenda. So I have this 8-year-old who has recently turned into a voracious reader, and I mean VORACIOUS! I’m talking zombie-piranha here. He has ripped through pretty much every book in my personal library, and a good number from the library as well.
He’s gone through The Lightning Thief series (and its spin-offs), The Magic Tree House series, The Secrets of Droon series, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Prydain series, the Molly Moon series, gosh just more than I can name.
So I need suggestions. What books would you recommend for an 8-year-old boy?
The Truth about Faking (and a Giveaway!)
So when she released The Truth about Faking last week (you can read the whole story >>here<<), I begged her to let me interview her and happily she agreed.
But since she’s told her publishing story elsewhere, I wanted to show you the heart and other sticky stuff that make Leigh and her writing just so loveable. *Warning: Silliness May Ensue*
Good Witch. Seriously. First, because I can sing that whole song
starting with “Come out, come out whereeeever you are…” But also
because when we were in college, my husband and I never dated–we were just
friends. But we both really loved Wild at Heart (David Lynch). It’s a
really awful movie, but we would laugh at all the silly dialogue,
including the part where Nicholas Cage is visited by the dead girl from
Twin Peaks as Glenda. “The good witch…!” That became me for whatever
reason.
Me: I shall see you differently forever after, Glenda! And I shall get you a wand for your birthday. 🙂
Me: Jolly Green Giant vs. Stay Puffed Marshmallow Man. Go.
Didn’t you see Ghostbusters? (heehee! love that movie!) #2-That Giant is hot. I’m just sayin. Have
you checked him out? And finally, #3-JGG kinda looks like “jiggy” to
me.
Me: How do you take your banana splits?
*madly Googles Bananas Foster . . .*
Me: What is your best party trick?
*face burns red as I turn to Google again . . . who *gasp* fails me!!!*
Me: Ahem. If you were planning the next Hacky Sack Club challenge, what would it be and why?
Me: Oh yes, I think you would. But now it’s like an expectation. Do it! Do it! Do it! 😉
Me: During your Fairy Relocation Housing Project, how many fairies did you provide housing for and how did you discover the need?
Well, I’m glad you asked about this, and I know it
was prompted because you are the Clean Up Fairy (eek! You outed me!). I have to credit my
youngest daughter for this outreach. She often walks around seeming to
ignore me and the world in general. I’ll say, “Laura, where are your
pants?” And she’ll walk into a wall. Then last spring, we discovered it
was in fact the fairies distracting her. They were telling her they
needed new homes. As for numbers, well, they don’t like us to share that
information. It was between a trifle and a bonanza.
Me: Please thank said daughter. The house is fabulous, darling, simply fabulous. Tell her I’ll leave a pot of fairy grease in the hollow log in the magic forest for those head bumps. Works wonders!
Me: Tell us one thing about you we probably don’t know (we promise not to tell anyone, bwahahah!).
I tell so much, is it possible to answer this
question? Umm… I uhh… well, let me see. I took classical piano
lessons for 12 years. That’s why I think I type so fast. (That’s not
very exciting is it? I also have a tattoo of Glenda the Good Witch on
my… just kidding! That’s a joke.)
Me: Sensing another Hacky Sack video in your future!
Me: Okay, you knew I had to ask this one . . . if your Main Characters had personalized plates, what would they be? What would yours be?
plates because he’s a car geek. It would be something classic like
muscle cars are great or something–except it would be cool b/c he’s
much cooler than me. Maybe it would be something with Harley’s name,
because he loves to tease her about it. As for me… Uhh… Writrgrl? Is
that dumb? Or 1 Moore? (That IS dumb! How many letters are in a
personalized plate again?)
Haahahah! . . . *cough, cough* . . . I mean, not dumb at all! Really. I think I’ve even seen WRTRGRL before. 🙂 (Oh, and 7 to 8 letters depending on what state you’re in. I think I even saw 9 once. #I’malicenseplategeek)
THANKS so much for having me, Janet! I really hope everyone gets a kick out of my book. My characters are funnier than me. [And she put a cute little heart here that my blog is rejecting. That doesn’t say anything about me, does it? ;)]
Jason just wants a date with Harley.
Harley just wants a date with Trent.
Trent’s still getting over Stephanie.
When
Harley and Jason decide to fake date, they uncover a school of
deceptions. Trent’s got a secret, but so does Jason. And the more time
Harley spends secretly kissing her fake boyfriend, the further she gets
from her dreams with Trent.
Worst of all, Harley’s mom is
getting cozy with her hot massage therapy student, and even Harley’s
Reverend Dad can’t fake not being bothered by it. But when the masks
finally come off, can everyone handle the real truth?
Your Fortune is Changing
Since it’s Labor Day here in the USA, I’ll be brief.
We had Chinese take-out on Saturday and my fortune was so good I wanted to share it with you all:
So what book do you go to for rest and escape?
Hacky Sack Club: Ethnic Musical Challenge
Back in May (when I was busy posting my hacky sack videos (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) as penance for my writing failures), my Hacky Sack Club partner, the amazing Amy Sonnichsen, wrote to me suggesting that we start hosting Hacky Sack Club challenges.
She told me she was thinking that Chinese opera could be fun. So I might have gone pale, and maybe trembled in my knees a little. (I love you Amy!)
Fortunately we came to a nice little compromise and settled on an Ethnic Music Challenge.*
Once that was decided, and she kindly agreed to wait till I returned from my blogging hiatus, the problem became this: How in the world do you compete with Chinese Opera?
After sitting in thoughtful silence on the matter with my husband, we humbly concluded that you don’t.
But then the word “Bollywood” came up. We giggled.**
Then the idea of SOLO Bollywood came up. We giggled a little harder.
And then we started scouring the internet for the perfect song. 🙂
Just a couple of notes: 1) Yes, that is me singing. 2) No, I have not yet signed that million dollar recording contract (too many to choose from, heehee). 3) No, I haven’t accepted any movie offers recently, either (my acting is just that good).
So without further ado and for your viewing pleasure:
Speechless, aren’t you?
And you absolutely cannot miss Amy’s video. She is just . . . wow! SO talented!! This just in!!: Catherine Denton doing Broadway featuring her twin sister. And if you decide to join the fun, let either of us know and we’ll link to you! (Hacky Sacks are still available for new members! I know you want one.)
*Because ethnic music is awesome! (Definitely NOT intended as a put-down. Just to be clear.)
**At the idea of ME doing Bollywood. Not at Bollywood itself. Because Bollywood rocks!