The Happy New Year Blog Post Where I Ramble On About Digging Deep In Your Writing

I'm sort of a sentimental nerd when it comes to New Year's Eve. Whereas for some it's a cause to celebrate, to toast, to party with friends, to eat Chinese food and curl up with a stack of movies - for me, it's a time of reflection and often sadness. Weird, but true. It's as if we are tethered somehow to all that happens to us in that particular year and when that clock strikes midnight, that tether is broken and it all becomes a part of our past in a different way. There is a marker of distance between us and these events. For some reason, this makes me an emotional mess.

What is it about the past that makes us hold on so tight? Do we somehow believe that as long as we cling to it, a piece of it is still with us somehow in the present? And I'm certainly not alone in feeling this way. How many of you are thrown head-first into a memory, painful or positive, just by hearing a song, or seeing a scene from a movie, or even driving down a certain street? I honestly believe there is no place more powerful or raw to dig in for deep, emotional, real writing than in the treasure troves of our pasts. Those events, people and places that have left a lasting imprint on our hearts and lives. Why? What's the story there?

This year, dig deep. Look at what's inside you, what hurts to let go of, what feels GOOD to let go of, and let it come out to play. Mold it like clay and let it be your muse, guiding your words honestly and ferociously on to the page and see where it takes you.

I send New Years blessings to my writer friends, and hope you have a healthy, happy New Year filled with much laughter and happiness and that the words flow. Don't stress the whole I-have-to-get-an-agent-I-must-be-published-I-have-to-sell-a-ton-of-books-or-I'm-nothing thing. It's meaningless in the scope of the universe, really. Write for you. Write because you must. Write because you need it like you need oxygen in your lungs. Everything else is just a bonus, and you should never look to others to validate yourself in that way. Writing a book, or a blog, or whatever you write, is a huge endeavor and accomplishment of its own - one that many say they'd like to do but never actually accomplish. What's important is the journey - the dream, the persistence, the discipline, the dedication, the passion. The rest will come in it's own time.

Happy New Year!

Never Judge A Book By It's Cover

As a writer, I try and read every single new release within the genre I write in (contemporary YA for those following along at home) to best understand what is being published and why. Some of them are straightforward and obvious fun, and others make me scratch my head and say "Really?", but that's what makes this business subjective. When I came across one of the latest offerings, "The Summer of Skinny Dipping" by Amanda Howells, at my local library, I picked it up off the shelf and immediately dubbed it a frothy beach read I'd skim when I had the chance. Lesson learned: Never judge a book by it's cover.

Admittedly, the cover shows a seascape and an impossibly thin teen in a gauzy flowing wrap skirt and bikini top skittering amongst the waves, and the back offers up a stereotypical summer romance about the girl who falls in love with the boy renting the summer house next door the summer of her sixteenth year. Been there, read that, right? I thought so too. But that's the problem - the cover, and the brief description on the back, don't even begin to touch on the magic that lies on the pages within.

Although the book starts predictably in a light way, it quickly delves beneath the surface and deals with dark topics, deep emotions and makes your heart catch in your throat on more than one occasion. The writing is lyrical and beautiful, evoking all senses, and allowing the reader to crawl into the main character Mia's skin in a way that truly took me back to being sixteen again. Further, what took me most by surprise is that the ending had a twist I never saw coming - something you don't usually find in what I would have normally judged as a "lightweight" novel. Sure, there are seeds planted along the way, as any good writer should do to get the reader thinking, but this was so not what I expected that I literally found myself emotionally reactive at the end and had to sit with the story for a few moments after finishing it. I don't want to give anything away, because it's well worth a read to enjoy Amanda Howell's beautiful writing and sensitive love story, but I have to say she did an excellent job as a writer of taking the reader fully on her character's journey and immersing them in her world and her heart.

A lot of teen novels today have similar covers. It's the publisher that chooses these, not the writer, and my guess is it's based on sales of similar novels. If you liked x novel and it had x cover, you are likely to pick up this novel off the shelf and check it out. However, take that extra step and read the inside flap. Better yet, if you can, sit and read the first chapter or two, because what you see on the cover may not be what you get. If you pass on something because of a lackluster or even misleading cover, you may miss out on a gem of a story.

When is your novel ready to submit?

I am so happy for a writer friend of mine. She has been working on her novel for five years - yep! that's right - five years - and FINALLY got it to that sweet spot where she knew it was ready to start querying. She'd queried it before in another form and generated interest, even did a full rewrite for an agent at their request, only to have them pass. However, instead of that destroying her confidence, she dove back into the manuscript and kept what advice she found useful and brought it back to the story she wanted to tell, not the story somebody else was looking to hear.

Several years and many rewrites later, she sent out ten queries in her first week and instantly got three requests for the full from three top agents. This is the amazing stuff every writer wishes would happen to them. However, when you hear of someone's insta-success, or a huge amount of interest in their book straight out of the gate, there's usually a story behind it. There's usually years of hard work, agonizing rewrites, painful hours of cut and paste and spell check and tears, moments of wanting to give it up, moments of thinking it's there only to realize it's not. Sure, instant successes happen, but it's important to remember that nothing worth having in life comes without hard work. Writing is hard work, and although sometimes it's hard to keep the optimism level high and the words flowing, the only way to get your novel to where you want it to be is by doing the work.

So how do you know when it's done? The truth is - it's never done. There is always something, upon reflection, that you find that you wish you could tweak or change. For a novel to be ready, it must undergo many revisions. When I get feedback, I read it through and see if I honestly agree with it. If just one person says it, I mull it over and see if it feels right. However, if two or more people say it, I change it without hesitation. Then it's no longer a subjective thing; it's an identifiable problem.

If you send your book out in the world when the feedback coming back is still saying something needs attention in one way or another, you are only short-changing yourself opportunity. You only get to query an agent once with a project, unless they request changes or you've made a substantial revision and they initially expressed strong interest, in which case you can certainly contact them and see if they would be open and willing to reconsider your work.

When you feel your book is truly done, be honest with yourself. Are you just sick and tired of working on it and it is what it is? Have all previous concerns from feedback you've received been addressed? Were there things you received feedback on that you stubbornly refused to change, and if so, why? Are you just anxious to get it out there already? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, do yourself a favor - take a step back. Because guess what? Your novel probably isn't ready. And the beautiful thing is - at this stage in the game, time is on your side. There are no deadlines save the self-imposed ones. You have the luxury of being able to take all the time you need to make it right, and in the end, it will have been worth it.

What's Your Story?

Yesterday was one of those magical life moments. I celebrated my 20th anniversary with my husband.

We met in college, in our junior year. He was sitting in front of me in a class and I thought he was cute so I passed him a note. We ended up passing notes back and forth for three days without ever actually speaking a single word to each other. On the fourth day, it was a freezing, stormy Boston day, and I asked him if he'd like to come over and have some hot chocolate and a real conversation. He did, and drank the whole mug, left to go to his 6 p.m. class, came back at 9, and basically never left. Now that I've been married to him for 20 years, I know that he absolutely hates hot chocolate.

Why am I sharing this with you? Because everyone has a story. The story of their relationships, the story of their friendships, the story of their career, the story of the moment of greatest joy or deepest grief, the story of the roads taken and not taken. These stories are the real fabric of life, the universal truths that we can write about that readers can dive in and relate to that make our stories more personal and believable.

If you're stuck in your writing, or you want to flesh out a relationship between your characters more fully, take a few minutes and pick a story or two from your own life and write about it in detail as if it were happening to the characters in your story. Chances are, when writing from your own personal treasure trove of memories, you will tend to remember little details that set the mood and propel the story. Things like: a song that was playing, if it was the most beautiful day ever or driving rain, the look on someone's face, how you felt inside, etc. Though you may never actually incorporate this story into your own, it will help you reach in and find the honesty in the piece you want to work on.

Finding An Agent

You've written the book, you've spent hours perfecting your query and synopsis, and now the time has come to get your baby out into the world. Where do you start? There are, literally, hundreds of literary agents out there. How can you possibly know who they are, what they like, and which one would be the best fit for your work?

The best place to start is by making your own personal agent "wish list", i.e. what factors are the most important to you in a working relationship. Remember, your relationship with your agent is a partnership akin to a marriage. You have to be able to feel comfortable to approach them with questions and issues, there needs to be clear communication, and that person has to "get" you and your work. Are you more comfortable working with a man or a woman? Huge established agency or a smaller boutique agency with a smaller client list? A newer agent or someone who has more experience? Someone who communicates to you every step of the way or someone who just checks in when there's something important to say? Based in New York or based somewhere else? (By the way, the latter point does not seem to matter much these days with the advent of the internet, Skype and whatnot - they all are well connected to the primarily New York-based publishing houses.) Written contract or verbal agreement? Only you can answer these questions as to what works best for you, and will help you hone in on select people as you begin your search.

The next step is to become familiar with several key websites that are a tremendous asset in helping research what each agent is looking for. Hands down, the best one I've found is Literary Rambles, which is literally a one-stop shop for finding the low-down on some of the top agents in the business. The site has specific submission guidelines for each agent, their interests as far as requested materials, and an abundance of links to further research anyone who catches your eye. You can branch off and read interviews on blogs, or see their listings on Publishers Marketplace, and so on.

Also excellent are sites like AgentQuery.com, which allows you to perform searches in a specific genre and also has information like comments from other writers, response times and request percentages, contact information, and much more. This site will also tell you if the agent likes to see queries by email or snail mail.

There are also many invaluable blogs, which I have mentioned in previous posts, and books like Writers Market and Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors and Literary Agents. These books are updated annually because editors and agents move around a lot, so it is always best to check the agency's website directly to make sure that particular agent is still there. Writer's Digest also has an online component with the most current listings if you purchase the deluxe edition. They also have a smaller resource guide that is specific just for literary agents, which can be found here.

Start small and send out queries to just a few at a time. Hopefully, someone bites with interest right away, but if not, you can take the feedback you get to help you tweak the query or hone your focus differently. For example,Agent A that works for mega-huge agency that you'd sell your first-born to work with may state specifically she loves paranormal and sci fi and you're sending her your contemporary romance. Show them you've done your homework. Know who they represent, especially if they rep writers similar to how you write.

And most of all, have patience. This process takes a loooooong time, unless you're one of the super lucky ones who gets an agent right out of the gate, but remember, they are the exception, not the rule, so don't feel like giving up if it doesn't happen on the timetable you've envisioned. Good luck!

The Afterglow

It seems fitting to put up this post on the last day of November, a month generally associated with being thankful for the people and blessings and opportunities in our lives. I have so much to be thankful for this year I cannot even begin to tell you. As I bask in the afterglow of the last few days' events, I would like to take a moment to give thanks and reflect on what I've come to know as truth.

BE THANKFUL FOR FRIENDS AND FAMILY
My family, and many of my friends, were there when my journey as a writer began, and they will be there with me until the end. It began with my Mom, who at age three, helped me write the words that I dictated for my very first book, "The Cat and the Mouse Who Were Friends." I supplied the illustrations, and went on from there to spend many a play-date, forcing my friends to sit at the table in my room with a stack of paper and pens "writing books." My oldest friend Ilene and I used to have sleepovers where we would stay up late and play a game called "Book Titles," where we would make lists of titles and essentially pitch the stories to each other. My classmates in elementary school were some of my earliest cheerleaders, listening with rapt attention as I read my stories aloud in Creative Writing, or "ordering" the books I'd write from my handmade catalogs that mimicked the ones we would get from Scholastic book orders. My parents, who gave me my first typewriter, and later, a computer. And in the years since, my cheerleading squad has grown to include new friends who tirelessly read my work with red pen in hand, brought me baked goods, chocolate bars and took me out for coffee when I was feeling like it would never happen, and some whom I have never met in person but no matter because they knew just the right things to say, and meant them sincerely. (Yes, I'm talking to you, Shelli Cornelison!) Remember who was there in the beginning, before "the call", before "the deal", and cherish them. People who continue to believe in you, even when you are filled with self-doubt as is par for the course, are worth gold.

HAVE FAITH IN THE UNIVERSE
You can't have a dream come true if you don't have a dream. Words and thoughts have power, and if you hold fast to your dream and persevere with patience and determination, you can reach your goal. The end result may be different than what you envisioned, or even on a different timeline than you'd hoped, but I do believe everything happens for a reason. Often, when we reflect, all the pieces and speed bumps of the past make sense in retrospect. Be grateful and thankful for every speed bump, hiccup, criticism, road block, detour and failure. They helped shape who you are right this very moment, and have faith that these things are ultimately responsible for making you a stronger and better writer and human being.

PAY IT FORWARD
Everyone would like to be successful and enjoy the fruits of their labor. Too many, however, when they feel that first glimmer of success, forget that not that long ago, they were also someone struggling to make it all come together and happen. If you find yourself fortunate enough to be in the position of achieving success in your chosen venture, always remember the importance of paying it forward. Mentoring and being there for someone else is the greatest reward of all (see first paragraph about the importance of cheerleaders!). I am eternally grateful and thankful to every single person I have met since the day I first put pen to paper who took the time to give me feedback, criticism, referrals, and the time of day. I know, without question, that what happened for me the other day would NEVER have happened without that. Besides, it's good karma :)

BE PATIENT
Good things come to those who wait. The delay is never the denial. All that good stuff. Annoying as hell, yes, but true nonetheless.

BREATHE
It's so easy to get so caught up in the whole process of making it happen that it's easy to forget to exhale. Writing, while exhilarating, can be stressful. What's my word count? Is there enough plot/action? And then querying and writing a synopsis. And then waiting. And waiting. And waiting some more. Enjoy it. Enjoy every moment, every piece, for each has its own unique experience to savor. If this is what you feel you were born to do, then know and have faith this is part of the process. Everything in its due time. Breathe in, breathe out.

Hope you take a moment to give thanks to those who are supporting you along your way, and to the universe for everything you experience. And thanks to you for taking the time to follow my journey!

The post where I get to announce I have an AGENT!!!!

Wow. I would be lying if I told you I haven't dreamed about writing this post. The thrill of actually finding a person that champions my story and my writing with as much passion as my mother does is, quite honestly, one of the most incredible feelings on Earth.

Two years. 9 revisions. Lots o'queries, the bulk of which were long before the book was truly ready to query. 16 Fulls, 3 partials, many rejections. I truly felt, at times, like I was on a roller-coaster. After all this time, and so many mistakes, the book was FINALLY ready and where I wanted it to be. But was it too late? And then, something happened that changed everything.

Do you ever meet someone and just know that they were brought into your life for a reason? Something about the moment you meet seems super-charged, as if the universe were orchestrating this moment into play for a very specific reason? I felt like that when I met YA author Jessica Brody at a writing workshop she led this past November. Our instant banter led to an easy friendship, and she was kind enough to pay it forward and offer me up a referral to her agent, Bill Contardi at Brandt and Hochman. She couldn't sing his praises enough, and she was also honest in saying that he had never once signed anyone she'd referred, but she encouraged me to go for it. I did, and Bill responded instantly, requesting the full, and then, last night, I got "the email", the one I'd read about on so many blogs where the agent says they loved your book and would like to set up a time to talk to you.

I have to be honest and say that I had to read the email three times at least before I screamed and called my family downstairs, because I'd grown accustomed to seeing, "I read BAND GEEK and I really liked it BUT . . ." This one said that too, but there was no BUT. Bill is an unbelievable agent. He not only represents Jessica, but Alyson Noel, who is one of my favorite YA authors, like, EVER! He's well respected and has worked in publishing for close to 30 years, including having a background in film and handling the film rights for clients like Meg Cabot and Ursula LeGuin. Holy cow!

The feelings racing through my brain and body were indescribable. How can you put words to that moment where suddenly everything you've worked for and dreamed of might possibly be one step closer to fruition?

Five minutes on the phone with Bill the next day, and I knew he was the right one for me. He loved the book, the voice, the character, and is as passionate about the project as I am. He has vision for where to send it and what it's future potential might be. In that moment, I got what all those blogs are saying. You shouldn't just sign with someone because they are interested in your project, nor should you mourn the ones that said no because you thought they seemed so perfect. You should go with your gut. The person you say yes to should be as excited as you are about your work, and not one iota less. And you can hope that when they send your work out into the world, their excitement can't help but be contagious. The "no's" are a gift, because they are clearing the path for the right one.

So the journey continues, and now the road merges in a new direction. I've never been so excited to hurry up and wait anew.