A Different Way of Doing Business

I get a lot of referrals from clients, which, of course, I absolutely love. In fact, just last month (or maybe the month before) I signed a new client who came through a referral. But I digress.

The reason I’m writing this post is because there is definitely a different way of doing business in every industry, and publishing is no exception. When a nonfiction client refers me or introduces me (usually through email) to a potentially new writer, almost inevitably the writer follows up with an email suggesting times when we should talk on the phone. She always has a list of book ideas she’d like to discuss and I never get the feeling she has a book proposal.

Frankly, I still haven’t quite figured out how I want to handle these situations. More often than not these phone calls end with me saying that the idea sounds viable, and rarely do I ever see a proposal when I tell the author that’s what I would need. Now, I’ve scheduled time out of my day to have the call, wasted time explaining the business to an author, and nothing much comes from it.

So I’ve responded via email instead, explaining how the process works in publishing and letting the author know I’d need to hear more about the book. The author, of course, seems miffed that I can’t take the time for a phone call and, again, I never see a proposal.

Most of the authors I experience this with are business authors, and obviously they are doing business in the way they are used to. I don’t think it’s wrong, it just doesn’t necessarily work for publishing.

Jessica

Yes, we still have mountains in our kitchen

OK, so no mountains, but definite foothills. I exercised some literary license. I'm a writer. Sue me.

Since June 19, when I discovered that my dishwasher's water pump had exploded, I have been living with rumply laminate flooring.

At first, I thought, "OK, so, it's not nice and flat, but it could be worse. Live with it. The insurance guys will come through soon."

But after a few times catching a heel on one of those peaks and being launched into movement that could go along with the lyrics to "I Believe I Can Fly," one ceases to be patient. Especially when one also has a pot of tea in one's hand when one is shrieking, "I believe I can touch the sky" (okay, the ceiling.)

My insurance folks told me that, why, yes, they would cover the floor. All I had to do was get an estimate for the damages.

I had no idea this was some sort of inside joke, kind of like the suggestion to bell the cat, at least not until I tried to get an estimate.

It took me nearly a week to get the first estimate, and I had to pay $51 for the privilege for the first estimate. (No, apparently free estimates are about as common as pink elephants these days, as they SAY it's free, but what it REALLY means is they credit your "account" should you use their labor.)

That guy totally muddled things up by saying that he thought my dining area was messed up, too, though to be honest, I had to really squint to see what he was talking about.

I reported this (including the squint part) dutifully to my insurance agent, who frowned and said, "Hmh. Now we'll have to get an appraiser out to look at it."

I told her that I would get a second estimate. This contractor came out, said, "Nope, your dining area's a-OK. I'll have the estimate for ya tomorrow."

He did. Along with a lovely little postscript that if I didn't use his services, his fee for the estimate would be $75. (See? Like I told you about the pink elephants.)

I forwarded the estimate FOR THE KITCHEN PART ONLY onto my insurance company who forwarded them onto the claims people who were supposed to get in touch with me within 48 hours.

That was Friday. And at least a half-dozen stumbles ago. No phone calls. No appraiser dude. No nothing but the oncoming Fourth of July when contractors all seem to take vacations.

So I called The Insurance Lady back to find that she was Out Of The Office (yes, when the receptionist answered, it DID sound like she said it in caps). The receptionist lady said she would call the claims people and get back to me.

Finally she has called me back. Appraiser Dude has decided to cut a check and not show up. Which is fine with me. But I could have already scheduled Contractor Dude to come in and start ripping out my Kitchen Mountain Range if Appraiser Dude had just called me back.

As it is, with the Fourth coming up, it looks like I'll be tripping over The Kitchen Mountain Range until I can actually con a contractor into actually reporting for duty. Which means I'll be needing back-up music for "I Believe I Can Fly" for the foreseeable future.

Erin Kellison on Writing

Erin Kellison
Shadow Bound
Publisher: Leisure
Pub date: July 2010
Agent: Jessica Faust


(Click to Buy)


When I started Shadow Bound, I had zero aspirations for the manuscript to get published. Zero. My goal was this: learn to write a book while having fun. I assumed, when complete, it would languish on my computer for a while, and then I’d go back months later to see if there was anything to salvage. Shadow Bound was a self-imposed course on writing a novel. This approach gave me all sorts of room to do what I wanted, without my internal editor doubting each step. I believe that this broad creative license is what eventually got me published. And to the readers of this blog, I’d like to encourage a pursuit of that same semi-reckless license. I say "semi" because, of course, there are realities of craft and the publishing business that should be observed. An easy example would be keeping your word count within typical publishing parameters. Another would be making sure you maintain the hallmarks of your genre; a romance should end with a happily ever after. Basic stuff.

Here’s something I didn’t know that was painful to discover: There are innumerable ways to tell a story. Let me explain. At first I didn’t have a critique group to get feedback on my chapters, so I entered contests, the most expensive critique group of all. And I got feedback, but often it pulled my story in different kinds of directions. I’d get comments like “try starting here,” or “if you were to restructure this chapter in such and such way,” or worse, “there’s no market for this.” And you know what? A lot of the comments made perfect sense. I felt the rightness of them, and the wrongness of my approach. I could start it differently. I could restructure. I could rework a character arc in a different way. I think this tug-of-war can be illuminating, but it can also be deadly to a manuscript.

Luckily, I had an out. Because I started Shadow Bound with no expectation of it being published, I had a giddy sense of freedom to disregard any comment that pulled me away from my sense of the story. Was there a suggestion in there that might have made my book a whole lot better? Probably. But with all the feedback, I could only pick and choose what I thought would work for me, and then move on. Churn out the chapters. Enjoy the ride. Finish. If the book worked, great. If it didn’t, then I learned a lot. My next one would be better. I sound easygoing about that perspective, but it was very difficult. Still is, and I’m on my third book. I think it’s about finding and trusting your voice. Not just your narrative voice, but the voice in your head, too. In fact, at times it’s excruciating.

I continued entering Shadow Bound in contests, received some requests for fulls. Did the pitch thing at conferences, mostly for experience. I completed the manuscript, sent it out. Started another book. Five weeks later, I had an offer, a week after that, an agent, Jessica Faust. And the bliss of that experience? My editor and my agent understood and loved where I was coming from. Sure, I had revisions to do. I cut upwards of 6,000 words, revisited a whole bunch of scenes for clarity and impact. That’s part of the work of getting the manuscript ready. But the sense of the story was preserved.

Now, my idea for Shadow Bound is a little bit out there: I’ve got a banshee for a heroine, a bunch of soul-sucking wraiths planning to take over the world, and a hero on a personal mission to kill his brother. It’s a dark and twisted combination and I had a blast writing it. My wish for the writers reading this is to go for it. To refuse to belabor your manuscripts with doubts. There are a million ways to tell a story, some brilliant, some not so good. The only one that counts is yours.

***

Erin Kellison is the author of the Shadow Series, which includes Shadow Bound and Shadow Fall. Stories have always been a central part of Erin Kellison's life. She attempted her first book in sixth grade, a dark fantasy adventure, and still has those early handwritten chapters. She graduated summa cum laude with a degree in English Language and Literature, and went on for a master's in Cultural Anthropology, focusing on oral storytelling. When she had children, nothing scared her anymore, so her focus shifted to writing fiction. She lives in Arizona with her two beautiful daughters and husband, and she will have a dog (breed undetermined) when her youngest turns five.

Learn more about Erin at www.erinkellison.com.

Wherein I go all OCD again

I'm not much of a journaler, despite being a writer. I think it all stems back from the way my sister's Dear Diary lock was so easily pickable. Even then I realized, Huh. If I can do this to HERS, then she can do this to MINE.

Still, I've always admired readers who keep journals about what they read when, along with little comments about the book. Plus, it would be very helpful whenever I wanted to read a book again or recommend it to someone. Like, for instance, the novel PLAINSONG by Kent Haruf. I read it several years ago, loved it, and wanted to recommend it. But I couldn't.

Why? I couldn't remember the title, except that it had "song" in it. Or the author, except that it was a German sounding name. All I could remember was that it was about two old ranchers who take in a pregnant teenager, and two brothers whose mom has left them.

Ever tried to google that? The worst thing was, I'd forgotten this title before, and then remembered it, looked it up and realized the book was an award-winner. I told myself I wouldn't forget it ... and then I did.

So that's why I decided to resuscitate my Goodreads account. You can see, way down there in the corner, the widget that shows the books I've read. In an ideal world, that would reflect the books I've just FINISHED reading, but alas, if you click on it, you'll think I've been glomming Dick Francis.

I'm trying to remember my favorite books and authors and put them all in there ... so that's the reason I'm heavy on the Dick Francis.

The best thing about Goodreads is the connection you get with other people who feel EXACTLY the same way about a book as you do. Isn't that weird? How you can meet a total stranger who's reading a book you love, and you find out that SHE loves the book, too, and it's almost an instant connection?

The problem is, of course, that the people I'm following read the most interesting sounding stuff. Tack them onto the end of my long, long To Be Read pile, and the TBR is about to fall over. And then there is that obsessive adding of ALL the books I've ever read.

It is quite a lovely feeling of closure to be able, once you've finished reading a book, to click "read" on your Goodreads account and pass judgment with stars -- 1? no, 2? Oh, you know you liked it -- go for three!

Why, yes, I do know that I'm (just a touch) OCD!

Dead or Alive

What Four Authors Dead or Alive Would You Want to Have Lunch With?

I have to admit, this idea was stolen from my client Jennifer Stanley and her Cozy Chicks blog. And I would suggest picking your four before reading what other people have to say. That only makes it harder. Thanks for the idea, J.B.

Jessica:

Edith Wharton—Not only do I love her books, but I’m fascinated by her life and want to know more about New York during the turn of the twentieth century.
Louisa May Alcott—She is the author of one of my all-time favorite books. She’s also from a time period I would like to know more about.
Julia Child—My second love, after books, is cooking. I think Julia would help us choose amazing foods and add a lovely, wonderful liveliness to the conversation.
Robert B. Parker—I always imagine that Robert B. Parker is Spencer personified and I think we ladies need a sexy, dashing man at the table too.


Kim:

Phyllis Whitney—My grandmother read all of her books, passed them on to my mom, and finally on to me. When I picked up my first Phyllis Whitney novel in middle school, my love of books began.
Temple Grandin—As the mother of an autistic child, I’m inspired by her story and her success. She’s living proof that “different” doesn’t mean “less.” I can’t think of anyone who’s done more to help the world understand Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Dean Koontz—I’ll read anything he writes. Few authors have mastered characterization and suspense as expertly as he has.
Jane Austen—Well, if I had my druthers, I’d have lunch with Mr. Darcy. But I’ll settle for a lunch spent talking about Mr. Darcy with the woman who created him.


Katelynn:

Ted Dekker—Although I haven’t read all of his books, I love his psychological thrillers and really want to know what goes on inside his head.
Ann Rinaldi—I ate her books up as a teen and was amazed by her ability to draw me into various historical time periods.
Audrey Niffenegger—Books rarely make me cry. I bawled at the end of The Time Traveler’s Wife and the story haunted me—in a good way—for weeks. I also want to know how she kept all of those time travel details straight!
My first fiction author—Whether this is one of my nonfiction clients who branches into fiction or a brand-new client I have yet to take on, I dream of having a brainstorming lunch with that author, hashing out ideas for his/her future projects.


Lauren:

Jodi Picoult—She has a beautiful mind and how wonderful to spend lunch listening to it.
Charlotte Bronte—I would never pass up the chance to meet the author of my favorite book and favorite romance hero, Mr. Rochester.
Stephen King—His creepiness is fascinating. I also grew up on his books and would like to meet their maker.
Barbara Kingsolver—I consider her a master (mistress?) of the English language. How interesting to have a conversation with a person who can express herself so beautifully. She also knows a lot about foreign cultures and I’d like to pick her brain!

Alarm Clocks are the Tools of Satan

When do you write? What's your golden hour? If you were the boss of this world, when would you fire up the laptop and put the do-not-disturb sign on the doorknob?

For me, it would be when the house got quiet, at 10 p.m. or so. I do my best writing at the end of a day, when I've had that day to ponder on my WIP, my characters, the plot. It settles somehow, and the important stuff rises to the top.

Unfortunately, I do not live in an Owl World. I live in a Lark World, and I happen to be married to a Lark. If I ever achieve World Domination, one of the things on my to-do list would be to make sure that all those early-morning birds had to stay up past midnight and be happy about it.

I've never been a cheerful riser in the mornings. Like The Kiddo, I grump and I growl unless I can wake on my own -- and that is when the sun hits my face. An alarm clock? That's just another name for a diabolical tool of Satan.

But after living four decades in a world run strictly by Larks, and especially after the 10 years of public school that The Kiddo has been subject to, my internal body clock is completely screwed up.

At ten p.m., my brain is raring to go, but my poor body is pushed beyond its limit. I marvel at the way I used to routinely pull all-nighters when I was in college two decades ago -- not because I procrastinated, but because I worked three jobs and took course overloads. There is absolutely no way I could pull an all-nighter now.

At 6:30 the next morning, my eyes pop open, and my body is miserably awake. My brain? It won't REALLY kick in until nearly another four hours.

Now I tell you, what good is being awake if your brain is not engaged?

I've known early morning writers -- lots of writers swear by that early morning time. I've tried it. It frustrates me, though, because if I start writing early in the morning, I make grr noises at the dayjob. I want to stay at my keyboard all day long -- or at least until lunch.

But if I sit down at the keyboard at 10 p.m., I can get so much done in a couple of hours, then crash and go to bed and not resent the call of the Sandman. In an ideal world, the next morning, when the sun wakes me up, I lie in bed and think about what I wrote the night before and start working out the next chapter.

In the real world? I crack open a bleary eye, realize it's 6:45 and I've hit the snooze button twice, and roll out of bed. And by ten AM? I'm dusting off those Plans for Achieving World Domination so that I can turn the world into an Owl refuge.

Back to School?

Sitting in a classroom for 3 days, not working, was pretty awesome. I love learning new things! Now I know how to tell the difference between all sorts of lighting types, how to identify components of an HVAC system, how the refrigeration cycle works, how to calculate energy use of a motor, and so much more! It will be very useful to my work.

Unfortunately, now I want to go back to school so I can learn more! There's always something, isn't there? Matt asked me what I want to do with any new knowledge, and I have no idea. I just want knowledge for knowledge's sake. That's not very effective in life.

Anyway, I am thinking:

Certified Sustainable Building Advisor: Not really school, but school-like, and I get to learn more about energy, water, and green building

MBA in Sustainable Management: Although I am pretty sure I am not the type of person who should ever end up in Business School. It sounds so fabulous! And an MBA is probably a marketable skill, unlike anything I have picked up in the past.

And then there's always the PhD. Berkeley and Stanford both have some pretty awesome interdisciplinary energy and environment programs. That's a commitment I am nowhere near ready to make at the moment though.

Hopefully in a few days all this will wear off! Would you go back to school if you could?

Island Beneath the Sea - Isabel Allende

I love finishing a book, and feeling disappointed to be leaving the world that the author has created. This was one such book.

This book was a birthday present from my sister - we went into a bookstore together, and she told me that I could choose any book that I wanted as a present - now there's a great idea!

The first 2/3 of the book is set in Haiti in colonial times - a time and era that I did not have much knowledge of. Haiti, then known as Saint-Domingue, had the worst reputation in the Americas for their treatment of slaves, as it was considered to be more economical to replace slaves that died from being overworked, than to treat them as humans. And Haiti is the only country in the world that obtained independence as a result of a slave revolt. I found that as I was reading this book, I was checking up every evening on the facts - what had actually happened in the view of history, and which characters were based on real people.

It is the story of Zarité (called Tété), a slave born with intelligence and a thirst for freedom (sounds like a cliché!), who is sold at age 9 to be trained as a lady's maid for the new wife of Toulouse Valmorain. The story follows Tété as she moves to the sugar plantation of Valmorain; as she is raped by Valmorain; as her first-born child is sold away from her; as she raises both the legitimate and illegitimate children of Valmorain; as her mistress dies; and as revolution breaks out in Haiti and the family has to flee the plantation.

The story then moves from Haiti to Cuba and on to New Orleans where Valmorain works his way into the Creole society there. I won't be spoiling the ending by saying that Tété is emancipated (this is revealed in the opening chapter) and settles down to live as a free "woman of colour" in New Orleans in the early 19th century.

I found the character of Tété to be very compelling, and I kept reading in order to find out what would happen next, and what decisions she would make. I also enjoyed the historical aspect of this book - I learned a lot about the history of Haiti and Louisiana in the late 18th and early 19th century; and it was interesting to see how it fit together with the history of France and the French Revolution. It was a book that kept me awake far too late at night for several nights in a row!

My one complaint with this book was that the ending felt a bit rushed. A lot of action and activity was crammed into the last few chapters. It was almost as though the author had conceived a family epic, but her publisher forced her to keep it under 500 pages.

One interesting point is that I was reading this book in translation (it was originally published in Spanish as La Isla Bajo el Mar). I often don't enjoy reading translations, but in this case I wasn't even aware that it was a translation - it was only when I checked the cover page at the end and noticed the name of the translator, Margaret Sayers Peden. Kudos to her, as the language of the book is very beautiful.

As is the design. It is a beautiful book to read in terms of typeset, layout of the pages, and feel of the pages. My copy has the cover pictured above, but I had trouble finding an image of this cover to use - there seems to be another cover out there that is much more common, but I like this cover better!

Query Status

Want to know where things stand with me and queries at this point? I'm not sure you really do. It's been a crazy busy month and the last two weeks have been the craziest. Needless to say, while I've been very busy submitting new projects, handing out revisions to clients and reading new material I've fallen very behind on my query reading.

In my inbox right now I have 360+ queries and am caught up through June 5, anything submitted prior to June 5 has been answered. If you have not received an answer on a query only I did not receive it.

I have roughly 14 proposals I still need to read. The oldest dates back to May 1 and I hope to get to it very soon.

I have 3 client submissions of various lengths that need to be read. Of course these are top priority.

This week I did a preliminary read on one client proposal. I need to read it a second time to give feedback. I did incredibly thorough revision on another client proposal, I read a full manuscript for consideration (had an offer from another agent) and I read another proposal that also had an offer.

Oh, and of course I did things like answer emails, make lunch appointments, review contracts, negotiate contracts and talk to authors.

Life is good. Have a great weekend.

--Jessica

A few of my favorite things

Al at Publish or Perish gifted me with The Happiness 101 Blogging Award, and I'd promised today that I would share the 10 things that make me happy.

Thing #1) The Kiddo. I'd put a pix of her here, but she's already got to the stage where she rolls her eyes and says, "Don't, Mommy. No more pictures." She is the blessing I never expected, the sweetest, smartest child, my angel-baby.

Thing #2) The rest of my family -- including The Husband and The Sister and The Dad, in spite of the way they all think they know better than I what I need and what I want and what would make me happy. They nag because they care.

Thing #3) My house. Sure, it's 1,100 square feet with 3,300 square feet of clutter in it, but it's paid for and it's mine, and I get happy just looking at the stencil design I put up (not once but twice) in my living room. Navy blue over cheesecake yellow -- that makes me happy.

Thing #4) My pets, even if they do get into the most awful squabbles with each other.

Thing #5) Cooking with The Sister. I've loved team-cooking with her since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, and even now I like the way she makes a kitchen -- any kitchen -- a happy place.

Thing #5) A phone call from Tawna Fenske. There's just something so infectiously cheeful about the woman -- I can be in the dumps, and pronto, she gets me on a one-way rocket ticket outta there.

Thing #6) A phone call from the Toronto Twins -- that would be Nelsa Roberto and Stephanie Bose. No, they don't look a thing alike, but I can't think of one without the other after an RWA conference where we all roomed together.

Thing #7) Hearing little children sing in church. Can't explain the joy that brings to me, but it does. Any singing in church makes me happy, but still, the high mark is when I hear a group of children warble out a hymn.

Thing #8) Bantering back and forth with http://lindagrimes.blogspot.com/ on Twitter. Girl's got a cool sense of humor!

Thing #9) Any call from my editor, especially ones with good news attached.

Thing #10) Writing. Okay, sometimes it makes me insane, but without it I'd ALWAYS be insane.

Get your Groupon

How have I lived without Groupon all this time? I've heard about it here and there but didn't think much of it until I discovered that two of the people on our introductory sail had paid $20 instead of $40. What a good deal! And what a good reason to do something new and different!

I finally checked out Groupon yesterday and bought my first deal today - super cheap tickets to the Conservatory of Flowers - super beautiful, but I never go because I hate paying. You should sign up for Groupon too! They have pages for Phoenix, Portland, Tucson, and gosh knows where else my readers live. Or perhaps you've been a Groupon aficionado for years and have just been withholding it from me...

Have You Ever . . .

Have you ever requested the full of a manuscript where you knew it was not something you could represent, but you were dying to find out how it ended?

Yep. Absolutely. I don’t do that as much now, but that’s because I’ve made a concerted effort not to. I think there are plenty of times when agents request material from queries or even from a proposal that they aren’t sure about. We know the storyline is tired or the voice seems off, but the idea intrigues us; we know we’ll probably reject it, but there’s something about it that makes us curious enough to ask for more.

Agents are readers and as readers we’re curious people. The problem is that this is also our job and, like in any job, we need to be very careful about how we manage our time. That means being somewhat sure about what we’re requesting when we request it.

That being said, there are plenty of manuscripts I’ve read all the way through when I knew by page 50 it was a rejection. There are even times I rejected a book, but finished it anyway. It’s the natural curiosity of a reader.

Jessica

**after reading a few comments and reading the post again I decided some clarification needed to be made. Sometimes I suspect I read the question and then go off on my own little rant of what I'd like to say without fully connecting with the original question.

Anyway...

I don't think agents ever request a full if after reading the partial they know definitively they will be rejecting the book. That is something no one has time for. More than that though, I don't think an agent ever wants to purposely give an author false hope.

With every full request an agent makes, with every partial request, the agent has hope just like the author. We don't request things unless we're sincerely hoping there's a potential new client in there. That being said, there are plenty of times an agent will continue reading already requested material well beyond the point the decision is made to reject. This is the curiosity of the reader.

I apologize for not being clear or for being obtuse. That's what I get for writing blog posts in the middle of the night.

--jhf

Sometimes I can be a dummy

I am blushing. Out of a mix of embarrassed pleasure and embarrassed, er, embarrassment. That's a lot of high color in an otherwise pale as raw-bread-dough face. It's all because three fellow bloggers have awarded me something recently.

The embarrassed pleasure comes from fellow bloggers Julie Musil and Al at Publish or Perish

Julie, whose blog is just great, gave me the Honest Scrap Award, which looks very pretty and antique-y. I'm not sure of the rules of receiving such an award, so I sure hope someone can fill me in!


Al gave me the Happiness 101 Award -- very pretty, too!

I like Al's blog a lot because of the fabulous pix he always shares. I know I'm supposed to share ten things that are supposed to make me happy -- that comes tomorrow.

The embarrassed embarrassment is due to my overlooking Amanda Kaye Hooper's mom's kind award of a Magical Mention. I garnered the award because to a comment I made on Amanda's terrific blog (seems like I commented another lifetime ago) about Walt Disney World. I had no idea I'd win, so I just sort of assumed I didn't.

To make matters worse, I've been on a blogging diet due to a time deficiency (lead up to The Kiddo's Birthday, Father's Day, & then an exploding dishwasher will kinda sorta do that to you.) There were a couple of days I wasn't faithful about checking back on all my comments. Yikes! I will, pinky swear, from now on!

Anyway, these folks are terrific bloggers, all worthy of your time, all having neat things to share. Follow them one and all! They won't disappoint!

Why Agents Get Cranky

I received a query.

I rejected it and suggested the author do some research on how to write a strong query.

She responded by thanking me for my advice, but assuring me it’s a great book and wanting to set up a meeting so she could pitch it to me in person.

Me, “I do not accept verbal pitches.”

She responds by sending the proposal anyway and telling me she looks forward to hearing my thoughts.

I delete.



Jessica

Don't settle when it comes to setting

Every writer has a strong point, something that comes easy, something that rolls effortlessly off the tips of her fingers onto those keys.

For me, it's certainly not setting.

I was BORN to do radio, because I'm all about the dialogue. My poor characters will wind up floating in air, batting zingers back and forth like the Williams sisters at Wimbledon. Unfortunately, there's not much demand for radio plays these days.

Over the years I've learned to improve setting so that I'm not leaving my hero and heroine hanging -- literally. But it's something I have to consciously work on.

Some tips I've learned:

Setting's not passive: in order for setting to be organic to the story, so intertwined that you can't take it out, the characters have to interact with their surroundings. Don't just let them observe the kudzu. Let 'em get all tangled up in it and take a clumsy swan dive.

Setting's not one-dimensional: When your klutzy hero falls into that kudzu, make sure he's not just seeing a lot of green. Let him smell the damp powdery mold of the earth, let the rocks scrape his face (hey, the heroine can bandage him up later on!), let him spit out (in a manly, discreet way, naturally) the dirt he inadvertantly eats.

Setting's not convenient in the large economy size: Like dynamite and perfume, a little dab here and there of setting will do you. Long paragraphs of world-building will make me put down a book faster than almost anything save stilted dialogue. I admire authors who can work in the tiniest of details that tell so much about a scene. Back to the kudzu example, one or two sentences of it are sufficient. Any more, and the book starts to sound like a county extension agency pamphlet.

Setting's not just for narrative: Work details of setting into your dialogue, avoiding, of course, the painful as-you-know-Bob exchanges.

Setting's not just generic background: it's the skeleton of your entire story, what you hang the plot and the characters on, so you should treat it as though it is a character. What's its purpose? Why can't the story take place anywhere else? Until I can answer these questions, then my stories have a vague could-be-anywhere air about them. Once I know WHY my story has to be set in a certain place, and my heroine has to live in a certain house, drive a certain car, work for a certain sort of business, then I know my setting's job.

One of the best ways I learned how to improve my settings was to pull my keeper books off the shelf and read them, looking specifically at ways the writers integrated setting into the story. I never went so far as to mark them with a red pen (sacrilege, writing in a book that wasn't a text book or my personal Bible!), but I did keep an eye peeled for what tricks other writers used. And hopefully it's helped me.

So how do you handle setting? What tricks do you use?

What Is Love?

In the blog post The Need to Fall in Love, I made a comment in reply to one reader’s question about how an agent knows if she’ll love the author’s next book. Since I was so impressed with myself [said with preening smirk] I thought I would share my comment in a post. I also hope it will help others who feel they’ve been burned by an agent’s love.

I just set down a proposal from a client of mine. I think it's the fifth time I've read this proposal. She's published seven books and I can tell you I love everything I read every time I read it. Even when I send it back for revisions, rewrites and a gutting.

Want to know what love is? Love is getting swept up in the voice no matter how much work the book or proposal needs. Love is feeling like crying when you put it down because it's just that good. Love is emailing the author with changes and honestly telling her you love her because the book was just that amazing.

The problem with love is that sometimes, sadly, it ends. No relationship is perfect and while we might love someone, we might learn later that we don't love them enough or maybe we love them for who we thought they were, but learn later that they really aren’t who or what we thought.

There are no guarantees when it comes to love and publishing. And sadly, sometimes we just have to pick up the pieces of our broken heart and move on.

**let me clarify that the love for the author I've been working with has not ended. in fact, I am happily working with her on revisions for yet another book. What I am saying though, is that love ends and can end. It can end for authors as well. There are plenty of times an author signs with "the perfect agent" only to discover later that for whatever reason, she's had a change of heart.

Jessica

What three words describe my soul?!

After a weekend of torment, I focused on counting my blessings ... like my wonderful surprise win of a new blog design from the uber-talented Tekeme Studios. I won it on Twitter, which has quick links to lots of great contests -- probably the reason I've won two things in as many days.

I was feeling all smug and satisfied that I didn't have to do any heavy lifting on the new blog design ... until Ashley with Tekeme sent me a questionnaire.

Then I realized, Gee, they can't read my mind. Which is actually good, because if they had read my mind, my upcoming new blog design would be blank as the proverbial slate.

Tekeme really puts effort into even a blog design. They want to know, for instance, what emotion I want people to feel upon seeing my blog, and what emotion I want people to feel as they leave my blog. They want to know, and boy, did this make me gulp, what three words describe my soul?

I would have never thought of asking those questions. But I'm having to dig for their answers now, and I know the design Tekeme comes up with will only be as good as the thought I put into this questionnaire.

My purpose with my blog has been to share a slice of my life with readers and fellow writers -- to let you know it's not all cake and ice cream, and that I'm as normal as the next gal. (Well, okay, normal as the next NUTTY gal, but let's not quibble.) But emotions? And boiling me down to three words is way tougher than writing a one-page synopsis!

So ... er ... Help!

For those of you who faithfully follow me, what emotion do you feel when you come to my blog? What do you feel when you leave? Obviously I'm sort of doing something right by y'all, and I'd like to continue that.

My website has been long overdue for an overhaul, but I've concentrated my efforts on my blog. Eventually (after I get through paying for dishwashers and iPods and birthday dinners and a slew of Taylor Swift songs for The Kiddo), I want my website to more closely resemble the upcoming (whatever magic Tekeme has wrought by then) blog design.

But I'm at a loss as to exactly what that design should look like. I know, I know, it should reflect ME. Still, who am I? I'm obviously the person whose voice comes across in these blog posts ... and yet, I have a sneaky suspicion that a picture of a woman wearing a half-dozen hats wouldn't exactly be a great visual.

So help me out. Tell it to me straight ... what three words describe the me you've met over the past few minutes/days/weeks/months/years?

Update on my ruined floor: It appears that while my insurance won't pay for the dishwasher as it was the guilty culprit, my insurance WILL pay for the flooring to be ripped out and replaced. Yay!

It Doesn't Really Bother Me . . .

When people say “fiction novel” in queries. Sure, I know it’s wrong, but I think it’s because I see it so often that, frankly, it really just doesn’t bother me that much.

Now “nonfiction novel,” that bothers me.

Jessica

The Other Shoe Dropped

I’m not a pessimist, more of a pragmatist. For instance, I knew that after two days in a row where I’d won two things – BACKSTREET SAINTS, a book I’d really, really wanted and an out-of-the-blue new banner design for my blog from the uber-cool design service Tekeme Studios, that a shoe was about to drop.

I just had no idea it would drop in a puddle.

Friday night, I went straight from work to get The Kiddo's hair cut and then to her VBS commencement service. We got home late, and we headed, pretty much, straight for bed.

The next morning, I sleep-walked myself into the kitchen with the intentions of putting on tea for me and grits for The Husband. But as I trudged in sock-clad feet across my kitchen floor, a ridge caught my foot.

A ridge that hadn’t been there the morning before.

I have laminate flooring in my kitchen, and I’ve loved it. Sure, I’ve been a water-nazi about spills, but even the few accidents we’ve had have created no problems. So at first, I thought someone had spilled water and let it soak into the flooring.

But then I saw a whole mountain range of ridges.

My heart sank. I traced the ridges back to its foothills … the dishwasher. Unscrewing the bottom plate and pretzeling myself to a vantage point, I saw a puddle of water under the machine’s guts.

The culprit had been found. And since it had been in that hole from 1994, if we pulled that sucker out, it was not going back in. Nope, it was time to find a new dishwasher.

That was easier said than done. I spent Saturday with my poor sister, trying to find a store that (a) had a dishwasher I could afford and (b) had a dishwasher that was in stock. One store clerk told me that I could order one. I asked when the dishwasher would be in.

“Oh, seven to ten days, and that’s to the store. Delivery to your home would have to be arranged once it got here.”

I couldn’t wait a week on a dishwasher – that old one had to come out post haste, and I had no cut-off valve to the dishwasher. So that meant I had to plug the end of the line with something.

I won’t bore you with the catastrophes that we ran into – wrong fittings, leaky pipes, a soldered-in cut-off valve to the hot water tank that suddenly sprang a geyser when we went to close it off. Suffice it to say that I got the new dishwasher loaded and running at about 10:30 that night. And the only way we got it to work was a coalition of the talent and brains of my dad and my sister, with limited help from The Husband and me. Because plumbing? It is so not my thing.

Sunday Streets

San Francisco has the great event series called Sunday Streets, in which they shut down a few roads to cars and open them up to pedestrians, bicyclists, and pretty much any form of non motorized transportation you can imagine. The route is filled with activities, music, and food stands, and it is in a different neighborhood each event.

I would love to get rid of cars in the city entirely (I realize I am a hypocrite, but at least I only drive mine once a week or every other week...), but since that isn't going to happen anytime soon, I will certainly support this awesome event. After participating a few times, we decided to volunteer.

Here's me, just off my shift of stopping traffic. My fashion consultant has already spoken out against by fabulous outfit, but hey, whatever gives me authority :).



A similar event also takes place in Portland and is just getting started in Oakland and Los Angeles. And I'm sure I'm forgetting something as well. Find out if your city has one!

Let the Sailing Begin!

When Matt and I went on our first sail a few weeks ago, the other four people on our boat were young, outgoing, fun, and very friendly. And of course I have met some great people through Team in Training, so naturally we assumed that this whole Sail for a Cure program would be full of great people as well. Turns out we may have been a wee bit wrong... At kickoff yesterday, the other people in the room were a bit odd and not too friendly. Now I hate to judge a book by its cover, and I sure don't want to go into the season with a bad attitude, so I'm definitely hoping that all the participants are good apples and perhaps just a bit shy. Or awkward. Being rather awkward myself, I can certainly handle that.

Despite this possibly minor hiccup, I am still looking very forward to learning to sail! And to race. I am a slight bit competitive, so I'm hoping that I am competent enough to at least not come in dead last. I've already started reading my textbooks!

In the meantime, I want to sail with you! If you live in the Bay Area or want to be here July 10th, please make a donation to our fundraising campaign. You will be making a huge difference to someone with blood cancer, like Max Harris, and the highest donor will receive two passes to join us at a fun sail and BBQ! Imagine spending up to 6 hours on the water of beautiful San Francisco Bay! There's even a "Sore Loser" prize. Check out our website for details.

After we become certified in the fall, we will be able to rent boats, and we look forward to actually taking you out on the water as skippers. Of course that means you'll be our crew. What could be more fun?

Girl Crazy - Russell Smith

I grabbed this book off of my TBR stack last weekend as I was heading down to Toronto for the weekend and wanted something not too heavy that wouldn't tax my brain too much - airport, airplane, and hotel room reading in other words.

Well, this book lived up to my expectations in that respect, and for the first half of the book, the plot was engaging enough that it kept my attention. But then I got bogged down in the second half.

I finished the book on Sunday evening, so have had a few days to digest it, and I have come to the conclusion that I really didn't like it. Or I guess I should say, I didn't get it.

It is a strange book. I described it to my sister as being almost "Chick Lit" for guys. But, not being a guy myself, I don't know how it would stand up to a reader of the opposite gender. It starts off with the Chick Lit formula, but with a male author and a male protagonist. Guy just broke up with his "normal" girlfriend, stuck in a dead-end job, falls in lust with a girl much younger and in a different social class as defined in our Canadian society. They are happy together for all of about 5 days, and then things fall apart. Our happy protagonist is drawn into a world of drugs, violence, and gambling (actually, I didn't really get how the gambling chapter fit with the rest of the book), is still lusting after the girl, and then just when he seems to have turned the corner and managed to get his life back on track, there is an ambiguous ending.

So what were my (numerous) problems with this book? First of all, I didn't like either of the main characters. At first, I could relate to the protagonist, but then as he got dragged into the above-mentioned world, I lost my sympathy for him. And his girl was someone that I definitely wouldn't like in real life. Then there were the heavy issues that were touched on (human trafficking, gun control) but it wasn't even implied that there was something wrong with a society that would allow these things. And then there was the fact that I, as a female reader, resented the fact that all of the female characters were presented as being their bodies and nothing more. And finally, the writing. Though it kept me engaged, I did after a while notice that the author tended to re-use certain words quite frequently (this was also one of my many beefs with Twilight, if you recall). If I had to read about one more "taut" body, I was going to throw the book across the room!

OK - I'm glad to get that out of my system; and fortunately I am reading a much better book this week!

In Which I Get A Little Bit Lucky

I never win anything. Never, ever.

Well, I take that back. When I was an employee of the U.S. House of Representatives, I won so much that I stopped letting my name be entered into doorprize drawings, because when you're a House employee, you have all sorts of ethics reports you have to fill out, and all sorts of hoops to jump through.

But before that? One 12-pack of Peppermint Patties. In junior high. Since I left government work? A delightful book awarded by Harley May. And that's just because she likes me. (I think.)

So imagine my surprise when yesterday, I won something on Twitter -- and not just anything on Twitter, but a most fab book ... a Joshilyn Jackson book, BACKSTREET SAINTS, courtesy of @GCPeditor on Twitter.

I have a confession about Joshilyn Jackson. I really dragged my feet about her first book GODS IN ALABAMA. Everybody said it was great. Everybody said I HAD to read it. So of course I didn't.

I'm contrary that way.

I DID pick it up several times in Barnes & Noble. But every time, I'd say to myself, Eh, if everybody's reading it, I'll wait.

So one day, many moons later, I found an audiobook edition of GODS IN ALABAMA in my library. I was hooked from the moment I heard a real southern accent, none of this Hollyweird version of what they think we sound like.

But it was the words that really hooked me. Jackson's voice, the way she saw things that I'd seen a million times, but saw to the core of them, got me. I loved that book. I loved that book so much that I went out and bought me a copy of my very own.

How is it that I so nearly missed such a stellar author? Why didn't I give her a chance? Why was I so resistant to other reader's suggestions?

I guess it was because I didn't think any book could live up to that much advance billing. I'd read other books that had let me down.

But Jackson's book made me do two things: 1) whisper, "please, please, please don't let me down!" as I drove the long way home and parked in the garage to finish listening to the audio version, and 2) make me seriously wonder if I had any business anywhere NEAR a keyboard.

She didn't, and after a very sweet reply to my gushing e-mail of praise for her book, I got over my keyboard phobia.

So that brings me to my third thing I learned: if someone recommends a good book to you, read it. Give it a chance. After all, what have you got to lose?

How Does Social Networking Work for You

Not too long ago I did a post on how social networking can be damaging if not used properly and I want to thank everyone who contributed. It really turned out to be a fabulous discussion.

A couple of comments caught my eye and made me think further. What do you want to see from authors? In other words, if you’re looking at an author’s web site, blog, Facebook page, Twitter account, whatever, what has worked for you and what hasn’t. Some of you mentioned the need for personal information, but what kind are you looking for and what’s the balance you’ve found that has worked? What hasn’t worked?

What about an author’s Internet presence grabs your attention and impresses you, what turns you off?

I’d love to hear about what you like, what you don’t like, and what makes you go from reader to fan. And I’m not just talking about content. Does design matter as well?


Jessica

Missing a little Zip

The other night, The Kiddo and I settled down to read The Happy Hollisters and the Haunted House Mystery. We were in a very dramatic part, where three of the kids and the faithful collie Zip go check out the haunted house, which has no electricity.

As a mother with a pilot's license in helicopter hovering, I was horrified. In the story, the oldest kid is 12, one kid is deaf, and the third kid is 10. That their parents actually let them go poke around in a dark house BY THEMSELVES, armed only with a flashlight and waaaay before the invention of cell phones, made my hair stand up. The mother in the story does raise some qualms, but quickly decides it's okay if Zip goes along.

The Kiddo was biting her nails as we read about how Zip breaks away from the three kids after hearing a noise.

The story continues, with the kids racing up to an attic room filled with mysterious dog howlings and groans and moans, and finding the room empty. And I do mean empty: not even Zip is to be found, only the author didn't mention that.

The Kiddo jumped on it like a duck in a junebug. "Where's Zip?" she kept asking. "What happened to Zip?"

We finished reading the chapter and a little bit into the next, and Zip was completely MIA. He didn't show up until the plot needed him again. It worried The Kiddo to no end, in part because she's very tenderhearted when it comes to animals, and in part because she's all about the logic of a situation.

It got me to thinking about continuity in writing.

We writers write in piece-a-block fashion, even linear writers like me. We churn out an 80K MS in chunks, an hour here, two hours there, a scene, maybe a chapter, at a time. And even with professional editors and copy-editors looking over my shoulder, I've screwed up -- in my first book, I'd changed the countertops in my heroine's kitchen from slate to soapstone. But sure enough, upon re-reading the published book, I caught a mention of slate countertops.

So how do we do our best to eliminate continuity goofs? Here are a few tips that work for me.

1) Print out a blank calendar from Outlook of the proposed time-span of the novel. Jot down briefly the time and place of each scene and the characters involved. (You can also use index cards or create an Excel spreadsheet.)

2) If you have room on that same calendar, note the weather (a pet screw-up of mine -- I'll have my heroine outside in short sleeves in the dead of winter).

Now, take a look at the order of those scenes. Are they logical? Do they give your characters the time to get from one place to another? Do you have them eating two suppers in one night? Is the weather as it should be -- no snowing in July unless it's meterologically likely? No darkness falling at 5 p.m. in mid-summer in Georgia?

Then as you're doing your final edits, read for continuity, with a special eye for disappearing Zips. Have your Critique Partners or Beta Readers do the same. You're not looking at your word-smithing. You're looking at the logistical movement of your characters -- think like a detective.

Usually even the most egregious screw-ups are easy enough to fix in process. It's after the book is finished, and when your editor writes in her revision notes, "Uh, wait, better check the time-line on this? When is this happening?" that it's like untangling a knotted fishing line.

But of course, I'm the only doofus who ever does this, right? Me and the author of the Happy Hollisters and The Haunted House Mystery, who somehow lost Zip.

A BookEnds Reading Pile

For something fun and different we thought we’d put together a quick post about what’s happening in the BookEnds reading piles.

What I’m Reading Now:

• Jessica: Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
• Kim: Marked: House of Night Series by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast
• Katelynn: Tea with Hezbollah by Ted Dekker and Carl Medearis and Devil of the Highlands by Lyndsay Sands
• Lauren our intern: Requiem of the Human Soul by Jeremy Lent

How I Came to This Book:

• Jessica: It was recommended by a client
• Kim: It’s part of the same line my client’s book will be published into next year—a big NYT bestselling series.
• Katelynn: Tea—I’ve read Dekker before and was intrigued; Devil—I love Scottish historical romance (sexy warriors, yum!)
• Lauren our intern: It was a freebie sent to me by a self-published author who is marketing his book on Librarything.com.

The Last Book I Read:

• Jessica: House Rules by Jodi Picoult
• Kim: Dead to the World: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel by Charlaine Harris
• Katelynn: Glass Houses (Morganville Vampires Book 1) by Rachel Caine
• Lauren our intern: Twilight

How I Came to This Book:

• Jessica: I enjoy her writing, but was also very intrigued by the story of a boy with Asperger’s
• Kim: I’m a fan of the series, the TV show and most important . . . Vampire Eric.
• Katelynn: Someone mentioned it on Twitter
• Lauren our intern: I had to see what all the buzz was about!

What’s Next Up on My To Be Read Pile:

• Jessica: Changeless by Gail Carriger or The Art of Mending by Elizabeth Berg
• Kim: Thinking in Pictures: and Other Reports from My Life with Autism by Temple Grandin
• Katelynn: Dangerous Highlander by Donna Grant or Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
• Lauren our intern: House Rules by Jodi Picoult

What I’ve Most Recently Read (or am reading) for BookEnds:

• Jessica: The next proposal by Bella Andre and The Naked Prince, Sally MacKenzie’s next novella
• Kim: The first seven chapters of Rosemary DiBattista’s women’s fiction manuscript and Born at Midnight, C. C. Hunter’s YA paranormal debut with St. Martin’s.
• Katelynn: A manuscript about the war in Afghanistan
• Lauren our intern: A paranormal romantic suspense manuscript about an elite soldier and the doctor who discovers his secret and then relieves him of its burden.

Lookie! A secret decoder ring!

I'm sure it's been done somewhere else on the web, but so many folks said that THEY hadn't heard of a phrase or an expression that I used in my post on Writerese in Jumping Over Jargon. So here is your very own Secret Decoder Ring to divine the short-hand we romance writers use.

BICHOK - Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard (the only way to ever type THE END)

MC - Main character (Could or could not be a squint-eyed game show host -- but he has to have the proper GMC and backstory to pull it off.)

GMC - Goals, Motivation and Conflict. What does your character want out of life, why does he want it, and who's the bear with the flashlight in his way?

HEA - Happily Ever After -- because, dadgummit, we don't always get that in real life, but we're the boss of this world.

HFN - Happy For Now -- because we want the fairy tale, but we're pragmatic.

Backstory - what happened before Chapter One, i.e., the Hero's dog died, his house burned down and he got fired for doing the right thing. Then he meets the heroine, and bam, does life EVER get complicated.

RUE - Resist The Urge To Explain -- in which we remember we don't have to tell ALL about how the Hero's dog died.

Show, don't tell -- in which we remember to have our hero turn a vivid green, his eyes go red, and his muscles suddenly split his jeans and shirt off rather than have him mumble, "I am so angry. I am so angry. You wouldn't like me when I get angry."

Synop - Short for synopsis, an instrument of torture designed by agents and editors in a rarely publicized secret meeting as a method to separate the wheat from the chaff. They define it as a short (1-2 pp) or medium (5-8 pp) or long (10-25 pp) summary of your book. No pressure.

Partial - the first three chaps and a synop.

Chap - Chapter. B/c by this time, you're too tired to type it all out.

BM or BBM - contrary to popular belief, nothing to do with bathrooms or diapers, but instead the Big Black Moment where the boy royally screws up and loses the girl or the girl royally screws up and loses the boy. All hope is gone. Hankies are required.

H/h - shorthand for Hero and heroine, or the boy and the girl in "boy finds girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back." I know. We romance writers are secretly sexist, because everybody knows that heroine should get the BIG H.

TSTL - Too Stupid To Live - a modifier used to describe the dumb thing the h does because you REALLY need her alone in the basement for the serial killer to attack her so that the H can come and rescue her b/c this is how they get over their BBM. (The H and the h. Not the serial killer. After the H gets hold of him, Mr. Serial Killer is having a totally different kind of BM.)

Organic to the Plot - which means that if you've created an h who is a prima donna ballerina in your romantic suspense, then she better be using some of those emboités and fouetté turns and grand jetés to take down the bad guy, not suddenly develop a black belt in karate.

All rightie, then, what have I missed? What abbreviations/terms/jargon should I add to the list?

Christie Craig on Writing Advice

Christie Craig
Shut Up and Kiss Me
Publisher: Lovespell
Pub date: May 2010
Agent: Kim Lionetti


(Click to Buy)


Five Pieces of Well-Meaning Writing Advice That I’m Glad I Didn’t Take

With no degree in my pocket, my youth was spent flipping burgers and taking orders. Today, I have written for twenty years, most of that time spent either trying to get published or struggling to stay published. My main goal was simple: make more money than I could by asking if you wanted fries with that burger. During my twenty-year career climb, I’ve gotten my share of advice from respected people in the publishing industry.

Honestly, I wouldn’t be where I am today—making more than I would peddling burgers—without the advice of others. Nevertheless, there’re several bits of counsel that I’m glad I ignored.

Does this mean that you should ignore them, too? Not necessarily; as my grandpa used to say, “There’s more than one way to skin a rabbit.” Or to put it another way, your journey may be completely different from mine. However, below are five pieces of well-meaning advice that wouldn’t have worked in my favor.

1. Ignore the trends and just write the book of your heart.

I’m not saying don’t write the book of your heart, but I am saying don’t completely ignore the trends. As hard as it is for some of us to accept, if we want to see our books on the bookshelf, we have to accept that this is a business. And like all businesses, we are producing a commodity—a commodity has to have commercial value.

Commercial value is often directly related to the trends. I’m not saying sell yourself out; I’m saying find a way to make the book of your heart more marketable. Find a way to fit your idea into the trendy box.

Let’s say the book of your heart is a western, but westerns aren’t the hottest French fry in the pack. The genre that’s jumping out of the fryer and onto readers’ plates is paranormal. Can you add a paranormal twist to your western? Can you write a paranormal that takes place in the ol’ west?

When I dove back into novel writing in 2000, my goal was to write a romantic comedy. But RCs were not the meal ticket. At the time, romantic suspense was on the favored menu. By combining my humorous voice with suspenseful plots, I eventually found my way to the bookshelves.


2. Don’t worry about marketing or selling yourself, that’s what you have an agent for.

Sure, it’s your agent’s job to sell and market you, but that doesn’t mean you should stop being your own advocate. You and your agent should be working as a team. Considering that less than one percent of all books written are sold, the more team players the better.

While many books are sold as a direct result of an agent’s submission, others are sold because you met an editor at a conference, because a published author read your book and recommended you to her editor, or because your book was requested in a contest. A good agent-client team works together; once you’ve made a personal contact, then your agent steps in and does her thing. The left hand should always know what the right hand is doing. Together your goal is to get your book sold, get a good contract, and create a career plan.


3. Decide what you are going to write and stick with it. Better to be a master of one trade than a jack of all.

Any form of writing will help you hone you craft. And isn’t writing what we want to master and not just a type of genre? Writing for magazines allowed me the opportunity to work at home, kept the wolves off the front porch and me away from serving up French fries, and allowed me time to work on my novels. Being paid for my work kept me believing in my talent and helped keep my dream alive while the rejections on the novels poured in. I’ve since written three nonfiction books—two or which are The Everything Guide to Writing a Romance Novel and my June 18 release, Wild, Wicked & Wanton: 101 Ways to Love Like You’re in a Romance Novel. I chose to write these two titles to help build my name in the fiction market. Writing nonfiction also helps me write PR for my fiction work.

When my first humorous romantic suspense didn’t sell right after being shopped around, Kim Lionetti recommended I try my hand at writing a paranormal, which was the hot trend. That proposal was submitted to ten publishing houses, went to a buying committee at two, but much to our dismay, it didn’t sell. Does that mean it was a waste of my time? Heck, no. Two years later, a St. Martin’s editor who’d read and enjoyed my sassy approach to writing paranormals phoned my agent and asked if I would write a young adult series for them.

My first young adult novel, Born at Midnight, in my Shadow Falls Series, will be released in early 2011 and has already racked up some really nice foreign right sales to Germany, France, and Russia. Beats working fast food any day of the week!


4. You can never spend too much time rewriting.

I’m not saying don’t polish or rework. But DO NOT get caught in rewrititious. I know people who have been writing and rewriting the same novel for ten years.

Truth is, you learn something each time you write a new book that rewriting doesn’t teach you. To grow, and hone your skills as a writer, you need to write and finish several books. From 2000 to 2006, I had written eight completed novels and six proposals. Six of those projects have sold.


5. Learn the writing rules and follow them.

While I’m a believer in rules and believe some should not be broken, oftentimes it’s the bending of a rule, a slight deviation of what is considered the norm, that helps a writer stand out.

When I started writing romantic comedy, I was told by respected RC authors that most of my humor should stem from my secondary characters—thus allowing the main character to come across grounded in emotion. However, my best lines, and my best scenes, entailed humor. Why would I only give those to a secondary character? Instead, I looked at why the rule was stipulated and I worked diligently at making sure my main characters had emotional motivations.

I was also warned against writing dual romances in a book. However, my plots seemed to always include a secondary romance, and at times even a third one. I knew the dangers of this could dilute the main plot of the book. However, I ran with my dual romance plots and worked overtime to make sure the addition of a secondary romance didn’t overshadow the main story line. Today, I’m often praised by reviewers for the layers of story and plot brought on by my secondary romances. (I’m even blogging over at Romance Writer’s Revenge on secondary characters. Pop over and leave a comment, I’m giving a book away.)

Basically, I recommend that when you bend a rule, you know why the rule is in place and protect your work from suffering from this breach.

So there you have it, five pieces of advice that if I’d taken, I could still be toasting buns instead of toasting and celebrating new contracts. Hopefully, my own list will help you define what advice works for you, and what advice you will set aside in your personal pursuit to reach your own dreams. Good luck on reaching those dreams. Good luck on learning your best method of skinning your own rabbit.

On a Chocolate Diet

Patty Blount wrote recently about how chocolate spurred her to new word count heights, and I would dearly like to engage in a study to see if that would help me, too. However, it appears that I'm on a Chocolate Diet for the foreseeable future.

The Kiddo has a cavity. In a practically brand new permanent tooth. And a cavity that sprouted in the past six months since her last check-up.

I spotted it quite by accident, and it can’t be good that it’s big enough that I spotted it with an un-aided eye.

We brush twice daily, and we eat good and nutritious meals at home (okay, so my mom is spinning in her grave like a rotisserie chicken and saying we don’t have greens every week, but still. No Mickey D’s every week, either.)

I don’t buy her junk food. The Husband does, but not as much as he COULD buy, and since sugar and the acid in many candies contribute to the painful canker sores The Kiddo gets, he’s cut way down on enabling The Kiddo's sweet-tooth.

Still, I groaned when I saw that cavity.

I did what a good parent is supposed to do in situations like this: reduce the candy flow to practically nil, tell her that from now on she gets no more Dr. Peppers or Mr. Pibb or Cokes unless she is eating out (we don’t eat out that much), tell her that she has to brush after EVERY meal and snack unless she’s in school or out of the house.

I’ve threatened The Husband with making him go with The Kiddo to get this cavity filled should I catch them sneaking sugary drinks and snacks again. Since he is deathly afraid of needles, I think that will be enough of a deterrent.

The problem is, I have teeth that are practically as hard as diamonds. Even without using fluoride toothpaste (my mom believed in the benefits of baking soda), I wound up with just two cavities by the time I was 18, and that record has stretched on into the current. My solid teeth tend to enjoy chocolate and the rare Coca Cola (you couldn’t force Dr. Pepper down me even with a nasal-gastric tube.)

The Kiddo, on the other hand, was apparently not so blessed. Even with careful brushing from the time she sported teeth, even with my harping on how certain foods may taste good but are bad, bad, bad on your teeth, her teeth are resembling Swiss cheese.

And that means that, in order to be a good Mommy Role Model, I have to do without chocolate, too. Which makes me cranky. VERY cranky. And inhibits writing word counts, I'm certain.

It’s not that we keep a lot of candy in the house. Still, on the bad days, it’s so nice to go nibble on one chocolate chip cookie, or one tiny little miniature Hershey’s Special Dark.

But how do you explain to a kid that it’s okay for YOU to eat chocolate and candy because you won the genetic sweepstakes, and she can’t, because her teeth genes were sub-par? The pain of that would wipe out any calming benefits I might derive out of say, oh, an Almond Joy.

Oh, man. Suddenly I so want that Almond Joy.

What It Takes to Be an Agent

I've been pondering this for awhile, so I figured I'd just ask. I've played around with the thought of becoming a literary agent after graduating from college. What I'm wondering is, what does it take to be an agent? Is there a certain personality type that is perfect for agenting and no other would work, or simply the proper motivation/drive to do so. Do you just know you want to be an agent, or is it a sort of trial and error sort of thing.

This is such an interesting question, and while I’m going to make an attempt to answer it, I don’t know if I’m the right person to really give the answer. I think I’m too close to it.

That being said, let’s see what I can do.

I do not believe there is any one personality type to a successful agent, just like there’s not one way to write a successful book. I do however think there is one thing every successful agent needs and that’s passion. Passion not just for reading, but passion for being a part of the process, for new discoveries, and for bringing books to the market.

So often I hear people say that they love to read, therefore they want to be agents. Oh, if only it were that simple. As any of you who have followed agents on Twitter or through blogs have probably come to realize, being an agent is not a 9-5 job. It’s a 9-9 job and then some, and the truth is the reading is such a small part of what we do. In fact, one of the struggles I think all agents face is that when you’re done strategizing with clients, negotiating contracts, talking to editors, submitting proposals, and selling books, there is very little time left for actual reading, and when there is, it isn’t really reading. It’s editing or reading with a critical eye. That’s not the type of reading most people think of when they imagine life as an agent.

After writing that I realized that I haven’t at all answered the question. Oops. Passion isn’t necessarily a personality trait. So what types of traits do I think all or most agents have?

Drive. All agents are essentially entrepreneurs. Even if you work for another agency you more than likely work on commission. That means no one is standing over your shoulder telling you what you need to do today to get the job done. In order to succeed you need to have the drive to spend your nights and your weekends working. There’s no such thing as paid overtime, but if you want to get ahead—and earn a living—you have to commit a lot of extra hours to make it happen. You need to realize that you might be spending eight hours in the office, but it’s also likely you’ll be spending 5-6 hours working at home. It’s this drive that ensures you find the best books and move on them before another agent gets the chance. It’s also this drive that ensures helping your authors become a success. You don’t have the time to work with an author’s manuscript during the day. You’re doing that at night.

A competitive nature. Let’s face it, agents need to be competitive. We’re competing with each other to discover the hottest new authors and we’re competing again with each other to sell our books to editors. I strongly believe this nature—and there are different levels of how competitive we are—helps us to both read quickly and is also driven by our passion.

An eye. This is not something you can learn in school, but I do believe successful agents have a certain eye/intuition for books that will work.

Open-mindedness. You have to be willing and able to read books that you may never have picked up for leisure. An agent can get excited about a book because she sees its marketability and merit, even if it’s not something she personally would’ve picked up at the bookstore.

Perseverance. You’re going to get knocked down a lot in this business. You’ll lose out on potential clients to other agents, you’ll fail to sell books you’ve fallen in love with, and you’ll lose clients who no longer feel it’s a good fit. To be successful you need to know how to get up and brush yourself off, to continue on again.

Patience. Success doesn’t come overnight. The first or second books you submit for your client may get rejection after rejection, but that third book could be a bestseller.

Let me hear from you, though. Many of you have agents and many others have met different agents over the years. While we’re all very different, are there any similar traits you’ve seen among the successful agents you’ve met?

Jessica and Kim

Jumping Over Jargon

Something Lickety Splitter said in a comment in response to one of my blogs reminded me that I use a lot of jargon. I guess every industry has its own language, but there was a point in my writing career where terms like pitch and synop and POV and Big Black Moment and GMC didn't effortlessly roll off my tongue.

I was green back then, green as little apples that make greedy boys sick. The only education in writing I'd had was the sum total of my college English classes, every book I'd ever read and the amateurish scribblings I'd committed to paper.

I knew the basic plotline of romances, which was what I'd decided I'd write. I knew boy finds girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Somehow, when I started out, literally counting words on a page at random in my keeper Harlequin romances and multiplying by the number of pages (figuring in half pages for chapter starts and ends) to figure out wordcount, I thought that was enough.

Thank goodness for the eHarlequin forums. There were so many questions I asked, and so many understanding writers who answered them.

But it was the day that I saw the term BBM on those forums that I knew the infinite boundaries of my ignorance. As a mom to a toddler, I associated the initials BM with, ahem, well, yanno. And BBM? Well, that was a five-alarm-haul-out-the-gas-mask diaper change.

I had an inkling they weren't talking about diaper changes. When some kind soul finally referred to BBM as Big Black Moment, and then went on to say enough to let me figure out that it was the point where boy loses girl -- the cause of that loss, in fact -- a light bulb went off in my head.

(Yes, I am admitting this.) Wow, I thought, they mean you need to PLAN the point where the guy loses the girl. It needs to be part of the storyline. (I wouldn't learn the phrase "organic to the plot" until some months later.) Wow. It can't just be out of nowhere.

That moment was my big moment. It taught me that this writing business was serious stuff, that there was a real craft to it. Sure, I'd been fiddling around on my own for a couple of months, lurking on those forums, reading the few blogs out there by agents or writers. But that moment told me that these writers were craftsmen (craftswomen?), and they worked hard to master their craft.

I dove into learning the biz, learning the jargon, learning how to improve my skill set. I laid aside my pride, donned my humble hat, and I began asking the dumb questions I was thinking.

That's a long way to say that I want to pay it forward. If you ever have questions, about story structure, about the nature of the beast of publishing (at least my little slice of the industry), ANYTHING about writing, ask. I asked these same questions, and some writer somewhere answered them. If I don't know the answer (which I may not), I'll tell you, but I'll point you in the right direction. There are no dumb questions -- just newbie questions.

Dear Parents

Please use this story as advice for how not to be.

On my 6 hour flight home from Boston today (please don't remind me that I can fly to Hawaii in less time than that), I sat next to a father and about an 8 year old boy. I was in the window, the boy was in the center, and the father was in the aisle. Now personally I think it is polite to insert yourself between your child and a stranger, but I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. When the boy first sat down, the father told him to stay on his side of the armrest, to not stare over my shoulder, and not to play with the phone on the back of the seat. He also brought a cup with a lid that he informed the flight attendant he brought because the kid has spilled his drink too many times. But then the father started watching a movie on his itouch. The boy proceeded to throw his seatbelt in my lap at least 8 times, kick me repeatedly, try to take food off of my tray table, try to move my finger when I was adjusting the channel on the armrest, lean his head on my chair, set his hand on my chair, and play with my seat belt.

Then the father decided to switch places with about a 6 year old boy who was sitting a few rows up with his mother. So two young boys in my row; no parental supervision. Then the boy immediately proceeded to play with the phone, broke it, asked me for help to get it out again, and after I told him to ask his parents, proceeded to throw a tantrum that involved hitting the back of the seat in front of him repeatedly and yelling. Later on, when I leaned forward, he put his hand on my back and left it there. I had to physically pick his hand up and put it in his lap. Then when drinks were served again, he ordered cranberry juice. Which in case you aren't aware, is red. He then proceeded to play with his cranberry juice which involved picking up cranberry juice-covered ice out of the cup and dropping it in his lap and between us on the chairs so that I had to clean it up if I didn't want red juice on me. Then the power on his DVD player died, which resulted in him yelling "Help, help'" repeatedly, which of course was not heard by anyone of relevance. This tantrum also involved more thrashing of the limbs. He of course finally managed to spill the entire cup of juice, which sprayed across my tray table, fell all over his lap, and got all over his arm, which he proceeded to hang over my side of the armrest.

I finally managed to get the attention of what I presume to be a late teen/early 20s sister who was sitting across the aisle. She came over and proceeded to clean him up with wet wipes. When the father finally came back to find out what was going on, I asked him politely if one of them could please sit with the boy. He said, "Has he been bad?" And I nodded my head. So he sat back down in the aisle seat. At this point he became slightly more attentive - making sure the boy stopped putting his feet up on my seat, and mostly making sure he did not hang over the armrest toward me. Then the wife yells back to the husband to ask what the kid is watching on the DVD player and decides the younger brother should come back and watch it too. The father informs the mother that I asked one of them to sit with the boy. The wife proceeds to get indignant and say, well you can't choose who you sit by. She suggested I go sit in their other row, but the father informed her I had a window seat. She then suggested that they just put the younger boy in between me and the older boy. The father told her he didn't think it was a good idea. I left my headphones on and ignored it.

Awhile later the wife was back by the husband talking about how she had never in her life asked someone to not sit next to her and could not believe how ridiculous it was. I of course, since I can never keep my mouth shut, finally took my headphones off and asked the lady if she wanted me to list all the things her son had been doing. She looked at me disgustedly, and asked me how old I was. Regrettably I told her although it was none of her business, and then told her that was irrelevant. Of course the next step - "I'm sure you don't have kids." To which of course I responded, no I don't, these are your kids, and you should be responsible for them. Then she continues to talk about how kids are just kids and how she can't imagine how rude I am to tell them the kid couldn't sit next to me. "You can't choose who you sit next to on a plane." To which I informed her that I had merely requested that one of them sit with the boy. She of course just kept talking about how rude I was, so I just said, "look, lady, whatever" and put my headphones back on. She walked off muttering about how she can't imagine ever thinking the way I did.

Ultimately they sent the older boy up to the row next to the younger boy, the father stayed in my row, and the mother stood in the aisle. They didn't send the older boy back until the descent, and the mother never sat down until we were well below 10,000 feet.

Look lady, I understand why you wouldn't want to sit next to your own kid, but for god sakes, don't make a stranger on a plane babysit your delinquent child and then get upset about it. In case you haven't noticed, I was not involved in your decision to have a child, and I certainly didn't agree to help raise it. Have some respect for your fellow human beings!