Jen's Blog
Revisions done (for now)!
After a lot of hard work, I’m happy to say I turned in my revisions to my agent this week! Hoorah! I’m sure I’ll have a little more work to do before submission, but for now, I’m done! Right now, I’m working on synopses for books two and three, and I still am not a fan of writing these things. It is just so hard to sum up an entire book in three pages in an interesting fashion. Luckily, I have full outlines for both books, at about 16 pages each, but I need to trim them down to about 3 pages each for sub.
Anyway, I’m feeling really, really good about the changes I made to the manuscript. I feel like it is so much stronger now, and I love this version so much more than the previous version, and that’s saying a lot, as this book is my favorite of all the ones I’ve written. I’ve heard writers refer to “heart books” before, and this one is mine. I often wonder if I’ll ever feel this way about a book again. I hope so. I’ve put so much work and time into it, and I’m STILL not tired of it.
I use a lot of different techniques for first drafting and revising, and the one that really worked for this revision round was my cork board covered in notecards of my plot. I needed to move a couple scenes and add a couple scenes, and using the cork board really helped me organize everything. I don’t think this would have worked well in first draft stage, but it REALLY helped me during revisions. I have it hanging on the wall next to my desk so I could refer to it while I typed away.
Once I’m done with the synopses, I’ll be first drafting again. It’s been awhile! I have a few ideas rattling around in my brain, but I’ll probably start AMPED back up again. I’m about 40k into it, and while I know it needs a lot of work, I’m excited about working on it again. Of course, there’s this other idea that has me pretty excited…so, we’ll see! I’m planning on devoting March to first drafting, writing every single day, and getting some good progress done on something new.
Snow Day
I’ve had my head down in my Revision Cave for the past couple weeks. I’ve made a lot of progress, and the end is in sight! Hoping to finish up by Tuesday, hurrah! Today, my work office closed early due to the big Northeast blizzard, and I spent most of the afternoon huddled inside with hot chocolate and my manuscript. While I sit here at my desk, I hear the window howling through the city buildings, and most of the day, I watched the snow fall in big puffy flakes through a window getting battered by white cloudy gusts. And, when I ventured outside a few minutes ago, I found the snow still streaming down and the sidewalks desperately needing to see the bottom of a shovel.
Hope everyone is staying warm! How did you pass the snow day?
Meeting Writer Friends
I’ve been lucky enought to make some AMAZING writer friends online in the past year and a half. Some I talk (write?) to every day but had/have never met. Well, last weekend, I finally got to meet some of my writer pals! I had such a great time. Here we are at dinner:
From l-r, front: Chandler Craig, Me, Shana Silver, Wendy Cebula
From l-r, back: Gretchen McNeil, Steve Cordero, Sarah Eve Kelly, Kody Keplinger
And there’s more to come this weekend!
1. Kidlit party tonight
2. SCBWI NY Conference Saturday and Sunday
3. Bluboarders dinner Saturday night
Can’t wait! It’s going to be a busy weekend, and I’m really looking forward to meeting writers I know from the interwebs and hopefully making some new friends. Yay for conferences!
Agent News
So, it’s been pretty quiet around here still (which I seriously plan on changing, seriously!), but I just wanted to pop in and share my agent news. Just before the holidays, I accepted an offer of representation from the AMAZING Alyssa Eisner Henkin of Trident Media Group!
I am super excited about working with her. We really clicked on the phone, she has great editorial insight and her enthusiasm is infectious! I’ve started on agent revisions for BONE DRY and am already seeing a big improvement. Yay! It has really been a great start to 2010.
YAR Intro - Nerd Power!
This week is launch week for the new vlog chain of YA writers, the YA Rebels!
And here is my Friday Intro post:
Interview & Contest with Jill Myles
Today, I have Jill Myles here on her blog tour for the new release, GENTLEMEN PREFER SUCCUBI! She’s going to give us some great advice about the agent search, and you’ll have a chance to enter the blog tour contest–the prize is a query critique from Jill’s awesome agent, Holly Root. All you have to do is comment on this post. For each tour stop you comment on, you earn an extra entry in the drawing, and the limit is one comment per post. Jill will announce the winner on her own blog at the end of the tour. For a list of the complete tour schedule, check out Shelli’s post here.
First, welcome Jill and congrats on your release! Since the big prize at the end of your blog tour is a query critique from the awesome Holly Root, I’d like to talk about getting an agent today. Do you have any advice for aspiring writers on crafting that perfect query letter?
I think being specific about story details that make your story different is key. Too often, I think we (as writers) have difficulty summarizing a big plot into something succinct. So we take the easy way out and give a vague tease, like “As troubles escalate, the heroine must decide what she is fighting for and what she truly wants.”
BORING.
What sorts of troubles are escalating? Why does she have to fight? What does she want? What makes this unique? You have to really bring it. If the agent has to ask “Why?” or “What?” in the query letter, I’m not doing my job right. “Escalating troubles” could be struggling in algebra, or it could be an alien uprising. Being too broad does not help your story.
First pages are definitely important. The trick is that you have to make someone want to keep reading. You need to start off with a bang - and by a bang, I mean that you need to make someone keep reading. It doesn’t have to be all action and shooting guns - it could be introspection, but it needs to be really good introspection. And leave off at the part where you know the reader would be dying to read more. As far as advice for making them shine? Print it out and read it. Have a friend sit down and read it aloud to you. Read it again after that. It really helps to be grammatically perfect, of course, but you need to make sure that your voice is evident more than anything else.
Look at this as a job you’re applying for. Your query letter is your resume. If you don’t hear back or get rejected, it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with your resume. Just keep working on it until you start getting some of those ‘call backs’.
Every relationship is going to be different, I think. Some people like to call every day and some people prefer to be left alone. I’m kind of somewhere in the middle - I might email repeatedly when something is in the works, but otherwise I might be totally silent. I think it’s key to respect your agent’s time (she’s got a bunch of clients, and you only have one agent) but you also need to make sure that your needs are being met. If you have certain expectations, set them up front. If you want that weekly conference call, establish that at the get-go.
Trust is a big one. I know I find it really hard to work if something is bothering me, so I ask all kinds of questions. Even if my agent has a small answer or even a non-answer and a “I’ll get back to you”, once I hear back from her, I’m confident that she’s on it. Nothing is worse than emails that disappear into Never-never-land, or conference calls that never happen. If you don’t feel that you trust the agent you sign with to look out for your career to the best of their ability, then don’t sign. It is 100% true that a bad agent is worse than no agent.
Luckily, I have a terrific agent!
Thanks for stopping by Jill, and congrats again!
Be sure to comment below for a chance to win the critique, and check out Jill’s next blog tour stop tomorrow with Kerri, where she’ll be chatting about mythology and research.
New YA Vlog Group!
Also, super huge congrats to my writing bud, Courtney Allison Moulton for her awesome deal with HarperCollins for her YA urban fantasy, MY SOUL TO REAP! Go congratulate her here: http://courtney-allison.blogspot.com/
Cool Covers
Don’t judge a book by its cover, right? Well, I have a confession to make. While a less-than-marvelous cover won’t stop me from buying a book, a great cover will almost always grab my interest and will get me seeking out more information.
So, what makes a great cover? Great question! I’ve posted some YA covers below (of recent and upcoming releases) that I think are rocking it in the cover department.
*ETA It seems that my preference tends to be covers with only two or three colors. What about you? What grabs your eye?
SISTERS RED by Jackson Pearce
What I Like: This is one of the coolest covers I’ve seen in awhile…and this actually led me to the artist’s website where I ended up buying two of her prints which now hang on my living room wall!
Anyway, I love how the illustration flows together, and that there’s more than one thing going on here. We have the two sisters in contrasting colors, and we also have the wolf. Speaking of contrasting colors, the color scheme in particular is very eye-catching. Red on black! Which is cool because this is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.
CANDOR by Pam Bachorz
What I Like: It’s a pretty basic cover as far as color goes. The photo is in black and white, and the only color on the page is orange, which makes it really pop. And you immediately get the sense that something kind of shady and mysterious is going on by the look in the guy’s eye, and the lower half of the image gives off a little bit of a sci fi vibe. It’s simple, but it says so much. And having read the book, I think the cover is perfect for the content, especially in the details. Like how the title looks spray-painted…
Also? Awesome book. I highly recommend!
HUSH HUSH by Becca Fitzpatrick
What I Like: I don’t know what to say. This is just plain gorgeous.
SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater
What I Like: I usually like covers with people on them, but this cover has not even a smidgen of toenail, and I love it.
It’s another cover not using a lot of different colors. It makes that one red dot really stand out. And the light blue does a fantastic job of portraying a sense of cold…which is a big thing in this book. And the artsy vibe it has going on matches the tone of the writing and the story really well….I loved how the temperatures were chapter titles!
FIRE by Kristin Cashore
What I Like: This one is harder for me to put into words. I just think it’s a really gorgeous cover. The colors, the bow, the font. So pretty!
HATE LIST by Jennifer Brown
What I Like: Okay, so I’m seeing a pattern here. Another one with a basic color scheme. I love the black and gray art with the blue font. I also love how the title is inside the teardrop.
MY SOUL TO SAVE by Rachel Vincent
What I Like: Another one with a basic color scheme! I love the how the dark shadowy background makes her blue dress pop.
My favorite thing about this cover is the swirly text wrapping around the girl. It says “SAVE” while the text wrapping around the girl on the first book’s cover says “TAKE”. Very cool.
What I’m Doing
READING:
I started reading FIRE by Kristin Cashore this week, the anticipated companion to GRACELING. I loved the first book so I’ve been looking forward to this one. I also read LEVIATHAN by Scott Westerfeld before I started FIRE. Very fun steampunk with awesome illustrations.
WATCHING:
I’ve gotten really into Glee, Vampire Diaries, Dollhouse and The Office. It took me awhile to get into the American version of The Office, but I’ve finally fallen. So, I’ve been watching reruns to catch myself up on everything that’s happened so far. Jim + Pam = Awwww.
LISTENING:
The new Paramore album! I saw them in concert, and they rocked.
WRITING:
As far as new writing goes, I was sick with the flu last week and got no writing or revising done. It’s hard to weave words together when you have a pounding headache and the Neverending Cough of Doom. I’m feeling much better now though so I’m hoping to get some good work done in November. I plan to keep working on my new summer camp book. Maybe the thought of warm summer nights will help get me through this cold fall we’re having.
Three Great YA Fantasy Reads
My Soul To Take by Rachel Vincent
I love Rachel Vincent’s Shifters series so I couldn’t wait to pick up her debut YA, My Soul to Take, about a teenage banshee who knows when someone around her is about to die. Unfortunately, girls around her do start to die, and she has to figure out what the heck is going on and, hopefully, stop it.
As in all her books, Rachel weaves together mystery, romance and unique fantasy elements seamlessly. Can’t wait to read the sequel!
This is a great YA fantasy debut by Jackson Pearce, about wishes, love and finding your place in the world.
I loved the format of this book: switching between narrators each chapter. Both voices were different and authentic, and the ending happened in a way I wasn’t expecting. I thought I had it all figured out, but oh no! I love when I’m surprised.
I got so into the book that the pages just kept turning, and I read this in only one sitting!
Two words. Killer. Unicorns.
I loved pretty much everything about this book: the awesome history and mythology, the cool Italian cloisters setting, the strong personalities of the girls and the unicorns themselves. Not to give too much away, but there is a certain monstrous unicorn that I couldn’t help but love.
My favorite thing about this one is the mythology. I am in awe of the world-building. There are so many details and nuances about the creatures, the girls and the cloisters. I could tell a great amount of research and creativity went into writing this book, and I hope there is more of this in the sequel!