EDITED TO ADD - I WON!!   Sara B. Larson's fantasy debut DEFY comes out January 7th 2014 and she's holding a contest for the best re-imagining of her cover. She already has a great cover, but the winner will receive an ARC. Here's my go at it with all stock from faestock over at deviantart.

For The Love Of Conferences - Part 2

Well, I apologize that it's been a bit since I updated the blog. I was starting to get on a nice roll with it too! It has been for a good cause, but one I can't talk about yet. I have a number of 'irons in the fire' that I'm hoping will 'blossom' soon (check out the mixed metaphors!).

The biggest update in my writing life was the SCBWI conference in Los Angeles. I was able to attend due to the generosity of the wonderful Fairy Godsisters, Ink (Thalia Chaltas, Mary Hershey, Valerie Hobbs, Robin LaFevers, Lee Wardlaw). Each year they help children's writers and illustrators by providing a scholarship to the SCBWI Nationals. This year the scholarship was based on a poetry contest. We were to create a haiku that captured the experience of being a writer. And I won! Here is my entry:

The Haiku Trilogy of the Querying Author ( to be read in a round)

Creative Spark

Struck by Apollo

Lord of the Muses guides me

Blank paper beckons

Depths of Rejection

Flung from the slush pile

Weeks of waiting for nothing

Form letter response

Fresh Edit

Fresh edit is hope

Stripping the story to bones

I begin again



And since I'm in Canada and flights from here to LA cost a wee bit more than they do for US writers, I am also grateful for a grant I received from the Writers' Community of Durham Region, my local and extremely supportive association.

For all of those stuck in querying hell, my love and sympathy - I hope you enjoyed my poems. I'll be back soon to give a report on the conference in Part 3.

For The Love Of Conferences Part 1

I wanted to talk about conferences and how important they can be to a writer's career, at every stage. Almost a year ago, I was sitting with 50,000 words of a YA manuscript and wondering what, or even if I should continue with it. The idea had been percolating for a while, so when I write, I write very quickly, and I knew that I would be able to finish it in the next month or so. But what then? I had thought about going to a big conference in the US, but I just couldn't pull the trigger due to the cost. When I finally decided to go for it at the last minute, the flights had gone up so high in price that it just wasn't possible.

Completely depressed, I began a search online for other upcoming conferences and I discovered something I had never heard about before: SCBWI. And it turns out they were running a conference in Niagara Falls that very same weekend.

Now, unless you've read my previous post about sending my last manuscript to exactly ONE agent, you will be surprised at how clueless I was. SCBWI stands for The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

But you knew that, of course ;).

So I contacted the organizers immediately and found out that the date for registration had passed. Despair.

But they volunteered to put me on a waiting list. Hope.

Then I found out there's a whole critique group component that is unique to this conference. Fear.

Someone dropped out and I got in! Excitement! And then Fear again!

In Part 2, I'm going to talk about what I learned at that conference and others and how they have moved my writing career along. But I wanted to get out the information that there are only 4 SPOTS LEFT for the conference this year May 3-5, 2013. Due to an administrative conflict, this is not a SCBWI conference for this year and there is no illustrators track, but it is still an amazing event. Look at the lineup!:

SUSAN RICH, EDITOR-AT-LARGE - LITTLE, BROWN BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
SUSAN HAWK, AGENT - THE BENT AGENCY
SARA ZARR, Y.A. AUTHOR
ELLEN HOPKINS, Y.A. AUTHOR
KIMBERLEY GRIFFITHS-LITTLE, AUTHOR, M.G, Y.A.
LORIN OBERWEGER, FREELANCE EDITOR - FREE EXPRESSIONS LITERARY
ROMAN WHITE, DIRECTOR, AUTHOR
LAURA BIAGI, AGENT - THE JEAN V. NAGGAR LITERARY AGENCY INC

I hope you caught that there are 2 wonderful agents attending this year! And you have to see the location to believe it - truly unique. If you are in driving distance to Niagara Falls and you are a children's writer, you should be there. I mean it.

Writer Jackie Garlick-Pynaert is the organizer and for more info or to grab those last few spots go to:
www.niagararetreatandconference.com.

Let's Talk Rejection

So, let's talk rejection. I just came across a tweet about Anne of Green Gables being rejected and then shelved for two years before L. M. Montgomery resubmitted and subsequently sold 50 million. This was one of my favorite books as a kid, but I have to admit that I don't know too much about how it was published, so I can only assume that this is true. I also don't know if Montgomery changed and revised the book during those two years. But what struck me was the faith she must have had in her creation to go out there again and bare her soul to the world.

Because that's what it feels like - complete nakedness in front of hostile eyes.

I have to admit that I've had a pretty good week. It would be inappropriate to go into details - and I don't like to tempt fate either - but I've received a lot of positive reinforcement and interest this week. I don't get my hopes up about anything until it's real, but it feels good to think that maybe, just maybe things are moving in the right direction.

And then I received a rejection on something I didn't expect.

There's no point in talking about the what or the who. Suffice it to say that it was a tersely worded two point criticism, one point valid because it was the writer's opinion, and one point so out of left field to me that I wanted to immediately refute it.

Of course, that would be the worst thing to do!

The thing is, it involved something in which I have a great deal of knowledge and am able to make connections within that seem completely obvious to me. I never stopped to think that maybe someone without the same background might only see these as oblique and random, rather than considered and logical.

And at the end of the day, that's my problem, not theirs. It's my job to be an effective communicator. And so, despite all the positive news I received this week, I was thrown into the depths of self-doubt.

Now, I'm no stranger to rejection. I was a working actress before I was married and believe me, writers have it easy! We get to sit at our desks and send out our query letters, our partials and fulls, and when the rejections come - and they do - we can read them when we feel ready. They are faceless and voiceless and we can skim them quickly and then delete or file them away.

But imagine standing alone on a stage after belting your little heart out and feeling the minutes tick by as you watch them argue and deliberate about you before finally saying thank you and then turning away. Find me at a conference some day and I'll tell you about how I came this close to getting the role of Eponine in the original Toronto production. Watching people actually in the process of considering you and then being argued out of it by a colleague is one of the most humiliating things that I have ever experienced.

So, fellow writers, you don't know jack about rejection.

And that's what I reminded myself. I've had a really great week and I'm allowed to feel happy about it. And maybe a little hopeful too. I can file that email, and move on.

I was at book club last night and we were discussing a book that I absolutely hated. I mean, loathed and detested. And yet all of the rest of the group at least liked it, and several loved it. Art is subjective. It has to be. My art will not always be your art and your art might leave me cold, but we all have a right to continue trying to make it.

Agents - What Are They Good For? Part 2

So, I finished Part 1 of this post by coming clean with my desire to be traditionally published. Don't get me wrong, I still think there are a lot of benefits to self-publishing if you have the right skills and mindset. But there's just something visceral about my desire to see my book sitting on the shelves of the local bookstore. Maybe someday that will be more in reach for the self-publishing author and for a few, it may already be possible. But I think that I need the affirmation that a professional - an agent - will give me by believing in my work.

I could go into all the important tasks that an agent takes on when she accepts a new client - editorial feedback, author branding, submission to the 'big guys', contract negotiation, foreign and film rights sales, being the author's cheerleader to some extent - but I'll leave that for future posts.

Today, I'm just thinking about affirmation.

I haven't abandoned my self-publishing goals completely - I'm working on some steampunk novellas that I'm thinking of  publishing through Amazon - but for now I'm slogging through the query trenches. Getting an agent is only the beginning of what I understand is a long and sometimes arduous process, but I accept that I'm in it for the long haul.

Bring it on!

I would love to hear any agent success stories so feel free to comment and share. Or just admire the lovely Rackham illustration below - I picked her because she looks tired, maybe because of all the querying she's been doing. See how she's cradling her tired and broken hand from pounding all those keys on the keyboard? But it's Brunhilde the valkyrie - so you just know that she'll persevere.