Writer Spotlight (Follow-up) - Faith Elizabeth Hough

Faith Elizabeth Hough

Happy Tuesday, everyone!!! Since I don't have a new writer to spotlight today, I thought I'd go back and check in with Faith Hough to see how things are progressing for her and her YA historical, THE WITHERING VINE.

BTW, Writer Spotlight is a series for writers who have a completed YA or MG manuscript that they want to pitch.  It's a great opportunity to get more eyes on your work and to meet new writer friends. Click here for details and then email me at PaulaKayMac(at)comcast.net.

So Faith, thanks for coming back.!!First a few questions about your querying process.

How many queries do you send out at once and how do you space them out? Do you have a system for keeping track of what's sent?

I tend to send three to four queries at a time, wait a month or so, and then send out three or four more. This sounds very organized and planned, but actually it just turned out that way. I do a lot of research on any particular agent before querying, so that part of the process (along with, you know, keeping up with life and mothering) prevents me from moving along much faster. I do have a system for keeping track, which I picked up from my lovely critique partner Paula McLaughlin. : ) I keep a spreadsheet of agents' names, agencies, preferences, where I learned about them, if I met them, how to query them, etc. I mark down the date when I query them, when I hear back and send a full or partial, and when they send the rejection. I'm happy whenever (like now) there's empty spots in that rejection date column.

Glad my system-thingy worked for you : )

Congrats on being selected as an honoree for The Tassy Walden Awards. I understand one of the judges (an agent) was there when you read your first chapter. Tell us about the conversation you had with her after the reading.

Thank you! Reading the first chapter of THE WITHERING VINE was thrilling/terrifying/actually a lot of fun. I was nervous, but Jenny's voice seemed to speak for itself and that helped immensely. (She's a lot braver than I am, so it was no big deal for her. :) During the refreshments after the ceremony, one of the agents who had been a judge for the competition came over and we chatted for a while about writing and family and how good the brownies were--honestly that was the coolest part of the conversation: realizing, again, that agents are real, very nice, people. :) At the end of the conversation she asked me if I had an agent and when I told her no, she said she'd love to see the full ms. Of course I said I'd be happy to oblige!

Faith reading first chapter of TWV

I went to the awards ceremony (see picture to left) and was so impressed with all the readings. I'm not so sure that will be my strong point, but all of you did such a great job of speaking in character!

Often times we think the query process means we're done with revisions until that editor's letter, but this isn't the case. Would you share how your query responses have prompted you to revise TWV a bit more?

Sure! I'm one of those people that will probably never stop revising until the book is on the shelves... so whenever I get a response/criticism/critique that makes sense to me, I'll jump on the opportunity to make my book better. After I sent the full to the Tassy judge, I spent a couple weeks sitting on my hands to prevent me tinkering any more. When I received her response, I was extremely grateful that she listed specific things that weren't working in the story, in her opinion. She wished me luck with the story--but she did say she'd be happy to see any future projects or future versions of this one. Because her comments all really resonated with me, I decided to revise in that direction. I thanked the agent and let her know my plans and she said she'd be happy to look at the story again when it's ready!

You agreed with the changes the agent felt TWV needed. Do you have any advise for the rest of us? How can we tell when feedback or suggestions should be acted upon?

For me, it was a definite "gut feeling." Or "aha!" feeling, where you actually feel excited, because you suddenly see directions you can take that will make the story so much stronger. I knew my vision for the story well enough that it was clear that the changes would enhance that vision rather than weaken it. And I also sought the opinion of the few other people who have read the entire story and know what I want it to be: my husband and critique partners. When they agreed with how I was feeling, I knew I was heading the right way.

Any advice you can share with the querying writer on how to keep spirits up?

Oh, I am full of this kind of advice. :) First of all, chocolate is not a luxury, but an investment. Seriously. Second, make sure you have critique partners who are willing to be your harshest critics as well as your fiercest supporters; having that kind of trust will always keep you from sinking too low. Third, write because you love to write--because you love the craft. Of course we all want publication because it validates that love--but always focus on the craft first. After that, there's so many little things...Enjoy life, nature, kids, family. Read often. Take joy in others' successes. Watch sunrises. Look for encouragement, because it is just waiting to be found. For example, yesterday I found this quote by Michelangelo (one of my favorite people ever): "Genius is eternal patience." I hope it inspire you, too!

That is a great quote, thanks Faith.

Thank you so much Faith. Continue to keep us posted on your progress and best of luck to you!! To read Faith's Writer Spotlight interview click here. Her blog is pretty awesome too, just like her!!!

Pump Up and Write Now - Monday

"Are you done, yet?" (says my kids, friends, husband)

As some of you may know I'm close to being done, as in the ready-to-query kind of done, with my YA paranormal thriller, UNTIL DEATH. But . . . I've been close for, oh, I don't know, maybe three months, now. Sometimes I wonder, will I eveeeer get there.

Then, while searching for something to post today I ran across this quote, which was a good reminder about the process:

"Start early and work hard. A writer's apprenticeship usually involves writing a million words (which are then discarded) before he's almost ready to begin. That takes a while." -David Eddings 

 So if you find yourself whining, like I was, er am, no, no, I'm not anymore, really, click onto the last Pump Up and Write Now post or email me and we can cheer each other on.

Now, go write!!! NOW!!!

Interview with Writer, Uma Krishnaswami

Uma Krishnaswami

Welcome!!!

I am so excited to have Uma here with me today to talk about her new book, THE GRAND PLAN TO FIX EVERYTHING. A humorous and heartwarming MG story filled with rose petal milkshakes, Dreamycakes, blue mountain flowers as blue as the sky, fillums and filmi people, silver anklets that go chan-chan-chan, drumbeats that go dhoom-taana-dhoom, and as many monkeys skulking about for a bite of Mr. Mani’s giant chocolate cake as there are pecking pigeons around the Washington Monument.

 “…Set in imagined Swapnagiri (which means Dream Mountain), this high-energy concoction is thoroughly believable and entertaining. The story is told in a third-person present-tense voice that rings true to its protagonist, who sees her life as a movie script. Though Dini and Maddie are halfway around the world from each other, they communicate through cell phones and computer chat, keeping up their friendship while making new ones. Full of references to Bollywood movie traditions and local customs, this is a delightful romp with a fresh setting and a distinctive and appealing main character.” -Kirkus Reviews     
Starred reviews: Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly

Amazon

Uma, I love Dini's voice!! The dialogue between her and her BFF, Maddie,  
is so real. Did her voice and character come to you as fast as Veeran
drove the streets and hills of India, or was it gradual?

Julie Larios asked me that very same question! It made me think, because I
don’t usually know “how” I did something until after the fact. Here’s my
answer, over at The Drift Record:

 Oh, my characters always seem to run away from me as fast as they can. I know that sounds crazy but that's how it feels to me, like trying to chase them through a labyrinth hoping they'll let me eavesdrop and knowing they'll shut up if they realize I'm listening. In early drafts they often feel a bit wooden, as if they're trying out for the part and it's not quite a fit yet. Dini was no exception. Her way of thinking too, all that "life-as-movie" stuff, crept in gradually. 

If her BFF, Maddie, were to visit Dini in India, what do you think Dini would be most excited to show her?

She’d want to take her to Sunny Villa, of course, but I also think they’d want to visit Bombay, the center of the filmi universe, especially as Dolly Singh is back in movie-making mode, thanks to the success of Dini’s Grand Plan.

Can you give us a short scene using their voices?

I would love to! Not quite a scene yet, but here’s a fragment along those lines.

Note: this is a drafty draft, right out of my head and onto the screen. It may never be in any book, and it certainly won't be there in just this form.

“Ooh, it’s singing,” says Dini. She is referring to the doorbell.

“The song from the movie,” Maddie says, and it is hard to tell if her voice is wobbling from excitement or exhaustion.

They are standing outside Dolly’s door—Dolly Singh’s door! How unbelievable is that!—on the tenth floor of this ground-floor-plus-ten-floors building. It’s the kind of building that in India is known as a block of “flats,” quite logically as the apartments stack up neatly on top of each other. The adults in the cast are emerging from the elevator which is, also quite suitably, called a “lift” in these parts.

“This is beyond stunning,” Maddie says. “I can't believe we’re really in…”

She takes a breath, and Dini does too. “Bombay the center of the filmi universe,” they say together, solemnly.

Wowie, wowie, wowie, as Maddie would say.

There are quite a few minor characters in THE GRAND PLAN TO FIX EVERYTHING that add much to the tone, humor, and overall plot. Was it difficult to juggle so many and make them all so recognizable? Did you have a system that helped to keep them all straight? Were there more characters that were cut in subsequent drafts?

There were lots of characters in very early drafts who fell right off the page once Dolly and Chickoo Uncle appeared. Dini even had a brother for a while but I realized quite early on that he didn't belong in the story.

I’d say that in the last eight or ten rounds, all the minor characters were in place. Because I was writing in short scenes it wasn't that hard to keep them all straight in my mind. I didn't need to use any organizing tools to track the minor characters. In fact whenever I got stuck with Dini and Maddie, I’d write a goatherd or Lal or Soli Dustup scene and it would get the whole story moving once more. They were my way of finding out what was happening in the larger world of which Dini was trying to make sense.

Uma's "running notes"

In contrast, for Dini and Maddie, I kept running notes on their friendship and the arc of their story.

I even once looked up Astrology for Dummies to see if I could harvest a nice cluster of traits for each of them. You know, things like “deeply believes in equality, makes many friends” or “solid, reliable, dedicated, can be stubborn and demanding at times.” Don't laugh—I’m not too proud to accept help where I can find it!

I know what I’ll be doing once we’re done chatting. (Note to self…Google astrology).

One of my favorite minor characters was the goatherd. Since Dini has a grand plan to fix everything, were you tempted to have her 'fix' the goatherd’s dream of cows, chickens, and eggs?

No, never. His little storyline plays out on the edges of Dini’s story, and to bring him any closer would have turned the spotlight onto him. He does give her a kurinji flower at the very end, but that’s the only connection. The reader is left to assume that, this being Swapnagiri, the goatherd may well realize a dream or two, or he may actually be quite happy just dreaming. In some ways, we don’t need to know.

I think that’s part of the joy of writing a story from a larger perspective than a single viewpoint. You can choose to focus the spotlight where the story seems to need it.

Dini loves words and writes them down in her stripy green notebook. I know what her favorite word would be: surreal. Do you know her least favorite?

Dini tells me to let you know that her least favorite word is "impossible."

What do you hope your readers come away with after reading THE GRAND PLAN TO FIX EVERYTHING, besides a big grin, of course?

A sense of hope, a sense that the world is as good as we can make it, that friendships matter, and laughter can help you get over the occasional monkey in your water tank!

Well, you succeeded in doing just that for me. I so enjoyed THE GRAND PLAN TO FIX EVERYTHING!!!! What a great summer read!!!!

Thank you so much, Uma, for coming by today. When I emailed Uma about what I planned to post she told me not to make it about her, to make it about her book, which I did, right? So I totally WON'T tell you that four years ago, I signed up for a writing class, Uma's class, which changed my writing life. I refuse, absolutely REFUSE, to mention how thankful I am to have benefited from her encouragement, wisdom, her uncanny ability to pass just-the-right-next-tool from the craft tool box, and her gift for making criticisms sound like a compliments. Uma's not only a great writer, but a wonderful teacher who now teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts in the MFA/Writing for Children and YA program.

Please be sure to check out her AWESOME book trailer (with monkeys) along with her blog, and of course put THE GRAND PLAN TO FIX EVERYTHING on your MUST read list. 

The next stop on The Grand Tour is The Pirate Tree.

AND NOW, THE GRAND GIVEAWAY:

Aren't they pretty!!!?
And they won't fall off like Dolly's : )

Three lucky Grand Prize winners will each receive one copy of THE GRAND PLAN TO FIX EVERYTHING along with a starry assortment of bangles and trinkets that Dolly Singh, famous famous Bollywood movie star, would adore! An additional 3 runners-up will receive a copy of THE GRAND PLAN TO FIX EVERYTHING.

(That's six winners!! SIX!!) 

To enter, send an e-mail to GrandPlanGiveaway@gmail.com. In the body of the e-mail, include your name, mailing address, and e-mail address (if you're under 13, submit a parent's name and e-mail address). One entry per person and prizes will only be shipped to US or Canadian addresses. Entries must be received by midnight (PDT) on 6/30/11. Winners will be selected in a random drawing on 7/1/11 and notified via email.

Good luck!

Wednesday's Random Funnies

Things we say wrong

This dude has a plethora of subjects he chats and posts about on You Tube - thought this one was fun. Hope you enjoy.

Come back tomorrow to meet Uma Krishnaswami, auther of the hilarious and heartwarming MG book, The Grand Plan to Fix Everything, and enter a chance to win a copy of your very own.

Writer Spotlight - Lisa Dunick

Lisa Dunick (no, not her, the one with the hat : ) JK

Today, Lisa Dunick is stepping into the spotlight. She will be the last Writer Spotlight unless I get some other voluteers (hint, hint). So if you meet the criteria listed on the Writer Spotlight page above, please do email me asap or I might have to interview myself : )

Back to Lisa. Lisa is a recovering academic who decided that instead of just reading, studying, teaching, or selling books, that she should try to write one. She has a PhD in English and teaches writing at a local college part-time. She's originally from the Midwest but now resides in the heart of Dixie with her husband and two kids.

Lisa is also a blogger on Romance Magicians, where Birmingham's Southern Magic Romance writers talk about, well, writing (duh).   

So Lisa, tell us what manuscript you have out on submission now? 

It’s a 90k YA supernatural romance titled A SWEET UNREST.

Love the title. Awesome.

Give us the three to four sentence pitch.

When Lucy Aimes moves to an old plantation just outside of New Orleans, she starts having vivid dreams about the past that feature a boy from her present. It soon becomes clear that the events she’s been dreaming about really did happen more than a century ago, and she has to figure out whether she’s falling for a ghost. But before she can, an ancient curse threatens to put everyone she loves in danger.

AWESOME, curses, love, dreams, maybe-ghosts AND New Orleans-This story has it all!!!

Would you care to share the opening line or paragraph?

Stepping out of the air-conditioned van, the bright heat of the Louisiana June felt like a solid wall. Humidity hung in the air, and for a moment I wasn’t sure that I was going to be able to breath through it. I could practically feel my hair start to frizz into unruly curls. A trickle of sweat slid down my back as I lifted my camera to focus on the view in front of me and looked through the viewfinder.

All I saw was whiteness.

I've been to New Orleans in June so I can totally relate to getting slammed by the wal of heat. Nice opening, Lisa.

How would your main character describe you? If you entered into a scene in your manuscript, how would you be introduced, how would the MC perceive you? Give us a short scene but keep it under 250 words : )

I didn’t think the official opening of the mansion would have that much of an effect on my life. After all, I’d already lived through a summer of constant construction, ghosts, and attacks by a Voodoo priestess. Imagine my surprise when those early crowds at Le Ciel seemed to turn my life upside down once again.

Most were just elderly folks who migrated in on tour busses or history buffs like my parents, but one day this woman showed up with a notebook in hand, and I could tell she was after something. Something that she probably didn't need to know.

I might not have even noticed her at all, except that she had these two little boys with her—one about school-aged and one a little younger. All I could think was that the house didn’t stand a chance if she took them inside.

From the look on her face and the way she tugged her dark, curling hair back into a disheveled ponytail, I had a feeling she was thinking the same thing.

"Jay! Would you take these two so I can get the tickets?”

She handed the kids off to a tall, lanky guy and came up to my window.

“Two adults and two little monsters, please,” she said, grinning apologetically.

“They’re cute,” I offered. And I meant it, sort of.

“You want one?” She asked playfully, her dark eyes glinting with a humor I hadn’t noticed when she was wrangling the boys.

I shook my head. I had my own monsters to deal with. But first, I had to make sure she didn’t find whatever it was she was looking for.

LOL, this is great Lisa. Nice.

What is your least and most favorite word? Use each in a sentence, writing in the voice of one of your characters from any of your manuscripts.

My least favorite word is amongst.

From Lucy’s mom (who is an English teacher): Unless you’d say whilst, you shouldn’t use amongst.

My most favorite? That’s really, really hard. I don’t think I really have a favorite word. Maybe abnegation, but I don’t think my characters would use it, since they’re not Faulkner. Can I share my favorite character/voice in the book, though?

Sure!!

Here’s a snippet from Mama Legba when Lucy's friend, Chloe, asks for a love charm:

“That ain’t never gonna happen, Chloe-girl. You bind someone, and you not talking love. You talking something else. And you, Chloe-girl,” the woman said, walking over and tipping up Chloe’s chin.

"You deserve love. Not that something else.”

Great voice, thanks for sharing.

What are you working on while you wait?

Right now I’m working to figure out what I want to write next. I have the beginnings of a couple different stories started, but the one that's grabbed me right now is called Remembering After. I don't want to get into the plot too much, but I will say that part of the story is narrated by a teen who doesn't remember how he died.

Cool!! Sounds great, good luck.

What book have you read in the past six mo that’s inspired you and why?

Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why. It’s just really, really spectacularly done. I swear, I put it down but couldn’t stop thinking about it for days. I wish I could write a book like that—as important as that one is. I’m not sure that it’s the kind of story I really have in me to tell, but wow. Just wow.

Same!!! I could not stop thinking about this book either. In fact I wrote a post about the book (here) and Jay Asher (hilarious speaker, BTW) who I was lucky enough to meet at my local book seller.

Do you have a literary-character crush? OR Rather if you were a teen now or when you were a teen who would be your your lit-crush, and/or your BFF?

My only lasting literary crush is John Grady Cole from Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses. In the words of one of my lit professors in college, he’s the most ardent-hearted character I’ve ever read. (And that was before Matt Damon played him in that awful movie.) He still makes me want to be 16 again and try to save him.

If I was a teen now? I think I’d be crushing pretty hard on Vincent from Amy Plum’s new Die For Me. Oh, wait. I am crushing on Vincent. I mean, he’s beautiful and French and totally swoon-worthy for reasons I can’t convey here without giving away the plot.

: )

Any random fun-facts you’d like to share about yourself?

I have a picture of the backside of Ernest Hemingway, naked. I should specify that it was a young Ernest Hemingway, and not the grizzled grandpa-looking Hemingway that a lot of people think of. I got it while I was doing archival research at the Hemingway collection at the Kennedy library for my dissertation a few years back. They had these 8x10 pictures that different organizations had used and then sent back for whatever reason, and the curator said I could take whatever I wanted, since they were extras. I took a bunch to use for teaching the different novels, but I ask you, how could I not take a picture like that, too?

LOL, that is sooo funny!! I'm reading The Paris Wife, a story about the young Ernest Hemingway and his love affairs. I wonder who took the picture?

I have a PhD in English, which I guess isn’t necessarily “fun,” but I did hang it on my refrigerator for a year, and that was fun. Especially when we had people over who did double-takes when they saw it up there next to my son’s pre-school finger-painting.

Good for you, Lisa!! Thank you so much for the interview and for sharing your works with us. I wish you all the very best with, A SWEET UNREST!!! And keep us posted!!!!

If you like these Writer Spotlights and would like to see them continue, please spread the word to your writer friends who have ubber-awesome completed manuscripts to pitch and then shove, push, drag, and tug them into the spotlight. More info on Spotlight interviews can be found here.

Pump Up and Write Now - Monday

This was the very first Pump Up and Write Now post. It is my favorite and it still makes me smile. Hope you enjoy.

The below will make sense after you've seen the vid, just saying.

What's that? You got another rejection letter? Yeah, aaaand, what? You're not going to give up are you? Come on!!! I know, I know, it was your top pick, you both have the same initials, it was meant to be, and then came the form rejection. Totally sucks so I'll give you, oh, saaay, sixty seconds to wallow  ....................................................................................... Ding

Time's up. Get back to the query. LET'S GO, PEOPLE! "GIVE IT SOME HEAT"

This week I have Lisa Dunick stepping into the Writer Spotlight tomorrow, and on Thursday I have a very special blog tour interview scheduled with a MG book give away. See you then, peeps.

Wednesday's Random Funnies

Michael Grant, author of the Gone series, is a writer with a sense of humor who doesn't take his success too seriously (as you'll see in this video), though he could, easily. For those of you who have read the series, enjoy. If you haven't read it yet, well, be prepared to climb that ladder to place this one on top of your to-read-pile.

Michael Grant's characters and plot twists in Gone are more multi-layered than my lasagna with so much inner and outer conflict, such high stakes all the time, a story where the worst thing that could possibly happen (no not that thing, the one you never saw coming) happens at every turn, the reader remains fully charged until the very end.

Happy Wednesday everyone. And please note, I am seeking more writers for the Writer Spotlight series. Please check out the specifics on the page tab and email me if you're interested.