Poor blog, I've been neglecting it as of late.
News - Have submitted to several more agents, including Curtis Brown, and received polite rejection slips. Just for a bit of change I thought 'what the hell' and sent the first chapter of The Immortal Zeus to Laura Cecil (see previous posts - friendly agent of bestselling children's fantasy authors who actually read my work herself and commented), who replied that she was enthusiastic about it but could not take on any new authors at the moment. Sigh. Seeing as her biggest author (Diana Wynne Jones, RIP you clever, lovely lady) died only a couple of months ago, I can see why her schedule is hectic. Still, I take it as promising that twice now she has told me my work is enjoyable.
I'm currently editing Legacy (yeah...still. 2 years and counting.) and messing with the first chapter of Hades before I send it out to new agents. It's very exciting...I've accumulated so many agent names for my book over the past few months. So many of them look promising!
I've also decided I'll be starting a new story, a playful black comedy fairytale/fantasy Basilwood, this summer. The first chapter and extensive character/plot notes have been done, and new ideas are popping into my head every day. I can't wait to try my hand at something a little different and not quite as...epic (read: bloody long)...as Hades. I'm also ready to close the lid on that universe for good - I'll miss it dearly, but a part of me can't wait to be free.
Hoping to start some short stories too; it'll be one of my units for my Creative Writing course next year, so they're not even an option really. I don't know if it's all the King I'm reading, but my ideas are starting to slip out of the supernatural and into the downright wierd and creepy. Tales of wolves in human skin, mermen, and mutant vampire babies (the cool kind, not the Renesmee kind) look to be the most promising so far. Will keep y'all posted!
Hades, Harusame, Poseidon and Axel // image by Saeki Annika
Thursday 19 May 2011
Wednesday 20 October 2010
Roald Dahl's agent...and twilight ramblings
Yes, as the title suggests I found this mythical beast, admittedly entirely by accident. Some sleuthing after another YA fantasy author's agent (Kate O'Hearn) accidentally led me to Roald Dahl's agent...David Higham Associates. A coincidence you won't hear me complaining about. Added to Agent Book; I'm repressing the manic urge to contact them next (Roald Dahl's agent! OMG!!), but I found all those other agents first, so it wouldn't be fair. (I'm very British about my policies on queue jumping, dontcha know.)
The H3 (that sounds curiously scientific o__O) editing is going smoothly; up to chapter 20 now. With any luck it might be done by christmas! Good, because new projects keep poking at my subconscious and asking when they'll get their turn.
In other news! The reading of Twilight, done solely for the academic purpose (even I'm not that much of a masochist to read it for the lulz) of a feminist critique is also going well. I've read up to halfway through New Moon and have been merrily sticking post-its in whenever I spot something disgustingly misogynistic (in other words, every other paragraph ). The colour code is pink for 'Bella is a bland, whiny idiot singlehandedly setting feminism back 100 years', and blue for 'Edward is a patronising dick'. Yes, as you may have guessed, I'm on team Twilight is shit.
On the other hand, it has made me feel better about my own female characters and story lines (I think Meyer has that effect on every budding writer...it's called the 'if this crap can become a bestseller, my crap can too' mentality). When I originally posted some of the first draft of Hades on a fanfiction site, half of the readers hailed from the HP camp (fine, brilliant, what more could I ask for than the attention of fellow Rowling lovers?) but half of the readers were from the Twilight camp. And after I found out what Twilight was, that worried me. That worried me greatly. I should be grateful for any readers, and I am, but a hideous part of me was just wailing 'does this mean I'm as bad as Meyer??!!' Fair enough, there are similarities between Hades and Twilight that will inevitably attract similar readers. They are both dark supernatural romances involving a 17 year old human girl and an immortal guy, and all the trials and troubles that ensue when they fall in love...but I like to think that's where the similarities end. If my protagonist was as vacuous and irritating as the perfeckt, speshul Twilight heroine, I'd have killed her off in the first book. Quickly. In a magnificently violent way. And if Hades had even remotely resembled Sparkles the 100Year Old Virgin...dear gods, I'd have left him to rot in the chasms of my imagination, never to see the light. I like to think that my women are strong and smart and butt-kicking; not all Buffys (no-one I create will ever be THAT awesome), but certainly no Bellas among them.
And those Harry Potter fans who found something to like about my book...they give me hope, because they clearly have great taste in literature. It's for them that I keep at it, and hopefully I will steadily get better and won't let them down.
The H3 (that sounds curiously scientific o__O) editing is going smoothly; up to chapter 20 now. With any luck it might be done by christmas! Good, because new projects keep poking at my subconscious and asking when they'll get their turn.
In other news! The reading of Twilight, done solely for the academic purpose (even I'm not that much of a masochist to read it for the lulz) of a feminist critique is also going well. I've read up to halfway through New Moon and have been merrily sticking post-its in whenever I spot something disgustingly misogynistic (in other words, every other paragraph ). The colour code is pink for 'Bella is a bland, whiny idiot singlehandedly setting feminism back 100 years', and blue for 'Edward is a patronising dick'. Yes, as you may have guessed, I'm on team Twilight is shit.
On the other hand, it has made me feel better about my own female characters and story lines (I think Meyer has that effect on every budding writer...it's called the 'if this crap can become a bestseller, my crap can too' mentality). When I originally posted some of the first draft of Hades on a fanfiction site, half of the readers hailed from the HP camp (fine, brilliant, what more could I ask for than the attention of fellow Rowling lovers?) but half of the readers were from the Twilight camp. And after I found out what Twilight was, that worried me. That worried me greatly. I should be grateful for any readers, and I am, but a hideous part of me was just wailing 'does this mean I'm as bad as Meyer??!!' Fair enough, there are similarities between Hades and Twilight that will inevitably attract similar readers. They are both dark supernatural romances involving a 17 year old human girl and an immortal guy, and all the trials and troubles that ensue when they fall in love...but I like to think that's where the similarities end. If my protagonist was as vacuous and irritating as the perfeckt, speshul Twilight heroine, I'd have killed her off in the first book. Quickly. In a magnificently violent way. And if Hades had even remotely resembled Sparkles the 100Year Old Virgin...dear gods, I'd have left him to rot in the chasms of my imagination, never to see the light. I like to think that my women are strong and smart and butt-kicking; not all Buffys (no-one I create will ever be THAT awesome), but certainly no Bellas among them.
And those Harry Potter fans who found something to like about my book...they give me hope, because they clearly have great taste in literature. It's for them that I keep at it, and hopefully I will steadily get better and won't let them down.
Sunday 10 October 2010
and so...
Submitted to Conville and Walsh. On friday, actually, just too lazy to update every day :)
My 'you represented this author and I'm similar (so pick me, pick me!!)' hook this time was Ali Shaw's gorgeous The Girl with the Glass Feet. I mean gorgeous literally; the hardcover makes your eyes bleed from the prettiness. I haven't read it yet, but want to. That book recently made the bestsellers list too, so reminding them of past successes can't be a bad thing, right?
Goodies of the day for aspiring authors!
The art of the query letter is always a fun thing to explain to the uninitiated...I remember how my little jaw hit the floor as I realised that the writing of the damned novel was relatively uncomplicated compared to the task ahead. You suddenly have to *SELL YOURSELF!!!111!!!* like one of them crazy hopefuls off dragon's den, and all in 3 teeny paragraphs. It can be scary to do it without help, so here's a lovely little downloadable e-book (TIS FREE!FREEEEE!!!!!) that tells you in a simple way all the dos and don'ts of getting an agent to sit up in interest, rather than yawn and throw you aside for the slush pile. It's brilliant. And written by a successful agent who knows what he's talking about. And did I mention it's free?
http://www.lukeman.com/greatquery/download.htm
Off topic, Skeleton Crew is great nighttime reading! The Mist story was better than the movie, but with an ending as epic fail-tastic as the movie was (the hero shoots everyone including his child, yes, his child), that's not much of an achievement. Mrs Todd's shortcut made me smile. Some of King's finest isn't horror at all. *loves him*
My 'you represented this author and I'm similar (so pick me, pick me!!)' hook this time was Ali Shaw's gorgeous The Girl with the Glass Feet. I mean gorgeous literally; the hardcover makes your eyes bleed from the prettiness. I haven't read it yet, but want to. That book recently made the bestsellers list too, so reminding them of past successes can't be a bad thing, right?
Goodies of the day for aspiring authors!
The art of the query letter is always a fun thing to explain to the uninitiated...I remember how my little jaw hit the floor as I realised that the writing of the damned novel was relatively uncomplicated compared to the task ahead. You suddenly have to *SELL YOURSELF!!!111!!!* like one of them crazy hopefuls off dragon's den, and all in 3 teeny paragraphs. It can be scary to do it without help, so here's a lovely little downloadable e-book (TIS FREE!FREEEEE!!!!!) that tells you in a simple way all the dos and don'ts of getting an agent to sit up in interest, rather than yawn and throw you aside for the slush pile. It's brilliant. And written by a successful agent who knows what he's talking about. And did I mention it's free?
http://www.lukeman.com/greatquery/download.htm
Off topic, Skeleton Crew is great nighttime reading! The Mist story was better than the movie, but with an ending as epic fail-tastic as the movie was (the hero shoots everyone including his child, yes, his child), that's not much of an achievement. Mrs Todd's shortcut made me smile. Some of King's finest isn't horror at all. *loves him*
Tuesday 5 October 2010
three strikes doesn't mean I'm out...
So, got a (personal, wow) email from Laura Cecil saying she enjoyed HADES and found it interesting, but isn't sufficiently enthusiastic enough about it to represent me, as she feels without enthusiasm she won't be able to do it justice. What a nice lady. Agents don't bother to bullshit or flatter people they're not taking on (they don't get any money out of it, for one thing, and they don't have the time, for another) so I'm taking this as the most positive rejection so far. (I will when I stop fighting the urge to weep, anyway.) Conville and Walsh are next on my hitlist!
Anyways, I promised to unveil my agent-choosing process, and *drumroll* here it is:
1. skim the writer's and artists yearbook for 5 agents who accept your genre (eg children/YA and fantasy is my priority, general commercial fiction is standby). No more than 5 at a time, or your head will explode.
2. research the agents (google!!) - what authors do they represent, their submissions policies, and does it sound like an actual human being put up and maintains their website, or a robot.
3. can you find at least one author in their rota who has written in your genre/style/similar subject matter. if more than one , jackpot. if not it's ok, but it really helps to be able to say 'you represented so and so and I feel my book is similar' in the cover letter. all of this is time consuming, but so worth it.
3. if all of above checks out OK, the agent earns a spot in my special Agent Book (as an author, your Agent Book will become your dictionary and your bible all mixed into one. Any old notebook will do, but a sparkly cover will lend it grandeur, if not authority.)
4. this bit's crucial, find out which agent in the agency you're aiming at. If it doesn't say online, contact them and ask. The don't mind - it shows that you took the initiative. Cover letters addressed to 'to whom it may concern' or 'dear agent' should never be sent. Ever. But don't ask which agent to write to if it is clear that there is only 1 agent in the agency. You will look thick.
Well, TIZ is finished (that's Zeus, by the way, but I love the abbrev so much I'm going to be using it a lot) and I'm currently back to tinkering with H3. Will update with useful resources for writers next time...
Anyways, I promised to unveil my agent-choosing process, and *drumroll* here it is:
1. skim the writer's and artists yearbook for 5 agents who accept your genre (eg children/YA and fantasy is my priority, general commercial fiction is standby). No more than 5 at a time, or your head will explode.
2. research the agents (google!!) - what authors do they represent, their submissions policies, and does it sound like an actual human being put up and maintains their website, or a robot.
3. can you find at least one author in their rota who has written in your genre/style/similar subject matter. if more than one , jackpot. if not it's ok, but it really helps to be able to say 'you represented so and so and I feel my book is similar' in the cover letter. all of this is time consuming, but so worth it.
3. if all of above checks out OK, the agent earns a spot in my special Agent Book (as an author, your Agent Book will become your dictionary and your bible all mixed into one. Any old notebook will do, but a sparkly cover will lend it grandeur, if not authority.)
4. this bit's crucial, find out which agent in the agency you're aiming at. If it doesn't say online, contact them and ask. The don't mind - it shows that you took the initiative. Cover letters addressed to 'to whom it may concern' or 'dear agent' should never be sent. Ever. But don't ask which agent to write to if it is clear that there is only 1 agent in the agency. You will look thick.
Well, TIZ is finished (that's Zeus, by the way, but I love the abbrev so much I'm going to be using it a lot) and I'm currently back to tinkering with H3. Will update with useful resources for writers next time...
Wednesday 29 September 2010
Update on Agents
Because I'm too lazy to type up every detail of every agent I've found and contacted so far, I'm going to stick to giving details of the appropriate ones at the appropriate time.
So...brief recap...
First agent attempt! Sent cover letter, synopsis and 3 chaps to Madeleine Buston at Darley Anderson, heard back from her less than 3 weeks later on the 13th august (friday 13th, no less!) Standard 'not right for us' rejection letter.
Second and third agent attempt! Sent off to Laura Cecil Children's Agency and Carolyn Whitaker at London Independent Books simultaneously.
Heard back from London Independent Books on the 10th Sept with a slightly more personal rejection letter, saying the chapters didn't 'click' with them (I'm nailing all these rejection slips to the wall above my bed, by the way, following in the steps of Stephen King. Thinking I'm gonna need a new nail eventually, or maybe a new wall
Slightly more promising news. Lily Lawes, assist to Laura Cecil (Diana Wynne Jones' agent - eee!!), who insists on approving work via synopsis and cover letter before she accepts your submission, emailed back on Aug 19th to ask for chapters of HADES. Yay! Pretty big step so soon, considering it apparently takes some writers years to even get an agent to look past their cover letter. Laura Cecil is actually reading my chapters. Even if she says no I'm happy to have got past the first hurdle. Still waiting for a response, expected by Oct 6th. If it's a rejection, on to Conville and Walsh I go
Next time I'll post details about how/why I'm choosing certain agents :)
So...brief recap...
First agent attempt! Sent cover letter, synopsis and 3 chaps to Madeleine Buston at Darley Anderson, heard back from her less than 3 weeks later on the 13th august (friday 13th, no less!) Standard 'not right for us' rejection letter.
Second and third agent attempt! Sent off to Laura Cecil Children's Agency and Carolyn Whitaker at London Independent Books simultaneously.
Heard back from London Independent Books on the 10th Sept with a slightly more personal rejection letter, saying the chapters didn't 'click' with them (I'm nailing all these rejection slips to the wall above my bed, by the way, following in the steps of Stephen King. Thinking I'm gonna need a new nail eventually, or maybe a new wall
Slightly more promising news. Lily Lawes, assist to Laura Cecil (Diana Wynne Jones' agent - eee!!), who insists on approving work via synopsis and cover letter before she accepts your submission, emailed back on Aug 19th to ask for chapters of HADES. Yay! Pretty big step so soon, considering it apparently takes some writers years to even get an agent to look past their cover letter. Laura Cecil is actually reading my chapters. Even if she says no I'm happy to have got past the first hurdle. Still waiting for a response, expected by Oct 6th. If it's a rejection, on to Conville and Walsh I go
Next time I'll post details about how/why I'm choosing certain agents :)
Woo! First post
So! The blog begins. If you have any questions about who the heck I am and why I'm posting, I shall post some brief stats (mostly since I have no clue how to use the profile section yet!)
What do I write? YA fantasy fiction. It's been Greek mythology so far (think Percy Jackson with gothic romance and Pratchett-esque style humour) but I intend to move on to sci-fi and fairytales in future works. I am at heart a fantasy writer.
How many books have I written? HADES and its sequel are complete, the third and last in the trilogy is in the process of a long re-draft, and The Immortal Zeus is edging toward completion. So 4 total.
How long have I been writing? I wrote often throughout childhood, but never seriously until 2 years ago. HADES was started in the summer of '08.
How long have I been trying to get an agent? For only a few months now. I have approached 3 so far; details coming later.
Am I doing it just for fun? No - this is my intended future career. Writing is as much fun for me as reading, but I also take the craft and the work involved in it seriously.
Biggest influences? Diana Wynne Jones, Terry Pratchett, J K Rowling, Tolkien. Stephen King is my god :)
And finally...why did I start this blog? As a handy journal of successes, failures, and notes along the long, winding road to (hopeful) success. And also because I had to as a class project. Haha.
What do I write? YA fantasy fiction. It's been Greek mythology so far (think Percy Jackson with gothic romance and Pratchett-esque style humour) but I intend to move on to sci-fi and fairytales in future works. I am at heart a fantasy writer.
How many books have I written? HADES and its sequel are complete, the third and last in the trilogy is in the process of a long re-draft, and The Immortal Zeus is edging toward completion. So 4 total.
How long have I been writing? I wrote often throughout childhood, but never seriously until 2 years ago. HADES was started in the summer of '08.
How long have I been trying to get an agent? For only a few months now. I have approached 3 so far; details coming later.
Am I doing it just for fun? No - this is my intended future career. Writing is as much fun for me as reading, but I also take the craft and the work involved in it seriously.
Biggest influences? Diana Wynne Jones, Terry Pratchett, J K Rowling, Tolkien. Stephen King is my god :)
And finally...why did I start this blog? As a handy journal of successes, failures, and notes along the long, winding road to (hopeful) success. And also because I had to as a class project. Haha.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)