Cover Letter Gems

Found some great faux pas this week in submissions (thanks to Eliza for showing me these great discoveries from the slush pile). For all of you budding authors getting ready to submit your manuscripts, check, double-check, triple-check your query letters. Then check them one more time just for kicks.

(Drumroll)

"This is my first nonfiction novel . . ."

AND

"Thank you for your patients."

Yes! Love these! Please send more!

Spring Cleaning

Today I am spring cleaning (even though it is snowing).  Part of that is putting books in the library instead of my night stand.

I am a Stephenie Meyer fan.  (There I said it.)  I just reread The Host and cried on the "last" page, even though I've read the book at least 4 times and knew there was more.  I really love her books.  They have their own section in my basement library.  Unitl today.

Bree Despain's The Dark Divine is now on that beloved shelf, instead of residing on my over-crowded nightstand.  It's been living there since I bought it last January.

This shelf has the books that I return to when I need a major escape.  The Dark Divine totally fits the bill.  If you have not read it . . . What are you waiting for?  It is amazing.
This shelf is front and center, just where it needs to be when I am in "need" of them.

What are your escape books?  Where do you keep them?

Weird Coincidences

It's now time to reveal a tiny bit of my weirdness. I'm sure you all experience a kind of deja vu now and then, but how many of you can claim the strange connections that haunt me. For instance, just last week I woke up with a Pearl Jam song stuck in my head. I hummed it in the shower and told Scott about it, but I couldn't remember the name so I turned on the iPod and ahha! "Unthought Known" (that's what it's called). Now, I'm a Pearl Jam fan from a long way back, so its not unusual for me to listen to them now and then, what is weird is that a mere day later, I was watching the new episode of "Castle" and that exact song was played at the end. What are the chances? But its not just one coincidence. Its a long string of coincidences. So many that I can't count them, nor do I keep track of them because they happen so often. So that's it. Any weird things you all want to reveal? But, of course, it's probably too soon....

side note: "Unthought Known" is on the Pearl Jam album called Backspacer. A couple of other great songs on that album are "The Fixer", "Amongst the Waves" and "Just Breathe".

Get Writing!

"Writing is work, even when it’s fun. What separates a writer from an author is the person that keeps writing, even when it stops being fun." -Aprilynne Pike

As I'm sure everyone knows, the writers conference LDStorymakers concluded on Saturday. It was great, so much fun with inspiration packaged up and sent home. There were many awesome moments, and I'll highlight a few:

-Bree Despain's class on Paranormal YA was a lot of fun to be in. She is a class act. Favorite part was discussing the paranormal metaphor, hiding the "heavier" real issues under the paranormal umbrella.

-Aprilynne Pike's class on Writing For The Market was incredibly informative. She is one smart chicky! She talked about how keeping your audience in mind while you are writing is just as important as keeping your grammar in mind. She also quoted Reverend Lovejoy, "Yes with an if, no with a but..." You can't get any better than that.

-Watching Jeff Savage's lego-man clip starring James Dashner with an english accent. I hope this shows up on YouTube soon.

-Friday evening entertainment, Shaun Barrowes.

-My ten minutes with Krista Marino. Great lady, very down to earth. And she really liked my first five pages. Huzzah! A couple of her notes read, "Great work at leaving the reader guessing for more," and, "I really like this sassy protagonist."

-Meeting agent Laura Rennert, and throwing out a thirty second pitch. She was lovely, didn't seem bothered at all that I approached her. And when I told her my book was a YA Dystopian, she was very excited. She asked for my first three chapters. Double Huzzah!

All three national guests (Krista Marino, Laura Rennert, and Nephele Tempest) had great things to say about the conference, and more specifically, the amazing talent we have here in Utah. We should all be so proud :)

What was your favorite part of Storymakers? If you had a pitch, how did it go? Why do you think the talent pool is so strong in Utah? What are you working on? Let's chat. There's nothing like talking about writing to get excited about it.

Storymaking

Yesterday I attended day one of the LDS Storymakers conference. Always a favorite, it was a fun and informative time.

I met up with fellow Inkers Donna, Deb, and Kirk (who, wearing his S.E. hat, was there to hear pitches), and also saw Inker friends Graham, Jenn, Ben, and L.T.

The big highlight for me was my pitch session with Nephele Tempest of the Knight Agency - a very nice woman from my hometown of L.A. who graciously offered to look at my first three chapters and a synopsis.

Inkers Donna and Deb pitched to Krista Marino, a senior editor at Delacorte Press/Random House. She had good things to say about both of their stories and advised them to get an agent and submit to her. Our plucky gals found the first opportunity to make an impromptu pitch to senior agent Laura Rennert of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency and were invited to submit their first three chapters to her. Deb will have more about this and photos on Monday!

Other highlights included the breakout sessions with Laura Rennert and Krista Marino. Ms. Marino spoke about the importance of the first five pages and what she is looking for as an editor.

Following are some tips from Laura Rennert about querying an agent:

--include the Who, What, When, Where, and Why Should I Care (the Why Should I Care is what makes your story different from the rest in your genre)

--always follow the agency submission guidelines EXACTLY if you really want them to read it

--keep it short, but not too short

--include information about who you are and any work experience or other credentials that lend credibility to your story (the story behind the story)

--include anything special about you related to the story that will help with marketing (My example: your story is about the first woman to climb Mt. Everest and you have climbed Mt. Everest)

--Don't overhype yourself

--Don't send work in a category the agent doesn't represent

Following is Laura Rennert's exercise for putting together a good pitch:

1. Write down the title, category, setting, protagonist, and central problem.

2. Write down one vivid detail that makes any one of the above elements different.

3. Prove your novel has: a) credibility, b) inherent conflict, c) originality, or d) real emotional power

4. Write down 3 big emotionally laden words that relate to your story (example: love, pain)

5. Write a one paragraph pitch using steps 1-3 and in the last sentence, use a word from step 4.

Good luck to everyone out their pitching things around!

Hypocrite

I am a hypocrite. I am a known rain hater and yet today when I stepped onto my front porch and I smelled the coming rain I was filled with glee.
 

You see, I lived in the Seattle area for 7 years (moving there from sunny AZ). And it really is as bad as they say. At first I didn’t mind the rain. I was in high school and I was busy enough not to notice. Then I married a native Seattleite and we settled down to raise a family. The starting point of raising said family was me being pregnant; 9 months with only 5 sunny days to claim. Plus during that time I was serving with the kids at church. We could tell on Sunday if the weather had been bad all week—the kids were crazy.

Two months after our darling baby girl was born we left the rain. We moved to the high desert of Utah and I’ve never really looked back. (My husband took a little longer to adjust, but he’s doing fine now.)

We visit the Pacific Northwest almost yearly and it is an amazing place to be . . . but the 9 months of rain gets old fast. (Now, a good monsoon cloud buster is another matter—the rain is warm and you can dance in the puddles. Plus lots of thunder—I love thunder. Seattle doesn’t see much thunder.)


But secretly, I love a little bit of rain. I love to be in the NW sometimes and put up with frizzy hair and cold toes. Just a little.

Sushi gut and Barnes and Noble

Come to find out, I have a sickness that can only be cured by eating A LOT of sushi. Right when I think I've had my fill, I realize that I in fact have no limit to the amount of sushi I can consume in a one month period. Case in point: I went out for sushi last night with one of my best friends, happily stuffing my face until I couldn't breath, but I'm already excited for the sushi I'll be consuming this weekend when Scott and I go out for our anniversary. :) Once we were done gorging ourselves, we hauled ourselves over to Barnes and Noble to walk it off. This was a long overdue trip since I'd been meaning to go and get all of the copies of "I am NOT a Serial Killer" off the shelves and place them in strategic places in the store so that people will see it and buy it. (mwahahahahahah) I'm pleased to report that our covert marketing tactics were not impeded. May you all have fans as dedicated as me once you're published. :)