This blog is no longer maintained, but it contains posts dating back to when I was first trying to get published, so I'm keeping it here in the hopes that it might help other aspiring writers.
Community and Networking
Jan 22, 2011
Hello, friends! I’ve been pretty quiet lately, given the chaos on my side of things. Lots of travel, lots of revision work, lots of meetups with people. I’m now back in the U.S. for a couple weeks, although little has changed except that there are cats underfoot instead of a dog, and I sit at my computer in sweatpants and sweaters and fingerless gloves instead of shorts and a tank top.
I’m battling some sort of illness that the airplane inflicted upon me, while trying to do revisions. I tend to get a bit loopy when I get sick, so the result is that I keep fixating on certain passages and changing them over and over again, only to come back the next day, read what I wrote, and go “Huh?” It isn’t the most efficient system, but I’m getting it done, and I think learning to work while sick is a pretty valuable skill for a writer. It’s easy to say “Meh, not in the mood, I’ll do it later,” but if you’ve got daily word goals or deadlines or whatever you use to track progress, it’s easy to let one day of sick turn into five, at which point you’ve lost your momentum.
Interview over at Adventures in Space!
Jan 06, 2011
Hey guys! My awesome friend Caroline has posted an interview with me over at her blog, Adventures in Space. I met Caroline a couple of months ago while I was doing agent research. It turns out we live really nearby, when I’m in the U.S.–so it figures that we’d meet when I’m living half a world away!
Caroline gave me a ton of advice while I was querying, so I was really excited when she asked if I’d share a bit about my experiences.
The interview is a “How I Got My Agent” story, but it focuses on what to do when you have multiple offers of representation. I was caught by surprise when I was in that situation, so I’m hoping by sharing my experiences with it, it’ll help people to make that choice when they get there!
Shiny New Website!
Jan 05, 2011
Welcome to my brand new website! My friend and web designer extraordinaire, Kim Nguyen, is behind the design. Be sure to update any readers you use, because I’m not going to be blogging on my Livejournal account anymore.
What do you all think of the new design? Do you have any suggestions for content that you’d like to see? Let me know in the comments!
Cue blizzard of exclamation points!
Dec 24, 2010
To help explain the complete radio silence on my part lately, I have some good news and some bad news. We’ll start with the bad news: I’ve had to stop working on HUNTED. I wrote the first 30,000 words of the book in just a bit over two weeks, and have been having so much fun with it. But I’m stopping for a good reason, so that assuages my guilt somewhat.
The reason, you ask? Well…
I went to a concert!
Dec 04, 2010
I went to the most AWESOME U2 concert last night. We were sitting pretty high up, but the view was amazing and I’m pretty sure we had the best seat in the house, except for maybe the chick who got pulled up onstage to dance with Bono. I’ve never been to such a massive concert before. I went with Amie, who said there were something like 80,000 people there. I have no way of knowing if that’s true, because basically after about 50 people my brain shuts down and can no longer tell the difference between 200 and 2,000 people. But she’s pretty smart, so I’ll take her word for it.
Looking down on the crowd on the floor was like flying low over the ocean during a storm. The booming thunder of the bass, the lightning of the camera flashes lighting up the surging waves of people–and in the dark the cool glow of cell phones was like phosphorescence churned up by the stormy sea. I spent nearly as much time watching this as I did watching the band, because I was so mesmerized. I couldn’t shake the impression that I was hovering over the ocean.
What is Dystopian Fiction?
Dec 02, 2010
Just tonight, a brand new twitterfriend asked me, “What is a dystopian novel?” I’m guessing that she read my bio on Twitter, which says I’m working on a dystopian novel, and was curious about the term. I answered her as best I could within 140 characters, but as I lay wide awake in bed trying to sleep, I kept thinking of everything I wanted to say about the subject. So instead of flooding Twitter, I decided to do the next best thing: blog about it!
Often the first question people ask me when I say I’m a writer is, “What do you write?” The second question tends to be, “What the hell is a dystopian?” I think that sometimes even those who do feel familiar with the term don’t have a complete understanding of the genre. I’ve come across more and more people who think dystopian fiction is brand spanking new, because of the huge swell of popularity in the genre with writers like Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games) and Scott Westerfeld (Uglies) making waves in the YA market. And it’s definitely true that the genre has exploded recently, which I love because it’s one of my favorite genres of literature. But it’s been around a LOT longer than a lot of people new to the genre might think.
Tips for the Querying Writer
Nov 29, 2010
It’s a weird feeling, starting a new book while querying the previous one. Part of this is because I’m new to querying in general, and that is weird in and of itself–but the biggest strangeness is having my brain split between two projects. I’ve never been someone who can read multiple books at once, and certainly not someone who can write multiple books at once. I have to work on One Thing, and then if I need to stop and do something else, it’s very clear in my mind that I am officially pausing work on this One Thing and starting up on something else.
It remains to be seen how long I will stay sane. So far, so good. Although my housemates may argue otherwise, they don’t realize just how much worse it could get. (Cue dramatic music. Dun dun DUUUUHHHHN.)
Anyway, I thought I’d share some helpful information and pro tips garnered from my very first week of submitting queries, for anyone who might find themselves in a similar position in the future.
So what’s next?
Nov 26, 2010
I intended to more or less take a break this week. It was Thanksgiving (even if it’s not a holiday here in Australia, we still have dinner in our house), I sent out my first ever query letters. I was allowing myself some time to luxuriate in being a total basketcase, refreshing my email every five minutes even when it was 3 AM in NYC. I intended to start on my next project on Monday.
Well, as so often is the case with me, my subconscious had other plans. I was just this evening wailing to my CP Amie about how my imagination was running away with the sequel to THE IRON WOOD and not HUNTED, when I don’t plan to work on said sequel unless the first book goes anywhere. Whyyyy, I kept asking, whyyyy do I always want to write the wrong book at the wrong time? I was dreadfully excited about HUNTED halfway through TIW, when I knew I had to focus and finish TIW. Now that I have time to write HUNTED, all I want to do is write the sequel to a book that isn’t even close to being published yet.
Thankful
Nov 25, 2010
It’s been a couple of days now since I sent out the first batch of queries. It just so happens that quite a few of the agents in my first round of queries had super fast response times, so I’ve actually heard back from quite a few by now. And yes, I’m not going to lie, even though you’re not supposed to talk about your rejections on your blog. Yes, I have received rejections! (Gasp!) More excitingly, though, I’ve actually gotten requests. From agents. That sell books. To real live editors. Wow.
Right now, the requests outnumber the rejections. It’s probably not going to stay that way, because if nothing else, no book will be the right fit for EVERYONE. I’m cool with that. But for right now, I am all smiles, and I plan on hanging onto that feeling for as long as I possibly can.
It’s Thanksgiving. (BTW.) And even if it is totally trite and cliché, I’m going to just stop for a little while and talk about the people I’m thankful for, and everything they’ve done to help me get this far. I know I’m not all the way up the mountain yet–in fact, the peak is still pretty far off, and it’s half-covered in clouds, and the air is getting pretty darn thin. Sometimes I kinda feel like this guy.
But I have come a long way since saying “Hey, maybe I should actually finish one of these novels and give this a whirl,” and I wouldn’t have done it if it weren’t for these people.
So if the thought of reading this makes you throw up in your mouth a little, feel free to skip on down to the next post in your reader feed. Go ahead, it’s okay. It’s also a super long list, so don’t feel like you have to read it all. It’s totally a shout-out post. And if you’re not on it, it’s just because I’m the most absent-minded person in the universe. I actually left off a couple of really important people while writing this, so if I’ve left you off, don’t take it personally. It’s just my brain.
Queries Away!
Nov 23, 2010
Fly, my pretties, fly!
Pardon me while I go throw up in a corner somewhere…
Because my brain is way, way too flipped out at the moment to provide you with anything else, I will instead link to one of my all-time favorite things on the internet, Hyperbole and a Half. Specifically, this post. If you are a follower of hers, I promise it is just as funny the second time around. If you aren’t, well… you’re in for a treat.
Enjoy, and I will return in a few days when the fog of anxiety and despair and glee has lifted.