Book Promo Day!

So today, I have to make mention of a few newly released books that you should get your hands on. The first, The Opposite of Love, was written by Julie Buxbaum, who has since become a friend but that's not the reason I'm mentioning it! Really! I've been psyched about this book since I first read about the sale on Publishers Marketplace. I even sent the description to my agent and said, "Doesn't this book sound kick-ass?" Cut to a while ago when I receive an email from Julie asking if I'll take a look at the book for a blurb. Now, normally I turn down blurb requests when I'm working on my own manuscript because I find that my voice can be easily swayed when I read something else (this first started showing up when I was a kid and was obsessed with Stephen King...even the way that I'd talk to myself would evolve into his "voice," not my own...which, if you've ever read Stephen King, you know can be more than a little disturbing!). But I was so freakin' psyched to get my hands on this hot little book that I made an exception. The galley arrived a few days later, and I finished it 48 hours later.

And then, of course, I happily blurbed it because as a fan of smart women's fiction, it was right up my alley. (Of course, this is ignoring the fact that I actually FORGOT to send her the intended blurb for like, two weeks, and Julie was totally sweet and gracious that I blew past her deadline.)

This book is getting A LOT of promotion. You'll see it everywhere, I promise. From what I've read, the print run is big - big enough to push it to best-seller status (as I've mentioned in the past, if you don't have a big print run, you ain't hitting those lists), and I have to say, Julie is just a fantastic person, and I'm thrilled for her. So check it out if you're a fan of women's fiction.

The second book I want to mention is The Liars Diary by Patry Francis.

Here’s the scoop on the book: “Jeanne Cross’s contented suburban life gets a jolt of energy from the arrival of Ali Mather, the stunning new music teacher at the local high school. With a magnetic personality and looks to match, Ali draws attention from all quarters, including Jeanne’s husband and son. Nonetheless, Jeanne and Ali develop a deep friendship based on their mutual vulnerabilities and long-held secrets that Ali has been recording in her diary. The diary also holds a key to something darker: Ali’s suspicion that someone has been entering her house when she is not at home. Soon their friendship will be shattered by violence—and Jeanne will find herself facing impossible choices in order to protect the people she loves.”

I don't know Patry personally, but we're members of the same writing organization, Backspace, and it was recently announced that Patry was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, and thus would be unable to promote the book herself. So...a cry went out to bloggers 'round the universe to pitch in and promote it for her. She's the mom to four kids and is fighting the hell out of her cancer, so my admiration for her is a thousand-fold. Check out her website for more.

And finally, while we're on the subject of book promotion, Amazon now has a link up to Time of My Life! How cool is that? So...you know...if you want to get a jump on any pre-ordering, now's the time. :)

So readers out there, heard of either of these books or are you excited for any forthcoming releases?

I'm Back!

Sorry for the week of silence, but, oy. The same day/night that we moved, my son came down with the stomach flu that is sweeping NYC, and well, our new place - if you smell hard enough - now slightly smells of barf. Lovely. And my daughter woke up with it yesterday. Add in sleepless nights (why do kids seem to puke only between the hours of 12-7 AM?), a dog who has let us just how he feels about our new house by occasional poops on the floor, and all of the other chaos that comes along with moving, and go figure, I haven't had a chance to blog.

But the good news is that my Time Warner guy kicked ass, so my internet has been up and running! Hey, silver lining and all of that.

Anyhoo, this is simply my way of saying that I'll be more actively blogging this week and from here on out....I'm just too brain-dead to do it today.

Moving...

I'm knee-deep in moving hell, so won't be online much for the next two days. Hoping, fingers-crossed and with a prayer to Time Warner gods, that I will indeed have internet access come Wednesday/Thursday, but, well, I've mentally prepared for the worst...i.e, there's a cable screw-up, and I won't be online for the full week.

Ack.

Can you imagine??? How did we survive without the internet? The mere thought sends me into a cold sweat. Seriously, being a writer must have been so ridiculously isolating pre-www.com.

Anyway, what I'm doing right now is seriously procrastinating delving back into the mess, but alas, duty calls. So - I'll be back as soon as I can! Godspeed. :)

Moving On, Moving Forward

So my family and I are in the middle of a move. By that, I mean that I'm the only one dealing with anything remotely related to moving next week while the rest of them continue on business as usual. (Not that I have any expectation of my 1 year-old packing, but my husband? Er, maybe.) Anyhoo...

I've been cleaning out closets and filing cabinets and drawers and every other nook in which I've stuffed stuff over the past few years and have uncovered loads and loads of papers and articles that I've written since the inception of my career. And it's been such an interesting thing, to look back at this stuff. When I was 22 and a new college graduate, I never imagined that I'd forge a career as a writer. I would have loved to, of course, but it just seemed unattainable, ridiculous, almost.

So I got a job in PR. When I realized that PR wasn't for me, I pursued my original passion: acting. I did some off-broadway gigs, got my SAG card via several commercials, moved to LA (via a brief stop in Dallas for a doomed romance), and after a while, realized that, guess what? I wanted to try something else. So I moved back to NYC to co-found an internet company, and that's when my writing career started to come into focus. But not even intentionally so. I wrote a slew of web copy and articles for the site (many of which I found this week in a folder in the back of a closet), and eventually, when the internet bubble burst, I emerged with some semblance of a writing career.

The point of all of this is to say that life is long and winding, and whether or not you achieve immediate success as a writer, that holds no bearing on whether or not you'll achieve success in the future. Or even if you'll still aspire for the same things in the future. If you told my 22-year old self that I'd be making a living as a novelist, she'd be elated but shocked - at 22, it just seemed seemed so far outside the bounds of what I could achieve.

Life as a writer means being the tortoise; it means understanding that small steps are still steps toward the finish line; it means accepting the fact that instant gratification is just a pipe dream. But if you allow things to snowball and roll down the path toward where they're meant to go, sometimes, if you're lucky like me, you might find that you end up in the just the right place.

So tell me, what was your first job? Was it wildly divergent from where you are now?

Is Your Book the Next When Harry Met Sally?

Admin note: thanks for the suggestion that I start to tag my posts. I'm now doing so and also going back to retroactively tag everything. It will take a few days, but hopefully by next week, you'll be able to search old posts much more easily.

Question of the day: I am starting to sent out e-queries. Often agents request a synopsis or chapter pasted in the body of the e-mail. I am worried about the format - do you double space the text? Do I include the cover page with my contact info? Do I type anything to indicate the end of the section? Another question - my novel is inspired by a classic movie (i.e. I stole the plot and updated it!). Think of the way Bridget Jones's Diary used the plot from Pride & Prejudice. Should I mention the movie in my letter or does it hurt me & make me look unimaginative?

Good questions. I can only tell you what I've done in the past, and I'm hopeful others will chime in on what they've done as well.

As far as formatting, double-spacing in a classic font, such as Times or Arial, is best. I've never included a cover page: I always assumed that agents printed out my query/email along with the sample chapter and matched that accordingly, but I don't think you'd look like an idiot if you DID include a cover page. In fact, thinking about it, I don't think it's a bad idea at all - but obviously, in the grand scheme of things, i.e., will you get an offer or not, it really doesn't matter. Don't stress too much about details like this. Pull together a professional sample with no errors and you'll be fine.

As to your next question - should you use the movie comparison - I say go for it, though it might be off-putting for higher-brow agents. What I mean by that is that if yours is a really commercial book, agents will appreciate knowing how they can market it - what niche and demographic it will fall into. Your comparison will also help them really get an idea of your book, or at least your interpretation of your book. In fact, when my agent pitched Time of My Life to editors and publishing houses, she did indeed compare it to movies, calling it a cross between Sliding Doors and Family Man. We also considered throwing Desperate Housewives in there, but she liked the above two, and I agree that it does sum up the general feel of the book well.

But I've digressed. My overall point was that I think these comparisons do help paint an apt picture of what the agent can expect from the book, which is usually a good thing. The downside, I guess, is the risk that the agent then reads it with certain expectations and the book falls short of them. But I suppose that if this happens, the agent probably doesn't like the book for a variety of reasons, so really, you're not losing much.

I'm curious to hear what other people say, though. This is just my initial gut reaction. So, folks, what say you, both about formatting and making comparisons to the silver screen?

Do FOB Pitches Get Fancy Treatment?

Question of the day: I am a freelance writer with a few published clips (including the Christian Science Monitor). I'm working on a few FOB ideas for the glossies and wanted to know how to pitch these. Do you send a 'regular' query letter?

Congrats on your progress! Sounds like you are well on your way.

Wow, it's amazing how many questions I get on FOBs. I have a few in my file that I haven't gotten around to answering yet because I first wanted to note that folks can search the archives of the blog, and I think you'll find a slew of info on FOBs. If you search and still have questions, by all means, fire away!

But to answer this specific question, yes, I pitch FOBs in the same way that I pitch any other query: I send it via email to my editor. The difference with FOBs is that it's much more acceptable to pitch multiple ideas at once. Editors don't find that entirely annoying because they usually have a bunch of FOBs to assign, and in some ways, this allows them to pick and choose which, if any, of your ideas might work for their section.

So yes, just send a regular query, but in this case, you can just say, "I had some ideas that I thought might work for X section and have included them below." Then you can just pitch them in some sort of numerical column.

Does anyone else pitch FOBs differently?

Blah, Blah, Blah...Writing Blahs

I'm over at Writer Unboxed today talking all about the writing blahs and what to do about 'em.

Check it out!

When a Pitch Takes FOREVER!

Question fo the day: As a procrastinator, I am always looking for ways to actually get stuff done. All the advice I read about researching markets makes me think it should take a week to put together a proper query, which means I don't do it at all. I know you've written about the importance of a great query, but from what you wrote about turning these queries around, though, it seems like you were not doing a ton of research on each market before sending them out. Is that right or did you condense a lot of effort into a little sentence?

Someone recently noted on one of my writer's boards that she thought that one of her strongest assets, in terms of making it as a freelancer, was her ability to work quickly. And I have to say that I agree with her - I do think that the ability to be efficient exponentially ups your odds of success in this industry.

Should you be taking a week to put together a query? Well, I can't speak to every individual. For some people, it might take a week to really craft a fine-tuned one. But part of freelancing is math: most of your queries, at least until you've developed relationships with editors, are going to be turned down. But the more that you have out there, the more likely it is that you'll get a hit. (Assuming, of course, that all of your queries aren't total crap, in which case, it doesn't matter how many you put out - you'll never get a "yes.") So, my instinct is to say, again, without making a blanket statement, that if it's taking you a full week to draft a query, that's just too long.

Part of being able to write a good query comes with time: after a few years of drafting 'em, I had them down to a science: a juicy opening hook, a few sentences jam-packed with research and facts that make the story timely and intriguing, a concluding sentence as to why the editor needs to assign this story now. That's primarily what a query should say. And then have your bio info as well, if this is a new-to-you editor.

As far as the research? Well, I do think it helps if you're not reinventing the wheel, and by that, I mean, I tend not to pitch ideas that I know nothing about. It takes too long for me to grasp what the hell I'm talking about and what the relevant points are for the piece. Ergo, I'm not about to pitch a highly-scientific article on, say, the latest on nanotechnology because I just don't know enough about the subject. But parenting ideas? Heck, sure! I can rattle off five of those, no problem. And because this is one of my areas of expertise, I can also tell you which experts I'll interview, why this is an important topic for our time, and the angle with which I'd approach it. Additionally, I subscribe to a slew of health websites and newsletters, and I scan them every morning, which takes me all of 5-10 minutes. So I have all of this new research streamed directly to me, and I can then pick and choose what might work for my editors or what might spark a pitch idea. From there, I might do a bit of surfing to find some back-up info, but I already have the crux of my idea, and that's half the battle.

Is this making sense? I'm not sure. Tell me if it's not, and I'll clarify. Really.

So how long do you guys spend honing your pitches? How have you become more efficient in doing so over the years?

Pre-taped vs. Live

As promised, we're doing an all-question week here at Ask Allison. I do have a backlog, but if you guys have lingering questions that I never answer or that you never sent in, now's your chance - send 'em in, and I'll add them to the queue.

I read your travel insurance piece in COOKING LIGHT's FOB. 1.Could you post the query you sent for it? 2.When you have experts such as Jeff Greenberg and Pauline Frommer of the Frommer travel books family, do you ever quote from their books or do you always call or email them for a fresh quote?

Unfortunately, I don't have the query for this because I didn't query it: the editor came to me and asked if I'd be interested. If I were to have queried it, it probably would have read something much along the lines of the actual piece:

A la: During the holiday season, travel increases by X percentage (I'd put the real percentage in, but am too busy to look it up for this blog post), so how does someone know if trip insurance is worth it? For a cheapo fare or only for lavish expenses? For airfare or for the whole she-bang? And if someone does opt for it, how does he go about finding reputable insurance? This FOB would provide the answers to the above questions, explained by top experts in the field, such as Jeff Greenberg and Peggy Frommer.

To answer the second part of your question, in my opinion, it's always better to get fresh quotes from an expert. Some experts are so busy that yes, they'll send you a book and suggest that you paraphrase from it, which, you know, in a jam, will do, but it's not, in my mind, the best journalism or reporting. When possible, try to get the expert on the phone, and if that fails, via email. I think culling quotes from a book should be your last resort. That said, I've had to do it in the past, and I suppose as long as the information is properly interpreted and your editor/audience/expert are happy, no one is really harmed too much in doing so.

But what do you guys think? Feel free to disagree. This is a nebulous area, and I'm all ears!

I'm Back and GCC Presents: Colleen Thompson and The Salt Maiden

I know that the blog has been a little slow over the holidays, but I was wrapping up the revision of Time Of My Life (Yahoo!! Just finished yesterday!) and wanted to spend my other time away from the computer. I'm devoting all of next week's posts to answering submitted questions to make up for it. :)

Today, I'm thrilled to present veteran novelist, Colleen Thompson, and her book, The Salt Maiden. Colleen was "discovered" in a local fiction contest, which I love, because it shows, once again, that there are a slew of ways to pave inroads to success in this industry. I also liked reading about her inspiration, which is so different than mine have ever been, and again shows that there's no "right" way to tackle things.

Here's a preview of the book: "Some novels begin with a character, others start with a what-if question or a situation, but my sixth romantic thriller, The Salt Maiden (Leisure, Dec. 2007) was inspired by a place I visited a few years back, a sunburned, sand-scoured desert community in the dead center of the least populated county in the U.S. With water too briny for human consumption and land too to support any but the hardiest of desert plants, it’s an eerily daunting landscape, one that made me wonder, What on earth would bring a person out here?

Apparently my subconscious took it as a challenge, and came up with a Houston veterinarian, Dana Vanover, in search of her troubled missing sister, the birth mother of a child in desperate need of a bone-marrow transplant. In spite of her ambivalence about her sister, Dana braves heat, rattlesnakes, and hostile locals — as well as her attraction to the handsome sheriff who wants her gone."

And here, she answers my usual questions:

1) What’s the backstory behind your book? The Salt Maiden was inspired by a trip through a tiny, desolate West Texas desert town so isolated and foreboding I found myself struggling to imagine (it was a very long drive) what could possibly entice anyone to go there. There's not a drop of potable water, only brine that keeps even self-respected cactus at bay. And then I had this strange vision of a mummified, nude female interred in one of the area's salt caverns. That became the opening for this long, strange journey of a romantic thriller.

2) It seems that a lot of readers confuse fiction with real life, assuming that a novel must be an autobiography of the author as well. How many elements of your real life are reflected in your book?
At 22, I moved from the East Coast, where I grew up, to a small desert community in Southwest Arizona. The stark beauty and harshness of the land made a real impression on me, and I came to have a grudging admiration for the living things that have adapted to this challenging environment.

3) A lot of my blog readers are aspiring or new authors. How did you land your first book deal?
My first book deal came as the indirect result of entering a local writing contest here in the Houston area. An editor judged the finals and recommended me to an agent who was attending the writers' conference. She read my work and took me on, then over time sold my first ten novels. (The Salt Maiden is my 13th release and my 6th romantic thriller.)

4) I have a serious procrastination problem when it comes to tackling my fiction. What’s your routine? How do you dive it? Do you have any rituals or necessary to-dos before or while you write?
I am a dawdler of epic proportions. If I didn't have deadlines and a burning need to keep books coming, I'd never accomplish anything. As it is, I have to set myself a weekly page quota and break it down into daily goals. Sometimes it takes me all day to force myself to do the five allotted pages. Other times (o, blessed days!) the writing simply and effortlessly flows. But most times, it's the little page number I've written on my calendar that forces me to work. I wish there were an easier way!

5) Clearly, your book will be optioned for a multi-million dollar film deal! Who would you cast as the leads, if you were given creative control?
Charlize Theron or Hillary Swank as the heroine, Angie Vanover. And Josh Brolin as Sheriff Jay Eversole. They'd be great.

Looking Forward, Looking Back

Wow. So it's already the end of the year. How did that happen?? I know that I can't be the only one who feels like she's living life is on the fast forward button. Everyone says this is even more true once you have kids, and really, it's so cliche, but oh so true. I really cannot believe that my little newborn daughter turned one a few weeks ago. Doesn't it feel like just yesterday that I was announcing her arrival?

Anyway, the turn of the calender means assessing goals and assessing what I accomplished this past year. I've been ruminating on 2008 for the past few days, and something odd is happening: normally, my goals and what I hope to accomplish are really clear - in previous years, I'd set specific magazine targets or income goals or getting my fiction published - but this year, I have to say, I'm pretty content with my lot. And that's what's making this whole goal-setting thing so weird. In the past year, my debut novel came out and I sold my second one. Honestly, I feel like if that's all I accomplish in my career, I might just be content. Maybe it's okay to say, hey, I don't need to operate on overdrive 24/7, and instead, sit back and recognize that I've come pretty far in the past few years...and if nothing spectacular happens this year, well, that's okay.

That said, because I'm not a complete slug, I do have a few goals for the year, in addition to slowing down a bit and smelling the figurative roses. I'd like to find inspiration for my third novel, now that I'm winding down revisions on my second. I've found that I'm all or nothing when I'm writing: I can't even entertain other ideas for books when I'm working on a current one because then everything starts to melt together and jumble like a messed-up ice cream sundae. I'd like to continue doing more celebrity profiles because they're something that I really enjoy - it actually makes my pop culture obsession worthwhile. I'd like to have more patience with my children, and that means ignoring my email and my computer entirely when it's "their time," something I've gotten better at, but certainly, could still improve.

So...I think that's a decent list. Maybe it doesn't set my world on fire as in previous years, but I'm also at a point in my life where I think that's okay. I know how fortunate I am with my lot, and I think there's something to be said for that and the gratitude I have for having the career that I do.

So tell me, how do you determine your goals for the next year? And, since I just spilled mine, what are yours?

Random Question of the Day

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, however you celebrate!

So now I have a random question for you guys. I'm working on my revision of Time of My Life and am toying with the idea of putting a quote (I know that there's an official name for these, but can't for the life of me remember what it is - anyone know) on the page before the first chapter. Know what I mean? Sandwiched between the dedication and Chapter One, there is often times a quote from a song or a poem or another book or whatever. What do you guys think of these? I've been listening to a specific song over and over again as I revise because the lyrics completely embody what my heroine is going through, and thus, I think it might be fun to pull out a verse for that opening quote (assuming we can get the rights and all of that, and I have no idea how that works either)...but...tell me, are these quotes cheesy, intriguing, completely unnoticed???

What do you think?

Your Best-of-2008 Awards

It's that time of year - the time in which every magazine, website and Hollywood organization bestow their "best of" awards and compile a variety of top 10 lists. So I figured it might be fun to do the same here at Ask Allison. Here are some of my tops for the year:

Best Book: Then We Came to The End by Joshua Ferris. This book wasn't for everyone, but it was for me. I was flat-out amazed at his creativity and genius, and frankly, loved every single thing about the book. As an author, I read a lot of books and think, "maybe on my best day and with the right idea, I could pen something similar to this," but with Then We Came to The End, I set it down and just thought, "HOLY SHIT, this guy is all sorts of spectacular, and I revere him." (Btw, I don't meant to imply that I could write all the books that others do. I hope it doesn't come off that way! Just that, you know, I could understand their creative process and how they got to where they did, etc. With Ferris, there was none of that.) Again, I know that not everyone loved this book as I did, but for its creativity and genius, it was my favorite of the year.

Book that Made Me Nearly Pee in My Pants: I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle. OMG, I defy you not to have tears streaming down your face as you read. Side-splittingly hilarious but still entirely relatable, and I loved it.

Book that I Wished I'd Written: How to Talk to a Widower by Jonathan Tropper. Now, here's one of those books I was talking about: I understood how he wrote it, how he created his characters, where his story arc was going, and just adored every single page and word of it. I think I read this book in 24 hours because I was so consumed with it, the words, the message, the writing. Love.

Best TV Show: 30 Rock. I can't for the life of me figure out why more people don't watch this show. Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin (who, incidentally, I saw at the gym yesterday!) are comic gold.

Best New Show: Chuck. Zachary Levi is the new Jon Krasinski, with a touch of Adam Brody thrown in. As if I need further reason to tune in.

Best Movie (Out of the Few Movies that I Get to See): I have two young kids and a husband who would always rather go out to dinner than see a movie when we have a sitter, so...I'm a movie buff who doesn't see as many movies as she'd like. So, for example, I haven't seen any of the recent Oscar-bait releases except for Juno, and thus my two favorite movies of the year (to date) are probably Waitress (my Keri Russell love knows no bounds) and Gone, Baby, Gone, in which Ben Affleck redeemed himself for any and all Bennifer 1.0 embarrassments.

So tell me, what were your favorite books, TV shows and movies this past year? I'm always up for suggestions on all fronts!

Fudging the Facts

Question of the day:

I see this all the time:

"A novel based on her experience," "Inspired by a true story," "Names and identifying features have been changed..."

My question is, how much has to be changed? A few details? Major plotlines? Names and places and hair color?

I'm in the midst of writing a memoir. I've changed the names because it enables me to write about my characters, not the people I know. How much would have to be fiction for the book to be fiction -- if I'd like to pitch it that way? I'd never fall into James Frey territory.

And I know writers, agents and publishers have different opinions.

Just curious for yours.

I'm not an expert and I don't write memoirs, so I can only offer my opinion, which, obviously, counts for squat. But I loved this question and think it opens up a good debate/discussion, so I wanted to post it right away. (Trish Ryan, who has a memoir coming out next year, might want to weigh in.)

My inclination is that, in the day and age of James Frey, that you should adhere as closely as possible to the details. Changing names is understandable, and in some cases, advisable, as litigation is always a possibility if you paint a less than flattering picture of someone. A few details? Hair color? I don't think anyone will complain, especially because so many memoirs, like Her Last Death by Susanna Sonnenberg, now offer caveats that, "ahem, this is written from the best of my memory and some dates/situations/people might have changed."

But I'd steer clear of creating fictitious major plot lines because, well, then, like Frey's book (which, not for nothing, I enjoyed a lot), it becomes fiction. I do think that there's a category for this type of book called "creative non-fiction," but from what I understand (and this could have changed as of late), these are tough sells for agents. Editors/publishers either want memoirs (which are already tough sells - make sure that yours highlights something unique) or they want fiction. Period. Either or.

Besides, the whole point of writing a memoir is that you have an incredibly interesting story to tell, one that's specific and unique to you. If you have to change it so drastically, maybe it's not a story you should be telling...

But that's just my initial inclination. What say you, readers?

On the Silver Screen

So this weekend, I caught Little Children on one of the movie channels and was really drawn into it. I LOVED this book, so was unsure about a film adaptation, but I thought it was really well-done, if not more bleak than the actual book. I guess it shouldn't be that surprising since Tom Perrotta co-wrote the screenplay, which had to help ensure authenticity.

It's amazing how many books-to-film are popping up these days, especially knowing how difficult it is to actually get a movie made, much less book rights sold, adapted, actors/directors/writers-signed on, etc. And with the writers' strike, these days, nothing is getting bought or sold.

But this season, there are loads of film adaptations popping up on screen. Some are highly praised - Atonement, which I haven't yet seen but people are saying is very good, and ditto Charlie Wilson's War; some are middling - The Golden Compass, which, again, I also haven't seen; and some are just abysmal - P.S. I Love You, which, given the reviews, you couldn't pay me to see. Incidentally, I just bought that book in hopes of reading it before the movie came out (this was before the horrible reviews), and I just couldn't get into it. Which goes to show that reading is so subjective because it was a huge best-seller but just wasn't for me. Go figure.

So, have you seen any of the above adaptations? What are your favorite book adaptations and what were the worst ones you've seen in recent memory?

GCC Presents: Eliza Graham and Playing With The Moon

I'm thrilled to present Eliza Graham today and her fabulous-sounding novel, Playing With the Moon. First of all, I'm just enamoured with the plot and concept. Second of all, read below to hear how she got published - what an inspiring story. After two thrwarted attempts, she did things on her own terms, which is just the type of gusto we like around these parts.

Anyhoo, here's a bit more about the novel, which World Book Day just nominated as a "Hidden Gem.":

Shattered by a recent bereavement, Minna and her husband Tom retreat to an isolated village on the Dorset coast, seeking the solitude that will allow them to cope with their loss and rebuild their foundering marriage. Walking on the beach one day, they unearth a human skeleton. It is a discovery which will plunge Minna into a mystery which will consume her for months to come.

The remains are soon identified as those of Private Lew Campbell, a black American GI who, it seems, drowned during a wartime exercise in the area half a century before. Growing increasingly preoccupied with the dead soldier's fate, Minna befriends a melancholy elderly woman, Felix, who lived in the village during the war. As Minna coaxes Felix's story from her, it becomes clear that the old woman knows more about the dead GI than she initially let on.

Here, she answers my usual questions:

1) What's the backstory behind your book?
Some years ago I visited a small village on the south coast of England--Tyneham. Tyneham had been evacuated in 1943 so that Allied troops could use it for D-Day practice. The inhabitants had never been allowed to return. I was spellbound. The village, with its gently decaying houses, cottages, church and manor house, seemed to reach out and pull me to itself.
Then I read--or saw--something about African-American GIs in Britain during WW2 and how many young British women were attracted to them, finding them gentle, humorous and kind boyfriends. My brain started to make connections between this and the fictional coast village I'd started to create in my imagination.

2) It seems that a lot of readers confuse fiction with real life, assuming that a novel must be an autobiography of the author as well. How many elements of your real life are reflected in your book?
I've noticed that very little of my own experience has made it into my books. Perhaps because I've had a fairly settled kind of life (touch wood) I've searched outside for inspiration, finding that I'm drawn to periods of turbulence and upheaval such as war. Although I note that Felix in PLAYING WITH THE MOON is like me in not having enjoyed school and hating hockey!

3) A lot of my blog readers are aspiring or new authors. How did you land your first book deal?
Having been agented for two earlier efforts that didn't sell I was delighted to see that Macmillan had launched a new imprint: Macmillan New Writing, which didn't need you to submit via an agent. You could also send them your ms. by email--extraordinarily modern and convenient for the world of publishing. So I sent of PWTM and a synopsis and four or five months later they got back to me, saying they liked the book in principle but had some editorial suggestions. Once I'd rewritten elements of the book they sent me the contract.

4) I have a serious procrastination problem when it comes to tackling my fiction. What's your routine? How do you dive it? Do you have any rituals or necessary to-dos before or while you write?
A lot of web-surfing and emailing friends occurs before I can start writing. I seem to need to warm up first. Then while I'm writing I keep jumping up and down to make coffee. I have a rebounder (mini trampoline) and sometimes go and have a bounce to get the blood up to my brain again. Or I go for a walk with my dogs.

5) Clearly, your book will be optioned for a multi-million dollar film deal! Who would you cast as the leads, if you were given creative control?
I think Dame Judi Dench for the senior Felix, the woman who lived in the village as a child and knows what really happened the night Private Lew Campbell died. The part of Lew himself is important (though he isn't in the book for much of the time)--he is a young, gorgeous African-American GI. I think I'd need to attend a lot of auditions for Lew. It would mean looking at lots of handsome men and would be tough, but for the sake of the film I'd force myself to do it.

Asking the Big Questions

Today, I'm over at Writer Unboxed, getting all philosophical and posing the question about why we write.

Check it out!

Finding the Perfect Expert

Before we begin, a few shots from vacation, as promised on Friday!

Question of the day: I'm new to the freelance community. I got my first article published last month! I came across your blog and enjoyed the information. One burning question I have regarding feature articles is how do writers find "Experts" to quote in their articles? If you could shed some of your ultra pragmatic light on this, I would appreciate it.

Sure! Of course. Finding the perfect expert can make or break your story, and certainly, I've been in the position of interviewing someone and feeling like, "Eh, this isn't quite right," which sucks big time because then you have to start all over.

A few places that I start:

1) Amazon. I like to head here first because more often than not, I interview book authors, and well, for obvious reasons, Amazon is a good place to find them. From there, if I find someone who might work, I head to...

2) Google. Again, not ground-breaking, but I google an author and if he or she isn't easily reachable, I often go back to point A. Or, alternatively, I also use google as a starting point - hunting down experts with very specific search terms.

3) I also use PubMed, especially when I'm looking for study authors or researchers. If I can find the exact study that fits into my story, I'm always keen to interview the person who performed the research behind it. Similarly,

4) NewsWise serves more or less the same function but with less medical terminology and a wider-span of press releases.

5) I'll also put out a query on Profnet if I can't find anything on my own. This usually yields me far more sources than I can use, and often times, they're not really what I had in mind (because they're coming from PR reps), but it doesn't really hurt, and often does land me a good source.

6) And finally (not always last, in terms of when I do things), I'll head to PR reps at various organizations that fit my needs. If, for example, I'm writing a story on something parenting-related, maybe I'll lob a call into the AAP or if I'm doing a story on nutrition, the ADA. That type of thing.

So, where do you guys find your sources? I'm sure that there are other bastions of info!

Turn Off, Tune Out

So a funny thing happened on my vacation: I fell out of love, just a little bit, with my Blackberry. And that's a good thing. A very good thing.

Here's the deal - in my normal life, I'm almost always connected and reachable. My agent needs me while I'm at the gym? No sweat. My husband wants to track me down while walking the dog? I'll pick up. I suspect that I don't need to elaborate because many of you relate. On one hand, this is wonderful; in fact, in the earlier days of my career, editors marveled about how, regardless of hour, I could respond to just about any and all emails. But on the other hand, it means that I am always available, like a 24/7 convenience store, and the truth is, which I didn't realize until my vacation, that I don't like being on call.

Here's what happened: while in Anguilla, I made the decision to leave my Blackberry in the room all day. Which meant that I checked it when I woke up and checked it again at night, and other than that, emails could clog it up to no end, and I wouldn't touch it. I thought that maybe I'd feel anxious, wondering about what I was missing, wondering if the world were imploding without me, but guess what? What I found instead was serenity. (The beach and the waves at my back door probably helped too.) But in all seriousness, I enjoyed myself SO MUCH MORE because I wasn't connected or reachable. In fact, my husband toted his Blackberry around all day, and beyond the fact that I found this incredibly annoying and made more than 5000 passive-aggresive remarks about it, eventually I moved past my irritation at him and just felt sorry for him. I mean, here we were, in arguably one of the most beautiful places on earth, and he couldn't let go of work! And yes, I'd be dishonest if I didn't say that I recognized a small part of myself in that.

When I returned home, I logged on to more than 300 emails. And it turns out that about 3 of them were semi-urgent. The rest were easily satisfied by my out-of-office notification, and I answered them at my leisure throughout the day and this past weekend. The world still spun on. The industry didn't collapse in my absence. Really, no one missed me too much. And that's a good thing. In fact, it was so good that these past few days, when I've taken the dog out for a walk or headed to the gym, I left the Blackberry at home. I need those few moments to myself, and everyone else can wait.

So tell me, are you addicted to your Blackberry? Or have you found strategies to put it down just like I have?

Want to Crack the Women's Mag Markets?

I'm back! And, I think, more exhausted than when we left. :) But we had a great time, and I'll post pictures next week. Meanwhile, just a quick post while I try to catch up on my hundreds of emails and deal with a lurking Monday deadline.

My pal, Denise Schipani, who has written for a slew of major mags, from Woman's Day to Women's Health, is teaching a class on breaking into the women's magazine market, and I wanted to let you guys know all about it. Here are the details:

START DATE: Monday, January 7, 2008

DURATION: 8 weeks

COURSE DESCRIPTION: You (probably) read these magazines regularly. Maybe your mom did, too. Would you like to write for one or more of the women’s magazines? In this course, you’ll learn how to navigate the sometimes alien (but fun!) world of women’s magazines, from the so-called “Sisters” (such as Woman’s Day, Redbook, and others) to health and parenting magazines aimed at the modern woman who’s grown out of Cosmo but isn’t quite ready for AARP. You will learn:

-The difference between FOBs, columns and features.
-How to interpret a masthead.
-How to write queries in a particular magazine’s writing style (the best way to grab attention!)
-How to come up with fresh approaches/packages and clever heads that scream “read me!”

This course is not aimed at the total newbie magazine writer; it’s aimed at the already-published writer who wants to expand into this market. That said, students will work on a query along with learning and practicing craft, and getting an insider’s glimpse of the woman’s mag editing process.

For more info and to sign up, head to The Renegade Writer...

And Even More, More Me!

I'm jetting off for a much-needed vacation this morning, so I'm posting the remaining GCC links. I'm not sure when they'll go up, but it should be at some point today or Friday. Right now, I am virtually brain-dead, and I swear, half of the exhaustion is due to packing and organizing for two little kids...seriously, how do people travel with kids all the time??? We've taken #1 with us a few times, but this is our first time with both. And I'm wrecked from figuring out all of the logistics.

So, with that, I'm off to a deserted beach in a far-flung island in the Caribbean. I can't get there fast enough. I'll be back late next week or early the following (I know when I'll be back, but I mean I'll be back on the blog around then!), and since I'm leaving for such a long time, I promise to devote the following week solely to answering the backlog of questions that have been sent in.
Until then, I hope the below links provide some good reading material!

I'll be downing healthy amounts of alcohol and basking in the sun (with ample sunscreen with the kiddos).

Toni McGee Causey: http://www.tonimcgeecausey.com/author/blog/
Cindy Cruiger: http://www.ferfelabat.com/
Sheila Curran: http://sheilacurran.typepad.com/falling_down_the_blog/
Kyra Davis: http://www.myspace.com/kyradavis
Jana DeLeon: http://janadeleon.blogspot.com/
Laura Florand: http://www.lauraflorand.com/blog/
Joshilyn Jackson: http://www.joshilynjackson.com/mt/
Deborah LeBlanc: http://www.deborahleblanc.com/blog/client/
Blossom Kan and Michelle Wu: http://blog.chinadollsnovel.com/
Becky Motew: http://www.beckymotew.blogspot.com/
Kelly Para: http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/writerwords/
Sara Rosett: http://www.rosettwrites.bravejournal.com/

And Still More Me...

More interviews from GCC:

Joni Rodgers: http://boxingoctopus.blogspot.com/
Jackie Kessler: http://www.jackiekessler.com/blog/2007/11/28/bet-lost-muse-found/
Judy Larsen: http://notafraidofthefword.blogspot.com/

More Me

A few more links that are now up today as part of the GCC Tour!

Southern Comfort: http://karingillespie.blogspot.com/
Renee Rosen: http://reneerosen.squarespace.com/

I'm On Tour!

Hope everyone is recovering from their turkey comas. We endured a brutal drive to New Hampshire (7 hours, 2 kids, 1 gassy dog) and lived to tell about it. Anyhoo...

Whoohoo! This week, it's my turn on the Girlfriends Cyber Circuit Tour, so I'll be posting a slew of links to various blogs on which I've done different interviews. There were so many questions asked - different for each author/blogger - so take a second and click through. I chat about everything from my favorite (and least favorite) part of writing to my dream vacation destination to if I'd still write if I won the lottery. And much more.

I'll post the links as they go up each day and will try to update them throughout the day, so check back or scroll down for the previous day's post if you missed something.

Here are a few to start out with. Enjoy!

Joanne Rendell: http://joannerendell.blogspot.com/
Elizabeth Graham: http://www.elizabethgraham.blogspot.com/
Colleen Thompson: www.boxingoctopus.blogspot.com

Getting My Groove On

I was cruising through some blogs the other day, when I came across this post on Tammie's site, which is all about how music influences her characters and her writing. And I asked her if I could raise that subject here because I think it's such a cool and relevant point.

I'm a big music-phile. (Is that a word? Probably not.) I'm completely and hopelessly addicted to my Napster to Go subscription and always devote at least a bit of time each day seeking out new bands and singers who strike literal chords within me. So after reading Tammie's post, I took some time to think about how music influenced my own writing and scene setting, as well as how much it's influenced my own life. I'm sort of someone who - at the risk of sounding like Ally McBeal (yipes!), has always had various soundtracks for my life, contingent on my mood or what phase I was currently in. More so than melody, I've always related to lyrics, and if the lyrics impact me in some way, you can bet that the song will be on rotation in my house for months or years to come. Right now, I'm sort of in this self-evaluation phase, and I'm digging melodic mid-tempo singers like Chantal Kreviazuk, Sara Bareilles, Mandy Moore, Mat Kearney, Brandi Carlile and the like. I listen to their songs and get lost in them, as if they're personally speaking to me.

And in some ways, I very much do the same with my characters. My heroine, Jillian, in Time of My Life is helplessly lost between two lives and two loves, and desperately trying to find her way back to what feels right, and so, when I hear Vanessa Carlton's "Home," it resonates and helps me dig into Jillian's mindset - it really transports me to the scenes in which Jill's trying to figure out what feels like "home." Ditto Ben Fold's "The Luckiest", which is all about how someone comes to appreciate how fortunate he is for the love he has in his life. And Five for Fighting's "The Riddle" speaks to Jillian's love for her child, even when she doesn't quite know her place in the world. I could go on like this for days: Dashboard Confessional's Stolen, Mandy Moore's "Most of Me," Snow Patrol's "Open Your Eyes," The Weepies' "The World Spins Madly On," even "Skid Row," from Little Shop of Horrors, which sounds random I know, but every time they launch into the last verse:

Someone show me a way to get out of here,
'Cause I constantly pray I'll get out of here.
Please won't somebody say I'll get out of here,
Someone gimme my shot or I'll rot here.

Show me how and I will I'll get out of here,
I'll start climbing up hill and get out of here,
Someone tell me I still can get out of here,
Someone tell Lady Luck that I'm stuck here.

Gee it sure would be swell to get out of here,
Bid the gutter farewell to get out of here,
I'd move heaven and hell to get out of Skid,
I'd give I don't know what to get out of Skid,
But a hell of a lot to get out of Skid,
People tell me there's not a way out of Skid,
But believe me I've got to get out of Skid row.

I'm always moved by the tenacity behind the lyrics and the fight in the voices behind them, and damn if it doesn't give both me and my characters a kick in the butt. (Yes, I love show tunes, so what?) :)

So, I'm always looking for music suggestions. Who or what inspires both you and your writing? Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!!

Stuck in the Stone Age

Question of the week: Why do some agents insist sending queries by snail mail with a SASE? It seems so old fashioned not to mention wasteful in a few different ways. I recently sent a query letter, synopsis, 75 pages of my story, SASE etc. only to have it ultimately rejected. A trip to the post office, the cost of postage, not to mention printing out all those pages could easily have been avoided if I could simply send it all via email. So...what's up? In an age where we all are trying to conserve (gas, ink, paper, time, stamps) this practice seems archaic and old school.

Just a quick update to last week's post: I am officially in like with Facebook, much more so than MySpace. For promotional purposes, MySpace definitely wins - I'm "friends" with hundreds of people whom I really don't know, and I can blast out a note to all of them if need be. But on a more personal level, I'm really enjoying Facebook - I've found friends from high school and life whom I'm happy to be back in touch with, and what I like most about the site is how it alerts you to all of their updates - when they've added new pictures, when they've connected with someone new (and who that person is) - so I'm always kept in the loop about their pages and yes, their lives. I dunno. I think it's pretty cool. It doesn't serve a promotional purpose for me at all, but hey, so what?

Anyhoo, on to the above question. You know, I don't have the foggiest idea why agents still insist on the SASE or why, quite frankly, anyone would insist on receiving snail mail queries. Actually, that's not true: I'm sure that for some agents, it's much easier to read these queries while on the train or the bus or whatever, and why should they have to go through the trouble of sifting through their already clogged inbox and then printing any queries that grab their attention? I do, I suppose, understand the practicality of it.

But that said, yes, it seems completely archaic and outdated, and for me, at least, it was also a criteria with which I eliminated agents while in my agent hunt. I wanted someone efficient, on the cutting edge, and who used email just as often as I did (which, um, is always and for everything), so whether it seems reasonable or not, I didn't submit (with one exception) to any agents who refused email queries and required that dreaded SASE. (I do realize, of course, that just because someone requires snail mail queries doesn't mean that he or she isn't hyperly-efficient, but I think you get my idea. I'm just saying that I wanted someone who I felt would be most compatible with me and my working style...I hope that makes sense.) Before you jump up and down and say, "But everyone says that they don't accept email queries," let me interject that yes, I know that agents say this, but for the most part, they say this because they don't want to be inundated with queries, not because they won't accept them. Yes, it might annoy a few, but the vast majority of those who list "no email queries" on Agent Query or wherever will, indeed, take 'em.

Which means that you can kiss that pesky SASE goodbye.

(Btw, please do realize that everything I post on this blog is my opinion and mine alone. Well, okay, I do have some writer friends who usually agree with me, but what I mean to say is that you are welcome to disagree and discard my advice. I know that at times, I'd read Miss Snark and completely disagree with her, and hey, that's cool. It didn't take away from what she was trying to do and how she was trying to help people. I hope blog readers here understand this and feel the same.)

Anyway, so...did you guys query with SASEs? And why do you think that agents still insist on using snail mail?

Reach Out and Friend Someone

So I spent the better part of yesterday tooling around on Facebook, at the behest of some writer friends. This? Was a mistake. Because once I started, I couldn't stop: it was like that poor girl in Silence of the Lambs trapped in that damn hole. That was me in Facebook. I desperately wanted to claw my way out but knew that it was to no avail.

So there went yesterday.

It got me thinking: I'm now on Facebook (friend me!), MySpace and LinkedIn. And honestly, though they sure are a hell of a way to procrastinate - tracking down old friends, spying on other ones - I dunno, are these honestly good marketing or writing tools? I dunno. You tell me. I'm genuinely curious to hear what, if anything, you guys have gotten out of them. MySpace - well, I can see that b/c I have hundreds of "friends," and I suppose if I had to blast something out about my book, then that would be cool. LinkedIn has been a superfun way to reconnect with old friends, and I suppose that Facebook is much the same. (I mean, seriously, if you're my friend in real life, do you have to now be my friend online? Because that's pretty much who makes up my "friend" list on Facebook!)

But other than that, what do you guys use these sites for? And if you're on Facebook, can you explain what your favorite parts of your profile are??? I feel like I spent the entire day trying to figure out how to add things, what things to add, etc, etc, etc, and it only made me more bananas than when I started!

Enlighten me on all of this, please!

Breaking In

Question of the week: I have some steady work from my former employer and other smaller titles, but I'd like to build relationships with some Conde Nast, Time Inc, etc. titles. What's the best way to begin building these relationships? How do I best make those introductions and let them know I'm available and would like to serve them? Do I need to spend much of my time working on solid queries and sending those out? Or do such editors even regard unsolicited queries? Your thoughts would be appreciated!

I get similar questions a lot, and the first thing I always say is to search the archives of the blog...I offered a lot of advice on breaking in last year when I answered questions daily.

But, because I don't mind repeating myself (just ask my husband!), I'll say this again: there really isn't a secret formula to breaking into the national markets. It sounds like you already have some clips, which should put you on your way, and now, I'd spend some serious time crafting very detailed, well-researched pitches. Those are the only way to break in. Yes, editors read unsolicited pitches all the time, but if you pitch them crap - poorly researched or poorly written - ideas, they'll likely ignore any follow ups or future pitches. I don't mean to imply that you get one shot and you're out because that's certainly not the case, but you know that phrase, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression?" Yeah, well, keep that in mind as you pitch.

I realize that this might make the process sound daunting and fray your already fraying nerves. And I don't mean to at all. But what I'm trying to impart is that good and targeted queries are the only and the best way to break in (barring having worked a magazine previously and/or having really strong connections), so it would be wise to take your time with them. Dig around for new studies or new trends and pack your queries with information that might make an editor take five extra seconds from her already harried day and think, "Oh, wow, this is a writer and an idea that I should give some consideration too."

If she writes you back and says, "Good idea but not for us," take that as now open lines of communication. Keep pitching her. Keep following up with her. The ONLY way that you're going to nudge your way in the door is with persistence. I think I've said this on the blog before, but I once had to follow up to a pitch three times before I heard anything from the editor, and when I finally did, I landed my first feature at SELF.

As far as letters of introduction to the big nationals? Well, unless you have competitive and/or national clips - i.e. unless you write for their competitors - I think this is a waste of time. Too many people are willing to do the upfront work and craft good query letters, and if you were an editor, who would you rather assign to - someone who took the time to put together a query that demonstrated their skills or someone who sent off a generic introduction letter. (I don't mean to say that intro letters never work. They do, and I use them these days, but I do think that you have to be established in the industry for them to garner any attention or weight.)

I've also said this before (search the archives), but FOBs are a fabulous place to break in. Editors are more willing to take a chance on a new writer when the assignment is only 250 words rather than 2000.

So, that's my breaking in advice. Anyone out there have other tips? Or disagree with me? (Hey, you can!)

Why You Should Care

I already noted last week why I care about the strike, but I wanted to pass on this great blog entry from Erik Sherman on why, if you're a freelance writer, you should care too.

Smells Like Something's Burning

On one of my writers' boards, we've been chatting about burn out, and the thread has been so fascinating as writer after writer tip-toes forward, raising his or her figurative hand and says, "Um, yeah, me too."

I think that people assume that freelance writing is a thrill-a-minute...after all, you get to pick and choose your assignments, you work for yourself, you set your own hours, etc. But the reality is far different. In fact, many full-time writers take on any and all assignments in order to sustain themselves, and while in theory, we should be setting our own hours, we're so overburdened with work (or stress) that we work nearly all the time. Not to mention develop a pesky problem with saying "no," even when we are overworked because we always fear that the famine is never too far from the feast.

I know of what I speak.

I hit my first serious bout of burn out when my son, now 3, was about five months old, so, I guess that was about two and half years ago. I didn't take that much time off when I had him, not because I couldn't do so financially, but because I found myself a little bit bored and looking for some stimulation when he was a newborn and all he did was sleep or nurse all day...and that left me with not a whole lot to do other than change his diaper, pop out a boob or watch TV. So I got back in the saddle pretty quickly, and then, bam! A few months later, I looked at all of my assignments with boat loads of resentment. So I downshifted a bit - started querying less and reevaluating what my long-term goals were - and that's when I started really honing my fiction, which I took to with passion that I had long lost for my magazine assignments.

And I discovered that I wasn't burned out on writing. I was burned out on the writing that I had done for the past five or so years. After I wrapped TDLF, I picked up the pace on magazine work again...I'm someone who likes to stay busy, and this seemed like the best way to fill that void. But now, several years later, once again, I'm facing a serious rash of burn out, so again, I'm trying to flex different muscles with the fiction thing and taking my magazine work in different directions: doing more celebrity interviews because I think they're a hoot, hand-picking assignments that really get my cerebral juices flowing, and yes, saying no to work that I know will render me brain-dead. (I should note, however, that I didn't make the same mistake twice: that after my daughter was born, I did make sure to take some necessary time off, even if it was just to hang around and nurse in front of the TV because I knew that this downtime would pay off, in terms of my level of interest in my work, in the future.)

It's a tricky balance: finding enough work to sustain me and finding the right work to do just that, but not taking on so much that I'm pissed off just thinking about my to-do list or am forced to spend my nights crouched over my computer when I should be snuggling up with my husband and watching 30 Rock. (Tangent: who saw last week's episode? Seriously? That post-Kenneth's party scene?? Was it not the funniest thing on TV in ages????)

Anyway, have any of you guys dealt with burn out? If so, how have you coped?

GCC Presents: Jackie Kessler and The Road to Hell

Today I'm so excited to present my pal, Jackie Kessler, and her book, The Road to Hell. I met Jackie a few years ago over at Backspace, and she's an awesome all-around person, so I'm thrilled for her success. Even better, this week, she's holding a contest for her book and you, dear readers, can win prizes. Yes, prizes! Check out the "Hit the Road" section of her website.

Okay, get your mind off of prizes, and take a quick sec to read a bit more about the book...

1) What the Hell is HELL ON EARTH?
That’s the series I’m writing, published by Kensington/Zebra Books. The first book, HELL’S BELLES, is about a succubus named Jezebel who runs away from Hell, hides on Earth as an exotic dancer, and learns the hard way about true love. Sex, strippers, demons—what’s not to like? The second book, THE ROAD TO HELL, is about how Jezebel—now the human Jesse Harris—has to return to Hell to save the lives of those she loves…and somehow make sure it’s not a one-way trip. (If she’d known love was this tough, she never would have turned her back on lust.)

2) What's the backstory behind your book?
It's the second book in the Hell on Earth series, and the second in a three-book contract. So not too much backstory there. Just me meeting my deadline. :)

3) It seems that a lot of readers confuse fiction with real life, assuming that a novel must be an autobiography of the author as well. How many elements of your real life are reflected in your book?
Hee. If I were a demon, and Jezebel were Jewish, we'd be the same person.
Except she dances better than I do. And there's no way in Hell (or Earth) that I would ever strip in public. Eek!

4) A lot of my blog readers are aspiring or new authors. How did you land your first book deal?
My first published book, HELL'S BELLES, is actually the third novel that I've written. I took the fantasy that I adore from my first book and the tone that seems to work well for me from the second book and merged them to come up with an urban fantasy/paranormal romance for HELL'S BELLES -- a sassy narrator in a story that's dark and sexy and humorous. I wrote HELL'S BELLES fast -- three months, start to finish (it's like I was possessed) -- and then I queried agents. I really got lucky; instead of the triple-digit rejections I'd gotten for my first novel, or the 40+ rejections I'd gotten for my second novel, I got five offers of representation, within a matter of three weeks. So I selected my agent, and then he sold HELL'S BELLES a week later in a pre-emptive three-book deal to Kensington. Woot!

5) I have a serious procrastination problem when it comes to tackling my fiction. What¹s your routine? How do you dive it? Do you have any rituals or necessary to-dos before or while you write?
Here's how my usual day looks: Write, write, write, get kids and husband ready for school/work, write, write, write, do my day job, lunch/write, do my day job, pick kids up and get dinner ready, family time, get kids to bed, write, write, spend time with Loving Husband, write, write, write, collapse into bed. Repeat. (At times, "write" is loosely defined as "ego surfing" and other Internet activities.)

6) Clearly, your book will be optioned for a multi-million dollar film deal. Who would you cast as the leads, if you were given creative control?
Clearly! :) Let's see. Matt Damon as Paul, the love interest. Or any other character he wants to be. ((fans self)) Maybe Ben Affleck as Roman, the slimy club owner. I'd been thinking of Eva Longoria for Jezebel/Jesse, but I'm really open on her role -- as long as she's played by a petite actress (Jesse is five-foot-four).

Why Can't We All Just Get Along

Today, I'm over at Writer Unboxed talking about writerly karma and wondering why we all just can't be happy for each other's success...

Check it out!

Why I Care

So I'm a little bit obsessed with the writers' strike. I'm not quite sure why, but I am. I check out DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com about 10 times a day, and I'm trying to stay on top of who is taking what position.

I think that I must be so fascinated by it all because it cuts so close to home. I'm not a television or movie writer (honestly, when anyone asks me if I'm interested in drafting the screenplays of my own books, I just laugh because I have no idea how to do that), but I am a writer, and that, I think, unifies us all. And the fact that the studios and moguls are trying to undercut the value of what these writers give to them just sickens me.

I tried explaining all of this to my husband last night, my husband who has more of the "mogul" mentality given his line of work, and at first, he sort of laughed me off, saying, "Well, of course the studios want to make as much money as they can. It's a business decision." And yeah, of course the studios do want to. Obviously. But then I said, "Okay, so let's say HarperCollins (my current publisher) wanted to put my book online - or wherever - and wanted to generate profits from this but didn't want to give me anything for it. Me. The writer of the book. How would you feel about that?" And because my husband is a good husband and because he fights for every last ounce of respect and every last penny that he believes that I have due, he paused and thought about it, and suddenly, things were a little murkier for him.

And I guess that's why I'm so caught up in the situation: it hits pretty close to home. I hope it's resolved quickly and fairly and that the writers, who are the ones with the vision and who create something from nothing for the studios in the first place, are handed their due.

In other news, I'm over at Monica Bhide's blog today doing a Q/A. Monica is an awesome food writer with a new blog that fun and interesting and insightful, so check it out!

Anyone else following the strike or is it just little old me?

One Strike and You're Out!

Over the weekend, I was reading a television forum that I frequent, and a slew of the posters were up in arms over the impending writers' strike. Not only were they furious that the writers were threatening to walk out, they were certain that if they - these posters in a silly forum about television ratings, many of whom frequently pepper their posts with misspellings and grammatical errors - could do a better job penning TV episodes than the current hired scribes.

Comments were posted along the lines of, "Come on, how hard can it be to write a sitcom?" Or, "God, anyone can be a writer, I mean, we all here could do their jobs."

To that I say: A. BIG. FAT. HA!

Now, because I just lurk in this forum and have no desire to join in the fray with some of these crazies, I didn't respond, but you can bet that my blood was boiling. Beyond the fact that I fully support the writers in their walkout, these comments just reiterated how the general public too often views our profession. Why is it that just about every person thinks that he or she could be a writer? Why is it that just about every person is certain that he or she could crank out a novel (as if!), be a freelance magazine writer (dream on!), or pen a successful television show or movie (even I don't kid myself about that one!)?

Here's the thing: just because you literally know how to write does not mean that you literally know how to write well. There is a huge distinction there, and one that so many people, too many people fail to understand. Including these idiots in that forum. Crafting a novel or breaking into the magazine world is hard f-ing work, and guess what? I'm also going to go on record to say that you have to have some innate talent to be able to do so. I'm not suggesting that I'm Hemingway or Ayn Rand or anyone like that: I'm not. But I'm also going to put it out there and say that not everyone can write well, and maybe that's a horrible thing to say and maybe it's not particularly pc, but just because you think that you have a novel in you (not you, dear Ask Allison readers, "you" meaning the general population) doesn't mean that, in fact, you do. And even if you defy the odds and actually write that novel (something that 99% of people do not), it doesn't mean that this book will be good. (With the understanding that "good" is subjective, and certainly, some people read my stuff and think that it's crap, and that's totally cool. But you get my point.)

Can you tell that I'm pissed? I am. Writers are too often discounted and thought of as second-class citizens, as if somehow, we have the job that the rest of the world could be doing if they only felt like it, and the truth is...this just couldn't be further from the truth. Which is part of the motivation behind the WGA strike: they're sick and tired of not getting the respect they deserve (as well as the money they deserve), and to them, I say, "hurrah." Does the strike suck? You betcha. Beyond the fact that come late-winter, my TV addiction is going to take a serious blow, the strike has affected potential personal projects, and I'm barely even connected to the industry. Hundreds of thousands of people will lose income and jobs, and all around, it sucks.

But the WGA writers are tired of being thought of as replaceable. And after reading some of the posts on the web this weekend, I can't blame them.

So, what say you? Why does everyone think that they can do our jobs for us? What do you think about the impending strike?