My Revise and Resubmit Adventure

Last year, I was querying a YA fantasy. It's the third story I've ever queried (and the second I've queried seriously), and it was going more or less like the last one had: a small handful of full requests that ultimately resulted in passes. And then I got a revise and resubmit. It was awesome! …

Advertisement

The Contradictory World of Querying Agents

It's fun to complain, isn't it? Let's complain about querying! Querying is complicated! Querying is messy! And every time I query, I am simultaneously delighted that I seem to be doing OK and terrified that I'm doing everything wrong. And both might be true! Nothing makes sense. Everything is anxiety-inducing. This post has no point! …

Why Garbage First Drafts are Good–As Long As You’re Being Strategic

I'm sure you've heard this advice before: get your first draft down. Don't overthink it. Just get the thoughts down, get the words down, and finish. It's common advice, and it's not hard to see why. One of the hardest lessons for a new writer to learn is that you have to actually finish projects. …

WriteOnCon!

WriteOnCon is coming up! This year, it's running from February 9 to 11, Friday through Sunday. Haven't heard of it before? Check it out. WriteOnCon is a writing convention for children's book authors, including everything from picture books to New Adult. It's also completely online, which means you don't have to go anywhere--just register, sign …

My 2017 Year in Review

It's 2018! You know what that means, right? It's time for self-indulgent introspection! Let's start by checking my 2017 resolutions and seeing how I did! My 2017 New Year's Resolutions I did okay! Okay-ish? I did edit my new YA fantasy, the tentatively titled Garden in the Waves. It took WAY longer than I expected, …

Thoughts on National Novel Writing Month

National Novel Writing Month ends tomorrow, November 30. So if you're still pushing toward 50,000 words, you still have time! Go go go~! Like I said a month ago, this was my first serious attempt at NaNoWriMo. It's been a wild month, full of write-ins, friend-making, and writing-encouragement cake. I had a lot of fun, …

On Writing a Fiction Series–and How Agents and Publishers Make for Fluid Plans

I attended the New England SCBWI writing conference back in April, and one of the most intriguing panels I attended--and the one that's stayed with me the best--was called "And Then There Were More: The Art of Writing a Series with Agent Ammi-Joan Paquette." I'm a fantasy author, so--be it for better or for worse--series …

On Recommended Word Counts and Why They Can Be Helpful (Especially If You Write Fantasy)

Recommended word counts cause so much angst. Don't know what I'm talking about? Well, check out this Writer's Digest post, or this post on children's fiction. (Unfortunately, they're both pretty old. Still, you get the point.) Agents and publishers look for novels with word counts within a certain range. This length varies by genre and the …

Open Submissions: Hodderscape

Got a science fiction/fantasy novel that's more or less ready to pitch? Hodderscape, the SFF branch of the publisher Hodder & Stoughton, is accepting unagented submissions between August 3 and 16: Open Submissions: The Guidelines! | Hodderscape They even mention in the comments that it doesn't have to be finished. (Although goodness gracious, that sounds …

Book Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

I read this ages ago, but hey. Let's talk about YA tropes, through the lens of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. My complete review is on Goodreads. Like always, I'm not going to duplicate the review here. Instead, I'm going to wax philosophical. Bear with me. So, I read Miss Peregrine's a while ago, …