Gift Guide for Readers: Part One

I did a reading roundup at the beginning of this year, and since I’ve been reading up a storm again, I thought I’d do another. But since it’s December, I’m calling it a gift guide this time around:) Some of these books are relatively new releases, some relatively old, but I’ve read all of them for the first time over the last couple of months, so they’re new to me. Hopefully, this will give you a few new gift ideas for the readers in your life. (Oh, and I’ve read too many books to put them all in one post, so I’ll give you part two tomorrow.)

1. THE IRON KING by Julie Kagawa I thought this one started out pretty slowly, but by about two-thirds of the way through, I was hooked. (In other words, if this book had been half as long, it would have been twice as good:) ) However, faeries seem to be really popular right now, and since Ms. Kagawa’s debut is several years old, she’s definitely on top of that trend. I’ve compared every other faerie book I’ve read lately to this one.

2. THE PENDERWICKS by Jeanne Birdsall I won this one on Liesl’s blog a couple of months ago, and it’s a wonderful addition to my collection. THE PENDERWICKS has the timeless feel of a classic, but the writing and characters are fresh and vivid. If I weren’t such a lazy blogger, I’m sure I would have officially recommended this one.

3. SUPERNATURALLY by Kiersten White If you liked PARANORMALCY, you’ll probably like this one. Some of the mundane teenage drama got a little stale for me, but when the paranormal creatures made a reappearance, things got exciting again. Interestingly, I preferred the first half of PARANORMALCY and the second half of this one. (I guess I just like it when Evie’s working for the IPCA…)

4. OPEN by Andre Agassi I did write a recommendation for Andre Agassi’s memoir, so I’ll just refer you to that. In short, I found this to be a fascinating read even if I didn’t always buy that Mr. Agassi was telling us the whole truth. Great gift idea for the nonfiction reader and/or sports fan in your life.

5. KETURAH AND LORD DEATH by Martine Leavitt Here’s another book for which I already wrote a recommendation. I loved this one. I normally don’t buy into deeply allegorical stories, but I thought this one was spot-on.

6. FLIPPED by Wendelin Van Draanen FLIPPED was another of the titles that Liesl gave away on her blog several months ago, and since I’d already heard good things about it, I decided to give it a read. It’s an adorable he-said, she-said romance that targets the lower end of the YA readership. It reminded me of Jerry Spinelli’s STARGIRL (which I absolutely love), so if you’re looking for a cute, realistic gift for the twelve- to fourteen-year-old girl in your life, look no further.

7. LIFE AS WE KNEW IT by Susan Beth Pfeffer An engrossing, albeit haunting, read that explored the immediate aftermath of a major natural disaster. The story unfolds through the main character’s journal entries, and while I kind of outgrew this storytelling style in junior high, I thought it fit the story. I flew through this book and thought it did an excellent job of not straying into melodrama.

8. THE DEAD AND THE GONE by Susan Beth Pfeffer This was a companion novel to LIFE AS WE KNEW IT that looked at the impact of that same natural disaster in an urban setting. For some reason, this one didn’t grab me quite as much. I suspect it had something to do with the new cast of characters, but I'm not sure.

9. THE WORLD WE LIVE IN by Susan Beth Pfeffer This was the final installment of Ms. Pfeffer’s disaster trilogy. (I couldn’t not finish it at this point.) The characters from LIFE AS WE KNEW IT meet up with the characters from THE DEAD AND THE GONE, and they trudge along the harsh road of survival together. Whereas LIFE AS WE KNEW IT did an excellent job of not straying into melodrama, that was kind of all this one was. (For instance, when one of the characters notices that the sky looks a little green toward the end of the book, I thought, “Oh, no. We’re not really going to throw a tornado in here, are we?” But yes, we did.) At least this one had a romance in it:)

10. THE IRON DAUGHTER by Julie Kagawa Whereas THE IRON KING took a while to come up with a fresh storyline, the storyline in THE IRON DAUGHTER seemed unique and different right off the bat. I love it when sequels are better than the originals.

Well, that’s it from me for now. I’ll post part two tomorrow. In the meantime, have you read any of these books, and if so, what did you think? (Or if you've read a great book lately, we'd love to hear about that, too!)

Buy. This. Book.

A lot of you probably already know Shelli of Market My Words, so you’re probably already aware that her self-published debut, UNTRACEABLE, came out earlier this week. I’d heard her name around the blogosphere--I knew that she was agented, for instance, and that she maintained a well-respected blog--so when I noticed a bunch of tweets popping up about her debut, I headed over to check them out.

Boy, am I glad I did.

Not only did her blog introduce me to UNTRACEABLE, a YA wilderness thriller (which is available in both paperback and e-book formats), but I also learned a great deal about her journey to publication via a guest post she did on Shannon O’Donnell’s blog. And guys, her journey was INSPIRING--but probably not in the way you’d expect.

Check out that guest post, then do what I did and go and buy her book. I NEVER buy books I haven’t received at least five recommendations for (or already read myself), so this is kind of a first for me. But if anybody deserves my support and hard-earned cash, it’s Shelli.

Buy the paperback

Buy the e-book for your Kindle

Buy the e-book for whatever other kind of e-reader you may have

Happy Friday!

The Fickle Market

Or “Whatever Happened to That Other Manuscript I Was Querying?”

You may have noticed that I took Bob’s pitch and query down several weeks ago and replaced them with Steve’s. (Or maybe you haven’t noticed, since you probably don’t scour my sidebar as thoroughly as I do every time I stop by the blog.) I officially stopped querying Bob and started querying Steve in the middle of this month.

I’ve thought about doing a big statistics post like the one I did when I finished querying Bob’s predecessor, but my heart hasn’t been in it. Quite frankly, it takes some doing to crunch the numbers and make the graphs look as pretty and uniform as I want them to look, and I just haven’t wanted to invest the time. (Besides, a lot of those numbers are nearly a year old now, so I’m not sure how useful they would be.)

Instead, I decided to blog about something that really sums up my whole Bob-querying experience, and that’s the fickle market. But first, a little--okay, a lot of--background. (For those of you who’ve been around the blog for a while, a lot of this will be old news, but bear with me.)

I started querying Bob last fall, in late October. He was the third manuscript I’d queried, so I felt like I knew what I was doing. Still, I wasn’t prepared for the response that Bob received. My first three query replies were all partial requests, and one of those partial requests turned into a full request literally overnight. I was ecstatic. I was impatient. I was certain I would have an agent within a week or two.

But then that full request came back as an invitation to revise and resubmit. I told myself this was a victory--not quite the victory I’d been hoping for, but a victory, nonetheless--and buckled down. The agent had some good ideas, and I knew the manuscript would be stronger if I incorporated them. Besides, I could work on the changes through the holidays, when it probably wasn’t wisest to send out fresh queries, anyway, and not lose a lot of time. I didn’t want to lose momentum, after all.

I finished the revision in mid-January and e-mailed it to the agent. A week and a half later, I received her reply. It was kind and complimentary, but she still wasn’t in love enough with the manuscript to take it on. At the time, I was devastated. Now, I look back and realize that agent’s tastes and mine probably wouldn’t have been very compatible over the long haul, anyway.

After drowning my sorrows in a good cup of hot chocolate, I took my stronger manuscript and sent out a fresh batch of queries. I also sent it to the agents who’d requested more material during the weeks I’d spent revising it. Once again, the response was pretty positive. My request rate was over fifty percent, and I pulled in several more partial-turned-full requests.

Then more R&Rs appeared. I picked up my second one in mid-February; by the first week in March, I had three more. I looked at everything they said and decided to undertake a massive revision: flip-flop the narrative responsibilities for my two POV characters and make Adair, the female lead, the more prominent one. I knew it would be a lot of work, but I felt good about it, really good. So good, in fact, that I believe I said something like, “I think this is the story I’ve been trying to tell all along,” in one of my query updates during that time.

This revision--although, in all fairness, it was really more of a rewrite--took me three months. And when I finished, I knew it was the best thing I’d ever written. It really was the story I’d been trying to tell all along.

By this time, I had something like eight agents waiting to read the revision, so I sent it to them straightaway. I tried not to get my hopes up, but deep down, I let my imagination get away from me. Surely at least one of these agents would love the manuscript enough to offer. Surely this was a done deal. And as the days stretched into weeks, then months, and the rejections piled up, I realized it was--but not the kind of “done” I’d hoped for.

The rejections were all eerily similar. They started out by praising various aspects of the manuscript, then finished with some variation of one of these two lines: “But I just didn’t fall in love,” or “Unfortunately, though, the market has really softened up in the last couple of months.” Whereas six or even three months earlier, every agent and her pet Labrador had been trying to sign the next THE HUNGER GAMES, no one wanted a YA dystopian anymore. Editors were no longer biting. The market was saturated.

Did this market saturation account for all of Bob’s rejection? Of course not. If an agent had really loved the manuscript, the market probably wouldn’t have prevented her from offering representation, and I can think of a few YA dystopians, including Mindy McGinnis’s, that recently sold for good money. But the fact remains that during those months when I was working on the revision, something changed. The market shifted. What had been a hot commodity was now barely a lukewarm one. I sent out a few new queries, but my request rate was nowhere near what it had been before.

Moral of the story: The market is a living, breathing thing, and none of us will ever be able to control it. So instead of worrying about the things we can’t change, we’d do better to worry about the things we can. And sometimes, we just have to know when to let go of a manuscript, especially a trendy one, and get to work on the next project.

Thanksgiving in Review

The long Thanksgiving weekend was a busy--but successful--one for us. Here’s what we did:

1. Since our parents live about five minutes apart, Honey Bear and I always eat Thanksgiving dinner twice. We usually take a little bit at this house and a little bit at that, and I swear that’s what I did this year. But I was feeling pretty nauseated by the end of Thanksgiving Take Two. (I’m blaming that on the baby and my squished digestive tract.)

2. The LSU-Arkansas and Alabama-Auburn games weren’t nearly as exciting as I thought they’d be:(

3. Black Friday was pretty leisurely for us this year. We left the house a little before ten in the morning and only went to two stores. We didn’t have to wait in line or even throw an elbow:)

4. Friday night, I rode my first commuter train. (I felt so Eastern and cosmopolitan:) ) We took our kids to Salt Lake City to see the lights at Temple Square and didn’t want to have to worry about parking a car downtown. If you’re ever in Salt Lake during the month of December, definitely plan on stopping there. It’s a sight worth seeing.

5. On Saturday, we celebrated Honey Bear’s grandmother’s eightieth birthday. Grandma Dear, as her grandkids call her, is one of the nicest, most genteel ladies I’ve ever met (and she’s not even from the South). It was wonderful to spend time with so much family and to learn more about this awesome lady.

6. On Sunday, we went to church with HB’s parents. One of the women from their ward, or congregation, gave a lovely talk about living in thanksgiving daily. She didn’t say anything earth-shattering or revolutionary, but her words reminded me to focus more on what I have and less on what I don’t.

Well, I think that sums it up. I could go on, of course, but I don’t want to bore you with the details of road-tripping with a four- and two-year-old. Suffice it to say that there was much screaming, much whining, and much producing of cracker crumbs. But we made it. Barely:)

How was your Thanksgiving weekend?

November's Winners!

And the winners are in! Without further ado, here are Ms. Martindale’s favorite entries:

#10 UPGRADE

#17 SURVIVING LILAH

#18 CANDLELIGHT

These entries win a request for the first 100 pages! Yay! Winners, please e-mail me at kvandolzer(at)gmail(dot)com for instructions on how to submit your partials to Ms. Martindale.

But that’s not all! If Ms. Martindale mentioned in her comment that she would read on after getting to the end of your first page, you may send a query letter and the first 10 pages of your manuscript to Ms. Martindale at submissions(at)fullcircleliterary(dot)com. That way, she can check out those extra pages and see if she’s interested in requesting more.

Thank you, Ms. Martindale, for taking the time to give such thoughtful feedback to each and every entry, and a big thank-you to everyone else for entering, critiquing, and cheering each other on.

"An Agent's Inbox" Underway!

The entries are up, The Agent is here (or will be shortly), and the critiques are flowing in! Entrants, please remember to critique at least 3 other entries; everyone else, critique as many as you want. If you want to think like The Agent, you might consider the question, "How much of the entry did you read, and if you didn't read it all, why did you stop?" as you give your feedback, but I'm sure the entrants would love to hear anything you have to say (so long as it's constructive, of course).

I'll announce Ms. Martindale's winners and prizes no later than next Tuesday, November 22. Until then, critique away!

P.S. Entrants, if you notice any problems with your entries, feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail so I can fix them.

An Agent's Inbox #20

Dear Ms. Martindale,

All seventeen year old Princess Cinderella ever wanted was to marry her soul mate and live happily ever after, and she thought that was exactly what she signed up for when she tied the knot with the handsome Prince Eric Charming. But, it seems that a union based on shoe size, good looks and dancing ability may not have been the best idea after all. Cindy and Eric have discovered that they don't really like, much less love each other and despite Cinderella's pleas for help, the Fairy Godmother who rescued her from her life of servitude has not responded. It seems that she has retired, leaving Cinderella in the hands of an annoying, second career FG who is still in training.

Life is not at all pleasant around the palace but the worst is yet to come. When Eric disappears, his self obsessed step mother and power hungry brother accuse Cinderella of being responsible. They have her thrown into the Tower of Torture and soon her former unhappy life begins to look like a day at the beach. When she manages to escape, she has no choice but to embark on a journey fraught with danger, loss, coming out, life threatening creatures and surprising friendships. It isn't easy learning how to survive in the Forest of Fear. It's even more difficult deciding if you can love a husband you've never really known. But the toughest challenge of all is figuring out how to be your own Fairy Godmother.

AFTER HAPPILY EVER AFTER is a YA comic fantasy, complete at 49,000 words.

I am a multi Grammy winning lyricist. My web site [redacted] contains my biography, discography, and a list of the films and theatrical projects I have written for. I was also the co-writer of a television movie, “The Stranger Game”, presented on the Lifetime network and have co-authored a recently released children’s board book, [redacted], published by Sterling. [Redacted] won First Place in the 2011 Purple Dragonfly Awards Board Book category..

The first 250 words appear below. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.

C.W.


AFTER HAPPILY EVER AFTER

Chapter 1: Princess Cinderella

Cinderella had completed her daily Pilates class and was halfway through her power walk in the royal garden when a footman appeared with an envelope on a silver tray. Since she had never received a letter in her entire life, that in itself was quite strange, but what was stranger still was the news it contained.

It was addressed in a precise yet flowery hand to “Princess Cinderella Charming, The Palace, Kingdom of Once Upon A Time, Fairytale Land, (no zip code required)”. Cinderella sat on a stone bench, staring at it for a long moment. She could think of no one who would possibly write her a letter. She had given her stepmother and stepsisters more than enough money to keep them from ever contacting her again. The letter couldn't be from them, but for some reason she had a bad feeling in her chest. Her heart began to pound. Taking a deep breath, she unsealed the pale pink envelope which opened a bit too easily. Inside was a sheet of pearlescent stationary, so delicate it had to be unfolded very carefully. It had a twinkly wand mounted in the corner. Her eyes raced over the sparkling rose colored script as she read...

My Dear, Dear Clients,

It is with sadness and regret that I am writing to announce my retirement from my position as your Fairy Godmother.

An Agent's Inbox #19

Dear Ms. Martindale,

Sixteen-year-old Justine Kwiatkowski doesn’t believe in magic, she doesn’t believe in reincarnation, and she never planned on having to fill King Arthur’s shoes. All she knows is that last night, the best friend she’s ever had, Gwen Martinez, went missing outside the town of Avalon and she’ll do whatever it takes to get her back.

But if she wants to rescue Gwen, she’ll have to believe in a world she thought only existed in legend, because her best friend happens to be the reincarnation of Guinevere, and fifteen hundred years after the fall of Camelot, the Knights of the Round Table have returned, reborn as New Jersey teens.

Problem is, Mordred and Morgan le Fay are back too, having kidnapped Gwen, and unlike most of the knights, they remember who they once were.

With Mordred murdering the knights before they can regain their memories, Justine has to figure out how to track down the few remaining survivors--a star football player, a brilliant artist teetering on the brink of madness, a high school dropout working odd jobs to support his family--and convince them to bury centuries-old grudges and work together. If she can do that, she just might save her friend, and maybe, the world.

Knights of Avalon, a YA Urban Fantasy, is complete at 95,000 words. While intended to be the first in a series, the book can stand alone. Hopefully this manuscript will be of interest to you. Thank you for your consideration!

Sincerely,
M.B.


KNIGHTS OF AVALON

Ringing. My eyes fluttered open. Why was there ringing? I scrambled to get my bearings in the darkness. I was in my bedroom, the Bruce Lee posters on the walls told me that much. Through bleary eyes, I could see the alarm clock shining 3:11 back at me. I froze as my gaze settled on my cell phone, lit up with an incoming call. Why would someone call at 3am? I peered at the phone, trying to place the number. Then I took a deep breath and picked up. “Hello?”

“Hi, Justine. I’m sorry to be calling so late.” I immediately recognized the shaky voice on the other end of the line. It was my best friend’s mom, Mrs. Martinez, but I had never heard her sound like this. “Gwen’s not with you, is she?”

My mouth dropped, the question a punch to the gut. There was a murderer on the loose, cutting down the best kids in the state--a fencing champion destined for the Olympics, a martial arts prodigy, an organizer for Habitat for Humanity. Now, three in the morning on a school night, my best friend’s mom couldn’t find her daughter. And Gwen? She was the most incredible person I had ever met. A straight ‘A’ student, she was going to be a heart surgeon and work for Doctors Without Borders one day. There had always been something different about her. She was like the other victims. Special.