My Interview About All Things Contests

I said I’d have an interview for you about “The Writer’s Voice,” and now it’s up! Julie DeGuia asked me some really interesting questions about “An Agent’s Inbox,” “The Writer’s Voice,” and the similarities and differences between them. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to work with agents to host blog contests, here’s your chance to find out!

Hop over to Julie’s blog and check out the interview, then feel free to hop back over here and ask any other questions you may have in the comments. Ever since “The Writer’s Voice” ended, I’ve been in need of a new distraction:)

(Work-in-) Progress Reports: Bonnie and Clyde

Word count (to the nearest thousand): 3,000 for Bonnie, 24,000 for Clyde
Status: Chugging through the first drafts
Attitude: Excited

Look, a (work-in-) progress report! It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. I’m happy to report that my new project, who shall be known from this day forth as Clyde, is coming along at a nice pace. I’m not writing him quite as quickly as I wrote Steve, but then, I have been a bit distracted, what with “The Writer’s Voice” and all. Still, I’m hoping to finish the first draft sometime within the next month. We’ll see how I do.

Clyde is a straight-up MG contemporary, with no fantastical elements or funny business. He’s a cute, quirky little manuscript who’s forced me to get in touch with my inner nerd:) But mostly, he’s just forced me to admit that I might really be a writer of realism and not a writer of fantasy.

I started to suspect this while I was writing Steve. Sure, Steve has a few less-than-plausible plot points, but I truly believe that, at his core, he’s a genuine historical, with period characters making period decisions according to the standards and mores of their day. Steve is about real life, and so is Clyde. Real life, apparently, is what I write about.

To further cement this theory, my other Shiny New Idea is also for a contemporary, this one a YA. Since I kind of think of these two manuscripts in the same thought, I’m naming this one Bonnie. She’s going to be my pet project for the time being, my experiment, and as such, I’ve only written a little more than her first chapter. Once I get my buddy Clyde into the hands of beta readers, I’ll reward myself by writing Bonnie:)

I’ve wanted to write a book set in two different timeframes for a few years now, so I’m going to try that with this one. I’ll tell the front story moving forward from a particularly significant day for the MC and the back story moving backward from another equally important day. This will also give me a chance to try my hand at present tense. In truth, I’ve never been a huge fan of present tense--it often feels like a gimmick to me--but in this case, I think it will help me keep the front and back stories straight.

Yep, these two projects have definitely forced me to reevaluate my own writerly self. I’ve always considered myself to be a writer of big, bold fantasy and science fiction, with lots of explosions and action scenes. But the truth is, I think I’m better at writing the quieter, more intimate moments between characters, and for the first time in, well, ever, I feel like I’m playing to my strengths.

So how are your projects coming along, and have they ever forced you to think about your writer-self differently?

Interactive Interview with an Agent: Judith Engracia

I have a treat for you today! Judith Engracia of Liza Dawson Associates has graciously agreed to join us for an INTERACTIVE installment of “Interview with an Agent.” Check out Ms. Engracia’s answers to the usual questions, then meet us at the bottom for details on the interactive part.

KV: How long have you been agenting, and how did you get into it?

JE: I started at Liza Dawson Associates two years ago, but I first heard about literary agenting as a sophomore in college when I was looking for editorial internships. Until then, I had no idea such an awesome job even existed. Once I found out, I was hooked and I interned throughout college, holding positions at Random House and various literary agencies. As soon as I graduated, I joined LDA full-time.

KV: How would you summarize your personal agenting philosophy? What do you expect from an agent-author relationship?

JE: I'd like to reference Avatar, if I may. When an author and agent decide to work together, I like to think of it as forming a bond of tsaheylu. I sign only those authors whose projects I absolutely adore, and inevitably, we hit it off right away. We discover we're on the same wavelength; we share the same vision for the project; we "get" it. We're a team now and both parties are going to do whatever it takes to get the work published and help him or her grow as an author. So yeah, tsaheylu. I'm the six-legged horse to your blue giant.

KV: What genres do you represent? What genres do you definitely NOT represent?

JE: I'm looking for literary fiction, thrillers, urban fantasy, historical fiction, contemporary fiction, and the whole gamut of YA, from sci-fi to contemporary. I'm also interested in middle grades with heart and perhaps just a touch of magic, like WHEN YOU REACH ME by Rebecca Stead.

Right now, I'm not actively seeking nonfiction projects, though that could change...

KV: What query pet peeves and/or pitfalls should writers avoid when querying you?

JE: The only pet peeve that comes to mind is when a query starts off with a question like, "Have you ever wondered what would happen if ___?" The plot could be brilliant, but for some reason, phrasing it in a rhetorical question makes it sound oversimplified and silly.

KV: You only want to see the query letter in a writer’s initial contact, but several respected industry sites have advised writers to include a few sample pages at the bottom of every query, whether the agent asked for them or not. So if a writer goes ahead and adds those pages, do you find that more assertive or obnoxious?

JE: Neither. I just assume it means the author didn't check our website guidelines. It doesn't really bother me, though. I'll give it a quick look-see if you insist!

KV: What are you looking for in a manuscript right now? What are you tired of seeing at the moment?

JE: If I had a genie, I'd probably use up a wish to get a snappy, witty manuscript with a bullet-fast plot, something like Josh Bazell's BEAT THE REAPER. In literary fiction, the plot doesn't have to move at breakneck speeds, but there should definitely still be a plot and a fresh voice, like Cal from Jeffrey Eugenides' MIDDLESEX.

I'd also love a middle grade that isn't afraid to delve into the issues of death, divorce, abandonment, sickness, or racism. I know that sounds awfully morbid, but there's a way to address these topics without being too depressing. I already mentioned WHEN YOU REACH ME by Rebecca Stead, but other titles that tackle those issues poignantly are DEAR GEORGE CLOONEY, PLEASE MARRY MY MOM by Susin Nielsen-Fernlund, the classic WALK TWO MOONS by Sharon Creech, and my childhood favorite MAMA LET'S DANCE by Patricia Hermes. They're humorous and have a whole lot of heart.

As for what type of story I'm shying away from, I don't think purely fantasy or adventure middle grades are my cup of tea.

KV: What’s the best way to query you?

JE: Shoot me an e-mail at queryJudith@lizadawsonassociates.com. Looking forward to hearing from you!

And we’re looking forward to hearing from you, too, blog readers! If you have a question for Ms. Engracia, feel free to leave it in the comments below. She’ll drop in later this evening or sometime tomorrow to answer any questions she finds down there, leaving her answers in the comments, too.

You have until midnight tonight to leave your questions, so until then, ask away!

P.S. Don’t forget to wish Ms. Engracia a happy birthday. And Ms. Engracia, extra special thanks to you for spending your big day with us:)

All About "The Writer's Voice" Twitter Pitch Party

And to wrap up the month’s festivities, we give you “The Writer’s Voice” Twitter Pitch Party!

If you want to play…

Pitch your finished manuscript on the hashtag #WVTP. (In other words, your Twitter pitch must include the hashtag #WVTP; otherwise, the agents will only see it if they're already following you.) You may pitch anytime you see an agent online--just don't go crazy and pitch more than once during an agent visit. We will monitor the hashtag and gently inform you if you're being obnoxious.

The agents will be hopping in and out of the feed during the party hours (12:00 noon to 6:00 p.m. EDT tomorrow) and tweeting their requests for the manuscripts that pique their interests. Simple, right? Not if more than one makes a request on the same pitch!

Keeping in the spirit of “The Writer's Voice,” if two or more agents request the same pitch, you must choose one of them and announce it in the feed. (They promise not to hold any rejections against you.)

If you get a request...

You must e-mail us at TheWritersVoiceContest(at)gmail(dot)com and tell us which agent requested your work. We'll verify the request and send you the agent's submission guidelines.

So get your Twitter pitches ready and meet us at #WVTP tomorrow, May 24, at 12:00 noon EDT. Anyone may enter, including “The Writer’s Voice” finalists and even other writers who didn’t make it into the contest, so it’s sure to be a party! And don’t forget to check out the agents’ Twitter feeds to get a feel for what they’re looking for:

John M. Cusick as @johnmcusick
Vickie Motter as @Vickie_Motter
Natalie M. Lakosil as @Natalie_Lakosil
Pam van Hylckama as @BookaliciousPam
Hannah Bowman as @hannahnpbowman

Good luck! Feel free to leave any questions you might have in the comments below.

"The Writer's Voice" Results!

And just like that, “The Writer’s Voice” is over. It’s been a crazy, wild ride, and I can honestly say I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, and I’ve even happy-danced. Here’s how things turned out for Team Krista:

#1: FACE THE MUSIC Lauren MacLeod, Andrea Somberg, Kevan Lyon, Louise Fury
#2: CHRONICITY Tricia Lawrence, Susan Hawk, Louise Fury
#4: AN UNCOMMON BLUE Louise Fury
#5: SILO Louise Fury
#7: DUET WITH THE DEVIL’S VIOLIN Andrea Somberg, Susan Hawk, Louise Fury
#8: DRIVERS Andrea Somberg, Louise Fury
#9: PLAYING WITH FIRE Louise Fury
#10: THELMA BEE Tricia Lawrence, Susan Hawk, Louise Fury
#11: THE COIN DIVER Andrea Somberg, Susan Hawk, Taylor Martindale, Roseanne Wells, Louise Fury

That brings our total vote count to 23, and THAT means Team Krista won!

Team members who received requests, please e-mail me at kvandolzer(at)gmail(dot)com for instructions on how to submit your materials to the agents who voted for you. Team members who didn’t receive requests, please e-mail me, too, so I can set you up with our celebrity guest coaches, who want to give you some additional feedback on your entries!

Our celebrity guest coaches:

Carrie Harris, author of the zombie-licious BAD TASTE IN BOYS and its forthcoming sequel, BAD HAIR DAY

Alexandra Duncan, author of the forthcoming SALVAGE, a YA sci-fi that recently sold to Greenwillow

Liesl Shurtliff, author of the forthcoming RUMP, an adorable MG fantasy that comes out next year from Knopf

I’m in the process of answering some questions about “The Writer’s Voice” for new blogger Julie DeGuia, so I’m going to hold off on saying much more until she posts that interview. I’ll let you know when it goes up!

Last but not least, a huge thank-you to everyone who entered, read, or commented; to all our voting agents; to the amazing Tara Dairman, who took the time to critique each and every entry; and most of all, to my fellow coaches, the talented and lovely Cupid, Brenda, and Monica. (Those adjectives apply to all three of you, by the way:) ) I literally could not have done this without you, ladies. It’s been a privilege to work with you.

P.S. Don't forget about "The Writer's Voice" Twitter Pitch Party coming up on Thursday. It's going to be epic!

"The Writer's Voice" Is Live!

“The Writer’s Voice” is a multi-blog, multi-agent contest hosted by Cupid of Cupid’s Literary Connection, Brenda Drake of Brenda Drake Writes, Mónica B.W. of Love YA, and me. We based the contest on NBC’s singing reality show The Voice, so the four of us selected projects for our teams based on their queries and first pages and coached the talented writers who wrote them as they polished their entries.

And TODAY we get to post our team members’ finished entries on our blogs!

Eight amazing agents are going to read these queries and first pages, then vote for their favorites on Monday, May 21. Each vote will count as a partial or full request depending on how many votes the entry receives. If an entry receives 1 or 2 votes, those votes will count as partial requests. If an entry receives 3 or more votes, those votes will count as full requests.

Our eight amazing agents:

Louise Fury of L. Perkins Agency
Susan Hawk of The Bent Agency
Tricia Lawrence of Erin Murphy Literary Agency
Kevan Lyon of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency
Lauren MacLeod of The Strothman Agency
Taylor Martindale of Full Circle Literary
Andrea Somberg of Harvey Klinger, Inc.
Roseanne Wells of Marianne Strong Literary Agency

But that’s not all! After the agents vote, the doubly delicious Tara Dairman, author of THE DELICIOUS DOUBLE LIFE OF GLADYS GATSBY (coming from Putnam/Penguin in 2014), will comment on all the entries and provide each one with her awesome feedback.

To read the other teams' entries, please use the following links:

Team Cupid
Team Brenda
Team Monica

Lastly, cheerleading is allowed, but only until Sunday! We want to leave the comments free for the agents to vote on Monday. (Also, we will only allow, well, cheerleading and/or positive feedback. Please don’t critique the entries before the agents vote. On the flip side, please don’t try to convince the agents that they want to vote for one of your favorites or, you know, threaten to douse the agents in silly string if they don’t vote for your critique partner. This is a silly-string-free site.)

Happy reading!

Team Krista #11: THE COIN DIVER

[Redacted]

Team Krista #10: THELMA BEE

Title: THELMA BEE
Genre: MG adventure
Word count: 34,000

Query:

Eleven-year-old Thelma Bee might turn red as cherries when she’s embarrassed, but she’s no wallflower. Thelma has adventure in her blood. There’s not a whole lot of opportunity for exploration in her hometown of Riverfish, Massachusetts, though, so she and her best friend Alexander Oldtree are often left to their own devices--with mixed results. The full-scale Viking Longship, for example, was a magnificent flop.

But one October night, Thelma’s sixth grade year takes a turn for the peculiar. A ghostly visitor kidnaps her father, leaving her alone and scared to death. Her only clue is a centuries-old jewelry box and one cryptic word the ghost whispered into her ear: “Return.”

That one word draws this adventurer-in-training into a world where her family tree unfolds a mystery that’s more extraordinary than anything her imagination could concoct. With her team of amateur ghost hunters, Thelma delves deep into the New England woods, where the lines between folklore and reality become dangerously blurry. It’s there, where the creaking trees have long memories, that she comes face to face with the devious Mr. Understone, who has been stalking her bloodline for centuries. Thelma has something he wants, and he’ll keep her dad until he gets it.

To save her father, she must find the bravery to overcome a dark magic…and discover just what she’s made of.

First page:

Thelma Bee had short, confident bangs, a heavy red backpack, and no idea that a very strange thing was about to find her. When the final bell rang that Wednesday afternoon, she closed her eyes and the sound transformed into a celebration of mariachi trumpets. Just one more school day until the long-long weekend. She busted out of the front door with the excitement that only 2:30 p.m. can bring, and navigating a path through a weird-smelling ocean of middle-schoolers, Thelma set a course for her dad’s antique shop.

Mr. Henry Bee was the proud proprietor of Bee’s Very Unusual Antiques--which was, in Thelma’s opinion, a bit of false advertising. Sometimes they sold items that were quite ordinary, like an old chipped mug, and sometimes they sold things that were not antique at all, like Mrs. Edelstein’s homemade cookies. Maybe, she thought, the shop should be named something more like Bee’s Very Unusual Antiques and Also Some Very Normal Antiques and Also Cookies. Not very catchy, but honest.

“Hey, Dad!” She threw down her backpack and plopped herself on an overstuffed avocado-and-orange-colored chair from the 1970s.

“Hey, kiddo!” hollered Henry. He emerged from his workshop in a worn-out brown apron.

Henry Bee sported the kind of thick eyeglasses that had been fashionable in the 1950s, as he had a passion for the old and unique. Once a journalist for the American Post, Henry had traveled the globe reporting on strange occurrences from Albany to Antarctica. In fact, it was there in Antarctica that he’d met Thelma’s mother, Mary “Goosefoot” Bee.