Have you ever wanted to be an agent for five minutes? Well I'm looking for any willing souls who would do me the honor of shredding my query to pieces. Any and all feedback will be appreciated! Happy hacking!

When a basilisk sinks its teeth into her windshield, college sophomore Hannah Slaughtery thinks she's losing her mind. Too bad her new reality makes her nightmares look like a day at the beach. Catapulted into a world where witches and monsters maintain a secret underground society deep beneath the Colorado Rockies, Hannah must accept the truth about her future even as the lies of her past unravel around her.

Hannah is a witch. But not just any ordinary witch. She's the only living Partizan witch who, along with four other classmates, is charged with the task of leading the forces of good against their evil counterparts, the Formorians. Unfortunately, her classmates can't stand to be in the same room with each other.

In order to compete her transition and tap unleash her full potential, Hannah embarks on a journey to master the five elements. The process, full of danger and pain, has her struggling to survive and wishing for death. But making it through her trials doesn't mean she's safe. Hannah must also face off with the Formorians who have been waiting to finish the job they started the night she was born.

The Partizans, a 79,000 word New Adult paranormal is Breakfast Club meets The Three Musketeers with a supernatural twist. It can stand alone but also has series potential.

When not writing, I am a K-5 school librarian and a member of ALA and SCBWI. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Guest Blogger: Kelly Stanley

I have been so blessed to meet amazing writers from around the country, many of whom are bloggers as well. The other day I was thinking how incredibly unfair it is to keep these awesome people and their writing to myself! Then it hit me: I should ask them to guest blog. Much to my surprise and relief, they have accepted! 

So without further ado, let me introduce Kelly Stanley, an incredibly talented Christian writer and one of the most amazing women I've ever met. (I was just beaten out as Vice-President of her fan club, much to my dismay!) I should also mention she's a fellow ginger, so you know she's fierce! Enjoy!

As I read something the other day, I was reminded just how powerful words can be. Even when they’re pedantic or common or not particularly eloquent. Sometimes there is power in the way words are strung together, sometimes there’s poetry in a well-turned phrase, and sometimes it’s the stark simplicity of a sentiment that reaches down into your core to tug on your emotions in a way deeper, more primal than language. But in this case, the words were average. Sentences were grammatically correct, for the most part, but nothing remarkable in and of themselves. The language wasn’t flowery or colorful. If anything, it could be described as raw. Unpolished. Unpretentious. And you know what? Those words changed my life. That may sound a bit dramatic — especially when I tell you that I wrote them. Here’s the thing, though: I’m not professing to be an amazing writer. The impact of those words on my soul had little or nothing to do with my ability as a writer, and everything to do with the simple fact that the words were mine.

For the past few years, I’ve struggled with my faith, starting around the time my mom was diagnosed with extensive stage small-cell lung cancer. I’ve seen God heal people. He didn’t heal her, although even at my most cynical I will say that she wouldn’t have survived those three years without some kind of divine intervention. But still, she died. And, no matter how irrational, I’ve found that it’s hard for me to let go and trust Him the way I once did. In order to try to protect my heart from pain and disillusionment, I’ve kept God at a distance.

But then, in preparation for a conversation with a potential agent, I re-read the book proposal I wrote this summer. And I found myself blown away. Again, not by my talent, but by the truth contained within the stories. Real-life experiences of faith. Healing, emotional and physical. Prayer answered in surprising, unexpected ways. Compassion. Intimacy. All the things I needed to know — to remember — about Him. And instead of rolling my eyes, as I find myself doing when I hear exuberant testimonies that seem too good to be true, I found myself wiping away tears because, finally, I had found some words I could not dispute. These were my own stories, told in my own words, written in my own hand. I discovered I wasn’t able to argue with that. As the memories of my personal experiences resurfaced, God’s truth imprinted itself on my soul.

There are lots of reasons for writers to write. Some of us are born storytellers. Some are world-builders, debaters, scholars or expository journalists. I can’t imagine a world in which I couldn’t write my own words or read those of others. But I’m here to encourage you not to neglect a very important audience. Keep some pages to yourself. Spend time recording, examining, searching, and exploring, and do it all without having a specific audience/agent/publisher/editor in mind.

A very wise friend told me, as I was beginning what would become my big spiritual awakening, to record my experiences and watch for coincidences. Those journals have become one of my greatest treasures. When I read the emotions and insights and experiences I had, I remember it all over again. No one will ever be able to convince me it’s not true, that it wasn’t real, because even if my mind gets fuzzy and the details are eclipsed by my everyday mental clutter, I have my own private record of the truth. Since I wasn’t writing for anyone else, my observations were honest. They were also often clumsy and convoluted and wondrous and confused and emotional and awe-inspiring. Sometimes stilted and awkward, sometimes flowery and exuberant. In other words, they accurately represent that time of my life.

As writers, we draw from life, whether we write fiction or non, essays or poetry. There’s truth to be found everywhere. Just like you wouldn’t (I hope) share every intimate detail of your marriage with the whole world, you should keep some of your own writing for yourself. We all long, secretly or openly, I think, to be known. To be read, to be seen, to be published. But the private pages we hold back? These are so much more than the tiny white leather diary you kept in fourth grade. These words record. Inspire. Observe. Amuse. Question. And reveal. In your exploration for the uncensored truth, you will be reminded of all that you know. The book I’m writing, called Praying Upside Down, talks about opening your eyes to see God in a new way. Trust me, you’ll be amazed at all you will see, if you’re willing to look. Just be sure to look away every once in a while and write it all down

Kelly Stanley spent her life on the periphery of the art world, first as the daughter of a professional watercolorist, then as an architecture major and then graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in graphic design. For over two decades, she's built her career in marketing and advertising, working as a graphic designer, art director, creative director, copywriter, and consultant. If it has to do with creativity and communication, she's probably done it.

When she's not writing, Kelly can be found delivering her 16-year-old daughter to swim practice and her 12-year-old son to basketball practice, or listening to her 19-year-old daughter debate the pros and cons of various majors and colleges. She's loved having lunch with friends, coffee with her iPad, and spends any otherwise-unscheduled evenings on the couch with her husband of 22 years. She's always frazzled, always reading, always watching, always waiting to see what she can discover of our mighty God in this magnificent, confusing, contradictory world.

2013 Debut Author Interview: Megan Shepherd

Today marks a first for me. I am introducing a reappearing blog segment highlighting some of the hottest debut YA authors of 2013. This month, I’m interviewing Megan Shepherd, the author of the upcoming Gothic thriller, THE MADMAN’S DAUGHTER.

Here's what GoodReads has to say about it:

Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father's gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.

Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father's madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island's inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father's dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it's too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father's genius—and madness—in her own blood.

Inspired by H. G. Wells's classic THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MONREAU, THE MADMAN’S DAUGHTER is a dark and breathless Gothic thriller about the secrets we'll do anything to know and the truths we'll go to any lengths to protect.

Sounds amazing, right? I KNOW!

SJS: So, Megan, where did you get the inspiration for THE MADMAN’S DAUGHTER?

MS: THE MADMAN’S DAUGHTER is a reimagining of HG Wells’ classic novel THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU, but it actually started as inspiration from the TV show LOST. I was a huge fan of the mysterious island setting on that show, and when it ended I was thinking a lot about islands, and I happened to be re-reading Bram Stoker’s DRACULA for fun, and the idea just hit me to do a retelling of a classic!

SJS: What, if any, characteristics do you and the protagonist, Juliet, have in common? How are you different?

MS: Juliet is a very tough girl. She came from wealth, but she’s had to survive on her own in a world where women, especially young poor women, have a very hard time. I would say we’re more different than we are alike. She’s inherited a little of her father’s madness, and that comes with tendencies toward violence and a skill with science…neither of which I share in the least! However, when I was Juliet’s age (16), I also traveled to an exotic, tropical locale for my own adventure. I was an exchange student to Costa Rica, and a lot of the jungle setting came from my memories of that location.

SJS: How long did it take to complete the project starting with the idea and ending when you signed your book deal?

MS: It took nine months from idea to book deal. I had a fulltime job at the time, so I was writing evenings and weekends and hardly saw my friends and family.

SJS: That’s incredible! Tell me about how you found your agent?

MS: I made a careful list of agents I wanted to query (maybe about 80) and decided to send the queries off in batches of 10. That way, if I got all form rejections, I would know my query letter just wasn’t working and I could fix it before burning my bridges with all those agents. Luckily, though, I got great response from that first batch. Quinlan Lee at Adams Literary requested my full manuscript the day after I sent the query, and the next day, Josh Adams had offered representation.

SJS: Great advice! What surprised you most about the publishing process?

MS: I guess as an aspiring writer I was so focused on getting The Book Deal that I didn’t think much about what would happen after. It’s just as stressful to try to get a second deal, and struggle with professional jealousies and disappointments and rejections, and to try to turn one deal into a career. But just as there are some “lows” I hadn’t thought much about, the “highs” of publishing are pretty darn great too.

SJS: What other advice would you give to all the "not yet published" writers out there?

MS: The most common trait I see in other published writers is that they work incredibly hard. They work hours and hours and hours a day, until the work is as good as they can possibly make it. I don’t know any published writers who sit around hoping for another book deal but not actually slaving away at their keyboards. In aspiring writers, I sometimes see a desire to be published, but a reluctance to actually do the work it takes.

SJS: What's next for you? Any new projects coming up? And can you give us any hints at what to expect in Book 2 of the Madman's Daughter trilogy?

MS: Well, THE MADMAN’S DAUGHTER is inspired by Wells’ THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU, and I can say that the second book in the series follows the same characters and plotline, but some of the themes and ideas were inspired by THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE. In addition to The Madman’s Daughter series, I’m also working on a YA scifi series called THE CAGE, about six teenagers put in an elaborate “human zoo” by a super intelligent alien race.

SJS: That sounds awesome! What are you doing talking to me? Get back to work. I have a space reserved for all of those on my TBR shelf! Seriously, Megan, thank you so much for letting me pick you brain! It's been inspiring to hear about THE MADMAN’S DAUGHTER and your path to publication! I know those of us still trudging through the slush pile will take your advice to heart! Best of luck with your launch and I look forward to reading THE MADMAN’S DAUGHTER when it comes out on January 29, 2013. 

MS: Thanks for having me on the blog, Sarah!

My Favorite Blogs: Mad Libs Style

Jane Friedman and Sara Zarr were walking down the beach discussing their future trip to YAtopia.

“Are you sure we don’t have to worry about the Apocolypsies?” Jane asked, ready to begin another Pub Rants.

“Don’t worry,” Sara comforted her. “Last I heard, they were at The Writing Room. Hey, did you know Brenda Drake Writes under the Influence of Coffee?”

Jane shrugged. “Who doesn’t these days.”

“True,” Sara agreed. "Hey, are you going to Midwest Writer's Workshop this summer?"

Suddenly, the Query Shark, the most feared beast in the Kingdom of Wordplay, came crashing out of the ocean, teeth bared and shreds of submissions hanging from its bottom lip.

Without thinking, they dropped to their knees but the impact of the waves had them Praying Upside Down.

“What else is possible?” Jane cried out.

Luckily, a flip-flop wearing knight on a surf board came to their rescue.

“Look,” Sara shouted. “It’s Nathan Bransford.”

Nathan distracted the shark with a Myriad of books. But Sara and Jane were still struggling to make it to shore against the waves. Thank goodness a sea creature came by and whisked them to the beach.

“Who are you?” Sara asked, gasping on the sand.

“I am Otter,” the creature said, his voice sweet and kind.

Jane bent down toward the otter, her hand extended.

“Don’t pet me, I’m writing,” Otter cried. “How else do you expect me to Make a Living Writing?”

As Otter scampered away, Jane turned to Sara and said, “That’s it. I’m moving to Kidletville.”

“I think you're On the Write Track,” Sara said with a nod. “I hear they have a good Writer Therapy outpatient program.”

#

2013: The Year of Pushing Harder

Last year, I promised myself I was going to have an agent by the end of 2012. Needless to say, that did not happen. And the truth is, I have no one but myself to blame. I kinda chickened out. I let the rhetoric of negativity cloud out the power of determination. In short, I forgot to BE PASSIONATE.

But that was then and today is a new start.

I stopped making resolutions a few years ago. It seemed silly. I mean, a week later I was already ignoring my resolve, so why bother. This year, there is a plan instead. A plan to push myself harder. Not just in writing, but in the sphere in which I live. The first step of the plan is to make priorities. Where does writing fall in the long list of things I am obligated to do? How much time can I dedicate to it and not neglect my family? How well will I use the time I do have so that I make this year the one where my writing world moves forward?

It’s all possible. Sure, it’s probably going to mean setting a timer up at my desk so that I only spend so much time on social media. And I may have to pre-program some tweets. It will also mean stock piling blog posts when I’m traveling or when I’m sitting at my desk and the story is blocked.

The second step is to make sure my mind AND body are fit. It means realizing that even though I hate working out, it’s a great way to shed the pounds that give my inner critic more ammunition, move my muscles after hunching over a computer all day, and make contact with those pesky ideas when I’m experience writer’s block.

Which brings me to step three. I need to push harder when it comes to cleaning and organization. Seriously. I suck at this. I mean really suck at it. As in I could totally take on Roseanne Barr in a domestic goddess cage match and crush her. As in every time there’s a knock at the door I’m sure it’s a new spin off of Horders: Before the Cockroaches and Dead Mice Invade. (I said I was messy, not dirty.) I think you get what I’m saying. In the next year, it’s time to declutter and find a place for whatever is left.

This step is also going to require a renewed commitment to pre-planning. Pre-planning menus so I don’t forget to feed the kidlets and recognizing that sometimes, I’m going to get into a major writing zone and not want to spend hours on a meal… okay, 30 minutes, who am I trying to kid? Regardless, I need to have healthy meals stashed in the freezer for days when oven to the table is all I have time for.

And then there’s the writing. I’ve realized that there is a chance my “new adult” material may not garner the love of an agent. (See previous post if you’re thinking to yourself, “What?”) And as much as I have said I would never consider self-publishing, if I am going to stay true to my literary vision, it might be the direction I have to go. Which is why this blog and my “mommy blog” have moved up in importance. (If you’re curious, you can check out Kidletville and find out about the softer/snarkier side of me.) If I enter into the self-publishing melee, I need a platform from which to launch. So in addition to revisions on The Partizans and Replay and writing book #2 of The Partizans, I am also pushing myself to posting on each blog twice a week. I know… it’s insane. But it’s all about priorities, remember. It takes deep commitment to make it in the literary world. Doesn’t matter if you’re an editor at Random House or a To-Be-Published writer. To make it in this business, you have to have talent and skill of the craft, but you also have to possess perseverance and patience. Oh, and in case you forgot, you also have to BE PASSIONATE about every word you write and every moment you experience.

Crap. It looks like my resolve to not resolve has fallen short. Oh well. Happy New Year friends. May 2013 find you moving forward on your dreams as well.

Party Like a Writer

I think, by nature, writers are observers of the human experience. We kinda have to be. It’s where a lot of us find our creative inspiration. As a manner of principal, I fore-warn all new friends that anything that do and say is subject to fodder, unless expressly state that it is off-limits… so I know to change their name. As you can imagine, most of them laugh it off, and occasionally I get a raised eyebrow like they aren’t sure if I’m joking or not. Those are the smart ones. Of course there are even less fortunate souls: the ones who are destined to become antagonists or dead bodies in my books. A word of warning: Never make a writer mad. They will not fight you openly, but they will burn you in effigy for as long as words exist.

With all that said, it stands to reason that the holiday season is a great opportunity to steal some stellar one-liners, squeeze some serious subplot inspiration from that family drama that inevitably occurs and take mental note of b study body image.  This last one is my favorite, mainly because I am so bad at coming up with other words for my fave go to combinations. ALL my characters shrug. A lot. So taking time to study people has been pretty interesting. I can normally tell when people are disappointed with their gifts or when it’s something they really want. It’s not always a good thing, especially when the gift of disappointment is the one you gave. Seriously, that totally sucks.

New Year’s Eve is another time to party like a writer. I have always wanted to walk into a crowded bar, find a perfect bird’s eye view vantage point and just take notes. How she tosses her hair, how he walks away dejected from the said hair tosser’s brush off. How my brain feels after listening to the thumping music for hours and how the sweat on the glass slips neatly down the side until it pools at the base.

The holidays are a mecca for inspiration and it’s amazing to me how often I forget to stop and ogle the literary eye candy.  We can draw inspiration from it like a well. Yet how many of us don’t. How many of us have our characters sigh and look down at their wringing hands?

Yeah, you, in the back. I see you trying to blend in with the crowd. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you.

The point is, partying like a rock star is a cliché. It’s time to party like a writer. And I’m not the only one who thinks so. Check out this post I found on Lucky Leo Blog. Sure, we don’t have the same idea of partying like a writer, but it’s obvious the trend is catching on. Don’t be left behind.

No matter how you party like a writer, BE PASSIONATE about your good times and make sure they keep on rolling. (I couldn’t resist.)

New Adult Fiction vs. the Literary World

You know how agents and authors are always telling you to write the story that needs to be told and not to worry about following the trends? I think this is true. Except when it comes to New Adult Fiction.

Now, in case you aren't familiar with "New Adult" Fiction, here's the gist of it: A couple years ago, St. Martin's Press thought it would be a great idea to introduce a new genre of fiction with main characters age 18-24. After all, the readers who bought Harry Potter and Twilight have to grow up sometimes, right? They held a pitch contest and the winners got a book. From what I can tell, none of the winners were ever published, other than in E-Book format, and that is most likely by their own accord.

The books St. Martin's did publish under this "new genre" was a re-launch of the Sweet Valley High books... where Jessica and Elizabeth are ten years out of high school and torn apart by some horrid secret. (As a quick review... I read the book... I read the first few chapters... I could not go on. It was so much less than I expected. From what I can tell, only two books were ever printed, and there are an additional four stories as part of the E-serial. I'm not saying the books were horribly disappointing... I'll leave that to those who posted reviews.)

But the cat was out of the bag and writers, like me, who were writing books about college students, or the recently graduated college students had reason to hope that this relatively untapped corner of the market would open up. We wrote about being on your own for the first time, not having mom and dad there to help you make your decisions, having to clean up your own mess (literally and figuratively), etc. And a couple have gotten past the gatekeeper to book deals. Cora Carmack, author of Losing It, comes to mind, but her success is a rarity.

Here's the thing, in the literary world, it's not the writers who run the show. It's not the agents. It's not even the publishing houses. It's the retail chains. If Barnes and Noble doesn't like the title or the cover, it gets changed. Publishing houses have to pay for prime placement in the stores. It's the way capitalism works. I get that, and I'm not complaining. It is what it is. However, for this "emerging market", B&N is the only nail needed to put it in it's coffin.

At my first writer's conference, I was ready to pitch my novel, The Partizans. But as the weekend went on, the only thing I heard from agents is how I really needed to make my 19 year old college sophomore a high school student. One of them actually suggested I have the story unfold in a prep academy, "which is almost the same as college, so I wouldn't have to do much revising". Except that this book is intended to be part of a series. A series in which the characters struggle with balancing their destiny with their desire to have normal lives. There's a wedding in the future. Babies. Learning that sometimes love isn't enough to get you through the rough patches. (And before someone says, Yeah, didn't they do that in Twilight, just don't.)

Back to my point: I wanted my characters to be in college. I wanted them to explore their freedoms and experience what it's like to have your dreams tampered with by reality. I didn't want them to be in a prep school... like so many books that were coming out at that time.

But that's exactly what I did. I made my MC three years younger, took out a couple scenes I felt inappropriate for the YA crowd and sold out. I told myself I was doing it for the right reasons. I wanted to be an author, not someone who writes just for my friends and family. I forgot the most important person I was writing for: ME.

Since I wrote this book, I've had some interest, but it's a paranormal, so most of the time I get the "saturation of the market" bit. After thinking about it, I decided to pull the book back and planned to submit it later, when the market wasn't so saturated. But it's been bugging me. Since doing this, I've written two more books. One is a first in the series YA Thriller with a "pre-dystopian" slant and the  other is a YA Ghost story ( think Mean Girls meets A Christmas Carole). But the Partizans has been on my mind a lot lately. The second version, or "The Academy" version is okay, but honestly, I don't have the passion about it that I had when I first wrote it. And as you can tell from my posts, being passionate about what you do with your time and your life are important to me... so much so that it's my mantra and will someday be my tag with my signature! (Coming to a book store near you in 20??.)

Last night, I decided it was time for a change. I decided it was time to stay true to my creativity and vision. So after I'm done with revisions on Replay, I'm going back to the Partizans. I'm taking what I have learned about writing these last two years and am making one more revision pass. Then I'm sending it out. And if every single agent turns me down, I'm doing something I said I would never do: I'm going to prepare it for self-publishing. I refuse to let a bookseller have so much control over the industry that it impacts the passion I have for my own work. I will not let my creativity and vision be hijacked by the layout of a store. Yes, by self-publishing, I will lose my "debut" novel status and thus be ineligible for several awards, but I didn't make sacrifices to be a writer on the chance I might win some prize. I made them because I want to share my stories with others. And if there isn't space on the shelf, I'm pretty sure I can find room on the internet.

So BE PASSIONATE about what you love and don't let anyone make you second-guess yourself! Be who you are and do what you love!