Me – looking all author-like

When I made the decision to seek agent representation for some of my work, I started to do the necessary homework. Looking up agencies who handled the types of stories I have in the works, reading about various agents based on interviews, keeping my ear to the ground to hear the scuttlebutt on Twitter, listening to agents in various chats, online forums, looking them up in the various platforms designed to assist the struggling writer in making their selections, etc. I have taken a slow and measured approach to finding an agent for a few reasons:

1. This is someone I’m going to be in partnership with, and I want to ensure I have found the right partner.
2. Sifting through all of the information, searching for the right mix of personality coupled with someone who loves my work takes time.
3. It is a learning experience and with each fresh submission I have the opportunity to learn more.
4. Having had an agent previously, I want to make sure this time it is the right match for me.

Based on my research, I had decided to try sending a Middle Grade novel with magical elements to Sara Megibow. On paper and from what I had found out about her, I thought we might be a good fit. I received a rejection on the query. For those who don’t know me, I view receiving rejections as a part of the process. I don’t get depressed, I don’t get anxious, I take it, file it, and move on. At the time I received the rejection from Sara, I was in the middle of revisions for Tattered and it had the majority of my attention.

I was delighted to have the opportunity to meet Sara at World Fantasy Con (WFC) in San Diego, while waiting for my friend (and Sara’s client), Jane Kindred, to take part in a panel. Sara and I hit it off right away, and both enjoyed the meeting. During the wait, the subject of rejections came up and how hurt some people get and how personally they take it, and being my usual smart-alecky self, I told Sara she had rejected me, but I was still willing to talk to her. So she had me pitch her right there in the hall. (Trust me when I say it was a lame pitch) Sara graciously asked me to send her the first thirty pages for her to take a look.

Throughout the weekend we ran into each other here and there, and I mentioned that I had another Middle Grade which insisted on being written, so started it that weekend. After the con, I gave it a few days and then sent the pages to Sara. She rejected with a very nice note about the strength of the writing, and how much she liked the characters, but it just wasn’t the right story for her. Fair enough. I was in the middle of first draft heaven with the Middle Grade action/adventure, so just kept on writing.

Through our correspondence and interaction on Twitter, I grew to appreciate Sara more and more as an agent as well as a person. She is my ideal of what I’m looking for in an agent. Her belief is that she must be her client’s number one advocate for their work and she has to be passionate about the work in order to pitch it with confidence. YES!!! This is what I want. So when the next manuscript was ready to be launched in search of an agent, Sara was definitely at the top of my list. She had some really lovely things to say about the writing and my characters, but once again, the story was not for her. And I appreciated her telling me that. It wouldn’t do either of us any good for her to take something on that she isn’t passionate about. And I don’t want anything less for my work.

At this point I felt that even though on a personal level we got along well, Sara was not likely the agent I was seeking. But while goofing off on Twitter one day, during her popular #10queriesin10tweets, Sara issued a challenge of a particular type of book she’d like to see written. Have I mentioned I’m a smart-aleck? Even though the type of book she mentioned was well outside my norm, I, of course, had to chime in and say I’d write it. Meaning it only as a joke, but then Sara asked me to write some pages and send them to her. Which I did… and now the story is under my skin and will be finished… one day. Because this time when I sent the pages off to Sara, I was a little nervous. Not about whether she’d pass on the book, but more about what would happen if she said she loved it and wanted the rest.

This story is completely outside my norm, and while I really appreciated the challenge and the stretching I am doing as a writer with the concept, if Sara loved this one, where would it leave us in the agent / client relationship? While I would have been tickled to have hit her fancy, what about all of the stories I have inside me that I have to write? You know, the stories I am passionate about. But since I took this on as a challenge, I saw it through.

When Sara had a chance to review the pages, she sent her regrets, and deep down I felt a sense of relief. No difficult decision for me to make. This is something we both wanted to make work. But it just wasn’t happening. We are not a good fit for each other, despite appreciating each other on both a personal and a professional basis.

© Photographer: Lakis Fourouklas
Agency: Dreamstime.com

Why have I spent an extraordinarily long time telling this saga? Because I think it is important for writers to realize. Not every agent is the right one for you. Not even when you think they are an awesome agent and make fabulous deals for their clients. Not even when the agent finds your writing strong and your characters adorable. This is not a tale of rejection, but of determining whether or not we were a good fit for one another. Sara is an awesome agent. I am a good, strong writer. We are not a match. And I’m okay with that because we both want the same thing albeit from opposite sides—she wants a client whose work she can champion, and I want an agent who will champion my work.

So we will continue to interact on Twitter, and I’m sure we’ll run into one another at a conference some time in the future, and will be glad to see one another again. And I will continue in my quest, happy to have had the experience.

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****Drumroll Please****

I’m very pleased to announce that Tattered, the third book in the award-winning Misfit McCabe series, will be free through Amazon.com for Kindle Thursday, August 23rd and Friday, August 24th. So pick up your copy and enjoy the read. And once you’ve finished it, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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This week, the Misfit McCabe series hit a major milestone … being shelved in a bookstore. There are few things that make an author happier than to see their work sitting on a bookstore shelf (except maybe to see it clutched in a reader’s hand on the way to the check out stand.)

As you can see from the picture on the left, the books have featured as New Teen/Tweens (click the picture to see a larger view) And I certainly can’t complain about the company … being shelved with Lois Lowry and E. Lockhart is an honor.

And to the right is a face out shot. I love the wooden bookcases, by the way. They remind me of the library bookshelves I spent hours browsing through when I was a child. I’d wander along the shelves, making my selections—some new reads and some old friends—and hoping I could carry them all. Good memories.

Thanks to Robin Tidwell of All On the Same Page Bookstore for stocking my books and giving them such nice placement. And special thanks to Shannon Yarbrough for taking the photos and sending them to me.

And the final shot (for this post anyway), the table at the front of the store with the featured indie books. They look pretty good, don’t you think?

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For the entire month of February, the print versions of the award-winning Misfit McCabe series will be available for 25% off the cover price through my website. Use coupon code NDD0Z8Z79YRD at time of checkout. That’s right, you can purchase Misfit McCabe, Nowhere Feels Like Home, AND the brand-new Tattered through the Griffie World store and receive 25%, or more than $2 per book off.

And for those of you who have entered the eReader world, I’m not leaving you out!! For the entire month of February you’ll be able to purchase Misfit McCabe and Nowhere Feels Like Home in the digital format of your choice for 50% off the regular ebook price. For Misfit McCabe use coupon code TX74G and for Nowhere Feels Like Home use coupon code YG82K.

Wait a second!!! I can’t leave Tattered out of the discounted book love. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you already can download Tattered for free (which will be the case for a limited time), BUT Tattered, is a part of the Chirenjenzie Lovapolooza (along with The Light of Asteria by Elizabeth Isaacs and The Willows: Haven by Hope Collier) so it will be FREE as a Kindle download from 2/13/12 — 2/15/12. Then for the remainder of February, Tattered will be reduced by $2, so if you missed the freebie, get it on sale. Don’t have a Kindle? No problem, did you know that there is a free Kindle PC app as well as Kindle apps for other devices?

So thank you to my current readers (I love you all) and welcome to my world for all my new readers. I truly appreciate sharing my stories with you.

About the Books:

Book 1 – Misfit McCabe
When Katie McCabe accidentally burns down a neighbor’s shed, she thinks it’s the worst thing that could happen. Boy is she ever wrong. Hustled off to live with her Uncle Charley, Katie struggles with the changes in her life. The only bright spot is making a friend who wants to be more. But the first person she meets is an enemy with ties to her past who believes in dangerous retribution. How far is he willing to go? Katie wonders if she has the strength to survive.

Book 2 – Nowhere Feels Like Home
Stuck in bed with a broken ankle and reeling from the loss of her father, her home, and life as she knew it, Katie McCabe must deal with her anger toward the town bully and a world that’s fallen apart. Being cooped up in the house with Uncle Charley and three overprotective cousins isn’t helping. Despite her new family’s good intentions, Katie feels like a lonely outsider. Will she ever be happy again?

Book 3 – Tattered
What do Sunday afternoon court proceedings, cheerleader tryouts, and a book burning have in common? Katie McCabe is back in action.

After her nemesis Harvey is found guilty and sentenced to community service, Katie wants to believe her troubles are over, but Harvey won’t rest until he gets revenge. When blackmail rears its ugly head, she’s caught in between friends and enemies putting her growing relationship with Tom at stake. Books go up in flames and Katie’s world rains down in tatters.

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Thanks so much to Ellie for bringing the best bright spot possible to my day.

A second-hand book shop in Wellington, New Zealand wound up with a copy of Bloody Mama by Robert Thom, a book published in 1970 about Ma Barker and her sons. According to Radio New Zealand News, it was removed from the book shop by the Department of Internal Affairs.

What???!!!

To say I am appalled is an understatement. As a teenager, I’m used to (sad to say) books being challenged by parents and removed for review by the schools. And I’ve even heard of a book being banned in a town before (although not recently), but that today, in 2011, a book can be banned for an ENTIRE COUNTRY is beyond belief. The book was confiscated from a second-hand bookstore by an arm of the government… not taken off the shelves of a school, which means that the government has decreed that the book should not be read — even by adults. Really New Zealand??? That people think that teenagers cannot make an appropriate decision, is maddening to say the least, but that the government has decided that ALL of the people in an entire country are incapable of handling the contents between the covers of a book is absurd. Maybe the most disturbing of all is that the Department of Internal Affairs arrived at the second-hand bookstore after an anonymous tip.

So, what is sooooo bad about Bloody Mama that a country is not allowed to read it? I couldn’t find a book blurb, but the movie, also made in 1970, had a write up:

A psychological gangster film based on fact. Machine gun totin’ Ma Barker lead her family gang (her sons) on a crime spree in the Depression era. Her loyal brood have every perversion imaginable. The sadistic Herman sleeps with his Ma. When Fred Barker is released from prison, he brings home his cell mate/lover Kevin Dirkman, who also sleeps with Ma, much to Fred’s chagrin. Lloyd Barker is a spaced-out drug addict who sniffs glue if nothing better is around. Ma kidnaps happy-go-lucky millionaire Sam Adams Pendlebury and holds him for ransom. Arthur Barker – Ma’s wallflower son – and Herman’s hooker lady friend Mona Gibson also figure in the story. The bloody finale is virtually choreographed and a visual stunner. Filmed in the Ozarks.

Apparently, the suggestion of incestuous relationships is what caused this book to be banned. Again, really??? The book has now been passed by the Department of Internal Affairs to the Office of Film and Literature Classification to see whether they feel it can be removed from the list. On this whole thing, I have to agree with Mr. Hollander, the bookstore owner, “…people should be free to read any book.”

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From the back cover: What do Sunday afternoon court proceedings, cheerleader tryouts, and a book burning have in common? Katie McCabe is back in action.

After her nemesis Harvey is found guilty and sentenced to community service, Katie wants to believe her troubles are over, but Harvey won’t rest until he gets revenge. When blackmail rears its ugly head, she’s caught between friends and enemies putting her growing relationship with Tom at stake. Books go up in flames and Katie’s world rains down in tatters.

And now….. *drumroll please* …. the cover!!!!

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