Having written a book about Wat Misaka, we’re thrilled to see all of the attention he’s been getting lately. From the New York Times to NPR, Wat’s been everywhere lately. Here’s a few articles, videos and mentions of Wat and Blitz Kids the book.
Get your copies today!
A big box of books arrived at our doorstop today. First editions of my first book, Blitz Kids. My son got to it before I did!
Day #5 of my thing-a-day series for 2012.
The publishing world can seem as distant as Mars. Getting there seems impossible.
Like traveling to the red planet, getting a book published is a journey. It takes months, if not years, for things to take shape and it’s easy to get lost along the way. It’s a daunting process.
But, for some reason, people still want to get there. Me, for example. I’d love to visit Mars. Crazy as it seems, I would silence my fears, don my helmet and climb aboard.
For those who are undertaking a writing project it can seem as crazy as an interplanetary trip. But, people take it on even though most won’t make it. But that crazy dedicated few will push through the setbacks, the discouragements and the nights spent writing when you should be sleeping. And they will get there. And we will all reap the benefits of their passion.
The publishing world is veiled and cloudy. There’s even a specific language: query letters, partials, fulls, submissions, contracts, foreign rights, and so on. If you have been looking for help in navigating the world of publishing, there are people to help you get there. They are the literary agents. You can think of an agent as an interplanetary guide. They can help you make it from this world into the wild world of publishing.
My agent, Mary Kole, is running a webinar on Writer’s Digest later this month. She is offering her professional services to help aspiring authors refine their queries, sharpen their hooks and polish their pitches. This is the kind of advice that is truly invaluable for someone who dreams of having their words on the shelves at book stores around the country.
If you are wondering if the $80 fee is worth it to hear what this lady has to say about your book, let me calm your fears. Think of it as a small investment in your career as a writer. If you are hoping to get published then you have questions, the kind you haven’t been able to get a good answer for after hours of scouring agent blogs. Or questions about how to make your book proposal more appealing to publishers. Questions you can’t ask your friends because they don’t have a clue what you are talking about.
For 80 bucks she will answer those questions and help you refine your young adult novel or children’s book into something a publisher would eat for breakfast. She’s brilliant, frankly. And you should listen to her because she will help you. I mean it.
Mary Kole: Your interplanetary tour guide.
I’ve been attending the Writing For Young Readers Workshop in Sandy, Utah this week (Just barely. Mostly, I’ve been working). It’s been a good experience so far. I got to meet my super-awesome agent in the flesh and I’ve been able to talk with some great authors such as Brandon Mull and great illustrators such as Guy Francis. I would have enjoyed it more if there weren’t some much talk about one series of books about glittery vampires and werewolves that aren’t really werewolves.
I’ve been thinking about the writing process and how an idea becomes a book. For most people, I think, it is a process. It is rare when an idea or character plops into your mind fully-formed. A character or story is discovered in the writing process. And, often times, it takes a fair amount of time for that idea to develop into something workable.
I think of it like cooking a steak. There’s the initial spark and the flames to get the juices flowing. A good steak is a complex thing flavor-wise. There’s the crispness of the charring, the juiciness of the meat, and the earthy taste of beef. But, there’s a step that many people forget. The resting.
After a steak has sizzled atop a grill, all those juices and flavors are rolling around and wild. If you take that slab of meat and let it sit for a few minutes before eating, the juices will re-absorb back into the meat. You have to the the thing rest.
Right now, I have several pieces of writing that are resting. Some have been resting for longer than others. I have one manuscript that is about 75,000 words (that’s longish) and is nearly complete. But I just can’t finish the thing. I will, I’m sure, at some point. But I can’t wrap my mind around it yet. I think it’s brilliant. But it’s not ready. And it may not be for a very long time.
The project that I am working on now (and is very near ready to be submitted) sat dormant in my brain for a couple of years. It started with a simple little sketch that I played with now and then. Two years after that initial sketch, the idea came back. This time, though, it was different. I let the idea roll around in my mind for so long, it had solidified into something substantial. It had grown into a workable idea. And then, the story just poured out of me.
The resting doesn’t have to take years. I have another story that came to me recently (isn’t that a weird way of looking at it – the idea ‘came to me’? I’m not sure that’s really how it works but that’s the best way I can describe it.) and I whipped up a draft fairly quickly. It helps that it is very short. Even though it’s developing more quickly than some of my other projects, I still have to step away from it for a few days to let it rest. I have to let the juices flow back in. The idea needs a little room to grow and develop.
If you rush it, you run the chance of doing what I have done to many good cuts of meat. You sap it of it’s flavor. Nothing is worse than a dry, chewy piece of meat.
If there is one thing that speaks to my career choice it is that I am helplessly gripped by my passions. No, I’m not talking about those passions, I mean the kind of passions you hope to find sometime between the day you declare your major and the time you are handed your degree. I know too many people who are older than I and still haven’t found what drives them. I consider myself very lucky to be paid to do the things I love. Unfortunately for me, I catch passions like 1st graders catch colds. I get them often and with a vengance. But they don’t last long and then I’m bouncing off to the next thing.
Luckily for me, my wife and children are patient. They understand (or pretend to understand) that sometimes I get swept up in my ideas and I can’t sleep/eat/make intelligible conversation until I get an idea on paper. More often than not these wacky ideas don’t get any farther than my sketchbook but one such fantastically ridiculous idea is currently being made into a movie so that’s got to count for something. While I don’t lack for enthusiasm, I am not known for my endurance. I work best if I can seclude myself long enough to get my ideas fleshed out and done in one, or a very few, sittings. I’d rather bang out a story in one short, furious session rather than pining away at something for a long period of time. Perhaps I fear that an idea will lose it’s newness, but I get restless when I’m still working on something that is more than a few months old.
In the past 3 months I started two different novels. One got stuck at 25,000 words when I realized I couldn’t finish it without either making an idiot out of my reader or delving into some serious research. As you probably guessed, research really isn’t my thing. So, I moved to novel #2. Currently, it’s at just under 20,000 words and I still love the book so, you know, that’s thrilling. And I don’t have to research anything which is another bonus. And it’s now three days into National Novel Writing Month! Granted, I started this book months ago so I think I disqualified myself but at least I have hordes of eager writers typing happily away at their manuscripts to motivate me. Go team!
So I am officially participating in NaNoWriMo. I’m going to bend the rules on my behalf to include December as part of my writing package since my novel is going to be about twice the length of your usual NaNoWriMo book. And I’m not going to be releasing it publicly when I’m done. I know, stingy me. But I actually want to sell my book so I’ll be selfish. And I probably won’t feel too bad about it even if I don’t get my official “I wrote a novel in 30 days and all I got was this lousy t-shirt” t-shirt, then so be it.
The plan? Write like crazy while my current novel is still haunting me and before I am possessed with the brilliant idea to write a romantic teenage vampire story. Who would read that kind of stuff anyway?
