Normally, I wouldn’t use this forum as a means to promote, but sometimes something remarkable or desperate happens and it becomes necessary.

As many of you may be aware, writer LA Banks has taken sick, very sick from what I understand. To offset her medical expenses an amazing auction is taking place and I thought our readers should be made aware of this golden opportunity to not only work with some of the best in the business (who are offering marketing services, interviews and critiques), but to also help out someone who is not only amazingly prolific but, as reputation holds, incredibly genuine and giving.

I am aware that the majority of you are YA readers so Banks’ name may not be familiar to you. However, I believe that when situations like this arise, it’s important to reach out to one another, regardless of interests or genre. I’m a strong believer in helping out…in doing your part to benefit others…in serving, really. It’s a tenant that I strive to hold to in my daily life. Some days I fail miserably, others I manage to accomplish it even if that means sharing a kind word with someone or by reading a story or even RT’ing when I can. But, that’s me.

The point is, I believe, that in helping others, in doing what we can to brighten someone’s day, we reflect the truest sense of ourselves and of our individual potential.  So, if you wouldn’t mind, spread the word. RT and post about the auction (which begins on Tuesday, June 21st) on your blogs, your sites and your social networking spaces. I would appreciate it immensely and I’m certain Ms. Banks would as well.  If you can’t participate in the auction, then I ask (and this comes from me) a prayer, if that’s something you do, for Banks and her family.

Be blessed,

Tee

RT:#ShareYourHeartAuction for LA Banks wonderful items up for grabs! http://www.labanksauction.org/Auction.htm

I feel like the writing of this manuscript, my second, is proceeding much more slowly than the first time around. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it is my second novel – I’ve done this before – and I expected it to be so much easier. Eight months into the process, I feel like I’m finally starting to get a handle on my story. I’m within 5k of my wordcount goal but still a few weeks away from the plot and the writing being at the level that I want. I know this is still fast compared to many writers, but I feel like a slug when I read about writers who draft a book over spring break, revise it in a weekend then sell it at a three-book deal!

Part of the trouble is that this is my first time writing sci-fi. I’m a huge fan of sci-fi books and movies, but don’t have much experience reading it. As a result, I’ve struggled a bit with the world building and world building is pretty much the essence of any sci-fi novel.

My first manuscript, about slutty, shoplifting mermaids in South Carolina came much easily, even if I had to revise many times to learn the basic lessons of storytelling. Still, I knew the mood and tone of the book from day one. And when I heard “Boyfriend” by Best Coast, I knew in an instant that it was the unofficial theme song of my book. It’s beachy, fun, and about unrequited love for someone else’s dude, which was also a plot point of my story.

So what is the theme song of a fairy-tale retelling set in a Dystopian Detroit of the future? I’ve listened to the Tron soundtrack a lot, and I love it, but it’s not quite what I need. It doesn’t have the song that I can play on repeat to get in the zone and really feel the world and the characters that I’ve created. Suggestions are welcome, of course. But in the meantime, I’d love to know, does your book have a theme song? If so, what is it?

So, first the good news: Interrobang founder Phoebe North now has an agent! Click on through to her blog for the full story.

I haven’t really thought about it much before now, but the formation of the Interrobangs really marks a turning point in my writing career (for lack of a better term). Before that I knew a little bit about how the publishing industry works, but I was pretty clueless as to the specifics. I remember being completely bowled over by how much everybody else knew about specific agencies: who was repping what, who was repping who, which agents they was planning on sending their books to, and so on. Before that, I thought it was enough to ‘just write’ (as they say) – now I know that it really isn’t. If you want to get published, you need to know your stuff.

Obviously, Phoebe knows her stuff. We’ve been chatting online since the group’s inception, so I know how much hard work and dedication it took for her to get to this point. If anybody ever says a particular author ‘had it easy’ in the early days, feel free to slap them for me. I’m convinced that almost nobody has it easy. Phoebe and I have spent an embarrassing amount of time agonising over our writing, about whether it’s good enough or commercial enough, about what we’ll do if the publishing industry completely implodes – that sort of thing. And that’s all on top of actually sitting down and writing an entire book, so…yeah. Writing can be difficult, is what I’m saying.

It’s much, much easier if you have a good group of people to commiserate with. Having other people around who know the industry is invaluable, You can share the anxiety and, sometimes, you get to share the successes. I think it’s safe to say that Phoebe’s agenting (it’s a verb now) counts as the biggest success in the group so far. I guess there’s a strange sense of validation in knowing that one of our members has gotten this far.

For those who aren’t aware of the many hurdles you need to jump to get to publication, I should point out that signing with an agent is the very first…or maybe the second, if you count finishing your book as the first, but even then you’re going to need to seriously edit that same book a few times (at least) until you finally get to see it on shelves. So why do people get so worked up over getting an agent? Simple: it might be the first major hurdle, but so many people never even make it that far. It’s the sad reality of the publishing industry, but even getting to that first stage of official recognition takes a monumental effort. Clearly, Phoebe was up to the task, and I know she’ll keep going in similar style.

It might be tasteless for me to stop here and point out that I totally called it about this manuscript landing her an agent, but I did totally call it. In fact, I’d like the historical record to show that the aforementioned calling took place several months ago. I’m going to take this opportunity to make another sage-like prediction: the rest of the Interrobangs are going to get agents within, oh, let’s say a year. I was right the first time, wasn’t I?

One down, three to go.

I spent the last week at BookExpo America, otherwise known as BEA. It’s a huge publishing trade show, and I met tons of nice book-people: librarians, writers, agents, publishers. I also got enough free books that I had to ship a bunch home. This is me, perched on my relatively small box of two-dozen or so free books (picture courtesy of Kirsten Hubbard, who, based on her more sizable box, was clearly was better at the whole “swag sweep” thing than I was!):

The conference/convention/whatever was at the Javits Center. Already, many BEA wrap-ups are citing the Cyclopean horror that is this building. Let me tell you that they’re right: there’s something about a huge, warehouse-esque, difficult-to-navigate building set smack dab in the middle of Manhattan that seems to bring out stunned confusion in introverted, book-ish types. Still, I met a lot of great people this week, heard some nice talks about books, and it was definitely a worthwhile experience.

On the bus ride over, I fretted quite a bit about whether I was prepared for BEA. I googled “BEA tips,” “BEA wardrobe,” “What to eat around the Javits Center,” and all sorts of other minutiae. In the hopes of helping those of you who might be considering going next year, here’s my advice, formulated over three days of blisters, book-signing lines, and general shenanigans.

1. Have a blog? Then you shouldn’t pay to get in. For all I know, this might change next year, but I was able to get a press pass for the event thanks to my blog at phoebenorth.com. And I don’t get a ton of hits–I average around 5,000 a month. These free passes aren’t obviously advertised on the event site, so some of the people I spent time with during the convention paid a fairly substantial amount to get in. If at all possible, save yourself the dough and get a press pass instead.
2. Yes, you should get there early. If you want free books, you really do need to show up early, as they go quickly. In fact, by the last day I was ready to leave around noon–I’d gotten the review copies I’d come for, and was generally pretty tired.
3. Don’t worry too much about clothes. Some blogs will tell you to dress business casual. I generally did, but I think I would have been more comfortable in jeans. Generally, people don’t care what you’re wearing. Everyone will be stunned into confusion by the books and people and echoing rafters, anyway.
4. Introduce yourself, and give out business cards and all of that, but don’t go there in the hopes of pitching your book to editors. BEA is really meant to be an opportunity for booksellers to connect with publishers, not a place to pitch agents or editors. The only people I saw heavily promoting themselves were the self-published. This might be a good place to network in that you’ll meet like-minded people and establish friendly relationships with them, but the general feeling I got was that nobody there responded too well to hard-sells.
5. Don’t buy food at the convention center. Price of a sandwich and bottle of water inside BEA? Fourteen dollars. Price of a hot dog and a bottle of water directly outside? Three fifty.
6. Wear comfortable shoes. This is good advice in life, too, but if you don’t want to end the week with a few blisters, like I did, probably best to just wear sneakers!