PitchWars Mentor Bio 2015--Pick us! Pick us!

Hi kids! Welcome to what I firmly believe is the best pitch contest on the internet. It’s my third year mentoring and I am so, so ready to kick ass and take names along with my co-mentor Alexandra Alessandri, who was one of my mentees in 2013.

  

About Dannie:

You can read my previous mentor bios here and here.

I have a kickass success rate in helping my mentees find fantastic agents. 4 out of 5 writers I've mentored in PitchWars are now agented, and I’m so ready to increase that percentage again this year. If you're new around here, I'm a big believer in Writing Contests--in fact I've helped many of this year's mentors find agents, too! I’ve also been on the other side of the aisle. I was an alternate in PitchWars 2012 and found my first agent through Trick or Treat with Agents in 2012. Here’s a little info about me:

1.  I’m repped by the incomparable John M. Cusick of Folio Literary

2. By day I’m a disability advocate and mental health/substance abuse counselor for middle and high school students. I’m a licensed professional counselor and licensed school counselor.

3. I’ve owned my own freelance editing business since 2009 where I focus primarily on YA/NA manuscripts. Many of the manuscripts I’ve edited have gone on to obtain book deals with major publishers including Harlequin, Harper Collins, and Penguin Random House.

4. I’m on submission currently with a gender-flipped contemporary YA retelling of Robin Hood set at the US/Mexico border. My other two WIPs are an NA Contemporary set on Broadway and a YA thriller with a MC with cystic fibrosis.

5. I run a support group for writers—published and unpublished—in the past year we’ve written over a million words and many of us have gotten agents and/or publishing contracts.

6. My child is adorable. This has absolutely nothing at all to do with my skills as a writer or mentor but it's always worth mentioning because, well, she is.

7. A repeat from last year: I'm totally in this for you guys. Every one of the PitchWars mentors works his or her ass off for the good of this community, so I say this not to dig at anybody whatsoever, but as a selling point, I feel like it is one. I'm not in this for brownie points, book sales, or promotional ish. I don't have a book coming out any time soon. I'm so booked on editing clients it’s not even funny. I'm a mentor because I had an incredibly talented mentor myself three years ago (whose book you SHOULD be buying because it is AWESOME) and I enjoy giving back.

About Alexandra: 

I am so ridic excited to be part of PitchWars and getting to co-mentor with Dannie Morin—my own mentor extraordinaire back in 2013!!! It’s so cool and fun to be on this side of the magnificent writing contest that is PitchWars. Not only is this a great way to get your work out there, but it’s also amazing opportunity for building friendships, improving craft, and connecting with like-minded peeps. You can read about my experience in PitchWars here and here.

A little about Alexandra:

1. I’m Colombian-American. Though I was born in the States, I spent many summers in Colombia, and I grew up deeply entrenched in my Colombian heritage.

2. I’m completely bilingual in Spanish/English. In fact, Spanish was my first language. There’s a funny story about me, kinder, and getting lost.

3. By day, I’m a full-time English professor. I teach composition, creative writing, and literature. I’ve been teaching (and grading and editing) since 2004!!

4. I’m also a full-time mommy and wife.

5. I tweet too much and blog too little. Pinterest and Starbucks are my best friends.

6. I write for kids of all ages: PB, MG, and YA, and I’m agented by the fabulous Deborah Warren of East West Literary. I’m currently on submission with a multicultural YA fantasy set in Cartagena, Colombia.

We’re only mentoring YA this year. What we’d love to see:

1. Magical Realism: We adore magical realism. In fact, Alexandra’s master’s thesis was a study on how Toni Morrison and Isabel Allende used magical realism in their respective novels, Beloved and The House of the Spirits. But magical realism is one of those genres that’s often misunderstood. In magical realism, the story is deeply rooted in the realistic with just a hint of magic that, in the world of your story, is accepted as normal. There are no witches, wizards, vampires, zombies, etc. in magical realism. Magical realism is not urban fantasy, fantasy, paranormal, or sci-fi. And there tends to be a heightened attention to language in magical realism.

2. Mythologies: especially those that haven’t been done or are non-Western in nature. We’d especially love to see South American, indigenous, and Middle Eastern mythologies woven into fascinating tales. The only caveat: we don’t want to see Colombian mythology and immigration stories as it’s too close to what Alexandra and Dannie are working on at the moment.

3. Contemporary: Do you have a contemporary that’s out of the box? A story that hasn’t been done? An interesting take on reality TV? Romance (but that’s not the main plot)? We want to see it! We’re searching for stories that are emotionally compelling and have an original hook that makes us desperate to read more, as well as characters who are engaging, complex, and real.

4. Diversity: (when done well, sans stereotypes) Send us your diverse stories! If it’s a culture that is underrepresented, even better! We’d also be interested in seeing stories with characters who have chronic illnesses, but whose stories aren’t about the illnesses. But really, all diversity. *grabby hands*

5. Boy Books: Books that give voice to contemporary issues facing young men, straight, gay, queer, or questioning with authentic boy voice.

We wouldn’t be a good fit for:

1. Satire

2. Mysteries or thrillers

3. Gothic

4. Historical fiction (though near-historical or near-future are ok, e.g. Eleanor and Park)

5. On-the-page rape or child homicide

6. Memoir

7. Hard fantasy or sci-fi

8. If in doubt, ask us!

Some tips for pitching to us:

1. Dannie hasn’t had cable since 2003 and Alexandra rarely watches, so TV comparisons are not really helpful to them.

2. We’re both pretty Google-able and accessible on social media for all your mentor stalking needs. Occasionally, we’re even friendly. We're both going to be around for the video chats, #askmentor, etc between now and the submission window.

3. On the flip, we’re both really good at stalking people’s profiles. We might go CIA-style on you. Just sayin’. ;)

4. We will request additional pages AND a synopsis before we pick our mentee. So if you haven’t written your synopsis yet, the clock is ticking. You need to have these things ready for agents, so stop glaring at us like that. If you’re not sure how to write one, check out this Publishing Crawl article.

5. We don’t mind cursing. We do mind bigotry for the purpose of shock value.

6. We are both professional editors as well as writers. If you’re looking for a mentor to say “your book is awesome just the way it is, welcome to the agent round!” we are probably not your gals. Embrace the digital red pen.

7. We give feedback to everyone who pitches to us. It may be brief—it may be more detailed—depends on what our inbox looks like. But we will reply to everyone.

Collectively, we’re fans of the following books/authors: GILDED series by Christina Farley, SUMMER OF YESTERDAY by Gaby Triana, EIGHTH GUARDIAN by Meredith McCardle, ELEANOR & PARK and FANGIRL by Rainbow Rowell, THE RED PENCIL by Andrea Davis Pinkney, PERSEPOLIS by Marjane Satrapi, OLIVIA TWISTED by Vivi Barnes, JUST A DROP OF WATER by Kerry Cerra, UNDER THE NEVER SKY by Veronica Rossi, SHADOW & BONE by Leigh Bardugo, SEA CHANGE by Aimee Friedman, THRONE OF GLASS by Sarah J. Mass, IF YOU FIND ME by Emily Murdoch, THE GIRL WHO COULD SILENCE THE WIND and YAQUI DELGADO WANTS TO KICK YOUR ASS by Meg Medina, FRACTURE by Megan Miranda, FORGIVE ME, LEONARD PEACOCK by Matthew Quick, CONJURED by Sarah Beth Durst, THE APOLLO ACADEMY by Kimberly P. Chase, THE UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR by Sarina Bowen, KISS THE SKY by Krista and Becca Ritchie, THE ONE by Kiera Cass, OFF THE RECORD by K.A. Linde, SANCTUM by Sarah Fine, IF I STAY by Gayle Forman, WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart.

That’s it for now! If you’ve got questions, throw them down in the comments below (please do not use the Blogger Contact Form to contact us—we will only respond publicly.) We’re looking forward to seeing your precious word babies in our inbox!

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Bait and Pitch: Twitter Pitches

Hi my lovelies!!!

If you're in the States, I hope you are getting ready to give thanks and spend some well deserved time with family and friends. 

But #SFFPit is quickly approaching! If you write SciFi or Fantasy and you don't know what #SFFPit is check THIS LINK. 

For the next couple weeks, we'll be doing Bait and Pitch workshops with Twitter Pitches to help you prep. You can still participate if you're not doing #SFFPit! After all, #PitMad is right around the corner, too. So enjoy! And peer pressure a friend into joining us! 

TWITTER PITCHES

Note: If you’re here looking for fishing tips, you’ve come to the wrong end of the blogosphere.

Okay, this week we are working on TWITTER pitches. That means you are giving us your best 140 characters including your hashtag & Category/Genre abbreviation (info below) and we will give you our communal feedback. Read the full list of rules with all their glorious explanations here. 

The Rules

Bait and Pitch is open to ALL fiction categories. 

This is open to manuscripts of any status. 
Bring a friend.

One pitch per week. 

You post, you crit. 

You edit, you critique again.

If you revise, post it as a REPLY to your original pitch. 

Critiques must include AT LEAST one piece of positive feedback. 

Don’t be an asshole. 

If you cross the line, *I* will critique your pitch in a similar manner. K? *grinz*

Formatting Your Pitch

Yes, you MUST use the #BaitPitch hashtag, as you would with any contest. 

NAME: The Wicked Pitch of the East

CATEGORY/GENRE: YA/Fantasy

TITLE: WHERE ARE THOSE WILD THINGS, ANYWAY?

PITCH: #BaitPitch (YA/F)When Max grows up,yada yada yada.Use Twitter/Word to make sure you only have 140 characters or expect the verbal beatdown.

Cheers!

The Wicked Pitch of the East (aka Dannie)

Bait And Pitch: Twitter Pitches

Hi my lovelies!!!

I hope you are all doing well and writing the ish out of NaNo. It was brought to my attention by a member of the Clubhouse today that #SFFPit is quickly approaching. If you write SciFi or Fantasy and you don't know what #SFFPit is check THIS LINK. 

For the next couple weeks, we'll be doing Bait and Pitch workshops with Twitter Pitches to help you prep. You can still participate if you're not doing #SFFPit! After all, #PitMad is right around the corner, too. So enjoy! And peer pressure a friend into joining us! 

TWITTER PITCHES

Note: If you’re here looking for fishing tips, you’ve come to the wrong end of the blogosphere.

Okay, this week we are working on TWITTER pitches. That means you are giving us your best 140 characters including your hashtag & Category/Genre abbreviation (info below) and we will give you our communal feedback. Read the full list of rules with all their glorious explanations here. 

The Rules

Bait and Pitch is open to ALL fiction categories. 

This is open to manuscripts of any status. 
Bring a friend.

One pitch per week. 

You post, you crit. 

You edit, you critique again.

If you revise, post it as a REPLY to your original pitch. 

Critiques must include AT LEAST one piece of positive feedback. 

Don’t be an asshole. 

If you cross the line, *I* will critique your pitch in a similar manner. K? *grinz*

Formatting Your Pitch

Yes, you MUST use the #BaitPitch hashtag, as you would with any contest. 

NAME: The Wicked Pitch of the East

CATEGORY/GENRE: YA/Fantasy

TITLE: WHERE ARE THOSE WILD THINGS, ANYWAY?

PITCH: #BaitPitch (YA/F)When Max grows up,yada yada yada.Use Twitter/Word to make sure you only have 140 characters or expect the verbal beatdown.

Cheers!

The Wicked Pitch of the East (aka Dannie)

Bait and Pitch Week 7: Contest Pitches!

Note: If you’re here looking for fishing tips, you’ve come to the wrong end of the blogosphere.

Okay, this week we are working on CONTEST pitches. That means you are giving us your best 35-word pitch on a single manuscript and we will give you our communal feedback. Read the full list of rules with all their glorious explanations here. 

The Rules

Bait and Pitch is open to ALL fiction categories AND, by popular demand, memoir. 

This is open to manuscripts of any status. 
Post your pitch using the format below as a comment on this blog post.

One pitch per week. 

You post, you crit. 
You invite a friend to participate! 

You revise and want more feedback, you critique somebody new.

If you revise, post it as a REPLY to your original pitch. 

Critiques must include AT LEAST one piece of positive feedback. Purely negative or power-trippy critiques will be deleted. 

Don’t be an asshole. 

If you cross the line, *I* will critique your pitch in a similar manner. K? *grinz*

Formatting Your Pitch

NAME: The Wicked Pitch of the East

CATEGORY/GENRE: MG/Fantasy

TITLE: WHAT'S NEW, BUTTERFARTS?

PITCH: This is where you will write your 35 words (and only 35 words). 

Cheers!

The Wicked Pitch of the East (aka Dannie)

The Writer's Voice: Introducing TeamSuperNova!

The Writer’s Voice— modeled loosely off of NBC’s The Voice— is an online contest this year hosted by the lovely Brenda Drake, Kimberly P. Chase, Monica Bustamante Wagner, & Elizabeth Briggs. By way of a raffle, unagented writers everywhere were encouraged to enter with the hope of making it to the next round: Posting your query and first 250 on your blog. *gulp*

Then the hosts read through the numerous entries(150+) and selected who they wanted for their teams by way of a big ol’ “I WANT YOU!” comment. After a lot of fun, tweeting, & hair-pulling (there were so many amazing entries!) the teams were decided. On May 22^nd, the teams and their entries will be posted on the hosts’ blogs for a stellar cast of agents to review. 

And each host has a partner in crime to help them whip their writers...I mean the writers' manuscripts into shape. That's where I come in. 

Now that we have our team, I'm stoked to be "celebrity guest coaching" along with my literary partner in crime Kimberly P. Chase, author of  THE APOLLO ACADEMY and all around Sci-Fi goddess. Here's a little about our awesome team and some links so you can scope them out on social media! Follow these writers as they aim for the stars!

Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Blogger

  www.KimberlyPChase.com

Kimberly P. Chase writes young adult and new adult science fiction. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Science, which basically means she's kind of a geek and loves flying airplanes. Naturally, her books tend to include aviation, hot flight instructors, aviator glasses, and—let's not forget—kissing!  When Kimberly's not writing or reading, she's hanging out with her husband, five-year-old son, and two dogs. Her debut novel, The Apollo Academy, released August 6th, 2013 and is now an Amazon BestSeller and Writer’s Digest Honorable Mention Award recipient. 

Blog | Facebook |  Twitter
Pinterest

Dannie Morin is an addictions therapist with a writing problem. By day she alternates between counseling teens and wrangling a very sassy toddler. By night she writes, critiques, and edits like a boss. When she's not doing any of those things, she's a compulsive participant in the Carolinas Region of SCBWI and a regular Snarky Sue in online Pitch Contests. Dannie is represented by Thao Le of the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency and pens Young Adult and New Adult fiction in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Blog   |  YA Confidential   |  Twitter

Instagram

Alison Miller is a young adult fiction writer, tutor, and most importantly—a full-time mom. When she's not writing, she attempts to sell high school students on the benefits of differential equations and her children on the joys of cleaning. She’s also a coach’s wife, soccer mom, fair-weathered Philadelphia Eagles fan, tap dancer, choreographer, and is auditioning for the role of Wonder Woman. She is a member of SCBWI and an active contributor to YA Confidential, a blog dedicated to all things teen, all the time. She resides in eastern North Carolina with her husband, two children, and two Gracelings.

I am an aspiring YA/MG author and a proud native New Englander. By day, I work in medical writing, and by night, I map out the worlds in my mind on paper. I studied to become a pediatrician, but turned back to my first love, creative writing, and haven’t stopped since. When I’m not hunched over my computer, I love to run, listen to live music, and eat every type of cuisine I can get my hands on.

Blog      Twitter

Twitter
www.ladennison.com

Laurie is a Florida girl. She writes young adult books, fondly remembers her years teaching middle school, and lives for God, her family, and All The Books. Alternative music is her jam, Gator football is her sport, and she’d eat chocolate chip cookies every day if she could get away with it. She blogs and tweets about reading and writing at:

Blog   Twitter   Goodreads

Leandra Wallace is an Indiana girl with a love for vanilla in her pop, sparkly things, scarves, ampersands, and old buildings. She lives with her husband, son, and a small black dog, dreaming of one day having everything in its place. She enjoys blogging about books and writing and believes everything is better with sauce on it.

**and thanks to Leandra for her help with the copy on this post!*

Miriam Spitzer Franklin

I’m an elementary/ middle school teacher, currently teaching writing and literature classes to groups of homeschoolers. I’m thrilled to announce that my middle grade novel, EXTRAORDINARY, will be published by Skypony Press in Spring 2015. My passions include animal welfare, vegetarianism, figure skating, coaching Odyssey of the Mind, and of course, reading and writing children’s literature! I live with my husband, two daughters, and two cats in Charlotte, NC.

http://www.shana-silver.com

https://twitter.com/shanasilver

Shana Silver’s work has finaled in the RWA “Get Your Stiletto In The Door” contest and the RWA North Texas’s “Great Expectations” contest. Her short stories have appeared in various literary magazines such as ShatterColors Literary Review and The Hiss Quarterly. She studied creative writing at Syracuse University under Junot Diaz and Mary Gaitskill. She now works at a well-known educational publisher in NYC where she oversees the creation of tablet apps, eBooks, and other digital products. 

Twitter    Blog 

When an injury forced Nashville native Susan Bickford off the scaffold, demanding a break from her decorative arts business, she pulled out an old manuscript. Curious about the characters, she resumed her writing.  More manuscripts followed, all filled with stories she conjures while waiting for paint to dry. When she’s not writing, you’ll find Susan with a brush or trowel in her hand, painting, plastering, and gilding anything that doesn’t move (and some things that do). She’s a member of RWA and the Music City chapter. 

Stephanie Edwards is a 25-year old student currently studying Biological Anthropology. When she isn’t trying to be the next Jane Goodall, she spends her time working as a Marketing & Communications Assistant with her university and spending quality time with good food and a glass of wine, sometimes with friends, sometimes with Netflix. Stephanie’s currently working on an Adult Urban Fantasy novel about city-dwelling witches, while trying to shop around her Adult Science Fiction story, The Pact.

Bait and Pitch Workshop--Week 4--Contest Pitches!

Note: If you’re here looking for fishing tips, you’ve come to the wrong end of the blogosphere.

Okay, this week we are working on CONTEST pitches. That means you are giving us your best 35-word pitch on a single manuscript and we will give you our communal feedback. Read the full list of rules with all their glorious explanations here. 

The Rules

Bait and Pitch is open to ALL fiction categories AND, by popular demand, memoir. 

This is open to manuscripts of any status. 
Post your pitch using the format below as a comment on this blog post.

One pitch per week. 

You post, you crit. 

You revise and want more feedback, you critique somebody new.

If you revise, post it as a REPLY to your original pitch. 

Critiques must include AT LEAST one piece of positive feedback. Purely negative or power-trippy critiques will be deleted. 

Don’t be an asshole. 

If you cross the line, *I* will critique your pitch in a similar manner. K? *grinz*

Formatting Your Pitch

NAME: The Wicked Pitch of the East

CATEGORY/GENRE: MG/Fantasy

TITLE: WHAT'S NEW, BUTTERFARTS?

PITCH: This is where you will write your 35 words (and only 35 words). 

Cheers!

The Wicked Pitch of the East (aka Dannie)

Fangirl Friday: An Interview with BURN ME Author Shelley Watters!

It's Fangirl Friday here on the blog and today I'm delighted to welcome fellow PitchWars mentor Shelley Watters whose latest novel BURN ME was released this week. Here's a little bit about Shelley and her new book baby! And stay tuned for the e-Book GIVEAWAY at the bottom of the post!

Title: Burn Me 

Author: Shelley Watters

Genre: Adult Romance

Publisher: Swoon Romance

Publication Date: April 29th 2014

Formats: eBook

When Katrina Hale's brother dies in a house fire, she's determined to prove she's stronger than everyone thinks she is. But grief can do strange things to a person and Katrina knows all too well how the death of a loved one can change a person. As the romance in her current relationship fizzles, she focuses on her work and fights the undeniable attraction she has for Greyson Neal.

Firefighter Greyson Neal is the type of guy girls dream about. But Greyson isn't interested in other girls. He wants the one woman he can never have: Katrina. As the two struggle with their feelings, Kat must choose between her career and her heart, and fight to keep them both when an arsonist threatens to take it all away.

Add to Goodreads!    Purchase on Amazon!

Tell us a little about your writer's journey so far:

I’ve had a love of creative writing all my life. As a child, I wrote my first horror novel titled “Child Fear”. The rest is history!

My real path to publication started when I quit my job as an epidemiologist to be a stay at home mom. I realized that I had time to spare and could finally pick up the pen again and write. I never, ever, considered the possibility of being published at that time. But, a few months later I had a full-length YA novel completed, and found myself signed up for Nanowrimo. The resulting novel from that Nano was an early rendition of BURN ME, which comes out next Tuesday from Swoon Romance! At the time, it was filled with sex scenes and no plot. My critique partners insisted that I was truly an erotica writer, not a romance writer. I think I proved them wrong.

I signed with a top agent for that first YA novel that I finished (my followers would recognize this book titled first as BLUE LOTUS, then re-titled as WAIT FOR ME). The agent had great ideas for submission, but ultimately had personal problems get in the way of their professional life and we parted ways.

Fast forward about six months, after licking my wounds and reassuring myself that I did not, in fact, suck, I queried and found a new agent. That agent followed through and got a few of my novels in the hands of editors, but no sales. Eventually we parted ways as well.

After a pretty rocky start to my publishing career, I decided to take a huge step back. I stopped writing all together for quite a while. I co-hosted writing contests like Pitch Wars and Pitch Madness with Brenda Drake, helping others get agents  all the while sitting on my manuscripts. I did NOT want to query anymore. Strike three and you’re out was my theory, and I didn’t want to be out. Out of the blue, I came across Tamara Mataya’s  #PitchMas contest on Twitter. I pitched BURN ME there and got an instant request from the wonderful Georgia McBride at Swoon Romance. A week later I had an offer of publication.

Since I was familiar enough with the publishing community and the publishing process (and had lots of friends in the know who could help me identify any red flags in the contract) I had no problems negotiating the contract without an agent.

So I guess I would say I’m one of those “un-agented” success stories!

Okay, let's hear your Twitter Pitch! 

Here’s the pitch that got me the request that got me the book deal for BURN ME:

An affair w/ fellow firefighter forces Kat to choose her job or her heart, & fight for both when an arsonist threatens it all. ACR #PitchMas

(ACR=Adult Contemporary Romance)

What inspired you to write this book? How is it a book only you could write?

I’ve always been fascinated with firefighters. Honestly, when I chose a topic to write for 50k in a month, firefighters were the first thing that came to mind.

I think BURN ME was a book only *I* could write because I wanted to write a romance novel that not only enticed the senses, but also stayed accurate in the firefighting scenes. I made so many firefighter friends along the path to writing BURN ME and really wanted to portray firefighters in an accurate sense, not just how TV and movies portray the “romanticized” side of firefighting. I wanted to show that these are real people who have lives, feelings, make mistakes, fall in love, just like everyone else, but that they are more than that – they are heroes because they chose to put their lives on the line for strangers, people who they’ve never met and will probably never meet again. They don’t do the job for a “Thank you”, they do the job because they love it.

What's your favorite thing about writing?

Getting to play God. I am in control of my character’s destiny (or so they let me think). I get to control everything about a scene and it’s so liberating having that much power.

Also, the research. I get to ogle lots of hot firefighters and call it “research”. haha

What's your least favorite thing?

I have a hard time putting my editor brain away when I write. I’m a perfectionist, so sometimes it’s hard to set that brain aside and let my creative brain take over. First drafts are generally extremely painful.

Now it's time to brag a little--What do you love most about your book?

This is a tough question. I love how much this book has changed over the course of writing and revising it. Like I said in the first question, it started out mostly sex scenes with no plot. So for me, it’s surprising and exhilarating how it’s turned into this rich, sexy, dark, romantic book that hopefully will keep you turning pages until the end.

I’m going to cheat, but the hot firefighters throughout the book are also what I love most. Imagining those scenes was lots of fun. ;)

Who was your favorite character to write? Why?

Greyson Neal. For some reason all of my firefighter books seem to come easier in the male POV than the female, and Greyson was such a strong, alpha hero that he took over almost every scene when I was first writing BURN ME. He was such a fun character to write and I loved how while yes, he was strong, he was also sensitive.

What has surprised you most about publishing post-agent (in other words, something unpublished writers may not know about how the process goes after you get an agent)?

Hmm. Considering I got a book deal without an agent, even though I had two over the course of my publishing career, I’m not sure how to answer this. I think the most important thing is to write a spectacular book. Don’t worry about rushing to query the first thing you write. Work on your craft, work on telling the absolute best novel you can. Because in the end, just because you find an agent who loves your work as much as you do, you might discover that they aren’t able to sell it, or just not the right fit for you and your work. Then you could be back in the query pools again.

Another thing that was surprising is the hurry-up-and-wait that is trademark in the publishing industry. You have to be patient, REALLY patient. Which is again why I say work on your craft, work on writing the best books you possibly can. Because in the end that’s where it’s all going to come down to – the agent gets the novel into the editor’s hands, but then it’s up to YOUR writing, YOUR storytelling, to sell it.

Okay, now a little about you. (And yes, I stole these questions from In the Actor's Studio with James Lipton.)

What is your favorite word?

Awesome (Wait, did you mean favorite, or the word that you over-use the most?)

What is your least favorite word?

Sighed (My characters tend to sigh a LOT in early drafts)

What turns you on? 

Alpha heroes

What turns you off? 

Arrogance

What sound or noise do you love?

My kid’s laughter

What sound or noise do you hate?

My kids fighting

What profession, other than your own, would you most like to attempt?

 I did it for over five years before quitting to do this - epidemiology

  

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear G-d say when you arrive at the pearly gates? 

“Great job living life to the fullest. You can come in anyway.”

Finally, what's the one question you've always wanted to answer in an interview? (And of course, you have to answer it!)

Haha I don’t have a witty answer to this one! So I’ll just go with “What’s your favorite movie and why?”

Another hard one to answer (which is obviously why I’m not good at this! ;) ) I’m going to cheat and say the Lord of the Rings movie(s). They’re so epic, so beautifully done, so well acted and written that I’m sucked into their world. Peter Jackson is a genius and I’d love to meet him one day (or better yet, have him direct one of my novels-into-movies!). Dream big or go home, right? ;)

Thanks so much for stopping by the blog, Shelley! I wish you all the book sales!

Thank you so much for having me! I had a blast!

About the Author

    

Shelley Watters grew up in Tucson, Arizona and currently resides Chandler, Arizona. She graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor’s in Sociology with a focus on Women’s Health Issues and continued on to get a Master’s certificate in Public Health Epidemiology. After serving many wonderful years in the public health sector as an Epidemiologist, she left the field to raise her family and re-discovered a long-lost passion: writing. While her days are filled with extra-curricular activities, her nights are devoted to slinging words across the page. Her novels sizzle with the heat and passion that only growing up in the southwest can bring.

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