I DID THE THING!! Please read this post before clicking the link!

It's here!!! Please read this post before clicking the link!

My new adult manuscript, AS LONG AS YOU'RE MINE, is now available to read FOR FREE on Swoon Reads. Just download the app, and follow this link to preview the manuscript. All I ask is that you download, read, and give it a rating once you're done please! Every few months Swoon Reads chooses a manuscript from this slushpile to offer a publishing contract through Macmillan. It's based on editor opinion, reader feedback, and which manuscripts gather the most interest. So every vote, comment, and rating will help. Please note that this is a New Adult manuscript, NOT Young Adult. So it's intended for a more mature audience than some of my other works. Please feel free to share the love and spread the word on this one. I need all the help I can get!

Click Here to download the app and start reading!

About the Book

Two years ago, Rennie Cobain's heart was hulk-smashed by Mack, an Emmy-winning, altar boy turned boy band icon. After a world tour as a guitar tech, Rennie gets an offer she should refuse: on Broadway.The show stars the only guy to ever break her heart. 

There's more than dignity at risk once the director discovers Rennie’s family legacy.Out of the orchestra pit and into the spotlight; blue-haired, fame-phobic Rennie is hand-fed to the press. She’s terrified the media will resurrect her past as a homeless, emotionally abused, musical prodigy. Rennie wants to be Rennie-not Kurt’s cousin.Not a survivor.Not a victim.

Mack understands her, but their first chance at love ended in agony. Now she has to kiss him every night in front of a packed house. Trusting Mack may be the only way Rennie can embrace her talent without selling her soul.

PitchWars--Team Dannie 2014 and Other Ponderings

Hey guys. So it’s been a tumultuous few weeks eh? I don’t know about you guys but for me having PitchWars coincide with WriteOnCon and the start of school has made all the stress even more stressful. That’s part of why I opted not to tweet feedback on my slushpile as I sorted my queries this year. I was concerned it wouldn’t be fun for anyone and would only contribute to people's stress.

The good news is that freed me up to give more concrete feedback in my response emails to the writers who queried me. I tried to give at least one piece of constructive feedback to all of you and I hope you find it helpful. I did write a rejection (God I hate that word—we need our own word for PitchWars) to each person who queried me.

There was one exception and I chose not to write that person a letter for the sake of the writer’s sanity and mine. Suffice to say that I was so disgusted with the stereotyping and downright inappropriateness of the themes in this writer’s kidlit query and opening chapter that I chose to keep my venom to myself.

You’re welcome.

For those who expressed concerns that the mentors aren’t taking this seriously this year or that we need to get our egos in check, I wanted to provide some concrete statistics:

Over the past week I logged 38 hours and 44 minutes in Gmail.
5 of those hours were on my personal and business accounts.
The rest were in PitchWars.

I wrote over 40K words in reply emails explaining my rationale in writers.

I’m not promoting a book for sale. I haven’t been pimping my editing services. I haven’t got paid for any of this. And I know many mentors who managed a lot more queries and gave a lot more time than me. And omg the amount of time, energy, love, and corralling of mentors and contestants alike that Brenda Drake does is so incredibly selfless, there really aren't words for it. 

Ironic, right?

I don’t speak for Brenda, any of the other mentors, or for PitchWars in general. But I promise you guys, from the bottom of my heart, this is a labor of love. I said in my mentor bio that this is the best writing contest on the internet. And it really is. So I hope it’s clear—and sometimes on the internet it’s hard to tell—that this is something I am taking 1000% seriously.

Other random notes:

10% of my inbox was teen writers. And you guys were ALL better writers than I was at your age. For real.

Nearly 20% of the manuscripts in my inbox in one way or another addressed the subject of suicide. This is important for you guys to know as you're querying. That's a huge percentage. You must make sure your manuscript has a UNIQUE hook.

Only one writer pissed me off this year. lol :)

I had one humorous manuscript in my inbox. One. And it is AWESOME. Honestly, I think she'll have an agent before the year is out. If we had two alternates this year, she would have been my second (and I told her as much in my response.) The take home message here is WE NEED MORE HUMOR IN YA!! For real. Next year, I want you guys to bring the funny, mmmkay?

Many of the strong, diverse manuscripts and authors wound up with other mentors. I honestly could split my diverse entries into three piles this year. (1) manuscripts that were trying to be diverse for the sake of diversity, (2) really amazing diverse manuscripts that got stolen out of my slushpile by other mentors, (3) diverse manuscripts that were not quite there yet but have huuuuuuge potential...actually I'll add on to that (4) diverse manuscripts that dealt with suicide or homicide. I couldn't deal with that much death over the next few months, guys. I've got multiple murders to manage in my own WIP.

Last year I provided step-by-step rationale for how I whittled down my inbox. This year because I was juggling so many things at the same time as PitchWars I neglected to keep the same kind of notes. But I did want to let you guys in on my general process. In case you’re curious or whatever. :)

I read each of my queries at least twice before making any decisions—and before reading any pages. There’s a really important reason for that. This is a pitch contest. It’s about the writing, yes, but it’s not just about the writing. I was looking for a writer who really knows what his/her story is about and knows how to sell it.

On the first read through if the query grabbed me right away, I requested pages. Some before I even read the first chapter. This includes both my mentee and my alternate. Their queries were fantastic.

The next thing I did was make note of the writers who I knew were teens (because they said so in the query or we’d chatted on Twitter) or suspected they were teens. I tried to request from all the teen writers in my inbox. If I missed somebody I’m sorry.  :(

On the second read through my inbox, I sorted the queries into two additional piles: those that seemed like they were stories I’d be a good mentor for and those that were just not my thing. For those I thought yes, this is my sort of story or those I wasn’t sure, I read chapters.  I made quite a few additional requests based on the pages.

For those I requested pages from, I read them each twice. I also practiced pitching them to my husband (who also writes YA). This was to see if I could articulate the story succinctly and also how I felt emotionally about the story as we discussed. Was this something I felt passionate about championing? Was it a story I felt I could mentor?

This left me with ten manuscripts. At which point I started praying and hoping other mentors would take you guys off my hands.

And some did! I was so, so happy for each of you!!!

There was one manuscript I was really ready to cage match over, and she ending up as my mentee. She was also the first writer from whom I requested additional pages. I believe that the same was true for Sonia Hartl last year.

My alternate was much more difficult. I had my heart set on having a teen alternate for most of this process. There was one teen writer in particular who really stood out for me. And for a long time I was willing to cage match over him, too.

Then Brenda decided to have an alternate show case.

At that point I felt like it was only fair to choose the second strongest manuscript in my pack—the one who was closest to being query-ready that I also fell in love with. I don’t feel like it’s fair to pick an alternate and then advise them not to do the showcase when there are other amazing manuscripts that I really think will be ready in time.

This left me with five writers. Two got snatched up by other mentors. And then from there it was really about which manuscript I feel like I am the best asset for. I think my unique background in mental health and substance abuse and my history as a clinician in a residential treatment center make me uniquely qualified to mentor this particular alternate.

So there you have it.

And I’m thrilled to announce and welcome the two newest members of #TeamDannie:

Heather Truett (mentee): Multiple POV YA Contemp—2 best friends. 1 is an anti-gun activist and a school shooter. The other is trying to save her life.  

Sean Lamb (alternate): YA Contemp boy book—A few months prior to his pending release date, a cadet in a ruthless military school must choose whether to toe the line or fight back against the school’s unethical headmaster.

To the 50 other writers in my inbox this year, please know that my heart is totally with you guys this week. This was not an easy decision and every rejection letter I had to write this year was tough. As many of you know, I’m getting my own rejection letters this week, too. I got 3 during the course of writing my emails to all of you and it felt like THE WORST KARMA EVER.

Rejection sucks. But what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, right? That's what I keep telling myself anyway.

I do hope you’ll all keep in touch. It has been my pleasure to read your words and I thank each of you for the opportunity.

Best,

Dannie

That thing I've Been Promising #TeamDannie Alumni

Hi Kids!!

Well, it's finally summer break and I have two seconds to breathe. Writing life and life life have been complete chaos so I want to start by taking a minute to thank those of you who have had to put up with my growing pains over the past couple months. And also to those of you who put up with me in general. I make no apologies for who I am--snarky, opinionated to a fault, and often lacking a filter. I know that can be a lot to handle sometimes, especially when I'm wearing my emotions on my timeline and whatnot.

So thanks. For realz.

And now to the good stuff!

If you've been around since PitchWars 2013 you know I had promised I'd do something more for the people who queried me. And I've had a vague idea of what that is since then, but honest to blog less than zero time to implement it. And I'm not much better off at the moment, but we're going to ease into this anyway, now that it's summer and I've got more than ten minutes to devote to Twitter a week.

During the weeks between selecting our PitchWars mentees/alternates and the agent round, you probably heard Sonia, Alexandra, Christy and I babbling about our 'clubhouse' meetings. Once a week, we'd get together in a private G+ hangout and get shit done: brainstorming loglines, working out plot snags, swapping beta reads, venting about writerly frustration.

It's something we've continued to do in the six months that have followed PitchWars on a fairly regular basis and even though I've been at this for a while, it has been an amazing resource for me. We get together about once a month and talk shop, provide support, and work out our writerly shit.

Basically it's a support group for writers. Because writing is hard, y'all. And as our careers grow, we're expanding what we do with the clubhouse.

That's where you guys come in.

We're opening it up to 10 additional #Team Dannie members--the first 10 who comment here with their Twitter accounts so I can DM you the info.

What you can expect in the clubhouse:

• A confidential, emotionally safe place to get support during tough writer times
• Some killer brains to bounce ideas off of.
• Help spreading the word about projects, publications, and the good stuff that needs spreading in our writing lives. 
• An external pressure to hold you accountable to caretake your writing life!
• Random discussions of snacks and an abundance of digital wine.

What we ask for in return:

The commitment of participating in our monthly meetings. The clubhouse only works because we're committed to it and to each other. So if you sign on, please only do so if you intend to participate regularly.  The meetings are always on Monday nights after kiddos go to bed. We figure out the date/time as a group to keep it as convenient as we can for everyone.

How it works:

Our next meeting is on Monday, June 23rd at 9pm EST. (A week from tonight.)
I will DM you the details once we've added you to the approved member list (which I'll also DM you about)
Plan to come and chat, bounce ideas, listen and work!
Meetings usually last about an hour but people check in and check out as they can.

Who's eligible:

Anyone I've selected for my "team" in a blog contest. This includes #AgentTreat #PitchWars (including all 60ish people who queried me for the 2013 contest) #NestPitch #PitchMadness and Team Supernova for this year's #TheWVoice (since I was Kim Chase's co-coach.). Basically if I've hosted your pitch on my blog or picked you for my team in a contest, you're a member of #TeamDannie and are thus eligible.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You MUST have a gmail account to enter the clubhouse. Gmail is free, so if you don't have one it's pretty easy to set up an account.

We will add to our numbers as people show interest, and as it works for the clubhouse. If the club gets too big we may have to figure out a way to stagger membership.

Questions? Hit me up in comments or on Twitter!

The first ten people to post the following as a comment to this post are in!

• Name/Nickname/Pen Name:
• Contest I picked you for:
• Title of your work:
• Your twitter name:

Ready? Aaaand go!!

Fangirl Friday: An Interview with Brooks Benjamin

So, if you follow me on twitter, a  couple weeks ago you may have seen some major all out fangirling happening over a certain author I lovingly refer to as...

BUTTERFARTS. 

It's a long story. And it doesn't matter. What does matter?

THE AMAZINGLY TALENTED AND SUPER HILARIOUS AND RIDONKULOUSLY CREATIVE AND ALL AROUND GOOD GUY

Brooks Benjamin got a flipping book deal, people! 

And I swear, it was like two seconds after he landed a really fabulous agent. All of this happened one day while I was taking a nap. And--on the real--I'm only mildly exaggerating about the timeline here.

But just for the record? And I'm only going to say this once because it borders on taking credit for ish that isn't mine to take credit for in any way shape or form...

I saw him first, people. Him and his tights.

Okay, enough introduction-y stuff. Here's a little bit about Brooks and his not-soon-enough to-be-born book baby. It'll have to hold us all over until 2016 when we can...get our hands on his...Tights?

Erm...here's the interview.

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

I completed the first draft of my first manuscript (The Stonetalker, MG fantasy) in late 2012. I found Pitch Wars by accident and submitted my manuscript. Unfortunately, I didn’t get in so I began querying in early 2013. I had no idea what I was doing. I’d never heard of a CP or query letter. I just dove right into Google and came out the other end looking like a complete noob. I queried one agent at a time because I thought that’s how it worked.

Like I said. Noob.

After a few small requests and some eventual rejections, I rediscovered Twitter and began networking with anyone who had an idea and time to read. I finally met up with two amazing CPs, Amber Mauldin and Jayme Woods. They read my first draft and came back with another thing I’d never heard of. Manuscript notes!

I loved their suggestions and tore apart The Stonetalker one chapter at a time. And at the end of April, I had my finished version. I went right back into querying, jumping in on the Twitter pitch parties whenever possible, getting requests here and there, but never a full agent-loving bite. At that same time, I began working on my next project (My 7^th Grade Life in Tights or M7GLIT for short). I stopped querying The Stonetalker around October while I was working on finishing up M7GLIT. And at the end of the 2013, I submitted to Pitch Wars and got in.

Marieke became my mentor. She and my amazing CPs (which now also included Jean Giardina, Ronni Arno Blaisdell, Karen Lee Hallam, Melanie Conklin, and Jeff Chen) helped me whip my manuscript into shape for my next round of querying in January. 

When I started that, I immediately got some requests and the first agent call came about 3 weeks later. After that, it’s all a blur because I’m stuck in this am-I-awake-or-dreaming-who-cares-just-don’t-let-this-end state.

Okay, let's hear your Twitter Pitch! (140 characters or less.)

Oh dang. The dreaded Twitter pitch. I’ll have to make one up since I never actually got to Twitter pitch this one. Okay, here it goes.

12yo Dillon must choose: stick with his dance crew or go for solo stardom at an elite dance studio in a Step Up meets Mean Girls MG story.

Yeah, I know. But Twitter pitches are hard.

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

Interestingly enough, I had a lot to draw from with M7GLIT. In 6^th grade, I started a New Kids on the Block tribute dance crew called The New Kidz (with a z… because z’s are cool). We were terrible, but we danced. A lot. And we didn’t care how we looked. Until we learned how un-dancified we actually were. Which is one of the big struggles Dillon has throughout M7GLIT.

So, why did it have to be me? I guess because M7GLIT is sort of a shout out to my 6^th grade self. Except that Dillon’s crew, the Dizzee Freekz (with a z… because z’s are cool) is WAY better than we ever were.

What's your favorite thing about writing?

Getting that HOLY CRAP I HAVE TO WRITE THIS RIGHT NOW! spark of an idea at the weirdest times.

What's your least favorite thing?

Not having a pencil nearby when that happens.

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

I really love the individuality of my characters. They’re each so unique (and that uniqueness sparks some pretty serious fights now and then) but they’re still friends. I feel that dialogue is my biggest strength and writing all of those characters into all of those situations was a blast.

Of course, I’d be kicking myself if I didn’t mention the dancing. Oh, lawsy-mercy, the dancing. There’s so much! And it was so fun to write! Just about any style you can think of (and one particular one that Dillon made up) makes an appearance in M7GLIT.

Who was your favorite character to write? Why?

Yikes! This is tough. I love them all! But if I had to pick, I’d say probably Carson. Carson’s got his sass level turned to 11 at all times. He’s 100% himself and he doesn’t care what others think of him. In a way, that was really freeing for me.

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)?

I think what surprised me the most was how similar subbing to editors was to querying agents. It’s practically the same thing. Except the agent does all the work and knows the editors a heckuva lot better than I knew any agents.

It sort of goes like this:

Before agent 1.     Query agents. 2.     Wait. 3.     Habitually check email. 4.     Pray that good news is in there. 5.     Some bad news is in there. 6.     Cry. 7.     Drink wine and eat. 8.     Keep querying. 9.     Wait some more. 10.  Finally some good news. 11.  Drink wine and eat. And flail.

After agent 1.     Sub to editors. 2.     Wait. 3.     Habitually check email. 4.     Pray that good news is in there. 5.     Some bad news is in there. 6.     Cry. 7.     Drink wine and eat. 8.     Keep subbing. 9.     Wait some more. 10.  Finally some good news. 11.  Drink wine and eat. And flail.

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?

Any word spoken by the actress Shohreh Aghdashloo. Her voice is amazing. But if I had to pick just one, I’d go with fiddlesticks.

What is your least favorite word?

I’m going in-context with this one.

Bro.

But only when guys say that in conversation. As in, “Nice Crocs, bro.”

What turns you on?

Humor, smiling, eyes. We’ll keep this list short. Because of reasons.

What turns you off?

When people say, “Nice Crocs, bro.” And Crocs. I don’t mind the people who wear them, just the shoes themselves. Because I’m scared if I ever got close to one it’d smell like baby poop wrapped in a sweaty jockstrap.

Other turn offs?

Intolerance, closed-mindedness, and fake orange tans.

What sound or noise do you love?

Puppies eating. When they make that little snorty breath sound it’s the cutest thing in the world. Oh, and songs by Queen.

What sound or noise do you hate?

The high-pitched electronic hum of ear death that my DVR box is making right now. It’s almost bad enough to make me want to jab a fork into my skull and pry out my brain to make it stop.

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

Spy. Or ninja. If I could combine the two that might be cool, but I think separately they’re great as is. Of course, I’m not sure how I’d make a living as a ninja. I wouldn’t want to assassinate anyone. Maybe I could just throw ninja stars and do spinny kicks and junk.

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

 “Nice Crocs, bro.” And then follow that up with, “Naw, I’m just kidding. Glad you could make it.” Because I really want God to get my sense of humor.

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

Question: What’s your favorite video game?

Answer: Oh, man, I really wasn’t prepared for this. I mean, deep down, I knew someone eventually would ask this, but… dang. I didn’t figure it’d be today. Okay, well, lemme think. I don’t think I could answer that one fairly unless I went by console.

For Commodore 64 it’s Ghostbusters.

For Nintendo it’s Contra.

For Sega Genesis it’s Altered Beast.

For Super NES it’s Secret of Mana.

For N64 it’s Pilot Wings.

For Playstation it’s Skyrim.

For Xbox it’s Oddworld.

I know I skipped a few consoles in there, but you keep tapping your watch like we’re running out of time. So I kept it short. For you.

About Brooks Benjamin

         

MG writer of MY 7TH GRADE LIFE IN TIGHTS (Delacorte/Random House, Spring 2016), filmmaker, teacher, husband, SCBWI member, and father to a 75-pound demented German Shepherd mix named LeeLoo. Represented by the fantabulous Uwe Stender of TriadaUS Literary.

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.

Fangirl Friday: An Interview with Pitch Warrior Christy Little!

Today I'm thrilled to welcome my #PitchWars second runner-up, Christy Little! Her YA contemporary BACKLASH, immediately hooked me with its timeliness, her multifaceted main character, and her spot-on sense of humor. I've really enjoyed helping Christy get her manuscript nice and shiny for the agent round next month. Here's a little about the author and her book baby!

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

After working with teens as a high school teacher, I’d love to write for them, too. During my 10 years as a journalist, I edited more than I reported, but years of following current events piqued my interest in writing topical, contemporary YA.

Okay, let's hear your Twitter Pitch! (140 characters or less.)

When her locker room pic of an enemy goes viral, Nina vows to win back the respect of friends & family and fight the label of sex offender.

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

I watched my students struggle with the consequences of their mistakes, but that was before a tweet or a text could permanently catapult them into the spotlight. I wanted to create a flawed character who suffers the consequences of that split-second temptation to hit “send.”

What's your favorite thing about writing?

I’m all in once my characters start telling me what they would say or do differently, and I obey them.

What's your least favorite thing?

I have a few beloved characters I keep cutting out of final drafts because they deserve better roles than as shiny background objects. I’ll eventually find homes for them.

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

The voice. Nina, my protagonist, is a composite of my former yearbook and newspaper staffers — confident and witty social observers who knew how to stand up for themselves.  They certainly weren’t bullies, but they handled mistakes with intelligence and grace.

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

I’m career-oriented and deadline-driven. In those color-based personality profile workshops, I’m in the gold group; I like my trains to run on time. My favorite YA author growing up was Christopher Pike. I chain-read Agatha Christie novels, and right now I’m reading Mark Danielewski’s Only Revolutions. Next up is The Fault in Our Stars. My trivia specialties are horror movies and cringeworthy music. I have an incurable case of jazz hands.

What is your favorite word?

Pronoia.

What turns you on?

Serendipity.

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

I worked in print journalism’s last heyday. I couldn’t ask for more.

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

Favorite virtue? Benevolence.

About the Author

Christy Little is a former high school teacher and journalist living in Lawrence, Kan. She graduated with a degree in secondary education from Kansas State University and has taken creative writing courses at the University of Kansas. She likes swimming, yoga and meditation, listens to classical music, and loves college football and horror movies. BACKLASH is her first novel. She can be found on Twitter, WordPress and Tumblr.

Suck It Up, Butterfarts, This is War: Lessons from the PitchWars Slush

You guys know that I've been where you are. I know how hard this is. So as I was reading your wonderful words I've been struggling with how to make this easier on the 60 of you whose names are not going to be paired with mine for PitchWars. I promise you that I'm not kissing asses to help you guys feel better. I think you should know by now that's not how I ride.

The only thing I've come up with to cushion this is to utilize full transparency. My hope in doing this is that helping you understand my logic will make this feel less like you're personally being dissed and will also help you grow, which for me is the ultimate purpose of any pitch contest. I can promise you this: none of the decisions I made--not one single one--was made with favoritism or personal bias. I didn't reject anyone because I didn't like them or keep anyone because I knew them. I think you'll see when we get to my final three that that's not the case. And besides, I love you guys, all of you. I love your energy and your ideas and your words. Every personalized query made me grin like a friggin' Cheshire cat on Ecstasy and what I loved most was that you really listened to my wishlist and did your homework.

Of course, that's also what made this ridiculously hard to decide.

So, without further ado, here is how I narrowed #TeamDannie from 63 to 3 in a week.

First, Gmail did this to all of your manuscripts. 

~The first pass through the inbox I skimmed every single query and bumped out those that did not listen to my wishlist. Among those were 3 New Adult Contemporary Romances and 1 Zombie story. That's it. And I did that not to be a rule stickler bitch but because I really, really don't like that kind of story and in no way shape or form could ever see myself wanting to champion that kind of book. For those, I did not read the pages, just the query. And I expect that's what an agent would do in those situations, too. It is frustrating when you are so incredibly busy to feel like someone is wasting your time by not following directions, and it's unsettling to feel like you haven't been heard. If you're not listening to me in the query phase, you're not going to listen to me in the mentor phase either, so why should I bother?

An additional 3 manuscripts were rejected solely for conflicts of interest. One was a retelling of the same fairy tale as my NaNo project. One had an MC with a similar backstory and themes as my current NA WIP, and one was a peer from Scribophile who I don't think remembered that I had critted her pages early on.

This left me with 56 queries.

~My second pass through the inbox I was looking strictly at preparedness. How ready is your manuscript? Do you still have gobs of filter words in your first five pages? Does your first chapter open in a way that matches the story you sell in your query? Can you articulate in your query what your story is about in a concise, engaging way? Does your dialogue sound like dialogue or conversation? A month is too little time to ready a manuscript if you haven't mastered these skills. It doesn't mean your book sucks. It doesn't mean you're a terrible writer. You're just not ready to query--or close enough to ready to query to get there in a month.

And guys--big glaring take home lesson from my own querying experience here--YOU DO NOT WANT AGENTS TO SEE YOUR PITCH IF YOUR BOOK IS NOT READY. You only get one chance to query an agent. Don't you want your manuscript as strong as it can be before you do?

These are the folks who are going to get recommendations from me that they spend more time with critique partners. If your response to that is "I did that already" then you need new critique partners because the ones you have are either not strong writers themselves or are not giving you what you need to tighten up your project. Either that or you're not listening to them.

This eliminated thirteen of you.

This was also the point when I started making requests. And I made requests based on all sorts of reasons--the query was hilarious and yet professional, the concept grabbed my attention, I knew you from Trick or Treat with Agents, or that it was obviously well-written. I also requested pages or synopses from a couple people whose queries were unclear but whose pages I liked enough to want to see if I could figure out where you were headed.

This was Thursday or Friday night, and I still had 46 people left to consider. I officially started freaking out. And--candidly--attempting to pawn you off on other mentors. Seriously, I was SO glad when you guys started getting nabbed up because I didn't have to find a reason why I didn't want you.

~At this point there were 46 of you left for me to consider. Some I had requested mss from, but not a whole bunch at that point. Gmail was being really fun for everyone involved, so for those of you that emailed me personally I was able to move forward in requesting or rejecting, but for a lot of you I hadn't even seen your queries yet. So the next pass was just of people who sent me your queries at my personal email address. Those that got moved into the "pass" pile at this point were primarily people whose stories I just didn't connect with. I read your query and your pages many, many times (for real I have a couple memorized I think.) There wasn't anything more wrong with the writing than anyone else's, I just didn't feel like I was excited enough about your concept to make it my one-and-only-one mentee. And I knew that because there were other people's manuscripts I was excited about at that point. I'd already scooped up my main pick and another manuscript that eventually went to another mentor, so with needing to narrow it down to a total of three, you had to measure up to my excitement about those in order to stay. Eventually I got back into the gmail account and did some of that there as well.

~There were now 23 of you. 23 manuscripts (basically 1/3) that I requested either synopses, pages, or both from or that I got from the inbox if you sent them to someone else. (I'm sneaky like that.) I was getting desperate to narrow the field. At that point I went back and read all the synopses again. I was trying to make sure that I was in love with your story from start to finish. I didn't feel like it was my place to decide how your story ends. (In case you can't tell, I'm still having recurrent trauma from reading ALLEGIANT.) As I closed in on ten manuscripts left, I rejected 2 because I hated the ending. One of you (and you will know who you are because you will get an earful about it! Lol) I screamed "NO!" at my computer and startled my dozing one year old when I read the ending.

At the same time, there were seven of you I was holding closely to my vest and hoping like hell no one noticed them. I didn't realize I was doing it, but I was. While some of you I was excited to see someone else ready to champion your work because I knew you were going to a good home, that wasn't the case for these seven. And on Sunday night I realized that those were the seven I needed to hang on to because in addition to loving them, I was also thinking "I can really help this author make this book shine and I have concrete ideas of how I would do that and I think I can do it in a month."

~I showed my hand to the rest of the mentors to see if anyone was considering them. And the showdown with Monica over the pitch that would eventually become her #1 began. I lost (boo!) but it was a good thing because now there were only six of you.

~Two other mentors grabbed two of you as alternates, leaving me with four.

I told Rae and Brenda I wasn't going to pick between the remaining for, that I was going to keep you ALL. They said suck it up, butterfarts, this is war.

So I did. And here's how things turned out.

Honorable mention goes to Katie O'Shea's THE SHADOW OF A DREAM (YA SciFi) who was my #4. Katie, I'm still going to give you gobs of feedback it just make take me a little bit to get there.

Second Runner Up: BACKLASH by Christy Little is a YA Contemporary about an accidental techno-bully. I fell in love with the exquisite timeliness of the concept and the voice really grabbed me.

First Runner Up: THROUGH THE WALLED CITY by Alexandra Alessandri whose multicultural YA Magical Realism I could not put down to save my life.

My Warrior Pick: GASLIGHTS IN VAUDEVILLE by Sonia Hartl is a NA Thriller whose world-building I immediately fell in love with, characters grabbed my attention away from my own story I was supposed to be working on, and whose writing is utterly and completely gorgeous. I cannot wait to get my hands on your words.

Some other worthy mentions...

Thanks to Brooks Benjamin for letting me pick on him incessantly. I cannot wait to see what you and Marieke do with TIGHTS! Peace, love and butterfarts.

Boo hiss (and props) to Christopher Keelty for refusing to bend to my demand that ANDROMEDAN SONS be a New Adult so I could steal it! :)

Most hilarious ass-kissery in a query: Robb Dunn

Best opening line: Chelsey Blair

Best use of the word Bildungsroman:  Shawn Ingram

Most enthusiastic mentor-tweeting: Frank Anderson

Most creative use of technology in mentor stalking: Cassandra Page

Writer who is getting the most off-the-wall rejection letter from me: Keely Hutton (It's good, I think.)

Okay, so basically, the point is, I love you all. I hope you find my feedback helpful (when you get it. I've got a lot going on so please be patient with me.)

There's no ass-smoke-blowing going on over here. I really think I had the most collectively talented inbox in the entire competition and you guys made it impossibly hard to decide. More than anything, I hope you have learned loads, made some new beta and CP connections, and will stay in touch.

At the end of this month, I've got a special surprise planning for all 63 of you. I just need to get the details ironed out first. So stay tuned!