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Authors on the Verge: Meet Gayle C. Krause, picture book author
Posted by Cynthea on July 11th, 2008
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This week we have Gayle C. Krause whose debut picture book Rock Star Santa will be released this winter with Scholastic. Rock Star Santa depicts a unique Christmas Eve involving a child and a different side of Santa. Gayle also writes MG and YA historical fiction, fantasy and contemporary novels. She is a reviewer of children’s books for Children’s Literature.com and holds a M.S. degree in Elementary Education.
Now let’s start the interview, Gayle. When you received your offer, you …
… took the news very calmly, thinking that if I got too excited or celebrated too much something might happen to nix the whole thing. It was like living in a fantasy world and each time I thought about my book being published by a major publishing house, I felt great inside and somehow managed to find a special energy that spilled over into my daily life.
So now that you have a contract, what’s it like to be on the other side–on the verge of publication? What does it feel like to be official?
- 0-10
- 11-25
- 26-50
- 51-100
- 100+
- I didn’t keep track because it was too depressing.
- I didn’t keep track because I am not that organized.
- They don’t make a number that big.
- I plead the fifth.
Tell us about one of your most heart-breaking rejections and about one of your best.
Heart-breaking - I had a MG historical fiction novel at a small publishing house that the editor I was working work all but assured me was on the road to publication, having passed several rounds of the editorial staff. Then out of the blue, the publisher decided NOT to publish it and the editor was stunned, as was I. (This was my first experience with almost getting published)
(Bummer!!!! Snoop says. That’s the worst, man.)
Best - An editor of a large house sent a personal rejection letter praising my contemporary novel, but suggesting the MC needed more depth. Though she rejected the manuscript she included her phone extension. I assume that was her way of saying “contact” me when you revise the manuscript.
How long did it take to sell your books, from putting the first words on the page to receiving an offer? Here are your choices.
- 0-3 months
- 3-6 months
- 6 months to 1 year
- 1 year – 2 years
- 2 years – 3 years
- 3 years+
- The manuscript has been around longer than I have.
Prior to selling your books, what were you doing, Gayle?
Now that you’ve sold some books, you plan to …
I write from 8:00 AM to 12:00 P.M. each day when the house is quiet. In the evening, after dinner, I check websites and submission guidelines for targeted houses and/or agents.
(Snoop offers a suggestion to readers: to learn more about targeting editors and agents, see our article in the WFCAT crash course.)
What are some of the new things you worry about now that you have a contract?
A children’s editor once told me, long before I was offered my contract, that the second book is the hardest to come by. Sometimes that comes to mind, but I’m trying to prove her wrong by writing, writing, writing and submitting, submitting, submitting.
Any advice for aspiring authors?
Research! Research! Research! I don’t just mean for historical information or veracity of facts needed for the writing process. I mean read all of the message boards and numerous internet connections. They’re invaluable. And get involved in a critique group either online or in person. And Write! Write! Write!
Describe an Ah-ha moment you’ve had that influenced your writing in a positive way.
I recently took an online course where I used one of my completed manuscripts for the homework assignments and through this course was able to see some shortcomings in my writing and am now revising the entire manuscript for sensory applications which make a huge difference in the story.
Aside from WRITING FOR CHILDREN AND TEENS: A CRASH COURSE<—shameless plug, are there any other books on craft you recommend?
Novelist’s Boot Camp - Todd A. Stone, Writer’s Digest Publications
Now Write! by various authors. Edited by Sherry Ellis – Penguin
Finally, Snoop wants to know: where do you get your ideas?
Rhyme explosions are popping in my brain all of the time. These are the seeds for my rhyming picture books. With my novels, the main character comes to me first and then depending on the genre, I either research historical facts or I go straight to writing. And when I write it’s like reading a book. I never know what’s on the next page.
(Me either, says Snoop. I never know what the next page is going to taste like.)
This concludes our interview with our latest author the glamorous Gayle C. Krause. We wish Gayle much success with her picture book. You ROCK! To see what Gayle’s up to these days, visit her website at http://www.gayleckrause.com.
Also, fellow AOTV author Chris Rettstatt’s first novel, the first in a gorgeous fantasy series KAIMIRA
Free-tique winners declared!
Posted by Cynthea on July 5th, 2008
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Hey everyone,
Winners of the last free-tique round were just declared. If you did not receive an email, do know that Snoop enjoyed your answers and he hopes to hear from you again in the next free-tique round.
Now look out July!
Authors on the Verge: Meet Meg Medina, middle-grade and picture book author
Posted by Cynthea on July 2nd, 2008
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This week, we have Meg Medina, a Cuban American writer who works in picture books, middle grade fiction and young adult fiction. Her work blends traditions of Latin American literature with modern concerns of growing up. (Snoop says, WOAH!) She lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband and three children.
First, here’s a little bit about the books we look forward to from the lovely Meg!
I have two books in the works. The first is MILAGROS: GIRL FROM AWAY (Holt, October 2008), which is the adventure story of 12-year-old Milagros de la Torre, daughter of a ruthless pirate and a magical farmer. When her island home is attacked, she is forced to abandon everything she has ever known with only her wits, a dinghy, and manta rays to guide her.
My second book is TIA ISA WANTS A CAR (forthcoming from Candlewick Press). In this picture book, a girl and her favorite tía scheme to buy the first family automobile.
Now let’s start the interview, Meg. What happened when you received your offer?
I stared at the computer screen in silence for a long time. I suddenly felt as though I had walked through the magic mirror to the place where I could say “I am a writer” and be taken seriously. Then I called my husband and children over to the screen, and we all screamed and cried together.
The big news is that it’s an awful lot like being an unpublished writer. I AM thrilled that my family and friends are excited and that early reports about MILAGROS are positive. But in the end, I am always creating work. I still have to sit in the chair and face a blank page. I still wonder if I have what it takes to do it again. I still crack my knuckles and overeat when it’s going badly. Maybe that changes after the sixth or tenth book? I hope so!
(Snoop says, I know what you mean about the overeating. When things go wrong for me, every vegetable in the country should shake with fear!)
Tell us a little bit about your path to publication.
I had been writing freelance nonfiction for about 10 years and working as a development director at a school for youth with learning disabilities. I spent many years working in jobs that had a bit to do with writing, but were not exactly what I wanted to be doing: writing novels. When I turned 40, I decided to dare. So, I quit my job (frightening my husband in the process) and wrote for about a year. It took six months to find an agent and about a month to sell the manuscript. I hone my craft by reading voraciously, sharing work with a few trusted friends, and by attending workshops when I can afford to.
And here’s our favorite question. How many rejections did you receive IN GENERAL (not just for these books) before you landed your first major publishing contract?
- 0-10
- 11-25
- 26-50
- 51-100
- 100+
- I didn’t keep track because it was too depressing.
- I didn’t keep track because I am not that organized.
- They don’t make a number that big.
- I plead the fifth.
Tell us about some of your most heart-breaking rejections and some of your best.
The hardest rejection was my first, actually. I had completed MILAGROS. The agent worked for a very reputable agency in New York, and I had added hope because this person was the cousin of a very close friend. When he passed, I felt especially embarrassed. My rejections from publishers were actually tolerable. Almost all gave thoughtful letters and reasons. In fact, I kept some of their worries in mind later when I revised my manuscript.
How long did it take to sell your books, from putting the first words on the page to receiving an offer? Here are your choices.
- 0-3 months
- 3-6 months
- 6 months to 1 year
- 1 year – 2 years
- 2 years – 3 years
- 3 years+
- The manuscript has been around longer than I have.
Prior to selling your books, you were …
Working a part-time job unrelated to writing.
I was miserable working at jobs that were somehow more responsible-sounding than “I write fiction.” What a waste of many happy writing years!
Now that you’ve sold some books, you plan to …
Tell us about a typical day in your writing life.
I’m at my computer by 10 am, and I write until about 2 pm every day. I edit in hard copy, a few chapters at a time. When I’m halfway through, I give the manuscript to a trusted friend. That’s when I make sure I’ve got the right hook, tone, and plot line. I do the same when I reach the end.
What are some of the new things you worry about now that you have a contract?
Well, worrying has changed as I’ve moved through the production process. In the beginning, I worried a lot about how to make a strong relationship with my editor so that I would have the courage to continue to make new work. But now, near the publication date, I worry about marketing things. How will I make friends with book sellers? How will I reach readers in a way that matters? How can I sell my books nationwide from my porch in Virginia?
If you’ve already begun or have finished the editorial process, tell us what that’s been like.
Each editor works differently. With one, I work almost exclusively through email and letters. With the other, we work on the phone with the manuscript open on the table. Neither (thank GOD) is fond of line edits. Rather, they give me big picture feedback and made broad suggestions. They give me room to think and problem solve. Usually, I get about a month to do edits. Sometimes, there is another round of edits. Later, copyedits have to be turned around more quickly… about a week. The biggest surprise for me was the lapse of time between the contract and the actually start of editing. With my novel, it was almost a year between the time I was signed to the day that I actually received my first editorial letter. In any case, I am always amazed at the magic that happens to my work in the hands of a good editor. The real book appears as we work on it together.
Describe an ah-ha moment you might have had that influenced your writing in a positive way.
I have learned that aggressive editing is not a sign of failure, but a sign of trust in your skill to imagine new solutions to problems in your manuscript. I’m working on a manuscript now that I basically rewrote from the middle on. I have no idea whether I’ll sell it, but it’s definitely a better manuscript now than it was six months ago.
What is one of the biggest myths in children’s book publishing that you wish aspiring writers would just forget about?
That there are hard and fast “shoulds” in writing. A good book can bend rules we think are sacred; a great book breaks the mold entirely. I think it’s important to be fearless (but not delusional). To me, the only non-negotiable point is that the writing respects the reader and is engaging from one chapter to the next.
Aside from WRITING FOR CHILDREN AND TEENS: A CRASH COURSE (shameless plug!), what other writing books would you recommend?
Finally, got any last words of advice for aspiring authors?
Show up for work. There is no way around the fact that you have to sit in a chair every day and write. Don’t give in to the temptation to fit writing around all other things. You have to make time to write.
This concludes our interview with the magnificent Meg Medina. If you’d like to learn more about Meg, do visit her website at http://www.megmedina.com.
Tune in next week to learn about our next Author on the Verge, picture book author Gayle C. Krause.
Free-tique round is open! Reserved Slots. Now move it!
Posted by Cynthea on July 1st, 2008
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THIS FREETIQUE ROUND IS CLOSED.
Hey everyone,
This is what we’re doing this month. READ THE COMPLETE RULES BELOW before emailing Snoop. Breaking a rule may make your email subject to Snoop’s chomping. So read this carefully.
1) You must be a new tiquee, meaning Snoop has seen no more than 1 page of any of your manuscripts already.
2) The work you want to submit must be Children’s FICTION in any of these categories: picture book, easy reader, chapter book, middle grade or YA.
2) The manuscript can not be under serious consideration by an agent or editor. In other words, if you’re waiting on an agent or editor to give comments, or you’ve received comments and you are working on those revisions, don’t send that MS to Snoop.
3) The prize is a free-tique reserved slot for your full PB ms (max 1000 words) or for longer works, a first chapter line-crit and a 3-chapter big picture summary. If you win, you must redeem your slot by the end of this year. Feedback will be returned no sooner than July 15th.
4) To win, you must answer these questions in the body of your email.
- 1) Why haven’t you linked your website or blog to the coolest, newly-redesigned, children’s writing site on the Internet?
- 2) If you have linked to it, tell Snoop about your site so he can sing your praises by linking back!
- 3) And finally, how handsome and intelligent is Snoop? This one better be good.
PLEASE NOTE: Linking to this site is NOT a requirement for the round. Your answers are what matters, so entertain Snoop as best as you can.
5) Email your answers and attach your manuscript to snoop AT cynthealiu Dot com. YOU MUST title the email: FREE-TIQUE ENTRY: [The format of your work, the word count, MS title]
e.g. FREE-TIQUE ENTRY: MG, 150,000words, Furry Snooper and the Chamber of Lettuce
First three people with the very best answers will win! You will receive an email saying you’ve won. If you don’t get an email back, assume Snoop has picked his winners. Don’t ask Snoop if you won or lost, or he will eat your name off the free-tique list. Sorry, but these are the rules. Snoop has lots to do today… clipping his nails, flossing his incisors, and watching the latest on CNN.
7) Now email your entry (1 per person) to Snoop At Cynthealiu Dot Com. This free-tique round will accept entries until 11:59PM CST TODAY. Winners will be chosen by the end of the week unless otherwise notified.
GOOD LUCK!
Authors on the Verge: Meet Chris Rettstatt, middle-grade fantasy series novelist
Posted by Cynthea on June 27th, 2008
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This week, we have Chris Rettstatt, the creator of Kaimira
First, here’s a little bit about KAIMIRA.
High over China, twelve-year-old Mei arrives at the Sky Village, an intricate web of hot-air balloons floating above an Earth where animals battle machines for control. Deep below the ruins of Las Vegas, thirteen-year-old Rom enters a shadowy world where he is commandeered to fight, gladiator-style, against hybrid demons for the entertainment of a mercenary crowd. Mei and Rom have never met, but they share a common journal — a book that allows them to communicate with each other and reveals that they carry the strange and frightening Kaimira gene, entwining aspects of human, beast, and machine within their very DNA. In this thrilling, intricately plotted novel, Mei and Rom must find the courage to balance the powers that lurk within — and overcome outside forces that seek to destroy them — if they are to survive and save the ones they love.
Now let’s start the interview, Chris. When you received your offer, you …
… nearly cracked a smile. Kidding. I was ecstatic. I had originally pitched Kaimira as a trilogy, and I was asked to rework it into a four- or five-book series. Naturally, I opted for five.
So now that you have a contract, what’s it like to be on the other side–on the verge of publication? What does it feel like to be official?
When someone asks me what it is I do, I no longer feel compelled to lower my voice when I answer that I’m a writer.
Tell us a little bit about your path to publication.
I started writing when I was eight, the moment I’d finished reading Where the Sidewalk Ends. By bedtime I’d filled a notepad with poems. Fast-forward a few years, and teenage me is reading series fantasy like it’s going out of style. Which it never does. Because two decades later, when I’m given an opportunity to pitch a book series for kids, my thoughts turn immediately to series fantasy with a bottomless well of world building.
And why do you choose to write fantasy?
I didn’t always. For a while I wrote exclusively realistic, blue-collar Southern fiction, because I was sticking to the tenet “write what you know.” But I’d never stopped reading and watching fantasy, and I finally decided to try writing it, but with the same grit and realism as my earlier writing.
Now here’s our favorite question. How many rejections did you receive IN GENERAL (not just for these books) before you landed your first major publishing contract?
- 0-10
- 11-25
- 26-50
- 51-100
- 100+
- I didn’t keep track because it was too depressing.
- I didn’t keep track because I am not that organized.
- They don’t make a number that big.
- I plead the fifth.
Tell us about one of your most heart-breaking rejections.
I once received a rejection from a French publisher that was so passionate, I wanted to turn it into an aria. Or a requiem. It felt like they wanted to burn me in effigy.
(Snoop says, Ouch, that’s bad. Try eating a moldy strawberry. Ew!)
How long did it take to sell your books, from putting the first words on the page to receiving an offer? Here are your choices.
- 0-3 months
- 3-6 months
- 6 months to 1 year
- 1 year - 2 years
- 2 years - 3 years
- 3 years+
- The manuscript has been around longer than I have.
Prior to selling your books, what were you doing, Chris?
I worked (and still work) full-time at an entertainment company. The work involves writing but is largely creative development. Part of my job now is working with BBC Worldwide to develop Kaimira into other media, such as gaming and television.
Now that you’ve sold some books, you plan to …
Work twice as hard.
Tell us about a typical day in your writing life.
The phrase “typical day” left my vocabulary on the day my twin girls were born. When living with aspiring toddlers, who seem to feel that every moment of the day is of insurmountable importance, it’s hard not to feel that my own days, hours, and minutes are decidedly atypical.
(Snoop says, Twins? That’s nothing. My cousin had octuplets.)
What are some of the new things you worry about now that you have a contract?
Umm… the fact that I have to write four more 400+ page books?
What is one of the biggest myths in children’s book publishing that you wish aspiring writers would just forget about?
The myth that it gets easier. Publication does open doors, but you’re basically back at the drawing board with every new project. That, and you are trying to market your last project while you work on the next one. It’s fun work for sure, but you have to hang on to that eye of the tiger that fueled and haunted you on your way to publication.
Any inspiring quotes you live by?
“My indirection found direction out.” –Theodore Roethke
‘Tain’t no sin, to take off your skin, and dance around in your bones.” –Walter Donaldson
Finally, do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
My advice is somewhat schizophrenic. On the one hand, you have to understand the business side of publishing. Browse the shelves, talk to librarians, teachers, and booksellers. And most importantly, read what’s out there and think, as objectively and non-defensively as you can, about how your book fits in. On the other hand, you can’t let the business of the business push your buttons or unhook your anchor. Publishing is ultimately about getting great content into the hands of readers. You have to be fiercely loyal to your creative vision. If you aren’t, nob