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Interview: Barbara Ashford
Barbara Ashford will be a guest lecturer at this summer's Odyssey Writing Workshop. She abandoned a career in educational administration to pursue a life in the theatre, working as an actress in summer stock and dinner theatre and later, as a lyricist and librettist. She's written everything from cantatas to choral pieces, one-hour musicals for children to full-length ones for adults. Her musicals have been performed throughout the world, including such venues as the New York Musical Theatre Festival and the Edinburgh International Festival.
In 2000, after Barbara began writing fiction, she attended Odyssey. The workshop provided the supportive feedback and immersion in the craft of writing speculative fiction that she needed to create Heartwood, the first book of her Trickster's Game trilogy (written as Barbara Campbell). Published by DAW Books, Trickster's Game went on to become a finalist for the Mythopoeic Society's 2010 Fantasy Award for adult literature.
Barbara returned to her theatre roots for her most recent novel, Spellcast, a contemporary fantasy set in a magical summer stock theatre in Vermont. She is currently at work on the sequel—Spellcrossed—to be published in June 2012.
Her short fiction has appeared in the anthologies After Hours: Tales from the Ur-Bar and The Modern Fae's Guide to Surviving Humanity (March 2012). When she's not writing, she critiques manuscripts for the Odyssey Critique Service.
Barbara lives in New Rochelle, New York, with her husband, whom she met while performing in the play Bedroom Farce. You can visit her dual selves at barbara-campbell.com and barbara-ashford.com.How would you compare your pre-Odyssey writing to your post-Odyssey writing? What changed the most for you?
Before Odyssey, I’d written one novel, and started and stopped any number of others. I’d start with a premise and plunge into writing without a clear idea of what the story was about. I’d go off in twenty different directions, lose steam, and eventually give up and move on to another project.
Odyssey gave me the essential storytelling tools I needed, especially in terms of developing a cohesive plot and using theme as the “net” that holds a plot together. I came away from the workshop with renewed confidence in myself as a writer and with the tools and determination to finish the novel that later sold to DAW.
Is there a lingering lesson you learned while attending the Odyssey Writing Workshop that you'd like to share?
Write what you’re passionate about. Chasing a market that is always changing is a waste of time. It took me several years to write--and rewrite--Heartwood. But I loved that story and I was determined to make it the best that it could be. In the process, I learned a lot about putting a novel together--and pulling it apart and putting it together again.
As a guest lecturer at the upcoming Odyssey Workshop, you'll be lecturing, workshopping, and critiquing stories. What is the one piece of advice you really want to get across to developing writers?
I was watching the movie Finding Forrester the other day and one line struck me: “Write your first draft from your heart and the second from your head.” Don’t be satisfied with your first draft. Celebrate your accomplishment--and then put on your editing hat and examine what you’ve written with a critical eye. Some of the most powerful moments in my novels arose from digging deeper into the characters and strengthening the story’s thematic threads.
Do you still get involved in the critiquing process with your own work? Do you have a writer's group?
The opening chapters of the Trickster’s Game trilogy were critiqued at The Never-Ending Odyssey, which is a great forum for Odyssey graduates to review each other’s work. There isn’t a local writers’ group near me, but I usually attend one once a year where we critique the synopses of our proposed novels. And while my husband is always my first reader, I send an early draft of my novels to various writing pals--all Odyssey graduates--for feedback.
What is the most valuable thing you've learned from a critique?
I can’t pinpoint one critique and say, “Wow. That changed everything for me.” But the most valuable thing I’ve learned from the critiquing process is to look for common feedback. If one person has a problem with a scene or a character, it’s worth noting, but it may not be worth changing. Let’s face it--people have different tastes and you’re never going to please everyone. But if several people bring up the same concerns, you need to pay attention. Ultimately, though, it’s your book. You have to follow your vision or you’ll be forever tacking back and forth, driven by conflicting comments. That way lies madness!
How many stages does your work go through before you send it off to your publisher? Can you give us a window into what your novel's life schedule is like from idea to first draft birth to book in hand?
It usually takes me eight-nine months to write a novel. That’s neither the final product nor the first draft but somewhere in between, as I edit my work as I go along. I wait until I have a chunk of the book completed before sending it to my editor, but she’s always available if I need to bounce something off of her. We discuss the section she’s read, she raises any issues she might have, and we often throw around ideas for how to address them.
After I send her the complete manuscript--still a draft--I also send the files to my beta readers for feedback. I usually spend about a month on final edits. Those can range from cutting scenes and rewriting problematic ones to merely tightening/clarifying the prose. That’s when I read the entire book aloud to see how it flows. Then the final manuscript goes to Sheila [Gilbert, editor at DAW]. Unless she has changes, the book is “done.” I’ll do minor editing when I review the page proofs (which usually occurs about a month or so after the final manuscript is handed in). It’s another three-four months before the book is published. So from proposal to book-in-hand, it’s generally 16-18 months.
Congratulations on your stories in the recently launched books After Hours: Tales from the Ur-Bar and The Modern Fae's Guide to Surviving Humanity. You don't write a lot of short fiction. Many developing writers are more comfortable writing long rather than short. Can you tell us how you adjust your process to create a short work?
Obviously, the focus is a lot narrower. You don’t have the time (or the word count) for subplots and endless complications. There’s generally a single POV, a single problem to be resolved. Since I was writing for themed anthologies, I also had the specific guidelines for each submission.
After I came up with the premise, I noodled about the scenes I needed to tell the story and the secondary characters required to help illuminate the protagonist’s journey. I knew where the story would begin and end; it was more a question of how to get to the ending. That’s not always the case when I write a novel. (And sometimes, when I think I know the ending, the story takes me somewhere else, which is what happened with Spellcast.)
We're looking forward to Spellcrossed, coming in June 2012. Can you tell us about the process of plotting and writing a sequel?
The process for me is pretty much the same regardless of whether it’s the first novel or a sequel. In some ways, it’s easier to write a sequel--you know the characters now, although you’ll be giving them new problems to solve that might reveal different aspects of their personalities.
Writing Bloodstone and Foxfire (the second and third books in the Trickster’s Game trilogy) was very different from writing Spellcrossed. For one thing, there was a gap of approximately fifteen years between each book in the trilogy. Each involved new settings and a lot of new characters (including the protagonist).
Spellcrossed begins a year after Spellcast ends. It’s told from Maggie’s POV once again. And once again, we’re back at the Crossroads Theatre with most of the same secondary characters on staff. So it was important for relationships to evolve. Some minor characters needed to come to the fore and new ones needed to be introduced to reflect the issues that Maggie was grappling with.
One of the trickiest parts of writing a sequel is figuring out how much backstory to include (especially in the early chapters) and when/how to introduce it without resorting to infodumps. I always find I need less than I think. In Spellcrossed, I used backstory to show the changes at the theatre as well as the changes in Maggie’s life since we saw her last.
What's next for you on the writing-related horizon? Are you starting any new projects?
I’ve got two books in the pipeline--another book in the Crossroads Theatre series and an offbeat paranormal romance. Those will definitely keep me busy for the next year!For more information about Odyssey, its graduates and instructors, please visit our website at http://www.odysseyworkshop.org.
In 2000, after Barbara began writing fiction, she attended Odyssey. The workshop provided the supportive feedback and immersion in the craft of writing speculative fiction that she needed to create Heartwood, the first book of her Trickster's Game trilogy (written as Barbara Campbell). Published by DAW Books, Trickster's Game went on to become a finalist for the Mythopoeic Society's 2010 Fantasy Award for adult literature.
Barbara returned to her theatre roots for her most recent novel, Spellcast, a contemporary fantasy set in a magical summer stock theatre in Vermont. She is currently at work on the sequel—Spellcrossed—to be published in June 2012.
Her short fiction has appeared in the anthologies After Hours: Tales from the Ur-Bar and The Modern Fae's Guide to Surviving Humanity (March 2012). When she's not writing, she critiques manuscripts for the Odyssey Critique Service.
Barbara lives in New Rochelle, New York, with her husband, whom she met while performing in the play Bedroom Farce. You can visit her dual selves at barbara-campbell.com and barbara-ashford.com.How would you compare your pre-Odyssey writing to your post-Odyssey writing? What changed the most for you?
Before Odyssey, I’d written one novel, and started and stopped any number of others. I’d start with a premise and plunge into writing without a clear idea of what the story was about. I’d go off in twenty different directions, lose steam, and eventually give up and move on to another project.
Odyssey gave me the essential storytelling tools I needed, especially in terms of developing a cohesive plot and using theme as the “net” that holds a plot together. I came away from the workshop with renewed confidence in myself as a writer and with the tools and determination to finish the novel that later sold to DAW.
Is there a lingering lesson you learned while attending the Odyssey Writing Workshop that you'd like to share?
Write what you’re passionate about. Chasing a market that is always changing is a waste of time. It took me several years to write--and rewrite--Heartwood. But I loved that story and I was determined to make it the best that it could be. In the process, I learned a lot about putting a novel together--and pulling it apart and putting it together again.
As a guest lecturer at the upcoming Odyssey Workshop, you'll be lecturing, workshopping, and critiquing stories. What is the one piece of advice you really want to get across to developing writers?
I was watching the movie Finding Forrester the other day and one line struck me: “Write your first draft from your heart and the second from your head.” Don’t be satisfied with your first draft. Celebrate your accomplishment--and then put on your editing hat and examine what you’ve written with a critical eye. Some of the most powerful moments in my novels arose from digging deeper into the characters and strengthening the story’s thematic threads.
Do you still get involved in the critiquing process with your own work? Do you have a writer's group?
The opening chapters of the Trickster’s Game trilogy were critiqued at The Never-Ending Odyssey, which is a great forum for Odyssey graduates to review each other’s work. There isn’t a local writers’ group near me, but I usually attend one once a year where we critique the synopses of our proposed novels. And while my husband is always my first reader, I send an early draft of my novels to various writing pals--all Odyssey graduates--for feedback.
What is the most valuable thing you've learned from a critique?
I can’t pinpoint one critique and say, “Wow. That changed everything for me.” But the most valuable thing I’ve learned from the critiquing process is to look for common feedback. If one person has a problem with a scene or a character, it’s worth noting, but it may not be worth changing. Let’s face it--people have different tastes and you’re never going to please everyone. But if several people bring up the same concerns, you need to pay attention. Ultimately, though, it’s your book. You have to follow your vision or you’ll be forever tacking back and forth, driven by conflicting comments. That way lies madness!
How many stages does your work go through before you send it off to your publisher? Can you give us a window into what your novel's life schedule is like from idea to first draft birth to book in hand?
It usually takes me eight-nine months to write a novel. That’s neither the final product nor the first draft but somewhere in between, as I edit my work as I go along. I wait until I have a chunk of the book completed before sending it to my editor, but she’s always available if I need to bounce something off of her. We discuss the section she’s read, she raises any issues she might have, and we often throw around ideas for how to address them.
After I send her the complete manuscript--still a draft--I also send the files to my beta readers for feedback. I usually spend about a month on final edits. Those can range from cutting scenes and rewriting problematic ones to merely tightening/clarifying the prose. That’s when I read the entire book aloud to see how it flows. Then the final manuscript goes to Sheila [Gilbert, editor at DAW]. Unless she has changes, the book is “done.” I’ll do minor editing when I review the page proofs (which usually occurs about a month or so after the final manuscript is handed in). It’s another three-four months before the book is published. So from proposal to book-in-hand, it’s generally 16-18 months.
Congratulations on your stories in the recently launched books After Hours: Tales from the Ur-Bar and The Modern Fae's Guide to Surviving Humanity. You don't write a lot of short fiction. Many developing writers are more comfortable writing long rather than short. Can you tell us how you adjust your process to create a short work?
Obviously, the focus is a lot narrower. You don’t have the time (or the word count) for subplots and endless complications. There’s generally a single POV, a single problem to be resolved. Since I was writing for themed anthologies, I also had the specific guidelines for each submission.
After I came up with the premise, I noodled about the scenes I needed to tell the story and the secondary characters required to help illuminate the protagonist’s journey. I knew where the story would begin and end; it was more a question of how to get to the ending. That’s not always the case when I write a novel. (And sometimes, when I think I know the ending, the story takes me somewhere else, which is what happened with Spellcast.)
We're looking forward to Spellcrossed, coming in June 2012. Can you tell us about the process of plotting and writing a sequel?
The process for me is pretty much the same regardless of whether it’s the first novel or a sequel. In some ways, it’s easier to write a sequel--you know the characters now, although you’ll be giving them new problems to solve that might reveal different aspects of their personalities.
Writing Bloodstone and Foxfire (the second and third books in the Trickster’s Game trilogy) was very different from writing Spellcrossed. For one thing, there was a gap of approximately fifteen years between each book in the trilogy. Each involved new settings and a lot of new characters (including the protagonist).
Spellcrossed begins a year after Spellcast ends. It’s told from Maggie’s POV once again. And once again, we’re back at the Crossroads Theatre with most of the same secondary characters on staff. So it was important for relationships to evolve. Some minor characters needed to come to the fore and new ones needed to be introduced to reflect the issues that Maggie was grappling with.
One of the trickiest parts of writing a sequel is figuring out how much backstory to include (especially in the early chapters) and when/how to introduce it without resorting to infodumps. I always find I need less than I think. In Spellcrossed, I used backstory to show the changes at the theatre as well as the changes in Maggie’s life since we saw her last.
What's next for you on the writing-related horizon? Are you starting any new projects?
I’ve got two books in the pipeline--another book in the Crossroads Theatre series and an offbeat paranormal romance. Those will definitely keep me busy for the next year!For more information about Odyssey, its graduates and instructors, please visit our website at http://www.odysseyworkshop.org.
Categories: Writing
Interview: Craig Shaw Gardner
Craig Shaw Gardner will be a guest lecturer at this summer's Odyssey Writing Workshop. He sold his first short story in 1977, and began writing full time in 1987. He has published over thirty novels ranging from his first, A Malady of Magics, to the Changeling War fantasy trilogy, written by "Peter Garrison," to the horror novel Dark Whispers, written by "Chris Blaine." Along the way, he's done a number of media tie-ins, one of which--the novelization of Batman--became a New York Times bestseller. He's also the author of more than forty short horror and fantasy stories, which have mostly appeared in original anthologies. Gardner has also served as both President and Trustee for the Horror Writers Association.
You write a lot of horror, but you also write humorous and epic fantasy. How do your techniques and approaches change when you write in these different genres?
Every story I write has its own "voice." I need to find that special approach in order to make that story work. Even with a fully-formed idea, this can be one of the most time consuming aspects of writing just about anything.
I have to find a way to clue the reader into what universe they are entering. I can do this by something as simple as prefacing every chapter with a humorous quotation (as I did in all the Ebenezum books and stories). I can plunge the reader into the middle of an action scene (Never a bad idea--especially with a short story) that hopefully pulls the reader into the story. I can present a character with an internal dilemma. This often works well in a short horror story, getting the reader to identify with the protagonist's situation before the story opens up to show the larger "reality" of the universe I'm creating. I have to figure out how to juggle the writer's toolbox--character/plot/point-of-view/setting/theme/etc.--to get the best, and usually simplest, direction to tell the story. And this process is different every time I use it, even with stories that are sequels to other stories!
You have used several pseudonyms in your career. You wrote The Changeling War fantasy trilogy under the name Peter Garrison. Do you recommend up-and-comers prepare themselves for possibly needing a pen name? What are the business reasons for taking on a pen name?
The writing marketplace is constantly changing--at this point, I don't think anybody knows where it's going. The traditional publishing POV was to establish a "brand," so that readers will come back, looking for more of what you have to offer. I have managed to work in four different sub-genres of the fantasy field: (1) humorous fantasy, (2) epic fantasy, (3) horror, and (4) media-related. (I've also written some sf and mystery stories, but short stories are read by so few people that they don't seem to effect that "brand" thing.) Sometimes, this crossover stuff has helped me. The fact that I had written both humor and horror got me the opportunity to write the novelization of the first Batman movie, which became a New York Times bestseller and got me on the Today show. It also got my regular books to sell really well. But when I decided to make the shift into more traditional fantasy, I think that a certain number of my readers became disappointed that these new books weren't in the mold of the dozen that had come before, and my sales suffered. So I became Peter Garrison, to get away from any preconceived notions of what my books might be.
As a beginning writer, I would concentrate on developing a brand under a single name--unless you were breaking into two fields with very different audiences--say science fiction and romance.
Many writers struggle over how much description to include, which things to describe, and how to describe them. Can you talk about how you make these decisions?
Readers always want to be transported to other places, and these places need a certain amount of description to make them real. But too much description can bog a story down. The simplest compromise is to show description through your character's point-of-view. The things you show will be more important to the reader because they are important to your protagonist.
Your career spans more than three decades. How have things changed regarding the actual style of writing that editors are buying?
I actually don't think it has changed all that much. Editorial fads come and go, but I believe a well-written story will sell eventually.
How has the business of books changed in that time?
Once upon a time, everybody thought they could write a book. Now everybody thinks they can publish a book. So the Internet is crowded with a lot of unknown, self-published stuff, most of which is also unedited and unreadable. Writers still need to find ways to differentiate themselves from the masses. Working through traditional publishing is still the easiest method to give yourself validity And by traditional publishing, I mean short story and novel markets that pay professional rates.
Your agent is Jennifer Jackson, and we interviewed her last month. What advice do you have regarding finding the right agent and building a solid work relationship?
Find an agent who knows the markets that you write for. Talk to that agent about what is and isn't selling. And use that agent to get as much money as you can out of a publisher. You also need to strike up ongoing relationships with your editors whenever possible.
As a guest lecturer at the upcoming Odyssey Workshop, you'll be lecturing, workshopping, and critiquing stories. What is the one piece of advice you really want to give to developing writers?
You are your own first reader. You have to enjoy what you are putting on paper before anybody else can.
What's next on your writing-related horizon? Are there any new projects in the works?
My second collection of stories, A Cold Wind in July, has just been released. This is a book of my horror stories this time around, and it's the first thing I've done to come out as an e-book!
I have a new humorous fantasy under submission to a publisher, and am putting the finishing touches on a longish YA fantasy novel. I am also beginning to put eighteen of my earlier books online as e-books, starting with A Malady of Magicks, which should be available in a month or so.For more information about Odyssey, its graduates and instructors, please visit our website at http://www.odysseyworkshop.org.
You write a lot of horror, but you also write humorous and epic fantasy. How do your techniques and approaches change when you write in these different genres?
Every story I write has its own "voice." I need to find that special approach in order to make that story work. Even with a fully-formed idea, this can be one of the most time consuming aspects of writing just about anything.
I have to find a way to clue the reader into what universe they are entering. I can do this by something as simple as prefacing every chapter with a humorous quotation (as I did in all the Ebenezum books and stories). I can plunge the reader into the middle of an action scene (Never a bad idea--especially with a short story) that hopefully pulls the reader into the story. I can present a character with an internal dilemma. This often works well in a short horror story, getting the reader to identify with the protagonist's situation before the story opens up to show the larger "reality" of the universe I'm creating. I have to figure out how to juggle the writer's toolbox--character/plot/point-of-view/setting/theme/etc.--to get the best, and usually simplest, direction to tell the story. And this process is different every time I use it, even with stories that are sequels to other stories!
You have used several pseudonyms in your career. You wrote The Changeling War fantasy trilogy under the name Peter Garrison. Do you recommend up-and-comers prepare themselves for possibly needing a pen name? What are the business reasons for taking on a pen name?
The writing marketplace is constantly changing--at this point, I don't think anybody knows where it's going. The traditional publishing POV was to establish a "brand," so that readers will come back, looking for more of what you have to offer. I have managed to work in four different sub-genres of the fantasy field: (1) humorous fantasy, (2) epic fantasy, (3) horror, and (4) media-related. (I've also written some sf and mystery stories, but short stories are read by so few people that they don't seem to effect that "brand" thing.) Sometimes, this crossover stuff has helped me. The fact that I had written both humor and horror got me the opportunity to write the novelization of the first Batman movie, which became a New York Times bestseller and got me on the Today show. It also got my regular books to sell really well. But when I decided to make the shift into more traditional fantasy, I think that a certain number of my readers became disappointed that these new books weren't in the mold of the dozen that had come before, and my sales suffered. So I became Peter Garrison, to get away from any preconceived notions of what my books might be.
As a beginning writer, I would concentrate on developing a brand under a single name--unless you were breaking into two fields with very different audiences--say science fiction and romance.
Many writers struggle over how much description to include, which things to describe, and how to describe them. Can you talk about how you make these decisions?
Readers always want to be transported to other places, and these places need a certain amount of description to make them real. But too much description can bog a story down. The simplest compromise is to show description through your character's point-of-view. The things you show will be more important to the reader because they are important to your protagonist.
Your career spans more than three decades. How have things changed regarding the actual style of writing that editors are buying?
I actually don't think it has changed all that much. Editorial fads come and go, but I believe a well-written story will sell eventually.
How has the business of books changed in that time?
Once upon a time, everybody thought they could write a book. Now everybody thinks they can publish a book. So the Internet is crowded with a lot of unknown, self-published stuff, most of which is also unedited and unreadable. Writers still need to find ways to differentiate themselves from the masses. Working through traditional publishing is still the easiest method to give yourself validity And by traditional publishing, I mean short story and novel markets that pay professional rates.
Your agent is Jennifer Jackson, and we interviewed her last month. What advice do you have regarding finding the right agent and building a solid work relationship?
Find an agent who knows the markets that you write for. Talk to that agent about what is and isn't selling. And use that agent to get as much money as you can out of a publisher. You also need to strike up ongoing relationships with your editors whenever possible.
As a guest lecturer at the upcoming Odyssey Workshop, you'll be lecturing, workshopping, and critiquing stories. What is the one piece of advice you really want to give to developing writers?
You are your own first reader. You have to enjoy what you are putting on paper before anybody else can.
What's next on your writing-related horizon? Are there any new projects in the works?
My second collection of stories, A Cold Wind in July, has just been released. This is a book of my horror stories this time around, and it's the first thing I've done to come out as an e-book!
I have a new humorous fantasy under submission to a publisher, and am putting the finishing touches on a longish YA fantasy novel. I am also beginning to put eighteen of my earlier books online as e-books, starting with A Malady of Magicks, which should be available in a month or so.For more information about Odyssey, its graduates and instructors, please visit our website at http://www.odysseyworkshop.org.
Categories: Writing
Interview: Jennifer Jackson
Jennifer Jackson will be a guest lecturer at this summer's Odyssey Writing Workshop. She is Vice President of the Donald Maass Literary Agency, which she joined in 1993. Growing up reading science fiction and fantasy led naturally to a concentration in that genre, which she continues to champion. After pioneering the expansion of the agency into the areas of romance and women's fiction, she is now developing her list in the mystery and suspense genres. She is also looking for YA fiction, both literary and commercial, in all genres.
Her current roster includes New York Times best-selling fantasy writer Jim Butcher, Hugo Award-winning science fiction author Elizabeth Bear, USA Today best-selling author Anne Bishop, Anthony Award finalist Chris F. Holm, and Nebula and Hugo finalist Cherie Priest. Previously, she worked as a bookseller for Waldenbooks, and also for Forbidden Planet, the retail division of London's Titan Books. She maintains a personal website at http://www.jenniferjackson.org/ and blogs at http://arcaedia.wordpress.com/.What is the one thing you would like to convey above all else to authors who are preparing to submit material to you? Is there one particular requirement in your submission guidelines that authors tend to overlook or ignore?
I think the most important thing is not to rush into submissions. Make sure that what's getting sent really is the best work it can be. As for the guidelines, sending the right number of pages with the initial query seems to be the most often neglected item. Our guidelines call for the first five pages of a novel. I'm not a rules-lawyer about it, but the number of people who don't include pages at all or include fifty pages or more is surprising.
You mentioned in your blog that approaching an agent at a convention is acceptable behavior (especially if you offer to buy the agent a drink!), but the reality is that you are a busy woman at conventions, and sometimes writers feel shut out. Any advice?
Be genuine. One of my newest clients met me at a convention. As it happened they were sitting with a writer-friend of mine who isn't a client, and when I stopped to say hello, they invited me to join them. It was purely social and a really nice time. That author didn't pitch me then, but I knew of their work and remembered them when their query came later. So, if you're at a convention, spend time with people and take opportunities as they occur. But don't take it personally if someone is on a schedule--just try to make a good impression and say hello again if you see them later on.
As you think about some of the new writers you have taken on recently, what qualities made them or their work stand out to you?
I have a weakness for what I call prose-ninjas. These are talented language-smiths who make beautiful sentences and evoke a depth of setting and articulate characters and their emotions in a striking way. I also find that I'm drawn to those stories that bend or transcend their genre. The conversation of literature that's going on in speculative fiction right now is fascinating.
What advice can you give to the writer who has an offer from an editor/publisher but is not yet represented by an agent?
Ask the editor for time to consult agents and get a reasonable deadline. Then, email your top agent choices, being sure to put something in the subject line about having an offer. Don't forget to follow the guidelines even at this stage. And give the agents enough information to be able to get back to you quickly, including information about the publisher. An example of what not to do is to send a one-line email such as "offer received from un-named publisher--need help fast." It's an exciting time. Enjoy it. But remember to always have a professional approach which will benefit you long term.
What prompted you to blog with the tag "Letters from the Query Wars"? Does it feel like a war to you some days? All days?
At the time that was a tongue-in-cheek title after "Letters from the Front." The battle back then seemed to be finding a way to respond in a timely fashion and still give everyone professional and fair consideration. Then the title just stuck.
What about your entertaining tag "Agent Manners"? Is there a story behind starting these posts? Are they making a positive difference?
Those were a spin on the classic "Miss Manners" columns--an old family friend had given me a copy of the book as a gift. I haven't posted that column in a while but I hope to start them up again sometime in the future as they seemed to get a good response.
You're coming up on twenty years with the Donald Maass Literary Agency. Are you planning to do anything special for that? Will there be a celebration? Ice cream?
For my ten year anniversary at the Donald Maass Literary Agency, the whole agency went out to Jean Georges for dinner. It was the best meal of my life and still is (with apologies to Michael Mina). It's sure going to be hard to top.
In that twenty years, how many authors have you signed? Is there a limit to how many you can represent at one time?
Of course there has to be a limit. There are only so many hours in a day. As for how many authors, there are a lot of variables involved. For instance, some authors write quite quickly and do more than one book per year but others take more time and may produce a novel every few years. It also depends on how much support an individual author needs in developing their work or planning their career or even how much subsidiary rights activity they might generate. So, in short, there's no simple answer to this one.
You wrote about the pleasures of agenting on your blog. Do you have a favorite moment or story you can share?
Wow. Well, that's tough to narrow down. There are some great milestones: Like the first time I held a finished book in my hand written by an author that I represented. Or the first time one of my clients hit the New York Times List. Or sitting next to a client at the Hugo Awards when their name was announced as the winner. I get a lot out of being a part of the author's journey, and if I could go back in time and tell younger me this was what I'd be doing, I think she'd really be looking forward to it.For more information about Odyssey, its graduates and instructors, please visit our website at http://www.odysseyworkshop.org.
Her current roster includes New York Times best-selling fantasy writer Jim Butcher, Hugo Award-winning science fiction author Elizabeth Bear, USA Today best-selling author Anne Bishop, Anthony Award finalist Chris F. Holm, and Nebula and Hugo finalist Cherie Priest. Previously, she worked as a bookseller for Waldenbooks, and also for Forbidden Planet, the retail division of London's Titan Books. She maintains a personal website at http://www.jenniferjackson.org/ and blogs at http://arcaedia.wordpress.com/.What is the one thing you would like to convey above all else to authors who are preparing to submit material to you? Is there one particular requirement in your submission guidelines that authors tend to overlook or ignore?
I think the most important thing is not to rush into submissions. Make sure that what's getting sent really is the best work it can be. As for the guidelines, sending the right number of pages with the initial query seems to be the most often neglected item. Our guidelines call for the first five pages of a novel. I'm not a rules-lawyer about it, but the number of people who don't include pages at all or include fifty pages or more is surprising.
You mentioned in your blog that approaching an agent at a convention is acceptable behavior (especially if you offer to buy the agent a drink!), but the reality is that you are a busy woman at conventions, and sometimes writers feel shut out. Any advice?
Be genuine. One of my newest clients met me at a convention. As it happened they were sitting with a writer-friend of mine who isn't a client, and when I stopped to say hello, they invited me to join them. It was purely social and a really nice time. That author didn't pitch me then, but I knew of their work and remembered them when their query came later. So, if you're at a convention, spend time with people and take opportunities as they occur. But don't take it personally if someone is on a schedule--just try to make a good impression and say hello again if you see them later on.
As you think about some of the new writers you have taken on recently, what qualities made them or their work stand out to you?
I have a weakness for what I call prose-ninjas. These are talented language-smiths who make beautiful sentences and evoke a depth of setting and articulate characters and their emotions in a striking way. I also find that I'm drawn to those stories that bend or transcend their genre. The conversation of literature that's going on in speculative fiction right now is fascinating.
What advice can you give to the writer who has an offer from an editor/publisher but is not yet represented by an agent?
Ask the editor for time to consult agents and get a reasonable deadline. Then, email your top agent choices, being sure to put something in the subject line about having an offer. Don't forget to follow the guidelines even at this stage. And give the agents enough information to be able to get back to you quickly, including information about the publisher. An example of what not to do is to send a one-line email such as "offer received from un-named publisher--need help fast." It's an exciting time. Enjoy it. But remember to always have a professional approach which will benefit you long term.
What prompted you to blog with the tag "Letters from the Query Wars"? Does it feel like a war to you some days? All days?
At the time that was a tongue-in-cheek title after "Letters from the Front." The battle back then seemed to be finding a way to respond in a timely fashion and still give everyone professional and fair consideration. Then the title just stuck.
What about your entertaining tag "Agent Manners"? Is there a story behind starting these posts? Are they making a positive difference?
Those were a spin on the classic "Miss Manners" columns--an old family friend had given me a copy of the book as a gift. I haven't posted that column in a while but I hope to start them up again sometime in the future as they seemed to get a good response.
You're coming up on twenty years with the Donald Maass Literary Agency. Are you planning to do anything special for that? Will there be a celebration? Ice cream?
For my ten year anniversary at the Donald Maass Literary Agency, the whole agency went out to Jean Georges for dinner. It was the best meal of my life and still is (with apologies to Michael Mina). It's sure going to be hard to top.
In that twenty years, how many authors have you signed? Is there a limit to how many you can represent at one time?
Of course there has to be a limit. There are only so many hours in a day. As for how many authors, there are a lot of variables involved. For instance, some authors write quite quickly and do more than one book per year but others take more time and may produce a novel every few years. It also depends on how much support an individual author needs in developing their work or planning their career or even how much subsidiary rights activity they might generate. So, in short, there's no simple answer to this one.
You wrote about the pleasures of agenting on your blog. Do you have a favorite moment or story you can share?
Wow. Well, that's tough to narrow down. There are some great milestones: Like the first time I held a finished book in my hand written by an author that I represented. Or the first time one of my clients hit the New York Times List. Or sitting next to a client at the Hugo Awards when their name was announced as the winner. I get a lot out of being a part of the author's journey, and if I could go back in time and tell younger me this was what I'd be doing, I think she'd really be looking forward to it.For more information about Odyssey, its graduates and instructors, please visit our website at http://www.odysseyworkshop.org.
Categories: Writing
Interview: Paul Park
Paul Park will be a guest lecturer at this summer's Odyssey Writing Workshop. He has written a dozen novels in a variety of genres. His most recent work includes a steampunk story in an upcoming anthology, an apocalyptic science-fiction Icelandic Edda, and a Forgotten Realms novel called The Rose of Sarifal, to be published under the pseudonym Paulina Claiborne. His novella Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance, nominated for the 2010 Nebula and Sturgeon Awards, will soon appear in an expanded, illustrated version from PS Publishing. He teaches writing and literature at Williams College in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife and two children.Your books often deal with religion. What fascinates you about the subject? Do you have specific themes in mind when you begin working on a piece?
I feel that I've moved away from religion in my recent books, but you're right--there's a way in which the three Starbridge books are about religion, and of course The Gospel of Corax and Three Marys, which are retellings of the story of Jesus of Nazareth. I guess I'm interested in failure, and what happens when you take genuinely transcendent spiritual ideas and use them to animate a human construct like a church or a temple or a social movement, which, like all human constructs, will quickly sink into a stew of money, and hatred, and power, and sex. It is the combination of the highest strivings of the individual with the inevitable corruption of the institution that makes religion so poignant.
Themes--not so much. I don't worry about themes until the book is done, then [sometimes] I . . . bury them. Themes are what English teachers look for. I usually proceed from flashes of images, landscapes, emotions.
Why do you choose to write about religion within the genre of science fiction instead of fantasy or some other genre?
Well, I'm not sure that's what I do. I was never convinced the Starbridge books were science fiction in a classic sense. The problem is, I think "fantasy" as a marketing category is narrower than it should be. There's no magic in the Starbridge books, no supernatural events. But does that make them science fiction? I'm not sure.
Once you started writing seriously, how long did it take for your writing to sell? What changed for you that made the difference?
I quit a job in advertising to write a mystery novel, which never sold. Soldiers of Paradise was my second book. I wrote it in India and Southeast Asia, and it took me about a year. Then I came back and scrounged around for an agent. Once I found one, the book sold in about two weeks. What changed was that I figured out enough about the industry to direct my book to people who had a chance of liking it and publishing it.
As a guest lecturer at this summer’s Odyssey Workshop, you’ll be lecturing, workshopping, and meeting individually with students. What do you think is the most important advice you can give to developing writers?
Half of writing is blundering forward on your own, and not listening to anyone. The other half is as technical and uncreative as plumbing, or electrical engineering. There's a lot to learn.
In the Roumania Series, The Hidden World is book number four. Is there more to come? Did you know when you began the series that it would have four books? How do you handle the plotting of multiple books? Do you plan your plots in advance?
I originally hoped to write one big thumper of a book, and my rough draft was A Princess of Roumania plus most of The Tourmaline. It was really long, and still didn't come to an end. So David Hartwell told me to break what I had into manageable lengths and keep on going. Most of my books I don't plot in advance--I guess I plotted out Celestis and the two Jesus books. The rest, I write behind a moving front--maybe forty pages out. Or I write toward a sentence, or an image.
What’s next on the writing-related horizon for you?
I'm working on a series of interlocking meta-fictional novellas--I suppose you'd call the genre "pseudo-memoir"--that I want to work as a short novel. One of them is a novella called Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance, which came out from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 2010. If you're familiar with that, the novel will include more of the same, a mixture of made-up and "real" events, a character named "Paul Park" who is not me, though his life has overlapped with mine in various places, especially in the future.
After that, I think I'm going to write a YA fantasy.For more information about Odyssey, its graduates and instructors, please visit our website at http://www.odysseyworkshop.org.
I feel that I've moved away from religion in my recent books, but you're right--there's a way in which the three Starbridge books are about religion, and of course The Gospel of Corax and Three Marys, which are retellings of the story of Jesus of Nazareth. I guess I'm interested in failure, and what happens when you take genuinely transcendent spiritual ideas and use them to animate a human construct like a church or a temple or a social movement, which, like all human constructs, will quickly sink into a stew of money, and hatred, and power, and sex. It is the combination of the highest strivings of the individual with the inevitable corruption of the institution that makes religion so poignant.
Themes--not so much. I don't worry about themes until the book is done, then [sometimes] I . . . bury them. Themes are what English teachers look for. I usually proceed from flashes of images, landscapes, emotions.
Why do you choose to write about religion within the genre of science fiction instead of fantasy or some other genre?
Well, I'm not sure that's what I do. I was never convinced the Starbridge books were science fiction in a classic sense. The problem is, I think "fantasy" as a marketing category is narrower than it should be. There's no magic in the Starbridge books, no supernatural events. But does that make them science fiction? I'm not sure.
Once you started writing seriously, how long did it take for your writing to sell? What changed for you that made the difference?
I quit a job in advertising to write a mystery novel, which never sold. Soldiers of Paradise was my second book. I wrote it in India and Southeast Asia, and it took me about a year. Then I came back and scrounged around for an agent. Once I found one, the book sold in about two weeks. What changed was that I figured out enough about the industry to direct my book to people who had a chance of liking it and publishing it.
As a guest lecturer at this summer’s Odyssey Workshop, you’ll be lecturing, workshopping, and meeting individually with students. What do you think is the most important advice you can give to developing writers?
Half of writing is blundering forward on your own, and not listening to anyone. The other half is as technical and uncreative as plumbing, or electrical engineering. There's a lot to learn.
In the Roumania Series, The Hidden World is book number four. Is there more to come? Did you know when you began the series that it would have four books? How do you handle the plotting of multiple books? Do you plan your plots in advance?
I originally hoped to write one big thumper of a book, and my rough draft was A Princess of Roumania plus most of The Tourmaline. It was really long, and still didn't come to an end. So David Hartwell told me to break what I had into manageable lengths and keep on going. Most of my books I don't plot in advance--I guess I plotted out Celestis and the two Jesus books. The rest, I write behind a moving front--maybe forty pages out. Or I write toward a sentence, or an image.
What’s next on the writing-related horizon for you?
I'm working on a series of interlocking meta-fictional novellas--I suppose you'd call the genre "pseudo-memoir"--that I want to work as a short novel. One of them is a novella called Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance, which came out from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 2010. If you're familiar with that, the novel will include more of the same, a mixture of made-up and "real" events, a character named "Paul Park" who is not me, though his life has overlapped with mine in various places, especially in the future.
After that, I think I'm going to write a YA fantasy.For more information about Odyssey, its graduates and instructors, please visit our website at http://www.odysseyworkshop.org.
Categories: Writing
