Meet Heather Duffy Stone

Are you ready to meet another fabulous debut author?

Heather Duffy Stone writes stories and essays that are mostly inspired by high school—either her own or someone else's. She has lived in Vermont, England, Los Angeles, rural New York and Rome, Italy. For now she cooks, sleeps, explores, writes and teaches in Brooklyn, New York.

She wrote THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO TELL YOU, a haunting story about how secrets can consume a friendship:

Fraternal twins Nadio and Noelle share a close connection—and as Noelle's best friend since they were five, Keeley Shipley fits perfectly into their world. But everything changes after Keeley spends the summer before junior year at Oxford. When Keeley returns, Nadio falls in love with her. Noelle, ripped apart by resentment, sees her as an ungrateful rich girl. But Keeley has a painful story that she can't tell yet. As Nadio and Keeley hide their romance, Noelle dives into something of her own—a destructive affair with an older boy.

I caught up with Heather during her busy debut to ask her a few questions.

One of your characters considers getting a tattoo. Do you have a tattoo? Have you ever thought of getting one? Why not?

ooo. Yes. When I finished this book I said I was going to get a tattoo. I don't have one yet, but I'm going to get one. I know exactly what it is. I carry it around in my bag. I won't tell anyone when I'm doing it though. I see it as a tribute to these characters, who mean so much to me.

If you could visit any place and time for a week, where and when would it be?

I'd re-live a certain drive down the coast of California on a spring weekend about six years ago...I'd lie in the grass dreaming about everything to come during the last week of my senior year of boarding school...I'd go back to that week in southern Turkey. Or, I'd go to Woodstock. I always felt like I was born in the wrong decade.

Woodstock had to be amazing...except maybe for the brown acid. Do you ever experience writer's block?

I certainly get stuck on things. But I usually just write my way through it. Or I do a lot of re-reading. The more times I read a scene, the more it becomes clear what needs to go before or after or in the middle of it.

Do you play music when you write? Have a cup of Chai at your elbow? A cat on your lap?

Sometimes. Lately I've been listening to a lot of Elliot Smith while working on my WIP. I like sunlight. A comfy place to sit, and yet a chair that keeps my back straight. Coffee. I like people around me. Open windows are ideal--street sounds, river sounds, small town sounds. It doesn't matter, I just like the sounds of what is going on around me. I like to look up from my screen and see thing going on.

That sounds like a perfect writing arrangement to me. Thanks so much for visiting my blog.

For more fun with Heather, visit her website and buy her book!

http://www.heatherduffystone.com

http://www.amazon.com/This-What-Want-Tell-You/dp/073871450X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231340145&sr=8-1

Author interview with Jenny Moss

Meet debut author, Jenny Moss. A few months ago, I had the opportunity to read her historical novel, Winnie’s War set during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. The pages turned themselves as I delved into Winnie’s life as it was turned upside down when the Spanish Flu found her hometown in Texas. There are many subplots, and a lot of action, and yet the characters are lovingly drawn, and the story is poignant through and through.

JENNY MOSS is a former NASA engineer. She earned a master's degree in literature and taught writing as an adjunct at University of Houston-Clear Lake. Winnie's War is her first novel. She lives with her two teenagers in Houston, Texas.

She took some time out of her busy life to answer a few questions.

If you could visit any place and time (past/present/future) for a week, where and when would it be?

1920s Paris.

Nice choice! Do you play music when you write? Have a cup of Chai at your elbow? A cat on your lap?

I don't play music when I write. But I do think about my characters when I listen to certain songs.


Do you ever experience writer's block? What do you to knock yourself out of it If not, what's your secret?


Not much until last spring and summer. I'm not sure I have a secret. I just kept writing and tried not to get too frustrated.

Thank you for stopping by, Jenny!

Thank you!



Check out her website and buy her book!

o Author Web site: http://www.jenny-moss.com

o Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Winnies-War-Jenny-Moss/dp/0802798195

Author interview with Stacey Jay

It’s time to meet another amazing 2009 debut novelist, Stacey Jay. Her YA paranormal romance, YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME, is on bookshelves now! Stacey Jay is a workaholic with three pen names, four kids, and a decidedly macabre sense of humor. She loves zombies, creepies, crawlies, blood, guts, gore, and of course, romance.

Megan Berry's social life is so dead. Literally. Fifteen-year-old Megan Berry is a Zombie Settler by birth, which means she's part-time shrink to a bunch of dead people. All Megan wants is to be normal--and go to homecoming. But someone in school is using black magic to turn average, angsty Undead into flesh-eating Zombies, and it's looking like homecoming will turn out to be a very different kind of party--the bloody kind.

Stacey took a little time from the whirlwind of her life to answer a few questions.

I'm a very squeamish person, and tend to avoid horror of any kind. Will I be able to enjoy your book? Even if I faint at the sight of blood? And the thought of vampires makes me put my hands over my throat for protection? And I'm prone to nightmares?

Lol! Well...I think you'll be able to handle it. The horror is campy horror, not pee your pants in fear horror. Think Buffy, not 28 Days Later. But just in case, I'd advise reading during the daylight hours. And with a cat on your lap and maybe a mild sedative at hand :).

If you could visit any place and time (past/present/future) for a week, where and when would it be?

I'd have to go back in time to the Victorian Age in London. That time has always fascinated me and I'd love to wear big dresses for a week (but not any longer, I couldn't deal with a corset long term.)

LOL. I like food too much to ever wear a corset. Do you play music when you write? Have a cup of Chai at your elbow? A cat on your lap?

Nope, no music. If I listen to music, I can't concentrate. But I LOVE a cup of coffee at my elbow and would totally have a cat if I didn't have so many kids. (My hubs is anti cat until we get a few of the people children out of the house.)

Do you ever experience writer's block?

I don't know if I get writer's block so much as writer's burn out. I've taken on a lot these past two years and sometimes my muse gets cranky and wants a break. Sometimes I can give her that break, but sometimes I have to push on through. In the second case, I take a half hour or so and free-write, letting myself work on something fun not related to my current WIP. That usually gets the muse feeling perky again and ready to contribute to the process on the WIP.

You are both wise and funny, Stacey. Thanks for visiting!

Thanks Lauren!! Can't wait to have you back to my blog!

o Author Web site: http://staceyjay.com

o Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/You-Are-So-Undead-Me/dp/1595142258/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1225898596&sr=1-1

Query Letters

I was talking to a self-published author friend of mine, and he commented that most agents don't accept submissions, so everything was hopeless, blah, blah, blah.

True or False?

True, most (if not all) agents don't accept full manuscripts. But...
most agents accept queries.

So get off your duff and write one!
Except ten out of twelve writers agree that writing a killer query letter is harder than writing a novel.

What goes in a killer query letter?

1. An introductory paragraph about why you're approaching this particular agent.
2. A synopsis
3. A paragraph about you

IM (not so) HO the best queries fit on a single page, especially when querying agents that represent MG and YA.

For help on writing a query letter, visit literary agent Nathan Bransford's two part blog titled the anatomy of a query letter:

nathanbransford.blogspot.com/2006/11/anatomy-of-good-query-letter.html

AND

nathanbransford.blogspot.com/2007/05/anatomy-of-good-query-letter-ii.html

Next up:
How to get your query letter critiqued
Where to send your query letter
Tips on submitting query letters

Stay tuned.

Mother Son Book Clubs

I have belonged to one book club or another for more than ten years. I like them! My book club homies motivate me to read challenging books, ones I would’ve never picked up on my own. Our discussions take us to wild and true places. But I’ve never belonged to a Mother Daughter Book Club. I don’t have a daughter. I have two sons, though, and they both love to read.

So what if I started a Mother Son Book Club? Maybe that would be a good activity for when the teen-age years hit (in 1 year, 1 month, and 5 days). A quick trip to the land of Google yielded little. I found one interview here:

http://litguides.com/2008/07/23/mother-son-book-club/

Just like in my regular book club, we could choose books that lead to excellent discussions about the nature of good and evil, difficult choices, and world history.

I’m considering: Elijah of Buxton, The Golden Compass, Holes, and the Lightning Thief.

Any other suggestions?

My husband thinks this idea is about as crazy as Father Daughter Balls, btw. But I'm not so sure.

Are We There Yet?

How do you know if your mss is ready for submission?

You finished the first draft yesterday

Your mom loves it

You did spell check on it

You're tired of looking at it

NOT!

Your critique group thinks it's ready*

*note: provided that your critique group isn't afraid of hurting your feelings

You've polished, polished, and polished it some more*

*note: till it gleams

OK, your manuscript is all shiny and ready to go out on a date.

First homework assignment--read Miss Snark's blog archives. She's mysterious and hysterically funny agent who blogged. She let her blog go dark, but not before she answered a million questions from her snarklings. I learned so much from her.

http://misssnark.blogspot.com/

Do you have to read the whole thing?
No. But once you get started, I think you'll have a hard time stopping.

I'll talk about query letters next.

Submitting: Editor vs. Agent

After finishing* (see footnote) my first novel, I joined SCBWI, and submitted to editors listed in their newsletter. And I bought a copy of the Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market to find more editors that might be interested in my book.

I did this for years.

Send a letter plus three chapters, check the mail box daily, open rejection letter, cry...rinse and repeat.

And guess what?

I survived. But I didn't get my book deal that way. And most of the 2009 debut authors I've met didn't get their book deals that way either.

After years of submitting, I switched camps. I firmly, vigorously, most vociferously insist that you (first purge all the superfluous adverbs from your mss and then) query agents instead of editors because--

-an agent will give you access to editors that don't take unagented submissions
(like mine)
- an agent will often help you improve your mss and your pitch
- an agent will negotiate a better deal for you
- many slushpile submissions to editors are read by an underpaid assistant
- some editors want to read through their slushpile, but never get around to it

An aside: Don't submit to both. Many agents won't (joyfully) represent a mss that has been submitted all over the place...and rejected.

* And now for the footnote:
How do you know when your mss is finished?
I'll present my thoughts on topic in my next blog.

So please come back.