September Mystery Agent Reveal and Winners!

Our September Mystery Agent was . . .




KATHLEEN ZAKHAR OF HAROLD OBER ASSOCIATES INC.

Kathleen Zakhar is an associate literary agent at Harold Ober Associates Inc. Hailing from the deserts of Tucson, Kathleen graduated with a dual degree in Creative Writing and Finance from the University of Arizona. Having previously worked as a SEO content writer and arts reporter, Kathleen began her publishing career with internships at Jill Grinberg Literary Management, Foundry Literary + Media, and McIntosh & Otis. You’ll also find her on Twitter @kzakhar

Kathleen loves all things young adult and is also actively looking for adult science fiction, fantasy in all its varieties, historical fiction, and horror novels. She enjoys quirky middle grade tales with captivating adventures and original voices, and will also accept picture books. Kathleen has a special place in her heart for sweeping love stories, magical realism, inventive world-building, repurposed folklore, dark comedy, and genre-bending novels.

Ready for the winners? Here are the projects that caught Kathleen's eye:

Winner of a FULL manuscript request: CIRQUE by Faith E. Hough

Winner of a request for the 1ST 50 PAGES: GERALD by Carl Hackman

Winner of a request for the 1ST 25 PAGES: THE LYMAN LEVELS by Jessica Hoefer

Winner of a query submission: ETERNAL by Leah and Kate Rooper

Winners can send their material to Kathleen@haroldober.com with Mystery Agent Winner and the title of their book in the subject line.

 And of course, we took the opportunity to learn a little more about Kathleen:

OA: Care to weigh in on New Adult? Do you read it? Plan to represent it in the future?

KZ: I’m excited about New Adult because it’s showing that publishing is truly a constantly shifting and evolving creature, but for now I’m watching the development closely and waiting for it to grow a bit more. A large portion of New Adult (at least that I’ve come across) feels like contemporary romance. While that’s great and there are tons of agents/editors/readers who want to get their hands on it, I’d love to see the genre branch out. My ideal New Adult project would be something along the lines of Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, where we have people in their late teens/early twenties in some wonderfully otherworldly environment acting their age with all the ensuing glorious messy mistakes and thought-provoking themes we’re already seeing in New Adult.

OA: What are some great books you've read recently?

KZ: I’m currently reading Wool by Hugh Howey and Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. As a passionate re-reader, I love to refresh my palate with some well-loved classics. Right now I’m falling back in love with Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, and I just finished Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones.

OA: Your tweets establish your nerd-girl credentials nicely. :) What are some of your favorite TV shows lately?

I have a Game of Thrones hand of the king pendant replica, which should tell you a lot about me. I wear it, and my nerd badge, proudly. I’m a huge fan of Doctor Who and absolutely can’t wait for the 50th Anniversary Special and for Peter Capaldi to breathe life into the twelfth incarnation of the Doctor. I’m also looking forward to the third season of American Horror Story and—my guilty pleasure—Downton Abbey. 

OA: Any exciting agency news to share?

KZ: All of us at Harold Ober Associates are very, very excited about the upcoming adaptation of Lois Lowry’s classic dystopian novel, The Giver. It occupies such a special and laudable place in children’s literature and I can’t wait to see it on the big screen. I’m particularly thrilled about Tamora Pierce’s new novel Battle Magic. We’re still basking in the glow of Gatsby fever what with the wonderful movie and the recent audiobook. Seriously, if you haven’t listened to Jake Gyllenhaal say “old sport” a couple dozen times then you haven’t really lived. Because there’s just so much exciting agency news all the time, I recommend following the Harold Ober Twitter account to see what our amazing authors are doing. 

Thanks to everyone who entered, and don't forget that we have another Mystery Agent Contest opportunity coming up on October 1st!

March Mystery Agent Winner and Reveal!

Introducing our March Mystery Agent...

Tricia Lawrence of Erin Murphy Literary Agency!

Tricia is the "Pacific Northwest branch" of EMLA—born and raised in Oregon, and now lives in Seattle. After 17 years of working as a developmental and production-based editor (from kids book to college textbooks, but mostly college textbooks), she joined the EMLA team in March 2011 as a social media strategist hoping to learn from Erin and Joan about agenting. 

As associate agent, Tricia represents picture books/chapter books that look at the world in a unique and unusual way, with characters that are alive both on and off the page, and middle grade and young adult fiction and nonfiction that offers strong worldbuilding, wounded narrators, and stories that grab a reader and won't let go. (bio and pic from agency website)

Follow Tricia Lawrence on twitter.

And the winner is!

Title: MIGHTY MIKE AND THE ALIEN PEZ DISPENSER
Genre: MG Sci-fi/Adventure

Eleven-year-old Mike can only escape bully Brutus when daydreaming of becoming super-hero Mighty Mike until he meets a little blue alien and agrees to test candies from an Alien Pez Dispenser, each of which give him a different super (or not-so-super) power!

Congratulations,  GSMarlene!! (Congratulate Marlene on twitter)
And thank you to all of our worthy participants. You guys are awesome!

Katrina: What was it about the latest author you signed that really stood out to you in his or her work and made that book a must-have?

Tricia: Oh, I must be on a voice kick right now, but voice. Her voice was so strong, that I felt compelled to keep reading, because I had to find out what happened next. An editor that just read the manuscript wrote to tell me she had the exact same experience, it was hypnotic/addictive/can't stop. 

Once a manuscript's voice gets me into its clutches, I'm done for! I must talk to that author!

Katrina: Your agency website indicates you value strong worldbuilding. Could you name a book that does this really well, as an example?

Tricia: I'm a big fan of our agency's client, Robin LaFevers. Her GRAVE MERCY, a YA that came out last year, is amazing. A world in which assassin nuns operate? I'm so there. I'm getting a sneak peek at the next book in the trilogy now, DARK TRIUMPH (it comes out later this year). Amazing world. You get in and then you don't want to leave. 

Katrina: Favorite TV shows/Movies?

Tricia: I'm a WALKING DEAD devotee. (Who isn't?) I even got zombie apocalypse survival gear for Christmas from my husband, so I'm set. I just need to schedule some archery lessons. 

Lighter fare includes PARENTHOOD, MODERN FAMILY, BIG BANG THEORY, and THE OFFICE

I adored LES MISERABLE, THE HOBBIT, and am rewatching HUNGER GAMES because isn't the next one coming soon? It should be!

Katrina: Biggest perk of being a literary agent?

Tricia: Getting to think about, brainstorm, talk about, and work on stories to my heart's content. Our culture is so story-oriented and I love looking at the moving parts of stories, sorta like a story mechanic, in my own stories, in my client's stories, in the submissions I receive. It's a good life!

And I get to talk about stories with the best in the business. Nothing like spending an hour chatting about what we love and don't love about this story or that with editors, other agents, authors, even the marketing folks! It's a wonderful perk!

Other places you can find Tricia:

• Inland Northwest SCBWI, Spokane, WA, March 16, 2013
• Bologna Children's Book Fair, Bologna, Italy, March 25-28, 2013
• Western WA SCBWI Roundtable, Redmond, WA, April 19, 2013
• Oregon SCBWI, Portland, OR, May 17-18, 2013
• New Jersey SCBWI, Princeton, NJ, June 7-9, 2013
• Montana SCBWI, Bozeman, MT, September 28-29, 2013

"Tricia loves hiking, camping out in the woods, and collecting rocks. She loves BBC America and anything British. She has way too many books and not enough bookshelves. You can find Tricia's writing about blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking, and other social media topics (for authors and the publishing industry at large) here."

Erin Murphy Literary Agency website

Tricia Lawrence - blog

Twitter

Submission Policy

"EMLA is closed to unsolicited queries or submissions. We consider queries that come to us by referral from industry professionals we know, and individual agents are open to queries from attendees of conferences where they speak. If you have met us at a conference or have a referral, please paste your query into the contact form on this page. Please note that we are no longer responding to unsolicited queries or submissions sent in hard copy form via post or other means, and those sent via email will receive a form rejection."

NYRC Grand Finale Giveaway WINNERS

Congratulations to our dozen winners!
(winners have been emailed, so if you think you see your name, check your emails. NOTE: some of our emails have apparently been getting sucked into the spam vortex so if you see your name but didn't get an email, be sure to check those spam filters!) :)

WINNERS:

Alyssa S. wins:

A preorder of Phoebe North's STARGLASS

Joel S. wins:
A copy of ELLIOT AND THE GOBLIN WAR by Jennifer Nielsen

Prerna P. wins:   
A copy of MEANT TO BE by Lauren Morrill

JC wins:
An ebook of E.J. Patten's THE HUNTER CHRONICLES: RETURN TO EXILE

Sherry S. wins:
A Kindle e-copy of LACRIMOSA by Christine Fonseca

Angelica R. J. wins:
An e-copy of SUPER SWEET SIXTEENTH CENTURY by Rachel Harris

Stephanie S. wins:
An e-copy of PRETTY AMY by Lisa Burstein

Dawn A. wins:

An e-copy of ALL THE BROKEN PIECES by Cindi Madsen

Jenn N. wins:
An e-copy KATANA by Cole Gibsen

Heather wins:
SHAEDES OF GRAY by Amanda Bonilla (ebook or paperback)

Heather H. wins:
An ebook preorder of CAUGHT IN AMBER by Cathy Pegau

 Danielle D. wins:
A copy of RENEGADE by J.A. Souders 

Thank you to everybody who entered and attended our first ever New Year's Revisions Conference! It was a blast spending the weekend with you. 

How are your revisions going?

Contest Announcement!!!

We have a seriously awesome surprise for everyone....our uber fabulous Mystery Agent has already picked her three finalists!! The finalists get to send their first 30 pages and a synopsis. From the three finalists, our agent will choose a grand prize winner to send their full manuscript!

We are going to keep her identity a secret for just a little bit longer - until she reveals the grand prize winner :) But for now, here are the three finalists.

Congratulations to:

Tarak with SMOKE AND WAIT

Joanne Huspek with VIRTUALLY YOURS

and S. Kyle Davis with BLACKBIRD

Please shoot us an email at OperationAwesome6 (at) gmail (dot) com and we'll give you instructions on where to send your first 30 pages and a synopsis. 

Congrats again!!!! Stay tuned to find out which of our finalists gets to submit a full manuscript as our grand prize winner!

WINNER of Princess for Hire and The Royal Treatment ARC is...

Writer Tessa!! 

Congratulations, Tessa! I'll be emailing you to get your shipping addy. I'm excited for you because I LOVED these books.

For those of you who missed my double review, check it out here.

I enjoyed reading your answers to the question, which fiction or real royalty would you be for the day? They were pretty much what I expected (Kate Middleton, Princess Di, and Paris Hilton). This is further proof that, like me, you guys need these books to get a glimpse of royalty outside of Hollywood and England. Amazon princess? Check. Obscure country in Europe? Check. You're going to have so much fun reading these!

For those of you who didn't win, you can read all about them at Goodreads or order them from one of these awesome vendors and wait patiently by your mailbox. :)

The Royal Treatment comes out officially on May 3rd.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and blog/tweeting the giveaway!

Happy reading, everybody!! 


p.s. Linsey Leavitt, the wonderful author of these books, has agreed to an interview with Operation Awesome, so look for that in the near future.

Winner Time!!

And the winner of a signed copy of Leah Clifford's A Touch Mortal is......

lexcade!!!!

Congratulations!! Send your address to us at OperationAwesome6 (at) gmail (dot) com and we'll get your signed book out to you. And thanks so much to all our followers and everyone who entered!

It's been an awesome month of follower love :)

Don't forget! Our next Mystery Agent Contest kicks off on March 1st. Here are the rules again:

1) Entry limit: 75 entrants.

2) Pitch length: 140 characters. Think Tweet. Since we're talking 140 characters, Title and Genre don't have to be part of the pitch -- add them on to the comment somewhere.

3) Genres: YA (especially thriller, cyberpunk, horror, historical romance); MG; women's fiction; romance (especially with a strong, female heroine).

So get those tweet pitches ready for March 1st!!!! 

Across The Universe: The Winners

Thank you for all the comments and entries to the AtU contest.

I wish I had enough to give everybody a book, but *sniff* I can't. But I'm sure we shall have more awesome contests in the future.

The two winners are...

Katie Mills & Lisa Gibson

There should be an email from me waiting in your inbox.

And don't forget, we have the Mystery Agent contest on the 1st of February. Polish those 25 word pitches for that MG/YA.

Happy Sunday.