July Pass Or Pages Entry #1

Time for our favorite part of Pass Or Pages, the feedback reveals! We hope that everyone following along will get something out of these reveals that they can apply to their own writing. I did!
We are so grateful to our agent panel for critiquing these entries. We would also like to give a shout-out to the authors for being brave and willing to improve.
Final note: with 4 agents on the panel, we have trimmed down some of their comments to keep the posts from being overwhelming.

Entry #1: THE MARRIAGE ACT

Query: [AS1] [DB1]

When Maggie invites her twin Josie over for salads in the middle of a work day, Josie suspects there’s a favor looming.[DB2][PN1]  When Maggie says the favor is “teensy weensy,” Josie knows it’s big. When [MJ1] Maggie asks asexual Josie to be her surrogate, Josie is tempted to brush aside the clump of hair that’s hidden her eyes since high school to see if she’s serious. [PN2]But when Maggie insists that Josie get pregnant the old-fashioned way, by sleeping with her husband, Josie’s heard enough. She packs up her salad and heads for the door. That’s when Maggie says if Josie doesn’t do it, she’ll use a former classmate who just ducked embezzlement charges and wants to have sex with her husband.[MJ2][PN3]  What choice does Josie have? She’s spent her life protecting Maggie, saving her soul at the expense of her own. She’s never said no to Maggie. After all, they’re practically one person.[AS2]

But there’s a lot about Maggie that Josie doesn’t know — the reason for her infertility, that she’s having an affair . . . her compulsion to claim for herself everyone who has ever wanted Josie.[AS3]  Flirty and adorable, Maggie doesn’t expect resistance.[PN4]  She certainly doesn’t expect the shift in her husband’s affection. It never occurred to her that he could fall for sexless Josie. Or Josie for him.[MJ3][DB3]

In the aftermath of the “act,” it turns out Maggie’s not the only one with something to hide. Their marriages seemingly over, and the twins at odds, they wait to learn whether Josie is pregnant. For the first time, they must face themselves as individuals, not just see themselves through each other’s eyes. The choices they make are surprising.[PN5]

THE MARRIAGE ACT is women's fiction centered on devastating secrets like in Liane Moriarty’s The Husband’s Secret, in the context of a sisterly bond like in Eleanor Brown’s The Weird Sisters.[AS4] [MJ4][PN6]  It is complete at 90,000 words. Thank you for your consideration.

************

Andrea's Notes:

[AS1] Particularly for this query, I suggest opening with a sentence that states the title and the genre.
[AS2] I like the premise, but I think that there are too many details in this paragraph that are unnecessary for the reader to know, and, as a result, the primary conflict gets lost. I suggest reworking the first three sentences, severely cutting them down to just the essentials.

[AS3] Intriguing!
[AS4] Good comp titles.

Melissa's Notes:

[MJ1] Massive overuse of the word “when”--the first three sentences start with the word. I’d say no after the second sentence becaue you’re not getting to the point.

[MJ2] This is a very strange request and you should let the reader know WHY she’s asking such a thing. So her husband doesn’t know? THAT would be a cool twist.
[MJ3] Tremendously confusing paragraph. Is the book told from both pov’s? Because I’m not sure who is who anymore.

[MJ4] I know some agents like comparisons but I advise avoiding “like and in context of.” Just: THE MARRIAGE ACT is a 90,000 word Women’s Fiction novel in the vein of THE HUSBAND’S SECRET and THE WEIRD SISTERS.

Danielle's Notes:

[DB1] There are different opinions out there about this, but my strong personal preference is for this paragraph (the paragraph containing title, word count, genre, etc.) to serve as the opening to the query letter.

[DB2] The wording here makes it sound as though Maggie is going to do a favor for Josie when what you really mean is that that Maggie is going to ask Josie for a favor. And by starting the query letter with Maggie, you set us up to think that she (and not Josie) is the protagonist.

[DB3] It feels to me as though Maggie is the center of the first two paragraphs, which makes me feel a bit removed from Josie. i.e. Maggie asks Josie for this and then that and then another thing. In paragraph two we learn what Josie doesn’t know about Maggie, but we don’t learn about Josie. It may be worth experimenting with placing Josie and her perspective at the center of the query letter. I want to get a better sense of who our protagonist is and why she is the person to carry a novel.

Patricia's Notes:
[PN1] From this first sentence, I’m a bit confused – who are Maggie and Josie and why do I care about their lunch date? Instead, you might start with 1-2 sentences about who Maggie is, succinctly establishing her character to ground the reader before moving on.
[PN2] I generally encourage shorter paragraphs in queries – agents get so many queries that we tend to skim on a first read. I would put a new paragraph here.

[PN3] I’m having a tough time understanding Maggie’s motivation for this – it’s often best to cut plot points that raise too many questions and will confused the reader. Do we need this info?

[PN4] Not sure we need all this background info. Instead, I think all you need here is: “What she doesn’t expect is the shift…”

[PN5] As the last sentence of the main part of your query, this should be something that makes me NEED to read, but what you have here is a filler sentence – it doesn’t really tell me anything. Punch this up – surprising how, and what are the stakes? 

[PN6] Nice comps!

First 250:

“PIPING hot, Til.” Gerald opened the oven for a split-second peek. “Is the gravy ready? This bird’s not coming out till everything’s dang ready. I’m eating a hot meal this year. Dang it.”

Two dangs. Aaron Wainwright rolled his eyes and turned his back to the island. He took a quick swig from the flask secreted in his jacket’s inner pocket. Swallowing, he caught his brother-in-law’s conspiratorial wink and too-white grin on his smarmy, too-tanned face. Curtis edged over to him.

“Every year, the same rant. Every year, cold turkey,” Aaron said.

Curtis snorted.

Aaron took another belt. His thumb swept over the Harvard crest embossed on the flask’s leather cover. The flask had been a graduation gift from Maggie eleven years ago when, flush with the thrill of graduating and landing a job at a top Boston architectural firm, and figuring he couldn’t take life by the balls unless a flashy, blonde wife had a hold of his, Aaron had popped the question on bended knee on the steps of Gund Hall on graduation day.[MJ1]  Whereupon he had presented Maggie with a two-carat solitaire, and she had presented him with the flask. He hadn’t realized then what a prescient exchange it had been.[PN1]

“Veritas.” Curtis extended his hand for the flask.

Aaron slipped it into his palm with the furtiveness of a drug deal. “Happy Turkey Day, Cue Ball.”

Curtis’s jaw clenched as he raised the flask in a salute.

**********

Andrea's Notes: 

With women's fiction, you really want the narrative to be based in either Josie or Maggie's close third person point-of-view. I'm going to pass as the sample pages don't have the feel of the type of women's fiction that I'm able to place these days.

Melissa's Notes:
[MJ1] Run on sentence. The next sentence isn’t gramatically correct either.

So right away I am confused about whose pov we are in. You have to attribute Aaron hearing his b-i-l speak in the first paragraph. AND if the book is about the sisters, why isn’t the book starting with them? What you are putting in your query should flow with your pages. Honestly, this is a dull opening. Guys passing flasks, cooking a turkey. I wouldn’t read on because it does not tie in to your query’s plot. What am I learning here?

Danielle's Notes:

I’m wondering why the novel opens with Maggie’s husband’s perspective. Where is Josie? I really like a very strong sense of my protagonist right off the bat. From what I do know about Josie, it sounds as though she has the potential to be a wonderful character, but, after reading both the query letter and first 250 words, I still haven’t met her yet! Because of that, this is a PASS for me.

Patricia's Notes:
[PN1] Your first page is valuable real estate – there almost never needs to be backstory taking up that space. I would stop reading here.

Results:

Andrea Somberg: PASS

Melissa Jeglinski: PASS

Danielle Burby: PASS
Patricia Nelson: PASS

       

Flash Fiction Contest #17 Winner

Some very nice entries this week. Thank you to those who entered!

Flash Fiction Contest #17 Prompt: Birthday!

Entry by Cassidy Taylor

35 days. 

If my etchings on the wall are accurate, today is her birthday. It's hard to tell how much time has passed in space, when days can't be measured by a rising sun and time isn't told by the cycles of a moon. 

My world has shrunken to this tin box, while out there somewhere, in one of the millions of known galaxies, the Mariner floats on. She floats on. Does she think of me still? When she gets out of the shower and rubs a circle in the condensation on the mirror, does she look at herself and remember when I told her that her eyes were the color of the stars? When she sees someone walking away from her in the corridor with my black hair, does she think, for just a minute, that it's me? 

“He'll kill you,” she warned me, her arms around my waist, her head against my chest. We had broken into the observation tower. I want to see the stars, she had said. I want to know we're not alone. I was nothing if not obliging. Her birthday party raged on in the bowels of the ship. It seemed like the whole population had come to celebrate her, though that was impossible. The Mariner was the size of an old Earth city. The population was dense, packed into every corner. There was one ruler, and he had one princess - this girl standing in the arms of a lowly mechanic. 

“I'm not afraid,” I said. I should have been. Just not of her father. 

For 325 days, I was happier than I had ever been. I had learned to cherish the feeling of her hand in mine, the stolen glances across crowded halls, the embraces in hidden alcoves. Then one morning, in my small bunk, she sat with her back to me on the cot, yelling into her Comm: You can't do this! You can't take everything away from me!

“My father,” she had said. “Empty threats.” I kissed away the tears in her eyes.

Five days later, I was repairing a Scouter and looked up to find her standing in the bay. I smiled to see her there, raven-haired and red-lipped, but then the door slid into place between us, and I noticed her hand on the external controls, the hardness in her eyes. I put my hand to the glass separating us and she raised hers. 

“He's going to take it all,” she said, “if I don't give him you.” 

And then the Scouter had engaged, the airlock opened, and I was gone, flung into space, her hand sweating against the porthole the last piece of another human being I would ever see. 

35 days drifting in space in a broken Scouter, still stocked from its last mission. 35 days for her to make it up to her father. She had proven herself to him, and today, on her eighteenth birthday, the galaxy would become hers.

***

Space and hope and a little bit of a Romeo and Juliet thing going on. Daw.

Our next contest is in three weeks--the second Friday of the month. But come back next week for #PassOrPages!

Flash Fiction Contest #17

Happy day after my birthday! Oh, you didn't hear? Well, it's the day after my birthday. This was one of those that ended in a 5, so sort of significant but not really. Let's just not talk about it. Birthdays aren't as fun the older you get.

Rules for our flash contest can be found here.

Flash Fiction Prompt For Friday, July 22, 2016

When posting, remember to include your name and your Twitter handle.

Have fun and come back Sunday night to find out the winner!

Collaborative Project: Rough Draft is Complete, So Now What?

Over the past few months, I've been working on a collaborative project with fellow author, Christine Steendam. We come from very different backgrounds in terms of our writing and styles--she writes western romances and historical novels, while I write speculative teen fiction.

We've now completed a rough draft of our top-secret project, a novella different from anything either of us has ever written. We did a little happy dance last week when the final chapter was completed on our rough draft.

But, now what? Do we go in and start editing each other's work? Both of us edit for others professionally, so we're on equal footing in that regards. But, as I stated, this is a rough draft. I really hate anyone seeing my rough drafts, which was probably the hardest part of this whole endeavor--knowing that she'll be reading that primordial ooze that passes for my rough draft.

After some discussion, we decided on our process:

1. We will go through the document and work on a second draft of our own passages. 
2. Once both of our passages are brought up to second draft status, we'll edit each other's work. 
3. After revisions, we'll send it off to an outside editor.
4. Once the editor's changes are employed, we will each take a turn doing a copy edit.
5. When we feel it's ready, it'll go into format and from there each of us will do a proofread.

Because of the novella's genre and target audience, we plan to independently publish it, which will be a new venture for me as well.

So far, working collaboratively with another author has been a ton of fun and a great experience. Once the project is complete, I'll share what I've learned.

Have you ever co-written a novel? What sorts of challenges did you face? Do you have any great advice for me? I'd love to hear it.

************************

Melinda Friesen writes novels for teens and is the marketing director at Rebelight Publishing Inc. Her YA dystopian novel, Enslavement has been shortlisted for a Willow Award. Enslavement's sequel, Subversion, is slated for a September launch.

Meet Sara Saedi in this Debut Author Spotlight

1- Your Twitter profile mentions that you write for iZombie. I love that show! How did you get into that and do you have any intriguing stories related to that?

I do write for iZombie! I’m so glad you love it. I got the gig with the help of my TV agents, who submitted my writing samples to the show’s creators. They were starting the second season of the series and there were openings on the writing staff. In all sincerity, it is a dream job and I’m very grateful to be a part of the show. We just started season three a few weeks ago, and it’s going to be a game changer. One of the best parts of breaking an episode is picking what brain Liv will be on that week. I’m ashamed to admit that I probably had the most expertise when we broke Real Housewife of Seattle Brain, because I’m kind of a Bravo TV junkie.


2- The image of this tweet caught my eye. What made you most want to move the Peter Pan story from London to NYC's Upper East Side?

The newer, cooler Neverland will be here in FIVE days! Get ready. #neverever@PenguinTeen pic.twitter.com/0gJBb3ZMVX

— sara saedi (@saaaranotsarah) June 16, 2016

I LOVE that image. For anyone who’s launching a book or designing a website, I highly recommend getting in touch with Kari Luna at For the Curious Ones. They designed my website (http://sarsaediwriter.com ) and all the promo materials for the book. When I first started writing the book, I did think of it as Peter Pan meets Gossip Girl, so New York seemed like the perfect setting. Sadly, I’ve never been to London, so New York was a more familiar city to write about.

3- Why set (part of) the book in NYC instead of your hometown of LA?

I lived in New York for three years right after college and the city holds a special place in my heart. Plus, I wanted to write about teenagers who did have a certain degree of independence and freedom in their lives, and I think that’s truer of teens that live in New York. Los Angeles is much more sprawling and suburban, and I wanted more of a metropolis feel. It also felt like the claustrophobia and close quarters of New York would be a sharper contrast to life on Minor Island.

4- What's your favorite tourist spot in NYC?

There are so many! And it feels like the city changes so much every time I go back to visit. I lived in the east village, so I love roaming around that neighborhood and strolling through Tompkins Square Park and Alphabet City. All of my old haunts. But I never go to New York without taking the train into Williamsburg for juicy pork buns at M Shanghai Bistro.

5- Pizza: floppy foldable, deep-dish, thin-crust, non-bread crust... Which is your favorite?

Anyone who can resist pizza crust is a much stronger person than I am. I’ll go with floppy foldable when you buy a slice out, but thin crust when I’m ordering at home.

6- Is there any diversity we can look forward to in your book?

Yes! I wanted Minor Island to be a diverse setting. I’m Middle Eastern, and when I was a teenager I had close friends of all races. That hasn’t changed in adulthood. It doesn’t seem realistic anymore to read a book or watch a TV show with all white characters or actors. I find it jarring. The book and the sequel both have African-American characters, gay characters, Middle Eastern characters, Asian characters, and those who are native to Minor Island. If I were lucky enough to adapt the book into a TV show or movie, I would hope all races would be considered for all the roles.

7- Being from Iran, might you one day set a book there or have a character from there?

Yup! There’s a character named Maz in Never Ever who’s named after my nephew and is half-Iranian. I also have a YA memoir coming out in the fall of 2017 from Knopf about growing up in the United States as an illegal immigrant from Iran. A lot of the words in the book that are native to Minor Island (like parvaz which is the flower that can make you fly) are actually Farsi words.

8- What most contributed to your choice of publication method?

I would have considered every method, but my book agent and I wanted to go the traditional route, and then explore other possibilities if it didn’t sell to the first round of buyers. It’s really inspiring that we live in a time that you can publish a book on your own, and that writers don’t need to rely on publishers to get their work out there. But since this is my debut novel, and I’m still learning about the world of publishing, I was excited at the prospect of a wider reach and learning the ins and outs of the industry from a place like Viking Children’s Books. I absolutely loved working with my editor and everyone else there. It can be a much more supportive and encouraging space than TV and film.

9- Which is your favorite statement necklace?

Ha! Probably the one I’m wearing in the photo on my website, because it was a gift from my sister. I also had this favorite chunky orange necklace I got for super cheap at Forever 21, but it sadly fell apart after a few years. I’m also a big fan of statement scarves.

10- What's the biggest deciding factor when selecting what book you'll buy next?

I’m in a book club, and every month we take turns picking a book. Usually the group is given a few options and we all vote. So I’m usually reading the current book club selection. Like most people, I prefer a compelling story with root for characters. A little humor also goes a long way. This month, I got to choose the book. We’d read a couple very long and dense titles, so we wanted something that was more of a beach read. We went with The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion.


11- Anything else you would care to share about your book and yourself?

Yes, I would love it if readers followed me on Twitter @saaaranotsarah and dropped me a line at Sara@sarasaediwriter.com.
I will share that one of my favorite characters to write for in the book was Tinka. It was a lot of fun to come up with an edgier, volatile, more bad*$$ version of Tinkerbell. Also, Tinka was the name of my best friend’s mom in high school!

Thank you, Sara. It was exciting to interview you.
Give my fandom-love to Rahul Kohli! #TeamRavioli

Using Punctuation Correctly

This spring, I went to Massachusetts for my sister's graduation (yes, the one featured in Tuesday Museday who got credit-carded). On the short drive from her house to the AirBnB rental where my family stayed, I saw this advertisement for ice cream:

Still... a FULL half-gallon!

The company was advertising that even though their ice cream containers were now shaped differently, consumers would get the same amount of ice cream as before.

Why they thought an ellipsis after the word "still'' was the way to go, I do not know.

A lot of people think that correct punctuation is unnecessary, insisting that the point of their message is still clear, regardless of grammar or punctuation or verb tense or whatever. And they are not necessarily wrong. I understood what the ice cream people were getting at with their message.

But as a writer, it still made me laugh. Because of the ellipsis, I read the word "still" with a wistful tone. I dragged the word out in my head. And then there was an exclamation point at the end! So my inner voice had to be slow, then excited! I wish you guys could hear what I "hear" inside my head when I read that sentence.

And maybe you can. That's the beauty of punctuation. When used correctly, it can convey to a reader exactly how a character is saying a sentence. Punctuation is a great tool to convey voice and tone. Know how to use it to your advantage, whether you've got a comma, ellipsis, or em dash. 

And for the love of everything, use them correctly.

Interview with the SIRENS anthology authors!

Hello, dear readers! Please give a warm welcome to the authors of Rhonda Parrish's fourth installment in the Magical Menageries anthology series, Sirens. This is a book--and a series--that you don't want to miss. Rhonda has an eye for selecting haunting, enchanting stories. If you haven't read anything she's edited, you're definitely missing out.

Why do you enjoy writing short stories?

Randall Arnold: Mainly the challenge of creating a world, populating it with compelling characters, and making readers care in as few words as possible.

Cat McDonald: I prefer writing long-form stuff, but short stories give me license to be more off-the-wall and intense. They're more concentrated, I guess?

Simon Kewin: I like the immediacy. I like that I can start and finish a story in a day or two, which can be refreshing six months into a novel. I like the idea of a small, perfectly formed, complete story in a few thousand words.

Eliza Chan: I wrote my first novel between the ages of 17-21. It was terrible! Characters literally disappeared off the page when I got bored of them. At the time my crit group recommended I hone my skill by writing short stories, so that's what I did. It wasn't until I started writing them that I really realised what a difficult art form it is! Scene setting, characterisation and an interesting plot in about 5000 words? Madness. But I love it now. Short stories allow you to be experimental and innovative. And some of the best writers out there today are writing in the short form. 

KT Ivanrest: For a long time I disliked short stories, largely due to some misconceptions left over from college writing courses. However, I’ve always enjoyed writing one-off scenes—a quick glimpse into a character’s life, the beginning of larger problems without the commitment required to actually solve them. Basically, setting myself up for novels I’ll probably never write. I’ve found the challenge, but also the satisfaction, of writing short stories has been taking those scenes and whittling the conflict down to short-story size and scope.

Adam L. Bealby: For me, writing fiction in general is a form of catharsis. If I’m not doing it, on some deep and reasonably subtle level, I’m not quite well with all things. I tend to throw myself into other people’s fictional universes as a surrogate release; which is no bad thing, of course, but it’s not quite the same. Plus, all those story ideas in my head, all those, ‘hey, wouldn’t it be cool if…’ moments, either dry up, because they can’t access a creative nozzle, or they stubbornly refuse to budge until they’ve been given an outlet. I’m a perennial dreamer and really who wants to have the same dream over and over again? Get it out, get it written down, and on to the next story kernel. That makes me happy the same way a big bag of those black and red berry sweets does.

If we’re talking short stories, I just love the form. You can take risks and play around with structure and tone in ways you can’t with a novel, because it wouldn’t be sustainable in longform. Also, I only have two speeds – flat out and stop! I’m either hard at it like a bench-press or slobbing out with that big bag of sweets I was talking about watching 80s horror films. A couple of weeks intense writing in the evening suits me very well thank you. If I’m writing a novel I basically have to lock myself away and not see my wife and kids for three months; or streeeeeetch it out over a year or so, writing in fits and starts, and trying to get the feel of the characters and style again after a few weeks’ hiatus say, which can be incredibly frustrating.

Tabitha Lord: Short stories are satisfying to write for a few reasons. For me, a full-length novel can take a year or more to draft, and then another several months to work through edits. It’s a long, pain-staking process! In the meantime, other ideas surface and start whispering in my ear. With some, I know they require a “big” book, so I make them an outline and a file, and tell them to wait their turn. But others can be explored, in part or in their entirety, as short stories. There’s still a sense of completion, of an idea fully expressed, but it may only take a month to get that idea down on paper.

Another reason I enjoy writing shorts is that I can play around with different voices. If I’m working on a longer draft in the third person, I can write a short in the first person and really tighten up the point of view.

Similar to working with different voices, I can try out different styles in my short fiction. “Homecoming”, for example, is written in a much more literary style than my science fiction series. I’m not sure I’d be able to sustain that for an entire full-length novel, but it really made me stretch as a writer.

Amanda Kespohl: In some ways, writing a short story is more challenging than writing a novel. A novel has room to sprawl and stretch and add subplots and develop characters. A short story has to be short, sharp, and to the point, with no scene added that doesn't carry its weight. It's an excellent way to work on becoming more concise, a skill I am constantly trying to develop. I'm hoping that the tighter plotting skills I'm developing with my short stories will carry over to my novels. Besides, sometimes it's nice to just dabble in a world for a while--no big commitment, no grand scheme, just a good time in an interesting place before I pop away to somewhere new. 

Michael Leonberger: Writing a novel is long and calculated -- when you finish one, you feel like a master hunter who has laid down an elaborate trap to catch his prey. Writing short stories is more similar to spotting an effervescent dream, made of clumps of colorful gas -- and then trying to capture it. Instantly. With both hands. So there's kind of a gleeful anarchy to it. It can be impulsive and liberating and wonderful, especially when you feel as though you captured the heart of the thing. That isn't to say it isn't hard, and it isn't thoughtful-- only to say that, when it works, it feels like the truest way you have of communicating your soul, without losing yourself to the complexities of a longer plot.

Why a story about sirens?

Randall Arnold: As I wrote on my blog, there were a few contributing factors to "The Dolphin Riders," but strangely enough the main one was an infamous fake mermaids documentary on Animal Planet. It made me wonder.

Cat McDonald: Well, it was the prompt! But, that aside, I like to write about sound, about how it feels physically and how it impacts people, so I found writing about sirens fits comfortably with the aesthetic I'd been chasing for the last couple years.

Simon Kewin:  It's fun to mess with familiar tropes and themes, and I was drawn to writing a story that turns the notion of the siren on its head. I have a mermaid in my story but I also used a sci-fi setting, which seemed to me an entertaining combination. Sirens lure you to the rocks, and while that can be dangerous it can also be liberating. You never know what you'll find there...

Eliza Chan: I loved Rhonda's previous anthology on scarecrows. I've never contemplating writing a story about scarecrows but reading the different takes each writer had gone with made me regret that I missed the call for submissions. When the call went out for sirens, again it was a mythological creature I would not have normally written about. But I have written about selkies and love water mythology so I was up for the challenge.

KT Ivanrest: I wrote Threshold with the Sirens anthology in mind, so they weren’t something I’d given a lot of thought to previously. What I ultimately like most about them, though, is the way they fuel conflict (huh, conflict again!), convincing people to do things that are not in their best interests. For my protagonist, their song increased his problems but also made him believe he had a solution…which of course just caused more problems.

Adam L. Bealby: I love fairy tales. I love weird folklore. I love black humour. So a darkly comic tale about a northern English pensioner who reels in some sort of blubberish elder god during a fishing trip and falls instantly in love with it, kinda appeals. Quite a few of my stories concern magical glamours and deception (especially self-deception).

At the moment I’m writing a series of self-contained short stories about a modern day Russian volkyv (wizard) called Dim. Dim lives in England now and has set up Little Divinities Inc., a sort of paranormal detective agency with a sideline in ancient medicines and pagan benedictions. Mostly his services are called on by Ukrainian and Russian migrants of a certain age. He blesses a lot of houses, a lot of dogs. And ‘bony tsar’ his zagovor remedy for impotence, is very popular. But sometimes Dim gets into decidedly darker scrapes, usually involving the dii minores, the impish minor deities that exist all around us but hidden from prying eyes. (Shameless plug 1: You can read Dim’s first tale in Pagan by Zimbell House Publishing.)

Tabitha Lord: One of my above-mentioned “wait your turn” files contains the idea for a book about Penelope, Odysseus’s wife. Having read the Odyssey several times as a Classics major in college, I was always intrigued by Penelope, and imagined the possibilities for her story beyond what we’re offered in the poem.

When World Weaver Press announced the continuation of their magical menageries series with an anthology titled Sirens, I was intrigued. After all, it was the famous Siren, Kalypso, who lured Odysseus away from Penelope for over seven years. Maybe there was a story here about both women? 

Amanda Kespohl: This particular story was inspired by a portion of Patricia McKillip's Riddle-Master trilogy, wherein a character was shipwrecked and temporarily deprived of both speech and memory. Part of me thought, "What is he without these things? He's only a shell, empty and mute." But he was still himself, able to learn new things, develop relationships, and show his personality. I liked the idea of that human-shaped blank slate presenting itself to the world, and the notion that someone might seek to learn what lurks behind it. Combine that with the love of the sea that pervades all of McKillip's books and you get the seeds of "The Fisherman and the Golem."

That's sort of my approach with all my stories. I hear a line in a song, read a sentence in a book, and something about it sticks in my brain. I worry on it and wrap new context around it and obsess over it until it becomes an idea in much the same that an oyster makes a pearl from a grain of sand. 

Michael Leonberger: I love monsters and sirens are a particularly fascinating breed -- a very transparent metaphor for the dangers of following one's lust. The metaphor is potent for anyone with a pulse, and monsters are the most freeing metaphors there are. They allow you passage to a place and mindset you might otherwise feel reluctant to travel to -- and then they also provide you with an outlet for an explosive cocktail of blood and guts. Which is to say that writing about sirens allows you to be thoughtful about the frailty of man's fortitude in the face of desire -- but it also allows you to rip all of that apart with talons and teeth.

What's one story/novel idea you LOVE but can't get going?

Randall Arnold: A horror story about a man whose eyes have a "sphere of influence" that bends reality around them. I want to write it as an homage to The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe, but I can't get more than two sentences in...

Cat McDonald: I've been querying a dark fantasy western around but getting no biters, which is pretty normal, I think. It's rare that I run into people as into westerns as I am in real life, so it's to be expected in publishing too! It's still a massive bummer, though.

Simon Kewin:  I'm at the very early stages of a ghostly/time travelly/mysterious house novel called Brokenclock Hall that is going to be very tricky to write with multiple time lines and characters from multiple eras. I've written about three thousand words of set up and I'm at the stage where I need to draw diagrams and create spreadsheets. It feels daunting, but I think it could be good!

Eliza Chan: I've been working on a spirit story on and off for over 6 months now and can't seem to land the ending. It's a bit Philip Pullman's Northern Lights trilogy daemons and a bit Ken Liu's "State Change" but based on zodiac creatures come to life. It also heavily features a Chinese family living in the UK, which is the closest to home that I've ever gone before. I think it's trying to be a novella but I am resisting it at the moment. Normally if a story isn't finished within a few months, I struggle to go back to it, but this one haunts me and I am constantly tweaking and waiting for the inspiration for it all to come together.

KT Ivanrest: I wrote a fantasy/crime novel for NaNo 2013 that I really enjoyed working on—sort of Miss Congeniality meets Gladiator-with-magic. The characters and story both had a lot of promise, but every time I tried to work on it, the characters from my multi-book-fantasy-with-no-discernable-plot screamed for attention (or sang seductively?). Now that I’ve got a plot sketched out I’ll probably be sticking with the latter, but I definitely want to come back to the NaNo novel eventually.

Adam L. Bealby: It’s the story of Gregory Sears, who goes to bed aged 40, having just kissed his wife and kids goodnight, and wakes up aged 16, with his mom banging on about him being late for school. It’s been done before of course, that sort of ‘what if..?’ scenario, but the idea refuses to lie down and die. What would you do if you had your whole life to live again? Would you do things differently? Or would you try to careful steer your life down the track it followed the first time? The thing is, that’s impossible; your life would never be quite the same as it was before. Even with the finest timing in the world your son, say, would be conceived a second too late, or too early. He’d still be your son, maybe he’d look like you remember, but he wouldn’t be the same. That first son, all your children in fact, are dead to you, no matter how hard you try to reproduce them. You’d end up with changeling children instead. (Shameless plug 2: See "The Other Daughter," my story in Once Upon A Scream by Horroraddicts.net.)

You can never go home again. Gregory can never go home again. It’s a typical male fantasy, I suppose, and I find it equally exhilarating and terrifying.

Tabitha Lord: My problem really isn’t getting a story going, it’s staying focused on only one story at a time! Right now I’m over halfway through the draft of the second book in my Horizon series. I love writing these characters and their story, but smack in the middle of the work, I had the idea for an urban fantasy novel. I really, really want to write this book! I only gave it a little brain space, but I already have a complete plotline and a well-developed main character. I’m so excited to get started on it, but I know I have something to finish first. Sigh. If only there were a few more hours in the day…

Amanda Kespohl:  I was thinking about fairy tales one day, about how crazy I would feel if animals actually started talking to me, and how I would wonder if I was hallucinating if I saw a fairy. It's not really human nature to easily accept things that are out of the ordinary, and in some fairy tales, it's not suggested that anybody but the hero in this world is out there chatting up mice or rubbing elbows with the fae. The fact that these are rare occurrences is usually what makes the character doing these things special enough to warrant a story. But in a more realistic world, it would also make that character look like a lunatic, and possibly feel like one, too.

I also thought about Cinderella's cruel stepmother, and how anyone who was that beastly probably wouldn't confine her torments to mental ones. And under those circumstances, would Cinderella really wish to go to a ball when the fairy appeared, or would she wish for revenge against the people who mistreated her?

And so my fantasy novel, Ash, was born, springing from fairy tale notions, but twisting and sprawling into completely original epic fantasy territory. It follows a young abuse survivor who flees into a demon-filled wasteland after her impulsive wish for revenge leaves her branded a murderess. Only, she won't get rid of the twisted fairy godmother who pushed her to make the wish so easily. They have a history that goes back much farther than Ash realizes, and a future the fairy will do anything to prevent.

At the moment, I'm currently still querying this one. I've gotten some nice feedback, but so far, no takers. I think the word count--162,000 words--is giving people pause, even when they otherwise enjoy the plot and the characters. Still, I remain hopeful.

Michael Leonberger: I've been trying to finish a young adult book about middle school students coming together to catch a ghost for a long time now. I work with children, so working on a project for young people is appealing to me. Plus, I've always wanted to tell a good ghost yarn -- it's the kind of thing I would have gobbled up as a child, so I feel like I really owe it to a past self to work on it now. Chalk up the slow progress to a mountain of writer's block -- I could say I'm too tired after work, or the project is just too special to me to make a lot of headway, but that's just procrastination by another name. But some day it will be finished!

***

Sirens is out now from World Weaver Press.

Sirens are beautiful, dangerous, and musical, whether they come from the sea or the sky. Greek sirens were described as part-bird, part-woman, and Roman sirens more like mermaids, but both had a voice that could captivate and destroy the strongest man. The pages of this book contain the stories of the Sirens of old, but also allow for modern re-imaginings, plucking the sirens out of their natural elements and placing them at a high school football game, or in wartime London, or even into outer space.

Featuring stories by Kelly Sandoval, Amanda Kespohl, L.S. Johnson, Pat Flewwelling, Gabriel F. Cuellar, Randall G. Arnold, Michael Leonberger, V. F. LeSann, Tamsin Showbrook, Simon Kewin, Cat McDonald, Sandra Wickham, K.T. Ivanrest, Adam L. Bealby, Eliza Chan, and Tabitha Lord, these siren songs will both exemplify and defy your expectations.

Official Page | Goodreads | Amazon | Kobo

Pass Or Pages July 2016 Entry Form

We are now accepting entries for Pass Or Pages! Before you enter, be sure to check out the rules. Remember, this month's round of Pass Or Pages is only for Women's Fiction novels. The entry window closes at 6pm Eastern time on Wednesday July 13th.

Flash Fiction Contest #16 Winner

The one week that I forget to schedule my Buffer tweets, and we get more entries than we ever have. Funny how life works, isn't it? Thanks, everyone, for writing something--tough choice this round!

Flash Fiction Contest #16 Prompt: Boy Band

Entry by Erik Battle

“This one’s going to be trouble,” said the Vat-Tech. She pointed with the clipboard at the tall, male form suspended by cables in the cloudy liquid.

“Trouble’s good, right?” The Stylist asked. "He's got great hair."

“A bit of trouble’s good. Enough to stir up the press junkets. This one though…” She sighed heavily. She handed the clipboard to the Stylist.

“What am I looking at here? You know I don't read PCR. DNA profiling is your gig." 

"This marker," the Tech pointed to a short bar on the PCR analysis. "Drug addiction."

The Stylist clicked her tongue against the top of her mouth. The Tech pointed to another blurry blob.

"And this one. Well...let's just say we'll need to watch him around the fan girls." She arched an eyebrow at her colleague to emphasize her point.

"A bit of eyeliner would really bring out the depth of his eyes," the Stylist said.

"Oh. It's worse." The Tech's eyes went wide.

"Worse? What's worse than drugs and an overactive libido?" 

"These two markers. They are the genes for depression and violence. He'll be a suicidal maniac! Destroying hotel rooms and wrecking sports cars!"

"Dear god! This is awful!" The Stylist flipped up a cover on the vat's control panel. Her hand wavered directly over a big red button. "We should flush him, shouldn't we?"

"No." The Tech calmly took the hand of the Stylist and drew it away from the button closing the panel.

"But, he'll be a monster."

"No." A satisfied smile formed on her face. "He'll be a legend.

***

Our next flash contest is in two weeks--tell your friends. :D

Flash Fiction Contest #16

And here we are with another round of #OAFlash. Rules can be found here. I'd love something this time that makes me laugh, but you write what you want, okay? Okay.

Flash Fiction Prompt For Friday, July 8, 2016

When posting, remember to include your name and your Twitter handle.

Have fun and come back Sunday night to find out the winner!

Why You Should Stop Selling Your Book (and Do Something Better)

Now, repeat after me: selling your book is bad.

Very bad.

“Wait . . . what?” you say. “If I don’t sell my book, who’s going to read it? Isn’t selling my book and making money what authors are supposed to do after publication?”

I don’t know. Is it?

If you want to ensure your book won’t sell, sell your book.

Here’s what I mean:

The on-line world is loaded with authors whining and begging people to, “Buy my book!” They form groups on Facebook, which amount to nothing more than broke writers marketing their books to other broke writers. They tweet purchase links all day and hit up social networks with ads . . . then cry at night because it did absolutely nothing for them.

How do you get a following these days with everyone and their dog writing a book, publishing it and calling themselves an author?

Or how does someone who starts from scratch come out of nowhere and move copies of their work without shoving it in people’s faces? (And we’ve all seen them: those authors whom we’ve never heard of move a gazillion copies.)

To build a following, marketing your book will get you nowhere. Sure, you might catch a few sales and feel like a success story all your own—and rightly you should, to be honest—but to keep those sales going and to build a readership, you need to switch up your game plan.

You need to start marketing yourself.

Some people call this branding. What are we? Cattle? I don’t want a brand for my books. I don’t want my books to be what I’m known for. I want me to be what I’m known for. When I’m dead and gone, that’s the thing that matters, not how many books I sold.

Stop chasing the almighty dollar and start chasing the reader.

You don’t want to be known as that distant author behind a desk somewhere. You don’t want to be that high-and-lofty literary guest at some convention. You want to be that down-to-earth extra awesome person who’s a familiar face at shows and signings. You want to be that friendly and approachable on-line personality who’s a class act and is genuinely interested in interacting with their readers.

“But all I want to do is write!”

Then get out of the business, frankly. Or, if you must write, then don’t publish. As much as I’m an art-first-money-later guy, I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t want to make a few bucks off what I do. The motivation to make cash isn’t to be rich, though. I don’t care about that stuff. I just want to make enough to live on. But I can’t do that selling my book. I have to sell me.

Let me break it down for you in really simple terms:

When you first started writing, you went through a lot of trial and error and a lot of drafts. As you wrote a few books, you noticed your style started changing and at one point you reached that magical book where everything was different and you found your voice. Since then, your voice has been your style. Writing is easier, editing is easier, coming up with stories is easier, too.

This applies to your marketing efforts. You need to find your voice. You can’t just be another author spamming the world. There are ads everywhere for everything. People ignore that stuff. But they don’t tune out unique voices . . . especially if that voice has something of value to say. This is how followings are made and grown. You become known as the author “who’s like that.” Not the author “who’s like so-and-so . . . and a million others.”

I’ve been publishing since 2003, and indie publishing since 2004. I’ve seen it all. People have come and gone. There’s been successes and failures. Ups and downs. Yet there is one thing that has remained consistent throughout all of it: the authors who found their marketing voice are the ones who are still doing well today, who have a following, and have cultivated loyal readers based on who they are and not just their work.

To be clear, I’m not diminishing the importance of putting out good books. Sometimes that can indeed be enough to build a readership (i.e. it initiates word-of-mouth, etc.). But if you’re an author lost to the din of the flooded publishing world, writing a damn good book is probably not going to cut it. You need to get yourself out there and expose yourself to readers by showing them who you are behind the page.

Some writers niche themselves and become known for a certain thing or a certain personality. Others are more broad-brush. Whatever the case, simply blasting ads everywhere isn’t going to do anything for you. But if you meet people, whether on-line or off-, and not just use it as a means to pitch them your book, you’ll be surprised at how many copies you’ll move.

Put the people first, your book/comic/whatever second. This is so important. This about reputation and, at least for me, I never, ever buy books from people who blatantly shove it in my face. I don’t care how good the cover is or what the synopsis is about. As a reader, I want to be cared for. I want to know this isn’t just a money game to the writer.

Art first, book(s) second.

And if you’ve somehow missed the point of everything above, all I’m saying is be yourself, share yourself, then share info about your book after that.

Connect with readers first, then point them to the page.

We good?

****************************

About the Author: An independent writer and cartoonist, A.P. Fuchs has been part of the underground publishing scene for twelve years. He is the author of more than forty books, loads of comics, short stories and poetry, and has a weekly newsletter called The Canister X Transmission, in which he currently discusses publishing and marketing tips, past work, indie creator spotlights and whatever’s on his mind that week. Heck, he’s so passionate about writing and publishing he even wrote several books on the subject, one a collection of the first year of his weekly newsletter, another called Getting Down and Digital: How to Self-publish Your Book. Plus a few others. Sign up for his newsletter at www.tinyletter.com/apfuchs and get a free thriller e-novelette out of the deal, and be sure to visit him on-line at his main hub at www.canisterx.com

Meet Jeri Baird in this Debut Author Spotlight

Please welcome Jeri Baird to the spotlight!

1-Handmade paper artist sounds like an interesting profession. Do you have an image you can share to give us idea about your work in that field?

I made handmade embossed paper for thirteen years and created my own molds from clay. I made everything from small pins to wear to large framed pieces. In the beginning I sold at art shows and eventually had three sales reps who sold my work wholesale across the US and in Japan. The Japan market loved anything with the American flag on it and all my Raggedy Ann and Andy designs. I didn't keep many pieces of my work, but this one hangs in my kitchen, because I used my grandma's button collection to make the mold.

2- And a rock painter, too! How did you get into that, and might you have a picture of your best or favorite rock painted work?

After being inspired by painted stones I saw online, I started with mandalas, turtles, and dragonflies. Then I got the idea to glue charms depicting the tokens and omens in my book to stones and paint around them. You can see those on my website - http://jeribaird.com

3- How much research did you need to do to write "Tokens and Omens"?

Initially, I did a lot of research on the medieval era - I've never liked history, so it was all new! Then I moved from a medieval setting to more of a tribal setting. I enjoyed learning how different cultures look at fate and the role it plays in their lives. In TOKENS AND OMENS, Moira (Fate) is a character that directly and indirectly influences the lives of the teens in Puck's Gulch.

4- What most contributed to your choice of publication method?

I'd queried a few agents and participated in twitter pitches. When Jolly Fish Press held their own twitter pitch, I submitted and received a request from two of their editors. Reece Hanzon asked for the full and then offered publication. I researched the press and emailed with one of their authors before accepting.

5- Which film (or films) were you a zombie in and how did that happen?

My first and last experience as a film extra was disastrous (for me!). I was scheduled from 2pm - 5am in an indie film called I Am Alone. It was shooting in my town, and I thought it would make a great author story (someday - no contract at the time). I drove to Cerro Summit where the crew picked us up and drove us up into the mountain. I went through make-up and a zombie class. Being newly moved to Colorado, I knew no one there, but had some nice conversations with the other extras. There was a beautiful cabin, but we weren't allowed inside. It was a bonfire and porta-potties for the lowly extras. At 8pm I was part of a group sent to stand in waist-high grass for two hours while they shot around six, five-minute scenes - same scene over and over. Then it was midnight before they used us again. Unfortunately, at 11pm I started getting a migraine. I took ibuprofen and tried to rest in a lawn chair without any relief. Did I mention that it gets bone-chilling cold in the mountains at night, even in August? But when the call came, I thought I could do it. Three scenes in and I started puking from the migraine. I ran off, puking as I went, with the security guys running after me. Yeah, that was fun! Luckily, at 2am, they decided they didn't need all of us for the rest of the shots, so five of us got to leave and they drove us down to our cars. I was just happy not to puke on the twenty minute drive home. I could have signed up for more days, but was embarrassed someone would remember me as the one who puked. The movie came to our local drive-in last summer. I didn't see me, but my name was in the credits - woo hoo!

6- Any good recipes for brains? I'm kidding! Do you have a favorite recipe you could share (or a link to one)?

In the book, Alexa makes sugar biscuits for the shack kids. This is a recipe I used when I did an author visit with a class of boys. They really liked them! http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/sugar-biscuits/

7- Are there any diverse characters in your book?

I have five tribes representing different ethnicities. One of the minor characters, who becomes a major character in the second book, is gay.

8- I saw a mention of the Street team members for a TOKENS AND OMENS. Are you still looking for people? Have you had a good response to this brilliant idea?

Thank you! I have 36 people in 26 states setting out painted stones on July 23-24. Unfortunately, I can't take on any more. I'm still painting stones for my tour. My husband and I are going on a 5 State, 2 Wheels, 100 Stone book tour July 19-25. By motorcycle, we're riding through Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Utah leaving stones and stopping at indie bookstores and libraries. I'll post the adventure on twitter (@jeribaird11) and facebook (https://www.facebook.com/jeribaird11) if you want to follow along.

9- In a wonderful world filled with so many books, how do you select which you'll buy yourself next?

I read several writing/reading blogs, such as Operation Awesome, and often find books there. I also have a favorite indie bookstore, Out West Books in Grand Junction, where I find books that are wonderful but might not be getting lots of publicity yet.

10- Anything else you would care to share about your book and yourself?

I'm most active on twitter and FB. My website is http://jeribaird.com. I have a book trailer on youtube.

There's also a trailer that a HS class made for the book on my account.

Here's a blurb:
Zander trusts Fate. Alexa only trusts herself. When Fate intervenes, they find they're both wrong. Now, Fate’s given them each a special gift - Zander sees secrets he doesn’t want, and Alexa's thrilled to find she can control events through her embroidery scenes. In Puck's Gulch, sixteen-year-olds undergo a dangerous trial known as the Quest. During a time of magic, Fate hands out tokens and omens based on their behavior. The teens survive the quest only by earning the tokens that will counteract the potentially lethal omens. After Zander and Alexa each earn a black panther omen that makes surviving the quest nearly impossible, they must break the rules and challenge Fate together. If they don't, one will die. Fate has made it clear – she won't be cheated.

Kara Analyzes Pixar Movies: TOY STORY 2

I was 8 years old when Toy Story hit theaters. I remember eating the chocolate bars my mom smuggled into the theater in her purse while marveling at how darn cool the movie looked. Unlike many movies I loved as a child, Toy Story holds up for me as an adult. Amazingly, so does its sequel, released in 1999.

Sequels have a hard job to do, whether they are books or movies. If the sequels aren't as strong as the original piece that we loved, we as consumers may abandon the franchise, our memories of it tainted.

Today I'd like to examine Toy Story 2, and what makes it such a strong sequel as well as an enjoyable movie in its own right.

1) You don't have to watch Toy Story to enjoy Toy Story 2. We learn a lot about the characters and where they are coming from emotionally in the first movie, which certainly adds to our appreciation of them in Toy Story 2, but you can still understand the plot perfectly without having watched the first movie. It's a complete story all on its own.

2) At the same time, it builds off of what we learned about the characters in the first movie. For example, Woody understands Jessie's pain at being cast off perfectly because of what he went through with Andy and Buzz in the first movie. We as readers/watchers enjoy seeing how a character's experiences inform their choices as they move on through life, which is why so many of us love series.

I think these are important points to keep in mind as we consider writing sequels. Is the storyline of the sequel strong enough to stand on its own? Do we get to see the outcome of the character growth that we showed in the first novel?

What are your thoughts on Toy Story 2 and creating strong sequels? Please share in the comments!

July 2016 Pass Or Pages Agent Panel

July 2016 Pass Or Pages: Women's Fiction

Who's ready for another round of Pass Or Pages? We're so excited to introduce you to the four awesome agents providing feedback on queries and first pages this month!

Danielle Burby

Hannigan Salky Getzler Agency

Danielle began working at HSG in early 2013. Before finding her home at HSG, she interned at Writer’s House; Clarion Books; Faye Bender Literary Agency; Dunow, Carlson & Lerner; and SquareOne Publishers, along with some freelance copy editing for John Wiley & Sons. She graduated from Hamilton College with a degree in women’s studies and creative writing. 

Her passion lies in YA, women’s fiction, mysteries, and fantasy. She gravitates toward stories with strong voices and particularly enjoys complex female characters, coming-of-age stories, and narratives that explore social issues. She finds it hard to resist gorgeous writing and is a sucker for romantic plotlines that are an element of the narrative but don’t dominate it. Genres that appeal to her include contemporary YA, epic fantasy, historical fiction, cozy mysteries, and upmarket women’s fiction.

Melissa Jeglinski

The Knight Agency

A graduate of Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in English with a writing concentration, Melissa began her career as an editor with Harlequin Enterprises. Looking to work with a variety of authors and genres, she joined The Knight Agency in 2008. With over two decades experience in the publishing industry, Melissa has fostered her clients to National prominence including a recent Newbery Honor. She is a member of RWA and AAR. Melissa is currently seeking projects in the following areas: Romance (contemporary, category, historical, inspirational) Young Adult, Middle Grade, Women’s Fiction and Mystery.

Patricia Nelson

Marsal Lyon Literary Agency

Patricia Nelson joined Marsal Lyon Literary Agency in 2014. She represents adult, young adult, and middle grade fiction, and is actively building her list.

In general, Patricia looks for stories that hook her with a unique plot, fantastic writing and complex characters that jump off the page. On the adult side, she is seeking women’s fiction both upmarket and commercial, historical fiction set in the 20th century, and compelling plot-driven literary fiction. She’s also looking for sexy, smart adult contemporary and historical single title romance. For YA and MG, Patricia is open to a wide range of genres, with particular interest in contemporary/realistic, magical realism, mystery, science fiction and fantasy. She is interested in seeing diverse stories and characters, including LGBTQ, in all genres that she represents.

Andrea Somberg

Harvey Klinger Literary Agency

A literary agent for over fifteen years, Andrea Somberg represents a wide range of fiction and nonfiction, including projects for adult, young adult and middle grade audiences. Previously an agent at the Donald Maass Agency and Vigliano Associates, she joined Harvey Klinger Literary Agency in the spring of 2005. Her clients' books have been NYTimes and USABestsellers, as well as nominated for The Governor General's Award, the Lambda Award, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. Andrea also teaches courses for MediaBistro and Writers Digest, on topics such as nonfiction, memoir, mystery and thrillers, fantasy and sf. Her client list is quite full, however she is always actively looking to take on new authors who write in the following categories: Fiction: literary, commercial, book club fiction, romance, thrillers, mystery, paranormal, fantasy, science fiction, young adult, new adult, middle grade. Nonfiction: memoir, narrative, popular science, pop-culture, humor, how-to, parenting, self-help, lifestyle, travel, interior design, crafts, cookbooks, business, sports, diet, health & fitness.

Details for July 2016 Pass or Pages:

Entry starts: Monday, July 11, 2016, at 6 a.m. Eastern
Ends: Wednesday, July 13, 2016 at 6 p.m. Eastern
Category/Genre: Women's Fiction
How To Enter: Fill out the entry form on the contest post when it goes live
What Is Required: Your query (NO BIO or personalization for agents), your first 250 words, a complete and polished MS

You can also read more about the rules here.


The winning entries with agent commentary will be posted on Operation Awesome the week of July 25th, one entry each day. If you aren't comfortable with having your entry (which will be anonymous) shared on the blog, please don't enter Pass or Pages!

If you have any questions, please ask in the comments or feel free to tweet @OpAwesome6. Also, feel free to chat about the contest with fellow participants on the hashtag #PassOrPages.

June 2016 #OABookClub: Me Before You by JoJo Moyes

Welcome back! In June, the members of Operation Awesome read Me Before You by JoJo Moyes.

J

The writing itself seems to be well done. The characters are fleshed out properly. I could have done without the head-hopping chapters. It made me miss Paris, but for me, I understand the way that Will misses Paris, and feel similarly to him on the subject.

I'm not going to debate if life was "bad enough" for a fictional character. I can think of a dozen ways to write it to make it worse. There are events that separate a person from the rest of humanity. Scars so deep they prevent us from ever being like everyone else. This book discusses three of them with an emotional abandon rarely braved.

The book has inevitable spiritual and scientific debates. I've been drawn into heated debates about euthanasia and the appropriate or acceptable amounts of medically scientific interference that should be permitted for two decades now. This review of a fictional book is not going to contain my encyclopedia-worth of knowledge on the topics. The book is fiction. Besides, the book seems to have covered every angle of those debates. One of the primary characters is diverse only in the sense that he has a severe medical condition. I found other minor characters in the story who had similar afflictions to Will, but who lived very different lives than he did.

I would like to remind everyone not to feed bread to ducks. Seeds and lettuce in moderation are okay.

Kara

I have tried to read two of Jojo Moyes' books before (The Ship of Brides and The Girl You Left Behind), and I couldn't get into either one of them. Both ended up on my DNF shelf on Goodreads. I'm not sure what it was about Me Before You that kept my attention, but it was probably the voice of the main character. I liked her from the start, and so was able to stay hooked. I liked all of the characters, really, even the ones whose choices irritated me. Everyone felt real to me.

I also liked how Lou gradually fell for Will. I hate instalove, especially in situations like this one where Will is fairly horrible to Lou at first.

The ending gutted me. I knew how it would end; with the movie out, spoilers are all over the place. So I was prepared for it, but still ended up bawling like my daughter when her binkie gets taken away. I do not think that Will made the right choice. I think his life was worth living, and choosing to die was selfish and prideful. I don't agree with assisted suicide because of my religious beliefs, so that bias was obviously there, but really. I find it hard to believe that anyone would sympathize with Will's choice. Still, people do.

Which is why I think this makes a good book club book. There are a wide range of opinions on assisted suicide, and the book could be a good jumping-off point for a discussion on the practice.

I'm not sure I would read this one again (even though I read books over and over), but I liked it while I read it. Four stars.

***

Next Book of the Month: August

For July, we're taking a little break from the Book Club due to vacations and general summer craziness in our lives. Come back at the beginning of August to find out what we're reading!

#LesMisRead2016 Update from Samantha

Perhaps I should just re-title this segment "Worst Year Ever Update from Samantha." Since last we met, my father was diagnosed with a (thankfully, very treatable) form of cancer, and I suffered a back sprain from my lingering injury when I was pregnant two years ago. I don't know if you're aware of the difficulty of motivating yourself to read something somewhat challenging while experiencing the pain of a back injury and stress about the health of your parent, but...

OK, so for some happy news: I've joined the slush reading team of Flash Fiction Online! I'm planning on doing a post here one of these days on things I've already learned from slushing. I've only done it for a little over a month, but already I know it's improving my writing dramatically--mostly around ideas and approaches to my stories. We all know the oft-repeated cliche beginnings of novels, but there are cliche ideas (which come in and out of fashion, in fact) that run through slush piles. It's interesting to see those.

So, um, all that to say: I'm getting there. I will finish reading Les Miserables in 2016 if I'm skimming the end while the ball drops for 2017. But I'm behind. Again.

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