July 13, 2007

Interview: Annette Gilson

Writer Annette Gilson introduced herself to me last year when she was doing promotions among lit-bloggers for her first novel, New Light. Now she's answered some of my questions about her writing life, the rhythms and fears and challenges.

I particularly liked what she said about being excited to come back to fiction after an intense bout of teaching and reviewing. I'm hoping that same effect will apply to me now that I'm returning to my novel after a parenting and working interlude.

My thanks to Annette for allowing us a peek into her process. Check out An Interview with Annette Gilson.

April 27, 2007

Interview: Justine Larbalestier

You've got to admire the hubris of a post titled how to write a novel. Except that Justine Larbalestier has a few such novels under her belt and, what's more, her instructions are concrete, useful and witty, and give the reader a voyeuristic peek at her process.

[Larbalestier is pronounced lar-bal-est-ee-air according to her faq, and that mellifluous name rolled around in my head for weeks after I read the first two novels of her YA trilogy, Magic or Madness and Magic Lessons. I wait impatiently for the library to come through with the third installment, Magic's Child.]

Justine Larbalestier (see, isn't that an earworm?) lives in Australia with her husband and fellow writer Scott Westerfeld, although she also sojourns in New York City and San Miguel de Allende (yes, I'm jealous).

Jennifer Laughran of Books Inc recently did an interview with Justine, and I'm not sure which one of them had more fun. The story of how Justine became a full-time writer is more cautionary than exemplar:

But back when I was trying to figure out what to do for a living, I didn't fancy my chances, so I studied and became an academic. That way I could pay the rent and, you know, eat while I wrote on the side. It's always a good idea to have more than one way to earn money so that if one doesn't work out you can try something else. I also trained to be a massage therapist. (Didn't like it at all.)

I quit to become a freelance writer before I sold anything. It was terrifying and completely unwise. I don't recommend it to anyone. But within six months of going freelance I sold the MAGIC OR MADNESS trilogy. Phew, eh?

That was in 2003. Sounds magical and instantaneous, doesn't it? But I'd been writing for years and years and years before that. I have gazillions of short stories that never sold. And the novel I started in 1988 and finished in 1999 still hasn't sold either.

If there isn't enough of Justine's juicy voice in that interview, you can also check out Little Willow for the story of how she and Scott met and Bookslut for a discussion of her non-fiction books on science fiction and fantasy.

April 25, 2007

The Elusive Agent

I've been following Cynthia Morris' progress in her quest for an agent. I love her resilience in the face of rejection--how much more peaceful we are when we don't take these things personally! I wrote a little about my own experience of rejection at gresik.ca last week.

I also like Cynthia's suggestions for navigating the submission process, especially the deadline:

My deadline for a fully polished novel is May 28th. My deadline for seeking publication: December 20, 2007. If I haven’t found an agent or signed a contract by then, I’ll move on to something new. Who knows what that would be, but right now, I don’t have to worry about it.

That endpoint gives a sense of freedom, knowing that you're not stuck in this cycle forever, but will give yourself permission to move on with something else when the time comes.

Even the famous and successful have difficulty finding agents. My husband pointed me to the blog of Ken Levine, "an Emmy winning writer/director/producer/major league baseball announcer" who has worked on shows like CHEERS and FRASIER. In his post "Even I don't have an agent", he describes his own attempts to find a New York theatrical agent:

I made a few calls and found no one was interested. The fact that (a) I wasn’t 25, and (b) they couldn’t cash in on movie rights made me persona non representita. And this was before anyone even bothered to read my play.

Through a playwright friend, I was referred to one agent – we’ll call her Beth B. I had a nice conversation with her, she said she really wasn’t looking to take on new clients but wanted to read my play. So I sent it along with a resume. Two weeks later I get a letter from her. The first sentence was “Ohmygod, I had no idea you co-created ALMOST PERFECT!” She went on to say it was her favorite show, the writing was brilliant, she wrote a letter to CBS complaining when they cancelled it, it was like we were in her bedroom, and she was often confused for our star, Nancy Travis. I thought – I am IN!

Next paragraph – pass. Okay. Whatever.

Ken's whole blog is fascinating, with lost scenes from CHEERS, writing advice, and descriptions of the life of a sitcom writer.

I'll close with Ken's words of wisdom to everyone hunting that elusive agent.

I know it’s discouraging when an agent doesn’t want you, but always remember, there are plenty of agents out there that YOU don’t want. If it takes more time to find a better match it’s worth it.

Hear that, Cynthia? You hold out for the best match you can find!