When Your Agent Says "NO", by Hilary Wagner

You've battled through what may be the toughest step in your writing career to date. You landed an agent. You have representation, something to be very proud of. Next step: get published. Okay, an equally tough step...correction, even tougher. 

So what do you do when your own agent tells you "no"? In other words, your manuscript isn't clicking with him or her and they don't think your work is ready to send off to editors or maybe your latest manuscript is a complete bust and in their opinion shouldn't be sent at all.

It happens...and it hurts. 

Whether you've been published before or you're still trying to get published, a great agent is going to tell you when your work isn't up to par and should not be sent off to editors. If your agent truly respects you, they're going to tell you the truth no matter what. Agents only get paid when their writers get published, so a candid agent is truly looking after your best interests. The last thing you want is an agent throwing your work against editors' walls, just in the hopes something sticks, and here's why... many times, once and editor rejects a writer's work, they don't want to see work from that writer again. Of course there are exceptions, but why risk it? You've worked far too hard to land an agent, so listen to them, because once an editor from your favorite publishing house gives the dreaded "no", it could mean no forever. 

So, what do you do?

Talk it out with your agent. What were the major issues? Best case scenario your manuscript is salvageable. Perhaps your storyline went meandering in the middle or there's simply too many characters to keep track of. Some of the best books out there were completely rewritten several times over before they made it into print. Worst case, your agent thinks there not much worth saving and your manuscript will never see the light of day. If that's the situation, as much as it might sting, appreciate your agent's honesty, learn from your mistakes, pull yourself up by the proverbial bootstraps and get going on something new. Whether you spent months or even years on a manuscript you need to move on--as hard as that may be--and many times the best books come out of crushing disappoint and a new found fire.

Okay, but despite all of the above your heart is still dead set on getting this manuscript published, even after your agent says it's a no-go. Agents are agents for good reason, they know their craft, and an editor's thoughts will generally echo what your agent is thinking, but that's not always the case, so if you're still sure your manuscript is solid gold, at the very least compromise. Ask your agent if they'd be willing to share with one or two editors before completely letting it go. If feedback comes back similar to what your agent said, thank them profusely for helping you dodge a bullet! 

Bear in mind, even bestselling authors get told no by their agents or editors. It happens all the time. Nobody's perfect!

Long story short, we all want to succeed in this business and in order to do that we need to hear the good, the bad, and the very ugly when it comes to our work. Some of the most well published writers will tell you they've had some stinkers that have never and will never see the light of day, so don't despair. Once you get into your new story, you'll feel you have a new lease on life. 

A writer friend of mine, who is now a published mystery writer, has a wonderful mantra that we all need to follow. "Never give up! Never surrender!" 

Now get out there and write!

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday: EVOLUTION REVOLUTION: Simple Machines by Charlotte Bennardo (review by Michael G-G)

EVOLUTION REVOLUTION: Simple Machines by Charlotte Bennardo, illustrations by Cathleen Daniels (2016)

I am delighted to have found a new author to support. Charlotte Bennardo seems to be the epitome of professionalism (I encourage you to read the post at her blog titled Ms. Book Manners Says.) Writing for publication is a profession, and Charlotte does a great job of explaining what the standards are and what constitutes good manners.

Ordinarily, I am not a huge fan of stories about animals (shameful confession: I have not yet read Watership Down) but I did enjoy Mrs. Frisby and The Rats of Nimh and now I can add EVOLUTION REVOLUTION to the list. Read on to learn why.

What It's About:
In a quiet wood, a common gray squirrel will start a war. First he learns words and how to use simple machines like the wheel. Named Jack by the boy who teaches him, Jack sees construction machines invade his wood and threaten his nest and tree. Sharing what he's learned with Sister, he calls a Gathering of the woodland animals to convince them to fight. Most of the animals, like Beaver, Bird and the Rabbits are afraid. Fox and Rat do not want to learn anything from a human, until Jack tells Fox his den will be the first destroyed by the machines. The animals unite: Beaver, Owl, Fox, Rat, and even Sister join the fight. They win one battle, but they may not win the war because the humans have become especially interested in them.

Why I liked it:
The character of Jack, the squirrel: Can you say spunky? Jack is intrepid and intelligent, and he is able to understand the young boy who befriends him. Despite Jack's fear of the machines, he also grows into a leader as he gathers his fellow woodland creatures to prevent a subdivision being built in his forest. Go Jack!

The easy-to-read style: As a writer, I like to study how other writers construct their stories. Evolution Revolution is written in close third person, mainly through Jack's point of view. I kept thinking, as I read, that it would be a good novel to read in an elementary classroom. The novel has some humor, and lots of heart, and it is just the right length for a read-aloud book. Plus, there's plenty of action: who doesn't like a story about underdogs (although dogs are looked down upon by the forest-dwelling animals) who are able to put a big crimp into the plans of man and their machines?

The illustrations are great. This novel was produced with a lot of care. The cover art is appealing and the inside illustrations in black-and-white are tremendous. (I love the drawing of Jack rolling a nut on page 18!)

(To learn more about the illustrator, check out Cathleen Daniels website HERE.)

About The Author (from Goodreads bio):
Until Hollywood calls, Charlotte Bennardo lives in NJ with her husband, three children, two needy cats and sometimes a deranged squirrel. Evolution Revolution: Simple Machines is her first solo novel. She is also the co-author of Blonde Ops (St. Martin’s/Dunne) and the Sirenz series (Sirenz, Sirenz Back In Fashion, Flux), and one of 13 authors in the anthology, Beware the Little White Rabbit (Leap). She’s written for magazines and newspapers, and has given presentations and workshops at NJ SCBWI conferences. Currently she’s working on sci fi, historical, fantasy, and time travel novels and loves to hear from fans. WEBSITE

Win a copy of EVOLUTION REVOLUTION on Goodreads!

Charlotte Bennardo's Goodreads author photo

Make Elections Fun Again! by Dianne K. Salerni

Has the 2016 Presidential Election got you down? Sent you into a downward spiral of crying into your pillow and tearing off calendar pages in the hope of making time go faster?

Well, don’t let your middle grade readers succumb to the negativity. Bring a few laughs back into the election process with these light-hearted looks into elections and public office.

I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be YourClass President by Josh Lieb

Oliver Watson, an overweight 12-year-old from Omaha, NE, fools his family and classmates into thinking that he is slow-witted when in fact he is the world's third-richest person. He overthrows foreign dictators, owns corporations, is a successful inventor and investor, and is on the way to attaining his goal of world domination. But when a provocation from his dad irks Oliver, he decides to put his plans for world domination on hold in order to beat the pants off the competition and win the middle school election. (from SLJ & Amazon)

When Audrey Met Alice by Rebecca Behrens

Living in the White House is like being permanently grounded. Only with better security. First Daughter Audrey Rhodes is ready to give up and spend the next four years totally friendless―until she discovers Alice Roosevelt's hidden diary. The former First Daughter's outrageous antics give Audrey a ton of ideas for having fun...and get her into more trouble than she can handle. (from Amazon)

Eighth Grade Superzero by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

Reggie McKnight (aka "Pukey") is trying hard to stay under the radar after a really embarrassing start to the school year. But, he’s somehow been drawn into the middle of a big school election, a volunteer project at the local homeless shelter, and the role of "Big Buddy" for a kid in the neighborhood. (from Amazon reviewer, Lauren Nemroff)

As if Being 12 ¾ Isn’t Bad Enough, My Mother is Running forPresident by Donna Gephart

As if being 12 3/4 isn’t bad enough, Vanessa Rothrock’s mother is running for president and it’s ruining her life. This hilarious debut novel about a girl who gets thrust into the campaign trail will have you laughing out loud and thanking your lucky stars that your mom never decided to enter a national election. (from Amazon)

The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson

Jackson Greene swears he's given up scheming. Then school bully Keith Sinclair announces he's running for Student Council president, against Jackson's former friend Gaby de la Cruz. Gaby wants Jackson to stay out of it -- but he knows Keith has "connections" to the principal, which could win him the presidency no matter the vote count. So Jackson assembles a crack team to make sure the election is done right. If they can pull it off, it will be remembered as the school's greatest con ever. (from Amazon)

History Moves: Thoughts on Historical Fiction by Kell Andrews

When I was in eighth grade, my school district determined that girls and boys would study the exact same curriculum. This was progress.

In sixth and seventh grade, we girls had taken Home Economics while the boys had Industrial Arts. In eighth grade, however, we would rotate to take both subjects, one half year in each one in mixed gender groups. 

I had Home Ec first. I remember making the first Caesar salad I ever ate. The recipe called for canned tuna instead of anchovies. It wasn’t authentic, but still delicious. I also remember a male classmate telling the teacher that really good cooks don’t need recipes. (We call that “mansplaining” now.)

The Industrial Arts teacher had an even worse adjustment than the Home Ec did. He took his eyes off what he was doing when a girl student called out to him, her unaccustomed high girly voice carrying across the class. He looked up, and he cut off three fingers on a circular saw. It was a memorable day for everyone. (We call that “being a distraction” now.)

Thus when I finally took my first shop class, my teacher was an experienced substitute who had been called out of retirement while the injured shop teacher healed. 

Mr. Legg was a taciturn sort, and he had lived through a lot that was far worse than the unfamiliar presence of 13-year-old girls in his classroom. He bore an Auschwitz tattoo on his forearm. He wouldn’t talk about it, but he didn’t hide it. I think he wanted you to know it was there. 

The Holocaust seemed so distant in 1983, but Mr. Legg had survived it.

Now I realize how close it was -- the liberation of Auschwitz had happened just 38 years earlier.

I’m sure middle-school students now also think the Holocaust is ancient history. It’s not.

I’m sure that the softer bigotry the required different classes for boys and girls seems distant as well. It was just 33 years ago -- history to current middle graders.

Antisemitism, sexism, and bigotry of all kind are not in the past. Racism didn’t end with slavery -- it continues. Antisemitism and misogyny are resurgent, reactionary convulsions in the face of other progress. Genocide, religious, gender, and racial violence continue on the evening news, in Mosul, Ferguson, and Orlando.  

It can be difficult for middle-grade writers to look at current events and culture with the clear eyes reserved for hindsight. History moves -- current events slide into the past as we write about them. Distant events emerge as relevant. 

But as middle-grade writers, we have an opportunity to make past and present real and vivid. That’s what historical fiction is for, even with the humbling fact that our own childhoods are now the realm of historical fiction. It’s also what contemporary fiction is for, turning the writer’s lens to the present. 

We’re living in history, past and present. All fiction that speaks truth is historical, all is contemporary.

Character Rules

We've passed October's middle point, and as Halloween approaches, the air crackles with the energy November brings, not only because of the Holiday season, but because of NaNoWrimo. If you, dear reader, scroll down to previous blog posts, you'll find wonderful and inspirational advice shared by my fellow Mayhemers. I started writing because of NaNoWrimo, and I've loved the experience ever since. I'd always wanted to write a book, but I used to complain I didn't have any story ideas--until I found a character (or the character found me) and wouldn't stop badgering me until I wrote her story. See, for me, character rules above all the other elements of a story: plot, setting, writing style, and structure. If I care about a character, I'll read through anything to know what happens to the character I either fell in love with or found fascinating in some way. Of course, plot, setting, writing style, and story structure affect the character, or they should for the character to be unforgettable and compelling; in other words, for a character to be a real person (or bunny doll, like Kate DiCamillo's Edward Tulane or Drew Daywalt's rebellious crayons). Even if a character finds the writer and whispers in her ear until the writer gives in and gives life to the story, the writer must work hard to fully flesh out the whispering voice and transform it into Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Anne with an "E," Eugenides, Bartimeus the Genie, Katniss, Ramona, or Max and his wild things. 

In The Magic Words: Writing Great Books For Children and Young Adults, author and editor extraordinaire Cheryl B. Klein devotes several chapters to the art of creating compelling characters. She says, "You'll want to employ different characterization strategies, at different depths, for different members of your cast, depending upon where you're in the plot, the character's role in the plot, and the character's reactions to each other and the reader" (105). 

After many years of attending writing conferences, workshops, and even an MFA program, and reading countless writing craft books and writing blogs, I've compiled a list of ways in which I can explore my characters' traits to understand their desires, goals, and motivations from which all my stories enfold. As Cheryl b. Klein suggests, all these techniques have helped me at different time, in different ways to get to know "my people:" 

• Free writing: usually I start a manuscript or story idea with the faint form of a character in a particular situation. The character's actions will lead to the rest of the story. 
• A vision of where I want the character to become or what they want to achieve by the end of the manuscript. If I know where the character starts and where he/she/it should become by the end of their story, I can build up to that vision.
• Borrowing from real life: Maggie Stiefvater (the creator of characters such as the Raven Boys and Blue Sargent, Sean Kendrick and Puck Connolly) has publicly and repeatedly confessed that she borrows characters from people she meets in real life. Before you go ahead and get in trouble for modeling your villain after the elementary school teacher who might one day read your story and recognize himself and get you in trouble, be aware that Maggie meant she borrows certain traits, mannerisms, even looks. She's also said that her characters usually represent an answer to a question in her head. 
• A collage: in a workshop I attended with Cynthia Leitich Smith, she had us, the students, make a collage that represented our character's fears, dreams, motivations, goals, or view of the world. Some writers use Pinterest boards to the same effect. 
• Zodiac signs. 
• Myers-Briggs personality type test or any personality test on facebook
• Sorting your character into their Hogwarts House or discover their Dungeons and Dragons alignment.
• Having your character write you a letter, telling you, the writer, something you don't know about them yet. This exercise has been surpringly revealing and productive for me when I feel like I'm still not connecting to my character in some way. 
• Write your character's biography or Wikipedia style entry.
• Journal a week in the life of your character.
• Character interview or questionnaire.

Of course, there must be moderation in all things. I don't employ all of these techniques on a single character or even on all the different members of my cast. Like any type of research, character exploration can easily become just another way in which I put off writing because I'm planning on writing. Sometimes the easiest way to know a certain character is by trial and error, and many times, and although I've made a detailed entry in a character bible, my characters still surprise me and make the story even more exciting than I could've imagined on my own.

So writer friends, what are some techniques you have used to flesh out you "imaginary friends?" Share in the comments!