|
Another Dream Comes TrueCynthia's Column June 2004 Another Willamette Writer's dream has come true, and this one happened very close to home. My home, that is. My sister Laura, (who is eight years younger than me, she might want you to know) has sold her novel to an imprint of Houghton Mifflin. This is another one of those overnight successes that was years in the making. Here is Laura's Story. I am delighted to tell it. We have been dancing on the ceiling for days. She began writing her first novel when she was fifteen. She was one of those imaginative, fanciful girls who wrote hundreds of pages of a fantasy novel called In the King's Absence. It was kind of a cross between Romeo and Juliet and Butch and Sundance, if the three main characters were played by Luke, Leia and Han Solo. Romantic banter and swashbuckling adventures. She has been writing novels ever since. For about a dozen years, she would hole up over Labor Day Weekend for the Anvil Press Three Day Novel Writing Contest. (Originally the Pulp Fiction TDNWC. ) After the first couple of years, she didn't bother sending them in, she just loved the intensity of pondering a story for months, then locking herself in a room with a ream of paper and a supply of food and drink and writing in an intensive College Finals in the Dorm Frenzy. And at the end of the weekend she would have a rough draft of a novel, between 100 and 123 pages long. Most of these stayed in this rough hewn state. Occasionally she'd go back and revise them. What happened to change this? When did she start working deeply and seriously on a novel and see it through until she had a beautifully polished draft? What was the event that started this whole new life? She got laid off from her job. She had been writing diligently every day, but after working an eight hour day in a business job, she would only write about a paragraph every night before bed. When the company cut back and laid her off, suddenly time was on her side, as the Rolling Stones would say. And that paragraph every night became four pages a day. In order to train herself to write as well as she possibly could, Laura studied Barbara Kingsolver, (Poisonwood Bible and Prodigal Summer) and Janet Fitch's White Oleander. As an exercise, she randomly opened Oleander to several different spots and Xeroxed a few pages. Then she read them carefully and on each page highlighted ways of describing things or turns of phrases that she had never read before. There were one or two of these on every page of Fitch's book. So she went back and looked for clichés in her own book. And found new ways to describe things. When the book was written and rewritten and polished and repolished, she began looking for an agent. She had signed with an agent once before on an earlier novel and it was a disaster. Why? What went wrong? She met her first agent at a writers' conference and Laura's pitch went great. The agent loved her, and here is where (Laura now realizes) she made her mistake. She was so thrilled that an agent loved her, that she didn't research the agent. She now realizes that she should have been tipped off by the agent saying, "Don't call me. E-mail me."When you call this agent's office, the voicemail recording says, "If you are an editor, leave a message. If you're an author, e-mail me."Clue #1: Your agent should be reachable by phone. Laura didn't ask for a submission list as the agent was supposedly working for her. Finally she asked in writing where her book had been submitted and the agent eventually (4 months later) responded with a list of submissions, all of which were AFTER Laura demanded to see a submissions list. Either the agent was so disorganized that she didn't keep records of earlier submissions, or she hadn't actually been submitting the book at all until Laura demanded to see a list. In either case, after wasting two years on this agent, Laura finally severed the relationship and started over. This time, with a new novel in hand, Laura did her homework. She studied Donald Maass's book The Career Novelist and used it to figure out which type of agent that would be right for her. Someone who sold fast and went for trendy books? Or a real career builder? She opted for the latter. Agents who gave editorial comments or one who'd take a book "as is"? She opted for the former. She wanted a smart, literary agent who would be involved in the process and invested in the outcome. A New York agent or a regional one? Since the disastrous agent had not been west coast, Laura opted for NY. With these criteria in mind, she went through Jeff Herman's book, Writers Guide to Book Editors, Publishers and Literary Agents, and made a 3X5 card on each agent that fit these criteria and would consider first novels. She eliminated anyone that seemed cynical or sarcastic in Jeff Herman's descriptions. Are you getting the picture that this imaginative, creative writer put on her businesswoman's hat and proceeded with a careful, strategic plan of action? Planning followed by Action. She went through the stack of cards and pulled her ten first choices and sent off ten one-page query letters. Two of these responded that her book was not what they were looking for. Seven said they were not taking any new writers at this time. And the tenth wrote her a letter that said, "Yes. Send me the whole manuscript."Her name is Ann Rittenberg from the agency of the same name. She read it. And loved it. This was not a letter, but a life-changing phone call to Laura from Ann Rittenberg saying that she loved the book and asking to represent her as an author. The contract came by mail a short time later. Ann suggested minor changes to the manuscript and last September began submitting it to publishers. The novel is called A Certain Slant of Light. The title comes from a poem by Emily Dickenson. The book is a ghost story, and a love story. I think of it as kind of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir for the younger set. It is the kind of book that is so different, unpredictable and charming that it is hard to put down. The kind that makes you laugh and cry both. In other words, a wonderful book. Ann's notes for Laura were along the line of making the rules of the novel's spiritual, out-of-body reality more clear. And heighten the dramatic moments. Give them more punch. (Something Donald Maass also recommends in his other great book, Writing the Breakout Novel. ) In December Ann Rittenberg sent Laura's novel to a second round of houses. Near the end of March, Eden Edwards, an editor from Houghton-Mifflin called Ann to say she was in the middle of the novel and loving it and was she too late? Was it still available? It was. On April 1, Edwards called to say Houghton-Mifflin was interested, and the same day another editor from another house also called to make an offer. The suspense lasted only a day, and on Friday April 2, the novel was sold to Houghton-Mifflin. For one of their new imprints called Graphia which makes its debut this spring and targets readers 18-25-year-olds. Its books are trade paperback novels with hip, smart covers and subject matter. Laura's book will be out in fall of 2005. Now Laura wakes up every morning to the happy realization that it was not a dream. It's true. She is about to be a published novelist. And she is wasting no time in living happily ever after, writing her next novel. Ann Rittenberg's associate, Ted Gideonse, will be taking pitches at the Willamette Writers Conference in August. If you wish this story were yours, grab him for a pitch session. To quote Frank Sinatra, "Fairy tales can come true. It can happen to you." Cynthia Whitcomb is president of Willamette Writers, and has had 29 of her screenplays produced. She is author of The Writers' Guide to Writing Your Screenplay and The Writers' Guide to Selling Your Screenplay. She teaches screenwriting classes at Portland State University.and through Willamette Writers. |