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New interviews are being scheduled. Watch this space for details.
Tonight for the first call of the official Second Season of Farland's Authors Advisory Conference Calls, we had the distinct pleasure of welcoming two time World Fantasy Award and Philip K Dick Memorial Award winning author Tim Powers as our guest. Tim is the author of such award winning novels as: The Anubis Gates, Last Call, The Stress of Her Regard and On Stranger Tides. Tim shared with us a literary concept that has been in existance for a long time and has become connected with his works. The concept of "Secret Histories", which is defined as a " revisionist interpretation of either Fictional or real (or known) historical events which claim to be deliberately supressed, forgotten or ignored by established scholars".
Tim answered such questions as:
What makes real world history a good starting point for writing a Fantasy novel?
How much of your historical research is used in your novel?
How would you accurately portray an historical figure and have them as a character in your novel?
For over an hour of answers to these and even more intriguing and insightful audience questions, press "Play".
Tonight we heard from four amazing, enthusiastic, and very knowledgeable newly published authors. They're fresh from the querying/submission trenches and have all sorts of advice.
Tyler Whitesides is the author of JANITORS, a middle-grade fantasy book inspired by his own experience as an elementary school janitor. Unsurprisingly, the janitors help the kids battle the creatures who suck kids' smarts out and make them sleepy in class. JANITORS came out in August, and Tyler is currently on an extensive tour, courtesy of his publisher Shadow Mountain.
Amber Argyle is the author of WITCH SONG, a YA high fantasy about the last untrained witch standing against an evil witch who has steadily taken over all the other witches. Amber's magic system, uses singing to help the witches manipulate the forces of nature. WITCH SONG launched September 1, and Amber has been busy presenting at local conferences. She is published through Rhemalda.
Michelle Davidson-Argyle is the author of MONARCH, a spy thriller involving a framed spy, a lost love, and lots and lots of butterflies. MONARCH launched September 15, also through Rhemalda. She has one coming out next year and an anthology coming out in 2013.
Robison Wells is the author of VARIANT, a YA sci-fi with dystopian elements. Published by Harper Collins, VARIANT launched early on October 4 to accommodate Barnes & Noble's promotion schedule. It deals with a foster kid who goes to a strange new boarding school, which turns out to be more like Lord of the Flies meets Maze Runner. Rob, whose day-job is in marketing, suggests that you should promote our books in ways you enjoy. For example, he does a podcast with Sara Eden and Marion Jensen called The Appendix.
In other news, this 'cast marks the end of our first season here at Authors' Advisory. It's been an amazing ride, full of such powerful, informative guests and loyal callers. Thanks to everyone who has helped make Authors' Advisory a success!
Bestselling Epic Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson was our guest on this edition of Farland's Authors' Advisory. Along with a spirited question and answer session, Brandon gave us three guidelines to use if the magic in the magic systems of our works aren't qute as magical as we'd hoped. If you're writing a work that would benefit from having a magic system of any complexity in it, that is.
For nearly an hour of advice and answers from the author graced with the writing task of bringing a conclusion to the late Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series and the creator of such series as The Mistborn series, (Including the latest "Mistborn" novel The Alloy of Law which releases November 2011) and the novels in the Alcatraz Smedry series to name but a few, press "Play".
You can download the MP3 by clicking here. Or, new this week, at the top of the right sidebar, you can SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST through Feedburner.
Becca Stumpf is one of the nicest, most personable agents out there--but she still requires authors to send a synopsis as part of the query package. The synopsis isn't the most important part of Prospect Agency's query package, and it rarely makes-or-breaks the submission, but Becca finds it helpful--and it turns out she knows what she's talking about.
For the first half of the call, Becca gave us the skinny on what sort of submissions she's looking for, what goes into a great query letter, and what she does with those three chapters she asks for. For the second half, she treated us to an insider's view on exactly what she uses the synopsis for, what it should look like, what it should include, and why we should all stop worrying about it so much.
Some highlights:
For agents like Becca, a synopsis should be between 2-3 pages long. She doesn't want to read a lengthy synopsis for a query package--save the longer ones for when you're trying to sell your book on a proposal.
What Happens is the most important part of a synopsis--but include enough motivation so you don't lose the reader. It's usually not good if they have to stop and wonder why that happened.
There are good ways to sneak in sub-plot tidbits (just don't go crazy)
Include the ending, and don't worry about spoiling it. If she likes the book, she'll probably forget the ending while she's reading, anyway.
If she really likes the writing sample, she can overlook a less-than-brilliant synopsis. (Though it's probably better to be good all around.) She knows successful writers who aren't good at writing a synopsis.
Sarah's advice on Research is guaranteed to make you want to go out and research something yourself.
Some of the basics:
You should do research anytime you are writing about:
A character with a different job, religion, race, medical history, gender, family background, hometown, or place of residence than yours
A time period or location other than your own
You can start with the internet, but don't stop there
Sarah is unsure about Wikipedia
Verify important facts with three independent sources--though the US Mint likely has pretty accurate information about coins
Use the internet to point you toward primary sources, etc
Read books--they help with info, dialogue, little-known details, and they're all grouped together on the library shelves
Experience anything you can--wearing a corset you made yourself really helps you understand your characters. :)
Experts like to share--be professional and courteous of their time, then put them in your acknowledgments
Professional researchers can help--but you might have to pay them
Sarah also answered such burning questions as the worst mistake she's seen in a book that research would have fixed, the character that sprang from a couple of letters, and the quirkiest thing she found and actually used in a book.
She MC'd for LDStorymakers 2011 and was asked to do it again for 2012. You can see her awesome MC videos on her site.
Also, in case an hour of advice from Sarah isn't enough for you, you can hear her every Wednesday on her own podcast (with Robison Wells and Marion Jensen): The Appendix, where they give general writing advice and play writing-related games, perfect for getting the old writing juices flowing.
Tonight we were privileged to once again recieve a word from our Sponsor, David Farland. For this call, David was kind enough to illuminate for us the un charted waters of New Media, or "non traditional" media (Internet related media and e books) and how these new forms of information collection and distribution are already (and will potentially) change publishing as an industry and novel and short-story writing as a career.
Some of tonight's topics of discussion were:
Potential benefits and challenges of New Media for both established and aspiring authors.
Being more than an author: other facets of e publishing that are involved in publishing a book the New Media route.
Market trends: Where will they go?
For over an hour of discussion about this game changing development in the publishing world from a true industry professional, just push "Play".
Tonight we were privileged to talk to Janette Rallison, who is a master of YA romance. She has published 15 YA contemporary romance novels, 2 YA Fantasy (romance) novels, and, in October, will be branching out into YA Urban Fantasy (with romance). Her upcoming novel, SLAYERS, tells the story of a group of youngsters descended from a long lineage of ancient dragon slayers... whose skills are needed again in modern times when the dragons threaten mankind. Watch for it under the pen name of CJ Hill.
Janette shared with us all the tricks of writing a great romance. Though she focused on YA romance, she also taught us how to create a believable romantic subplot, why subplots are important, and the elements of any great romance.
Some highlights are:
Romantic (or, really, any) characters, should have Grit, Wit, and "It"
Romances are mostly for women--add them to "regular" books to attract a female audience
Romantic men should be a "catch"--Lord Somebody, or a talented high school artist
Romances are about wish fulfillment
Don't worry about the first draft so much--fix it later
Janette has generously agreed to give two of her books as prizes to two lucky callers/listeners:
How to Take the Ex Out of Ex-Boyfriend - Sixteen-year-old Giovanna Petrizzo finds it hard enough to fit in. Three years since her family moved to Texas, she’s still the newcomer compared to everyone around her. It doesn’t help matters when her twin brother, Dante, takes on the mayor’s son by running for class president. The least she could expect, though, would be for her boyfriend, Jesse, to support their cause. But Jesse’s apparent defection triggers Giovanna’s rash emotional side, and before she knows it, she’s turned Jesse from the boy of her dreams to the exboyfriend she dreams of winning back. UPDATE: And the Winner is... Erin Edwards!!
My Fair Godmother -Finding your one true love can be a Grimm experience! After her boyfriend dumps her for her older sister, sophomore Savannah Delano wishes she could find a true prince to take her to the prom. Enter Chrissy (Chrysanthemum) Everstar: Savannah’s gum-chewing, cell phone–carrying, high heel-wearing Fair Godmother. Showing why she’s only Fair—because she’s not a very good fairy student—Chrissy mistakenly sends Savannah back in time to the Middle Ages, first as Cinderella, then as Snow White. Finally she sends Tristan, a boy in Savannah’s class, back instead to turn him into her prom-worthy prince. When Savannah returns to the Middle Ages to save Tristan, they must team up to defeat a troll, a dragon, and the mysterious and undeniably sexy Black Knight. Laughs abound in this clever fairy tale twist from a master of romantic comedy.
UPDATE: And the winner is... Kathryn Packer Roberts!!
Here's how you win:
Required: Comment on this blog post
Certify that you listened to the call
Say which piece of advice was the most helpful to you
Say which book you’d rather win
Calculate Your Points:
2 Points for listening to the call live
1 Point for asking a question during the call (no extra points for extra questions)
1 Point for listening to the recording
Congratulations, Erin and Kathryn! Please email Robin with your snail-mail addresses: robinweekswriter at gmail dot com.