Hey everyone. So despite my lack of updates, I somehow found the time to guest blog on a friend's blog. Actually she bullied me into writing it for her. :-P
I was supposed to write reviews for a few different books, but as I procrastinated, the subject of my review continued to change. But when I recently read a book that really spoke to me, I decided it was time to just buckle down and do it.
So check out Reading Between the Lines, run by my lovely friend Danielle of Pocket Books, and my 5-star review of Sorta Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Thursday, February 25, 2010
A blog about not giving up on your creative dreams
The other day a good friend of mine, an amazingly talented artist, called me up and told me she was thinking about giving up on her dreams of an art career and pursuing nursing instead. I promptly talked her out of that idea; she’s been dreaming of being a professional artist since I met her 13 years ago and she is not the type of person who would be able to do all the things nurses do. But while I was talking her down off the ledge, I realized I had a lot to say on the subject of “pursuing a career in the creative industry” and I thought it was something worth sharing.
I should start by saying that my friend called because she was doubting her abilities. She looked around and saw artists who were “better” than her, she kept hearing how hard it was to make a living being a professional artist, and she saw how miserable her boyfriend, a professional artist, was. As a creative person myself (my medium being the written word) I could really relate to how she was feeling; how a lot of artists (visual, written, etc) must feel while trying to achieve their dreams and work their way to…maybe not even the top, but somewhere safe, comfortable, or stable enough to build a life around. I wanted to put this advice out there for those creative people (to be referred to from here on out under the umbrella term ‘artists’ because that’s what they are, no matter the medium), including my friend, so they have something to think about when they start to doubt themselves. Hell…so that I can have something to think about when I start to doubt myself.
Firstly, there are always going to be artists who are “better” than you. I put better in quotation marks because art is very subjective and one person can love a work of art and another person can hate it just as passionately. The key is to be happy with your own art and be able to find a job or career path that suits your particular brand or style of art. If you work hard enough and you have passion and a willingness to learn and grow, you will have options. And in the meantime, it isn’t going to help you to compare yourself to the competition. Be inspired by them, learn from them, but don’t be intimidated by their presence. Remember that for every artist whose work intimidates you, there may be an artist who is equally intimidated by your work.
I do want to acknowledge that it is hard out there for artists to make a living. That’s a fact and I won’t gloss over that. It takes a lot of persistence, determination, hard work and talent, and (sometimes) a certain amount of luck to become a successful artist. The thing is you can’t just go forward thinking “I want to make a living being an artist.” You have to be smart about it. What are your particular strengths when it comes to your art? If you want to make a living in your art, is there a way to do so without being a starving artist? When I graduated from high school, all I wanted to do was be a writer. I went to college because it was expected of me but I got an English degree (Writing Concentration) because I figured I’d learn for four years and by the time I graduated I’d have a book written, a publishing deal and enough money to live off of. In hindsight and after years of working in publishing, that’s a laughable goal. But when I got to my senior year of undergrad and had nothing worth publishing, I had to think outside the box. Sure I wanted to be a writer but what could I do for a living that was related to my art? At times I just wished I could read for a living. I loved books so much. It was that wish that led me to become an editor. It was a job related to writing, it required me to use my skills as both an avid reader and a writer, and it was something I was passionate about. And the deeper into that career path I got, the more my passion grew. I had found a way to make a living (bupkis at first, sure, but still more than I was making as an unpublished writer) while working with the written word on my terms, even if it wasn’t what I had initially set out to do.
That’s something that happens very often---the path you start off on leads somewhere you never expected it to. But ultimately, the journey is what life is all about, not the destination. I never knew how passionate I would be about editing until I got into it, and I had no idea how passionate I already was about children’s and YA books until I started working on that side of the industry. And ya know? Working in this industry has inspired me in my writing, the original creative venture that led me to becoming an editor. I’m surrounded by book people every day. A lot of my friends, who I met at work or through industry networking, are book lovers. Many of them are writers too. I’m part of two book clubs, I’ve been and am still involved in writing groups, all of which are filled with colleagues from the book business. When I first read a Sara Zarr novel (her debut, Story of a Girl), I was inspired by what she had done; by the artistry of her words and the impact of her story. To then be able to contribute my thoughts while she was revising her next book (my boss was her editor), to see her process and how she worked, was such an honor. It opened doors in my mind that I hadn’t known needed opening. I realized that my love of YA novels extended to my writing and suddenly I was coming up with more YA story ideas than I was adult story ideas. And the ideas meant more to me because of my passion for YA lit.
That's one thing that always bugged me about the musical RENT. As much as I loved that show, I always wanted to strangle the characters and say, "just because you are artists doesn't mean you can't get a job and support yourself! You don't have to abandon your art to make a living!"
Sure, you might not be able to make a living immediately just by creating art, but there are ways to have a career that is related to your art, that will allow you to utilize your artistic talents, and they will inspire you to grow as an artist. And if you are really passionate, you will continue your art on the side, using evenings and weekends and any spare time you can commit. To paraphrase Rainer Maria Rilke, you will create art because you can’t not create art.
And there are always going to be naysayers and people who have a rough time of it. As far as my friend’s boyfriend is concerned, he’s a whiner. I’ve heard countless stories about how he procrastinates, misses his deadlines and has held up production and in general sounds like a real nightmare for any editor who is stuck working with him. He’s obviously not happy doing that type of work, but he signed a contract out of obligation and is now dragging his feet. There are always going to be people like this---self-defeatists who give up and blame other people for their failures, or who blame the industry for how hard they have it when they’re just doing it to themselves. And like I said, any creative industry is going to be hard. The competition is heavy, there are going to be people who try to step on you to get to the top and you will often be told you’re not good enough or not right for the project. But it is possible if you’re smart and you have the right attitude. And ya know, a lot of people are going to give up along the way. They are going to realize this isn’t for them, or they don’t love it enough to stick with it through thick and thin, or maybe they’ll just burn out. But if you love your art enough to be able to hold out longer than everyone else, you’ve won half the battle. Again, being smart and professional is the other half.
I truly believe that if you can’t see yourself anywhere but in the creative industry of your choice, you shouldn’t give up pursuing it. My friend was born to be an artist and would never be happy being a nurse. I was meant to work with books (and hopefully publish some of my own someday) and I would never be happy working for an insurance company (which is what most people do back in my hometown). If you were born to create art, do it. If you can’t support yourself with your art right away, find a way to support yourself while also creating your art on the side. And let your fellow artists inspire you, lift you up and teach you. And most importantly, be open to growth in your art, don’t blame others for your failures, and learn to view mistakes and rejections not as failures but as opportunities for more growth. You can do it…but only if you are willing to put yourself out there and do what it takes. Do you have what it takes? You won’t know until you try.
I should start by saying that my friend called because she was doubting her abilities. She looked around and saw artists who were “better” than her, she kept hearing how hard it was to make a living being a professional artist, and she saw how miserable her boyfriend, a professional artist, was. As a creative person myself (my medium being the written word) I could really relate to how she was feeling; how a lot of artists (visual, written, etc) must feel while trying to achieve their dreams and work their way to…maybe not even the top, but somewhere safe, comfortable, or stable enough to build a life around. I wanted to put this advice out there for those creative people (to be referred to from here on out under the umbrella term ‘artists’ because that’s what they are, no matter the medium), including my friend, so they have something to think about when they start to doubt themselves. Hell…so that I can have something to think about when I start to doubt myself.
Firstly, there are always going to be artists who are “better” than you. I put better in quotation marks because art is very subjective and one person can love a work of art and another person can hate it just as passionately. The key is to be happy with your own art and be able to find a job or career path that suits your particular brand or style of art. If you work hard enough and you have passion and a willingness to learn and grow, you will have options. And in the meantime, it isn’t going to help you to compare yourself to the competition. Be inspired by them, learn from them, but don’t be intimidated by their presence. Remember that for every artist whose work intimidates you, there may be an artist who is equally intimidated by your work.
I do want to acknowledge that it is hard out there for artists to make a living. That’s a fact and I won’t gloss over that. It takes a lot of persistence, determination, hard work and talent, and (sometimes) a certain amount of luck to become a successful artist. The thing is you can’t just go forward thinking “I want to make a living being an artist.” You have to be smart about it. What are your particular strengths when it comes to your art? If you want to make a living in your art, is there a way to do so without being a starving artist? When I graduated from high school, all I wanted to do was be a writer. I went to college because it was expected of me but I got an English degree (Writing Concentration) because I figured I’d learn for four years and by the time I graduated I’d have a book written, a publishing deal and enough money to live off of. In hindsight and after years of working in publishing, that’s a laughable goal. But when I got to my senior year of undergrad and had nothing worth publishing, I had to think outside the box. Sure I wanted to be a writer but what could I do for a living that was related to my art? At times I just wished I could read for a living. I loved books so much. It was that wish that led me to become an editor. It was a job related to writing, it required me to use my skills as both an avid reader and a writer, and it was something I was passionate about. And the deeper into that career path I got, the more my passion grew. I had found a way to make a living (bupkis at first, sure, but still more than I was making as an unpublished writer) while working with the written word on my terms, even if it wasn’t what I had initially set out to do.
That’s something that happens very often---the path you start off on leads somewhere you never expected it to. But ultimately, the journey is what life is all about, not the destination. I never knew how passionate I would be about editing until I got into it, and I had no idea how passionate I already was about children’s and YA books until I started working on that side of the industry. And ya know? Working in this industry has inspired me in my writing, the original creative venture that led me to becoming an editor. I’m surrounded by book people every day. A lot of my friends, who I met at work or through industry networking, are book lovers. Many of them are writers too. I’m part of two book clubs, I’ve been and am still involved in writing groups, all of which are filled with colleagues from the book business. When I first read a Sara Zarr novel (her debut, Story of a Girl), I was inspired by what she had done; by the artistry of her words and the impact of her story. To then be able to contribute my thoughts while she was revising her next book (my boss was her editor), to see her process and how she worked, was such an honor. It opened doors in my mind that I hadn’t known needed opening. I realized that my love of YA novels extended to my writing and suddenly I was coming up with more YA story ideas than I was adult story ideas. And the ideas meant more to me because of my passion for YA lit.
That's one thing that always bugged me about the musical RENT. As much as I loved that show, I always wanted to strangle the characters and say, "just because you are artists doesn't mean you can't get a job and support yourself! You don't have to abandon your art to make a living!"
Sure, you might not be able to make a living immediately just by creating art, but there are ways to have a career that is related to your art, that will allow you to utilize your artistic talents, and they will inspire you to grow as an artist. And if you are really passionate, you will continue your art on the side, using evenings and weekends and any spare time you can commit. To paraphrase Rainer Maria Rilke, you will create art because you can’t not create art.
And there are always going to be naysayers and people who have a rough time of it. As far as my friend’s boyfriend is concerned, he’s a whiner. I’ve heard countless stories about how he procrastinates, misses his deadlines and has held up production and in general sounds like a real nightmare for any editor who is stuck working with him. He’s obviously not happy doing that type of work, but he signed a contract out of obligation and is now dragging his feet. There are always going to be people like this---self-defeatists who give up and blame other people for their failures, or who blame the industry for how hard they have it when they’re just doing it to themselves. And like I said, any creative industry is going to be hard. The competition is heavy, there are going to be people who try to step on you to get to the top and you will often be told you’re not good enough or not right for the project. But it is possible if you’re smart and you have the right attitude. And ya know, a lot of people are going to give up along the way. They are going to realize this isn’t for them, or they don’t love it enough to stick with it through thick and thin, or maybe they’ll just burn out. But if you love your art enough to be able to hold out longer than everyone else, you’ve won half the battle. Again, being smart and professional is the other half.
I truly believe that if you can’t see yourself anywhere but in the creative industry of your choice, you shouldn’t give up pursuing it. My friend was born to be an artist and would never be happy being a nurse. I was meant to work with books (and hopefully publish some of my own someday) and I would never be happy working for an insurance company (which is what most people do back in my hometown). If you were born to create art, do it. If you can’t support yourself with your art right away, find a way to support yourself while also creating your art on the side. And let your fellow artists inspire you, lift you up and teach you. And most importantly, be open to growth in your art, don’t blame others for your failures, and learn to view mistakes and rejections not as failures but as opportunities for more growth. You can do it…but only if you are willing to put yourself out there and do what it takes. Do you have what it takes? You won’t know until you try.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Why I Didn’t Like the Percy Jackson Movie
Anyone who knows me fairly well knows that I am a huge fan of the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. I’ve often proclaimed that my love for this series is up there with my love for Harry Potter. So needless to say, I was pretty excited to see the movie adaptation of The Lightning Thief, especially since it was directed by the man behind the first two Harry Potter movies, Chris Columbus. I was also nervous---movies adapted from books rarely live up to their source material and barring most (but not all) of the Harry Potter movies, a few Neil Gaiman movies and Spiderwick, I’ve felt let down by recent book-movies. So I went in with a cautious but open heart and found myself completely let down. Here’s a list of reasons why (Caution: this list contains SPOILERS for both the movie and the book series):
*No Ares (the Cabin or the God) – one of the fun parts of the Percy books is that he encounters each and every Olympian god throughout the series and they’re “modernized.” The scenes with Percy and Ares were intense and exciting and it’s one of the first times Percy encounters one of the gods (aside from Mr. D). His absence was greatly noted and replacing him with Persephone (more to come on her) did nothing to improve the story. I was also annoyed that there was no Clarisse or Ares Cabin. While I get that the producers probably thought they were too reminiscent of Draco/Slytherin and wanted to steer clear of HP similarities, if they had thought ahead to the rest of the series, Clarisse and Ares Cabin play an important role later on, and Clarisse’s pride and stubbornness set up one of the most emotional moments (for me) in the final book. I was also annoyed that Annabeth became the stand-in for Clarisse (see my next point).
*Annabeth was all wrong - I know this is a superficial detail, but my first complaint is that Annabeth is BLONDE. It bothers me that (Buffy aside) we rarely get to see the blonde girl kicking ass and taking names. They’re always the pretty ones while the brunettes are the tough ones. That aside, I also didn’t like the changes her character was given. Book-Annabeth would NOT attack Percy that violently (in the name of training) and almost kill him. Setting her up as the violent warrior woman and then having her flip-flop to become his ally for her own selfish purposes did not make me like her as either a romantic foil OR a Hermione-esque “smart, female friend” for Percy. Again, they may have been trying to avoid HP similarities but they went a bit too far. Part of the fun of The Lightning Thief is that it has the HP skeleton (which JK Rowling didn’t invent, by the way) with its own unique and interesting story, mythology, and character development.
*The way race was handled – I had a BIG problem with Rosario Dawson playing Persephone. Not only was I annoyed that her character (a MAJOR deus ex machine) had replaced Ares, but she was clearly supposed to be the exotic, spicy goddess/wife and they didn’t even try to make her seem Greek. At one point my friend Zoraida, a Latina woman, leans over to me and says, “Why is Persephone Puerto Rican?” I have no idea. She’s supposed to be a GREEK goddess. If they wanted to have diversity in the cast, they had a great opportunity with the demi-god camp-dwellers (since they’re half Greek god and half-any race known to the human species). But they missed that opportunity by only focusing on the main demi-gods (another thing that took away from the greatness of the books – I loved all of the briefly mentioned side characters, just as I did in HP). I was actually really glad they cast a black actor to play Grover, since, ya know, he’s a satyr and they’re nature spirits. He could be any race. But I was extremely disappointed that they then went and changed Grover’s character to make him a stereotype of a black teen. Grover is a nervous, awkward, odd little goat-man and instead they turned him into a “playa” who was often distracted by hotties and speaks like he grew up in “the hood.” There was even one scene where the camera watches Percy and Grover walk up some stairs and you can clearly see Percy’s pants at a normal level and Grover’s are sagging, which doesn’t even make sense since Grover’s pants are supposed to conceal his GOAT LEGS! It just made me sad that they felt they had to completely change the character into a black stereotype rather than keeping the integrity of the character and casting him black. I found it insulting to people of all ethnicities.
(Edited to add this one bullet) *The way they handled the female characters - Annabeth was reduced to the cliche love interest who starts off hating (in this case, almost-killing) the main dude, and slowly learns to love him because he's just so awesome. I was also annoyed that she was a brunette, as if blondes can't be strong fighters and are stuck being the pretty/slutty/dainty girls. And don't even get me started on Medusa and ESPECIALLY Persephone (can you tell I hated this character) who both acted like gross pervs around the teenage leads. I half expected Persephone to start humping Grover's leg. It was really gross and didn't add to the story one bit. Meanwhile, if anyone's going to be acting like a horny teenager (aside from the horny teenagers) why isn't it the GODS. They could never keep it in their pants in the legends!
*No Mist or Oracle – The Mist and The Oracle play a big part in the overarching plot of the series. The Mist is a big part in explaining why normal humans (a) don’t know about the gods, demi-gods and mythological creatures prancing around, and (b) how Percy and company can get away with questing and battling all across America and not cause mass chaos. Also, The Oracle is the big motivation behind the quests Percy and his friends go on and is the reason why there aren’t supposed to be any children by the Big Three. It’s also the main motivation behind Luke’s betrayal (since his mother went crazy trying to take on the mantle of The Oracle) and the lack of an Oracle also doesn’t give me much hope for one of my favorite characters, Rachel Elizabeth Dare (the girl who can see through the Mist and who eventually becomes the new Oracle).
*Hades (the place) was WAY too Christian – I’m sorry but fire, brimstone and suffering is the Christian version of Hell. That’s NOT what Hades is supposed to be. Hades is the underworld and the land of the dead, but it is supposed to be dark and chilling not fiery and frightful. And where the heck is Elysium (the paradise where heroes go after death) amidst this inferno? Also, Charon is supposed to ferry people across the river Styx into the underworld, not through the air right to the palace of Hades. And where the heck was Cerberus (a HUGE part of the Hades myth)? Oh, right, of course. Their horrible depiction of Persephone, played by the highly-paid Rosario Dawson, makes the Cerberus storyline moot. So basically Persephone replaced Ares AND Cerberus all for the sake of…what? They show Hades acting very Lucifer-like and then Persephone just steps in and fixes it? What a total dumbing down (and de-funning) of what really happens in the books.
*The gods are really good, caring parents – A big part of the books is that the gods are just as they’ve always been depicted; selfish, careless, and neglectful. They come to earth, have children with mortal men and woman and then abandon their children because they can’t be bothered. Every so often, when they’re proud or forced to, they’ll claim their children. They may love them but they aren’t very good to them. But in the movie, Poseidon is depicted as this compassionate, caring dad who only left Percy and his mother (after 7 months of raising him) because he was becoming human and Zeus made a law to prevent that from happening. Wait WHAT?! How can a god become a human? And are we supposed to believe ALL the gods are raising ALL of their children when they are born? Because there’s an awful lot of children at Camp Half Blood and only 12 Olympian gods (2 of whom don’t have any demi-god children) plus Hades.
*The Greek gods are…British? - Who on EARTH decided that the Greek gods should all have British accents? And why in creation is Melina Kanakaredes, a GREEK-AMERICAN, portraying Athena with such a HORRENDOUS British accent? The one Greek actor they cast as a Greek god and they couldn’t even let her use her normal voice?
*Percy’s powers – I was annoyed at how they handled Percy’s abilities. I was OK with his showy waterbending the few times he did it. That was fine and I can understand how they needed something theatrical and showy for the movie. But I was annoyed when Percy created the water trident (he shouldn’t have that much control – he has barely had any time to master his abilities) and SUPER annoyed when he healed Annabeth with the pool water (Percy doesn’t have healing powers – he is healed by water because he is THE SON OF POSEIDON!).
*Stripping a lot of the magic from the world – Aside from the lack of Mist, they also left out Luke and Annabeth’s backstory, which may mean no Thalia, Daughter of Zeus. They had the kids communicating with the camp via computer whihc eliminated the Iris messages (which would've looked cool and added to the mythology). They didn’t show or even mention any of the other cabins aside from Hermes, which was far too empty for the cabin that claims unclaimed campers. There was no Mr. D (Dionysus) at all. And the camp was something out of Xena, Warrior Princess. One of the great things about Riordan’s books was that it combined the old-timey Greek myths with the modern day. Camp Half Blood didn’t even look like a modern day camp (barring Luke’s out of control video game system) with an outdoorsy feel. And no big brazier? And then making Grover a Protector (with no “protective powers” whatsoever) instead of a Seeker, thus negting the whole Pan storyline. I’m not seeing much of a set-up for Book 2 AT ALL, with the absence of Clarisse and the Pan storyline, and no set-up of Kronos whatsoever).
*A lot of little stuff – There were also a lot of glaring annoyances that stood out for me. Trying to pass off the daughters of Aphrodite as nymphs and only mentioning them as slutty temptations for Grover (nymphs and children of Aphrodite are two different groups, movie-dudes!). And a Lady Gaga montage in the middle of the Lotus Casino? C’mon! And I love the Gaga. Also, why did they age everyone up? That is another thing that doesn’t bode well for sequels. Hell, the girl who plays Annabeth is in her mid-20’s and is also playing the girlfriend of the 32-year old main character in White Collar. The guy who plays Grover is mid-20’s as well.
Ok, so as much as it sounds like I hated it, I didn’t HATE it…but I didn’t like it all that much either. I felt like the film was stripped of everything that gave it flavor in book form and instead of avoiding the Harry Potter similarities, they ended up creating something that was neither unique nor distinctive enough. There were parts I actually liked. It helped that the guy who plays Percy, 18-year old (yes I checked) Logan Lerman, is very easy on the eyes. But here they are, just to show I didn’t leave the theater entirely miserable:
*Grover’s line to Charon about burning money when we’re in a recession. I burst out laughing.
*The casting - Catherine Keener as Percy’s mom – love her! The actor who played Annabeth was pretty awesome, even if I don’t like what they did with her character. I also enjoyed Jake Abel (the third Winchester brother) as Luke and the aforementioned hotness that is Logan Lerman. Uma Thurman as Medusa was amazing as well, as was her snake-hair.
*Turning Smelly Gabe into stone at the end (I’m glad they kept that little tidbit – I was waiting for it the whole movie).
*The animal-hindquarters looked good on both Grover and Chiron. At least there’s that.
*Just being able to see a visual representation of one of my favorite book series made it worth the ridiculously high price of the ticket.
This isn’t something I’ll be excited to see again or own on DVD; though I’ll probably buy it just to support the series and the author (does he get royalties from DVD sales?). Meanwhile, if ticket sales are high enough to warrant a sequel, I’m going to hope they fix some of the errors and omissions that made it hard for me to enjoy this movie entirely. There’s still hope for them to introduce Clarisse, Grover’s mission to find Pan and even The Mist and The Oracle at the beginning of The Sea of Monsters, so let’s hope they’ll go there if there is a Book 2. And if they don’t plan on doing so, I hope this movie series stays dead in the water and doesn’t ruin any chances of someone picking this up again in a few years and doing a much better reboot.
*No Ares (the Cabin or the God) – one of the fun parts of the Percy books is that he encounters each and every Olympian god throughout the series and they’re “modernized.” The scenes with Percy and Ares were intense and exciting and it’s one of the first times Percy encounters one of the gods (aside from Mr. D). His absence was greatly noted and replacing him with Persephone (more to come on her) did nothing to improve the story. I was also annoyed that there was no Clarisse or Ares Cabin. While I get that the producers probably thought they were too reminiscent of Draco/Slytherin and wanted to steer clear of HP similarities, if they had thought ahead to the rest of the series, Clarisse and Ares Cabin play an important role later on, and Clarisse’s pride and stubbornness set up one of the most emotional moments (for me) in the final book. I was also annoyed that Annabeth became the stand-in for Clarisse (see my next point).
*Annabeth was all wrong - I know this is a superficial detail, but my first complaint is that Annabeth is BLONDE. It bothers me that (Buffy aside) we rarely get to see the blonde girl kicking ass and taking names. They’re always the pretty ones while the brunettes are the tough ones. That aside, I also didn’t like the changes her character was given. Book-Annabeth would NOT attack Percy that violently (in the name of training) and almost kill him. Setting her up as the violent warrior woman and then having her flip-flop to become his ally for her own selfish purposes did not make me like her as either a romantic foil OR a Hermione-esque “smart, female friend” for Percy. Again, they may have been trying to avoid HP similarities but they went a bit too far. Part of the fun of The Lightning Thief is that it has the HP skeleton (which JK Rowling didn’t invent, by the way) with its own unique and interesting story, mythology, and character development.
*The way race was handled – I had a BIG problem with Rosario Dawson playing Persephone. Not only was I annoyed that her character (a MAJOR deus ex machine) had replaced Ares, but she was clearly supposed to be the exotic, spicy goddess/wife and they didn’t even try to make her seem Greek. At one point my friend Zoraida, a Latina woman, leans over to me and says, “Why is Persephone Puerto Rican?” I have no idea. She’s supposed to be a GREEK goddess. If they wanted to have diversity in the cast, they had a great opportunity with the demi-god camp-dwellers (since they’re half Greek god and half-any race known to the human species). But they missed that opportunity by only focusing on the main demi-gods (another thing that took away from the greatness of the books – I loved all of the briefly mentioned side characters, just as I did in HP). I was actually really glad they cast a black actor to play Grover, since, ya know, he’s a satyr and they’re nature spirits. He could be any race. But I was extremely disappointed that they then went and changed Grover’s character to make him a stereotype of a black teen. Grover is a nervous, awkward, odd little goat-man and instead they turned him into a “playa” who was often distracted by hotties and speaks like he grew up in “the hood.” There was even one scene where the camera watches Percy and Grover walk up some stairs and you can clearly see Percy’s pants at a normal level and Grover’s are sagging, which doesn’t even make sense since Grover’s pants are supposed to conceal his GOAT LEGS! It just made me sad that they felt they had to completely change the character into a black stereotype rather than keeping the integrity of the character and casting him black. I found it insulting to people of all ethnicities.
(Edited to add this one bullet) *The way they handled the female characters - Annabeth was reduced to the cliche love interest who starts off hating (in this case, almost-killing) the main dude, and slowly learns to love him because he's just so awesome. I was also annoyed that she was a brunette, as if blondes can't be strong fighters and are stuck being the pretty/slutty/dainty girls. And don't even get me started on Medusa and ESPECIALLY Persephone (can you tell I hated this character) who both acted like gross pervs around the teenage leads. I half expected Persephone to start humping Grover's leg. It was really gross and didn't add to the story one bit. Meanwhile, if anyone's going to be acting like a horny teenager (aside from the horny teenagers) why isn't it the GODS. They could never keep it in their pants in the legends!
*No Mist or Oracle – The Mist and The Oracle play a big part in the overarching plot of the series. The Mist is a big part in explaining why normal humans (a) don’t know about the gods, demi-gods and mythological creatures prancing around, and (b) how Percy and company can get away with questing and battling all across America and not cause mass chaos. Also, The Oracle is the big motivation behind the quests Percy and his friends go on and is the reason why there aren’t supposed to be any children by the Big Three. It’s also the main motivation behind Luke’s betrayal (since his mother went crazy trying to take on the mantle of The Oracle) and the lack of an Oracle also doesn’t give me much hope for one of my favorite characters, Rachel Elizabeth Dare (the girl who can see through the Mist and who eventually becomes the new Oracle).
*Hades (the place) was WAY too Christian – I’m sorry but fire, brimstone and suffering is the Christian version of Hell. That’s NOT what Hades is supposed to be. Hades is the underworld and the land of the dead, but it is supposed to be dark and chilling not fiery and frightful. And where the heck is Elysium (the paradise where heroes go after death) amidst this inferno? Also, Charon is supposed to ferry people across the river Styx into the underworld, not through the air right to the palace of Hades. And where the heck was Cerberus (a HUGE part of the Hades myth)? Oh, right, of course. Their horrible depiction of Persephone, played by the highly-paid Rosario Dawson, makes the Cerberus storyline moot. So basically Persephone replaced Ares AND Cerberus all for the sake of…what? They show Hades acting very Lucifer-like and then Persephone just steps in and fixes it? What a total dumbing down (and de-funning) of what really happens in the books.
*The gods are really good, caring parents – A big part of the books is that the gods are just as they’ve always been depicted; selfish, careless, and neglectful. They come to earth, have children with mortal men and woman and then abandon their children because they can’t be bothered. Every so often, when they’re proud or forced to, they’ll claim their children. They may love them but they aren’t very good to them. But in the movie, Poseidon is depicted as this compassionate, caring dad who only left Percy and his mother (after 7 months of raising him) because he was becoming human and Zeus made a law to prevent that from happening. Wait WHAT?! How can a god become a human? And are we supposed to believe ALL the gods are raising ALL of their children when they are born? Because there’s an awful lot of children at Camp Half Blood and only 12 Olympian gods (2 of whom don’t have any demi-god children) plus Hades.
*The Greek gods are…British? - Who on EARTH decided that the Greek gods should all have British accents? And why in creation is Melina Kanakaredes, a GREEK-AMERICAN, portraying Athena with such a HORRENDOUS British accent? The one Greek actor they cast as a Greek god and they couldn’t even let her use her normal voice?
*Percy’s powers – I was annoyed at how they handled Percy’s abilities. I was OK with his showy waterbending the few times he did it. That was fine and I can understand how they needed something theatrical and showy for the movie. But I was annoyed when Percy created the water trident (he shouldn’t have that much control – he has barely had any time to master his abilities) and SUPER annoyed when he healed Annabeth with the pool water (Percy doesn’t have healing powers – he is healed by water because he is THE SON OF POSEIDON!).
*Stripping a lot of the magic from the world – Aside from the lack of Mist, they also left out Luke and Annabeth’s backstory, which may mean no Thalia, Daughter of Zeus. They had the kids communicating with the camp via computer whihc eliminated the Iris messages (which would've looked cool and added to the mythology). They didn’t show or even mention any of the other cabins aside from Hermes, which was far too empty for the cabin that claims unclaimed campers. There was no Mr. D (Dionysus) at all. And the camp was something out of Xena, Warrior Princess. One of the great things about Riordan’s books was that it combined the old-timey Greek myths with the modern day. Camp Half Blood didn’t even look like a modern day camp (barring Luke’s out of control video game system) with an outdoorsy feel. And no big brazier? And then making Grover a Protector (with no “protective powers” whatsoever) instead of a Seeker, thus negting the whole Pan storyline. I’m not seeing much of a set-up for Book 2 AT ALL, with the absence of Clarisse and the Pan storyline, and no set-up of Kronos whatsoever).
*A lot of little stuff – There were also a lot of glaring annoyances that stood out for me. Trying to pass off the daughters of Aphrodite as nymphs and only mentioning them as slutty temptations for Grover (nymphs and children of Aphrodite are two different groups, movie-dudes!). And a Lady Gaga montage in the middle of the Lotus Casino? C’mon! And I love the Gaga. Also, why did they age everyone up? That is another thing that doesn’t bode well for sequels. Hell, the girl who plays Annabeth is in her mid-20’s and is also playing the girlfriend of the 32-year old main character in White Collar. The guy who plays Grover is mid-20’s as well.
Ok, so as much as it sounds like I hated it, I didn’t HATE it…but I didn’t like it all that much either. I felt like the film was stripped of everything that gave it flavor in book form and instead of avoiding the Harry Potter similarities, they ended up creating something that was neither unique nor distinctive enough. There were parts I actually liked. It helped that the guy who plays Percy, 18-year old (yes I checked) Logan Lerman, is very easy on the eyes. But here they are, just to show I didn’t leave the theater entirely miserable:
*Grover’s line to Charon about burning money when we’re in a recession. I burst out laughing.
*The casting - Catherine Keener as Percy’s mom – love her! The actor who played Annabeth was pretty awesome, even if I don’t like what they did with her character. I also enjoyed Jake Abel (the third Winchester brother) as Luke and the aforementioned hotness that is Logan Lerman. Uma Thurman as Medusa was amazing as well, as was her snake-hair.
*Turning Smelly Gabe into stone at the end (I’m glad they kept that little tidbit – I was waiting for it the whole movie).
*The animal-hindquarters looked good on both Grover and Chiron. At least there’s that.
*Just being able to see a visual representation of one of my favorite book series made it worth the ridiculously high price of the ticket.
This isn’t something I’ll be excited to see again or own on DVD; though I’ll probably buy it just to support the series and the author (does he get royalties from DVD sales?). Meanwhile, if ticket sales are high enough to warrant a sequel, I’m going to hope they fix some of the errors and omissions that made it hard for me to enjoy this movie entirely. There’s still hope for them to introduce Clarisse, Grover’s mission to find Pan and even The Mist and The Oracle at the beginning of The Sea of Monsters, so let’s hope they’ll go there if there is a Book 2. And if they don’t plan on doing so, I hope this movie series stays dead in the water and doesn’t ruin any chances of someone picking this up again in a few years and doing a much better reboot.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
I'm still alive
Hey guys and gals. I know I haven't been the best blogger lately. A big part of my absence is that I'm starting to lose interest in the whole blogging thing. Don't get me wrong - I love writing down my thoughts. I'm a writer at heart and since I haven't had much success squeezing the novels in my head out onto paper, blogging helps me release my inner-writer. But lately I've just been so much more comfortable keeping my thoughts private and updating my older, more heavily filtered blog. Not that my life is very juicy at all, but it's nice to be able to write without having to think about the repurcussions of my words. Which, now that I think about it, makes me realize that is why I have such trouble working on my novel. Color me ridiculous.
Anyway, I just thought I'd pop on and let you all know I'm still alive, I'm doing great if a little bored and that I'm still looking for a new editorial position. I've been interviewing, but so far haven't landed anywhere yet. You can be sure I'll update you all on that front as soon as there is news.
As a consolation, I thought I'd direct you to the blog of a friend, Danielle, who also works in publishing (on the adult side, but she loves kidlit). Reading Between the Lines is a great blog that touches on a number of great topics and eventually I'll be contributing something if Danielle can ever manage to pry something out of me (I owe her a review of Hunger Games that still hasn't seen the light of day). So check out her blog, especially this great post about 6-word memoirs. Go read the post and then contribute your own 6-word story.
And bear with me through this hiatus. Hopefully there will be more Junior Editor Spotlights (it's really hard to get Jr. Eds to take time out of their busy schedule of editing their own books and assisting their bosses to do a little old blog interview) and eventually I'll have an opinion that I feel like voicing again. In the meantime, I'm at Twitter and I'm sure you probably all follow me over there, but if not, come and find me. I'm TeeEss.
Anyway, I just thought I'd pop on and let you all know I'm still alive, I'm doing great if a little bored and that I'm still looking for a new editorial position. I've been interviewing, but so far haven't landed anywhere yet. You can be sure I'll update you all on that front as soon as there is news.
As a consolation, I thought I'd direct you to the blog of a friend, Danielle, who also works in publishing (on the adult side, but she loves kidlit). Reading Between the Lines is a great blog that touches on a number of great topics and eventually I'll be contributing something if Danielle can ever manage to pry something out of me (I owe her a review of Hunger Games that still hasn't seen the light of day). So check out her blog, especially this great post about 6-word memoirs. Go read the post and then contribute your own 6-word story.
And bear with me through this hiatus. Hopefully there will be more Junior Editor Spotlights (it's really hard to get Jr. Eds to take time out of their busy schedule of editing their own books and assisting their bosses to do a little old blog interview) and eventually I'll have an opinion that I feel like voicing again. In the meantime, I'm at Twitter and I'm sure you probably all follow me over there, but if not, come and find me. I'm TeeEss.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Big News!
Hi everybody. I’ve been avoiding writing this post, mostly because it’s a difficult subject to talk about. But I thought I should say something, just so it’s out there and no one has to wonder or ask around.
As of the end of September, I am no longer with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Yes, I’m sad about it. Yes, I miss everyone I worked with. Yes, I am now looking for work.
So what happened? Well I won’t go into details, but what I will say is that it can be very hard when you and your boss are both promoted out of your current roles. Your needs change, their needs change, and things can potentially get very difficult. I loved my job, but it was time to part ways, and while I was sad to go, I’m looking forward to the future and where I’ll be next. Right now I’m trying to find a way to pay the bills while holding out for another editorial position in children’s books. That’s what I love and that’s where I want to stay, though I’m keeping my mind open should other opportunities present themselves.
I will say this---my time at Little, Brown was an amazing and memorable experience. I learned a lot from my boss and I had the chance to work with some truly remarkable authors. And the LBYR editorial team was really like a family to me. We worked together so closely and with such little competition that it was an exciting day when any of us got a good submission in, or won an auction, or got promoted. They were truly a wonderful team to work with and LB was such a great place to start my editorial career.
So now on to the next venture. I haven’t landed anywhere yet, so if anyone hears of any leads, don’t hesitate to lob them my way. In the meantime, I’ll be stalking the job boards, temp agencies and potential freelance jobs and will be blazing my way through my TBR pile to try and catch up on books I didn’t have the time to read before.
And for those who are curious---yes, I will still be updating this blog (hopefully more often, now that I’ve gotten this one out of the way, and now that I have more time on my hands). Stay tuned!
ETA: For those looking to reach me via email, I'm at tsferguson1 at gmail.
As of the end of September, I am no longer with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Yes, I’m sad about it. Yes, I miss everyone I worked with. Yes, I am now looking for work.
So what happened? Well I won’t go into details, but what I will say is that it can be very hard when you and your boss are both promoted out of your current roles. Your needs change, their needs change, and things can potentially get very difficult. I loved my job, but it was time to part ways, and while I was sad to go, I’m looking forward to the future and where I’ll be next. Right now I’m trying to find a way to pay the bills while holding out for another editorial position in children’s books. That’s what I love and that’s where I want to stay, though I’m keeping my mind open should other opportunities present themselves.
I will say this---my time at Little, Brown was an amazing and memorable experience. I learned a lot from my boss and I had the chance to work with some truly remarkable authors. And the LBYR editorial team was really like a family to me. We worked together so closely and with such little competition that it was an exciting day when any of us got a good submission in, or won an auction, or got promoted. They were truly a wonderful team to work with and LB was such a great place to start my editorial career.
So now on to the next venture. I haven’t landed anywhere yet, so if anyone hears of any leads, don’t hesitate to lob them my way. In the meantime, I’ll be stalking the job boards, temp agencies and potential freelance jobs and will be blazing my way through my TBR pile to try and catch up on books I didn’t have the time to read before.
And for those who are curious---yes, I will still be updating this blog (hopefully more often, now that I’ve gotten this one out of the way, and now that I have more time on my hands). Stay tuned!
ETA: For those looking to reach me via email, I'm at tsferguson1 at gmail.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Junior Editor Spotlight - the debut: Molly O'Neill
So I know you all have been waiting for this, and I've been procrastinating on posting this because of the formatting, but I figured if I didn't do this soon, Molly was going to kick my butt. So at long last I debut my new feature, the Junior Editor Spotlight, where I interview kidlit folks from Associate level all the way down to Editorial Assistant. Since this will be long, I'll jump right in and let the spotlight shine where it's meant to.
Name & Title: Molly O'Neill, Assistant Editor, Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins
Publishing House: HarperCollins Children's Books
What inspired you to go into children’s books, and what were you doing before this?
I graduated from Marquette University with a double major in Elementary Education and Writing-Intensive English (my university's name for the creative writing version of an English major; those of us who majored in it mostly liked that the English Department's abbrevation for us was WINE majors...). I was fortunate to have an amazing mentor who introduced me to the world of children's publishing which then led to a great internship with another great mentor. At the end of the internship, that editor said to me, "I don't think you want to be a teacher; I think you want to work in children's books!" She was totally right.
After I graduated, I spent two years doing full-time, post-graduate volunteer work as a youth minister, with the great bonus of getting to travel all across the US and Canada. Youth ministry and editorial work don't necessarily appear to have much in common, I know, but underneath the surface, they actually do--both are all about forming and building relationships, about seeing the deeper meaning in things, and about inspiring and being inspired.
I moved to NYC after those two years were up, ready to work in children's books, just as my former boss/mentor had predicted I would. I spent about four and a half years on the Marketing side of children's books, first at Clarion Books and then at HarperCollins, and finally achieved my ultimate goal when I moved over to the editorial side of the industry about two years ago.
As junior editors, our primary jobs often involve assisting a more senior editor, but this also gives us the opportunity to work on some great books alongside them. Who do you or have you worked with and what are some notable books you've worked on with them?
When I was at Clarion, I asked for and was granted the privilege of working on a few projects editorially, in addition to my marketing work. The pinnacle for me there (and it may well be a pinnacle of my entire career!) was getting to work alongside the esteemed, wise, and wonderful editor Virginia Buckley on the early drafts of Gary Schmidt's THE WEDNESDAY WARS.
I've worked alongside three editors thus far at HarperCollins. Brenda Bowen gave me my first real chance to prove myself as an editor when she hired me to assist her at the now-defunct Bowen Press. I suspect I'll spend the rest of my career hoping hard that the books I edit will be evidence that she made a good decision in opening up the editorial doors to me. In addition to working with Brenda on the books of publishing royalty (among them, Virginia Euwer Wolff), I learned much from simply watching the person behind the editor that Brenda is--about how vision and insight and creativity come, in large part, from being someone who is passionately engaged with the world--and the many fascinating people in it--in every possible way.
Working alongside Anne Hoppe, I've gotten to see the sheer genius and the invisible-but-brilliant creative force that helps guide and shape the books of Terry Pratchett, Melissa Marr, A.M. Jenkins, and many other books that avid readers count among their favorites. Publishing is an apprenticeship kind of business, in the way that I think few industries in our modern world still are, and I'm lucky to be apprenticed to a true Master Editor. Working with Anne is the equivalent of having that English teacher or professor who grades your papers HARD, because she knows you're eternally capable of MORE. She demands that I become a better, smarter, sharper, wiser, and more sensitive editor with every passing day, and I'm certainly trying to live up to the expectations.
I’ve just recently started working with Katherine Tegen on a new novel by Patricia MacLachlan, which is one of those experiences that makes me pinch myself to be sure that I'm not dreaming. Katherine is wonderfully supportive and encouraging of me as an editor. I know that same support and encouragement is part of what her authors and illustrators love about her, too, and part of what makes them want to continually out-do themselves in creating new masterpieces for her to publish.I look forward to continuing to grow as a part of her imprint.
Talk yourself up. Tell us what you’ve acquired and what you are looking to acquire?
I'm proud to be the editor of Kathryn Fitzmaurice, author of THE YEAR THE SWALLOWS CAME EARLY. We're working now on a companion to her first novel, and it's a book that I already can't wait for all of you to read. Right now I'm also working on a Christmas picture book by Laura Godwin that I think is perfectly wonderful, and I have high hopes that it will be a Christmas favorite, year after year.
I acquire everything from picture books through YA, but right now, most of all, I'm looking for middle grade--a vivid voice and inventive storytelling are the thing I'm hoping for every time I open up a manuscript. In YA, I'm a sucker for a good romance, and for stories about connectivity and the choices that we make and the way they trickle down to affect others--and the person we ultimately become, too. Other sweet spots: ballet/theatre/other artsy, backstage stories; a strong setting and a sense of place that shapes a story; and my inner 10 year old reader wants me to tell you, "Orphans! Anything with orphans!"
I know this is an evil question to ask a book person, but I’m going to do it anyway. What is your favorite classic children's book? What is your favorite contemporary children's book?
Well, if you're going to be that evil, I'm going to cheat and split this into categories. Classic picture book would be BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL. Kerplink, Kerplank, Kerplunk. Classic novel would be A LITTLE PRINCESS. As a child, my mother took away my copy of it, because I read it over and over and insisted on acting like, I, too, was a put-upon princess-in-disguise. ;)
Contemporary (as in, recently-published, not setting) picture book would be a knock-down, drag-out fight between THAT RABBIT BELONGS TO EMILY BROWN (Cressida Cowell & Neal Layton) and DIARY OF A WOMBAT (Jackie French & Bruce Whatley). Contemporary novel would be a three-way battle between LIZZIE BRIGHT AND THE BUCKMINSTER BOY (Gary Schmidt), A NORTHERN LIGHT (Jennifer Donnelly), and a quiet little novella called I HAD SEEN CASTLES (Cynthia Rylant). I re-read all three about once a year to remind myself what good writing looks like and how it makes me feel.
Loving a book cover is very important to me as a reader. If I don’t love a cover, I find it hard to pick up the book and get into it. What are some of your favorite book covers?
Oooh, this is a good question. I was totally suckered in by how haunting the cover of THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH is. In fact, I think that's a good way to describe the YA covers that really resonate with me--there's something haunting to them, a clear story deep beneath the cover image, waiting to be discovered: like the covers of A NORTHERN LIGHT and WHAT I SAW AND HOW I LIED and 13 REASONS WHY.
For middle grade, I love a cover that shouts that there's a story unfolding inside: like the original hardcover jacket for A PRINCESS ACADEMY or THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY or the forthcoming DANI NOIR.
In picture book covers, I like bold, spare, graphic, and utterly lovable. Like DIARY OF A WOMBAT, or I'D REALLY LIKE TO EAT A CHILD, or SPLAT THE CAT, or A GOOD DAY.
Assuming you have a life outside of children’s books (a bold assumption, I know) what are some of your other, non-book-related interests? Be as specific as possible so that we can all stalk you on the weekends. Just kidding (or am I?).
I knit. I drink far more coffee than can possibly be good for me. I spend way too much money shopping on Etsy.com. I wander through Prospect Park. I see plays and go to the ballet and opera as often as possible. I frequent the Greenmarket and love cooking. I people-watch. I avoid cleaning my apartment in every way imaginable. I occasionally manage to read a book that's--gasp!--not for work. I ponder ways to take over the universe that involve making more money than publishing, but I always come back to the fact that I passionately love kids' books and the publishing world, and that it's pretty hard for even a single day to go by without that love weaving into whatever else I do.
What is your favorite movie/song/non-children’s book?
Again, you have asked an impossible question, leaving me no option but to cheat further (or should we call it editing your questions?) You say favorite, and I choose to believe you meant that as the plural variant of the word, rather than the singular. ;) Ergo:
Movies: Ocean's 11. Once. Anne of Green Gables. My Fair Lady. Love, Actually. Newsies. Pan's Labyrinth. Playing By Heart.
Song: Whatever it is at the current moment, it's probably been on repeat for at least a month—when I fall in love with a song, I wear it out! Right now, I'm crushing pretty hard on a band called Fictionist (especially their song “Set Me on Fire,”) which I was introduced to by author Sara Zarr; on an indie artist from Texas named Lee Alexander, whose song “Union Street” gives me chills; and on the song “Blindsided” by Bon Iver, (from the album For Emma, Forever Ago), who I found via my colleague Jordan—it’s the perfect rainy day music.
Non-children's book: I sob openly over THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE, and I love a poetic literary novel called IF NOBODY SPEAKS OF REMARKABLE THINGS, by Jon McGregor, about the ways that the events of a single day connect the residents of a street in England. I also love the deeply ponderous Crosswick Journals of Madeleine L'Engle. And I wouldn't say "favorite," but a non-kids' book that I'm currently reading and fascinated by is called THE WORLD IN SIX SONGS: HOW THE MUSICAL BRAIN CREATED HUMAN NATURE by Daniel Levitin.
What is your favorite part of the job? What is your least favorite? Answer carefully…your boss may read this blog. :-)
Least favorite: Filing! Also, production requests (and other tedious paperwork); reviewing royalty statements and other math-related activities; staring at the pile of manuscripts to-be-read and feeling guilt; saying "no."
Favorites: the split second between opening a manuscript and starting to read, where the possibility that you could be reading something great is 100% alive. Sending the very first copy of a book to an author and imagining their face when they open it up; the moments when you know you have the vision to help guide a book into the direction it needs to go; writing killer flap copy or a kickass [Molly censored herself but I uncensored her --T.S.] acquisitions memo that makes you feel like you've really done justice to an author or artist's work; working with and being inspired on a regular basis by insanely talented, creative people.
Everyone should know I’m a karaoke nut at this point, and it seems like it’s becoming an industry-wide phenomenon (or maybe I’m just more and more aware of it). What is your #1 karaoke song specialty?
(Karaoke? Really? This must be a Little, Brown thing.) In any case, my karaoke specialty is coming up with brilliantly embarrassing song ideas for everyone else to sing while simultaneously managing to make people forget that I haven't gone up to sing anything myself!
And finally, the most important question of all – are you Team Edward or Team Jacob?
Team Jacob!
Anything else you'd like to add?
Thanks for having me as a visitor on your blog, T.S. Getting to know my great colleagues is one of the best parts of the business, not least because they sometimes send me advanced copies of books I'm dying to read. Also, I hereby declare a Secret Bonus Round Question to this interview, where the question-ee gets to ask the question-er one question of her own! So. Ahem. When do we get to see your answers to all these same thought-provoking questions, Editor Ferguson?
Well, to answer Molly's question, I may post my own Spotlight some day (probably some day when I need something to post and I have nothing original to give). In the meantime, Molly's given me a great idea. From now on, I'll be adding one last question to the interview, but it will be the editor's chance to ask me a question of their choosing.
Stay tuned for the next Junior Editor Spotlight, which should be coming down the pipeline shortly, as well as a few actual posts directly from my brain, once I've had the chance to write, re-read, edit and rewrite them. I guess you never really stop being an editor, huh?
Name & Title: Molly O'Neill, Assistant Editor, Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins
Publishing House: HarperCollins Children's Books
What inspired you to go into children’s books, and what were you doing before this?
I graduated from Marquette University with a double major in Elementary Education and Writing-Intensive English (my university's name for the creative writing version of an English major; those of us who majored in it mostly liked that the English Department's abbrevation for us was WINE majors...). I was fortunate to have an amazing mentor who introduced me to the world of children's publishing which then led to a great internship with another great mentor. At the end of the internship, that editor said to me, "I don't think you want to be a teacher; I think you want to work in children's books!" She was totally right.
After I graduated, I spent two years doing full-time, post-graduate volunteer work as a youth minister, with the great bonus of getting to travel all across the US and Canada. Youth ministry and editorial work don't necessarily appear to have much in common, I know, but underneath the surface, they actually do--both are all about forming and building relationships, about seeing the deeper meaning in things, and about inspiring and being inspired.
I moved to NYC after those two years were up, ready to work in children's books, just as my former boss/mentor had predicted I would. I spent about four and a half years on the Marketing side of children's books, first at Clarion Books and then at HarperCollins, and finally achieved my ultimate goal when I moved over to the editorial side of the industry about two years ago.
As junior editors, our primary jobs often involve assisting a more senior editor, but this also gives us the opportunity to work on some great books alongside them. Who do you or have you worked with and what are some notable books you've worked on with them?
When I was at Clarion, I asked for and was granted the privilege of working on a few projects editorially, in addition to my marketing work. The pinnacle for me there (and it may well be a pinnacle of my entire career!) was getting to work alongside the esteemed, wise, and wonderful editor Virginia Buckley on the early drafts of Gary Schmidt's THE WEDNESDAY WARS.
I've worked alongside three editors thus far at HarperCollins. Brenda Bowen gave me my first real chance to prove myself as an editor when she hired me to assist her at the now-defunct Bowen Press. I suspect I'll spend the rest of my career hoping hard that the books I edit will be evidence that she made a good decision in opening up the editorial doors to me. In addition to working with Brenda on the books of publishing royalty (among them, Virginia Euwer Wolff), I learned much from simply watching the person behind the editor that Brenda is--about how vision and insight and creativity come, in large part, from being someone who is passionately engaged with the world--and the many fascinating people in it--in every possible way.
Working alongside Anne Hoppe, I've gotten to see the sheer genius and the invisible-but-brilliant creative force that helps guide and shape the books of Terry Pratchett, Melissa Marr, A.M. Jenkins, and many other books that avid readers count among their favorites. Publishing is an apprenticeship kind of business, in the way that I think few industries in our modern world still are, and I'm lucky to be apprenticed to a true Master Editor. Working with Anne is the equivalent of having that English teacher or professor who grades your papers HARD, because she knows you're eternally capable of MORE. She demands that I become a better, smarter, sharper, wiser, and more sensitive editor with every passing day, and I'm certainly trying to live up to the expectations.
I’ve just recently started working with Katherine Tegen on a new novel by Patricia MacLachlan, which is one of those experiences that makes me pinch myself to be sure that I'm not dreaming. Katherine is wonderfully supportive and encouraging of me as an editor. I know that same support and encouragement is part of what her authors and illustrators love about her, too, and part of what makes them want to continually out-do themselves in creating new masterpieces for her to publish.I look forward to continuing to grow as a part of her imprint.
Talk yourself up. Tell us what you’ve acquired and what you are looking to acquire?
I'm proud to be the editor of Kathryn Fitzmaurice, author of THE YEAR THE SWALLOWS CAME EARLY. We're working now on a companion to her first novel, and it's a book that I already can't wait for all of you to read. Right now I'm also working on a Christmas picture book by Laura Godwin that I think is perfectly wonderful, and I have high hopes that it will be a Christmas favorite, year after year.
I acquire everything from picture books through YA, but right now, most of all, I'm looking for middle grade--a vivid voice and inventive storytelling are the thing I'm hoping for every time I open up a manuscript. In YA, I'm a sucker for a good romance, and for stories about connectivity and the choices that we make and the way they trickle down to affect others--and the person we ultimately become, too. Other sweet spots: ballet/theatre/other artsy, backstage stories; a strong setting and a sense of place that shapes a story; and my inner 10 year old reader wants me to tell you, "Orphans! Anything with orphans!"
I know this is an evil question to ask a book person, but I’m going to do it anyway. What is your favorite classic children's book? What is your favorite contemporary children's book?
Well, if you're going to be that evil, I'm going to cheat and split this into categories. Classic picture book would be BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL. Kerplink, Kerplank, Kerplunk. Classic novel would be A LITTLE PRINCESS. As a child, my mother took away my copy of it, because I read it over and over and insisted on acting like, I, too, was a put-upon princess-in-disguise. ;)
Contemporary (as in, recently-published, not setting) picture book would be a knock-down, drag-out fight between THAT RABBIT BELONGS TO EMILY BROWN (Cressida Cowell & Neal Layton) and DIARY OF A WOMBAT (Jackie French & Bruce Whatley). Contemporary novel would be a three-way battle between LIZZIE BRIGHT AND THE BUCKMINSTER BOY (Gary Schmidt), A NORTHERN LIGHT (Jennifer Donnelly), and a quiet little novella called I HAD SEEN CASTLES (Cynthia Rylant). I re-read all three about once a year to remind myself what good writing looks like and how it makes me feel.
Loving a book cover is very important to me as a reader. If I don’t love a cover, I find it hard to pick up the book and get into it. What are some of your favorite book covers?
Oooh, this is a good question. I was totally suckered in by how haunting the cover of THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH is. In fact, I think that's a good way to describe the YA covers that really resonate with me--there's something haunting to them, a clear story deep beneath the cover image, waiting to be discovered: like the covers of A NORTHERN LIGHT and WHAT I SAW AND HOW I LIED and 13 REASONS WHY.
For middle grade, I love a cover that shouts that there's a story unfolding inside: like the original hardcover jacket for A PRINCESS ACADEMY or THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY or the forthcoming DANI NOIR.
In picture book covers, I like bold, spare, graphic, and utterly lovable. Like DIARY OF A WOMBAT, or I'D REALLY LIKE TO EAT A CHILD, or SPLAT THE CAT, or A GOOD DAY.
Assuming you have a life outside of children’s books (a bold assumption, I know) what are some of your other, non-book-related interests? Be as specific as possible so that we can all stalk you on the weekends. Just kidding (or am I?).
I knit. I drink far more coffee than can possibly be good for me. I spend way too much money shopping on Etsy.com. I wander through Prospect Park. I see plays and go to the ballet and opera as often as possible. I frequent the Greenmarket and love cooking. I people-watch. I avoid cleaning my apartment in every way imaginable. I occasionally manage to read a book that's--gasp!--not for work. I ponder ways to take over the universe that involve making more money than publishing, but I always come back to the fact that I passionately love kids' books and the publishing world, and that it's pretty hard for even a single day to go by without that love weaving into whatever else I do.
What is your favorite movie/song/non-children’s book?
Again, you have asked an impossible question, leaving me no option but to cheat further (or should we call it editing your questions?) You say favorite, and I choose to believe you meant that as the plural variant of the word, rather than the singular. ;) Ergo:
Movies: Ocean's 11. Once. Anne of Green Gables. My Fair Lady. Love, Actually. Newsies. Pan's Labyrinth. Playing By Heart.
Song: Whatever it is at the current moment, it's probably been on repeat for at least a month—when I fall in love with a song, I wear it out! Right now, I'm crushing pretty hard on a band called Fictionist (especially their song “Set Me on Fire,”) which I was introduced to by author Sara Zarr; on an indie artist from Texas named Lee Alexander, whose song “Union Street” gives me chills; and on the song “Blindsided” by Bon Iver, (from the album For Emma, Forever Ago), who I found via my colleague Jordan—it’s the perfect rainy day music.
Non-children's book: I sob openly over THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE, and I love a poetic literary novel called IF NOBODY SPEAKS OF REMARKABLE THINGS, by Jon McGregor, about the ways that the events of a single day connect the residents of a street in England. I also love the deeply ponderous Crosswick Journals of Madeleine L'Engle. And I wouldn't say "favorite," but a non-kids' book that I'm currently reading and fascinated by is called THE WORLD IN SIX SONGS: HOW THE MUSICAL BRAIN CREATED HUMAN NATURE by Daniel Levitin.
What is your favorite part of the job? What is your least favorite? Answer carefully…your boss may read this blog. :-)
Least favorite: Filing! Also, production requests (and other tedious paperwork); reviewing royalty statements and other math-related activities; staring at the pile of manuscripts to-be-read and feeling guilt; saying "no."
Favorites: the split second between opening a manuscript and starting to read, where the possibility that you could be reading something great is 100% alive. Sending the very first copy of a book to an author and imagining their face when they open it up; the moments when you know you have the vision to help guide a book into the direction it needs to go; writing killer flap copy or a kickass [Molly censored herself but I uncensored her --T.S.] acquisitions memo that makes you feel like you've really done justice to an author or artist's work; working with and being inspired on a regular basis by insanely talented, creative people.
Everyone should know I’m a karaoke nut at this point, and it seems like it’s becoming an industry-wide phenomenon (or maybe I’m just more and more aware of it). What is your #1 karaoke song specialty?
(Karaoke? Really? This must be a Little, Brown thing.) In any case, my karaoke specialty is coming up with brilliantly embarrassing song ideas for everyone else to sing while simultaneously managing to make people forget that I haven't gone up to sing anything myself!
And finally, the most important question of all – are you Team Edward or Team Jacob?
Team Jacob!
Anything else you'd like to add?
Thanks for having me as a visitor on your blog, T.S. Getting to know my great colleagues is one of the best parts of the business, not least because they sometimes send me advanced copies of books I'm dying to read. Also, I hereby declare a Secret Bonus Round Question to this interview, where the question-ee gets to ask the question-er one question of her own! So. Ahem. When do we get to see your answers to all these same thought-provoking questions, Editor Ferguson?
Well, to answer Molly's question, I may post my own Spotlight some day (probably some day when I need something to post and I have nothing original to give). In the meantime, Molly's given me a great idea. From now on, I'll be adding one last question to the interview, but it will be the editor's chance to ask me a question of their choosing.
Stay tuned for the next Junior Editor Spotlight, which should be coming down the pipeline shortly, as well as a few actual posts directly from my brain, once I've had the chance to write, re-read, edit and rewrite them. I guess you never really stop being an editor, huh?
Monday, May 11, 2009
My Desk: A Photo Tour
While you're all waiting patiently for my next blog post, I thought I'd tide you over with a photo tour of my workspace. Or rather, the parts of my workspace that keep me happy during stressful days/weeks/months. Hopefully these pics aren't too big---I'm trying to keep them fairly small but clear but I don't have the right software to resize them without messing with the clarity much. So here goes:
First there is my Zac Efron corner. Zac and I are dating, though he doesn't know it yet. And folks around the office just love to give me pictures of him, especially publicity when they find him in the teen mags they have subscriptions to. And I can't bear to throw him away. So he has his own corner. I should note that there are actually two other pictures of him around my desk. Yes, I'm really that crazy about Zac Efron. He's who I always pictured as Edward Cullen before Twilight was even on the bestseller list, if that puts it in perspective.
And speaking of Edward Cullen, don't you just love my horrendously amazing Edward action-figure? I keep him in the original packaging because on the back is the best typo ever. It says "Special Powers: Ming Reading." Love it!
And completing the Twilight portion of this tour, here is the entrance to my cubicle. In case you can't read what that sign says below Team Jacob, it says "WWJD: What Would Jacob Do?" For a few seconds I had dreams of making that slogan happen, but I never got around to telling anyone about it...aside from coworkers. Maybe this blog will be it's launching point. It's especially timely, what with New Moon coming out...whenever that is. I can never remember movie release dates.
Here is my bookshelf. As you can see, I'm spilling over onto the bookshelf in the cubicle next to me. There used to be an intern there and she let me encroach, and now there's nobody. I'm all alone with my books. :-( Zac Efron, come sit near me so we can fall in love!
Also, if you're curious, the two pics next to my bookshelf are my little sister, Elisabeth, and her boyfriend at their junior and senior prom.
This is the bookshelf that is above my desk and as you can see, I collect String Dolls (aka Voodoo Babies). That's only a portion of my collection. You'll also see one of my LOLcats (love 'em) which also tells of my love for bacon. And there's a picture of me with my sisters, Marissa and Elisabeth (I'm the oldest). There's also a great (and by great I mean HILARIOUS) quote that I photocopied from Eminem's book, The Way I Am.
I also want to pay shoutout to a decoration that didn't make it into either this photo or the one with all the Zac photos. It's a print out of a picture I found on the web and clearly shows (as well as my Jacob love) how much of a werewolf fan I am. This is the pic (stolen from google images):
This is the top of the cabinet in my cube (if you're looking at it from the hallway). You'll see a few of the books I've worked on with my boss, as well as my Popple (you all remember Popples, right?) and some of the many Jo Chen Runaways covers that I've wallpapered my area with. I absolutely LOVE her work AND Runaways and I was in the throes of that series when we moved to this new office a few years ago. Thus the wallpapering.
On the side of my cabinet that faces me, I have more art hanging up. These pictures are Wizard of Oz characters as interpreted by an artist I enjoy named Mike DePetrillo. To the right of that is my "comics that are coming out" schedule that I keep current but can never manage to look at before I go to the comic store every Wednesday (that's New Comics Release Day for you non-comic folk).
And just above that is some art by my BFF and favorite artist, Jessica DeCormier. She did this series of art a few years back while working a really boring office job, where she drew on post-its. The larger one is a print-out of a post-it piece she did with nothing but highlighters. The other two are actual post-its (ORIGINAL ART!!!) I stole from her (with permission) and were done with highlighters and marker. She's amazing and I'm always trying to pimp her out while also encouraging her to finish her portfolio so she can finally go to art school and make the connections she needs to get a job in animation and move away to California (why am I helping her again?).
This completes the photo tour of my desk. There's much more to see, but it's all just work and unorganized mess, and also I'm dreading my phone bill now since those were all taken and sent from my camera phone and I still don't know how much it costs to send pix messages. LOL! Hope you all enjoyed that and that it tides you over until I (a) get the OK that my latest blog post isn't going to get me fired when I post it or (b) get my first Junior Editor Spotlight interview in from the interviewee.
Until then...
First there is my Zac Efron corner. Zac and I are dating, though he doesn't know it yet. And folks around the office just love to give me pictures of him, especially publicity when they find him in the teen mags they have subscriptions to. And I can't bear to throw him away. So he has his own corner. I should note that there are actually two other pictures of him around my desk. Yes, I'm really that crazy about Zac Efron. He's who I always pictured as Edward Cullen before Twilight was even on the bestseller list, if that puts it in perspective.
And speaking of Edward Cullen, don't you just love my horrendously amazing Edward action-figure? I keep him in the original packaging because on the back is the best typo ever. It says "Special Powers: Ming Reading." Love it!
And completing the Twilight portion of this tour, here is the entrance to my cubicle. In case you can't read what that sign says below Team Jacob, it says "WWJD: What Would Jacob Do?" For a few seconds I had dreams of making that slogan happen, but I never got around to telling anyone about it...aside from coworkers. Maybe this blog will be it's launching point. It's especially timely, what with New Moon coming out...whenever that is. I can never remember movie release dates.
Here is my bookshelf. As you can see, I'm spilling over onto the bookshelf in the cubicle next to me. There used to be an intern there and she let me encroach, and now there's nobody. I'm all alone with my books. :-( Zac Efron, come sit near me so we can fall in love!
Also, if you're curious, the two pics next to my bookshelf are my little sister, Elisabeth, and her boyfriend at their junior and senior prom.
This is the bookshelf that is above my desk and as you can see, I collect String Dolls (aka Voodoo Babies). That's only a portion of my collection. You'll also see one of my LOLcats (love 'em) which also tells of my love for bacon. And there's a picture of me with my sisters, Marissa and Elisabeth (I'm the oldest). There's also a great (and by great I mean HILARIOUS) quote that I photocopied from Eminem's book, The Way I Am.
I also want to pay shoutout to a decoration that didn't make it into either this photo or the one with all the Zac photos. It's a print out of a picture I found on the web and clearly shows (as well as my Jacob love) how much of a werewolf fan I am. This is the pic (stolen from google images):
This is the top of the cabinet in my cube (if you're looking at it from the hallway). You'll see a few of the books I've worked on with my boss, as well as my Popple (you all remember Popples, right?) and some of the many Jo Chen Runaways covers that I've wallpapered my area with. I absolutely LOVE her work AND Runaways and I was in the throes of that series when we moved to this new office a few years ago. Thus the wallpapering.
On the side of my cabinet that faces me, I have more art hanging up. These pictures are Wizard of Oz characters as interpreted by an artist I enjoy named Mike DePetrillo. To the right of that is my "comics that are coming out" schedule that I keep current but can never manage to look at before I go to the comic store every Wednesday (that's New Comics Release Day for you non-comic folk).
And just above that is some art by my BFF and favorite artist, Jessica DeCormier. She did this series of art a few years back while working a really boring office job, where she drew on post-its. The larger one is a print-out of a post-it piece she did with nothing but highlighters. The other two are actual post-its (ORIGINAL ART!!!) I stole from her (with permission) and were done with highlighters and marker. She's amazing and I'm always trying to pimp her out while also encouraging her to finish her portfolio so she can finally go to art school and make the connections she needs to get a job in animation and move away to California (why am I helping her again?).
This completes the photo tour of my desk. There's much more to see, but it's all just work and unorganized mess, and also I'm dreading my phone bill now since those were all taken and sent from my camera phone and I still don't know how much it costs to send pix messages. LOL! Hope you all enjoyed that and that it tides you over until I (a) get the OK that my latest blog post isn't going to get me fired when I post it or (b) get my first Junior Editor Spotlight interview in from the interviewee.
Until then...
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
The One That Got Away
I've been wanting to post about this for a while, and I'm not just doing it. Not by any specific event, but really I have been chomping at the bit to update with a Junior Editor Spotlight and am awaiting answers from my first guest (there've been some delays due to vacations and pretty much an insane amount of work at the office right now).
Anyway, I wanted to write about "the one that got away." That is to say, those manuscripts, and every editor has them, that they loved but just couldn't buy for some reason. I wanted to talk about it, both because it is a part of the business that is really sad for us, but also to show those aspiring authors out there that sometimes you're not the only ones who are sad when an editor can't buy your book. And that is something to remember - not all rejections mean the editor didn't like your book. Sometimes we loved it but there are other factors.
Editors of all levels do A LOT of reading and it is a constant struggle to keep up with the seemingly neverending piles of potential published books. Most of them we just won't connect with for some reason - either they need way too much work, or they aren't right for our list or they aren't really a children's novel. So when we find those projects that really call out to us, it is a really exciting (and scary) time for us. I say scary because there are a lot of steps (I won't bore you with the details, since I've described them in previous posts) and at any one of those steps, we could be given a reason why we can't take this book any further.
There have been several times when I've really loved a project and couldn't buy it. Once I brought a project to my weekly editorial meeting to get extra readers. They agreed it was a great story but that it needed a lot of work. So I offered to do a revision. When I got the revision back, we discussed it and decided it still needed too much work to take on as-is, so I offered to do another revision. Unfortunately, at that stage, another editor had made an offer on it and it went somewhere else. Another time, I brought this great project to editorial meeting and my readers had positive feedback but thought it needed work. I did the revision with the author and thought it turned out great, but when I brought it back to edit meeting, my team just didn't think it was working and I had to pass. I've also seen books go all the way up to the Publications Committee meeting, with multiple editors really excited about a book and the Editorial Director's support...and they just don't like it, or get it, or think we can publish it well...and you can't argue with the Pub Comm team. They know they're shit.
It's quite sad when you lose a project, either having to reject it or seeing it go to another house. But those are also the projects that can become your "I toldja so" books. Those books that go somewhere else, do well, and you can forever say, "I toldja so" to your team. I have a few of those, none that have hit the bestseller lists or won major awards yet, but we'll see. And when you lose those books, no matter how they do, it's always great to see how that other publisher handles that book and watch it come to life from an outside perspective.
So for aspiring authors who think every rejection means we don't like your book---just remember, sometimes it hurts us as much as it hurts you and sometimes we really don't want to reject it either. But publishing is a team effort and if the team can't get behind a book, it's better off somewhere that will know how best to support it or that believes in it more. And that editor who had to reject you will be out there, rooting you on as an industry cheerleader, and probably bugging your agent or editor for an ARC when they come in.
Anyway, I wanted to write about "the one that got away." That is to say, those manuscripts, and every editor has them, that they loved but just couldn't buy for some reason. I wanted to talk about it, both because it is a part of the business that is really sad for us, but also to show those aspiring authors out there that sometimes you're not the only ones who are sad when an editor can't buy your book. And that is something to remember - not all rejections mean the editor didn't like your book. Sometimes we loved it but there are other factors.
Editors of all levels do A LOT of reading and it is a constant struggle to keep up with the seemingly neverending piles of potential published books. Most of them we just won't connect with for some reason - either they need way too much work, or they aren't right for our list or they aren't really a children's novel. So when we find those projects that really call out to us, it is a really exciting (and scary) time for us. I say scary because there are a lot of steps (I won't bore you with the details, since I've described them in previous posts) and at any one of those steps, we could be given a reason why we can't take this book any further.
There have been several times when I've really loved a project and couldn't buy it. Once I brought a project to my weekly editorial meeting to get extra readers. They agreed it was a great story but that it needed a lot of work. So I offered to do a revision. When I got the revision back, we discussed it and decided it still needed too much work to take on as-is, so I offered to do another revision. Unfortunately, at that stage, another editor had made an offer on it and it went somewhere else. Another time, I brought this great project to editorial meeting and my readers had positive feedback but thought it needed work. I did the revision with the author and thought it turned out great, but when I brought it back to edit meeting, my team just didn't think it was working and I had to pass. I've also seen books go all the way up to the Publications Committee meeting, with multiple editors really excited about a book and the Editorial Director's support...and they just don't like it, or get it, or think we can publish it well...and you can't argue with the Pub Comm team. They know they're shit.
It's quite sad when you lose a project, either having to reject it or seeing it go to another house. But those are also the projects that can become your "I toldja so" books. Those books that go somewhere else, do well, and you can forever say, "I toldja so" to your team. I have a few of those, none that have hit the bestseller lists or won major awards yet, but we'll see. And when you lose those books, no matter how they do, it's always great to see how that other publisher handles that book and watch it come to life from an outside perspective.
So for aspiring authors who think every rejection means we don't like your book---just remember, sometimes it hurts us as much as it hurts you and sometimes we really don't want to reject it either. But publishing is a team effort and if the team can't get behind a book, it's better off somewhere that will know how best to support it or that believes in it more. And that editor who had to reject you will be out there, rooting you on as an industry cheerleader, and probably bugging your agent or editor for an ARC when they come in.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Announcements
Also, I can't believe I didn't post about this when it happened or even the last time I updated, but I got promoted. I mentioned it in in the post below, but I wanted to call it out because it's exciting. I am now an Assistant Editor. YAY!
And in other news, stay tuned for another series of blog posts from me. This series will be called the Junior Editor Spotlight. I wanted to give a shoutout to some editors out there in the kid lit arena who are in the range of Editorial Assistant to Associate Editor, since we're the younguns, the ones who don't necessarily get as much credit or as much recognition, despite doing a lot of work behind the scenes. And mostly because we're all trying to build our careers and build our names and it'll be a fun way to show readers who is out there that you might not have heard about yet. I have the first few interviews already planned, but I also want to mention that if anyone has any suggestions for junior editors they'd like me to interview, feel free to leave their names in the comments section or email me. It's ok if you don't have their contact information - I'm good at tracking people down if I don't already know them. >:-) *evil laugh*
And in other news, stay tuned for another series of blog posts from me. This series will be called the Junior Editor Spotlight. I wanted to give a shoutout to some editors out there in the kid lit arena who are in the range of Editorial Assistant to Associate Editor, since we're the younguns, the ones who don't necessarily get as much credit or as much recognition, despite doing a lot of work behind the scenes. And mostly because we're all trying to build our careers and build our names and it'll be a fun way to show readers who is out there that you might not have heard about yet. I have the first few interviews already planned, but I also want to mention that if anyone has any suggestions for junior editors they'd like me to interview, feel free to leave their names in the comments section or email me. It's ok if you don't have their contact information - I'm good at tracking people down if I don't already know them. >:-) *evil laugh*
Editor's First Acquisition | Buying the Book
I think now is a great time to post about the experience of buying my first book. This time next week, it will have been exactly a year since I found out I had won HATE LIST at auction. Before I tell you about how that happened, I want to share the cover, since we're finally able to share it.
What do you think? I'm really pleased with the way it turned out.
As I've mentioned in a previous blog, the events that led up to the agent sending me this manuscript feel like real networking destiny. When I got it, I thought the idea sounded interesting. It was a Friday, so I put it in my e-reader and told myself I would start looking at it over the weekend. The agent, Cori Deyoe from 3 Seas Literary, had sent me 50 pages and told me to let her know if I wanted to see more and I had sent an immediate response and asked her to please send me the full (why not - I have the e-reader, it won't break my back). I started reading Saturday night before bed and Sunday I decided to come into the office for some reason unknown to me. I finished the first 50, walking down the street, as I got to my building and I was really upset that I had hit the end. Luckily, Cori had sent me the full after I had left and it was waiting in my inbox when I got up to my desk. Now again I feel like destiny was in play, because I decided that I did not want to stay at the office and do whatever it was I had decided to come in for...so I went home and kept reading (what, at the time, was called) HERO. I finished it before bed that night, came in the next morning and told my boss "I have to have this book!" Now I think it's interesting because, had I decided to stay and do work, I might not have finished it in one sitting, but had I decided earlier that I didn't want to do work, I might not have come in and picked up the full manuscript either. Destiny people. Proof of destiny.
So once I was in love, it was my job to get others to fall in love, which they did. And that was when I got the call. There were offers on the book. Oh no!! Soon after, there was enough interest to merit an auction. But oh no again! I was about to leave for a library conference in Minneapolis and I hadn't even received approval from the Editorial Director to bring this project to our Acquisitions Committee.
So what did I do? I set up a meeting between my boss, the Paperback Director, and the Editorial Director, prepared all of the memos and materials JUST IN CASE I received approval to bring this to the Acquisitions Committee, and off I went to Minneapolis. Luckily I have a great boss who represented me in my absence and really made sure to express my enthusiasm. And it was unanimous, across the board…yes we have to have this book! Awesome! Of course, the stress didn’t go away just yet...what if someone outbid us? What if they don't outbid us, but the author and agent decide to go with them for some other reason? Getting on my flight back, I knew this: we had a bid on the table and I'd hear back on Monday. Oh weekend, you dirty tyrant!
When I received the call on Monday that they had decided to take our offer, I was like a tightly coiled spring trying not to bounce around like an idiot (too unprofessional). My mother screamed in my ear excitedly when I called her, but my boss was more reserved in her elation. And I still have all of the emails of excitement from the Acquisition folks when I told them the news.
And now it's been a year, a wonderful year, since that day. So much has happened since then---the title has changed, the ARCs are in, my boss is now the Editorial Director, I've acquired a few more books and been promoted, and I should be seeing a proposal and sample chapters for Jennifer's 2nd book soon. I can't believe it's been a year, and I can't believe there's only another half year (short in adult years and in Narnia years) before the book is out. I'm so freaking proud of this book and sometimes it's difficult to control my elation. And because I can't control my elation, thus negating any sort of proper conclusion to this post, I'll leave you with this link, to Jennifer Brown's blog, where you'll find pictures of her receiving her ARCs.
http://www.jennifunny.com/apps/blog/show/648965-omg-it-s-a-book-
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Books and Dating
I have lots of reading to do (as per usual) but I have some time while my turkey burgers are cooking, so you get this lovely blog post to read. It's not any of the blogs I promised, but those are coming. Eventually. For now, you'll have to make do with this little ditty that keeps coming up in my mind.
I was joking with one of my colleagues today about the guy she's dating. Things aren't working out and she wasn't sure what to do. I said, "we write rejection letters every day. Why don't you just write him a letter to tell him you're passing on the relationship." We laughed at the time, but it brought up a thought I've had in the past. The publishing process, from an editorial standpoint, is a lot like dating. So here is a list citing the similarities. It's was meant to be humorous, but it really ended up being not as funny and really very true. It might provide some insight for those looking to go into editorial or maybe even for authors aspiring to be published. And maybe it'll help me gain some perspective on why I seem to be perpetually single (no seriously - put the A.P.B. out. I'm single and ready to mingle, if you'll pardon that old cliche).
Without further ado:
#1 ~ You're going to meet a lot of guys/read a lot of submissions before you find the right one.
-----#1a ~ In the beginning, this is partially because you need to figure out what you're really looking for.
-----#1b ~ It's also because there are just a lot of options and it's part of the experience. Not every guy or project is going to be right for every person and it's all about finding the one that fits the best.
#2 ~ Sometimes you're going to find the guy/author you think is absolutely perfect for you and they're going to think some other guy/editor is a better fit for them. That's life. Just be happy for them, wish them well and move on graciously. You'll find someone else to date/work with and who knows, maybe that other guy/author will come back sometime down the road if things don't work out.
#3 ~ This kinda goes with #2 a bit, but sometimes things just don't work out. There could be many different factors, but in the end it just doesn't happen. It can be sad for one or both parties, but it's just life.
#4 ~ Networking works, whether it be through already established connections, the internet, or other means. For example, I made friends with a woman at a book signing who later became a coworker, who introduced me to an editor she worked with who edited the books I loved to read. She introduced me to the editor who sat next to her, who introduced me to agent she knew when I eventually got my editing job. That agent later suggested me to the agent for my first acquisition. So far internet dating hasn't worked for me (I met one guy and it didn't work out, but we're still friends - but two of my former roommates met their significant others on OKCupid.com and one of those roommates is now married to the guy she met).
#5 ~ There are going to be times when your friends/colleagues don't think this guy/project is the right fit. If you see something they don't, it's OK to keep pushing to try and find a way to make it work, but if they're right and it's not going to work out, it's best to just listen to them and not drag things out.
#6 ~ Sometimes you need to work on things before you're ready to establish a relationship. If the relationship is worth it and the work is reasonable, it's often worth it to put the time in beforehand. It can lead to great things in the future.
#7 ~ Sometimes it takes negotiation and compromise before you can settle into a relationship. The key is to know what you want, what your deal breakers are and what you're willing to sacrifice to establish this relationship. Again, sometimes it doesn't work out, but other times you can come to an agreement that you're both happy with
#8 ~ Once a relationship has been established, it takes a lot of work to maintain. There will be a lot of criticism, a lot of compromising, and probably more negotiating. But this is true throughout more than just dating and editing - the more work you put into the relationship (and the book), the better the outcome.
I was joking with one of my colleagues today about the guy she's dating. Things aren't working out and she wasn't sure what to do. I said, "we write rejection letters every day. Why don't you just write him a letter to tell him you're passing on the relationship." We laughed at the time, but it brought up a thought I've had in the past. The publishing process, from an editorial standpoint, is a lot like dating. So here is a list citing the similarities. It's was meant to be humorous, but it really ended up being not as funny and really very true. It might provide some insight for those looking to go into editorial or maybe even for authors aspiring to be published. And maybe it'll help me gain some perspective on why I seem to be perpetually single (no seriously - put the A.P.B. out. I'm single and ready to mingle, if you'll pardon that old cliche).
Without further ado:
#1 ~ You're going to meet a lot of guys/read a lot of submissions before you find the right one.
-----#1a ~ In the beginning, this is partially because you need to figure out what you're really looking for.
-----#1b ~ It's also because there are just a lot of options and it's part of the experience. Not every guy or project is going to be right for every person and it's all about finding the one that fits the best.
#2 ~ Sometimes you're going to find the guy/author you think is absolutely perfect for you and they're going to think some other guy/editor is a better fit for them. That's life. Just be happy for them, wish them well and move on graciously. You'll find someone else to date/work with and who knows, maybe that other guy/author will come back sometime down the road if things don't work out.
#3 ~ This kinda goes with #2 a bit, but sometimes things just don't work out. There could be many different factors, but in the end it just doesn't happen. It can be sad for one or both parties, but it's just life.
#4 ~ Networking works, whether it be through already established connections, the internet, or other means. For example, I made friends with a woman at a book signing who later became a coworker, who introduced me to an editor she worked with who edited the books I loved to read. She introduced me to the editor who sat next to her, who introduced me to agent she knew when I eventually got my editing job. That agent later suggested me to the agent for my first acquisition. So far internet dating hasn't worked for me (I met one guy and it didn't work out, but we're still friends - but two of my former roommates met their significant others on OKCupid.com and one of those roommates is now married to the guy she met).
#5 ~ There are going to be times when your friends/colleagues don't think this guy/project is the right fit. If you see something they don't, it's OK to keep pushing to try and find a way to make it work, but if they're right and it's not going to work out, it's best to just listen to them and not drag things out.
#6 ~ Sometimes you need to work on things before you're ready to establish a relationship. If the relationship is worth it and the work is reasonable, it's often worth it to put the time in beforehand. It can lead to great things in the future.
#7 ~ Sometimes it takes negotiation and compromise before you can settle into a relationship. The key is to know what you want, what your deal breakers are and what you're willing to sacrifice to establish this relationship. Again, sometimes it doesn't work out, but other times you can come to an agreement that you're both happy with
#8 ~ Once a relationship has been established, it takes a lot of work to maintain. There will be a lot of criticism, a lot of compromising, and probably more negotiating. But this is true throughout more than just dating and editing - the more work you put into the relationship (and the book), the better the outcome.
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Stick to the script!
Memorizing my speech feels a lot like running lines back when I used to do children's theater. Only this time I won't have to wear a blonde wig and facial hair (I was Buffalo Bill in Annie Get Your Gun one year---there's no business like show business).
I'm still ridiculously nervous, but the more I remember of my speech the better I feel about it. It probably doesn't give off the image of unmovable professionalism that I should probably be trying for, but heck...I'd rather be real and honest on here. And hey, I'll still be a basket of raw nerves on Tuesday afternoon, but hopefully I can at least do as well as I did in those musicals. I was always a bit stiff, but I never forgot my lines or blocking.
Oh boy, though. If this is anything like theater, that means the forgotten-lines nightmares are going to make an appearance. Fun is!
I'll leave you with this image: me (tall, brown hair, slightly awkward, baby face) wearing gray face paint, a shiny silver jumpsuit and a funnel on my head. If anyone can guess what that costume was, I'll send them an ARC of something fun.
I'm still ridiculously nervous, but the more I remember of my speech the better I feel about it. It probably doesn't give off the image of unmovable professionalism that I should probably be trying for, but heck...I'd rather be real and honest on here. And hey, I'll still be a basket of raw nerves on Tuesday afternoon, but hopefully I can at least do as well as I did in those musicals. I was always a bit stiff, but I never forgot my lines or blocking.
Oh boy, though. If this is anything like theater, that means the forgotten-lines nightmares are going to make an appearance. Fun is!
I'll leave you with this image: me (tall, brown hair, slightly awkward, baby face) wearing gray face paint, a shiny silver jumpsuit and a funnel on my head. If anyone can guess what that costume was, I'll send them an ARC of something fun.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Editor's First Acquisition: Preparing for Focus
This weekend I'm preparing myself (both mentally and emotionally) for our Fall 2009 Focus Meeting, which is where we introduce key sales folks to our list. I'll be presenting Hate List, as well as one of my boss's titles, and I am EXTREMELY nervous.
I'm not sure where the nerves come from. I regularly go to karaoke with some of my friends and colleagues and I love to sing. When I have a microphone in my hands, I might get a little nervous, but there is also a confidence. An "I can do this" surge that rushes through me. But giving a speech, even one that's only 1-minute long, is not singing. I think it's mostly a mentality. I was nervous when I first started doing karaoke, but the more and more I did it and saw positive reactions from everyone there, the more confident I got and the better I got. So maybe that's all I need for this---to do it a few times and see that I'm not bad at it, get more confident, and soon I'll be speechifying with the best of them. But for now, it feels like there is fire pumping through my veins and I can't wait until it's over.
I am excited to present Hate List to a wider audience though. Until now, the only folks who have read the manuscript are the people who work directly on the book (the designer, the copyeditor), the people who read it when we were buying it (the publications committee and a few editorial readers) and me. So to be able to share "my first" with more people is just so exciting. Terrifying, but exciting. I'm so proud of this novel and what a great job the author did, and I'm excited for more people to discover her---just like I discovered her---and fall in love with this book.
And they'll get to see the cover too, which I am glad was approved in time to make it into the powerpoint slide. It evokes such a great response and completely matches the gritty, emotional feeling of the book and it'll provide a great visual backup while I'm presenting.
So now, back to my speech. My boss suggested I read it 40 times to myself and then practice 20 times in front of the mirror. On Monday, I'll be practicing in front of her and I want to have this mostly memorized by that point. Wish me luck! And of course, I'll let you all know how it goes once it's over.
I'm not sure where the nerves come from. I regularly go to karaoke with some of my friends and colleagues and I love to sing. When I have a microphone in my hands, I might get a little nervous, but there is also a confidence. An "I can do this" surge that rushes through me. But giving a speech, even one that's only 1-minute long, is not singing. I think it's mostly a mentality. I was nervous when I first started doing karaoke, but the more and more I did it and saw positive reactions from everyone there, the more confident I got and the better I got. So maybe that's all I need for this---to do it a few times and see that I'm not bad at it, get more confident, and soon I'll be speechifying with the best of them. But for now, it feels like there is fire pumping through my veins and I can't wait until it's over.
I am excited to present Hate List to a wider audience though. Until now, the only folks who have read the manuscript are the people who work directly on the book (the designer, the copyeditor), the people who read it when we were buying it (the publications committee and a few editorial readers) and me. So to be able to share "my first" with more people is just so exciting. Terrifying, but exciting. I'm so proud of this novel and what a great job the author did, and I'm excited for more people to discover her---just like I discovered her---and fall in love with this book.
And they'll get to see the cover too, which I am glad was approved in time to make it into the powerpoint slide. It evokes such a great response and completely matches the gritty, emotional feeling of the book and it'll provide a great visual backup while I'm presenting.
So now, back to my speech. My boss suggested I read it 40 times to myself and then practice 20 times in front of the mirror. On Monday, I'll be practicing in front of her and I want to have this mostly memorized by that point. Wish me luck! And of course, I'll let you all know how it goes once it's over.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
An editor's first acquisition - blog series | Cover Approved
Ya know, it's funny -- I post about not knowing what to blog about and then it occurs to me that I had the perfect opportunity this year to post something really interesting. I acquired my first two books this year and one of them (Hate List by Jennifer Brown) has already finished being edited and is working its way through the design process. How interesting would that have been, if only I had thought about it? An editor's first acquisition, step by step.
Well it's not over yet. We still have to make it to publication. So I'll be sure to come back and update when there are things to share. That'll be my first step toward making this blog something worth reading. I'll also start at the beginning and post a few "blogs from the past" to catch you up.
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But right now, I have the first update. A very exciting day. Today the designer took his cover ideas to our jacket committee meeting. Jacket committee consists of key people in sales, marketing, publicity, design, editorial, and the publisher and they look at the cover ideas, discuss their thoughts, likes, dislikes, etc. and either approve a cover/sketch or give feedback to move forward. My boss and I had met with the designer, the awesome Mr. Dave Caplan, previously and he had shown us three ideas. While they were all amazing, one direction resonated with me more than the rest and I immediately said so. It turned out that it was his favorite as well. Luckily the jacket committee agreed and it was approved.
Now, my boss had told me not to get my hopes up. The folks on the committee are very opiniated and for good reason---they know books and they want to do what is best for each title. But it was too late at that point. I had my hopes WAY up. It didn't help that I had a copy of the concept hanging in my cube to look over at since before Thanksgiving. So now I feel like melting. Adrenaline is rushing through my veins and my head feels light. I'm so excited that another milestone has been passed for my first acquisition. And I can't wait to share the cover with the outside world. I have no idea when that can be, but I'm sure I need to wait until the catalog and ARCs comes in (March). At the very least I have to wait until I share it with the author and agent. But as soon as I'm able, you know it'll be up here.
Now I must get back to work. Title factsheets AND catalog copy are both due by end of day today and there is a Longstockings get-together I don't want to miss. Meanwhile, my heart is going out to anyone who received bad news today. Layoffs suck and while it seems like our company is safe at the moment, to hear about stuff like this happening in an industry that feels more like family than work is disheartening and sad for all of us.
Well it's not over yet. We still have to make it to publication. So I'll be sure to come back and update when there are things to share. That'll be my first step toward making this blog something worth reading. I'll also start at the beginning and post a few "blogs from the past" to catch you up.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But right now, I have the first update. A very exciting day. Today the designer took his cover ideas to our jacket committee meeting. Jacket committee consists of key people in sales, marketing, publicity, design, editorial, and the publisher and they look at the cover ideas, discuss their thoughts, likes, dislikes, etc. and either approve a cover/sketch or give feedback to move forward. My boss and I had met with the designer, the awesome Mr. Dave Caplan, previously and he had shown us three ideas. While they were all amazing, one direction resonated with me more than the rest and I immediately said so. It turned out that it was his favorite as well. Luckily the jacket committee agreed and it was approved.
Now, my boss had told me not to get my hopes up. The folks on the committee are very opiniated and for good reason---they know books and they want to do what is best for each title. But it was too late at that point. I had my hopes WAY up. It didn't help that I had a copy of the concept hanging in my cube to look over at since before Thanksgiving. So now I feel like melting. Adrenaline is rushing through my veins and my head feels light. I'm so excited that another milestone has been passed for my first acquisition. And I can't wait to share the cover with the outside world. I have no idea when that can be, but I'm sure I need to wait until the catalog and ARCs comes in (March). At the very least I have to wait until I share it with the author and agent. But as soon as I'm able, you know it'll be up here.
Now I must get back to work. Title factsheets AND catalog copy are both due by end of day today and there is a Longstockings get-together I don't want to miss. Meanwhile, my heart is going out to anyone who received bad news today. Layoffs suck and while it seems like our company is safe at the moment, to hear about stuff like this happening in an industry that feels more like family than work is disheartening and sad for all of us.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
New Years Resolution
I know it's only a few days after Thanksgiving, but I've been thinking a lot about what I want for this blog in the new year. Things have been very busy lately. My boss has been making some really newsworthy deals, and I've been working with her on projects as well as on my own. And I've made some blog promises that I have not kept. For one, I said that I'd blog about Breaking Dawn and I never did. Not that I didn't want to, but I thought it might be a conflict of interest, since, ya know, I work at the publishing company. And even though I was a fan of Twilight before I got my editorial job, I didn't want to say anything that might get me in trouble.
That's one thing that's plagued me a bit with this blog. I'm used to having a heavily filtered personal blog, where I can write about whatever I want and no one sees it unless I say so. This is a different animal for me and the fear of repurcussions has been a deterrent. So that's one thing I want to figure out for 2009 -- what do I want from this blog and what kind of content do I want to post that people will want to read. I love interacting with the children's lit blog community, but I'm not really contributing at this point. So what I want to do is revamp what I post here so that it gives people a reason to come back and read.
So what I want to ask is for those people who are still reading this to throw out some suggestions on weekly content they'd like to see here. I'll also be picking up the book No One Cares What You Had For Lunch: 100 Ideas For Your Blog, which was suggested to me by lovely agent Kate Schafer Testerman. So for those who are seeing this, don't give up on me yet. I'm still around.
That's one thing that's plagued me a bit with this blog. I'm used to having a heavily filtered personal blog, where I can write about whatever I want and no one sees it unless I say so. This is a different animal for me and the fear of repurcussions has been a deterrent. So that's one thing I want to figure out for 2009 -- what do I want from this blog and what kind of content do I want to post that people will want to read. I love interacting with the children's lit blog community, but I'm not really contributing at this point. So what I want to do is revamp what I post here so that it gives people a reason to come back and read.
So what I want to ask is for those people who are still reading this to throw out some suggestions on weekly content they'd like to see here. I'll also be picking up the book No One Cares What You Had For Lunch: 100 Ideas For Your Blog, which was suggested to me by lovely agent Kate Schafer Testerman. So for those who are seeing this, don't give up on me yet. I'm still around.
Monday, September 15, 2008
New Book and Video about Name Transitioning
Well I've been quite lazy/busy/emotionally drained, so I've been procrasting on writing the posts I promised you all. But for now, I wanted to pop on here and share some great news that has recently come up. I acquired my second book at work! Well -- co-acquired. It was a joint acquisition with my wonderful colleague, Julie. Here's the announcement:
Transparent author Cris Beam's J, about a female-to-male transgender teen as he begins to live as a boy and comes to terms with what it means to be trans and Puerto Rican in New York City, to Julie Scheina and T.S. Ferguson at Little, Brown Children's, for publication Spring 2010, by Amy Williams of McCormick & Williams Literary Agency (world).
And since it (sort of) relates and because I just watched it, I wanted to post this video. It's by a trans guy named Meiko Xavier whose videos I really enjoy watching (and who is SUPER cute!). This one is titled Social Difficulties with Name Change, which is something I can really relate to, despite not being trans myself.
Going from "Tom" to "T.S." was a difficult struggle, only made easier by my move to New York (wow, has it really been 5 years since I transitioned to T.S.?) and despite most people referring to me as such, I still have a lot of trouble with family members and a few friends (well, one stubborn friend in particular). So I can strongly relate to the topic in this video.
Enjoy! And stay tuned - I'll try to be diligent about coming back and actually posting one or more of the posts I promised last time...eventually.
Transparent author Cris Beam's J, about a female-to-male transgender teen as he begins to live as a boy and comes to terms with what it means to be trans and Puerto Rican in New York City, to Julie Scheina and T.S. Ferguson at Little, Brown Children's, for publication Spring 2010, by Amy Williams of McCormick & Williams Literary Agency (world).
And since it (sort of) relates and because I just watched it, I wanted to post this video. It's by a trans guy named Meiko Xavier whose videos I really enjoy watching (and who is SUPER cute!). This one is titled Social Difficulties with Name Change, which is something I can really relate to, despite not being trans myself.
Going from "Tom" to "T.S." was a difficult struggle, only made easier by my move to New York (wow, has it really been 5 years since I transitioned to T.S.?) and despite most people referring to me as such, I still have a lot of trouble with family members and a few friends (well, one stubborn friend in particular). So I can strongly relate to the topic in this video.
Enjoy! And stay tuned - I'll try to be diligent about coming back and actually posting one or more of the posts I promised last time...eventually.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
My boss
I've been planning on writing a few posts lately, but unfortunately my energy has been on other things (reading mostly, including Stephenie Meyer's latest, Breaking Dawn). But I am planning the following posts, once I gather my thoughts and shake off the sleep debt I've been accumulating:
*The manuscript that got away (alternate title: passing isn't fun for the editor either)
*Bella Swan: bad role model or is everyone just jaded?
*Breaking Dawn and why I loved it
In the meantime, I wanted to share something special with whoever's out there reading this. My boss, Jennifer Hunt, was featured in Publishers Weekly's 50 under 40 a few weeks ago, so I thought I'd post the link and show off. This woman is an incredible role model for me to be learning under and I find myself feeling lucky almost every single day that I am working for her. I know, I'm a cheesy ball of mush---but that's just how I roll, people. And the best part is, she doesn't read many publishing industry blogs, so I can gush about her without feeling like I'm sucking up. So here's the article:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6579815.html
*The manuscript that got away (alternate title: passing isn't fun for the editor either)
*Bella Swan: bad role model or is everyone just jaded?
*Breaking Dawn and why I loved it
In the meantime, I wanted to share something special with whoever's out there reading this. My boss, Jennifer Hunt, was featured in Publishers Weekly's 50 under 40 a few weeks ago, so I thought I'd post the link and show off. This woman is an incredible role model for me to be learning under and I find myself feeling lucky almost every single day that I am working for her. I know, I'm a cheesy ball of mush---but that's just how I roll, people. And the best part is, she doesn't read many publishing industry blogs, so I can gush about her without feeling like I'm sucking up. So here's the article:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6579815.html
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Spiderwick on DVD
I haven't updated in a while. Things have been a bit crazy. I've been reading like mad at work, trying to respond to as many submissions as possible while giving each of them the attention and consideration they deserve. I haven't written anything novelly yet either, since I told myself I'd take some time off until I felt I had submission reading under control (and that was a LONG time ago). I should be in bed right now, but I did have one thing I wanted to say.
For those who aren't aware -- The Spiderwick Chronicles is out on DVD. Now that you know, you need to run out and buy or rent this movie. It is, I must say, THE BOMB! And yes, that's my professional evaluation. I am a proud owner of a lovely widescreen edition and just had to spread the love.
Now to collapse into a coma -- until tomorrow, when I shall return to much reading. Goodnight, dear readers.
For those who aren't aware -- The Spiderwick Chronicles is out on DVD. Now that you know, you need to run out and buy or rent this movie. It is, I must say, THE BOMB! And yes, that's my professional evaluation. I am a proud owner of a lovely widescreen edition and just had to spread the love.
Now to collapse into a coma -- until tomorrow, when I shall return to much reading. Goodnight, dear readers.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Heroics
I saved someone's life last night.
I was at a rooftop party thrown by some of my friends and a mutual friend started to choke on a hamburger. The hostess screamed for someone to give her the heimlich, and then picked me out of the crowd (she told me later it was because I was the biggest guy and so would be strong enough, or at least stronger than her) and screamed for me to help her. I was FREAKING OUT but I gave her the heimlich until that burger was out.
The thing that was going through my mind at the time was mostly worry that I would hurt her. I mean, you're basically punching the person in the stomach from behind. But Fear of Someone Dying Because You Couldn't Save Them completely trumps Fear of Hurting Someone. It was a really scary moment but it all turned out OK. The girl was embarrassed afterward, but recovered nicely. We laughed about it a little later, and then bonded over Degrassi (which only happens to be one of THE BEST teen shows on TV).
So that was my night last night. I got home close to 3AM and crashed. Gotta take it easy today, since this coming week is my birthday week and I have LOTS of fun planned! WOO!
I was at a rooftop party thrown by some of my friends and a mutual friend started to choke on a hamburger. The hostess screamed for someone to give her the heimlich, and then picked me out of the crowd (she told me later it was because I was the biggest guy and so would be strong enough, or at least stronger than her) and screamed for me to help her. I was FREAKING OUT but I gave her the heimlich until that burger was out.
The thing that was going through my mind at the time was mostly worry that I would hurt her. I mean, you're basically punching the person in the stomach from behind. But Fear of Someone Dying Because You Couldn't Save Them completely trumps Fear of Hurting Someone. It was a really scary moment but it all turned out OK. The girl was embarrassed afterward, but recovered nicely. We laughed about it a little later, and then bonded over Degrassi (which only happens to be one of THE BEST teen shows on TV).
So that was my night last night. I got home close to 3AM and crashed. Gotta take it easy today, since this coming week is my birthday week and I have LOTS of fun planned! WOO!
Monday, June 16, 2008
Exclusive Submissions
I should be reading, but I wanted to pop on here for a minute because I just remembered another piece of advice I wanted to give to any unagented authors out there who are trying to get their book published.
Unless the publisher or the editor's submission guidelines specifically say they will only take exclusive submissions, DO NOT send them your submission exclusively!
Now, I believe this is different for agents, so don't carry it over to the other side of querying, but this is something I saw recently and it shocked me. Sending an editor an exclusive submission when it's not required is unfair to you. It's a major time suck. Why should you sit around waiting for me to get around to reading your project, all the while not sending it to other editors who might read it faster? Especially if you're sending to editors at a company like mine, that works mainly with agented submissions and only takes unagented submissions under special circumstances (see previous posts). Oftentimes, you're going to have to wait for us to get through a decent amount of the agented stuff before we can legitimately get to yours, and why should you wait for us?
In my opinion, only an agent should be sending exclusive submissions. They have a relationship with the editors, so they know who will love what and will give them an exclusive because they want that project with that editor and think they will love the project enough to potentially make a swift and solid offer. They have easy access to that editor for following up, and they know the industry well enough to give a reasonable amount of exclusivity (two weeks, sometimes one).
So if you're sending your project out to publishers and it's not required, don't send exclusively. Because when you get interest or an offer from an editor at one house, that will give you leverage to follow up with the other editors who are taking their time and let them know there is a reason to hurry up and respond, and they may give you a higher offer. They may still decline, but they would've anyway and now you have your answer quicker, as well as interest or an offer from a house that actually got back to you within a reasonable amount of time.
And again, agents are different. Maybe one of them can comment on this post and explain why this is and how submitting to agents in regards to this.
Unless the publisher or the editor's submission guidelines specifically say they will only take exclusive submissions, DO NOT send them your submission exclusively!
Now, I believe this is different for agents, so don't carry it over to the other side of querying, but this is something I saw recently and it shocked me. Sending an editor an exclusive submission when it's not required is unfair to you. It's a major time suck. Why should you sit around waiting for me to get around to reading your project, all the while not sending it to other editors who might read it faster? Especially if you're sending to editors at a company like mine, that works mainly with agented submissions and only takes unagented submissions under special circumstances (see previous posts). Oftentimes, you're going to have to wait for us to get through a decent amount of the agented stuff before we can legitimately get to yours, and why should you wait for us?
In my opinion, only an agent should be sending exclusive submissions. They have a relationship with the editors, so they know who will love what and will give them an exclusive because they want that project with that editor and think they will love the project enough to potentially make a swift and solid offer. They have easy access to that editor for following up, and they know the industry well enough to give a reasonable amount of exclusivity (two weeks, sometimes one).
So if you're sending your project out to publishers and it's not required, don't send exclusively. Because when you get interest or an offer from an editor at one house, that will give you leverage to follow up with the other editors who are taking their time and let them know there is a reason to hurry up and respond, and they may give you a higher offer. They may still decline, but they would've anyway and now you have your answer quicker, as well as interest or an offer from a house that actually got back to you within a reasonable amount of time.
And again, agents are different. Maybe one of them can comment on this post and explain why this is and how submitting to agents in regards to this.
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