Writeous magazine

writeousMARCH 2011writeous

MARCH 2011

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITSThree authors, combining powers to create a new kind of storytelling

PLUS:10 Must-Have Tech GadgetsThis Season You’ll Love

PLAGIARISMOne writer’s

nightmare come to life

SPECIAL INTERVIEWS WITH:

Suzanne Collins,Orson Scott Card,Stephenie Meyer,Rachelle Gardner,

and more!

GETTINGTO THE POINT+

7 one-liners to take

to the next level

Tips to make your query letter stand out

Grab a Post-It

contentsmarch 2010 | volume 1

features columns/departments

Friends with Benefits20

An exclusive interview with the three women that make up the Merry Sisters of Fate. Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton and Brenna Yovanoff talk about using networking to their advantages.BY C A I T L I N B U S S

22True Life: PlagiarizedHow one man fought to keep ownership of his work when one woman determined to take it all away.BY K AT H RY N H O G A N

24Jane of all Trades

on the cover

One woman does it all. A look into the life of Jane Morris — wife, mother, author and agent.BY A N D R E A C R AM E R

26The Game ChangerAuthor Suzanne Collins explains her inspiration behind the world-famous Hunger Games Trilogy.BY E M I LY C A R R

Writeous is published 10 times a year( which may include an occasional special, combined or expanded issue that may count as two issues) by The Writers Group, 16290 E. 22nd Street, New York, NY 11040. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Writeous, 11392 W. 15th Street, Portland, OR 97201. Subscription rates: one year, $30.00. Canadian subscriptions add $10 per year for GST/HST tax and postage via surface mail. Foreign subscriptions add $10 for surface mail or $40 per year for air mail. Remit in U.S. funds.

writeous.com | 1

28Setting Self-Publishing Myths StraightHow to make it work to your advantage and why it’s sometimes more beneficial than the traditional route.BY CO R E Y T H I B O D E AU X

05 tech deckMust-Have Gadgets This Season Top 10 Apps for Writers

07 housekeepingPitch Perfect The Dos and Don’ts Clean It Up

11writer’s roostInterview with Orson Scott Card

13 pointersOne-Liners

15 settingMood Muse-ic Feng Shui in the Office

17 spotlightStories from contest winners Alex Folsom and Kollin Black

31 noteworthyAdvice from agent Rachelle Gardener on how to write the perfect query letter

32 end sceneAuthor Stephenie Meyer talks about her first rejection letters before her initial successes

05 Top 10 Must-Have Gadgets

20 Friends with Benefits

31 Query Experts

13 7 Ways to Start a Story

11 Exclusive Orson Scott Card Interview

writeousMARCH 2011

writeousmarch 2010 | volume 1

EDITOREmily Soetaert

ASSOCIATE EDITORKathryn Hogan

ART DIRECTORCaitlin Buss

WHY WE WRITE

CONTRIBUTING EDITORSKacie Pauls, Scott Combs, Elizabeth Filkins, Tali David, Samantha Collins, Corey Thibodeaux, Andrea Cramer,

Emily Carr

WRITEOUS EDITORIAL OFFICES

16290 E. 22nd St., New York, NY 11040

[email protected]

There comes a time in every girl’s life when she wants to design a magazine. For me, the time is now.

After putting together a business plan and researching target mar-kets, I present you with Writeous, a magazine for aspiring novelists with the dreams and hopes of one day getting published.

It may not be glitzy and glam-orous, but it’s meant to give all you new writers out there a sense of how the industry works. Think of it this way - we’re getting you aquainted with the publishing world, one page at a time.

From top industry analysts to submissions from you, our readers, we’ve managed to compile things that are not only useful, but things we think are interesting, too.

Get your foot in the door. Try new things. Don’t be afraid to fail. Especially the last part. Failing is part of writing fiction. Without it, you can’t learn and progress. And then what? You’re just moving backwards.

We here at Writeous are excited to see what submissions you pro-vide us with as time continues. We’re excited to progress with you. At the end of the day, isn’t that all that matters?

Moving forward involves taking risks, obviously. And the best way to do that is to simply put yourself out there. We’re here to help. As we continue to sniff around in search of new opportunities, we hope that you follow suit.

Give us a heads up if you know something is happening that we haven’t covered. Send us your questions, concerns, announcements. We want to be in the loop.

When becoming immersed in writing culture, it’s crucial to join up with a writing community. Bouncing ideas off of others and getting positive and negative feedback alike help to improve your ability. We like to think of Writeous as its own writing community, too.

Stay tuned and the rest will fall into place. Happy writing, every-one, from all of us here at Writeous magazine.

editor’s letter

THE WRITERS GROUP

EXECUTIVE PUBLISHEREmily Soetaert

CIRCULATION DIRECTORHolly Snyder

ADVERTISING DISTRIBUTORCierha Berry

PRODUCTION MANAGERSarah Quinn

ATTENTION RETAILERS

To carry Writeous in your store, call Newsstand Sales Supervisor Paul Wetzel toll free at (800)573-3423

ext. 2143

COPYRIGHT © 2011 BY OGGLE MEDIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. WRITEOUS

MAGAZINE IS A REGISTERED TRADE-MARK OF OGGLE MEDIA

housekeeping

writeous.com | 3

Pitch Perfect

Your best point of reference is to read as many success-ful and sample query letters as you can, write yours, and then get feedback on yours from other writers. Feedback is important, and it’s beyond the “expertise”

your friends and family can give you, unless they’re better writ-ers than you.

For the most part, query letters are about 250 words, which is approximately 1 page.

There are about two short paragraphs that tell what the story is about - focus on the main plot, and don’t get into any details about how the character feels and definitely don’t delve into background info. Your job with the query letter is to entice the agent to read sample pages, adding background info isn’t going to do that. focus on the plot: Who the character is, what s/he wants, what happens if s/he fails?

The last paragraph should be any bio info about yourself, such as any publishing credits. No one cares if you’ve been writ-ing your whole life. Most writers have, so including that info doesn’t make you stand out, but it does make you look amateur. Also, include the book’s specs in the last paragraph (word count, title in all caps, and genre). If you don’t have any legit publish-ing credits, like getting work published in PAID magazines or anthologies, then you don’t need to include a bio.

Don’t worry about getting this right on your first try. Unless you’ve been writing queries your whole life, you’re going to go through several drafts with feedback.

I suggest you read every post in the Query Shark blog ( http://queryshark.blogspot.com ) to learn how to write an effec-tive query letter. Writersdigest.com has a query series that you might want to look over. Literary agents post successful queries of their clients and explain why the query was successful (all the

queries posted are of books that have been recently published).And, I disagree with SK. The literary agents I’ve seen speak

about queries and manuscripts say they look for a reason to ac-cept the work. Unfortunately, most people write dreck (manu-scripts) and equally awful query letters. Literary agents want desperately to find those good query letters and great manu-scripts, so they look for reasons to keep on reading, but they can also tell if something is awful just from the first paragraph and it usually has to do with the lack of writing skill.Your best point of reference is to read as many successful and sample query letters as you can, write yours, and then get feedback on yours from other writers. Feedback is important, and it’s beyond the “exper-tise” your friends and family can give you, unless they’re better writers than you.

For the most part, query letters are about 250 words, which is approximately 1 page. There are about two short paragraphs that tell what the story is about - focus on the main plot, and don’t get into any details about how the character feels and defi-nitely don’t delve into background info. Your job with the query letter is to entice the agent to read sample pages, adding back-ground info isn’t going to do that. focus on the plot: Who the character is, what s/he wants, what happens if s/he fails? No one cares if you’ve been writing your whole life. Most writers have, so including that info doesn’t make you stand out, but it does make you look amateur. Also, include the book’s specs in the last paragraph (word count, title in all caps, and genre).


For the most part, query letters are about 250 words, which is approximately 1 page. There are about two short paragraphs.

Nothing annoys agents more than receiving a poorly written query letter — don’t let dumb mistakes keep you from publishing your work

housekeeping

Do . . .

Don’t . . .

4 | writeous | march 2011

The last paragraph should be any bio info about yourself, such as any publishing credits. No one cares if you’ve been writing your whole life.

Most writers have, so including that info doesn’t make you stand out, but it does make you look amateur. Also, include the book’s specs in the last paragraph (word count, title in all caps, and genre).

If you don’t have any legit publishing credits, like getting work pub-lished in PAID magazines or anthologies, then you don’t need to in-clude a bio.


Most writers have, so including that info doesn’t make you stand out, but it does make you look amateur.

The literary agents I’ve seen speak about queries and manuscripts say they look for a reason to accept the work.


For the most part, query letters are about 250 words, which is ap-proximately 1 page.

There are about two short paragraphs that tell what the story is about - focus on the main plot, and don’t get into any details about how the character feels and definitely don’t delve into background info.

Your job with the query letter is to entice the agent to read sample pages, adding background info isn’t going to do that. focus on the plot: Who the character is, what s/he wants, what happens if s/he fails?


Most writers have, so including that info doesn’t make you stand out, but it does make you look amateur. Also, include the book’s specs in the last paragraph.

If you don’t have any legit publishing credits, like getting work published in PAID magazines or anthologies, then you don’t need to include a bio.


kodak moment

>>

>>

Tech Deck

Must-Have Gadgets This SeasonThe examination of Apple’s iPad 2 continues, and now

benchmarks of its graphics performance compare it fa-vorably with both its predecessor and one of its most capable rivals, the Motorola Xoom.

Apple’s claim of the iPad 2’s nine-times-faster graphics perfor-mance over the iPad 1 might be exaggerated, according to Anan-dTech’s reviewer Daniel Dilger, who said he’s “not sure that you’ll ever see 9x running real game code.” In fact, AnandTech com-pared the iPad 2′s graphics performance with the original iPad and the Motorola Xoom, and using GLBenchmark 2.0, the iPad 2 was between 3 and 7 times faster than the iPad 1, and was a surprising 2 to 7 times faster than the Tegra 2-packing Motorola Xoom tablet.

Our benchmarks also showed Apple to be stretching the truth in its speed quotes. Comparing the iPad 1’s single-core A4 proces-sor with the iPad 2’s dual-core A5, and we found the newer A5 to be 66% faster, short of Apple’s claim that it was twice as fast.

Another part of the initiation of the iPad 2 is its teardown by iSuppli, the company that dissects gadgetry and figures out the price of each of its individual components. Releasing some pre-liminary numbers iSuppli says a 32GB 3G iPad 2 that retails for $729 has parts that are worth $326.60 in the AT&T version, and the Verizon version’s parts cost $323.35.

The examination of Apple’s iPad 2 continues, and now bench-marks of its graphics performance compare it favorably with both its predecessor and one of its most capable rivals, the Motorola Xoom.

Apple’s claim of the iPad 2′s nine-times-faster graphics perfor-mance over the iPad 1 might be exaggerated, according to Anan-dTech’s reviewer Daniel Dilger, who said he’s “not sure that you’ll ever see 9x running real game code.” In fact, AnandTech com-pared the iPad.s also showed.

Another part of the initiation of the iPad 2 is its teardown by iSuppli, the company that dissects gadgetry and figures out the price of each of its individual components. iSuppli, the company that dissects gadgetry and figures out the price of each of its indi-vidual components.

2) Apple recently released the iPad 2, retailing at $729.

It’s nine times faster than its

predecessor.

From smartphones to laptop computers, here’s how to keep up with the latest

and greatest

1) Many bookstores have invested in digital platform campaigns, making books more accesssible to the

avid reader.

writeous.com | 5

Top 10 Apps for Writers

Merriam WebsterAdditional features include the popular Word of the Day, example sentences, audio pronunciations, and recent look-up history. It is an essential app for any writer.

B-RhymesThe app is a dictionary for finding near rhymes — words that almost, but don’t quite rhyme — which are also known as ‘false rhymes’ or ‘off rhymes’ or ‘slant rhymes.’

Words with FriendsWords with Friends is a game for word lovers. It is essentially mobile scrabble and allows you to play with your friends, and play with people who aren’t your friends.

Dragon DictationThe app features voice to text transcrip-tions that can be sent as texts, e-mail or can be used to update your status on Twitter and Facebook.

Digital PlatformsBooks sold through the Kindle store par-ticipate in the 70% royalty program and are available for purchase on Kindle de-vices and Kindle apps.

OmmWriterWith pop-ups, multiple tabs and instant messages all vying for our attention, we’ve sadly served ourselves with attention defi-cit disorder. OmmWriter is a zen attempt to recapture our ability to concentrate.

FigmentFigment is a free online platform where anyone can share their writing, connect with readers and discover new stories by young authors.

WordPressA simple, easy to use web software that writ-ers can use to create a beautiful website (such as this one) or an informal blog. It is in fact, the Internet’s largest blogging platform with over 10 million blogs and 25 million users.

Google DocsForget your flash drive and don’t worry about toting your computer around every-where. You can work on your novel from any coffee shop in the world or make last minute updates right in your mobile web browser.

EvernoteIts Windows desktop app with a number of back-end improvements as well as one key new feature: taking notes with your laptop’s webcam.

Here are quick ways to keep the pace going full force


Tech Deck

logging

Dear Diary . . .One reader spends a year writing her first dystopian novel. Aspiring author HollySnyder corresponds with Writeous, keeping journal entries of her weekly progress.

For three years now, I’ve made a habit out of writing fiction. I mean fiction in every sense of the word. In essence, I’ve become quite good at essentially

making things up to create a story. That changed after certain events took place last year. I began exploring certain aspects of my own life, trans-lating them to fiction.

Using pieces of my own experiences has giv-en many of my recent stories a definite sense of authenticity. They’re more real. Literally and figuratively. Now that another semester of writ-ing classes is in full swing, I’m submitting stuff to be workshopped.

The funny thing? I’m nervous, post-submis-sion. The reason? My own dirty little secrets are spilled all over pages for people to critique. The stories may be more authentic, but hearing analysis on my own life is just plain personal. Classmates aren’t just criticizing my protagonists, they’re criti-cizing versions of me. And they don’t even know it.

It’s exhilarating, terrifying, stressful and opportunistic all at the same time. That being said, I find myself wondering about boundaries. How far is too far? Where is the line and when is it not appropriate to cross?

I suppose I’ll figure it out when my work gets discussed in class. Writers, discuss.

For three years now, I’ve made a habit out of writing fiction. I mean fiction in every sense of the word. In essence, I’ve become quite good at essentially making things up to create a story. That changed after certain events took place last year. I began explor-ing certain aspects of my own life, translating them to fiction.

Using pieces of my own experiences has given many of my recent stories a definite sense of authenticity. They’re more real. Literally and figuratively. Now that another semester of writing classes is in full swing, I’m submitting stuff to be workshopped.

The funny thing? I’m nervous, post-submission. The reason? My own dirty little secrets are spilled all over pages for people to critique. The stories may be more authentic, but hearing analysis on my own life is just plain personal. Classmates aren’t just criti-cizing my protagonists, they’re criticizing versions of me. And they don’t even know it.

It’s exhilarating, terrifying, stressful and opportunistic all at the same time. That being said, I find myself wondering about

writeous.com | 7

photo by Kate Hogan

logging

10 Things to Remember:It’s as hard as it looks.

Everyone gets rejected. Multiple times. In fact, if you haven’t gotten rejected, go ahead and forget about calling yourself a real writer.

Writing is half the battle. Motivation is the other half.

It’s OK to take a break - as long as you force yourself to go back to that stopping point.

Goals mean everything. Stick to them. They’re your friends.

Sometimes you’re better off away from a computer screen.

Proofread, but don’t let it distract you from the story.

When given the opportunity to network, take it.

Organizing the unused folders on your desktop can save so much time in the future.

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10

If at first you don’t succeed - WHO CARES. Do it again. And again. And again. Have I made my point? Take my advice and you’ll go far. Shoot for the moon and you’ll someday get it.

Anyway, here’s advice from one writer to another.

As usual, happy writing!

logging

James Dashneron the blog

I completed my final edit/proofread on Monday, Feb-ruary 22. Now the 116,500 word novel is in the capable

hands of my mother. While she isn’t a trained editor, she has an eye for mistakes and has been an invaluable helper over the course of my writing process. Not only did she help me hash out ideas for the novel, but this will be her third (or fourth…I may have lost count) read through. How she still enjoys it is beyond me.

I was feeling quite confident with the completeness of my book, and the fact that I was able

to cut out 22,000 words. That is, until I picked up a book called the 13th Reality by James Dashner. I had read his novel The Maze Runner which I really enjoyed. So I decided to try his earlier work. And after about a chapter I realized that his writing style sounds a lot like my own. A lot of his phrases, word choices and character voices were the same as mine. So I googled his literary agent, thinking that if they enjoyed his 13th Reality series, they’d enjoy novel too. But I came across an article that pretty much knocked the wind out of me.

It was written by James Dashner himself, entitled “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far.” And most of the things he mentions in this article are issues that I’ve already noticed about my own writing. The first point that struck home was his mention of characters. He says that in his early work, all his characters were the same person. All were him in disguise. And I’ve worried about that with my own writing. My secondary characters are all drastically dif-ferent one or two-dimensional characters. But my four protagonists are the problem. They all have different interests, fears and motivations, but I feel that they’re all a part of me. And I’m sure that would be just fine as long as readers don’t pick up on that.

The next point that stood out was when he said his previous works were written in the style of a quick bedtime story. “This happened, then this hap-pened” and so on. While I have tried to have more patience with my plots by adding more internal thoughts and emotions, I find that I often run out of words to describe what they’re feeling. If the my novel were written in first person, the internal dialogue would be much simpler for me. But I chose to

Contributed Photo

logging

It was written by James Dashner himself, entitled “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far.” And most of the things he mentions in this article are issues that I’ve already noticed about my own writing. The first point that struck home was his mention of characters. He says that in his early work, all his characters were the same person. All were him in disguise. And I’ve worried about that with my own writing. My secondary characters are all drastically different one or two-dimensional characters. But my four pro-tagonists are the problem. They all have different interests, fears and moti-vations, but I feel that they’re all a part of me. And I’m sure that would be just fine as long as readers don’t pick up on that.

The next point that stood out was when he said his previous works were written in the style of a quick bedtime story. “This happened, then this happened” and so on. While I have tried to have more patience with my plots by adding more internal thoughts and emotions, I find that I often run out of words to describe what they’re feeling. If the my novel were written in first person, the internal dialogue would be much simpler for me. But I chose to go third person. And because there are four main char-acters (meaning four different perspectives), it really needs to be from third person.

Last he talks about heros and villains being more than two-dimensional. This is a lot harder than I ever expected it to be. Probably harder than any-thing I’ve had to learn. I read so much, and experienced so many three-dimensional heros and villains, yet its hard to translate that inbe much simpler for me.

“It’s crucial to stay involved in the online community. After all, your fans surf the Web, too.” - James Dashner

A world of sound awaits you.

Contributed Photo

writer’s roost

“Everything important in sci-fi showed up in the magazines first. It’s the proving ground for new writers and new ideas.”

Orson Scott Card

AUTHOR OF THE SCI-FI ENDER’S BOOKS

Word is out that ENDER’S GAME is in the works as a movie. Are you at liberty to talk about that?Oh, I’m at complete liberty. I’ve written the screenplay in conjunction with a producer, Robert Chartoff, who was co-producer of the “Rocky” movies, “The Right Stuff,” and “Raging Bull.” But he was out of the business for awhile, semi-retired, and now he’s coming back.

How far along is the script?I’m happy with the script as it stands, though there are some things that will drive readers of ENDER’S GAME crazy because you have to adapt it. The book is written re-lentlessly from Ender’s point of view except for those brief passages that are quite ob-scure at the beginning of each chapter where you don’t know who’s talking to whom, and you get some of the adult point of view through dialogue only.

What are some of the other problems writing the script versus the novel?There’s no guarantee that I’ll do the movie well just because I’m the author of the book. I think I’ve done it right, and even if we have to find someone else to do it, the writer will still have to make some of those same decisions. Sometimes the worst job is when people try to be too faithful to the book.

Whom do you visualize in the lead roles?The problem right now is there’s no way to do ENDER’S GAME so that it needs a star. Even though we have taken most of what Graf does and given it to Mazer and turned the character of Graf into a woman.

Okay, time for a stock author-interview question. Where do you get your ideas?The good resource is to read history, and to read competing histories of the same event so that you get different viewpoints and you begin to find your own way. of under-

writeous.com | 11


Word is out that ENDER’S GAME is in the works as a movie. Are you at liberty to talk about that?Oh, I’m at complete liberty. I’ve written the screenplay in conjunction with a producer, Robert Chartoff, who was co-producer of the “Rocky” movies, “The Right Stuff,” and “Raging Bull.” But he was out of the business for awhile, semi-retired, and now he’s coming back.

How far along is the script?I’m happy with the script as it stands, though there are some things that will drive read-ers of ENDER’S GAME crazy because you have to adapt it. The book is written relent-lessly from Ender’s point of view.

What are some of the other problems writing the script ver-sus the novel?There’s no guarantee that I’ll do the movie well just because I’m the author of the book. I think I’ve done it right, and even if we have to find someone else to do it, the writer will still have to make some of those same decisions.

“I wonder sometimes if the motivation for writers ought to be contempt, not

admiration.”-orson scott card

Whom do you visualize in the lead roles?The problem right now is there’s no way to do ENDER’S GAME so that it needs a star. Even though we have taken most of what Graf does and given it to Mazer and turned the character of Graf into a woman, to give good adult contrast between the ones who are try-ing to win the war and the ones who are trying to preserve the humanity of the children. So the ethical dilemmas are pointed out very well and I think we have good characters.

Okay, time for a stock author-interview question. Where do you get your ideas?The good resource is to read history, and to read competing histories of the same event so that you get different viewpoints and you begin to find your own way of understanding human beings. You have to find your own philosophy, not consciously, but unconscious-ly, about how human beings work.

Did having success early in your writing career give you creative freedom, or did it become a burden to live up to high expectations?The funny thing is, I’ve always had complete freedom. I’ve been real lucky with the pub-lishers I’ve had. There are very few projects that I wanted to do that I didn’t get to do. I’ve never had publishers who ended up interfering with the stories that I wanted to tell.

How far along is the script?I’m happy with the script as it stands, though there are some things that will drive read-ers of ENDER’S GAME crazy because you have to adapt it. The book is written relent-lessly from Ender’s point of view except for those brief passages that are quite obscure at the beginning of each chapter where you don’t know who’s talking to whom, and you get some of the adult point of view through dialogue only.

writer’s roost

Write out loud.Sharpie

pointers

writeous.com | 13

One-LinersIt’s easier to start a story when someone else does it for you

“I’m an engine driver on a long run, but if you don’t love me let me go.”

“In the time it takes for you to make love, you can break love, waste love and throw it all away.”

“She’s always buzzing like neon, the trail of ruby red and dyna-mite.”

“Whether you’re ready or not, this is me standing before you.”

“Tonight she’s out to lose herself, flying high on peach tree street.”

“He’s got it right, he’s got a better life coming his way.”

“I’m really not complaining, I re-alize it’s just a job.”

Every writer has to start somewhere.

It all begins with one sentence.

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photo by Kate Hogan

one click. that’s all it takes.www.tigerdirect.com

setting

Mood Muse-icWhether you admit it or not, music imbeds our dai-

ly life, weaving its beauty and emotion through our thoughts, activities and memories. So if you’re interested in music theory, music appre-

ciation, Beethoven, Mozart, or other composers, artists and per-formers, we hope you’ll spend some time with here and learn from these music articles of note for all ages and tastes.

When I first started studying the history of music, I did not realize what I was getting into. I had thought that music history was somewhat of a trivial pursuit. You see, in our culture many of us do not really learn to understand music. For much of the world, music is a language, but for us it is something that we consumed passively. When I began to learn about the history of Western music, however, it changed all that for me. I have had some experience playing musical instruments, but I have never mastered one enough to really understand what music is all about. This class showed me.

When most of us think about the history of music, we think of the history of rock music. We assume that the history is simple because the music is simple. In fact, neither is the case. The his-tory of music, whether you’re talking about classical music, rock music, jazz music, or any other kind, is always complicated. New chord structures are introduced.

Even when the class was over, I could not stop learning about the history of music. It had whetted my appetite, and I wanted more. I got all the music history books that I could find. I even began to research forms of music that had not interested me be-fore in the hopes of enhancing my musical knowledge further.

When I first started studying the history of music, I did not realize what I was getting into. I had thought that music history was somewhat of a trivial pursuit. In fact, I only took my history of classical music class because I needed the credits. I did not realize how completely fascinating music history is. You see, in our culture many of us do not really learn to understand mu-sic. For much of the world, music is a language, but for us it is something that we consumed passively.

writeous.com | 15

“Origin of Symmetry” by MuseWhether you admit it or not, music imbeds our daily life, weaving its beauty and emotion through our thoughts, activities and memories.or much of the world, music is a language, but for us it is something that we con-sumed passively.

“Parachute” by Ingrid MichaelsonNew chord structures are introduced bringing with them new ways of under-standing the world. New rhythmic pat-terns are introduced, bringing with them new ways of understanding time.

“Adventures of Bobby Ray” by B.o.B.Although I was in school studying toward something very different – a degree in en-gineering – I had thought about giving it up and going back to get a degree in mu-sicology.

“Fleet Foxes” by Fleet FoxesWe assume that the history is simple be-cause the music is simple. In fact, neither is the case. The history of music, whether you’re talking about classical music, rock music, jazz music, or any other kind, is al-ways complicated.

“Give Up” by The Postal ServiceNew rhythmic patterns are introduced, bringing with them new ways of under-standing time. And music reflects all of it. I could not stop learning about the history of music. It had whetted my appetite, and I wanted more.

Strike a chord with these inspiring scene-setters

setting

Feng Shui in the Office

A simple refurnishing and switching up colors can make a dramatic difference in writing performance. Replace the office chairs. Bring in a plant or two. A little bit goes a long way. Photo by Kate Hogan

Easy ways to pick up the writing pace

Feng shui is all about alignment. Originally it was used by the Chinese to determine the correct alignment for such things as temples and tombs. Alignment though meant far more than just pointing things in the right di-

rection; it was the fundamental method of correlating the universe with the human beings that populate it.

The practice of feng shui goes back to at least 4000 BC when the Neolithic inhabitants of what is now Banpo in China aligned their dwellings to certain star constellations; markings similar to those used in feng shui today have been found in tombs dating back to 3000BC and all major Chinese cities have been planned using it.

Proponents of feng shui believe in qi, a life force which can be ei-ther positive or negative. Certain locations have good qi and others have bad. In order to divine these a Luopan is used.

Feng shui is all about alignment. Originally it was used by the Chinese to determine the correct alignment for such things as tem-ples and tombs. Alignment though meant far more than just point-ing things in the right direction.

The practice of feng shui goes back to at least 4000 BC when the Neolithic inhabitants of what is now Banpo in China aligned their dwellings to certain star constellations; markings similar to those used in feng shui today have been found in tombs dating back to 3000BC and all major Chinese cities have been planned using it.

Life’s waiting.Nikon

photo by Kate Hogan

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writeous.com | 17

The Saddest PorchContest Winner: Alex Folsom

Mona sits alone on a melancholy porch with the sidewalk just a few feet from

her folded legs and her hunched over shoulders. Slowly and si-lently a few stray tears leak from Mona’s eyes and grace the fringes of her faded jeans. The weight of the world is beginning to push down on Mona and her strength is steadily breaking. A young man passes Mona’s stoop of sadness and continues down the street without a backward glance. Suddenly Mona’s tears have increased. Though no one has told her anything, she is positive her dog has just run away to never return.

The tears begin to fall more heav-ily as a woman in her mid-forties glances at Mona, but decides it isn’t worth her time to help someone today and Mona’s grief only grows. This time she is positive that her boyfriend has left her for someone else. He’s left no note and no reason, but he is gone for good. Mona’s tears are suddenly a river. She can no longer keep them at the level of a stream. Her makeup colors her face with a black trail fading out just past her dimples, sliding into oblivion off her chin.

With the approaching of another stranger Mona dreads what could happen next. If only someone would stop to console her everything would instantly be better. She has no idea why, but knows that her salvation is in humanity. The new stranger is a young child. Children care more than anyone else in this world Mona thinks. She knows she is saved. The child approaches the porch, but realizes something is wrong and quickly continues on his way as Mona’s house burns somewhere across town. At this Mona is distraught. Her crying is no longer a faint makeup trail

on her face; it has blossomed into a full-fledged wail. She throws her head back and cries at the sky and begins to lose all hope in humanity.

As Mona’s jeans soak in the tears, Oliver makes a turn onto this street of sorrow. He spots Mona and wonders how someone could be so sad on such a beautiful day. Oliver steps onto the porch and sits next to Mona. to stop her sobbing.

“What seems to ail you miss?” said Oliver.Instantly Mona’s tears dry up and the world shifts its weight

from her. Suddenly Mona cannot be bothered with sorrow. Her life is starting new.

Without a word Mona descends from the porch and makes her way down the street as Oliver sits down unable to move. Sud-denly he has a horrible feeling that the world is ending. A single tear graces his cheek and he marvels at his sorrow. Oliver has never felt this way before.

photo by Kate Hogan

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People continue to make their way down the lane as Oliver sits alone and woeful. As each passes, Oliver cries harder and with each passing person he becomes more desperate. He is positive that the next person that passes without stopping to help will only ensure that his brother will be killed in a horrible accident. It is his own brother. Oliver is now afraid of what his brother will think. Oddly his brother seems to take no no-tice. How can his own brother not stop to help? Is his brother oblivious to his Oliver’s sorrow? Does he not know that Oliver knows he may be in real danger?

At this Oliver hears a horrible sound of screeching tires and breaking glass. A sadness like he has never felt smashes

through his body crushing to dust every ounce of hope that was still clinging to his bones. Oliver will never smile again. Unable to rush to his brother’s aide Oli-ver can only cry and wish his brother had not been so cold to the emotions of others. His brother was not alone in not caring. No one has even gone to accident scene to help.

Oliver can only cry and wish his broth-er had not been so cold to the emotions of others. No one has even gone to acci-dent scene to help. It’s as if everyone be-lieves that they are too busy to help and that someone else who is more caring so. They have too much faith in their fellow man.

Of End DaysRunner-up: Kollin Black

Twilight gripped the land as three men gathered around a crooked dinner table in a broken, boarded up cottage.

Gunshots, burning vehicles, and a loud-speaker blurting propaganda surround-ed them, taunting them, demoralizing them. A small meal was the only bit of peace that these men could look forward to day to day.

Three men bound by terrible circum-stance. So many lost, so many scenes of horror, so many injuries to the body and mind. Each looked sickly, distorted fin-gers and noses picked and sniffed the food, licking the air in between in an ef-fort to obtain more calories, to stay alive one day longer, to glimpse the end.

“What’d ya year about those fellas up north Shifty? They make it through Octo-ber ok?” The youngest of them spoke in a cracking voice.

“The funniest thing actually. I went to radio them this morning, and after trying

a few times I received the most peculiar noises…screaming and crying if I’m not mistaken…probably just picking up one of those tele signals I’m sure… damn kids and their violent programs.” Shifty was the oldest, craziest son of a bitch that they had met. “If I had it my way there would only one channel like the news or weath-er. Oh and Hambone you will most defi-nitely need to help me find my marbles later, I seem to have misplaced them…”

“There was screaming and crying on the radio?! Shit, Camp Abendale is kaput. That means we need to find another sup-ply line to tap into. Deaf boy how much food do we have?” Ordered Hambone

Deaf boy signed to Shifty, who would relay the message back to Hambone, whose lips were being read by deaf boy’s.

“He says maybe two cups of rice.”“What the fuck why didn’t you say

were so low on food?”“He said he tried but we didn’t listen.”“Well either way we need to decide

The Saddest Porch (continued)

What do you see?Business Inc, Co.

spotlight

He had drawn the short straw once before. Back then there were ten of them at the cottage, and he was accompanied by his wife on the supply run. The vi-cious enemy had gassed her, taken her, killed her. He will be successful in this venture, he will not fail again. Only his quick thinking and scars accompany him this time.

‘I can make it through this…I just have to be smart and quick with my deci-sions.’ Thinking was all that Hambone could do. His body stood frozen in the doorway brightened by moonlight. It ap-peared grey in the moonlight, prison-like against the overgrowth of grasses and trees. A part of him relished in the air, the sweet moist air that filled his lungs to capacity and revived him with every breath. The air in the cottage was that of rotting feces and sweaty feet.

He remembered what they looked liked, their scarred faces and evil eyes. Gun wielding radicals using carnage as holy sacrament. They appeared more like beasts than men, they showed no mercy in their persistent campaign against the free peoples of this world. It was many years ago that they first came, their numbers were too many to count,

and their tactics were precise and deadly. Mainland was powerless in less than two years. Now, there is just a small group of insurgents that plague the enemy now. Men, women, children…all are subject to death in times like these.

Hambone had made it three miles down the road when the first encounter took place. The ground trembled, a con-voy neared, and Hambone needed to act quickly. Simply hiding behind or climb-ing a tree would do no good. Whenever a convoy came there was always poison-ous gas close behind. To eliminate any chance or insurgent ambushes on sup-ply convoys the enemy deployed what is known as carpet gassing. It would blan-ket the area in and around the vehicles.

Hambone ripped off a piece of cloth from his shirt and covered his mouth and moved as rapidly as he could away from the trembling of machines. Before he knew it he was completely off trail, without compass or any defining land-mark. Hambone scratched and crawled through the thick brush to find him-self on the edge of a vast clearing pro-nounced by a huge mound of fresh soil. Fresh cemeteries are bountiful in this new land.

Write the opening sentence (25 words or fewer) to a story based on the photo prompt to the left. You can be funny, poignant, etc., it is, after all your story.

TO ENTER: Send your sentence via e-mail to [email protected]. Entires must be pasted directly into the body of the e-mail; attach-ments will not be opened.

The winners will be published in a future issue of Writeous.

DEADLINE: April 2011

Spotlight CONTEST

Of End Days (continued)

What do you see?Business Inc, Co.

friends with benefits

THREE WRITERS, THREE VISIONS. THEIR POWERS COMBINE TO CREATE THE IDEAL SOCIAL NETWORK AND STORIES TO SHARE WITH SUSPENSEFUL, WAITING FANS.

BY CONTRIBUTING WRITER CAITLIN BUSS


This week over at Merry Sisters Of Fate, Tessa Gratton, Maggie Stiefvater and Brenna Yovanoff invited readers to post their favorite Merry Fates short story. I don’t need much encouragement to rustle up a post like this since I

am in hard love with their writing. The only dilemma I’ll have is narrowing down a favorite.

First up is Tessa Gratton. I’ve always loved Tessa’s writing be-cause she has such awesome plots and writes the most lovely love scenes, though no one seems to end up happily ever after. Anyone who can turn Ichabod Crane into a warm and sensitive love inter-est is a genius in my book (See Horseman’s Love). Although I love the bulk of her work, I keep coming back to The Cold That Flays The Skin. It’s a haunting story about a boy who sheds his physical

appearance every winter to become someone else. There’s some-thing so melancholically heartbreaking and lonely about that piece that I must have read it a million times already.

My favorite Maggie Stiefvater short story hands down is The Haunts We Choose, though Sky Full of Stars is a very close second. Haunts is a story about waiting; a man waiting to reunite with his dead wife at their favorite café a year after her death. To me, the story embodies everything that Maggie is as writer and as a per-son. She pays homage to her favorite book of all times The Time Traveler’s Wife and her love for tea. I believe that this is the closest we’ll ever come to hearing Maggie’s real voice. At the core, Maggie writes love stories and this is one of her best works.

photo by Kate Hogan

This week over at Merry Sisters Of Fate, Tessa Gratton, Mag-gie Stiefvater and Brenna Yovanoff invited readers to post their favorite Merry Fates short story. I don’t need much encourage-ment to rustle up a post like this since I am in hard love with their writing. The only dilemma I’ll have is narrowing down a favorite.

First up is Tessa Gratton. I’ve always loved Tessa’s writing because she has such awesome plots and writes the most love-ly love scenes, though no one seems to end up happily ever after. Anyone who can turn Ichabod Crane into a warm and sensitive love interest is a genius in my book (See Horseman’s Love). Although I love the bulk of her work, I keep coming back to The Cold That Flays The Skin. It’s a haunting story about a boy who sheds his physical appearance every winter to become someone else. There’s something so melancholical-ly heartbreaking and lonely about that piece that I must have read it a million times already.

My favorite Maggie Stiefvater short story hands down is The Haunts We Choose, though Sky Full of Stars is a very close sec-ond. Haunts is a story about waiting; a man waiting to reunite with his dead wife at their favorite café a year after her death. To me, the story embodies everything that Maggie is as writer and as a person. At the core, Maggie writes love stories and this is one of her best works.

To me, Brenna Yovanoff’s strength lies in her characters and her honest and unorthodox word choices. I’ve always mar-veled at the way she pays such close attention to the character’s psychological workings and the dynamics of their relationship with other people. And she has such a large reserve of char-acters.

I’ve never been a short story kind of girl but reading Merry Fates has motivated me to write a few of my own and that in turn has led me to my current WIP. If I seem to be finding an excuse to break out with a Merry Fates post every few weeks, that’s because I owe them so much.

Thank you ladies, for an awesome two years.his week over at Merry Sisters Of Fate, Tessa Gratton, Mag-

gie Stiefvater and Brenna Yovanoff invited readers to post their favorite Merry Fates short story.

First up is Tessa Gratton. I’ve always loved Tessa’s writing because she has such awesome plots and writes the most love-ly love scenes, though no one seems to end up happily ever after. Anyone who can turn Ichabod Crane into a warm and sensitive love interest is a genius in my book (See Horseman’s Love). d lonely about that piece that I must have reMy favor-ite Maggie Stiefvater short story hands down is The Haunts We Choose, though Sky Full of Stars is a very close second. Haunts is a story about waiting; a man waiting to reunite with his dead wife at their favorite café a year after her death. To me, the story embodies everything that Maggie is as writer and as a person.

Maggie writes love stories and this is one of her best works.To me, Brenna Yovanoff’s strength lies in her characters and her

honest and unorthodox word choices. I’ve always marveled at the way she pays such close attention to the character’s psychological workings and the dynamics of their relationship.

Thank you ladies, for an awesome two years.his week over at Merry Sisters Of Fate, Tessa Gratton, Maggie

Stiefvater and Brenna Yovanoff invited readers to post their favor-ite Merry Fates short story. I don’t need much encouragement to rustle up a post like this since I am in hard love with their writing. The only dilemma I’ll have is narrowing down a favorite.

First up is Tessa Gratton. I’ve always loved Tessa’s writing be-cause she has such awesome plots and writes the most lovely love scenes, though no one seems to end up happily. Anyone who can turn Ichabod Crane into a warm and sensitive love interest.is a ge-

Stiefvater, Gratton and Yovanoff meet

bi-annually to critique each

others’ works - which can be found on their website for millions of

writeous.com | 21

photo by Kate Hogan


T he Washington Post published an editor’s note on its Web site Wednesday apologizing for two articles by a longtime Post reporter

who used material from The Arizona Re-public without crediting that newspaper or citing it as a source.

The note said the articles “contained sub-stantial material that was borrowed and duplicated, without attribution, from The Arizona Republic newspaper.”

The articles were written by Sari Horwitz, an investigative reporter who has been at The Post for almost 30 years and has won two Pulitzer Prizes.

The Post’s e-mail said the articles were reviewed immediately. “This is the most serious kind of matter for a news organiza-tion,” Mr. Brauchli said in the spokeswom-an’s e-mail. “Taking information without attribution is unethical and not in keeping with The Post’s standards of journalism. There are no mitigating circumstances for plagiarism.”

In an interview, Mr. Lovely said a report-er, Dennis Wagner, and an editor had told him about the similarities. While material for Ms. Horwitz’s articles came from vari-ous articles in The Republic, Mr. Lovely said an article by Mr. Wagner was the source of the “most egregious” borrowing. Ms. Hor-witz’s article showed similar structure and contained material from “10 of 12” para-

graphs from Mr. Wagner’s original article, Mr. Lovely said.

“I think it’s an unfortunate situation, and I have great respect for The Post,” he said. “Certainly it’s a very difficult situation when a reporter violates a basic tenet of our profession.”

In a statement, Ms. Horwitz apologized and cited deadline pressure. “It was wrong. It was inexcusable,” she said. “And it is one of the cardinal sins in journalism. I apolo-gize to The Arizona Republic and its report-ers and editors.”

The Post spokeswoman would not say what action was taken against Ms. Horwitz but said it was “immediate, severe and ap-propriate.”

The Washington Post published an edi-tor’s note on its Web site Wednesday apolo-gizing for two articles by a longtime Post reporter who used material from The Ari-zona Republic without crediting that news-paper or citing it as a source.



In an e-mail, a Post spokeswoman said it received word of the problem Monday, when Randy Lovely, the Arizona Republic editor, sent an e-mail to Marcus Brauchli, the Post’s executive editor, and to the pa-per’s ombudsman, noting “striking simi-larities” between Post and Republic articles about Jared Lee Loughner, the suspect in the shootings in Tucson in January. The Post’s e-mail said the articles were reviewed immediately. “This is the most serious kind of matter for a news organization,” Mr. Br-auchli said in the spokeswoman’s e-mail. While material for Ms. Horwitz’s articles came from various articles in The Republic, Mr. Lovely said an article by Mr. Wagner was the source of the “most egregious” bor-rowing. Ms. Horwitz’s article showed simi-lar structure and contained material from “10 of 12” paragraphs from Mr. Wagner’s original article, Mr. Lovely said.“I think it’s an unfortunate situation, and I have great respect for The Post,” he said.

One woman’s story of

disappointment and the

nightmare that haunts

writers everywhere

PLAGIARIZEDBY CONTRIBUTING WRITER KATHRYN HOGAN

writeous.com | 23




The Post’s e-mail said the articles were reviewed immediately. “This is the most serious kind of matter for a news organiza-tion,” Mr. Brauchli said in the spokeswom-an’s e-mail. “Taking information without attribution is unethical and not in keeping with The Post’s standards of journalism. There are no mitigating circumstanc-es for plagiarism.”

In an interview, Mr. Lovely said a reporter, Dennis Wagner, and an editor had told him about the simi-larities. While material for Ms. Hor-witz’s articles came from various articles in The Republic, Mr. Lovely said an article by Mr. Wagner was the source of the “most egregious” borrowing. Ms. Hor-witz’s article showed similar structure and contained material from “10 of 12” para-graphs from Mr. Wagner’s original article, Mr. Lovely said.




The Washington Post published an edi-tor’s note on its Web site Wednesday apolo-gizing for two articles by a longtime Post reporter who used material from The Ari-zona Republic without crediting that news-

paper or citing it as a source.The note said the articles “contained sub-

stantial material that was borrowed and duplicated, without attribution, from The Arizona Republic newspaper.”


In an e-mail, a Post spokeswoman said it received word of the problem Monday, when Randy Lovely, the Arizona Republic editor, sent an e-mail to Marcus Brauchli, the Post’s executive editor, and to the pa-per’s ombudsman, noting “striking simi-larities” between Post and Republic articles about Jared Lee Loughner, the suspect in the shootings in Tucson in January. The Post’s e-mail said the articles were reviewed immediately. “This is the most serious kind of matter for a news organization,” Mr. Br-

auchli said in the spokeswoman’s e-mail. “Taking information without attribution is unethical and not in keeping with The Post’s standards of journalism. There are no mitigating circumstances for plagiarism.”

In an interview, Mr. Lovely said a re-porter, Dennis Wagner, and an editor had told him about the similarities. While ma-terial for Ms. Horwitz’s articles came from various articles in The Republic, Mr. Love-ly said an article by Mr. Wagner was the source of the “most egregious” borrowing. Ms. Horwitz’s article showed similar struc-ture and contained material from “10 of 12” paragraphs from Mr. Wagner’s original ar-ticle, Mr. Lovely said.







In an e-mail, a Post spokeswoman said it received word of the problem Monday, when Randy Lovely, the Arizona Republic

editor, sent an e-mail to Mar-cus Brauchli, the Post’s ex-ecutive editor, and to the pa-per’s ombuds-

man, noting “striking similarities” between Post and Republic articles about Jared Lee Loughner, the suspect in the shootings in Tucson in January. The Post’s e-mail said the articles were reviewed immediately. “This is the most serious kind of matter for a news organization,” Mr. Brauchli said in the spokeswoman’s e-mail. In an interview, Mr. Lovely said a reporter, Dennis Wagner, and an editor had told him about the simi-larities.

In an interview, Mr. Lovely said a re-porter, Dennis Wagner, and an editor had told him about the similarities. While ma-terial for Ms. Horwitz’s articles came from various articles in The Republic, Mr. Love-ly said an article by Mr. Wagner was the source of the “most egregious” borrowing. Ms. Horwitz’s article showed similar struc-ture and contained material from “10 of 12” paragraphs from Mr. Wagner’s original ar-ticle, Mr. Lovely said.


“Taking information without attribution is unethical.”

Perhaps that’s why so many of them are reading “The Hun-ger Games,” a trilogy

of novels by Suzanne Collins, which take place at an unspeci-fied time in North America’s future. Her heroine, Katniss Everdeen, lives in one of twelve numbered districts dominated by a decadent, exploitative cen-tral city called the Capitol. Ev-ery year, two children from each district are drafted by lottery to compete in a televised gladiato-rial contest, the Hunger Games, which are held in a huge out-door arena. The winner is the last child left alive. The fervent-ly awaited third installment in the trilogy, “Mockingjay,” will be published by Scholastic in August, and there are current-ly in print more than 2.3 mil-lion copies of the previous two books, “The Hunger Games” and “Catching Fire.”

Collins’s trilogy is only the most visible example of a recent boom in dystopian fiction for young people. Many of these books come in series, spinning out extended narratives in intri-cately imagined worlds. In Scott Westerfeld’s popular “Uglies” series, for example, all sixteen-year-olds undergo surgery to

conform to a universal standard of prettiness determined by evolutionary biology; in James Dashner’s “The Maze Run-ner,” teen-age boys awaken, all memories of their previous lives wiped clean, in a walled com-pound surrounded by a mon-ster-filled labyrinth. The books tend to end in cliff-hangers that provoke their readers to post half-mocking protestations of agony on Internet discussion boards.

Publishers have signed up dozens of similar titles in the past year or two, and, as with any thriving genre, themes and motifs get swapped around from other genres and forms. There are, or will soon be, books about teen-agers slotted into governmentally arranged professions and marriages or harvested for spare parts or genetically engineered for par-ticular skills or brainwashed by subliminal messages embed-ded in music or outfitted with Internet connections in their brains. Then, there are the post-apocalyptic scenarios in which humanity is reduced to subsis-tence farming or neo-feudalism, stuck in villages ruled by reli-gious fanatics or surrounded by toxic wastelands, predatory

THE GAME CHANGER

Author Suzanne Collins changed the concept of young adult fiction by showing a different side of dystopia in the Hunger Games Trilogy. Collins’ protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, turned the fiction world upside down.

BY EMILY CARR

PHOTO BY MEGAN PASLEY



Collins’s trilogy is only the most visible example of a recent boom in dystopian fiction for young people. Many of these books come in series, spinning out extended narratives in intricately imagined worlds. In Scott Westerfeld’s popular “Uglies” series, for example, all sixteen-year-olds undergo surgery to conform to a universal standard of prettiness determined by evolutionary bi-ology; in James Dashner’s “The Maze Runner.”

Publishers have signed up dozens of similar titles in the past year or two, and, as with any thriving genre, themes and motifs get swapped around from other genres and forms. There are, or will soon be, books about teen-agers slotted into governmentally arranged professions and marriages or harvested for spare parts or genetically engineered for particular skills or brainwashed by subliminal messages embedded in music or outfitted with Inter-net connections in their brains.

Readers of a certain age may remember having their young minds blown by William Sleator’s “House of Stairs,” the story of five teen-agers imprisoned in a seemingly infinite M. C. Escher-style network of staircases that ultimately turns out to be a gigan-tic Skinner box designed to condition their behavior. John Christo-pher’s “The White Mountains,” or the drawbacks of engineering a too harmonious social order (Lois Lowry’s “The Giver”) or the consequences of resource exhaustion.

The youth-centered versions of dystopia part company with their adult predecessors in some important respects. For one thing, the grownup ones are grimmer. In an essay for the 2003 col-lection “Utopian and Dystopian Writing for Children and Young Adults,” the British academic Kay Sambell argues that “the nar-rative closure of the protagonist’s final defeat and failure is ab-solutely crucial to the admonitory impulse of the classic adult dystopia.” The adult dystopia extrapolates from aspects of the present to show readers how terrible things will become if our de-

plorable behavior continues unchecked. The more utterly the protagonist is crushed, the more urgent and forceful the message. Because authors of children’s fiction are “re-luctant to depict the extinction of hope within their stories,” Sam-bell writes, they equivocate when it comes to delivering a moral. Yes, our errors and delusions may lead to catastrophe, but if—as usually happens in dystopian novels for children—a new, better way of life can be assembled from the ruins would the apocalypse really be such a bad thing?

Sambell’s observation implies that dystopian stories for adults and children have essentially the same purpose—to warn us about the dangers of some current trend. That’s certainly true of books like “1984” and “Brave New World”; they detail the consequences of political authoritarianism and feckless hedonism. This is what will happen if we don’t turn back now, they scold, and scolding makes sense when your readers have a shot at getting their hands on the wheel.

Dystopian novels for middle-grade and young-adult readers (M.G. and Y.A., respectively, in publishing-industry lingo) have been around for decades. Readers of a certain age may remember having their young minds blown by William Sleator’s “House of Stairs,” the story of five teen-agers imprisoned in a seemingly infi-nite M. C. Escher-style network of staircases that ultimately turns out to be a gigantic Skinner box designed to condition their be-havior. John Christopher’s “The White Mountains,” in which alien overlords install mind-control caps on the heads of all those over the age of thirteen, tore through my own sixth-grade classroom like a wicked strain of the flu. Depending on the anxieties and preoccupations of its time, a dystopian Y.A. novel might speculate about the aftermath of nuclear war. And, of course, most Ameri-can schoolchildren are at some point also assigned to read one of the twentieth century’s dystopian classics for adults, such as “Brave New World” or “1984.”

“Prose is full of many challenges and unexplored territory for me because I came to it later in my life. Maybe it always feels that way for everybody, even if they started in prose in the beginning.”

writeous.com | 25

MYTHBUSTER:

I know, I know. This is a column about cutting-edge electron-ics. So, apologies to gadget-heads as I take a brief sojourn into the land of self-publishing, which has become a lot more high-tech than a lot of people realize.

The reason I’m here is that I have a book. A novel. Knife Music. Contrary to what you might think based on my day job, it’s not a cyber-thriller, though it is a mystery/thriller with a medical/legal slant.

Its short history is this: I worked on it for several years, ac-quired a high-powered agent, had some brushes with major pub-lishers, then, crickets. Way back when, say, a dozen years ago, a single editor could acquire a book, but today a whole board is usually required to sign off on a project, especially when a big advance is involved. Worse yet, the traditional book-publishing business has fallen on hard times. In short, it’s ugly out there, particularly for new fiction writers.

I could have tried to go for a small publisher, but I was told

mine was “a bigger book” with more commercial aspirations and prestigious small publishers were interested in more liter-ary tomes. I also learned that many small publishers were be-ing wiped out by the “self-publishing revolution,” a movement that’s not so unlike the “citizen journalism” or bloggers’ revolt of recent years that’s had a major impact on mainstream media, including this publication. The basic premise is anyone can be-come a small publisher. And you take home a bigger royalty than you’d normally get from a traditional publisher--if you sell any books.

Against the advice of my agent, I began perusing the big self-publishing companies’ Web sites and evaluating what they had to offer. What I found was a veritable minefield with roads that forked in every direction and very few clear answers.

Here is another sentence to put here because I need the space to put something here about this article on self-publishing be-cause I want it to look real. So self-publish, already. Not a big

BY COREY THIBODEAUX


Breaking Self-Publishing

Rumors

After much deliberation, I chose BookSurge, a print-on-demand (POD) outfit that Amazon owns along with the more no-frills POD operation CreateSpace. In 2009, after I published, Amazon merged BookSurge and CreateSpace under the Cre-ateSpace brand name, so when I say Booksurge going forward, you should think CreateSpace. For those new to self-publishing, it’s worth noting that CreateSpace is considered a subsidy press or author-services company. The key to these companies--and why POD is hot--is that books are printed only when someone orders a copy; neither author nor publisher is forced into buying a bunch of books and having to hawk them.

Royalties are better than what “real” publishers offer, but there are caveats, and true self-publishing pros prefer to cut out the subsidy press (which takes a cut) and go straight to a POD print-er like Lightning.

Well, thanks to a little publicity courtesy of Apple and a reject-ed--then accepted--free iPhone app, four and half months after I self-published Knife Music,” my agent sold it to The Overlook Press, an independent publisher that will put out the book in hardcover in July.

The reason I’m here is that I have a book. Contrary to what you might think based on my day job, it’s not a cyber-thriller, though it is a mystery/thriller with a medical/legal slant.

Its short history is this: I worked on it for several years, acquired a high-pow-ered agent, had some brushes with ma-jor publishers, then, crickets. Way back when, say, a dozen years ago, a single editor could acquire a book, but today a whole board is usually required to sign off on a project, especially when a big advance is involved. Worse yet, the traditional book-publishing business has fallen on hard times. In short, it’s ugly out there, particularly for new fic-tion writers.

I could have tried to go for a small publisher, but I was told mine was “a bigger book” with more commercial aspirations and prestigious small pub-lishers were interested in more literary tomes. I also learned that many small publishers were being wiped out by the “self-publishing revolu-tion,” a movement that’s not so unlike the “citizen journalism” or bloggers.’

Against the advice of my agent, I began perusing the big self-publishing companies’ Web sites and evaluating what they had to offer. What I found was a veritable minefield with roads that forked in every direction and very few clear answers.

Here is another sentence to put here because I need the space to put something here about this article on self-publishing be-cause I want it to look real. So self-publish, already. Not a big

deal.After much deliberation, I chose BookSurge, a print-on-

demand (POD) outfit that Amazon owns along with the more no-frills POD operation CreateSpace. In 2009, after I published, Amazon merged BookSurge and CreateSpace under the Cre-ateSpace brand name, so when I say Booksurge going forward, you should think CreateSpace. For those new to self-publishing, it’s worth noting that CreateSpace is considered a subsidy press or author-services company. The key to these companies--and why POD is hot--is that books are printed only when someone orders a copy; neither author nor publisher is forced into buying a bunch of books and having to hawk them.

Royalties are better than what “real” publishers offer, but there are caveats, and true self-publishing pros prefer to cut out the subsidy press (which takes a cut) and go straight to a POD printer like Lightning Source to maximize profits. But I was less concerned about making money from this venture and more interested in putting together a well-packaged product that I wouldn’t be embarrassed to sell and some strangers might be willing to buy. If I did it right, I thought, and managed to get it some attention, some “real” publisher might come along and discover what a gem those 20 some odd publishers had passed

on.Well, thanks to a little publicity courtesy of Apple and a reject-

ed--then accepted--free iPhone app, four and half months after I self-published Knife Music,” my agent sold it to The Overlook Press, an independent publisher that will put out the book in hardcover in July.

The reason I’m here is that I have a book. A novel. Knife Music. Contrary to what you might think based on my day job, it’s not a cyber-thriller, though it is a mystery/thriller with a medical/legal slant.

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Sometimes self-publishing can provide more benefits to writers than going the more traditional route. Photo by Kate Hogan

Jane of all Trades

A client typically establishes relationships with an agent through querying, although the two may meet at a writ-

er’s conference, through a contest, or in other ways. A query is an unsolic-ited proposal for representation, either for a finished work or unfinished work. Various agents request different elements in a query packet, and most agencies list their specific submissions requirement on their Website or in their listing in major di-rectories. It typically begins with a query letter (1-2 pages) explaining the purpose of the work and any writing qualifications of the author. Sometimes a synopsis or outline are requested as part of the query. Often, the author sends the first 3 chap-ters (equivilent to 50 pages)of their work. Lastly, for paper queries, a self-addressed stamped envelope must be included to receive a response. Though email submis-sions are becoming increasingly popular.

If a written query is rejected (which happens to the majority of queriers), the response is sent in the self-addressed stamped envelope. Typically the rejection is a form letter; getting a rejection which is not a form letter or has hand-written com-ments (especially a message to the effect of “query me for other projects”) is typically taken as a very good, even if disappoint-ing, sign.

Literary agencies can range in size from a single agent who represents perhaps a dozen authors, to a substantial firm with senior partners, sub-agents, specialists in areas like foreign rights or licensed mer-chandise tie-ins, and clients numbering in the hundreds. Most agencies, especially the smaller ones, will specialize to some degree, representing authors who (for example) write science fiction, or main-stream thrillers and mysteries.

Legitimate agents and agencies in the book world are not required to be mem-

bers of the Association of Authors’ Repre-sentatives (AAR), but according to Writer’s Market listings, many agents in the United States are. To qualify for AAR member-ship, agents must have sold a minimum number of books and pledge to abide by a Canon of Ethics. Effective professional agents often learn their trade while work-ing for another agent, though some cross over to agenting after working as editors.

If a written query is rejected (which happens to the majority of queriers), the response is sent in the self-addressed stamped envelope. Typically the rejection is a form letter; getting a rejection which is not a form letter or has hand-written com-ments (especially a message to the effect of “query me for other projects”) is typically taken as a very good, even if disappoint-ing, sign.

Literary agencies can range in size from a single agent who represents perhaps a dozen authors, to a substantial firm with

JUST ANOTHER DAY OF LIFE IN THE FAST LANE FOR AGENT, AUTHOR, WIFE AND MOTHER JANE MORRIS.LIVING ONE MOMENT AT A TIME IS STANDARD FOR THIS RISING TALENT IN THE WRITING INDUSTRY.

BY CONTRIBUTING WRITER ANDREA CRAMER


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If a written query is rejected (which happens to the majority of queriers), the response is sent in the self-addressed stamped envelope. Typi-cally the rejection is a form letter; getting a re-jection which is not a form letter or has hand-written comments (especially a message to the effect of “query me for other proj-ects”) is typically taken as a very good, even if dis-appointing, sign.

Literary agencies can range in size from a single agent who repre-sents perhaps a dozen authors, to a substantial firm with senior partners, sub-agents, specialists in areas like foreign rights or licensed merchandise tie-ins, and clients num-bering in the hundreds. Most agencies, especially the smaller ones, ly topi-cal nonfiction. Very few agents will represent short stories or poetry.

Legitimate agents and agencies in the book world are not required to be members of the Association of Authors’ Representatives (AAR), but according to Writer’s Market listings, many agents in the United States are. To qualify for AAR membership, agents must have sold a mini-mum number of books and pledge to abide by a Canon of Ethics. Effec-tive professional agents often learn their trade while working for another agent, though some cross over to agenting after working as editors.

If a written query is rejected (which happens to the majority of queriers), the response is sent in the self-addressed stamped envelope. Typically the rejection is a form letter; getting a rejection which is

not a form letter or has hand-written com-ments (especially a message to the effect of “query me for other projects”) is typi-

cally taken as a very good, even if disap-pointing, sign.

Literary agencies can range in size from a single agent who represents perhaps a dozen authors, to a substantial firm with senior partners, sub-agents, specialists in

areas like foreign rights or licensed mer-chandise tie-ins, and clients numbering in the hundreds. Most agencies, espe-

cially the smaller ones, will specialize to some degree, representing authors who (for ex-ample) write science fiction, or mainstream thrillers and mysteries, or children’s books, or highly topical nonfic-tion. Very few agents will represent short sto-ries or poetry.

Legitimate agents and agencies in the book world are not re-quired to be members of the Association of Authors’ Representa-tives (AAR), but ac-cording to Writer’s Market listings, many agents in the United States are.

If a written query is rejected (which hap-pens to the majority of queriers), the response is sent in the self-ad-dressed stamped enve-lope. Typically the re-jection is a form letter; getting a rejection as editors.

If a written query is rejected (which hap-pens to the majority of queriers), the response is sent in the self-ad-dressed stamped en-velope. Typically the rejection is a form let-ter; getting a rejection which is not a form let-ter or has hand-written comments.

Typically the rejec-tion is a form letter; getting a rejection which is not a form letter or has hand-written comments.

This is the last sentence of this story, so here we go so I can put an end mark in to fit on the page perfectly.

For Morris, the key is finding a balance. Work hard, play hard.

Photo by Kate Hogan

Have you had your f ix?

noteworthy

Q&ARachelle Gardner

To submit your latest short story, essay or poem, you need a query. get advice

from the pros.

We all know that platform is very important. But this isn’t easy for agents and editors. We love great ideas. We love fantastic writing. So when we receive a wonderful proposal from an author who doesn’t

have a platform, we struggle with it. Everything in us says, “This is a terrific book. I’ve got to have it!” But market realities tell us it could be a bad business decision.

I’ve got a proposal out to several houses right now. Every one of them has said they love the book and the author is a terrific writer. But they’re all struggling with his lack of platform. They’re debat-ing it in their pub board meetings. As of now, I still don’t know what’s going to happen.

Are there any advantages to living in the same state as one of your clients?My clients that live near me don’t have advantages over my other clients in a business sense, but I love being able to meet face-to-face and talk with them.

How often do you visit New York and how long do you usually stay?Since I’ve been focusing on the Christian market, New York hasn’t been all that important to my business. Christian publishers are primarily located in Colorado (where I live).

When writers first contact you, what do you want them to send and how?I ask for a query that includes a pitch for the book and any other

information that’s relevant. For fiction, the pitch is the most im-portant part. Nonfiction authors need to give me a brief (one para-graph) overview of their platform in the query.Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction,

How often do you visit New York and how long do you usually stay?Since I’ve been focusing on the Christian market, New York hasn’t been all that important to my business. Christian publishers are primarily located in Colorado (where I live), Nashville and the Chicago area.

Are there any advantages to living in the same state as one of your clients?My clients that live near me don’t have advantages over my other clients in a business sense, but I love being able to meet face-to-face and talk with them. It definitely helps us to have a stronger relationship. I get to meet many of my other clients at conferences.

When writers first contact you, what do you want them to send and how?Nonfiction authors need to give me a brief (one paragraph) over-view of their platform in the query. As of now, I still don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s an example of the primary importance of platform. It is just too hard to sell a book without one.

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End Scene

Stephenie Meyermaking the switch from fulltime homemaker to vampiric genius one rejection letter at a time . . .

Writeous: What kind of research on vampires, if any, did you do before writing Twilight?Stephenie Meyer: The only time I really did any research on vam-pires was when the character Bella did research on vampires. Be-cause I was creating my own world, I didn’t want to find out just how many rules I was breaking.

W: If you were a vampire, what would your special power be?SM: I have a hard time imagining that I would have one. I think I would just be happy with not having to sleep and not aging. That would be kind of cool.

W: How do you write in a way that attracts readers of all ages?SM: I didn’t write these books specifically for the young-adult au-dience. I wrote them for me. I don’t know why they span the ages so well, but I find it comforting that a lot of thirtysomethings with kids, like myself, respond to them as well.

W: Music is obviously a huge creative influ-ence on you. Has music always been a part of your life?SM: Actually, growing up, I didn’t listen to a ton. My parents were pretty strict. I only discovered music as an inspiration later in life.

W: Did you think that your books would have such a huge impact on readers? SM: Gosh no! And I keep getting surprised. When Twilight hit the New York Times bestseller list at number 5, for me that was the pinnacle, that was the moment. I never thought I would be there.

“I think you only get one dream like that in a lifetime, and it was all I needed. Once I unlocked the door, there were a lot of stories waiting to get out.”


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