Thankful For Many Splendid Things - New Client, Cynsations Post and More!

To me October is all about celebrating the many blessings we encounter partly because growing up in Canada, the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday always fell on the second Monday in October. So once October arrives, I naturally begin recounting the many splendid things I'm grateful for and this month I've much to be thankful for.

Lindsey Lane

I'm happy to announce that the incredibly compassionate, kind, and talented children's and young adult author Lindsey Lane has joined the Booking Biz family. Lindsey and I have been secretly working together since June 2014, and I'm thrilled to welcome her into the fold. There are many things I admire about Lindsey; I could go on and on about her evocative writing that emotes emotion after emotion on the page. I could go on and on about her spirit and how being in her presence makes you a better person. And I could go on and on about her work ethic and passion for the craft of writing. She gives herself completely to her book projects and it shows.

Lindsey is the author of the award-winning picture book (Clarion) and iTunes app (PicPocket) Snuggle Mountain, which was named Best Children’s Book of 2004 by Bank Street College of Education. According to Publisher's Weekly her debut young adult novel Evidence of Things Not Seen (Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers, 2014) is "a gripping and genre-bending mosaic centered around the sudden disappearance of physics-obsessed high school junior Tommy Smythe.”


Speaking about incredibly passionate, kind, and talented children's and young adult authors, Cynthia Leitich Smith is hosting me on her well-read and informational kid-lit writing blog Cynsations today with my guest post on "Founding a Children's-YA Author & Illustrator Booking Agency," and I'm honored to be a contributor. Thank you, Cynthia.

Cynthia Leitich Smith and I at the Texas Book Festival (2013)

This coming Saturday, Oct 25th at 10am in the Family Life Center, I'll be moderating the Grandfather Gandhi panel with peacemaker Arun Gandhi and children's and young adult author Bethany Hegedus at the Texas Book Festival 2014. This year's line-up boasts 280+ authors, the largest in the festival's history. Author friend Greg Leitich Smith has put together a list of scheduled children's and young adult author panels on his blog. Click HERE to view. Thanks, Greg!

And I'd be remiss to say that I'm not in a state of bliss about the fact that my agent Erzsi Deak will be in town to read her book Pumpkin Time! illustrated by Doug Cushman at the Texas Book Festival and to reconnect with some of her Texas chicks from Hen & Ink Literary.

If you live locally, please come out and celebrate Texas Book Festival 2014 and be a part of this magnificent literature event that brings authors and families together at the Austin Capital and adjacent grounds. It's two days (Oct. 25-26, 2014) of readings, panels, children's activities, food, live music, and hundreds of exhibitors. The Texas Book Festival supports Texas libraries and literacy!

On Top of the Hen House -- Meet My Literary Agent!

Hen in bucket at Barrington Living History Farm

Life can turn on a dime. Or if you're a hen living in a coop, life can turn when your egg hatches. And this week my egg that I'd been sitting on for so long, finally hatched! I'm happy to announce that the enormously talented  Erzsi Deàk, founder of Hen & ink, A Literary Studio is my agent!!! To learn more about her, click HERE. And the other chicks represented by Hen & Ink!

Okay, here's the coop. I mean scoop. The thing I'm going to stress here is never. Ever. Give up. Erzsi and I had been corresponding since early fall of 2011. Yes, for over six months. Her original response was very positive but left me knowing I still had work to do. She didn't say no, but she didn't say yes. So it was time for me to push back my feathers and get back to work.

Over the next six months, I worked on one of the manuscripts over and over and over again. I felt it was the one holding me back. And I was right. Something kept needling me. Or rather several things. After I sat down and had a one-on-one critique with editor Diane Muldrow at Random House/Golden Books at our Austin SCBWI Conference, I knew what the problem was. She said there wasn't a lot to critique. She liked how I didn't overwrite. She liked my style and language. The 3 act structure was in place. The character arc in the story worked nicely. But she wasn't exactly connecting with the main character.

Hold everything. That's HUGE!

In a character-driven picture book if you can't get your audience to connect with your character than you might as well close up shop and head back to the farm.

So I began to listen even more intently. She told me that the MC's voice was a bit too close to the narrator's. A little too much telling was occurring. There were a few spots where the MC didn't sound like a child. Was I ending the story in the right place? And did the secondary character need more space in the story?

There was plenty to critique wasn't there. Now, here's the thing. You have to sort through all of that good information and decide what resonates with you, the writer. I knew the character I wanted wasn't emerging the way I wanted her to. She needed more distinct dialog. Her personality needed to shine through. More showing had to occur. But I also knew that the secondary character didn't need any more space. IF -- a big IF -- I could fix the other things.

So I revised. Then I sent it back to Erzsi. Months went by. And I was working on it again. Because it still wasn't quite right. So I revised again. And this time, it worked! She LOVED the changes I'd made and offered me representation. Which I was honored to accept.

And I want to let everyone know that during this time, I was beginning to doubt myself and my ability to write for children. I thought what if I'm just not good enough to get there. What if I'll always be at the mediocre level? Not bad writing. But not what children deserve. Well I banished the grumblings to the outer areas of my mind because I wasn't ready to throw in the towel. I knew I could do this. God hadn't brought me this far and given me skills as a writer to fail. So I picked up my pencil and made the chicken scratching on my manuscript  that opened the door to Hen & ink.

I remember reading a similar experience by Tamika Fryer Brown on Cynthia Leitich Smith's blog Cynsations when she interviewed her about her first picture book Around Our Way on Neighbors' Day illustrated by Charlotte Riley-Webb (Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2010). She'd almost thrown in the towel and walked away from writing. But she didn't. She pushed through. And aren't we all glad she did! If you want to read the interview between Cynthia and Tameka, click HERE. It's fabulous!

So I guess what I'm saying is that you can't give up. No matter how tough it gets. No matter how many times you have to revise. The revising is what helps you to get to know your character. Revision for me is chatting with my character. And I also want to say that you can't do it alone. You need people that support you. Who believe in you. Especially when the days come that you don't believe in yourself. They're fleeting. But they still come. So lean on your critique partners. And ask your writing community for advice. And learn to trust yourself and your character. And then celebrate when that agent comes knocking. Or in my case crowing.