Dear Author Dearest

Dear Author Dearest...

“I’m an aspiring author. I’ve finished my manuscript, but keep getting rejections. What do I do?

                 -Sincerely, Stuck in Query Land 

First of all, every author has received his or her share of rejections. Isn’t it nice to think even the greatest best-sellers were told… “Nope. Not good enough” at one point in their career? That always gave me hope. Just because Ms. Agent is being a picky-pants on the day she scanned your query doesn’t mean you should toss out your book baby.

 

Despite all the “stay positive” mumbo jumbo, it still stings when you get that form letter in the mail.

So…what do you do when you can’t hook the big fish agent?

In my experience it’s all about who you know. Now maybe that’s just me. Maybe there are a ton of authors who queried, agented, and sold, but that isn’t my story. 

I got picked up at a writer’s conference.

A writer’s conference can help in a ton of ways. First, it will put you face to face with agents/editors who can clue you in on why they think you're getting turned down. The other awesome thing about the conference is it will give you the opportunity to revisit and work on your query, synopsis, first ten pages, etc. It’s always nice to have fresh eyes review your work. Not to mention you might actually meet some pretty amazing people.

Hope my advice helps! Good luck, and keep writing.

Remember, this is actually the fun part. You have all the free time and creative license in the world right now. No deadlines, no redrafting the storyline. Enjoy the freedom of writing when you please. It’s never the same with the pressure of a deadline stressing you out… 

-- Jessica Therrien, author of Oppression (Children of the Gods #1) and Uprising (Children of the Gods #2)

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Conquering Writer's Block by Jessica Therrien

I honestly don’t know a single author who hasn’t had writer’s block at least once in their career. Most of the time it’s a regular occurrence. For me it happens every novel, generally around the same point each time. I wish I had the recipe for some magical writing potion you could brew….wait….coffee anyone? For each author, breaking the block is different. So even if I did tell you to spin around twice and chug a Pepsi while holding your breath, chances are you’d just end up really dizzy and bloated.

What works for me is simple. I sit my butt down in front of the computer and force my fingers to type regardless of whether or not I like what I’m writing. Getting the content out is the hardest part. Like Anne Lamott says:

 

The first draft is the child's draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later. You just let this childlike part of you channel whatever voices and visions come through and onto the page. If one of the characters wants to say, "Well, so what, Mr. Poopy Pants?," you let her. No one is going to see it. 

Now, practically even better news…All good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts.

If you haven’t read her novel, Bird by Bird, you’re in for a treat (especially if you’re a writer). It’s titled based on a memory she has of her brother who waited until the last second to write an essay about birds when he was a child. Her father, an author, told him to take it bird by bird. This philosophy has helped me in writing every single sentence in my books. Some days I take it sentence by sentence. Others, page by page. Writing 300 pages seems so daunting, but if you take it “bird by bird” ….well, you end up with a book.

What helps you get through the process of writing?

First Lines or Last Lines by Jessica Therrien

A lot of readers look for that first line. I’ve never been one of them. What I look for is the hook at the end of the chapter. So I guess you could say I’m kind of a sucker for last lines.

I think the TV addict in me has gotten sort of used to those cliffhanger endings. Remember LOST? After every episode my jaw would hang open for a solid minute. Are they really going to make me wait a week to find out what happens? Now shows like The Vampire Diaries do the same, which is something (in my opinion) that sets it apart from the book series it’s based on.

These days everyone wants everything to run at a faster pace…their phones, computers, and yes…their books. You have to admit, Wuthering Heights is a bit slow compared to The Hunger Games ;)

My point is (and again, in my opinion…) last lines are far more important than first lines. They make a book page-turning, and that’s what readers want.

Here are some last lines from my books and from two other popular YA books:

“'You’ve been hidden long enough,’ Dr. Nickel interrupted. ‘You have to face your future eventually, and it’s time to let the prophecy unfold. We need you.’”
 -Oppression, Jessica Therrien

“He looked at me, snapped his fingers, and flames shot up the trees. Everything was burning.
            I woke to the feeling of fire all around me.”
 -Uprising, Jessica Therrien

“At some point we folded into each other like flower petals pulling close together to endure a cold night.”
 -Uprising, Jessica Therrien

“Then, with a gasp I can’t contain, I shift my hand forward, and my blood sizzles on the coals.
            I am selfish. I am brave.”
 -Divergent, Veronica Roth

“About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him—and I didn’t know how potent that part might be—that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.”
 -Twilight, Stephenie Meyer

What do you prefer? Suck-you-in first lines or page-turning last lines? 

Tuesday Teaser of OPPRESSION by Jessica Therrien

Hello book junkies!! Thanks for stopping by. Here is a little teaser from the first book in my series. I hope you like it :)

Elyse knows what it means to keep a secret. She's been keeping secrets her whole life. Two, actually. First, that she ages five times slower than average people, so that while she looks eighteen years old, she's well over eighty. Second, that her blood has a mysterious power to heal. 

For Elyse, these things don't make her special. They make life dangerous. After the death of her parents, she's been careful to keep her secret as closely guarded as possible. Now, only one other person in the world knows about her age and ability. 

Or so she thinks. 

Elyse is not the only one keeping secrets. There are others like her all over the world, descendants of the very people the Greeks considered gods. She is one of them, and they have been waiting for her for a long time. 

Some are waiting for her to put an end to centuries of traditions that have oppressed their people under the guise of safeguarding them. Others are determined to keep her from doing just that. But for Elyse, the game is just beginning-and she's not entirely willing to play by their rules.

When I left Cearno’s in a state of half sleep, I found the door to my apartment ajar. I grabbed the knob and pushed it open with caution, assuming I had forgotten to close it all the way.

“Hello?” I asked, just in case.

No answer. I shut the door behind me.

It wasn’t until I reached the top of the stairs that I felt something wet on my palm and realized I had blood on my hand. I made my way to the sink, looking for where I’d cut myself when I heard her.

“It’s not your blood,” Kara said from behind me, making me jump a foot in the air.

“What are you doing here, Kara?” I asked, callous and guarded. The last time I’d seen her, she’d stabbed me in the leg.

She was slumped down in the corner, sitting on the floor of my kitchen, a bloody mess.

My face registered with shock. “What happened to you?” I waited for an answer, but she only glanced at me briefly, annoyed by the question, and continued staring off into the distance.

“Are you hurt?”

If she wasn’t going to talk to me I would find out for myself. I knelt down in front of her, looking over her blood stained hands, arms and face. She seemed fine.

“It’s not my blood either,” she said, her eyes finally meeting mine.



If you liked it, be sure to check out Uprising, the next book in my series!

Elyse has done everything she can to protect her friends from The Council's reach. As long as they believe she's dead, she has time to rest and train for war. And war is inevitable. 

When Kara arrives with the news that Anna and Chloe have been captured, Elyse is faced with the realization that no one is safe until The Council is stopped and Christoph is destroyed. She doesn't need a prophecy to tell her to lead an army. Christoph has done the one thing that ensures she'll fight to the death. He's threatened the people she loves. 

It will take more than the words of an oracle to help them fight against the most powerful Descendant alive. To break The Council's oppression and rise up against a plot so many years in the making, Elyse will need to get dangerously close to her enemy. So close, in fact, she may not survive.

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Characters Who Change By The End of the First Draft (or The Voices in Our Heads) by Jessica Therrien

Many writers will often speak of the voices in their heads. Writers, you know what I mean. Everyone else, go ahead and think I'm crazy, but I know I'm not the only one who has conversations with people who don't exist ;)

Sometimes characters become so real they take on lives of their own.

In my series, Children of the Gods, one of the characters who changed by the end of my first draft was Kara. She's a badass villain whose hard life has dictated the person she's become. She's done horrible things, but only because she's had to. In my head, she's Lyndsy Fonseca from Nikita.   

Kara was never intended to be anyone more than a roadblock in Elyse's way. If you've read my series, you know she's become much more than that.

When I was writing Oppression (Book 1) I would go to sleep at night running scenes in my head, and POP, there she was. I ended up writing her into scenes she was never supposed to be in. She was such a loud voice in my head, I couldn't ignore her. By the end, she had muscled her way up to main character status. I actually had to go back and do research to figure out which Greek god I could make her a descendant of. I hadn't planned that far ahead for her.

I’m not sure why certain characters take on lives of their own, but Kara certainly did. She took my book in a direction I never thought it would go, making her own decisions and invading scenes that weren't meant for her. In the end, I'm so grateful I have these crazy voices running through my head at night...without Kara, my book would be drastically different, and my readers wouldn't have one of their favorite characters. 

Turns out, a little crazy does a writer good :) 

Darkly Delicious Details about How I Sold My Book, by Jessica Therrien

When I started writing Oppression, the first book in my Children of the Gods series, I wrote for fun. I needed to satisfy my YA book addiction and nothing was sucking me in like I wanted. So, I wrote what I knew would suck me in. I never really intended it to be published (…maybe I fantasized about it a little, okay, but I never thought it REALLY would be published).

After I finished, I decided why not at least try, right? I researched the perfect query, wrote up a synopsis, and sent the first 5 pages off to 10 agents. Then my mind did awful things. It imagined great responses. Of course agents would want the full manuscript. I had perfected it. I had worked so so so hard. How could they not?

Each rejection was crushing. I cried. A lot.

Then I got some advice from a friend of a friend who used to be in the publishing industry. I’ll never forget it. It changed my life.

“Go to a writers conference.”

I wrinkled my brow. “Sure,” I said, but I didn’t believe her.

I really don’t know how I convinced myself to go. I was raised to be frugal. I don’t spend money on just anything, but somehow I paid $400 to attend the Southern California Writers Conference. After clicking “submit payment” I seized up…Jessica, what did you just do? $400?!!

So I went. I’m not good at being social, but as it turns out, writers connect with other writers, and I ended up meeting some great friends (despite my sweaty palms). 

At these conferences writers are allowed to send in advanced submissions to agents, authors, publishers, etc. They read what you send and sit down with you for a quick 15 minutes to review/give feedback on your work. I chose to submit to two agents and one author.

The first agent hated me. I got the vibe. The second agent wasn’t interested in YA. Sigh. The author, Michele Scott, was very sweet and supportive. When I asked her why she thought I’d gotten 10 rejections in a row, she said, “I don’t know. You have a real talent for storytelling.”

It was great to hear, but I wasn’t sure how an author could help me get published. I went off to attend a seminar with little faith that anything would come from the conference. At least I was having fun.

Halfway through the seminar, someone interrupted the lecture.

“We’re looking for Jessica Therrien. Is she here? Publishers from ZOVA Books would like to speak with her.”

My brain: WHAAAAT?!   My mouth: “I’m Jessica.” Eyes wide, I followed the man to meet the people would soon become my dream team.

Turns out author Michele Scott had passed the word onto her publisher about my submission. Crazy, right? I’ll be ever grateful to you, Michele!

ZOVA requested my full manuscript after meeting with me. A few looooong weeks of waiting passed, and ZOVA proposed a contract.

I toiled over the fact that I didn’t have an agent, but in the end I signed on my own, agentless. It was a risky call, but I’m glad it turned out the way it did. I’ve grown very close to the people at ZOVA and consider them good friends.