School Visits: Bouncing May Occur

Mention doing school visits and some authors cringe and try to collapse into themselves. Trust me, I get it. Facing a room (or worse, auditorium) of teenagers - some of whom are being forced to be there - is totally intimidating. You've got a mic in your face, a picture of yourself behind you, and are going to be talking about yourself or your book for at least half an hour... maybe more. If a bucket of pig's blood doesn't drop down on you, you'll call it a success.

But it can can also be totally awesome.

I spend 40 hours a week talking to teens who (trust me) could not be less impressed by my publishing credits. I'm just their librarian. I've even dropped so far as to pick up the nearest book and start reading aloud with a fake Irish or British accent just to gain their attention. (This totally works, by the way, and I highly recommend everyone use this trick).

That being said, I love doing school visits. Sure, there are kids that don't want to be there, but once I start talking about how extreme dehydration makes your eyelids stick inside your skull and your tongue swell so much you can't close your mouth I usually have their attention too. Even if they despise reading, they're interested in me talking about horrible ways to die. And I totally excel at that.

But you also get kids that are thrilled to meet you, kids who want to have pictures taken with you (sure!), ask for signed bookmarks (no problem!) and bounce up and down while you talk to them (sometimes I bounce too just for fun). You also get emails later, from the kids who weren't quite up to the picture taking and bouncing, lovely emails where they want to share what the book meant to them and how much they enjoyed meeting you.

And you get stuff like this... kids who wrote an original song inspired by your book. I'm floored. 

Successful Author Talk With Elissa Sussman

I'm lucky (or cunning) enough to have lured yet another successful writer over to my blog for an SAT- Successful Author Talk. SAT authors have conquered the query, slain the synopsis and attained the pinnacle of published. How'd they do it? Let's ask 'em!

Today's guest is Elissa Sussman. She's a writer, a reader and a pumpkin pie eater. Her debut novel, STRAY (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins), is a YA fantasy about fairy godmothers, magic and food. She received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and in a previous life managed animators and organized spreadsheets at some of the best animation studios in the world, including Nickelodeon,  Disney,  Dreamworks and Sony Imageworks. You can see her name in the credits of THE CROODS, HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA, THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG and TANGLED. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her boyfriend and their rescue mutt.

Are you a Planner or Pantster?

Definitely a planner, though all my outlines and chapter breakdowns usually go out the window once I start writing. Any planning I do is under the illusion that I know what I’m doing, which is never actually the case.

How long does it typically take you to write a novel, start to finish?

I’m hoping this won’t be typical, but STRAY took about four years from rough draft to final galleys. Nine years if you count the five years I took to “plan” it. Oy.

Do you work on one project at a time, or are you a multi tasker?

So far just one at a time, though I’m planning on exercising my multi tasking muscle in the near future.

Did you have to overcome any fears that first time you sat down to write?

I always have about four days where I feel like everything I write is just awful. Powering through that isn’t always easy – especially for a champion procrastinator like myself – but if I can, I usually get into a pretty satisfying groove that can carry me through a draft or batch of rewrites.

How many trunked books (if any) did you have before you were agented?

None really. There was an alternate version of STRAY (with dragons!) that I consider a very rough draft since there is a scene or two that still made it into the final manuscript.

Who is your agent and how did you get that "Yes!" out of them?  

My agent is the fabulous Samantha Shea of Georges Borchardt, Inc. and I grabbed her attention through a traditional query.

How many queries did you send? 

I sent about 60 queries over five months before getting my first offer.

Any advice to aspiring writers out there on conquering query hell?

It’s twofold: don’t give up, but be aware of the response you’re getting. If you’re not getting any bites – re-examine your query. If you’re not getting interest on requested pages – re-examine your pages. Polish your query, polish your pages and keep trying!

All The Fun Things That Happened When I Left My House

Seriously, what a week.

It's been amazing and awesome and other "a" words, and now I'm exhausted.

I was cold in the mountains, hot in the desert. I slept on floors, couches and airplanes. I got migraines, got rid of migraines, and then had a lingering suspicion that I was about to get a migraine. I flew over the Rockies and asked for silent forgiveness from Lynn & Lucy. I went to the Bellagio and asked for silent forgiveness from the people that run the greenhouse there.

I rode, flew, walked, ran, fell down (I stepped on one of those tubular pillows, long story), and had my first In-N-Out burger. I ate at the Claim Jumper because I thought it said Clam Jumper. I sold books, signed books, and bought books.

Vegas holds just about zero allure for me. It has nothing to do with sin and more about my need for simplicity. Also naked people is just not my venue. Slot machines make me think I'm about to have a seizure, so I held onto pretty much all my money until we went to the Vegas Valley Book Festival and  the organizers offered to ship authors' purchases home since we were traveling.

Now THIS is sin. THIS is temptation. THIS is how you part me from my money.

I flew back to lovely, cold, gray Ohio at midnight, got to bed at 3AM and was at work by 7.

Why? Because I'm a normal person with a normal job who does normal things most of the time.

Except, I was on NPR yesterday. You should listen.