Debut Author G.F. Miller On Pushing Through Rejection

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 for the SAT is G.F. Miller, author of Glimpsed. While the stories she has brewing in her soul vary wildly from one another, there are three things they will always have in common: love, snappy dialogue, and happy endings.

Are you a Planner or Pantster?

I’m a hybrid—a plantster. I start with a premise—basically the set up and the inciting incident—then, based on that, start writing chapters. Around the break into Act 2, I have to stop and plot things out before I go on. For me, this works really well because I want to organically get to know my characters, put them in a few situations and see how they respond, and even see who turns up that I wasn’t expecting. Sometimes characters just show up, and I’m like, “Hello, where’d you come from?” and they turn out to be some of my favorites. I usually realize what needs to happen in Acts 2 and 3 from there. So about a third of the way in, I switch over from pantsting to plotting.

Now that I’ve had a book published, I’ve been forced to write a couple of full synopses as I pitch books to/with my agent. Too bad for her, I haven’t changed my plantsting core. As I write the MS, I inevitably have to stop at the break into Act 2 and rewrite the bulk of the synopsis because I was just wrong about what the story was truly “about.” And then I’m like, “Should I tell her? Nah. It’s probably fine.”

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

My first three books each took me about 6 weeks to draft and then the better part of 10 months to revise. Once Glimpsed got picked up by Simon & Schuster, it got revised and polished 5-6 more times over the course of about a year. Now I’m scribbling away at a new manuscript, and it’s taking me forEVER. My attention is split between the new project and promoting Glimpsed, and I have zero groove at the moment.

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

Turns out I work best when I can focus on one thing at a time (see above). 

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

I think we have to overcome some fears every time we sit down to write. Creation is an act of courage. Whatever our particular fears are (I’m not good enough, this is trash, I don’t know what to write, no one will read this, this is too hard/too raw/too real, I’m wasting my time, I should be cleaning my house, I should have gone to dental school…), we put words on the page in defiance of them. For anyone still in the “aspiring” stage of writing, I’m here to tell you: the fears don’t go away when we get an agent or a book deal or a starred review. (Okay fine, I’ve never gotten a starred review. Maybe that really is the moment when all our fears vanish. Here’s hoping!)  

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

Glimpsed was my third completed novel-length manuscript. Every so often, I pull those first two out of the trunk and give them a cuddle. But I think if they are ever to be published, I’ll need a whole new pen name, because they aren’t “charming, sparkly rom-coms perfect for fans of Jenn Bennett.” So, my friends, be on the lookout for a searing interrogation of the American Dream by F. G. Mirell and a heart-pounding thriller by Georgina F. Moonmore.

Have you ever quit on an ms, and how did you know it was time?

While querying Glimpsed, I distracted myself by writing a second-world fantasy. But once I signed with my agent, I knew I had to put that partial draft away and focus on revising Glimpsed for publication and writing the book that would be the natural “next thing” (similar in genre and style). I’m not sure if I’ll ever go back to it. But it was fun to work on for a while. (If I ever do finish it, you’ll find it published under the pen name “Gwendleforth Mystorian”)

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

I’m represented by Kim Lionetti at BookEnds. While looking for an agent, I tried pitching at an SCBWI conference, having friends refer me to their agents, and submitting to PitchWars. Those turned out to be an exciting variety of ways for me to experience rejection. Ultimately, Kim plucked me out of the slush pile. (Fun fact: Kim rejected my first book. Remember to be kind and professional to everyone, because you never know who you’ll be working with in the future.) So, to sum up: yes, try everything! And, yes, the old-fashioned query really can get you an agent!

How many queries did you send? 

I racked up 123 rejections (but who’s counting, really?) over three years and two manuscripts. More than 100 of those were for the first book that I ended up shelving. So once I had Glimpsed, the query process was actually pretty short.

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

I could feed you some honey-coated crap about it making you stronger or that you’ll grow from it. But here’s the truth: querying is the actual worst. There isn’t one good thing about it. All you can do is maintain perspective (consider chanting, “I can’t actually die from this”) and keep the following things on hand at all times:

-       A shoulder to cry on that is connected to the body and head of someone who really loves you and also has the gift of encouragement.

-       Comfort foods, including but not limited to buckets of ice cream, dark chocolate, fresh muffins baked by sympathetic friends, and anything covered in cheese. (If you are lactose intolerant, I can’t even help you on this step. I’m so sorry.)

-       Booze of your choice. But not so much that you can’t properly access your creative genius, because you’re going to need to keep writing.

Seriously. Write the next thing. It distracts you from refreshing your email every twenty seconds and also gives you something else to query when/if all these jerkwads fail to see the brilliance of your current tome. (Also, do not refer to the collective of publishing gatekeepers as jerkwads. They are human beings with feelings and do not appreciate it. One of them may end up offering you representation someday if you don’t act like a jerkwad—see above.)

How did that feel, the first time you saw your book for sale?

It felt like: “Wow, my husband is crying in public at this Barnes & Noble. And my tween is so embarrassed that she is hiding behind the book stacks like a shoplifter. What must this poor salesperson be thinking? Gah! She wants to take my photo for their Instagram?! Oh, when will I be famous enough to travel with a hair and make-up team? Maybe I can sneak out through the lifestyle magazines and lay low at Claire’s for a while.”

How much input do you have on cover art?

Approaching zero percent. I pretty much saw the final cover and asked for three small changes, one of which they made. But hey, I specifically put myself through query hell in order to get traditionally published so that professionals would do things like put a cover on my book. So I can’t complain too much that the professionals did, in fact, agree that I should stay in my lane. My book has cover art, and that is rad!

What's something you learned from the process that surprised you?

How quickly things get dated! My book is contemporary YA, and in the time it took to go from draft to final pass pages, technology and vernacular were both in need of an update! For instance, in the original draft, Charity and her sister talk over Skype. In final revisions, I was like, “Who even uses Skype now?” Also, Star Trek fandom is a huge part of the book, but there is no mention of “Picard” because the show came out when we were in our final stages of revision, and I was just like, “Should I? No. We’re done here.”

How much of your own marketing do you do? 

I do almost all of my own marketing. This was another surprise to me. I kind of hoped I could be a diva author, and a team of publicists a la Mad Men would market the living daylights out of my book while I sipped sangria on the pool deck and wrote works of incredible significance. But, no, it turns out I’m the marketing department. The good news is, it’s actually fun to connect with readers and book bloggers and librarians—they’re totally my kind of people! So please come connect with me on Instagram @author.gfmiller, on my website gfmiller.com, on GoodReads, and on BookBub! Let’s be reading buddies! 

When do you build your platform? After an agent? Or should you be working before?

As a fiction author, neither my agent nor acquiring editor seemed to give a hoot about my platform (I mean the fact that there wasn’t one). And, honestly, I thought about making an author website, but couldn’t think of anything to put on it without a book pending. So I did all my platform-building (what there is of it) after my book deal. On the other hand, I know authors (cough: Mindy McGinnis) who are much more savvy and committed to the process, who’ve built terrific followings through blogs, vlogs, podcasts, and social media. If you’ve got an idea for high-value content and the time, go for it! It can’t hurt!

Do you think social media helps build your readership?

Hmmmm….too soon to tell, I guess. I haven’t really figured out where all the cool librarians are hanging out on social media. For YA discoverability, I think kids need to be able to find my book face out at the library and/or spotlighted on the scrolly banner on the library website. Between the ages of 12 to 18, I pretty much never had $20 on hand to drop on ONE book. I mean, that’s like five soft serve cones at the Twist & Shake on route 59. Who can afford that kind of opportunity cost? Therefore, I got almost all my reading material from endlessly browsing the shelves at libraries. The point is, if you are a librarian, you are a tenth-level wizard, and I would like to be “mutuals” on Instagram.

Greg Fields On The Impact of A Mentor

Haunted by lost loves and limping through a lifeless career, Conor Finnegan's discontent mirrors the restlessness of his grandfather Liam, caught as a young man in the crossfire of the Irish Civil War. Drawing from Liam's wisdom and courage, Conor seeks to reinvent his character and reclaim passions made numb by neglect and loss.

Congratulations on your new novel, Through the Waters and the Wild! Tell us what the book is about.

Coursing through several decades, Through the Waters and the Wild spans the farmlands of Ireland, the Irish Civil War, the corridors of power in Washington, DC, and the interior landscapes against which we all seek to craft identity and meaning. With well-drawn, complex characters, a strong narrative arc, and a poetic sense of place, Through the Waters and the Wild not only takes readers on an epic journey, but addresses the timeless questions, “Where shall I go now? What shall I do?”

Through the Waters and the Wild picks up where your last book, Arc of the Comet, left off but can also work as a stand-alone. Why did you decide to return to Conor’s story and what will fans of your first novel be most excited by?

Conor’s story was nowhere near closure at the end of Arc of the Comet.  That was, in fact, the point of it, that there are no final, neat, tidy resolutions and that we all need to continue defining who and what we are.  It made sense to carry Conor’s journey forward and to explore how he reacted to the losses he experienced.  He’s a different person now – bruised, more cautious, less given to the passions and spontaneity that marked his earlier years.  He’s become more like the rest of us.

 What made you decide to feature the Irish culture and Ireland prominently in your books?

I believe that there’s no such thing as complete fiction. Much of Conor Finnegan’s career as described in the book reflects my own experiences, especially his experiences overseas in international development. My grandfather emigrated from Ireland, as did Liam Finnegan, but Liam’s story is not my grandfather’s. Still, I was inspired by the courage of leaving everything behind, the conscious choice to abandon the only world one has ever known. 

Exile and redemption are some of the recurring themes in the novel. But what do you hope readers take away most from your writing?

Most of my writing revolves around the central questions that I believe each of us must constantly ask ourselves. I would hope readers would come away with at least a recognition of those questions in their own context. But what matters, and what’s subtly stressed throughout both novels, is that the answers to these questions are not nearly as important as the asking of them. When we fail to ask ourselves those questions, we cease to be truly alive. 

You once had a memorable and fateful encounter with a big literary inspiration of yours, Pat Conroy, who quickly became a fan of your words after you recited a few lines for him. What was it about the meeting that inspired you to become a writer yourself? 

I had written fiction for years, but the demands of a career always pushed that pursuit to the corner. A chance meeting with Pat Conroy as I was developing Arc of the Comet changed all that. Pat saw something in my writing that I did not know was there, and from that point I committed myself to giving every chance to prove the possibility that I might actually be a writer.  

My wife, knowing how I loved Conroy’s work, surprised me with tickets to one of his talks and the VIP reception afterward. Knowing absolutely no one at the reception, I headed to the hors d’oeuvres table. Pat approached me from behind, put his hand on my shoulder and said, “We’ve not met.  I’m Pat Conroy.” Something intuitive there, and we ended up talking one-on-one for nearly 20 minutes while the other guests circled around and glared at me. Pat was gracious, and we learned that we shared the same birthday, the same literary influences, and the same jump shot on the basketball court. He asked me to recite some of my work, and I was able to do so, after which he got quite serious and said that he wanted to read what I had. We corresponded, and Pat Conroy made me a writer. I’ve told this story many times, in greater detail, as an homage to my generation’s brightest literary life, and a man I came to love.

What’s next for you? Will you be writing another book around Conor’s story?

I’m working on the next novel.  I can’t completely abandon Finnegan, but I think his story has run his course.  He’ll make a few cameo appearances in a narrative centering on fresh characters.  But the questions, the themes, will be similar to what’s come before, even though they’ll be pursued through different eyes.

Greg Fields is the author of Arc of the Comet, a lyrical, evocative examination of promise, potential and loss, published by Koehler Books in October 2017. Arc of the Comet explores universal themes in a precise, lyrical style inspired by the work of Niall Williams, Colm Toibin and the best of Pat Conroy, who had offered a jacket quote for the book shortly before his death. The book has been nominated for the Cabell First Novelist Award, the Sue Kaufman First Fiction Prize and the Kindle Book of the Year in Literary Fiction.He is also the co-author with Maya Ajmera of Invisible Children: Reimagining International Development from the Grassroots.

He has won recognition for his written work in presenting the plight of marginalized young people through his tenure at the Global Fund for Children, and has had articles published in the Harvard International Review, as well as numerous periodicals, including The Washington Post and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. His short nonfiction has appeared in The Door Is A Jar and Gettysburg Review literary reviews.Greg holds degrees from Rutgers College and the University of Notre Dame. He lives with his wife Lynn and their son Michael in Manassas, Virginia.For more information, please visit www.gregfields.net or connect with him on Instagram and Facebook

Memoirist Margaret Dulaney On Writing About the Struggle Between Hope & Despair

Parables of Sunlight is a gorgeous memoir about leaving Manhattan after 18 years and buying an abandoned farm in Pennsylvania. Taking on one hundred acres of neglected farmland, she and her husband discovered a rich community of both animals, and people. Especially now, after months of difficult times for us all, it is hard to have hope. But Margaret is the perfect voice to encourage us all to keep fighting for it.

Your book, The Parables of Sunlight, is a memoir that revolves around a farm, and an injured horse. Why did you choose to write about this?

I chose this story because I wanted to explore the theme of the battle between hope and despair. The story is from a period in my middle years when my husband and I took ownership of a neglected farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The central figure in the book is an abandoned and injured horse whose life hangs in the balance for many months. At the time this mirrored other battles of a similar intensity in other facets of my life, my mother for instance, who was in a battle with late stage Alzheimer’s disease. I hope the book touches on a universal theme, one to which many can relate.

 Have you drawn any conclusions from your exploration of this subject?

I think we go wrong when we say of any situation, “This shouldn’t be happening.” It is happening, and we must find our way through. I suspect that our greatest work is in our willingness to walk alongside one another through difficult passages. The metaphor of my walking alongside my horse through months and months of rehabilitation had a formative and lasting effect on me.

What would you say it was that you learned?

I think it was a lesson in the great arts of hope and perseverance. I am in the business of hope. This is what I try and offer my listeners who visit Listen Well every month. Hope isn’t a luxury; it is a necessity. Like water, we cannot live without hope. Perseverance, however, is something that we can take up or toss away at any time. The choice is ours. The issue is, so little is accomplished without some sort of stick-to-it-ness. Most good things, most goals, most efforts to change require a measure of perseverance. Before this period in my life I didn’t see the true value of this quality, I was too willing to give up.

But how can you tell if you are persevering in the right direction? Might you be fighting for something that is not worth your fighting for?

I understand this dilemma. Maybe the best way to distinguish whether a choice is right for you or not is if it brings you life. We’re given choices every day to either embrace life or turn from life. Some choices bring us more passion for our lives and others block our life force. Do not confuse this with right and wrong, yes or no. Sometimes a “no” can be life-affirming, a “yes” can be life-denying. No, I don’t want that third Scotch, yes, I do need to leave this corrosive relationship. Sometimes the choices take a good deal of study before they can be decided upon, but most of us have an intuitive understanding of what will bring us life and what will not.

 You use the metaphor of a good teacher to illustrate this guidance. Why did you choose this?

I hoped to focus and solidify the idea of divine aid. Everyone will experience this a little differently. The ways in which others experience the divine are intriguing to me. I love people’s stories of transcendence and guidance.

 Your book is filled with stories involving animals. What is your connection to animals?

I have always felt that the animal kingdom has much to teach us. A flock of birds for instance, with its ability to fly in unison, as if they shared one mind, is a beautiful metaphor, never satisfactorily explained by science. If we have guidance from above, which I heartily believe we do, then an animal is a perfect tool of manipulation. My dogs have introduced me to some of my closest friends. My horse has the ability to deliver a sense of peace to me unlike any other. There is much that is mystical about our connection to the animals.

Is there anything that you learned by your exploration of the battle between hope and despair that surprised you.

I suspect that most of us, if we could see our past as the heavenly beings do, would be astonished at the measure of hope we carry through life. We would be amazed at our courage, the perseverance we have shown. I know that before I wrote this book, I believed that I was far too ready to throw in the towel and give up, but looking at my history I can see the thread of hope woven through my story. I encourage everyone to try and look for this thread. It is always there.

MARGARET DULANEY a playwright and essayist, and founder of the spoken word website Listenwell.org. Culled from a lifetime’s study of the ancients and mystics of all traditions, Margaret’s writings employ the ideas of Emerson, Lao Tzu, Hafiz, George MacDonald, Richard Rohr, Emanuel Swedenborg, Lorna Byrne, Marcus Aurelius, Shakespeare, Rudolph Steiner and many others.  

In 2010 Margaret founded the open faith, spoken word website ListenWell.Org. Each month Listen Well posts one ten-minute, professionally recorded essay designed to puzzle out a spiritual theme through story and metaphor. Listeners vary from practicing Buddhists to open-minded Christians, from those struggling to find a working tradition to those who are happy with their practice. Margaret records her writings at Maggie’s Farm recording studios in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. 

Learn more about Margaret Dulaney at  www.listenwell.org and connect with her on Facebook.