See Lissa and Genn at Comic Con International 2013!

Hi Leaguers! Gennifer Albin and Lissa Price will soon be at the craziness that is Comic-Con to talk about YA novels. Signings will take place immediately after the talks, in the autograph area in the Sails Pavilion on this same upper level. Mysterious Galaxy will be handling book sales right there at the signing tables and they will have the new Starters paperback with the exclusive 25p short story, “Portrait of a Spore,” before it will be available for everyone else on July 23rd.

Lissa will also give out brand new postcards, sign with unique artwork and do a special giveaway for people in her signing line.

Gennifer will be signing at the Macmillan booth (1220) at 11 am on Sunday.  The first 20 people in line will receive ARCs of ALTERED.

Saturday, July 20 • 11:00am - 12:00pm

When Grrls Fall in Love

From The Hunger Games' Katniss to Divergent's Tris, no one knows how to give a solid ass-kicking like a YA novel heroine. But when these young ladies aren't saving the world, overthrowing powerful regimes, or slaying everything from zombies to dragons, they still find time for romance. Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments), Ally Condie (Matched), Veronica Roth (Divergent), Holly Black (The Coldest Girl in Coldtown), Marissa Meyer (Scarlet), Lissa Price (Starters), and Veronica Wolff (The Watchers) discuss the delicate balance between killing and kissing, and what it takes to properly woo a YA heroine. Moderated by Sherri Smith (Orleans).

Saturday July 20, 2013 11:00am - 12:00pm

Room 23ABC

  1: Programs, Horror and Suspense, Mysteries & Crime Dramas, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Writers & Writing

Sunday, July 21 • 2:30pm - 3:30pm

Safety Not Guaranteed

Dystopian societies, postapocalyptic scenarios, enhanced (and deadly) abilities, and mysterious government branches make the future a not-so-safe place to be. Moderator Anna Jarzab (Tandem) joins authors Marie Lu (the Legend series), Genn Albin (Crewel), Brandon Sanderson (Steelheart), Margaret Stohl (Icons), Amy Tintera (Reboot), and Michael Johnston (Frozen) as they discuss what it takes to survive in the future worlds they've created.

Sunday July 21, 2013 2:30pm - 3:30pm

Room 23ABC

  1: Programs, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Writers & Writing

How I Found My Agent

At the end of April 2011 WriteOnCon hosted a live query event.  I knew I wanted to participate, but I didn't have a good query yet. I sat down with my husband and read him all the queries I had written.  And he was...nonplussed.  So he took my computer and started fiddling around; an hour later he handed me back a very experimental query.  It wasn't quite there, but there was something about it that actually sounded like the voice of my novel.  I spent another couple hours with it and then posted it to the website, hoping it wasn't too different from traditional query form.

But it wouldn't let me add it to the thread.  I tried several times and I kept getting a message that it would have to be approved by a mod.  I texted my critique partner: Did you have to wait for your query to post?  She replied that she hadn't.  I waited a couple hours the next morning to see if it would show up, but it didn't and more and more queries were grabbing the last few spots.  I finally broke down and messaged a mod.  She found it in the spam filter and, lucky for me, posted it in the spot it would have if I hadn't waited for approval.

I spent the weekend nervous, but excited for feedback.  I was more scared she wouldn't get to my query than of hearing what she had to say.  The Monday night of the event, I wanted to puke.  I knew it was time to start querying, but I was dragging my feet.  

Long story short: she liked it.  She asked for more, and I gleefully sent it off.  The next morning there was a request for the full manuscript in my inbox.  I cried (I did that a lot back then.  Now I'm more emotionally numb), and feeling encouraged and because my critique partners strong-armed me, I sent off more queries.  The next two responses asked for fulls, too.  I was beginning to feel like I was dreaming.  Then a form rejection put me back in my place.

On Sunday of that week, I got my first email requesting a call.  I cried (yes again).  My husband said I was scary (note to significant others: not the thing to say).  The next morning I woke up excited, scared, asking if agents ever called to tell you that you suck.  Before the call, I got two more full manuscript requests.  I was beginning to feel overwhelmed in a wonderful way.

I spoke with the agent, and she loved the book.  She offered rep and I told her I had other fulls out, she advised me to send email nudges to everyone, including the ones I hadn't heard from, since it had been less than a week.  I did and by that night I was up to ten full requests.

Then I got another call from an agent who read the sample pages and wanted to chat to see how serious I was and ask me to send the full.  Three hours later, she asked for a phone call the next morning.  Then another agent asked for one in the afternoon.  I felt anxious and happy and overwhelmed and hopeful and uncertain all at the same time.  Both agents offered.  That night an agent called at 8:45 to talk and offer rep.  I was up to four offers!

The second agent, Mollie Glick, then asked to fly out to meet me.

At the time I was a stay-at-home mom in the midwest.  These things didn't happen to me, but the next day I went on my first business lunch with Mollie.  I got us lost like ten freaking times, because I rarely went into the city back then (Mollie was good under pressure).  And I'm sure she was super-jealous of my awesome gold mini-van, but it was very cool and showed me just how serious she was about the book.  Also I got to eat crab cakes.

By that evening, three more agents asked to speak on the phone.  That Thursday, I spent over five hours on the phone.  My poor husband dragged my kids all over town.

In the end I had seven offers of representation, and all because I attended a WriteOnCon query event.  That's how those fabulous authors from WOC changed my life in less than a week.  I can't stress enough to get out there and take chances!  Yes, it's scary and stomach-turning, but it could change your life!  Having an agent see my query there put me on their radar in a way the slush pile could not.  I will be eternally grateful to the WOC girls.

I struggled with my decision.  I really loved all the agents I spoke with, but I sensed Mollie provided a certain business acumen I lacked (I'd much rather be writing pretend conversations).  If you are ever in that situation, my best advice is to take the time you need to make the decision, ask to speak with some of the agent's clients, and try to listen to your gut.

Now people have told me this is a bit of a Cinderella story, and I certainly felt like I was living in a fairytale while it was happening.  But while that story is fun to share, because it could happen to you, it doesn't tell you about the months leading up to that magical week.  While my querying experience was short and sweet, there was lots of planning that went into it.  Here are some of the things I did to prepare myself for querying.  I hope they help.

1.  I joined Querytracker.net.  (If you can swing it, get the premium membership.  Worth it!) I spent about four months researching agents, building a tiered list of who to query, and making notes on the individual agents' pages.  

2.  I became an active member of the QT forums.  Reading and offering feedback on other queries made it much easier to start writing my own.  It also prepared me for what to expect and gave me a supportive community to lean on when I was struggling with writing.  They were the first people to give me a thumbs up on the query that snagged my agent.

3.  I participated in pitch contests.  I did every blog/twitter pitch contest I could find.  I never even made it to the final round of any of them, but it helped me perfect my blurb line.

4.  I researched agents during the day when I couldn't focus enough to work on the novel.  I had two very small kids at home (3 years-old and less than 1 year-old at the time), and my out of the house writing time had to be that: writing time.

5.  I read Queryshark religiously.  Actually it was my friend Josin McQuein's query for Premeditated on Queryshark that gave me the guts to use a more experimental query for Crewel.

6.  I treated it like my job.  I was organized and methodical about it (probably more organized than I've ever been.)

So if you're joining the trenches, I salute you and leave you with some of the best advice I ever got from pinterest:
from pinterest:

Source: fab.com viaGenn on Pinterest

Topic Week: Gennifer's Influences

I was probably eleven years old when my Aunt handed me a worn copy of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.  I took her book recommendations seriously.  She was the cool relation.  She cursed and watched movies late at night and put blonde streaks in my hair.  She also loved science fiction and fantasy.  She loved escaping to worlds and she was willing to go anywhere if there was a good story.  So when she gave me Ender's Game I opened the pages and found myself sucked into Ender Wiggin's world.

Today that book would be classified as a dystopian novel.  With a young protagonist it might have been cleaned up for the young adult market, which is why I'm so relieved it's not a contemporary novel.  Ender's world is one of control and violence where children are made into soldiers against the terrible Buggers ravaging the Earth.  In many ways it's a novel of action and war, but at its heart it's a coming of age story set in a strongly imagined future.

This is a novel about bullying, about the terrible ways political power can be used, about bigotry and paranoia.  I read it when I was eleven, and it changed my life.  I read it many more times over the years.

I tried unsuccessfully to read the rest of the series.  I'm sure they're well-written novels, but for me Ender's Game was complete in and of itself.  It resonated with me not because of the plot but because of its ideas.

I like ideas.  I like ideas that allow a reader to explore, that evolve with the reader's life experience.  Ideas are the essence of science fiction for me.  And at heart, all of the science fiction that's truly influenced and inspired me did so through sparks and innuendos.  I'm equally moved by ideas that hold humanity's flaws up for inspection and those that consider the immense possibility of our species.

As a reader, Ender's Game changed me.  As an adult, I learned things that made it difficult to champion the novelist and his work.  And still when I had the opportunity to tell Card in person how he influenced my career, I did so.  Because although I grew to understand not everyone we look up to deserves it, Ender's Game taught me the power of free thinking.  I shook Card's hand because ultimately he taught me idea trumps intention and the power of a story resides in the mind of the reader.

Crewel is Amazing

I absolutely loved Gennifer Albin's debut novel, Crewel. Let me try to explain why, but since I'm a writer, I'll make it hard on myself and use pictures. Here goes.

To get this:

You combine this:

With this (the three fates of Greek mythology):

But replace this guy:

With someone more like this:

Now do you want to read it? Buy a copy at Indiebound, B&N, Amazon or The Book Depository. Or, enter to win a copy below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

An Interview With Gennifer Albin

Hello, my name is Adelice Lewys and Gennifer asked if I could host an interview with her.  I considered saying no.  After all she left me plunging into icy, churning water to do this, but then she reminded me that I live entirely in her head and that I had to do it.  She's just that much of a tyrant.  Seriously, she could give some people here a run for their money.

Gennifer: Ad, I can leave you in the water.

Adelice:  See, this is what I'm talking about.  Positively tyrannical.

Gennifer: Maybe they want to hear about me.

Adelice (under her breath): Not likely.

Gennifer:  You're giving me a complex.

Adelice:  Then I guess we're even.  Ok, so give us the scoop. When will we see Crewel's cover?

Gennifer:  I wish I knew.  I'm under threat of pain not to share it.

Adelice:  I'd like to point out that I'm usually under threat of pain, but I still take action.  Fortune favors the bold.

Gennifer:  Yes, and see where's that gotten you.

Adelice: Bobbing in icy water.  Point taken.  What can you tell them about my world?

Gennifer:  Well, officially it's a world of secrets and lethal intrigue.

Adelice:  Can you be more vague?

Gennifer:  Ok, sassypants, it's a world of cigarette holders, cocktails, beautiful women who hide deadly secrets behind their made-up faces and silk stockings, and men who fear women so much they keep them bringing coffee.  No one is quite who they seem.  Even you.

Adelice:  That leads me to a very important question.  Do I have to wear all those stockings in book 2?

Gennifer:  I see you're going to ask all the hard-hitting questions.

Adelice:  And you are avoiding the question.  Ok, less about my world and more about yours.  What do you do when you aren't torturing me?

Gennifer: I'm usually chasing my toddler and preschooler, watching too much Fringe and Harry Potter, and eating all my husband's delicious baked goods.  Oh, and thinking about torturing you.

Adelice:  Gee, thanks.

Gennifer:  You're welcome.

Adelice:  Ok, can you please pull me out of the water now?  I'm getting pruney, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to freeze to death soon.

Gennifer:  I guess.  It would be pretty anti-climatic if you bit it like that.

Adelice:  Exactly what I was worried about.

Please feel free to let Genn know that stockings are completely unnecessary in book two.  I'm sure you all agree with me.

Villains: Cardboard Cut-outs Need Not Apply

Today we have another fabulous guest blogger, Gennifer Albin! She's got a great book, CREWEL, coming out next year, and she's here today to help you take your villains to the next level. Take it away!

---------

Ever watched a movie and found yourself secretly rooting for the villain? Sometimes those heroes can be so damn good, but a villain says the outrageous things or is brooding or has a pretty good argument. The thing is a good villain can steal the show right out of goody-two-shoe-hero-boy's hands. So while I don't advise making your main characters so Mary Sue that everyone loves the villain more, I do think your readers should feel torn.

Consider this:
Does your villain secretly make you feel a little naughty? Can you imagine someone delicious like Colin Firth or Robert Downey, Jr. or Angelina Jolie playing the part?

or

Does your villain make a good point? Is his/her argument not only persuasive but as well-reasoned as the protagonist's? Don't get me wrong the villain can still be wrong, but he should at least be somewhat right

or

Is your villain hilariously funny with a dry wit and the perfect comeback for every situation?

The sad truth is that we spend a lot of time as writers developing our protagonists. We give them backstories, emotional arcs, love interests, and our villains? They're only around to foil our lovely well-developed hero.

Recently, I enjoyed the kids films MegaMind and Despicable Me (don't judge, I have a 4 year-old!). Both movies are all about the villain and how flawed and funny and misunderstood they are. I'm not saying you have to rewrite your book from the villain's perspective or even spend so much time making them sympathetic, but could you do those things if you had to? Do you know your villain well enough to write the book through their voice?

Here's one of my favorite exercises for rounding out a villain:
Give them layers of logic. Ever villain has a reason for what they do. But how can you make the stakes of their actions even higher? Think of something and right it down. Got it? Good.

Make it even more important that their plans work. Fate of the world important. Think about it. Take your time and write it down. Got it? Good.

Take it up another notch.

Do this until your mind is bleeding with the amount of effort you have put into this.

Now figure out ways to organically include this in your text. Don't just write out a monologue and plop it in. Hint at it. Make your protagonist recognize the truth of the villains words. Get your villain to the point where even you believe him. Make your readers love him or love to hate him, but give him that third dimension. It makes all the difference.

Gennifer Albin has a penchant for villainy, but don't tell anyone. Her debut novel, CREWEL, the first in a trilogy set in a world where Spinsters weave the fabric of life, will be released in Fall 2012 by FSG/Macmillan. She blogs about the publishing and writing tips for moms at Authorize (http://blog.genniferalbin.com). You can also tweet with her at http://twitter.com/#!/GenniferAlbin.