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Gee, where do I start?
On the first day of this year, I posted a few goals and plans. But this year did not at all turn out how I expected it would.
For instance, six days after that blog post, I sold another two book contract to Harper — but it wasn’t the two books i”d been hoping to sell. All of a sudden, I had a very different project to write. But that was nothing compared to the biggest project of all — the one I was about to find out that I was already working on.
So here, in retrospect, my 2010 goals, and how I did:
- Paint rooms in house I want painted. Not all of them, but we did the nursery and the bathroom, which is a big start.
- Write at least two novels. I wrote one, and another one twice (and it’s still not done).
- Finish Secret Project #2. (Please note: this might be one of the 2 novels, but I’m listing it separately, since I really want to write THIS ONE especially.) I didn’t touch it. Maybe this year.
- Take Rio to agility classes. Poor Rio. There was no way THAT was going to happen. And 2011 won’t be the year, either.
- Install bookshelves in rec room. We did have a carpenter come look at it during maternity leave, but it was prohibitively expensive.
- Go on a real vacation with Sailor Boy. We went to St. Lucia this spring, on a last hurrah before becoming parents.
- Redecorate master bedroom. Does taking all our stuff out of the heretofore-used-as-a-closet spare room in order to make it into a nursery and stuffing it in the bedroom wardrobes count? On the flip side, I did decorate the nursery from top to toe, and it looks fabulous!
- Make a podcast. Negatory, even though Harper wanted me too. I got too caught up in baby stuff.
- Sign a new contract. Yes! Several, even!
- Plant a garden again. My garden this year was awesome. I drowned in basil, tomatoes, and zucchini. I had some luck with peppers, oregano, and squash. My cucumbers were not good, and once again, I’m the only person on the planet who can fail at mint.
- Read at least 50 books. Do pregnancy and baby books count?
- Write a totally unexpected project of some sort. (I did this in 2009 and it was inspiring.) Nope. But, you know, things came up.
The beginning of 2010 was kind of a blur. I finished the revisions and the production work for Ascendant and Morning Glory. I wrote “Errant.” I was very, very, very sick. I was pretty vague about it on the blog, but my mother in law still got suspicious. I started being very careful what I wrote on here.
By late spring, I was starting to feel better, and get back to writing. I wrote the bulk of my newest manuscript. I went on the aforementioned vacation. As summer began, I went on the conference circuit in anticipation of the release of Ascendant — BEA, ALA, etc.
As summer stretched on, I lost the plot — literally. I tore apart my almost-finished manuscript, certain I could do it up better. I got way exhausted. On the plus side, my first short story was published. The blistering heat of a DC summer did a number on me — I barely walked Rio and I let my garden run wild. I also lived on salads and ice cream. Oh, and I redecorated the aforementioned nursery.
In the fall, I had four books out. And a baby. Fun times.
And now it’s winter again, and I’m back to work. My maternity leave didn’t net me many pages, but I did get contracts — more anthology invites (including The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year) as well as my first foreign sale of RAMPANT.
And now, here I am, staring 2011 in the face. I’m nervous for this year. As much as 2010 was a year of massive changes, I’m sure 2011 will easily blow it out of the water. I’ve been able to spend 2010 as either a writer OR a mom. In 2011, I have to do both at once, and for the first time. And so, I’m keeping my goals simple for this year. Keep my job. Keep my baby healthy and happy. Make sure Rio gets walked (please don’t let my poor puppy know there was ever anything called an agility class I failed to take her to!).
Goals for 2011:
- Revise/finish my contracted novel.
- Write short story #1
- Write short story #2
- Write short story #3
- Write new proposal #1
- Write new proposal/book #2
- Go to one writing-related conference.
- Walk my dog.
- Plant a garden.
- Make sure I spend quality time with Sailor Boy.
- Do at least two home improvement projects.
- Cut our budget.
You’ll notice that there are no baby-related goals on this list. It’s because my only goal with the baby is that next year at this time, I’m here with a happy, healthy, almost-15 month old little girl.
The other thing I want to do this year is keep myself more accountable in these matters. Currently, my only 2011 full length release is the paperback reprint of Ascendant. Obviously, this is down from the two full length original releases I had in both 2009 and 2010. There’s a book and a few short stories in the schedule for 2012, and at least one original short story for 2011, but that’s all. I would like to get back to a regular schedule, though I’m glad for my 2012 release date. But to do that, I need to get new proposals out there on top of my contracted work. 2011 is going to be a building year — I’m building up a body of work in a year without a major new release, I’m building a new work schedule, I’m building a new work/life balance entirely. So I’ll check in here once a month and let y’all know how I’m doing.
And I’ll keep myself honest about Rio, too. Poor girl.
Hey, Mommy! Check out how agile I am already!
I have an article up today on Publishing Perspectives about my first novelization experience. Check it out, the participate in the discussion on why there aren’t more novelizations out there (especially for non-genre works).
It’s been a while since I got a chance to look on the internet and see what folks are saying about my books (always a daunting prospect, made even more so by spending a few months unplugged from your career).
But I actually found some lovely things. Like this “author rave” by a librarian at Wyoming Seminary College (which is not in Wyoming, but in the Wyoming Valley area of PA, and where my family is from). In fact, I’m pretty sure my cousin graduated from this school. The librarian discovered my story in ZvU and went on to read the full length series, and is now tackling the SSG books. Thanks! And hey, I go home to the valley all the time, so if your library is ever looking for a speaker, let me know!
There are also a lot of blog reviews, like this one from Emily a.k.a. WillowRaven at Red House Books:
Wow. This book blew me away! I don’t know why I waited so long to read it. I think I was a little worried about corrupting my love of unicorns with Diana’s version of blood thirsty killers. My unicorns have always been gentle and magical. The unicorns of Rampant – magical? Yeah. Gentle? Hells no! And you know what? I think I like them better that way 
What I really liked about Rampant was the fact that the story doesn’t rely on the novelty of the killer unicorns to make it work. The plot is awesome, the characters are well developed and really likable, and the setting was amazing.
So even if you discount the awesomeness that evil unicorns present, the story itself was one of the best I’ve read this year. I absolutely loved Astrid and I so saw myself walking the halls of that ancient cloister.
And this one from a blog called Nyx Book Reviews:
I cannot stress the fact enough how utterly brilliant this book is. Astrid has made it to my top 3 most kick-ass heroines. I love that there finally is a girl in a YA novel that doesn’t hide behind her crush at every sight of danger. She is truly self sufficient, and actually has to protect her crush from being hurt. I adore that she isn’t dependant. It annoys me that almost all female characters seem to be nothing without their male counterparts.
…This is one of those books you come across that you think is so great you can’t stop talking about it. As you might tell from the abundance of quotes from this book, I obviously can’t get enough of it. While I’m reviewing, I’m skimming through the pages again, looking for great passages. It makes me want to reread the whole book. While I just finished! *sighs*
There’s also this one from Bookish Blather:
OMG, you guys. You guys, why didn’t anyone tell me that books about killer unicorns are FREAKING AWESOME?!
I don’t know exactly why I decided to skip on Rampant the first time around. I think I was focusing more on the “unicorn” rather than the “killer” part of the description, plus I’m just generally prejudiced against fantasy. Then I read Peterfreund’s contribution to Zombies vs. Unicorns and was intrigued…
What excited me the most about these two books is just how darn feminist they are. Seriously, these are some of the most feminist books I’ve read since The Disreputable History of Frankie-Landau Banks. Throughout both books there are positive depictions of young women’s sexuality, and then especially in Ascendant there’s discussions about women (even those who weren’t unicorn hunters) who defied traditional notions of femininity to follow their passions in science and medicine. And then yes, there’s the idea of a secret group of women who are all that stands between humanity and the unicorn scourge. Women with big swords = awesome.
(In passing, I’m excited to see how many people are discovering my series based upon my short stories. I know writers say that short stories are one way to introduce readers to your work, but darn if it isn’t true!)
Read Sam Read, a teen book blogger with a really pretty blog header, has this to say about Ascendant:
I think there are some books that affect me in such a way that I can’t do my standard bullet point reviews. The last book I finished, Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly was one of those and Ascendant definitely is. I think there’s something in the rawness of these books that I can’t make bullets about what I liked; I can ramble in paragraphs about it, however.
Ascendant took me a little too long to finish, but not for lack of interest. I’m glad I took it slow, because I could savor it. And even though it wasn’t as fast-paced and exciting as Rampant was, with the whole, “Will she do it with Giovanni?” thing, I think it was definitely better for it. It was more mature. And you can definitely see the change in Astrid from the beginning of the book until the end. It wasn’t some kind of dumb character development that I didn’t believe – I really, really believed it. It was done so well.
I have to be honest with you guys. I worried a lot about some of the choices I made in writing Ascendant the way I did. It’s not easy. It’s not tidy. I think that’s why people are so interested in news about a sequel. And not everyone was happy with those choices — there are definitely readers out there who are really angry about what happens in Ascendant, or angry with me as a writer, or what have you. But all I can do as a writer is be honest. Be honest to the needs of the story, the needs of the characters, etc. I like happy endings as much as the next person. I like it when the good guys win and the bad guys lose — but it isn’t what always happens. It especially isn’t what always happens when it’s not easy to tell who the good guys and the bad guys are. Is Isabeau a good guy or a bad guy? Opinions are split on this. Is it a useful classification? I think Isabeau does have Astrid’s best interests at heart.
Here’s another question: Is Astrid a good guy or a bad guy? In the middle of the book? In the end? What do you think Bucephalus would say?
(Maybe I should make a reader questionnaire. I’m really curious about some of these things.)
And I’m okay with these questions, especially since I designed the book to prompt them. I didn’t want it to be all neat and tidy. I didn’t want people to go, “Oh, unicorn magic is a good thing, Astrid’s figured it out, everything is hunky dory.” If so, there’d be no point to writing a second book at all. I wanted all the assumptions from the first book turned on their heads. (Again, if they weren’t there’d be no point to a third book.) Ah, third book. Someday!
I guess some of these questions will be easier to parse when the series concludes, which I promise you guys, it will. I just don’t know when yet.
Which leads me to my next point. I stumbled across a conversation on the internet (no link, sorry) taking me to task for “irresponsibly” writing a second book in an imagined trilogy without being under contract for more. To which I can only shrug. Things happen — and sometimes they don’t happen as you expect — and rarely do they happen in the order and with the timing that the internet concludes without knowing any of the particulars.
I’ve got friends who actually were under contracts for series, and the series were canceled halfway through. I’ve got other friends who’ve written well-beloved series that were never meant to me series at all. I’ve got friends whose first books in their series are being held hostage by unscrupulous or unfortunate publishers. It’s not always in a writer’s control to say this book will come out next and as quickly as a potential reader wants it to. And the potential reader can thumb his nose at the writer and go, “Well, phooey, I don’t want to read your stupid book anyway.” There’s risk on both sides.
The only thing I can do as a writer is keep writing (or start writing, AHEM Miss Longest Maternity Leave Ever), keep writing the best and most appropriate story I can based on the information I have at the time of writing, and finding ways to get my books into you, the reader’s, hands.
Okay, I’m off for the day. Rio needs walking, baby needs… well, EVERYTHING… and I need to finish wrapping Christmas presents.
Take care! Stay warm!
Waaaaaaay back in 2001, when I decided to take a real stab at this writing thing, I started doing research. My college, as great as it was, was not so great with the whole “career planning” thing. I remember going to their career services center during my senior year. They had a lot of information on: law school, consulting, i-banking, the Park Service, Teach for America, and the Peace Corps. That was it (I actually considered the Park Service, what with my Geology degree and all). But nothing for me.
The thing is, if you want to be a lawyer, there’s a delineated method. Step one: take the LSAT. Step two: go to law school. At law school, they funnel you into summer jobs with law firms and then from there into an actual job with a law firm. With a little effort, you can diverge this path into a clerkship or a job with the government or any number of other lawyerly jobs. It’s all very spelled out. (The challenge, the many lawyers in my life will tell you, is to avoid these golden handcuffs.)
That sort of thing doesn’t exist with writers. We come from all over, and we have all different kinds of paths. To some, this translates as being very confusing and rarefied and as if it’s all some big secret handshake. But I found two things: 1) the more you do research, the more it all becomes understandable, and 2) the regular old pound-the-pavement job market is much much harder to wrangle, especially in Manhattan in 2001. Let’s put it this way: I got better responses from the editorial departments of publishing houses to my writing than I did from the HR departments of those same houses in my job search.
Anyway, I did a lot of reading on how to be a writer. I learned the central tenet of all pro writers: “Money flows to the writer.” I learned what a query was and how to write it. I learned how to pitch. I learned that there were professional writing organizations out there that would help train me to write. I learned what standard agency agreements were and how one pitches to magazines and the non-fiction market (it’s different than what one does for novels). I learned that no matter how personal it feels, rejection is not personal. I learned that rejection is not the end of the world. I learned about structure and pacing and black moments and “save the cat.” I found some of this information in books, and a lot of this information on the internet, and this was 2001, so blogs were just getting started.
And I learned to separate the wheat from the chaff. I learned what was actually useful to me in terms of my own training, my own process, and my own career, and what was just some blowhard spouting off about the “right” way to do things. There are people in RWA, for instance, that truly, truly believe that your romance writing career should start in category. There are people in SF who would never dream of writing a novel until they had a bunch of short stories published. This is the “traditional” way to do things.
But traditional doesn’t work for everyone, and I learned that sometimes you have to throw out the traditionally accepted paradigms if you want to move forward.
When I learned that I was expecting a baby, nine years later, I pretty much did the same thing. I’d never had a baby before, never been pregnant before, and they didn’t quite cover this at Yale, either. So I started doing research. I read a lot of books on pregnancy and babies and baby STUFF (Oh my gosh, do babies have a lot of stuff!). I read parenting blogs and medical journals and went to websites. I took classes (Lamaze was a bust, but pre-natal yoga was awesome). I learned all the jargon (not only do I know what a mei tai is — NOT a drink — I actually own one, and I can tell you the differences between a Graco Snugride and a Chicco Keyfit, not to mention all the joyful varieties there are to baby poop).
Parenting, like writing, comes with a lot of traditionally accepted expectations. But, also like writing, there is no clearly delineated path. You could get pregnant easily, you could struggle with fertility, you could adopt. You can sell the first book you write or you could come up through a popular blog or a column in a newspaper. You could write category or change your name, you could have a tough pregnancy or complications that throw all your plans out of whack. You could choose to breastfeed or formula feed, to stay at home, to put the child in daycare, to wear your baby, to have a planned c-section or a home birth. You could pitch your book at a conference or write ten query letters or do work for hire or have your friend mention your book to a hungry editor or win a contest.
And, just like writing, there are people out there who are going to disagree with any and all of your choices. Now I want to say that the folks that tell you you’re going to hell for having an epidural are much more vehement than the ones that tell you your book will never be published if you use flashbacks, but there are fundamentalists on every side. And again, I had to learn to separate the wheat from the chaff.
While it’s uber scary to have a NYT bestselling writer tell you your book will never be published if it contains prologues, flashbacks, and other things she hates but were in my first published novel, it’s a hundred thousand times scarier to hear that your child — the little human being you are 100% responsible for — is going to get a developmental disorder if you, say, vaccinate them from deadly diseases. The answer to both of these issues is more research. You look at published, successful books that have flashbacks and prologues, and you see how they are done right and you make sure your book does that. You read medical articles debunking vaccine hysteria and books that explain how the adverse reports work and you learn about the real dangers associated with the diseases you’d prefer your child not to get.
You smile and nod at experienced writers who have good advice — advice that clearly works for them and their books and their readership (make the boy more alpha! don’t let your heroine get brain damaged! don’t write a mixed-race romance!), but that would be anathema to you. When your critique partner tells you that under NO circumstances should Poe freak out about suddenly and unexpectedly punching some kid out on cross campus, you listen to her, because she’s a brilliant writer, and then you look at that scene and you think about how well you know Poe, and you think about how you want people to question not only why he punched out that kid, but also why it scares him that he did, and you decide that keeping that scene is a risk you’re willing to take — the risk that people will suddenly find Poe to be wimpy because he freaks out — in order for (hopefully) most of your readers to wake up and notice that none of Poe’s reactions are what they (or Amy) expect them to be.
You smile and nod at experienced parents who have good advice — advice that clearly works for them and their kids and their family (you should try a Bradley birth, breastfeeding is too hard, aren’t you playing her Mozart in the womb?) but would be anathema to you. When your mother or your friend or both tells you that cloth diapering will never work, you listen to her, because she’s a great mom, and then you look at your schedule and your desires for your baby/budget/planet and you decide that you’ll just try it to see how it goes, so you try it part time for two months and actually, you really like it and it’s not at all as hard as you thought it would be so you keep it up.
And you learn that sometimes, the best laid plans go right out the window — often in wonderful ways. You thought you’d be writing category romances, but it turns out that you aren’t as good at writing straight romance as you are at writing other kinds of books that have romance in them, and you end up making a living doing that. You never thought you’d write work for hire or short stories, but you do, and you end up really loving it and making good money and getting unexpected critical praise and all of a sudden you have this whole other facet to your career.
You don’t want an induction but your baby decides to go a week over her due date and everyone is afraid she’s starting to burn a bit around the edge of the pan so you decide it’s time to get her out of the proverbial oven, and your labor is short and easy and your baby is healthy. You are determined to breastfeed exclusively like the books tell you to, but you have supply issues and your baby isn’t gaining weight so you start letting your husband give her a bottle or two of formula in the evenings when your supply is lowest and you learn that it’s actually a much-needed break for you as well as an opportunity for your husband to bond with the baby.
And you constantly question yourself and the choices you’ve made. Would I be a bestseller now if I’d sold to this publisher rather than that publisher? What would have happened if I’d written this other book? Would my daughter be sleeping through the night if I’d done scheduled feedings rather than feeding on demand? Should I have put her in her crib from night one instead of letting her sleep in a bassinet in our room? Should I cut the flashback because it’s too complex for the reader? Is she getting a flat head right this very minute because I’m letting her sleep in her bouncer while I write this blog post? Is everyone right that my career is over if I don’t get involved in Facebook? Should I be worried that she hasn’t discovered her hands?
I know that none of this is exclusive to the world of writing or to the world of parenting. We’re all trying to figure out the right choices, take the best advice, and not get mired down by our insecurities about our own decisions. But for some reason, the process of becoming a parent reminds me a lot more of the process I went through to become a writer than anything else I’ve done (the process of becoming a homeowner, a dog owner etc.). I think it’s due to the infinite variations, and the fact that you, you, and you alone are utterly responsible for an entire creation.
Both of which I have to get back to now.
From the Mailbag, A asks:
“Hi. So I was reading Ovid’s Metamorpheses in which he talks about Diana and Acteaon. When i read you unicorn books i thought of that. I have to make an oral presentation about one of the books we read and I was going to relate Diana and Acteaon to your book. I was wondering if the story about Diana and Alexander the Great is real…”
Thanks for reading! And to answer your question, yes…and no.
Is Alexander the Great real? Yes. Was the temple of Artemis at Ephesus a real place? Yes. Is the story about the goddess Artemis (Diana) attending the birth of Alexander the Great and thus being unable to stop the burning of her temple in 326 BC real?
Well, Plutarch said it was.
The story of Alexander the Great, the temple fire, and the goddess’s involvement (or lack thereof) is a legend, the same way people in America have a legend about George Washington admitting to his dad that he cut down the cherry tree. It’s generally accepted by historians that the temple fire happened on the night of Alexander’s birth.
What I did, throughout Rampant, was take truth (the rules about Vestal Virgins, the name of Alexander the Great’s horse, the art in the Borghese gallery, Danish thrones featuring items that look like unicorn horns), and established legend (the stores of Diana and her involvement in Alexander’s birth, the rules of unicorns, the various legends about unicorns) and mix it up with fiction until you (hopefully) could no longer see the seams. I know which parts of the story are “true”, which parts are not true but not made up by me, either, and which parts I made up entirely.
But it’s entirely likely that unless you’ve spent as much time researching unicorns as I have, you don’t know what other parts of the story are “true” legends. (For instance, I didn’t make up any of the types of unicorns. They are based on “real” legends from around the world.)I’m a huge lover of myth and classical mythology and history, and I hope that other people who are appreciate my atempts to incorporate and interpret various myths to fit my fantasy world. I also hope that some people can discover all these awesome stories through my work.
But I realize that unless you have spent the last few years as obsessed with unicorn legends as I have, it can be a bit difficult to separate the fact (where “fact” means “legends invented by someone other than me”) from the fiction.
I was actually talking about this earlier today with some friends as we were discussing the introduction to the published shooting script of Synecdoche, New York. (Link is totally awesome and absolutely worth reading.) Basically, Charlie Kaufman goes on this long rant about some dude named Keith who works for the publisher and you aren’t sure (even though he co-credits Keith) whether or not Keith is a real person, because Kaufman has done this before (Hello, Donald Kaufman, fictional nominee of entirely real awards for the screenplay of Adaptation). And that just makes you (where “you” means “me”) think of the introduction to The Princess Bride (the book), where William Goldman talks about his (fictional) son and his (fictional) wife and his (fictional) quest for a (fictional) book his probably fictional father used to read to him as a boy. But since Goldman is saying he’s Goldman, and even referencing his real other works, you have a really hard time trying to figure out where the truth ends.
It’s all very cool and meta. Confusing, but that’s the fun.
And I’m not about to publish a glossary that delineates which parts of my stories are true and which aren’t. Because that would be boring for me to put together and probably seventeen times as boring for you to read. Plus, ruins the fun, as well as all that hard work I did trying to make it look seamless.
I think that’s what fiction is, even on a minute scale. Story tellers are always taking truth and twisting it to fit — big, factual truths like histories and places, and even bigger truths like human nature and the ways of the heart. And little tiny truths too — details they capture just so that send your nerve endings into high alert and make you think — yes — it looks/feels/tastes/sounds/smells/was exactly like that.
All good fiction is true. Just like unicorns.
Eu sei que vários de vocês, meus leitores brasileiros, estão esperando notícias sobre o lançamento do terceiro livro da Sociedade Secreta, e agora eu as tenho! Aqui estão:
Rites of Spring Break (Vol. 3) será lançado no dia 14 de janeiro de 2011
Eu não sei se será a mesma capa ou qual o título traduzido ainda, mas vocês só tem apenas um mês de espera!
Obrigada pela sua paciência!
______________
I know a lot of you have been waiting patiently for new on when the third book of Sociedade Secreta will be out, and now I have it:
Rites of Spring (Break) — (Vol. 3) — will be out on January 14, 2011.
I don’t know if it’ll be the same cover, or what the final (translated) title is yet, but you only have another month to wait.
Thanks so much for your patience!
(Oh, and if any savvy Brazilian reader wants to help me translate this message into Portuguese, I’d be so grateful!)
My pal Ally Carter gives a workshop called “Asking the Wrong Questions.” It’s aimed at aspiring writers of YA, and was born when Ally grew frustrated by the way these writers would squander opportunities to talk to an agent or published writer with silly questions like “can I swear in the books?” or “how long must they be?” and other questions that could easily be answered by, I don’t know, picking up a few YA novels (Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist drops the F-bomb every few pages) or even just heading to the bookstore and scanning the shelves to see how fat some of these books are (hello, The Sweet Far Thing!)
I’ve been up mighty early the past nine weeks — early enough to catch Jessica Faust’s #askagent hashtag on Twitter, which she tends to run about six a.m. While most of the questions she gets during these sessions are well-thought out and useful for not only the writers who ask them, but for everyone, many have me wondering if the questioners spent much time reading books before they embarked on their career as an author. After several days of observation, I’ve been able to classify the head scratchers into three distinct categories.
1. The Stealth Query Question
“Do you think there’s a market for a book about a lonely werewolf from Poughkeepsie who falls in love with a hot Manhattan vampire during a summer’s sojourn on Fire Island?”
The writer doesn’t want an answer to this question. What the writer wants is for the agent to go, “OMG, send that book to me!” It’s the specificity of the question that gives it away. They aren’t saying, “is there a market for paranormal romance?” (there is, and the writer knows better than to ask such a dumb question).
What leads to this behavior? Is it query fear? Do they need to be absolutely sure they’ve got a chance before they submit “for real?” Do they want the bragging rights of being able to say, “Oh, I got a request from a tweet, I didn’t even have to query?” Unclear. But if you’re pitching your book — pitch your book.
2. The “I’ve Never Read a Book Before” Question
“Is it okay if I set my book in a real town?” “Is it okay if my characters mention the name of a movie in my book?” And so on.
Really? is it possible that this writer has never in their life run across one of the tens of thousands of novels set in real places, starring real people, or filled with references to real films, plays, books, and works of art? At the very least, they’ve heard of The Da Vinci Code, right?
The mind boggles at this question. I was trying to figure out where it came from and I wonder if books like my Secret Society Girl, which “changed the names” of real places, are somehow to blame. If people see that and think they have to change the names of their real places. But then I think about The DaVinci Code. Changing the names or not is an artistic choice. For SSG, changing the names meant I had more freedom to do what I wanted in the world — This isn’t Yale, this isn’t Skull & Bones. This is Eli, and Rose & Grave, and so I can make up whatever timeline I want. With Rampant, however, it was the exact opposite. Setting the book in the real Rome and bringing in all these real historical figures and facts allowed me to make such a fantastical and off-the-wall premise of killer unicorns more grounded and acceptable.
But I digress. The point is, these writers must see books in which real things are mentioned. So where is this coming from?
And, as a corollary, why do they think it matters? Trust me, there is no editor out there who says, “Man, I’d love to buy this book but the main character mentions on page 54 that she loves the movie Casablanca. REJECT.” If the editor has a problem with a passing mention of a real person, place, or thing, they’ll make you change it. (In the manuscript of Secret Society Girl, I had to change the name of one character, who was the child of a famous politician, because the last name I’d given him was coincidentally the last name of a real-life politician, and we didn’t want readers to assume I was talking about him and his (fictional) son. These things are not dealbreakers.)
3. The Remember My Name Question
It’s entirely possible that the other question types are really just this one in disguise. And I have to admit, I understand this last one, and I was probably guilty of it myself as an aspiring writer.
Basically, the questioner doesn’t have anything to ask — not really. So they devise an often inane question just so they can score some face time (Tweet time?) with an agent. Maybe so the agent will remember them when they query. Maybe so they can say “we spoke on twitter” when they query. Maybe because they’ve bought into the idea that they need a “connection” to do business with the person.
“What do agents look for in a pitch session?” “How many words should a query letter be?” “How do you like us to sign our query letters?” “Do you want us to use Times New Roman?” If the question is one that has been answered a bazillion times or is obvious to anyone who has spent half an hour researching manuscript submissions, it’s usually a “remember my name” in disguise.
And I get it. I truly do. In fact, I think it might even have been Jessica who got my inane attempts at doing the same thing at a chat back in 2003. (I believe the question was, “Is it still called chick lit if it’s set in suburbia, rather than a big city?”) But here’s the thing, that I now understand with the wisdom of 20/20 hindsight and five years sitting on the agented, contracted side of the fence:
Face time isn’t going to help you.
Especially not when you are talking about a chat or a tweet or a blog comment. Because when you query this agent and say, “We spoke on Twitter. I’m coolgirl7563,” they are just going to think to themselves, “Great. Whatever. What’s your story about?”
Don’t get me wrong — face time is grand. It’s not going to make up for anything, but it might get you read faster. I knew a lot of agents and editors from conferences who happily rejected my books — heck, I’ve worked with editors who have happily rejected my books (well, I’d like to think they’ve “regretfully declined,” but still). The book is the thing — not the face time. If you do have the opportunity to attend a writer’s conference and socialize with some industry types, I am a big believer in it. It’s not just the networking, but the energy and knowledge you get from conferences cannot be beat.
As I’ve said before, I’d met my agent a couple of times before we started to work together. When we finally found a book we could go forward with, we were both thrilled, as we’d gotten the impression during our face time we’d be a good fit someday. But she wasn’t going to take me on until I found that book. We might have some laughs over plastic cups of wine at conference cocktail parties, but she had no problem sending me rejection letters for books she didn’t think were ready for representation.
Now, that being said, I will also point out that I got offers from agents who didn’t know me from Adam. All they had of mine was a query letter and a proposal. So it’s the book that matters. (If anything, in that situation the face time helped the AGENT be the one chosen for the job — so who does networking really help? The salesman.)
Anyway, we’re still talking about long, face-to-face conversations in a social setting, not the occasional tweet/blog comment. I definitely think there’s a benefit to these chats and twitter series — there is so much info imparted, and if you have legitimate questions, they are a great forum in which to ask them. But if you are using them merely to stalk wave at your favorite agents and editors, then you are probably better served turning off your internet and getting back to your book.
I know. Easier said than done. I’m right there with you. Guilty as charged.
On the other hand, there’s always the possibility they DO remember coolgirl7563, and what they remembered was that she asked a really dumb question. 
Here I am with egg on my face.
Due to a printer error, the acknowledgments were not printed in the pages of Ascendant. I have been assured that this mistake will be rectified in future printings as well as in the paperback. I am most disappointed, because a book like this, in particular, required a vast amount of research and assistance from those much more knowledgable than me in the fields of zoology, medicine, and — heck — French.
Until such time as you can see their names in the proper place, I offer them here:
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ASCENDANT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A sequel can sometimes be as elusive a quarry as any unicorn. I have many to thank for their help capturing this creature creation:
Kristin Daly, for her endless patience, excellent advice and unwavering enthusiasm for Astrid’s story. Talking books and craft with you is one of my favorite parts of this job.
The entire team at Harper Teen and Balzer & Bray: Alessandra Balzer, Donna Bray, Sara Sargent, Laura Kaplan, Laura Lutz, Erin Gallagher, and all the others who have given my killer unicorns so much TLC.
Deidre Knight, as always, for her keen agenting derring-do, as well as the whole staff at the Knight Agency.
Carrie Ryan, a font of insight and a shoulder to cry on when Astrid’s going got particularly rough. Special thanks for letting me put a zombie in this one.
Justine Larbalestier, for overcoming her unicorn aversion to be Rampant’s greatest champion throughout this country and even overseas, as well as for constantly pushing me to do the really bad thing.
The members of Team Castle: Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Holly Black, Ally Carter, Cassandra Clare, Sarah Cross, Maureen Johnson, Sarah Rees Brennan, Carrie Ryan (again), and Robin Wasserman, for staying up until the wee hours and talking about the nature of romance and the advisability of unicorn boyfriends (not to mention hoflowers).
Lavinia Kent, my mate in the deadline trenches, C.L. Wilson, fantasist extraordinaire, and my mentor Julie Leto. All the fine writers in TARA, WRW, and NINC – friends and colleagues to a one.
Tamora Pierce, a hero to all of us who write warrior heroines, and Scott Westerfeld (ditto), for sharing their regard for Rampant.
My dear friends and family, who were at their best when Astrid was at her worst – especially my mother, who endures the bad mothers in my books (I know, mom, I need to write you a great one!) My husband, who helped me with my Latin, ate takeout for a month and only occasionally teased me for turning our living-room couch into my de facto office, and Rio, who didn’t begrudge me morning walks in our woods. Thank you also to Matthew Blong and Lindsay and Olivier Arnoult for their language assistance.
My father, who ties with Justine for most ardent supporter of Rampant. His medical advice, supplemented by that of Janet Black, was much appreciated. I hope these two excellent doctors forgive my liberal application of literary license. It was all in the service of unicorn magic.
And last, but certainly not least, I thank you, the readers. Your emails have meant the world to me, your unicorn-themed presents and shout-outs have made countless days. Go, Team Unicorn!
Let’s do a good news/bad news post.
The Good News: Her Royal Highness slept for seven hours straight, twice in a row this weekend.
The Bad News: She made up for it with fussiness while awake.
The Good News: I actually got some brainstorming work done this weekend.
The Bad News: You’d be shocked at how much thinking you can do when you’re in the midst of your fourteenth load of laundry.
The Good News: My daughter is two months old today.
The Bad News: …
Hmmm, I can’t think of anything to stand up to that one.
 I’m happy to announce that “The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn”, my first contracted short story (for the anthology Zombies vs. Unicorns), will be included in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Five, edited by Jonathan Strahan and including such genre heavyweights as Holly Black, Neil Gaiman, and Cory Doctorow. I am thrilled and humbled to be part of such a great collection.
Read the rest of the table of contents here. The book will be available in March, and can be pre-ordered here.
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