Brief Respite

Hello Internets. I know the new format's only been working for a couple of weeks but I'm taking a brief internet vacation that just so happens to coincide with my real vacation. I'll be back blogging on August 8th when I'll be dropping my first post in the Blog Chain. It's gonna be awesome.

Until then amuse yourself with the following (PS, I know the quality sucks, but this is the coolest, creepiest commercial ever. I thanked heaven my name wasn't Gertrude):

Friday Mixed Bag: Writer's Manifesto

Sorry for missing my book review yesterday. I spent about 2 hours in a dentist's chair being poked and prodded, so I wasn't feeling much beyond sitting in my chair at work and trying to look like I was busy while I just tried to suffer through the day. On the plus side, my dentist and her dental assistant began wearing flavored gloves, so as they drilled and poked, I was treated to the pleasant flavors of both grape and cherry.

Writing is about two things: discipline and passion.

Discipline is that thing that gets your butt in the chair and gets you writing. Passion is that thing you have to have for a project. It will carry you through self-doubt and long waits and bad news and days when you're just not feeling it.

Both discipline and passion are absolute necessities if you want to be a writer. All the passion in the world won't put your fingers to the keys and all the discipline in the world won't infuse your book with that little bit of extra ooomph that it needs to go from great to amazing. Passion and Discipline are symbiotic; they can't survive without each other.

Lately I've been feeling pressure to write a book that I'm not particularly passionate about and to ignore a couple of books that I can't get out of my head, because the market might not support them. And that's led me to question why I write in the first place.

Do I write because I want to sell books or because I have stories to tell that no one else in the world can tell and I'll explode if I don't get them out? Yes. Both. I'll admit it, I want to sell books. I want to make money. I want to quit my job and travel the world and write awesome stories. But even if that wasn't a possibility, I'd still write. I'd still write because I can't not.

So while I have these ideas that I want to shout from the rooftops. Ideas that I want to pet and hug and love and name George. There's a fear that they're not salable. That the marketplace won't accept them. So I should work on these other ideas that are more salable but that I'm not so passionate about. Um. No?

I'm the writer. It's my job to write the best book I can write without worrying about whether it can be sold. Listen, I'm no J.K. Rowling. Not by a long shot. But no one wanted her book about a boy wizard at first. She wrote a book that the market didn't want and then her agent convinced the market that Harry Potter was what it had been missing. And I think that's the magic of publishing. An awesome writer writes a book no one knows they wanted to read, and an awesome agent convinces a publisher that it has to have that book. Tough jobs all around.

So what has a better chance on the market? A book that the market is asking for but that the writer doesn't love, or a book that a writer loves that the market doesn't know it wants yet? I mean, that's the great risk with writing, isn't it? You write the best book you can and hope that there's an audience for it. But you don't write a book FOR an audience because that audience may be dried up by the time your book gets there.

I was inspired by the story of Audrey Niffenegger. She wrote her book "The Time Traveler's Wife." It was good and awesome and eventually it got onto Oprah's Book Club and blew up. She could have signed a second book sight unseen and made a boatload of cash. In fact, I remember reading that she was offered a contract for a second unwritten book, but she turned it down. Six years after publishing "The Time Traveler's Wife," she sold her second book for five million. I wish I could find the story now, but the gist of it was that she didn't sell a second book until she'd written it so that she didn't have deadlines or pressure and so that she could write the book she wanted to write. And according to her editor and agent, it was worth the wait. I'm no Audrey Niffenegger, not by a long shot, but I am inspired by her.

So here's my manifesto: I will only write books for which I am overflowing with passion. I think to do anything less would be a disservice to myself.

Writing Tips Wednesday

Public Service Announcement: I blow at moderating comments. I should set it so that I don't have to, but I abhor spam.

I'm about to start a new project. I'm not a hundred percent sure which one yet, but I know that within a couple of weeks I'll be descending into the dark pit in my basement and I won't eat or shower or change my clothes until I have a book. The first thing I have to discover, before I can begin writing in earnest, is the voice.

The voice, to me, dictates the P.O.V. I know a lot of people might disagree with me, but if the voice in my head is sweeping and epic and has a broad worldview, then my POV is third person. If it's more intimate, more detailed, more insular, then I know it's first person.

Since I dedicated myself to YA I've come to use a lot more first person than I ever did in the past, and there are good and bad aspects to it.

When you choose to use the first person, you have to develop the voice of the narrator. His voice will define how your book goes. My narrator in The Deathday Letter, Oliver, has such a unique voice that it shaped how the book moved. It shaped the descriptions, it shaped the way things were viewed. Your first person narrator is the filter through which the story is told.

That's an important concept to grasp because too often I read books with boy narrators who describe minutiae that most boys wouldn't recognize. If your narrator is a typical teenage boy and he runs into the girl of his dreams, he's not going to be describing the glint of her eyes or the curl of her hair or the sassy boots she's wearing. The chance that he'll even know what color her eyes are after the encounter is slim to none.

Not to say that those details aren't important, just that you have to get to them in different ways. If the color of her eyes is important to the story then during their encounter you can have your girl hold up an outfit and ask your narrator if he thinks it matches her eyes. She could even throw in a little snark by saying something like, "Those things about 8 inches above my breasts."

You get the point. Using the first person can seem like a much freer way or narrating because you can run a little wild and throw in come crazy stuff, but just remember that everything your narrator sees and does and says has to be in character. If it's not, it'll come off as false and your reader will know it.

That's why I need to know the voice before I can begin. I need to know if he's a jock, because then he might have a tendency to describe things in terms of sports. Of if he's a bookish sort, he might have a favorite book he quotes a lot. Or he might just be kind of oafish and have an eighth grade sense of humor and turn everything into a penis joke.

So that's something to consider when determining whether to use the first person or not. Do you have a narrator with a strong voice and a strong point of view. If you don't, you might either want to rethink your narrator or rethink your point of view.

Tuesday Book News!

Okay, so this isn't book news exactly, but it's related.

The news is that my agent, Chris Richman, has left Firebrand Literary and joined the newly created literary agency, Upstart Crow Literary. Upstart Crow was created by publishing veteran Michael Sterns. You can get details here.

I made the decision to go with him. This little post might bore some people but in the interest of disclosing my journey, I thought it might be fun to share.

So I got a call from Chris telling me that he was leaving Firebrand to go to this new agency, and he asked if I wanted to tag along. Now I like Chris. He's a great guy. Smart and funny and professional. But my first thought was for my career. How would moving affect The Deathday Letter? How would it affect all the unsold foreign rights that we held onto?

Chris and I talked and I was convinced that going with Chris was the best decision, which came as a relief to me since I am where I am right now due to his enormous effort of my behalf. The nitty gritty is that, because Chris is more concerned with my long-term career than with just one book, he'll make sure he does everything he can to make it successful despite the fact that the actual domestic rights remain with Firebrand.

On a personal note, it made me feel good. Knowing that he wasn't going to be able to bring my one sold project with him, Chris could have taken this as an opportunity to dump any clients he felt he may have taken on in error, so asking me to come along sort of make me feel like he sees a future in my career beyond The Deathday Letter.

It's a bit scary. Less than a year after signing my contract with Firebrand, I'll be sending my letter dissolving that contract. But I'll also be signing a new one...so yay.

I'm convinced this was the right decision because while I'm grateful for the work the whole Firebrand staff has done on my behalf, Chris had the vision to see what my poor little manuscript could be, and he helped me make that vision a reality. That's a quality that can't be learned.

So good luck to Upstart Crow Literary :)

Monday Funnies In Honor of Sarah Palin (leaving)

So with the parents in town, I've never been happier to be at work. Still, I'm pretty exhausted. In honor of Palin leaving office, I'm posting the awesome SNL skit that won the hearts of millions.

Saturday Health Stuff

Sorry this is a day late. The health stuff sucks still. Mostly owing to the fact that my parents are in town. They bring with them junky food and really mess up my routine. They're a whirlwind that keeps me from getting anything done. I'm sitting at the kitchen table in the morning trying to write. They know I'm trying to write. They say, "Don't worry, I won't bother you," and yet they ask me ten questions about where's the remote and do I want breakfast and why do I keep the silverware in this drawer and not that? It's nice to have them but it'll be nicer to have them go. Right now I'm just trying to smile and nod and stay out of the way.

On the plus side, I've been trying standing while I work and this week I'm converting my office into a full fledged standing workstation. I find that my energy is up and that I don't have that mid-day crash where I just want to sit in my chair and drown.

Okay, back to the horror that is my Sunday :)

Another New Website Design

Okay, I promise that I'll decide soon. Until then, I'd really appreciate comments. I'm putting the links to the two I'm thinking about going with. None of the links work yet, but whichever one I choose (if I go with either) will serve as the springboard for the rest of the site. I really appreciate it :)

Whiteboard Design (this one is more based on my personality).

Graffiti Design (this one ties to the book slightly since there's a prominent brick wall in my book).

I'm not sure yet what I'm going to have in terms of links. I'll probably do a place for contests, but for now I'm just focused on the design since it's not really my strong point.

Thank you!!!

Friday Mixed Bag?

Since I don't get a lot of questions, I'm thinking that Friday should just be a free-for-all. So for the time being, I'll be using Friday's to post on whatever I feel like posting about.

I was going to post about the Orwellian Kindle Debacle but, really, isn't everyone sick of talking about the basic right to privacy? Amazon said, "My bad, yo," right?" Instead, I'm going to discuss this: "Porn Star's Husband Out of a Job."

Okay, let's get all the jokes out of the way right up front.

"I bet she'll give him a job."

That's all I've got. Moving on.

Here's my beef: I don't know what's going down in Ft. Myers, but in these economic times, should it really matter how someone's spouse earns money? Shouldn't we just be grateful that she's not another statistic, humping the leg of the already taxed federal government, for benefits? I for one, find it hard to believe that anyone cares who a local official's wife does on video for everyone to see. I mean, come on, give the guy a bone. He married a porn star, not a Nazi. It's not like she's doing community outreach for the Ft. Myers' public schools or anything.

Which leads me to my second point: Maybe using Jenke's wife wouldn't be such a bad idea. Listen, I don't think we should turn politics into a spectacle, but look at how much Sarah Palin brought to the table. I mean, her chest alone brought in more votes than all the Russians in Alaska. Imagine what a porn star could do for politics? She'd certainly have no trouble getting people to come...to meetings. So I don't think they should have fired Jenke, I think they should have given him a raise, or hired his wife.

Which brings me to the climax of this post: which Ft. Myers' resident was lucky enough to uncover Jenke's foxy little secret? It's not like Mrs. Jenke was wandering around Ft. Myers with a T-Shirt that said, "I'm the porn star wife of a lucky local politician." Someone had to have seen Mrs. Jenke in action and then put two and two together after he finished...his research. Yeah. It was research. So it's okay to watch porn but not to be in one?

Okay, now seriously. There's a gaping hole in the logic that Jenke's porn star wife would have been a disruptive force for the community. Unless every meeting was called to order by watching clips from her private library, I can't imagine how this is even an issue. Porn is legal. Porn is a useful social component that, frankly, people in America are way too uptight about. I mean, I get that America was founded on the backs of undersexed Puritans, but haven't we moved beyond that? Shouldn't Jenke's buddies on the council have just been able to high five him and move on? I guess not. The issue was just too large to get a good grip on.

In closing, I want to live in a world where politicians are allowed to marry porn stars and not be persecuted. And I will not rest until I can live in that world. So say we all.

I'm spent.

Anatomy of my query process Part 2

Back to the story of how I ended up signing with Chris Richman at Firebrand. Here's the funny thing: Chris wasn't even the agent I queried.

Chris was a new agent and only had one client at the time. I'm pretty sure he had either just made his first sale or was about to, but he didn't have much of a track record at that point. So why did I end up signing with him?

Let's assume that you've crafted the most kick-ass query letter out there to do with your amazing story of a boy and his magical flying hippopotamus. You've got nine out often agents reading and you've got four or five offers of representation. How do you make your decision?

The first thing you have to do is take a HUGE breath and keep your cool. Signing with the first agent that offers representation just because you're excited is not the best way to make a decision. What you need to know is that you can sever your relationship with your agent at any time (with the proper notice) if you find that the relationship isn't working, but taking time to do it right at the outset is preferable.

Here's why: Say you get an offer from Agent Billy Bob at Billy Bob's Literary Agenting and Hot Wings. You're so excited to get the offer (and he even threw in a free bucket of wings) that you sign right away. Billy Bob goes to work for you. He sends My Magic Hippo and Me to every editor in the biz. While you wait. After six months and twenty pounds (from all the wings) you finally demand to know what's going on with your hippo. Billy Bob sends you more wings and says to hold your hippo, publishing is slow. Another six months pass and still nothing. Finally you realize that Billy Bob just randomly sent your baby to the senior editor at every major house, but he did so without talking to them or letting them know about it. So they passed 'cause they were like, "What is this novel and why does it smell like wing sauce?" You decide that you and Billy Bob aren't a good match and that you don't even like wings. You sever the relationship. Then you re-query and find Heath McSwagger at White Knight Agency. He's dreamy and knows all the right editors and doesn't like wings either. In short, he's the perfect agent for you. The problem is that everyone's already seen My Magic Hippo and Me, they're not going to want to see it again, not unless you replace the Hippo with a werewolf and the boy with a vampire and call it Fangs and Fur: A tale of Forbidden Love. So yes, you have an awesome agent, but you have a book that smells like wing sauce and won't sell. Not the end of the world, but if you'd taken your time and found Heath McSwagger from the outset, My Magic Hippo and Me could be sitting pretty on top of the NYT Besteller list.

So when Chris called, here's what I did: I changed my drawers, took a deep breath, and emailed the other agents. I did so because it's only polite. If you have an offer on the table, give the other agents a chance to read and make their decision. For me, I told Chris that I wanted to hear from at least five agents before I made my decision. All the agents I emailed were awesome and polite.

Mini-Rant: Mostly this post is for writers, but here's one thing about agents that bugged me majorly when I was querying. I get that agents are busy. I really do. But if someone's just spent months or years writing and revising a book and then followed all the instructions to craft the perfect query, please have the courtesy to respond, even if it's a no. This policy some agents have of only responding if they want the book is rude. That's my personal belief. It doesn't have to be a personal email or letter. It can be a form email. But leaving a writer in limbo is sort of mean. I made the decision that even if that agency wanted my book that I wouldn't sign with them. Why? Because if the time can't be taken to send a form letter even, how would I be treated as a client? That's all I'm going to say about that.

So there I was. I had Chris in one corner and a couple of other agents in the other corner. Chris had little experience. The other agents had varying levels of experience, but all had more than Chris. They were all from respectable houses and had confirmed sales of books that I'd read and admired. They were all really polite and liked my book and the voice and such, but none of them went as far out of their way as Chris did. And that's what sold me.

Listen, getting your book published requires an agent who knows the right editors to submit to, someone who's willing to take the time to personally talk the editors up. Most of all it needs an agent who is so gung-ho about your book that they can't stop talking about it to anyone who will listen. Why? Because they'll need to stay excited about it through multiple rejections, through various revisions, through teary, frantic phone calls from you about how you just want to give up. They need to have absolute confidence that they can sell it even if twenty editors have passed. And they need to feel the same way about your career as a writer, because picking an agent isn't just about selling one book, it's about creating a career.

And that's what Chris had. Out of all the agents, I could tell Chris was the most enthusiastic. There were other factors, like he was more relaxed and casual than the other agents (but still professional) which is awesome for me since I have a tendency to take little seriously, and he had good suggestions for how to make The Deathday Letter even better, but it was his passion for my book that really sold me.

Over the last 10 months I've been proven right. We sold The Deathday Letter, even after some bumps in the road, and Chris has been awesome about handling the various negotiation stuff. He sent me pudding when it sold, and let me freak out when I got some revision notes I didn't like.

That's it. You want to make sure your agent has a good reputation and a good track record and works with a reputable agency, but at the end of the day trust your gut. You want to work with someone who matches your style. If you like the phone (which I don't) make sure you agent does too. If you need daily updates, make sure your agent is someone who doesn't update only every six months. If you're super serious, make sure you don't get a joker like Chris. And most important, make sure that whoever you sign with loves your book at least as much as you do, after all, you're putting it in their hands.

Next week: Point of View - To I or not to I.

Tuesday Book News!

Still nada on the revisions, so before I talk about something else, I have to tell you what I saw today.

I was sitting at a stoplight, listening to Jason Mraz. I drive a Wrangler, so I'm up higher than most people, and I have a good view. I was in the middle lane of a three lane intersection, one car back from the front. I'm not ashamed to admit that I was singing loudly. With half my mouth numbed by Novocain. There was drooling involved.

So there I was, singing and drooling and waiting at the light, when an old man on bicycle drives by. Now normally this wouldn't have been a big deal. It's Florida. It's summer. Old men ride bicycles all the time. Even old me with monster handlebar mustaches and wide brimmed fishing hats and a beer gut to rival all beer guts. No, what made it a big deal was that this mustache wearing, beer gutted fisherman was riding a pink Barbie bicycle.

He was hunched over the handlebars of the too small pink Barbie Bicycle, pedaling for all he was worth. I was drooling and laughing too hard to get my camera quick enough. But, trust me, it was the funniest thing I've seen all month.

So I'm still waiting on my revisions. Hopefully that will come soon. And I'm supposed to have a chat with my agent on Thursday to discuss where I go from here. Loads and loads of boring.

Right. Hopefully more next week.

Tweaked Website Design

Hey all!

I tweaked my website design over at shaundavidhutchinson.com I'm curious what you think. Only the link back to this blog is active but I'm curious what you all think of the aesthetic. I've got plenty of time before I need to have a fully functional website so I want to get it right. The only real difference between this one and the other one is the quality of graphics and size.

Questions? Comments? Should I scrap it entirely? I'm all ears (actually I'm all nose, but don't tell anyone).

Monday Funnies Sponsored by Your Mom

Starting out Mondays with an epic headache is never the way to go. Of course I get headaches so frequently that I'd almost be grateful to have a tumor. Not only would I finally have an excuse for being a cranky prick, but I could probably use the sympathy to get laid more often.

Here's your Monday Funny. Suck it.

Sunday Media Review: Dollhouse Epitaph One

Okay, I know I promised last Sunday that I'd go TV Free, and for the most part I have. I admit that I fudged on Tuesday and watched Warehouse 13...but I didn't like it much so I won't be fudging this week. However I fudged one other time...but it was for a good cause.

It's no secret that I'm a Joss Whedon fan(atic). I was psyched when he returned to TV. Not so psyched that he returned to Fox. But that decision had more to do with his desire to work with Eliza Dushku than Fox. Anyway. The idea of Dollhouse intrigued me from the outset. Granted, the first five episodes were pretty crap. The ideas where there, but Fox meddled with the formula and demanded homogenized, easily digestible episodes. Finally at episode six, they gave up and let Joss be Joss. Episode six is where everyone universally agrees that the show hit its stride. Against the odds (and horrendous ratings) Fox renewed it for a second season. Yay for us.

Anyway, the main complaint I heard about Dollhouse was that they had this tech that allowed you to imprint people with personalities, and yet the were using it to essentially make high class prostitutes. They said that the tech was boring and had no real applications and just blah!

Well Joss made a 13th episode titled Epitaph One. It was made to fulfill his contract to produce 13 episodes, though Fox declined to air it. I was given a copy and I was blown away. The story takes place 10 years in the future. It's basically like someone said to Joss, "Hey, hookers are great, but what's the point of all this Dollhouse crap?" And Joss went, "Well the end of life as we know it, of course," 'cause Joss likes ending the world. Buffy ended it like 4 or five times. Angel sent it to hell. In Firefly he killed multiple planets.

The thing about season one of Dollhouse is that people didn't get what the stakes were. Epitaph One takes time out to show what's going to happen when the technology for imprinting personalities gets into the wrong hands. Enemy countries are going to use it to remotely turn whole sections of our population into killing machines, radios are going to be used to wipe anyone who hears their signals. Want to disable a city? Make a phone call. Want to live forever? Keep moving your imprint from one body to another....forever.

The episode was tense and dense and dark and freaky. The episode basically put up a signpost that says, "Hey, this is where I'm going. This is where this story is taking us. The ride's gonna be awesome, want to come along?" And yes. I do. I really, really do.

Unfortunately it's likely that Dollhouse won't see a third season. I'll watch it and buy the DVD's and support anything and everything Joss does, but I think the show just isn't for the general public. But if you watched the first couple of episodes and dropped out, get the DVD's and watch Epitaph One, then go back and watch the season. It casts EVERYTHING in a whole new light. It gives everything an urgency that freaks me the heck out. It would have been an amazing pilot.

And speaking of the pilot, I got a chance to view the original pilot "Echoes." The same pilot Fox Execs told Joss he needed to reshoot. All I'm going to say about it is that if Fox had kept their collective noses out of the show and let Joss do his thing, based on this original pilot, this show wouldn't have taken until episode six to really get started.

Next week I've got a buttload of music to review.

Saturday Health Stuff

Health Check! Still doing miserably. I haven't really got an excuse. Okay, I'm not doing miserably, really. I've managed to cut back on my bad eating habits and I made my gym a couple of times, but I haven't gotten that renewed vigor that I usually get when I go full tilt toward being healthy. I still think it stems from not having a reason.

Regardless, this week I'm going to try two new things.

1. I'm going to sit, right after I'm done typing this, and plan my menu for the week. I think a lot of my bad habits stem from lack of time. Like Friday night. I had an idea for a book I want to write and I'd been thinking about it all day, so when I got home I pulled out my whiteboard and notebooks and started planning it out. By the time my belly rumbled it was late and I was still heavily into my brainstorming session, so I just ordered pizza. If I'd had a meal planned and precooked, I could have maybe avoided those calories. Problem is that I'm a terrible cook. Really terrible. Not that I can't follow directions but I have a difficult time doing many things in the kitchen at once. Generally I burn at least one component. But I'm going to give it a shot. I'm going to plan out my menu and the associated calories and see if I can't stick to it.

2. The other thing I'm going to do was suggested to me by Nomadshan. I'm going to set up my day job office so that I have to stand. When I worked at Sbux, I stood for hours and hours daily. I'm not expecting that to burn loads of calories, but I spend 9 hours there on my butt and 2-4 hours daily at home on my butt, writing. It might help get me going so that I have more energy by the time I get home. It's just too easy to go from one place where I sit to another where I sit. I'm going to break the cycle and toss my chair.

And that's it. Baby steps. Remember I'm not looking for a quick way to lose weight, I'm trying to change my habits so that I can create a sustainable lifestyle that's also healthy.

Image via See Mike Draw

Friday Mailbag: Link Salad

Until I start getting questions, I'll use Fridays to post random stuffs. Today I'm going to post some of my favorite websites. These are places that help me write. Be it through research or basic slacking off.

Probably my most visited site is the Online Etymology Dictionary. Seems like a silly link, but I'm in love with words and their meanings and their origins. I think that knowing those things helps me be a better writer. It also helps me come up with names and names of places. I spend way too much time on this site, and for that I blame my old Medieval Lit professor, Dr. Mary Faraci.

Here's the International Swearing and Cursing Dictionary. As my agent knows, I tend to have a potty mouth. Maybe one day I'll write a post on why I think Americans are too uptight about profanity, but swears in other languages help me get around the issue a little.

To go along with my love of words, I also like hiding meanings in my names and places. So the Internet Anagram Server is used frequently.

Creating original and vibrant dialog is tough for any writer. Use slang that's too current and you risk it being out of fashion by the time the book comes out, too old and you sound out of touch. I use the Urban Dictionary when I'm looking for just the right word. I tend to favor British slang because it can be funny but it's not well known here in America. That gives it the impression of new slang. I've even added some words of my own.

Here's an article about 10 Mistakes Writers Make. I refer to this frequently. Even with a book deal, I still feel like an amateur. I don't agree with every bit of this but it's still worth reading.

Wordnik is a relatively new site, but one I adore. It's more than just a dictionary. It's like a word extraveganza. It gives you definitions from multiple sources, grammar info, etymology, usage, even recent uses in Twitter. Pretty awesome.

Finally for today, I've wasted more time on this site in the last month than I care to admit. Atlas Obscura is a site that lists strange and unusual places around the world. It's an awesome site for inspiration.

Strange salad alien via Mopo

Anatomy of my query process

I'm a researcher. I love doing research. I have to shut off my internet connection while I'm writing because if I don't I might lose myself in researching some tidbit that has come up. It's a sickness really. One of the ways I come up with story ideas is to surf wikipedia. I just go from article to article. I can start with NASA and end up with DARPA. Or puppies.

Anyway, so when I decided (prematurely) that I was ready to search for an agent, I put a lot of research into it. First I read up on how to query an agent. The following sites were indispensable:

Miss Snark
Pub Rants
Nathan Bransford
Janet Reid

Now, there are more. There's Agent X, my awesome agency's blog at Firebrand Literary, and many others. But the sites above (especially Miss Snark) helped me learn what NOT to put into a query letter.

The most important rule I learned is that when in doubt FOLLOW THE AGENCY GUIDELINES. Did I say that loud enough? It seems silly to say but one of the biggest gripes I hear from agents is that people shoot themselves in the foot by NOT following guidelines. If an agent requests a query letter and the first five pages, then don't send a query letter and the fourth chapter. Or just a query letter. Or just five pages. If an agent says that they only accept queries via homing pigeons named Steve, then that's how you need to send it.

Some of the requests might seem meaningless to you. They might seem arbitrary. They might seem downright silly. But it's their right to ask for queries to be submitted in any form they want, just as it's your right not to submit to them. It's just like applying for any job. If you don't like their policies, don't apply there.

All you're really doing if you ignore their guidelines is pretty much guaranteeing that your query will be deleted/ignored/rejected out of hand. I mean, you wouldn't show up for a job interview in plaid shorts, flip flops, and that one tee shirt with the hole in the armpit would you? Unless you're applying for a job as me.

The next thing you want to do is gather your list of agents. You'll want to query widely. When I compiled my list, I created a two-tiered list (I did say I liked research, right?). The first tier consisted of my ten dream agents. They were the agents I really wanted to work with. The agents who I thought would most mesh with my annoying personality. Then I created a second list with about 30 agents that I also thought would represent me well.

How did I come up with the lists? A combination of research, intuition and guess work. I liked Kristen Nelson not just because of how well she represented her clients on her blog, but also because she has kickin' taste in music.

The websites that helped me find agents were:

Agent Query

Preditors and Editors

There are other sites like BackSpace and Publisher's Marketplace, but Agent Query especially helped me find the agents I was looking for. I had specific criteria in mind. I wanted a younger agent because my book was a little edgier (and I have the sense of humor of an 8th grader). I wanted my agent to have a good web presence. I wanted my agent to rep the kinds of books I wanted to read. I wanted my agent to have a proven track record.

Once I'd made my lists I wrote my basic query letter. Now, most sites will tell you to avoid gimmicks, and I agree, but this is where I broke the rules. Since my book is about a boy who receives a letter informing him he has one day to live, I decided to open my query the same way. I did have some fear that I'd send out all these query letters and that within days FBI would be arresting me for sending out death threats, but it was a risk I'm glad I took.

The next couple of paragraphs described my book. This is the most important part. These couple of paragraphs are all you have to hook the agent. If you can't do it in three paragraphs, they're going to bet you can't do it in a whole book. Maybe they're wrong, but with most agents getting a couple hundred query letters a day, they have to draw the line somewhere. There's just not enough time for them to read every person's book.

In order to make my query stand out, I used the same voice from the book. That gave the agent a taste of my writing style as well as the plot. I used those three paragraphs to let the agents know what the main crux of the story was, but also what some of the smaller subplots were going to be.

After I described my book, I gave them a real quick bit about me. I have no real writing experience, but once again I kept the irreverent voice and made a quick joke. This was in keeping up the tone of the book. These kinds of jokes were going to be in the book. This was the kind of writer they'd be getting. I also told them what genre the book was and how long. Two bits of important info too many people leave out. Granted, one could have surmised from my description that The Deathday Letter is YA fiction, but better safe than sorry.

Finally, I personalized every email. If they had a blog, I mentioned reading it. If they had a cool webpage, I mentioned that. This is your chance in just a sentence or two to let them know that you didn't just pick their name with a finger jab. Have you read a book they rep? Mention it. Did you meet them at a conference? Remind them. Have you spent the last six weeks outside their window with a telephoto lens and a box of Cheez-its? Yeah, maybe leave that out.

Once you've written your query, let others read it. I honestly think I spent more time on those 260 words than I did on my novel. Tweak it. Set it in a box and forget it for a week. Then, when you're ready, send it out.

Then wait. I got my first reply in hours. My next in a day. The rest staggered over the next couple of weeks. But it can take many weeks to get a reply. Then, if they want to read the partial or full, many more weeks (months) after that. Patience is one thing you absolutely have to learn.

And that's it.

Next week I'll tell you all why I chose Chris Richman at Firebrand Literary, a relatively unknown agent with one sale under his belt, to rep me. Which incidentally turned out to be the best decision I could have made.

Right. My query letter. So here it is. It's not perfect by any means, but it got the job done. It got my foot in the door of nine out of my ten dream agents, which is all it needed to do. By the way...don't forget to personalize every query to the agent you're sending it to. Spell their names correctly and use the appropriate salutation. Details matter.

It is our duty to inform you that your death is scheduled to occur on the early morning of October 17th, 2008.

Your cooperation in this matter is greatly appreciated. Have a pleasant day.

All thirteen year-old Oliver Travers wanted to do when he woke up Thursday morning was squeeze in a little underwear gymnastics before school, until his mom called him downstairs to tell him he had received a Deathday Letter, which sort of ruined the mood.

Content to spend his last day of life at school (where the girls are), Oliver's best friends Shane Grimsley and Veronica (Ronnie) Dittrich convince him to burn his books and ditch school to track down the source of his letter and find out why he's been chosen to die.

In a world where only taxes, Deathday Letters, and teenage boy's hormones are certainties, Oliver, Shane and Ronnie embark upon a bus ride that takes them from the post office, to a house filled with college-aged anti-Deathday Letter activists (and Dave Matthews fans), and nearly to prison. And as the end draws near Oliver learns that living is way tougher than dying…and that kissing is wetter than he'd expected.

THE DEATHDAY LETTER, a quirky YA novel, is complete at 60,000 words. This is my first novel, but my short fiction has previously appeared on the wall of Mrs. Miller's third grade class (with two gold stars), and my non-fiction has previously appeared in XY Magazine.

I appreciate you taking the time to read my query and I look forward to hearing from you.

Tuesday Book News!

Not a lot of news to report about The Deathday Letter. I finished the huge revisions and turned them in. Now I'm just waiting for the feedback. My beta readers liked it and my agent seems to like it. He's been a little stingy on his comments since we sold it, so it's a little tough to judge where he really stands, but he's got good reasons. If he likes something my editor hates or vice versa, it might confuse me, and we all know I'm easily confused.

Have I mentioned today that my agent pretty much rocks?

Now that the major revisions are done, my focus is turning to what comes next. Truthfully, it's been weighing heavily on me. I have so many ideas it's so often difficult to choose one. Since I wrote Deathday, I've written a few chapters of a terrorist thriller, half a book about an invisible boy, an entire book that would rather be a graphic novel, two wiki's full of info on stories I'd like to start, and 3/4 of a book about a dead soldier and his brother. They're like bodies strewn along behind me of stories I fell out of love with.

Perseverance is part of the game, and if I didn't have 4 finished books (one a 140k word YA Norse adventure I hand wrote) I'd worry about my ability to finish work, but for me it's more about finding the right idea. But it's like dating. Sometimes you have to date a lot of bad ideas before getting to the good one. So that's what I'm doing. Dating ideas. That's where my agent is awesome. He let me know that I'm definitely a freak, but that I have time to figure this all out.

Continuing book news, I'm working on an idea that I'm tentatively calling Project Revolution. It's a mixed media thing that I'm fleshing out. I haven't got any more news on it than that, but I wanted to put it out there. Project Revolution. Because it's time for one.

Monday Funnies

Because Mondays shouldn't suck any more than they have to.

What if all the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park wanted to do was say, "Hey!"

See more funny videos and Funny Videos at Today's Big Thing.

And here's one for good measure. I don't care if this is staged, it's bloody brilliant.

Sunday Media Review: Torchwood Children of Earth

The only thing I really watched this week was the 5 night miniseries of Torchwood called Children of Earth. It was awesome.

Okay, so Torchwood is a BBC show. A Doctor Who spinoff. I didn't start watching Doctor Who until Russel T. Davies took over in 2005. It was neat because it's a fun, quirky sci-fi show that doesn't take itself too seriously, yet has moments of amazing character drama. I gave Torchwood (an anagram for Doctor Who for the curious) because it promised to be a darker, grittier show. And it was. It has sex and guns and seemed to be mostly no-holds-barred. Except when it sucked. The thing with the first two seasons of Torchwood is that when it was good, it was all right, but when it was bad, it was so bad I didn't want to admit that I'd even watched it. Still, it was announced that they'd be moved to BBC1 and given a 5 hour miniseries event for their third season.

I was a touch scared that it spelled the end of the show. I mean, the episode order was dropped from 13 to 5, that can't be good, right?

Wrong. I'll keep this spoiler free for those who haven't seen it yet. However, I will say that they upped their game. There wasn't a second wasted. Russel T. Davies is known for being self-indulgent and sentimental, but in this mini-series he tucked all that into a box and told a tight, well-plotted story with some outstanding character development (and some character devolution if I'm being totally honest). There wasn't a moment where I found myself bored. Not a moment where I was annoyed. I spent the whole time wondering what was going to happen next, and I was floored by the resolution.

You don't have to know anything about Torchwood to watch the miniseries beyond their a government agency on earth that battles alien threats. The drama is a little more raw if you've seen the first two seasons, but not necessary.

What I'm left wondering is how they move on from here. They essentially demolished the landscape of the show and I have no idea how they can go on. It was a major risk. However, shows like Heroes could stand to learn a little lesson from all this. Torchwood was getting too silly, taking itself too seriously, and becoming kind of a joke. In one five night story event, they completely recast this show as the gritty, serious, dark, and ambiguous show that it should have always been. A show like Heroes, which has grown ridiculous and bloated, should run a truncated season. Maybe 10 episodes. And eliminate 90% of the cast. Recenter the show and find a new purpose. Torchwood: Children of Earth, has shown how effectively it can be done.

I can't wait for season 4.

Here's the trailer for those who want to see it.

Health Stuff

I have an issue with my weight. My issue is that I probably don't have an issue.

I know that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Let me start at the beginning. See, I was

always very skinny. I could read all day and sit in school and never have to worry about gaining weight. I could eat anything and everything and never worry about gaining weight. This is what I looked like at 25 when my schedule consisted of working at Starbucks

and spending most of my days in college. I think I weighed about 130 in that picture. I didn't do anything special. Didn't diet, didn't exercise. I was a size 28 and never thought twice about it.

Time went on and at about age 27, I packed on some pounds. There were boring extenuating circumstances that involved me spending a lot of time hiding food in my bedroom from my roommate and eating a lot of Wendy's. I was at about 185ish and a 32. I was horrified. I went to the gym and got myself into shape. Down to 155 and a 30 waist. That was also the same time I was going through EMT and Fireman training. Then last year, right at about this time, I realized I'd gotten up to about 195. I was planning a Sept Europe trip and I wanted to be my best, so I went back to the gym and got down to a 32 waist and about 165 lbs.

Now I'm at about 200 lbs. I'm at a 35/36 waist. It's not so much that I eat unhealthy, though when stressed (like the last month while doing revisions) I tend to go through phases of

cravings. While submitting Deathday Letter I ate a LOT of frozen juice bars. Mostly my problem is that I spend 2-4 hours a day writing, which is time spent sitting. My day job is in IT, so I spend 80% of my 9 hours sitting.

It doesn't leave a lot of time for being active. I don't live in an area that's practical to do things like walk to work, and even if I did, the major problem is that (especially now) it's so darned humid that I'd be disgusting by the time I got to the office. I've joined the gym again and I've been a few times. Generally, I like the gym. And now that I'm starting back, I'm sure I'll be able to get back down to a healthy weight, but what I want to create is a sustainable lifestyle that ends this tired back and forth.

So I'm going to make a list of Challenges and Solutions. I'm going to put some of the solutions I'm trying over the next few months and if anyone has any others you think I should try, I'm game.

Challenges:

• Work requires me to spend 12-13 hours per day sitting
• Lack of local farmer's market for healthy food solutions
• Lack of time to cook (also lack of skill)
• Time restraints (two days a week I don't get home until after 8pm)
• Local environment isn't conducive to integrating exercise into daily activities
• Watch Too Much Television
• Lack of Motivation

Solutions:

• I set a goal to run a Marathon. It's doubtful I'll be ready this year, but I'm going to try anyway. When I was in the academy I was doing 7 miles a day easy.
• I'm declaring the rest of July and all of August, TV Free!
• I'm going to attempt to eat only fresh foods or frozen, healthy options.
• Spend a min of 40 minutes at the gym 5 times a week.
• Possibly bicycle to work?

Okay, that's it. I don't have too much more. This week I'll be hitting the gym fairly hard and trying to structure some kind of sustainable diet that's not a diet.

Where I've Been and Where I Want to Go

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Friday Mailbag: ALL ABOUT ME!

Since questions are lacking due to my internet obscurity, I'm going to present interesting facts about me.

Fact #1 - I'm Shaun. If anyone else says that they're Shaun, they're an impostor. Likely a doppelgänger attempting to take credit for my

massive future successes. No matter what he says, DON'T EAT THE COOKIES!

Fact #2 - When I was in sixth grade, my mother attempted to convince me to wear girls shoes.

Fact #3 - My first understanding of sex came from reading a book titled: The Devil's Cat. I was Nine.

Fact #4 - I nearly failed 11th grade English.

Fact #5 - I find it nearly impossible to stay awake in lecture type settings, including classes. Which is likely the cause of Fact #4.

Fact #6 - I can't fall asleep with my back facing the door, even if the door is locked. If someone's going to break in and kill me, I want to see their face.

Fact #7 - Ever since I saw the movie IT, if I think about the movie while in the shower or bathroom, I have to leave because of the scene where Pennywise comes up through the drain.

Fact #8 - I'm still not a hundred percent sure how to use commas correctly.

Fact #9 - People who mispronounce the word supposedly make me want to gnaw off their face. There's no B in supposedly, people!

Fact #10 - I was so skinny in my teens that when I went into the hospital for a minor procedure, my nurses were convinced I was anorexic. Yeah. No

t so skinny anymore.

Fact #11 - Not so much a fact as an anecdote. When I was 21 my mom saw me come downstairs in a suit and told me I looked handsome. I said, "You're my mom, you have to say stuff like that." She replied, "No really. I mean it. Because your dad and I were so worried you weren't going to grow out of your ugly phase." By the way, ugly phases, like the 70's, can come back.

Fact #12 - I went to Italy once and when I was in Rome, I accidentally wandered to Vatican City where I accidentally wandered into a crowd and saw the Pope speak. I even have a picture. Somewhere.

Fact #13 - I have held the following jobs: dishwasher, grocery bagger, computer builder, sunglass salesman, shoe salesman, waiter, GAP salesman, Discovery Channel Store, Starbucks barista, Wine company manager, I worked in a garden statuary, for Allstate, Levi's, a lawfirm, United Way, and my current job as an IT Geek.

Fact #14 - I disliked Catcher in the Rye. I also dislike all the works of Ernest Hemmingway.

Fact #15 - I once sold sunglasses to Alyssa Milano.

Fact #16 - I am not afraid of heights but I am afraid of falling.

Fact #17 - I played Little League as a boy. I sucked. My coach's philosophy was, "If you can't hit the ball, let the ball hit you." I grew so afraid of the ball that my baseball career ended mid-game when I refused to take my turn at bat because I couldn't face being hit anymore.

Fact #18 - I suffer from migraines.

Fact #19 - I am allergic to only one medication. Imitrex. Imitrex is also the one medication that effectively battles my migraines.

Fact #20 - I have 4 tattoos. I got each one on the anniversary of a specific significant event.

Fact #21 - My mom is only aware that I have 1 tattoo.

Fact #22 - I hate wearing shoes.

Fact #23 - When I was a teenager, I wrote only at night. Now that I'm an adult, I write only in the morning.

Fact #24 - I write an average of 2000 words per day.

Fact #25 - I throw out about an average 1400 of those words per day.

Fact #26 - My favorite cereal is Fruity Pebbles and my favorite chips are Cheetoh's.

Fact #27 - The first band I ever saw was Natalie Merchant.

Fact #28 - For most of my young life I believed I would die by age twenty.

Fact #29 - I very nearly died of liver failure two months before my 20th birthday.

Fact #30 - My best friend and I had a t-shirt company called Too Freaks. I use one of our shirt ideas in The Deathday Letter.

Fact #31 - I only drink coffee hot.

Fact #32 - Joss Whedon is my idol.

Fact #33 - My favorite number is 33.

Writing's a Battlefield

I listen to a surprising amount of Pat Benatar when I write. Pat, Aimee Mann, Dave Matthews, and The Kooks. Those are my go-to bands for writing. I'm not sure why. Probably because I've been listening to them so long that they sort of become white noise and let me focus.

Right. Wednesday. Writing Tips. Let me first say that I've written more stuff that's NOT publishable than is, so feel free to say, "What a tool!" and move on. I won't be offended. I might cry, but don't let that stop you. No really. Go ahead and go.

I've never been a fan of Stephen King. I'm just not a horror fan. I read "Salem's Lot" for a class in college and enjoyed it immensely, but I never cozied up to his whole collection like my brother did. I was too busy reading fantasy novels. Anyway. Even though I wasn't a fan of King's fiction, I found his book "On Writing," and picked it up. This was back when I was working on my second real attempt at a novel. It was slow going and I was having MAJOR doubts. Stephen King's book is pretty much the reason I'm published today.

The biggest thing I took from it was to always be honest. Be honest to your readers. Be honest to yourself. Never shy away from anything. If your character would say it or do it, then write it. Never censor yourself.

That's my first writing tip. Be Honest.

Why? Because if you're not, your readers will know. Especially in YA. If you're writing about a teenager FOR a teenager, not only are they going to know when you're being inauthentic, but they're going to call you out on it in a very big way.

And I'm not just talking about being honest about the topics you write. It doesn't mean you have to tackle Sex, Drugs, and Emo. I'm talking about honesty in every aspect. I'm talking about opening yourself up. I'm talking about getting out the fountain pen, tapping a vein, and getting some blood on the page.

If your writing isn't tapping your own emotions, then it's not real.

When I wrote The Deathday Letter, I tapped all my awkwardness from high school. All the times I was in school and I heard people talking about me. All my embarrassing moments. I didn't write them in, nothing in my book has ever happened to me, but I tapped the emotions. All the emotions in the book are real because I was honest about how I felt and how my characters would feel.

Right. So there it is. Be honest. Just trust me on this one.

Have an awesome day!

Back to Routine

Whew. Well that was fun. I got the first major revisions done to The Deathday Letter and turned them in. I feel really great about it. The people who have read it so far have really liked it. My friend Pam said she can't even remember what the old version was like. Which is a great compliment. My super-agent started reading it on the subway and cracked up, getting tons of weird looks. YAY!

So now I'll be catching up on blogging and fixing up my website (notice my new header!), getting author photos taken, and getting back to writing my next book.

I'm taking a cue from the awesome fellow Firebrander/author Shannon Morgan over at daily pie, and creating a format for the blog. So here goes:

Monday: Funnies. I hate Mondays so I'll be using Monday to post videos, websites, and anything else that made me laugh.

Tuesday: Book News!! On Tuesdays I'll share what I'm working on, any news I have about The Deathday Letter or any other project.

Wednesday: I'll be using Wednesdays to share any tidbits of cool writing stuff I might know. Anything from info about Query Writing to how to write awesome dialogue.

Thursday: Book Reviews. I've got lots of book to review, so I'll be using Thursdays to discuss what I'm reading and how much I liked/disliked it.

Friday: Fridays will be Mailbag days. Got a question? Send it to shaundavidhutchinson {at} gmail dot com and I'll answer it. Since I know not too many people read this...yet...I'll answer random questions until I get enough emails. Yes. Yes I do prefer briefs over boxers. See how easy that was?

Saturday: I'll use Saturday to update everyone on how much weight I've lost/gained and how my marathon training is going (miserably right now). I think public humiliation is the best way to motivate me.

Sunday: Since I watch too many TV shows and movies and listen to entirely too much music, I'll be posting some of my favorites from the week on Sundays.

So there. That's how it is. By the way, did I tell you I finished my revisions? And then threw myself a party.

Until tomorrow.