UVU Book Academy Report ... And Queries

My very first writing conference was the UVU Book Academy in 2010. It's a one-day conference held at the local university. I thought it was an amazing event then because I had nothing to compare it to. I was also extremely new and raw to this writing thing. I'd completed one book (and was editing it) and had written 50,000 words of a new project (something I'm dying to get back to).

It was a very different experience this year because I knew people, and I actually understood some of what they were talking about. I even knew more about some stuff than other people there.

Scary. I mean, really. Me? Knowing more than someone else? But it showed me how much I've learned in the last last year. Sometimes those little advancements we make are slow enough we don't notice them.

I got some pictures with people whose blogs I follow.

David Powers King (click here for his blog)

Brenda Sills (click here for her blog)

Michelle Teacress (click here for her blog)

I got to touch base with a wonderful lady I met last year, who's toying with the idea of writing a nonfiction book but hasn't taken the plunge yet. And I connected with two awesome ladies who are members of my League of Utah Writers chapter and my ANWA group--Canda Mortensen and Deanna Henderson. They are a mother/daughter writing team (how fun is that?), and with another author, Cindy Hogan, they've started a writing network called iWriteNetwork. You can check it out here.

Dan Wells, one of my favorite authors, was the Keynote Speaker. You might recognize him from his I Am Not a Serial Killer series (which I reviewed here). Dan also cohosts Writing Excuses (with Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, and Mary Robinette Kowal). Dan's funny and addressed a question he gets a lot from people. "Where do you get your ideas from?"

Quote of the day: 

"It is not about ideas; it's about turning ideas into stories.

~Dan Wells

 Dan then went on to demonstrate how ideas are all around us, from news stories to politics to science to casual observation of the people around us. He had people suggest a simple statement and then go on to see how that could be developed by asking questions. Some of the suggestions were funny, but Dan made them hilarious. There were some with real story potential.

Queries

I'm in the process of writing (and rewriting, and rewriting, and rewriting) my very first query. I've done a ton of query writing research and have had several people look at it and will take it to my live critique group on Saturday. It's been quite the experience. It still needs work, but I've made progress, which I find encouraging. Because of this I was particularly interested the the following class today.

Kirk Shaw, a senior editor at Covenant Communications, and Lisa Mangum, author and editor for Deseret Book, presented a class on "Writing Killer Query Letters", which they renamed "Writing Nondreary Query Letters."

Prequery Research

• Read your genre
• Try and find a publisher or agent who already represents books you like to read
• Find out what the publisher's or agent's expections are
• Follow agents blogs who review queries
• Pay attention online to input on how agents/publishers treat their writers. No relationship is perfect, but be cautious about jumping in where the fit doesn't work
• Check page length / word count requirements

Placing Your Story

• Set the genre
• Compare to similar books either in style, voice, or theme where it applies. Don't make it up if there isn't a similarity.

Tone

• Be professional. You can decide to treat it as a business contract proposal (which it really is) or you can try and capture the tone from your book. 
• Get into a simple review of the story

Hook (Lisa took this from a class author Scott Savage taught)

• Who it is about
• What the goal is
• What the obstacle is
• What are the consequences / cost of failure

A great place to see how well hooks can be done is to read the dust jacket of books.

Summary

This should lead them to want to keep reading.

References / Credentials

• Why should they invest in you as a brand?
• Are you a serious writer? What have you done to prove that? Are you already published? Do you attend writers conferences or belong to writers groups to further your knowledge of the craft?
• Can they trust you to be a partner in the publishing process?
• You may share other projects you're working on, even if they aren't finished.
• If it's a series or has series potential, this is where you'd mention that.

They suggested writing your back copy and then writing the book. You can then go back and see if you met your goals and rewrite the back copy.

From the rest of the conference, I came away with lots to think about, especially as I begin the plotting process for my NaNo project.

Have you written a query letter yet?

If not, do you have any plans for when you do?

If you have, do you have any suggestions for us noobs?

Review - I Am Not a Serial Killer Series

Last weekend, I finished the third book in Dan Wells' series. The books are I Am Not a Serial Killer, Mr. Monster, and I Don’t Want to Kill You. I wanted to stew on them for a few days before writing about the series as a whole.

I heard about the first book in the series when I was listening to an episode of Writing Excuses (hosted by Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler). Brandon commented on how well Dan had done making a normally unsympathetic main character (he’s a sociopath who dreams and has fantasies of torturing and killing people) into someone you love and worry about, someone you’re cheering for, cringing for, having dang nightmares for!

The first book wasn’t high on my list of reading priorities because I don’t really read horror anymore. When I was a child, I loved to be scared to death. LOVED it. Used to make my mother nuts because I’d end up on her side of my parents’ bed. I guess I knew my father wouldn’t have any patience with my self-induced nightmares. I gave horror up when, as a young widow, I was scared to go down the dark hallway to one of my crying children. Single parenthood and Stephen King were not a good fit.

Back on topic, I continued to hear rave reviews about Dan’s book, so I decided to download the audiobook. You can see my review of I Am Not a Serial Killer here.

Mindy over at LDS Women's Book Review warned me that she found Mr. Monster the hardest of

the three books. Because of my response to the first book, hearing this from Mindy really made me nervous. But it makes sense this middle book in the trilogy would be dark (dark for an already dark series? Hmmm).

John Cleaver, our hero, after his success in the first book, is losing control of his dark side, his Mr. Monster. The rules he'd so carefully put in place to save him (and society) from his inner demon had to be loosened in order to be the victor in the first book. But once rules have been broken, they're much harder to put back together again.

Whereas I took a break and read another tome between the first two books, I jumped right into the last one. It's longer, and John has to deal with more issues (like Mr. Monster isn't enough, right?). Girls at school are killing themselves, and a serial killer is loose in Clayton County again ... and John has some responsibility for it. But he's also better in control of his monster, and he's making progress socially.

I'm not going to say too much about what actually happens, but there are some really horrible things and some really wonderful things that happen to our John. The journey he makes in this book, the growth and self discovery, are profound. And exquisite for me, the reader.

Perhaps some of what struck a cord with me in this seris is John's dealing with his mental illness. I have many friends and family members who struggle with mental illness. I've lived through a suicide and several attempted suicides of people very close to me. I've felt the consequences of loving someone with a devastating mental illness. People can have one and struggle through the challenges and carve a decent life for themselves. They can love and grow and be active participants in their families and society.

At the end of this last book, I cried. I cried for the poignant discovery John made about himself. He suffered some terrible losses, yet the very pain he experienced brought hope. For others trying to find their way through life's challenges, John Wayne Cleaver is an inspiration. Real life readers may not be able to go out and hunt supernatural demons, but sometimes hunting--and dominating--their own demons is enough.

I highly recommend this series.

Life, the Universe and Everything (LTUE)

What a fun three days! I can definitely say that I enjoyed this conference (symposium) better than any I've attended for my work. Hmmm. How can learning about writing and getting to hear some of your favorite authors talking about their craft be more fun than, say, taking minutes ... or annexations ... or (heaven forbid) records management?

But seriously, I enjoy my work related conferences because they help me do my day job. And LTUE did that, too, though for a different job, my part-time job.

Robin Weeks drove down and stayed with me, and we worked as "Gophers" for the conference--the staging room for the Gophers was called ... yes, the Gopher Hole. The head Gopher was named Toad.

Really.

He's a great guy. Gophering wasn't an onerous job. We signed up for different sessions (so many more options than we provide for my work conferences--my education committee would literally die if they had to get speakers for that many breakout sessions). We were responsible for making sure there was water and cups for the presenters/panelists, taking roll, and giving the 5-minute warning. It gave us an opportunity to chat with the panelists, though Robin's a lot more confident than I am about approaching them. I'm certainly not shy, but I haven't got the chutzpah she has.

At the end of the three days, they have a Gopher Bash and awarded a prize to the most helpful Gopher. The young man who won the prize (a size 5X T-shirt donated by Howard Tayler [comedic webcomic known for Schlock Mercenery] or Dan Wells [best known for writing I Am Not a Serial Killer] and who both cohost Writing Excuses with Brandon Sanderson [not able to attend]--can't remember if Howard or Dan donated the shirt). Anyway, the winner was a very slender young man, and the young Gophers decided to see how many of them could fit in the shirt:

The Symposium

There were so many attendees! I heard they had 1,300 people. It's held on the BYU campus, and students can attend for free, so it's a wonderful opportunity. The cost is minimal at $20 if paid in advance or $25 at the door. (that's for all 3 days).

James Dashner of the Maze Runner trilogy fame was one of the two keynote speakers. Hilarous man. He was on many panels and brought a lot to the discussions as he talked about his journey to being published. What really struck me was how dreadful his first book signing went. It made me think of Natalie Palmer's experience, though she's already learned how to make those go better. It was funny, when James gave Brodi Ashton a shout out but then teased her about needing help deciding which agent to go with (yes, she had several wanting to represent her).

What would that be like?

There were so many great sessions. Following are some of the words of advice I wrote down:

• Critique groups can be wonderful, but they can also be crippling. Put your work in the hands of people you trust. -- James Dashner
• Let yourself be jealous because it makes you ambitious. -- James Dashner
• Don't write just what's hot in the market. -- Tyler Whiteside
• Attend writers conferences -- Tyler Whiteside and James Dashner (and others)
• Critique groups should include people who like and read your genre. -- Mette Ivie Harrison
• Write more than one book before trying to publish because once you start marketing you have so little time to write. -- Anna Del C Dye
• The average number of books sold by self-publishing authors is 16.
• For a killer opening you need a first sentence that makes the reader want to read the first paragraph which makes the reader want to read the first chapter.
• When writing strong women, they don't have to 'kick butt' in a physical sense but can be strong as problem solvers, be proactive, stand up for what they believe, act with strength in spite of their weaknesses.
• Pay it Forward -- be supportive of other fledgling writers. Don't say negatives things about other writers' works. If you don't like them, don't say anything.
• If you write a childrens' book and schedule school visits, it's good to to plan a book signing in a location in the area of the school within a week of the visit.
• Romance works when the reader buys into the characters and believes in them as a couple. In a sense, the reader needs to fall in love, too.
• Don't sacrifice your story for reality.
• Don't quit.
• Don't think you've got it made when you start selling.
• Don't let rejections get you down. Go out to dinner with every 10th rejection.
• Finish that first manuscript.
• The best way to get out of the Slush Pile is to get into it in the first place.
• Network - be nice to everybody
• There's no one right way to write a story.
• The writer's job is to write the best story ever; let the editor fix the punctuation.
• Favorite new word: "suckify" by Elana Johnson
• A pitch to an agent is short, emotionally driven, interesting, full of conflict, about someone, your book in bullet points. It is NOT rambling, every plot point, bland, without conflict, about the 40,000 people who live in the world you've created.

And the best word of advice from James Dashner: The first thing you have to do to be published is be born.

ETA:

A quote by author Dave Farland that I posted on Facebook got a response from a college professor friend of mine:

"You can learn a lot of bad habits in college writing classes." --Dave Farland

Bert commented (bolding is mine):

as a college writing instructor, I agree...

Academic writing is suitable for the academic world, just as legal or business or military writing is suitable for a particular audience. The beginning lesson for any writing class OUGHT to be understanding audience and purpose.

There's a time to express oneself and a time to realize "This isn't about me," but there is never a time to forget the audience.

I thought that was brilliant.