Things That Make Me Smile

Reading by flashlight, a time honored tradition in this house :)

And what's keeping her up when she should really be asleep?
The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo.

Obviously, Momma needs to read this book, too!

Author Spotlight on: Terry Lynn Johnson

We’ve all heard the adage: Write what you know. Sometimes, it’s actually good advice. 

It worked for author Terry Lynn Johnson, debut author of DOGSLED DREAMS. In a crowded literary world filled with vampires, witches and snarky teens, DOGSLED DREAMS stands out from the rest because it’s so…well, different.

The book came out last month through 4RV Publishing, and Terry is here today to talk about her journey so far.

I can’t think of a lot of books on this topic, though I do remember reading Gary Paulsen’s Winterdance a few years back. What made you think about bringing this story to the children’s market?
When I went to races with my dog team, I was constantly asked the same questions by spectators. Questions about my life in general with the dogs. People are curious about the lifestyle and they want to make sure the dogs are being treated well. Especially kids! It was important to me to show how amazing it is to share your life with sled dogs. To try and portrait how strong the relationship is between a musher and her dogs. How it's that special relationship - that bond and trust, that keeps the integrity of the sport. Gary Paulsen is also a musher. His books are a joy to read.

I know you canoe and kayak and do a lot of outdoorsy activities. Do you actually have any experience with dogsledding?
For over ten years I had my own team. I raced, guided overnight expeditions, even went to Alaska for a winter and handled for a team running the Iditarod and worked for a dogsledding company in the Yukon. Every dog in DOGSLED DREAMS is inspired by my own real life dogs. All the names are the same, as well as some of their quirks. 

Wow, that's impressive! So you know this topic very well!
I’m not exactly a city girl, but the whole dogsledding thing seems really foreign. How hard was it to make the story accessible for all readers?
At the heart of dogsledding you find universal themes. Love and trust. That is easy for anyone to relate to. I weaved in some technical information, some mushing terminology too, but hopefully in a way that a reader will understand and learn. I've had readers email me and say they now feel like an apprentice musher after reading the story. That is so wonderful to hear!

Even after finding a small publisher on your own, you were still querying agents. How surreal has it felt to sign with your dream agent and have a book come out so close together?
It has been quite a year. I feel extremely lucky.

And are you out on sub with another book through your agent? Can you tell us the pitch for that book?
My latest project: A 15-year-old musher, a boy with a secret, and a fight for survival.

Secrets and survival -- sounds like another exciting read!

You’ve done some pretty out of the box marketing for this book. Not everyone can talk about their Junior Musher Video Contest! And the little stuffed Huskies were too cute! How did you manage to find such creative tie-ins? 
I can NOT take credit for the Junior Musher Video Contest. That was the brilliance of my publicist Kirsten Cappy of Curious City. She has awesome ideas and it seems an unlimited supply of energy. I couldn't have done it without her.

What has been the most amazing part of your journey so far?
The support from readers. Their enthusiasm and selfless assistance with promotion completely blows me away! Also, connecting with the writing community. I've made so many great friends. 

I know lots of people on the East Coast have been suffering under this Snowmageddon. Any professional tips for staying warm? :-)
Find a buddy. Or a good book!

Thanks, Terry! Stay warm with DOGSLED DREAMS. Hey, that could be your new slogan :P

DOGSLED DREAMS has been selected as a recommended read by the Iditarod Education Department. The book is available through Indiebound, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Read more about Terry and DOGSLED DREAMS:
First chapter of DOGSLED DREAMS
Terry's website: http://www.terrylynnjohnson.com/
Terry's blog: http://terrylynnjohnson.blogspot.com/

Winners: On the List and Off

E-books have made it easier for self-published authors to reach readers in a way that wasn't possible even five years ago, and some of them are making quite a splash. For the first time ever, the USA Today Top 150 best sellers list included a self-published author, Amanda Hocking.

If you haven't heard her name yet, you're in the minority. This prolific 26-year-old from Minnesota uploaded a few of her completed novels to Amazon, Smashwords and B&N last March. Since then, she's sold more than half a million copies. Do you see where she is on this list? #16. Yeah, sandwiched between Suzanne Collins and Jeff Kinney!

And that's not her only title on the list. She has another book at #24 and one at #31. Pretty amazing for someone who hit the market less than a year ago!

You can read her interview at the USA Today website. So tell me, if you have an e-reader, have you read any self-published titles? How did they stack up against traditionally published books? And does Amanda Hocking's success make you want to start uploading your book to Amazon?

Well, I'm about to make three people happy with some old-fashioned hard cover books :)

The winner of Mockingjay is:

The winner of Catching Fire is:

The winner of Beautiful Darkness is:

Congratulations to all of you! Email me at solvangsherrie at gmail dot com with your snail mail address and I'll get your books to you next week.

Have a great weekend!

How Do You E-Read?

I didn't want a Kindle. It was never on my wish list, not something I thought I would use. But when I won one without even trying, I wasn't about to turn it down.

Even after it arrived in our house, I avoided it. What can I say? I love the feel of pages beneath my fingers. I like looking at my titles on the book shelf and pulling out one that I love and thumbing through to find a favorite passage.

But the day Mockingjay released, I woke up around 1:30 a.m. and downloaded it to my Kindle. I'd finished reading it by the time my local book store opened, although I did go in and pick up my pre-ordered copy. And that was kind of cool, to have immediate access to the book, right when I wanted it.

When we went on vacation I downloaded about ten new books onto my Kindle to read. Much easier than lugging along the printed versions. We also brought along the iPad my husband gave me for Christmas and downloaded some books for the kids. I went back and forth between the Kindle and the iPad for my reading, and I was impressed that no matter which device I used, it always opened to the last page I read. The kids enjoyed the novelty of electronic reading and appreciated the color illustrations on the iPad over the grayscale images on Kindle.

So, I guess all of that is to say that while I still enjoy having physical, paper books in my possession, I'm also seeing the benefit of the e-readers. According to this article in the New York Times, e-book sales jumped sharply after Christmas, and more than ever, books for children are fueling that rise.

Has your family joined the e-revolution? Which device do you (and/or your kids) read on and why?

And if you'd like to win some old-fashioned hard-cover books, I've got copies of Beautiful Darkness, Catching Fire and Mockingjay up for grabs. Leave a comment on the post below, telling me which ONE book you'd like to be entered for, before midnight on Thursday. I'll announce the winners on Friday.

Take Your Pick -- 3 Books up for Grabs

Some free books have fallen into my lap so I thought I'd pass them on to a few people who might not have read these titles yet. Leave me a comment, telling me which ONE you'd like to read. I'll announce the three winners on Friday. Good luck to you all!!

Revisiting Brilliance

I read the Sorcerer's Stone out loud to my husband when it was first released. I was pregnant with our first child at the time, and the cover of the book caught my attention. I had no idea what I was getting into, but oh, how that book swept me away!

I read the entire series to my son the summer between third and fourth grade. It was so much fun diving back into the wizarding world and discovering it again with an eight-year-old. I noticed things I hadn't seen before, found even more to love about the series. And now, after visiting Harry Potter World in Orlando, my daughter has asked me to read the books out loud to her. Of course, brother and father are quite happy to listen in again :)

Opening those pages is like connecting with an old friend, someone you'd forgotten just how much you liked and why. The foreshadowing of characters (Sirius Black doesn't become important until book 3, but he's in chapter 2 of this first book, and of course Mrs. Figg), crucial plot points (parsel tongue at the zoo) and the humor. I forget just how funny J.K. Rowling can be. I laughed so hard I cried as I read Chapter 3, with Mr. Dursley desperately trying to keep Harry from getting his acceptance letters. It's one of the most hilarious things I've ever read!

But foreshadowing, a funny chapter and well-executed plot points weren't the only things that made these books international bestsellers. In addition to doing all that, Rowling created amazingly real characters, placed them in a fantastic world just beyond our eyes, and told us their stories in an incredibly compelling way. Not too much to expect from a book, right?

Yeah, I'm falling in love with her brilliance all over again.

Agent Spotlight on: Michelle Humphrey

I’m thrilled to welcome the wonderful Michelle Humphrey to my blog today. Most of you know that she signed me back in December (yay!) so today you're getting a peek into her job as an agent at ICM. 

Michelle has been working at agencies since 2007. Her latest deal, just announced last week, is for debut author Joanne Levy, whose middle grade novel, SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE, sold to Bloomsbury Children's. (Congratulations again, Joanne and Michelle!!)

So, first off, what did you do before you were an agent?  

I was a kindergarten teacher, and a substitute for elementary and high school. 

No wonder we have such a connection! It's the teacher thing :)  What made you leave the classroom behind to become an agent?  

As much as I enjoyed teaching, I wanted to work in publishing. I worked at Art in America for a while, and then started interning at an agency.

How many queries do you read a month?  
About a hundred. 

Wow, my eyeballs hurt just thinking about it! 
What piques your interest in a query?
 I like them short and sweet: a quick teaser, a quick bio. I like queries that give me a sense of the writer's personality and style.  I think it's a great idea for writers to workshop queries with their writer groups. 

I totally agree with that. (I would also recommend Elana Johnson's blog for some good query writing tips.)
How many clients do you have right now?  
Fifteen or so -- they write young adult, middle grade, picture books, and literary fiction.  

Can I just say how happy I am to be one of the 15?  So. Very. HAPPY :) 

As you go through those queries, what are you hoping to find right now? 

I'd love a middle grade or YA that takes place in turn-of-the-century France. I'd love an alternate history, or a steampunk. I'd really dig a retelling of Shakespeare.

Hmmm....*jotting down ideas...*

When we spoke on the phone, you mentioned that your authors all have a certain way of treating their characters that really spoke to you. Could you explain that more?  
I am really drawn to characters who are self-aware and emotionally smart. Characters -- antagonists included -- who, in spite of themselves, care for each other, and want to connect with each other. I like villains that I empathize with, and heroes that are sometimes their own worst enemy. I like characters who are trying to figure out what it means to live a meaningful life. I love it when the battle between good and evil is blurred somehow. Kekla Magoon's CAMO GIRL is a perfect example. So is Denise Jaden's LOSING FAITH which has so many great human moments.

I know a lot of people worry about their web presence and whether they should be blogging, Twittering, Facebooking, etc. What’s your view on that?  
So much marketing hinges on online presence. Do it all -- blog, twitter, facebook. Or...do what you can. (You still need time to write your story, after all. :) 

Have you ever not worked with someone based on a lackluster blog or lack of web presence?  
No. You can certainly develop that once you have a agent, or a book deal.

I know some writers think going to a conference will give them an edge if they meet an agent in person. But have you signed more people from referrals, conferences or cold queries?  

Referrals and queries, largely. I would agree that it's great to meet an agent in person, but why not utilize everything: send queries, blog, go to book launch parties, go to writing workshops. There's so many ways to connect.

Besides books from your clients, what are some of your favorite books you've read in the last year? 
Most of the books I read are galleys in no particular pub-date order; I pick up whatever's on top of the pile :)

• Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas
• The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
• Skinned by Robin Wasserman
• The Total Tragedy of a Girl Named Hamlet by Erin Donne
• A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily Horner
• Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore
• Anything But Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin

Next in my pile: Matched by Ally Condie and Across the Universe by Beth Revis.

Oooh, great books in that list. And the next two in your pile were a couple of my favorite reads for last year. (Go Beth!!)

What’s your best bit of advice for aspiring authors?  

I think one of the hardest parts of trying to get published is the amount of rejection a writer may experience before they break through. But -- at the risk of sounding cliche -- it's part of the business. A rejection could be an opportunity to learn something. Go forth with an attitude of "There's something positive in this -- this brings me a step closer to my goal." It's that kind of attitude that will keep you learning your craft, and sending out your queries -- and hopefully, connecting with the right agent and the right editor.

And it's exactly that kind of attitude that makes me proud to be one of her clients! 

Thanks so much for taking the time out for this interview, Michelle!

If you'd like to read more about Michelle, here is her spotlight from Casey McCormick's blog, Literary Rambles: Agent Spotlight: Michelle Humphrey

And some additional interviews from around the web:

Guide to Literary Agents, Agent Advice: Michelle Humphrey
Guide to Literary Agents, Successful Queries: Michelle Humphrey on "Losing Faith"
Class of 2K10, Agent Perspective: Michelle Humphrey from ICM!
All the Write Stuff: Meet Literary Agent Michelle Humphrey
Denise Jaden: Agent Interview with Michelle Humphrey

UPDATE 1 NOVEMBER 2011 : Michelle Humphrey has moved from ICM to the Martha Kaplan Agency, where she will be helping to develop a children's list for the boutique agency.
If you have a completed manuscript that you're ready to query, you can email  michelle@kaplanagency.net  Be sure to include the first chapter along with the query.