Interview with Agent Wendi Gu

It’s a new year so let’s start it off with an interview from new-ish agent Wendi Gu of Greenburger Associates. She represents one of my critique partners, so I already know she has great taste (if I could insert the grinning emoticon here, I would). Wendi is looking for authors, author-illustrators and illustrators only. And, as you’ll see by her answers, she will be a champ of an advocate for any client she takes on. Wendi reps kidlit and some adult lit–read on for details. Thank you, Wendi, for your time!

You’re a new agent at Greenburger Associates and have been working with Brenda Bowen—wow. What led you to agenting and to Greenburger? 

Brenda Bowen indeed! She’s been a fabulous, encouraging mentor, and I’m very lucky to work with her. I came into agenting by accident–I knew I wanted to be in New York, and that I wanted to work in books. When I was still studying creative writing at Northwestern, I sent an internship application to every single publishing house and agency I could find. I wasn’t very picky then. At that point, I didn’t even know that there was a difference between agenting and editing! Or what an imprint was. Or what “delivery advance” meant. I never heard back from most places. But lo and behold, I received an internship offer from Greenburger, and worked there the summer before my final year of college. A few months before I was slated to graduate, I got a call that Greenburger was looking to fill an assistant position. I snapped up the position. Then, about a year ago, I was given the green light to agent my own titles. 

If you'd like to read the rest, please visit my site at: https://johnelldewitt.com/2017/01/19/interview-with-agent-wendi-gu/

Historical Middle-Grade Fiction Mayan Style

Mayan village in Legos. My oldest child's project.

I'm gaining a steadfast appreciation for writers of historical fiction, especially writers of historical fiction for children. In my last post, I talked about Stone Lions by Gwen Dandridge. We finished that book, and we're now reading The Well of Sacrifice by Chris Eboch.

Goodreads listing

Eboch doesn't pull many punches in describing the blood-letting ritual and the more grotesque aspects of Mayan culture while still painting a relatable main character. We're only a few chapters into it, but my children are experiencing the Mayan culture in a way they've not gathered from the Mayan sites they've actually visited.

Copan ruins in Honduras

The depth of research Eboch, and illustrator Bryn Barnard, put into the story must have taken years and sleepless hours of vetting everything that went into the book. And writing about a society whose customs were often violent is not an easy topic to pull off for a middle-grade novel. I'm so glad Eboch managed it, however, because it enlivens this part of history for my children, pulling them into a culture and era so far removed from their own.

I've been working on my own 80s era middle-grade novel--it makes me want to swallow my teeth to think the 80s are now considered historical--and it has kept me awake sorting and resorting the details and plots in my mind. Not to mention the links, notes, etc. that I have to collect. And that's for a "history" I actually (mostly) lived through! 

My new heroes are historical fiction writers for children. 

I'm looking forward to digging further into Eboch's books. I'm surrounded by Mayan history, but only in fallen stones and broken pottery. This book is giving me a way to visualize the people behind the tumbled temples and pottery shards. We'll see if the ending is as compelling as the beginning, but so far, so good. 

Have a great week.

Fat Men and Girdles

Well, I've done it. I've finished a working draft of a novel I've been belaboring over for a while now. Yes, it still stinks and yes, it needs major revision, but I finally got it to a place where the need for beta readers is fast encroaching. As my former college roommate would say in moments of great relief, "I feel like a fat man with his girdle undone."

In celebration for this happy occasion, I've included a brief video about revision...just to get me inspired all over again.

Have a great week.

Thinking Outside the Book Cover

I'm still settling into to our new home, but had the fortune of watching the video above. It's an interview for SCBWI, of Julie Hedlund, author and founder of 12x12. The publishing world is adapting and Julie's interview exposes one way to think outside the traditional methods of getting published. It's definitely worth viewing.

On another note, I joined WriteOnCon for the first time this year. We had the chance of having agents view our queries and first five pages or first 250 words. I posted a middle grade novel I've been working on and a picture book. I can't say I got any agent comments, but I definitely benefited from the other writers' comments who graciously took time out to critique my stories.

Forums like 12x12, Verla Kay's Blueboards (now the SCBWI Blueboards), PiBoIdMo, NaNoWriMo and WriteOnCon are all great ways to meet other writers and learn the ins and outs of the publishing world for anyone seriously considering a plunge into the world of writing.  

And to take a page off of Leandra's blog, here's my favorite line from my historical-fiction, middle grade novel that I posted in WriteOnCon:

I heard the screen door slam and saw my father’s shadow skirt the corner and disappear. The truck started up and the sounds of it pulling away masked the clanging of the pots coming from the kitchen. 

Whatever my mom was doing stopped when Grandma entered. She rarely came out of her room, but when she did, we had to be on our best behavior. 

Happy Writing. 

Weekend Links: The Heroes Journey, The Benefits of Anti-social Behavior, and Ancient Teens

In a previous post, I mentioned that I'm taking Emma Walton Hamilton's middle grade writing class. I'm learning so much. One of my favorite lessons dealt with the plot device called the heroes journey. The video above explains it nicely.

The video below will make you feel so much better if you are even slightly anti-social.

 And finally, if you're planning to write a book for ancient Roman teenagers, the next video is for you. Okay, seriously though, it's a great look into the life of a teen--the differences and similarities over time. The stuff that many good modern novels are made of.

Have a great weekend. I'll have some fun news to post soon, so stay tuned.

Weekend Links: The Beauty of Human Collaboration

I saw the above clip today with Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury and thought it was perfect to illustrate what happens when a writer and an author add their distinct interpretations to a story. Bear Hunt is a classic I've read to my children, not quite 2500 times, but pretty close. Okay, not that close. Anyway, it's fun and educational to learn the story behind the story.

The video below shows one of my favorite illustrators (who has also authored his own stories), Chris Riddell. He and Paul Stewart have collaborated on a number of fantasy books for children. It's a great overview of what happens when art and words, and the people who craft them, work together.




And the final video, well it's a life insurance ad from Thailand. I'm not sure how effective it is as an ad--I guess if it were a Kleenex tissues ad--but it's quite a glorious message so don't let the advertising deter you. The video has nothing to do with writing, per se, but it is about the human experience which is what we, as writers, seek to unfold.

Have a great weekend.

Weekend Links: Online Course taught by Emma Walton Hamilton

I signed up for Julie Hedlund's 12x12 writing program this year. I've benefited immensely from all the resources Julie has offered, not the least of which was an opportunity to be selected as a beta student for award-winning author Emma Walton Hamilton's Middle Grade/Chapter Book course.

I'm only one week into the 14-week course, but I feel like I've already had those light-bulb moments that I need to fix a languishing middle grade novel.

Some of the tips that resonated with me were:

• Each character needs to further the story. If not, the character needs to go or be combined.
• Each chapter needs an ending hook to keep the reader wondering what's next.
• Each page needs emotional or dramatic tension.
• Don't preach. Let the story set up a scene that allows the reader to draw their own conclusions.

One of the exercise we were asked to do was to write down the dramatic question. What is it that the reader needs to learn or achieve by the end of the book? Keep that question in mind as you draft your plot.

Emma also recommended a book on writing that intrigued me greatly: The Writer's Journey, by Christopher Vogler. Vogler uses the mythic structure explored by Joseph Campbell to outline an effective story-telling method.

There's much more, but that was enough to get me going in a direction I needed. I'll update as the class goes on. Emma has a picture book class and now a middle grade and young adult class she offers through her site, http://justwriteforkids.com.

She is a faculty member for Stony Brook Southampton's MFA in Creative Writing and Literature, which means I'm basically getting a college course on my computer at my own pace with an award-winning author to teach me. I'm so excited to have this opportunity and so is my poor novel.

Have a great weekend.

P.S. The video is Emma and her mother, Julie Andrews talking about writing and how it links up with other art forms. I love it. Perhaps because of my own acting background, but I thought if ever I do a school presentation, a reader's theater would be a great way to get children to interact with your book.

Weekend Links: Eric Carle, Aussie Vintage Stories, and a Children's Lit Panel

As a writer, I find the life stories of other writers extremely helpful in understanding how to use my own experiences to create my own stories. The following video interview of Eric Carle is a prime example of how his writing and art was influenced by the world around him. Full of juicy tidbits of writerly wisdom, it's well worth the 8 minutes:

One of my favorite courses in college was my legends, myths and folktales class. As I've traveled, I've tried to gather folktales from each place I've visited or lived in. All of these stories unfold in my mind at some point in generating ideas. Like Tolkein who used the myths he studied to formulate his own world, a study of literature from all parts of the globe enhances our ability to tell a timeless story. The following 4-minute video discusses a collection of vintage Australian children's literature that is available online. Can I just give a cheesy Aussie Awesome! And here's the link to the online collection: http://www.austlit.edu.au/CLDR

And finally, coming it at 42 minutes but worth each one (skip to minute 1:10 to get to the introductions) is a panel on children's literature hosted by Southampton's MFA in Writing and Literature. The authors on the panel are Emma Walton Hamilton, Peggy Kern and Tricia Rayburn. They discuss different genre's from picture books to young adult. 

Part two (36 minutes) is here and goes into more depth about the construct of the books in their genre of choice:

Technically a Loss, But Still a Win

The NaNo gods can judge me and perhaps find me wanting, but I feel like a winner. Okay, I didn't get 50,000 words on one novel, I got 37,000 words of an entirely new novel, plus about 17,000 words of a previously started novel ready to add to the greater whole.

The Plunge

Taking myself seriously as a writer has been the biggest hurdle in my progress. I toyed around with ideas I'd had for years, until I finally decided to write them down. Once I had them on paper, I realized I'd taken a step into the territory of a writer.  

I had to decide, do I keep going or cloister my stories in the safety of my hard drive? But there were ideas coming out in my writing that needed their own life, so I made another move, quite literally.