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/

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.