Um... So What Exactly Do I Say?

So, at the Romantic Times convention, I have an appointment with an agent and also with an editor for a major publishing house. I'm thinking the chance for a sit down one on one pitch session is a chance for me to excel.  After all, I was a professional actor for a long time. A nationally recognized public speaker. A bartender.  I can talk to anyone. Right?

Yeah, but what do I say?

Let me think: 

"Hello, Mr/Ms Big Time New York Agent/Editor For A House I Would Die To be Contracted By!  My name is Celina Summers. I write speculative fiction with a heavy dose of romance. I focus upon strong female protagonists and I'm really headed for the top!  Now--fork over my contract or I won't buy you a drink in the bar..."

Nope. Not it.

"Yo, babe. My name's Celina. You can call me Your Majesty.  I have the best manuscript in the world, the next great American novel--a guaranteed blockbuster that will make JK Rowling and Stepheny Meyer look like rank amateurs..."

Nope. Not it either.

"Um...hi.  Um...I wrote this book, you know? And it's about weird people who fall in love.  And magic. Can't forget the magic. And I like cats..."

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Wrong answer.

"You know, I queried you last week/month/year and you didn't request my manuscript so I figured I'd show up here and tell you why you were wrong..."

Next!

"My name is Celina and I am an alcoholic..."

Nope. Not a good idea.

"Hi. My name is Celina Summers.  Right now, I have five manuscripts completed in the genres of paranormal romance, urban fantasy and high fantasy.  Three are standalone books and two are the first books of potential series.  Chances are if you tell me what you're looking for, I have a manuscript that'll fill that need..."

Not bad, but the subtext would be "...and if it's not, I'll damn sure make certain it is before I send it to you..."

So let me think. What would I say?

This makes me fall back on the long days of cattle call auditions.  When you're auditioning for a role, you not only want to do a great job interpreting the script but you want to make certain you're memorable to the casting director.  Now, there were many occasions that I was memorable--mostly because I face-planted on the way onto the stage or did something completely stupid like tucking the back of my skirt into my panty hose.  (I don't recommend that as a good way to get a role, by the way--although I did manage to land that one for some odd reason)

So I'm going to have to rely on instinct.  Let's see where that takes me.

In a one on one situation, the best way to be memorable is to be personable and unaffected.  Fortunately, I'm very comfortable speaking with strangers.  I like to put people at their ease.  In an eight minute scheduled appointment with an agent or editor, I need to be able to do that swiftly.  I need to be able to get across as much information as possible as quickly as I can.  That means being able to boil my pitch (my query letter) down into three or four well-chosen sentences.  I need to relate my experience, publishing history and strengths as a writer without sounding like an overbearing asshat.

My manner, which in my debate days was kindly described as "formidable" and somewhat more accurately called "bitchy," needs to be calm and pleasant. And above all, I need to arrive at a point as soon as I possibly can where the agent/editor can ask me questions--and THAT means I need to make them interested in my work.

So to start off with, I think my best bet is to get that presentation as efficient as I possibly can and then work from there.  Keep an eye out on the blog--I'm going to make notes as we get closer to convention time and let you know what I'm thinking.  Then, as I'm planning an extensive blogging experience at RT, I'll let you know how my plans worked or if they didn't.

Oh, I haven't mentioned that yet have I? I will be updating my blog a minimum of three times a day at the RT Convention and I'll share as much as I can of the experience.  I'll be heading into it with a lot of momentum too.  Mythos 1: Bride of Death  is currently AMP's #1 seller on Mobipocket and Breaking the Covenants is currently ranked 35th on the Fictionwise Best Seller list for Dark Fantasy.

Aha!  Something else I can say.  Amazing how that works.

Blast From The Past Blasts Into The Present

So every once in a while, I get sideswiped. Not often--it takes a lot to confuse me. But when something happens that shocks me, I get really shocked.

For example:

I got an email this weekend from an old friend I haven't heard from in years.  Turns out she'd gotten a hold of my first book (The Reckoning of Asphodel) and really liked it. So she bought the rest of them. Granted, that's enough to make me excited.  After all, we've all had dreams of going back to high school and having someone completely random tell you, "Yeah, I've read your book/seen your movie/danced to your album/been to one of your games." Right?

Well, she took it a bit further.  She had emailed me to inform me that having read my blog and my website and noting all the Preditors and Editors Readers Poll nominations I've gotten in the past, she thought she'd go vote for me this year.  And, when she didn't find my stuff on the Readers Poll yet, she nominated me.

So, allow me to announce the following:

Apostle of Asphodel, the concluding novel of my fantasy series The Asphodel Cycle, has been nominated for Best Sci Fi/Fantasy Novel of 2009.

Metamorphosis, the collection of my spec fic short stories published by Aspen Mountain Press, was nominated for Best Anthology.  Also, in a complete coincidence as best I can tell, the cover art by Renee George was nominated for Best Cover Art.

Breaking the Covenants, the first book of the Covenants gothic vampire romance series co-written with Canadian author Rob Graham, was nominated for Best Erotica.

And, strangely enough, I was nominated for Author of the Year.

This is my third year in a row with nominations in the P&E Readers Poll.  Last year, the second Asphodel book, The Gift of Redemption, placed in the Top Ten for Best Sci Fi/Fantasy Novel while its sequel Temptation of Asphodel placed in the Top Ten for Best Novel. So now all four Asphodel novels have been honored with readers' nominations on the P&E poll, which I find very exciting and gratifying. As I've been proofing the print galleys for Reckoning, I've allowed myself to get caught up in the editing side of things.  But this has changed my focus, quite properly, back to where it should be--the reader.

And I figure that if I'm entertaining someone who is reading my work, I must be doing something halfway right. 

So Oxford commas and serial adverb abuse aside, please let me thank you, the people who read my stories, for allowing me the very great privilege and honor of sharing my worlds with me. Hopefully, the stories I write in the future will get better.  Hopefully, I improve in my craft.  Hopefully, one day, I may actually get one of these stories right.  But until then, thank you for bearing with me as I follow the writers' path.

If you wanted to check out the 2009 Preditors and Editors Readers' Poll and maybe...you know...vote or something, follow this link.

I'm off to go shovel more snow from the driveway.  And thus does the mundane burst my little bubble.  Then, maybe some football and perhaps...the tiniest little amount of shameless begging for votes.

It's Out! Apostle of Asphodel Published by Aspen Mountain Press!

Well, it's finally done. The final book of my epic fantasy series The Asphodel Cycle has just been released. Apostle of Asphodel, the follow-up novel to Temptation of Asphodel is now available from Aspen Mountain Press.

Here's hoping that all of you Asphodel fans enjoy the conclusion of the story. After the other Asphodel novels did so well and won so much recognition, especially Temptation as a Preditor and Editor Top Ten Novel of the Year for 2008 and runner up to Christine Feehan's Murder Game in the 2008 Golden Rose award voting, I'm praying that Apostle keeps the standards up.

I'll just go ahead and cheat and let you know that out of the four books in the series, Apostle is my favorite.

So now I have to ask myself--what's next? Is there another story down the road for Tamsen and Brial? There are other options in the Asphodel world for stories--the next generation, perhaps, or maybe a couple of secondary characters. I've played around a bit with some of them. Who can say? But for now, Tamsen and Brial are quiet. They've earned their rest after all; they've been running around for years now. Maybe that peace they're always talking about will come to them at last. Maybe they can actually have some fun for a bit.

Or maybe they're taking it easy on the Elysian Fields, where all of the other great, dead heroes of mythology end up. They could be hanging out with Achilles and Odysseus for all we know...

Guess you'll just have to buy the book to find out.

Thank you to everyone who's shared the journey of The Asphodel Cycle with me. And a huge thank you to my editor, Sandra Hicks, who is also the publisher at Aspen Mountain Press. If I breathed life into these characters, she made them toe the line. A huge shout out to Renee George, who creates such lovely covers for these books and who I devoutly hope does every cover for every single one of my books in the future.

But most of all, thank YOU for reading--and loving--the world of Asphodel. So for now, from the soaring streets of Leselle and the blossoming orchards of Asphodel and the busy markets of Geochon, we bid you all a fond adieu.

For now.

Oooh...shiny!

Look at what I've got! Two brand new shinies to share with you.

First:

The Asphodel Cycle 3:Temptation of Asphodel Top Ten Finalist for Best Novel of 2008 in the Preditors and Editors Annual Readers' Poll.

The Asphodel Cycle 2: The Gift of Redemption--Top Ten Finalist for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Novel of 2008 from the Preditors and Editors Annual Readers' Poll:

Can I just say...wow?!?!?!?!

Thank you to everyone who voted for my work and your continued support of my writing career and fragile ego. All three of the Asphodel novels have received a prestigious P&E award which, at least for a moment, makes me think I'm doing something right.

Which sets me up for this little tidbit. The Asphodel Cycle 4:Apostle of Asphodel will be released in May of 2009. It's the final installment in the Asphodel series, so if you haven't read the first three award winning novels now's the time to pick them up! That way you'll be ready for the final chapters in the story of Tamsen and Brial.

Once again, thanks for your votes and your love of my work.

Say That Again? A Winter Storm What?

No way.

The gods couldn't be that cruel.

There's no way that we've been issued a winter storm warning here. This is Ohio. We don't get our winter storms for another month or so. We just get pissy little snows that are gone from the roads before I even think of bestirring myself from my writer's crypt and venture out to Walmart to get cat litter.

Last night, when I was alert enough to think about the future, I thought, "You know...I need to go to the store in the morning and get cat litter." I even checked the weather--and laughed, laughed, I tell you!--at the poor slobs who live in Northern Ohio and who were going to get half a foot of snow tomorrow while we were content with our normal measly inch.

How in the hell was I to know that the storm would shift south? So now here it is, after four in the morning, when I've been on a writing jag for about twelve hours straight and I've got to leave my nice warm writing nook, get in the car and drive to the store to pick up fucking cat litter and cigarettes so I won't have to leave the house for the three days it will take for the snow plows to hit our country road. Simply ducky. I'm not going now--that would be suicidal. I'm having to close one eye just to type. Noooooooooooooooo... I have to time this between the first glimmer of dawn and the first flake of snow to insure I get there safely.

Which means I have to stay up all night.

Which means I might as well keep writing.

Which means that tomorrow, which is the last day of voting in the P&E Readers' Poll, I'll be begging my husband to drag out the ladder and scrape snow off the satellite dish so that I can shamelessly plug my books for last minute votes.

(did you like the way I snuck that shameless plug in? Go vote...go vote now! you can see the links--just scroll down)

Hell, I probably won't even have television. I won't be able to do anything but write and change the cat boxes and take the snowblower up and down the driveway every hour or so. Snow may accumulate at rate of over an inch per hour--damn you weather gods! I need my internet tomorrow! This isn't fair! It's a conspiracy, I tell you--a damned conspiracy.

Oh well. Less internet means more writing and since I'm nearing the end of this book, it may mean I might just get it finished by the end of the week. That will make it the second completed novel of 2009 if you count Breaking the Covenants with Rob Graham. Since my goal for the year is seven completed novels, it will put me well on my way.

So let it snow. Just let me get the damn cat litter first. Then snow all you want to.

Just Some News...And Some Begging...

So Temptation of Asphodel finally made it to Fictionwise. Now that it's for sale not only on the AMP website but the big two e-book distributors, I feel a little bit better. It's been in the queue to be released on Fictionwise since it was published--I'm not sure why it took so long for them to get it up on their site. I'm going to assume that the holidays had something to do with it.

My short story anthology Metamorphosis has been contracted by Aspen Mountain Press and will be released sometime this spring. So finally, all of you have proof that I can write something under 100k words. Hah! I win!

Now it's time for my annual shameless begging for votes.

The Gift of Redemption--Nominated for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Novel of 2008 by Preditors and Editors. Go vote here. The Gift of Redemption--nominated for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Novel of 2008 by Love Romance & More Cafe. Go vote here.(you will have to join the Yahoo group and then go to the Polls section of the board)Tempation of Asphodel--Nominated for Best Novel of 2008 in the Preditors and Editors Readers' Poll! Go cast your vote here.Temptation of Asphodel--Nominated for Best Book Cover of 2008 by Love Romances and More Cafe! Go cast your vote here. Celina Summers--Nominated for Best Author Published in 2008 by Preditors and Editors. Go cast your vote here.

The Preditors and Editors' poll ends on January 14th. The LRC poll ends on the 15th. If you've read the Asphodel novels and love them, go vote now!

[/end shameless plugging]

Football, Vampires, Polls and Me

So, the NCAA BCS champions are that team whose name I never mention unless absolutely necessary. I suppose, all things considering, that it is a good thing for the SEC--winning the BCS three years in a row is a feat no conference has accomplished since the Big Ten did it in the forties but still...

I couldn't root for either team in conscience, so I rooted for turnovers. The turnovers won. Now if we're lucky the quarterback-who-shall-not-be-named will declare for the NFL draft tomorrow and I won't have to hear his name on Saturday afternoons any more.

In other news, we completed the second draft of Covenants today and somehow managed to add words to it. I'm still scratching my head over that one; we were cutting stuff, I swear! Of course, we did insinuate a whole new subplot, but it was important I tell you! Important! Suffice it to say that Breaking the Covenants is comparable in length to an Asphodel novel. Love vampire stories and hate novellas? Have we got the product for you!

Both The Gift of Redemption and Temptation of Asphodel are holding steady in the top ten of their respective categories in the Preditors and Editors Readers' Poll. I'm pretty excited by that. It makes me feel good to know that there are enough people that appreciate the Asphodel novels to actually go through all the trouble to go vote for my books. *If you haven't voted yet, GO VOTE NOW*

Sorry--you know to expect the shameless plug in every blog post until voting ends. Think of it as an itch that you'll have to scratch until January 15th and casting a vote for one of my books is like the calamine lotion you need to soothe that itch.

I'm so wrong. But, you knew that didn't you?

So, in the morning, I'll get to start work on a brand new project! More importantly, at the moment I have no clue what that will be. I'll get to wake up, eat breakfast, look at whatever frozen precipitation is yelling for my snowblower to attack and then open a new document. I'll set my format for it, think for a minute and then type the first sentence.

And all of a sudden, I will find myself in a brand new world. I can't wait.

The Sounds of Snow at Night and the Thoughts They Bring

It feels really strange.

Everything is very quiet outside, which is where I am blogging at the moment because for some reason I felt the need to have a cigarette at four in the morning. There's an ice storm on the way--the radar tells me so--and I can definitely smell it on the wind. That crisp, clean smell is unmistakable in these hills during the winter. I'm awake and even the darn cats are asleep. It's just strange.

I've been doing a lot of rewriting today on Breaking the Covenants, my co-writing project with Rob Graham. We made a lot of changes to the beginning of the story and I've been fine-combing the rest of the manuscript for continuity issues. So at the moment, I'm in a meticulous mood and an icy pre-dawn in the hills of Ohio is just about perfect for that.

Besides, blogging may help to clear my mind. I have a lot of work to get done today. I want to get Covenants done if at all possible and then get back to work on Deception. We'll see how long I can stay productive. Of course, I'd be a hell of a lot more productive if I'd stop clicking on the Preditor and Editors poll results page to see how I'm doing. If, for example, you wanted to go vote for my books it might help ease my mind.

You knew the shameless plug was coming. Don't act so surprised.

Interestingly enough, our ice storm is apparently starting as snow. I love the sound of snow falling. It's the ultimate silence at night; it's like the flakes filter out all the other nocturnal noise so that all you hear is just a miniscule brushing through the air. I imagine that I can hear it; I'm not sure if I really can, especially at a time like now when it's just beginning and everything is quiet anyway. I like to think that I can. It's a comforting, lovely sound.

Wish someone could bottle that. They came up with Febreeze--why not this? I'd buy it.

Yes, it feels very strange out tonight. But now that I have flakes of snow hitting my LCD screen and my rear is freezing in this swing, I think I'll head back in, make some coffee and get back to work. It's been a pleasure talking to you, as always.

Now go vote for my books.

*grin*

TWO shameless plugs in one post. Just wait until the voting period is nearing its end.

Asphodelian Award Nominations

Well, it's nomination season and the gods have been good to me again--so good that I'm still reeling.

You remember last year when The Reckoning of Asphodel was a Top Ten finalist in the Preditors and Editors Annual Readers' Poll as Best Sci Fi/Fantasy Novel of 2007? Sit back and get ready to be shocked.

The Asphodel Cycle 2: The Gift of Redemption has been nominated by P&E for Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Novel of 2008.

The Asphodel Cycle 3:The Temptation of Asphodel has been nominated by P&E for Best Novel of 2008.

I have also been nominated in the Author's Pages category!

If you wanted to vote (and of course you do, why wouldn't you?) go to http://www.critters.org/predpoll/. You can find The Gift of Redemption under Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels and Temptation of Asphodel under All Other Novels.

Then...hold on...it gets better. I have something to show you--twice:

The Gift of Redemption was nominated by Love Romances and More Cafe as Best Sci Fi/Fantasy novel of 2008 AND Temptation of Asphodel was nominated for Best Cover Art of 2008--that wonderful bit of work done by Renee' George! Voting opens at LRM on January 5th, and I'll post more about that later.

I'm a little excited right now and off to post this all over the web. You guys hold down the fort while I'm gone. Gee...I'm totally gobsmacked.

Awards? Moi?

Okay, it takes a lot to truly shock me. No, really, it does. Getting nominated for awards manages that.

Asphodel was nominated for Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Novel of 2007 by both LoveRomances&More and Preditors & Editors.


To makes matters even more interesting, LR&M reviewers also nominated me for Best New Author of 2007.

To say I'm in shock is a mild understatement. I will state for the record, however, that I'm not stunned that I can't promote this aberration for all it's worth. So, if you click on the links, it'll take you to a place where you can VOTE FOR ME! With LR&M, you'll have to join their Yahoo group for the LoveRomancesCafe in order to cast a vote... Please join and vote...don't let my bubble burst publicly and in grief!

Goshdarn Scam Agency Rant Alert

Get ready. This is going to be evil.

So...my mother-in-law informed me yesterday that she had an agent.

After picking my jaw up from the desk, where it lay for some time in utter disbelief after hearing that she had queried one (1) agent and had been offered a contract, I started to think about it. Now, I've read some of her work and while it is good, I thought it was a bit of a stretch to find the perfect agent that quickly after one try. So I started asking questions.

Who was her agency? Although I thought she said Rider, it turns out she said Writer. Writers Literary Agency, to be precise, which has been discussed on numerous well-respected writers' sites: Absolute Write, Writers Beware, Preditors & Editors, and Making Light--among others. Although I didn't initially recognize the name, it did set off alarm bells. So, when I got home I googled it.

You've all heard me talk about the fine art of googling before. Use it. Embrace it. Revel in it. Because when you google Writer's Literary Agency, the very first thing that pops up is NOT their website. Oh no. It would be the sites listed above.

Never a good sign. More not good signs:

--Click here for a sampling of the positive emails that we receive on a regular basis. That's it? Emails? No, I want to see sales--whose books you sold, to which publisher, for how much. So let's go look there next.

--Ooooooooookay. Not a single NAME listed. Fair enough.

--Why don't we check out their marketing plan for their authors.

And that's where I get mad, because that's where my mother-in-law got snagged. What a lovely photograph of a green WL Literary sign at the 2007 Book Expo in New York. It's rather interesting though that all of the other signs are purple. And in not a single picture, which could have been taken by any casual visitor to an open event, was there ONE INSTANCE where you could see a WL Literary rep with an editor from any of the big houses....or an author....or even at the dinner...

So, she signed. She then paid sixty bucks for a 'critique' of her novel. Amazingly, in a 118k manuscript of a first-time, never previously published writer, there was only ONE misspelled word. The 'critique' was a rave, detailing how saleable the book was with a few cut and paste snippets from the manuscript.

So now I'm seeing red. I put all the pieces together and found myself in the unenviable position of informing my mother-in-law, business partner, and friend that she had been the victim of a well-tried and more successful than it should be scam. Let me just state for the record that this is NOT a comfortable place to be.

The public record on this company is long and it's discouraging. If you follow the links I've posted in this article, you'll be able to untangle it for yourself. I am posting this from Ann Crispin of Writers Beware--she added her full permission to copy and paste the alert wherever writers gather:

NEW ALERT FROM WRITER BEWARE: Writers’ Literary Agency & Marketing
Company (formerly The Literary Agency Group) The Literary Agency Group, a
business owned or controlled by Robert M. Fletcher of Boca Raton, Florida,
changed its name in February 2007 to Writers’ Literary Agency & Marketing
Company (a.k.a. WL Writers’ Literary Agency).
This umbrella group includes or has included the following agencies:
* Christian Literary Agency* New York Literary Agency* Stylus Literary Agency (formerly ST Literary Agency, formerly Sydra-Techniques)* WL Children’s Agency (a.k.a. Children’s Literary Agency)* WL Poet’s Agency (a.k.a. Poet’s Literary Agency)* WL Screenplay Agency (a.k.a. The Screenplay Agency)* Writers’ Literary & Publishing Services Company (the editing arm of the above-mentioned agencies)
Since this company began operating in 2001 under the name Sydra-Techniques, Writer Beware has received hundreds of complaints and advisories of fee-charging, editing referrals, and other questionable practices. We’re not aware that the company has a significant track record of commercial book sales under any of its names, despite its claims to the contrary. Writers who have had trouble with Robert
M. Fletcher or any of the above-named companies, and who are or were residents
of the state of Florida, please get in touch with Ann Crispin at anncrispin@aol.com (or beware@sfwa.org , if the AOL address bounces), even if you have previously contacted her. Please provide complete contact information.

And so now you know. I cannot stress enough how important it is to thoroughly research ANY agent or publishing company before you submit. Love your Google button and use it. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to compose a lovely registered letter on behalf of my mother-in-law. It is a painful lesson for anyone to learn. Try not to let this happen to you.