Here’s me on originality.
This video covers why it’s so important to be original in your writing, even if you’re heavily influenced by one of the greats. Some basic philosophy on why lifting others’ plot elements, character ideas, and settings will not result in a good story for you, why “there are no new ideas!” is not a good excuse to copy, and a couple hints on how to teach yourself to use influence without being a rip-off artist.
I’ve decided to start video-blogging about writing-related things. Sometimes I will post how-tos on things I know how to do in the writing world, and sometimes I will post personal perspectives. You can subscribe to my new YouTube channel at Channel JulieSondra.
Here is my video on writing query letters:
And here is my video on how I got my agent:
Feel free to let me know in the comments of this blog post or the comments of the YouTube videos whether you’d like me to do a video on any particular topic. It should be noted that optional captions are always installed in my videos for anyone who needs/wants them.
Stupid Questions advanced to the second round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition. I am one of the 2,000 left of the original 10,000 entrants.
Now my first chapter goes on to be read by two Amazon judges. I’ll get rated and reviewed. If I pass, I will be one of 500 left to be named quarter-finalists.
This year I was sleeping when the results came in and a friend who is also in the contest had to tell me I made it. Haha. (We both got in. It’s going to be disappointing when either of us gets cut, but I think it will be really sad and weird if one of us gets cut before the other.)
My agent, Michelle Johnson, has started her own agency. She has decided to call it Inklings Literary, and I have elected to migrate to her agency with her instead of staying with her old agency. (I already have a great rapport with Michelle, but hadn’t had any interaction with her agency’s president, so I thought Michelle would be a better advocate for my work.)
I’ve signed with the new agency and my book is still being considered by the same editors as before the move. (I’m not talking publicly about who’s considering it, but yes, my book Bad Fairy is in consideration by more than one major publisher.) Everything’s gone pretty smoothly, and I’m crossing my fingers to be Michelle’s first sale as the president of her own agency. 🙂
Edit: She was interviewed here in Writer’s Digest. You can learn all about what she’s like and what she wants to see in her inbox.
Edit again: She was interviewed here on S.K. Whiteside’s blog.
Edit again: She gave some perspectives here in First Five Frenzy on Chasing the Crazies.
As mentioned in my last post, I was one of the speakers on the Asexual Voices panel at Creating Change 2013 in Atlanta, a national LGBT conference that included asexual people in its workshop lineup for the first time.
I was one of four speakers. We had me (an aromantic asexual woman), Tristan (a gay graysexual man), Rin (a panromantic asexual agender person), and M. (a panromantic asexual agender person) on the panel. We all talked about our experiences with asexuality and the community, and gave a sixty-minute question-and-answer session, followed by a caucus of asexual people and allies. It was a good experience.
Besides the panel, I got to go to other people’s workshops and network with other folks in the queer community. President Obama sent a video in support of LGBT organizers and the community, which was really huge. And I got to meet David Jay (founder of AVEN), Sara Beth Brooks (founder of Asexual Awareness Week), the other panelists Tristan (of the Asexual Agenda), Rin, and M., and also Hannah (who was there for work stuff) and a couple other asexual people we went to dinner with.
David Jay did some report-outs from each day of the conference. Day 1 happened before I got there, and Day 2 and Day 3 include me in the videos.
I had a lot of good experiences, and now I’m ready to start working on my nonfiction book again. I already have a bunch of test reader volunteers, but if anyone reading this wants to be a test reader, let me know.
Today I’m heading to Atlanta, Georgia for Creating Change, which is the National Conference on LGBT Equality, put on by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. It is the largest yearly gathering of of activists, organizers, and leaders in the LGBT movement. And I’m one of them!
I’m one of the speakers on the Asexual Voices Panel. With three other asexual speakers and a moderator, my co-panelists and I are providing discussion of asexual experiences and outreach, with a thirty-minute presentation and a sixty-minute question-and-answer session.
(We had a last-minute change and Christina couldn’t make it. M. LeClerc from Boston is our replacement.)
We are also having an asexual caucus immediately afterwards.
Last year Sara Beth and David went to this same conference and there was a really warm response, with a high demand for our materials and an avalanche of interest when they screened the documentary movie (A)sexual (which I was in). We hope to make even more connections, learn more about allying with the larger LGBTQ community, teach people about our community, and have a lot of fun.
People at the conference can come to our panel at 4:45 on Friday. People at home can follow our tweets (#cc13) or check out the Livestream.
And since lots of people supported our fundraising campaign for the trip to Creating Change, we’ll also be preparing their rewards. Fifty-two people donated to our cause and I’m sure even more want to see us succeed, so we want to be able to show them some results. I hope to be able to share some pictures, videos, and stories when I come back, after which I will redouble my efforts to polish my nonfiction book (So You Think You’re Asexual: An Introduction to the Invisible Orientation). I’m going to take test readers for the first time, and probably go back to querying as one agent who’s followed up with me twice now seems to be dragging his feet.
I decided to enter the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition for the third year in a row, but I am doing so with my newest novel: Stupid Questions.
This contest’s a little weird because if you win you have to sign their contract with full knowledge that it can’t be negotiated. Once when I heard agents talk about their clients entering it, one of them said “I wish her all the best but I hope she doesn’t win.” There’s still a lot of good stuff to be had in the experience of entering, but yeah, that “you have to sign the contract no matter what” thing does give me pause. Oh well. I entered.
This book is the shortest one I’ve written, and it’s in one of the adult categories—science fiction—instead of the YA category like the last two years I’ve entered. I don’t know how well I’ll do here, since I have a suspicion that my story arc could be interpreted as a navel-gazer of a romance rather than a book with a plot, but we’ll see if I make it through to the second round.
The contest has changed this year in that it no longer offers a chance to win a publishing contract with Penguin. It is now a traditional publishing contract through Amazon’s publishing group itself (not the same one that handles self-publishing, though), and there will be FIVE winners—one in each category—with one of those five winning a larger advance. The international Amazon contest stops taking entrants once it hits 10,000 people. Each of us has to send in a pitch statement, a bio, an excerpt, and a full manuscript.
The second round will involve the 10,000 entrants being cut down to 2,000 Second Round competitors based entirely on our pitch.
This is my pitch statement:
Camera guy Nick Harris lives in a rational world—or so he thought. He’s no longer sure what’s real when the enigmatic Summer Astley appears on his news show displaying genuine telekinetic powers . . . and a charming smile. As mutual attraction brings them together, Summer reluctantly trusts Nick with her secret doubts and heartbreaking loneliness, leaving him puzzling over how to chase a down-to-earth romance with a girl who can fly.
But Summer isn’t the only one with unusual abilities. Nick’s got a knack for understanding other people—sometimes to the point that he accurately guesses their thoughts. Summer, eager to connect with someone like herself, presses Nick to accept that his “good people skills” are far from ordinary, but Nick isn’t buying it. And he certainly doesn’t want it to be true. After all, being too perceptive creeps girls out and gets guys dumped.
As a strained long-distance relationship develops between them, Summer and Nick face shared challenges and personal demons. Summer struggles to balance her supergirl public image with her love life, and she fears getting attached in the wake of a recent loss. And Nick feels disconnected communicating across state lines without the subtle cues he’s used to—not to mention he may be unable to handle the occupational hazards of dating a super-powered celebrity. As they learn what it will take to keep their unsteady partnership alive, these exceptional people find themselves asking as many questions as they answer.
With a refreshing lack of superhero hijinks, Stupid Questions presents an everyday romance between extraordinary people. Combining science fiction elements and an original male perspective, the story breathes new life into the classic “boy-meets-girl” scenario. Readers who prefer romance without a side of fluff will appreciate this authentic character-driven tale of outsiders yearning for connection.
My interview in Drake Magazine was published today.
Read some quotes from me and some other asexual people/asexual authorities in “Shedding light on asexuality: a misunderstood sexual orientation.”
Please note that the author of the piece, strangely enough, does not define asexuality correctly despite having talked to several experts on the subject. I’m curious about where she got this idea: “Asexuality is the complete lack of sexual drive and desire. Asexuals do not actively seek out sex or even get horny.” Asexuality is not the lack of sex drive or desire, and asexual people can indeed both seek out sex and get horny (not that they all DO). The author also opines that asexual people’s minds are never “in the gutter.” I know way too many asexual people with dirty minds to agree with that.
So take the article with a grain of salt.
Another article of mine was published in Good Vibrations today.
Please read “Asexual Relationships.”
Today my literary agent has begun the process of approaching editors to get me a publishing deal.
We’re hoping to score a three-book deal for my trilogy with a major publisher. As of today, she’s contacting appropriate publishers and asking if they want to see it. I won’t make public posts about how it’s going until/unless I get an offer (or until/unless I get multiple offers and have settled the terms), but if I get great news, I’ll make a post about it as soon as I’m given the green light to announce the deal.
I’m considering it a when, not an if. Because I love pretending I’m super confident that it will sell. 😉