12 Steps Cover Reveal

Hello, Writerly Friends!

One of my real life Writerly Friends is celebrating this week. MG/YA author Veronica Bartles is having some kind of WOW year.

In 2012, Veronica was a pre-published author packing up her family for a move from Maryland to New Mexico. How do I know? This talented lady was in my critique group. Veronica had been sharing a few different manuscripts with us. One was a YA romance called Kissing Frogs.

In June, I dropped off a turkey lasagna at Veronica's house (the kitchen was packed a few days ahead of the move), hugged her goodbye, and wished her the best.

But Veronica was too good for our critique group to lose! She keeps coming to  meetings via Skype and reports back to us about her life in New Mexico and her involvement in online pitch contests.

In the year since she left us (sob) for life in the desert, Veronica did something amazing with her Kissing Frogs manuscript. She played around with telling the story from a supporting character's point of view. That "playing around" became a YA romance called 12 Steps. Which sold to Swoon Romance early this fall.

You can read about Veronica's road to publishing at the Sub It Club.

I am so excited to be part of Veronica's cover reveal for 12 Steps. A HUGE shout out to my Writerly Friend, critique partner, cheerleader, awesome knitter, and cookie baker extraordinaire Veronica Bartles on her first published book!

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Twelve Steps

by Veronica Bartles

Release Date: 03/25/14

Book Summary:

Sixteen-year-old Andi is tired of being a second-class sibling to perfect sister Laina. There in Laina's shadow, Andi's only noticeable feature is her pretty awesome hair. And even that is eclipsed by Laina's perfect everything else.

When Andi’s crush asks her to fix him up with Laina, Andi decides enough is enough and devises a twelve-step program to wrangle the spotlight away from Laina. After all, great hair must count for something.

Step 1: Admit she’s powerless to change her perfect sister, and accept that her life really, really sucks. OK, maybe that's two steps in one.

Step 4: Make a list of her good qualities besides great hair. There have got to be at least three good qualities, right?

Step 7: Demand attention for more than just her shortcomings, and break out of her shell. Easier said that done, but worth the effort in the long-run. 

When a stolen kiss from her crush ends in disaster, Andi finds that her prince isn’t as charming as she'd hoped, and realizes she may need a new program--perhaps with less steps!

As cracks in Laina’s flawless façade begin to show, the sisters work together to find a spotlight big enough for both to shine.

About the Author

As the second of eight children and the mother of four, Veronica Bartles is no stranger to the ups and downs of sibling relationships. (She was sandwiched between the gorgeous-and-insanely-popular older sister and the too-adorable-for-words younger sister.) She uses this insight to write stories about siblings who mostly love each other, even while they’re driving one another crazy.  When she isn’t writing or getting lost in the pages of her newest favorite book, Veronica enjoys knitting fabulous bags and jewelry out of recycled plastic bags and old VHS tapes, sky diving (though she hasn’t actually tried that yet), and inventing the world’s most delectable cookie recipes.

TWELVE STEPS is Veronica Bartles's first novel.

Author Links:

http://vbartles.com/

https://twitter.com/vbartles

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorVeronicaBartles

Cover Reveal Organized by:

YA Bound Book Tours

Thanks for YA Bound Book Tours for including me in Veronica's cover reveal. 12 Steps definitely looks Swoon-worthy.

The Agent Search

Dear Writerly Friends,

Wow. So much is going on.

Let's start with today. I am one of 20 agent-seeking writers participating in An Agent's Inbox. Author Krista Van Dolzer at the blog Mother. Write. (Repeat.) runs this occasional query contest. (Read the explanatory post here.) John Cusick of Greenhouse Literary is the guest agent this time. Krista writes:

"Essentially, The Agent will be answering the question, 'How much of the entry did you read, and if you didn't read it all, why did you stop?' I think this process will be instructive for all of us, but if you enter, you need to be prepared to hear exactly what The Agent thinks of your query and first page."

Stop by Krista's blog and leave a comment on the queries +250 words. Mine is #11. 

Last week was Susanna Leonard Hill's Halloweensie writing contest (you can still vote on the finalists here!) This week, An Agent's Inbox. Have you noticed a trend?

More and more writing bloggers are running contest for writers -- an extra opportunity to connect with an editor or agent. I think this is great. We are, after all, Writerly Friends.

My friend Veronica Bartles wrote an insightful post about the value and risks of these online pitch contests. Miss Veronica sold a book to Swoon Romance this summer and then signed with an agent, who will be shopping around her second book. Her advice is GOLDEN.

Veronica also posts a monthly list of online writing and pitch contests at Sub-it Club.

While we're talking contests, Poetry Friday blogger Tabatha Yeatts won the signed copy of Elisabeth Dahl's MG novel GENIE WISHES!

What else is happening? 


This past weekend, I went to SCBWI Eastern PA's Fall Fest and Critique Fest with my friend Naomi. This conference is much smaller than those offered in Maryland and the DC area -- only about 60 attendees. The featured speaker was Bryan Collier. (60 adults trying not to cry happy tears of inspiration.)

My favorite part, though, the thing that had me driving 2.5 hours to this conference, was the critique fest. Every attendee had three critiques (first 10 pages): one with an agent, one with an author, one with an editor. The rest of the day was spent in a small group, peer critiquing.

I have been on the other side of the critique table, folks. When you are a critiquing author, and the person across from you was convinced she was going to sell a book to an editor today, it can get awkward.

I loved the structure of this day. Wouldn't it be great if more SCBWI regions ran their critiques this way? There was valuable feedback from each person I spoke with.

Including peer feedback -- genius! A chance to discuss work in a group setting and maybe even make contacts for future critique partners.

Choosing anyone's manuscript or poem out of thousands of submissions is no easy task. As an editor, I read easily 1,000 pieces of writing for each issue of Little Patuxent Review. Right now, I'm narrowing the poetry selection from my top 75 down to about 30. From there, the guest editor and I will make more cuts for our Winter 2014 issue.

What do I look for before I mark a poem accepted?
1. The piece strikes a chord with me on some level.
2. It is well written. In the case of a poem, I'm looking for work that is not overly prosaic, that uses poetic elements to tell a story or explore an idea or image.
3. It is something our reading audience will enjoy. Or, it will stretch the readers' thinking in some way.
4. It fits the overall composition of the issue.

In many ways, I think editors and agents of children's literature are looking for similar things. Even #4 -- agents are building lists. They want to represent a variety of clients. How does the person querying fit into that mix of voices and styles that agent already handles?

Happy querying, everyone! Remember to stop by Mother. Write. (Repeat.) and check out those letters to John Cusick.