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Showing posts from July, 2012

The Seasons of Queries

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The houses in the Yukon are all sliding off their foundations.  They were built on permafrost and every time the ground thaws and re-freezes, the building walls shift.  It's amazing to realize they're even still standing after all the things they've weathered, people they've sheltered, and winters they've endured. Yukon weather on those houses is a little like the Agent Query process.  Research an agent, find out he or she loves urban fantasy with paranormal elements, is into history and digs thrillers.  Tailor the query letter to them, paste the dreaded synopsis and whatever pages their submissions guidelines request into the body of the e-mail (never an attachment), make sure it's titled and addressed correctly and hit "send."  Then make a note with the date in the Marking Time notebook covered with images culled from the internet, hand-drawn, photoshop-manipulated, and designed to inspire and collect all things related to the Book .  This is t

Yukon Gold

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There's gold in those Yukon hills... and in the landscape, the scenery, the air...  Since we've been here I've managed to plot a script, a Children's book, and get excited about writing book two of The Immortal Descendants. And I just finished reading A Discovery of Witches , the discovery of which (sorry) is that I've written a grittier, more urban YA echo of that book.  Okay, maybe not really, but there are definite comparisons to be made.  A female protagonist who doesn't realize her power.  A love interest who holds all the intellectual cards.  A world where intermarriage/mixing is forbidden, and bad guys from said world hunting the protagonist and her love.  And lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Hmmm, not really sure what to do with that revelation.  Use Deborah Harkness's wonderful success to market my own book (book 2 of her series comes out on Tuesday), or continue along the path I've laid for myself.  Any thoughts or insights would be we
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This is one of my favorite notebook covers I've made, especially the "adult version" of the Harry Potter book cover and the Shepard Fairey art.  I've always been a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes mysteries and am trying to entice my boys into the same love of his sleuthing genius.  The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King, and the BBC 2-season series, "Sherlock" are my favorite re-imaginings of the original stories.  I have a weakness for elegant solutions and Arthur Conan Doyle was the master.  Maybe it's why most of my scripts are mysteries and I'm so proud of my Private Investigator's license.  As a 12-year-old in Katmandu, I stumbled upon Enid Blyton's Five Find-Outers and Dog Mysteries and The Black Hand Gang at the used bookstore and still remember the girl who waved her "evenly-tanned arms around" claiming her valuable watch had been recently stolen.  My favorite mystery writers give me several different options
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Ed and I had fun creating this version of a cover for Marking Time .  I've used it on my galley proofs and it's very satisfying to hold a thick paperback with this title in my hand!  I've begun.  Queries to agents have gone out and I feel like I'm stumbling around in the dark trying not to step on the dog.  Is this what boys feel like when they ask a girl out on their first date?  Trying to sound like you know what you're doing, hoping to entice and impress without looking like a complete idiot?  So, besides tweaking the odd word or five in my first ten pages (over and over again, sigh), I'm starting to formulate book two.  And I'm getting excited.  Whitechapel 1888 for book one.  Staying in England for book two, but back further.  To a time and setting that makes me happy.  With a historical person who has fascinated me since the first time I visited the Tower of London at age 8.  If only I could track down the current location of the pearls...