Author: Tom

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Book Review: ARARAT, by Christopher Golden

tl;dr? watch it here

Christopher Golden has constructed a place you never want to go but that you cannot stop reading about.

The novel Ararat takes place on the mountain of the same name, where Noah’s Ark is reputed to have come to rest. That’s exactly what the novel seems to be about, when an earthquake unearths what appears to be remnants of a giant ship. But when scientists ascend the mountain to study the discovery, they quickly find that there’s something in there that should not be. Whether it’s Noah’s ark at all becomes secondary to survival as the team squares off with a chilling and brutal entity that will feed off the reader’s worst fears!

As a horror writer, I have many different tools available to scare you. One of those tools is dread, which is not the same as horror, terror, or the gross-out. Dread is a tough one to do, because it requires patience and precise words and pacing. Golden has done that here. He doesn’t hide his monster, it’s in plain sight the entire story, yet the dread just builds and builds until you are forced to stay up long after dark, reading to see when things will finally burst.

The author and I were both nominated for the Bram Stoker Award the same year (in different categories), and Ararat won that year. I have not met Christopher Golden, but I have met Joe Hill and other horror authors who speak highly of him and there’s no question he’s at the top of his game when it comes to dread. So whether you are a reader who loves horror novels or a writer who’s looking to sharpen that particular tool in your toolbox, I highly recommend reading this Bram Stoker Award winner.

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Your Novel Isn’t Ready to Submit Because… part 1

Before we begin:

  1. You can publish a novel with a traditional publisher.
  2. I believe in you.

 

I say this up front because what follows is a little on the snarky side, and I need you to know that I am nothing special. I was just like every other aspiring writer when I got my first agent and first book contract. If I can do it, you can, too. (If that’s the direction you choose to go. There are lots of reasons to go straight to indie publishing, which we’ll cover at another time.)

 

Also, congratulations! I’m serious—you’re on a site called FictionMentor.com for crying out loud, which suggests you take your writing seriously, and that’s the thesis of this article: Take writing and publishing your novel seriously if you want to see your book on store shelves.

 

How do I know without reading a single page of your novel that you’re not ready to submit the manuscript to an agent? Easy:

 

You haven’t finished writing your novel.

I’m guilty of this. I once sent a query to an editor while about halfway through a novel, thinking, “Why not, it’ll just be rejected, may as well get used to it.” Surprise! I got a request for a full manuscript. So I spent the next ten days feverishly working to finish the thing. And no, it did not get picked up. Shocking, right?

 

Always finish your novel before taking another step. Hundreds (thousands?) of people do this every November during National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) which is great, but too many of them neglect the next step:

 

You haven’t revised and edited your novel.

Typing “The End” does not mean you are finished. There’s still revision and editing to be done.

 

Here at FictionMentor, I define revision as the broad, sweeping changes needed to ensure your continuity is correct; the plot is seamless and interesting; the dialogue fresh and moving the story along; the characters compelling; i.e., big changes. One or two revisions is not enough. Three or more is common . . . for working, published authors.

 

I define editing as correcting spelling, grammar, and formatting errors. Editing requires two, three, or more passes through the entire manuscript, whereas revision can take . . . well, as many passes as it takes to make the story shine.

 

Note: Editing also includes at least one pass with a hard-copy (printed out) manuscript. Research shows we catch more errors reading on paper than we do on a screen. Put your best foot forward on every single page before submission. The occasional typo won’t doom your manuscript – nobody’s perfect – but it’s your job to make your copy as clean as possible, especially those first ten pages.

 

When do you think your novel is ready to send? Drop a comment @tomleveen and share your journey!

 

Keep an eye out for Part II…

 

Tom’s Linktree

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Is YA Bad For Your Kids?

This is taken from an online interview I gave about YA Lit:

Q: What do you say to a parent who thinks that reading YA lit will corrupt their kids?

 

Then the parents need to read more YA.

 

But they have to step into their own teenage shoes first. Books don’t corrupt teens, adults do. I mean, let’s take a phenomenal book like SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson, which critics wrongly said is “about date rape.” (It’s not, it is about depression.) No teen is going to read that book and go, “Hey, I should date-rape girls!” No one will read THE OUTSIDERS and say, “Gangs are cool! I should stab someone!” YA authors and editors are fierce defenders of teenagers—with our time, our words, our money, everything. That’s more than many parents can say, I’m afraid.



 

Q: What advice would you give to parents of a 12 or 13-year-old about YA books (and video re-imaginings)? Should parents get involved?  If so, at what point–selection, screening, pre-reading, vetoing, post-reading discussion?

 

Let them read anything, eventually. Censoring our kids’ reading isn’t helping them, but only each family can determine what’s appropriate and what’s not. But this idea of keeping books away from kids is unforgivable utter nonsense. Why would a parent waste this golden opportunity to read a book with (or before) their kid and see what conversations come out of it?

There have been reading groups at schools and libraries where one kid won’t participate for months, even years . . . then suddenly one day, that kid will start talking about she really feels for Melinda in SPEAK, or Morrigan in PARTY, or Tyler in manicpixiedreamgirl. Why the sudden talking? Because that book hit a chord in that kid’s life, and now the kid has a way to talk about it without giving herself away. As a parent, why toss away one single tool in your parenting toolkit?

Take them to bookstores! Ask them which ones look like they’d be interesting reads. Talk to the booksellers, they know their stuff.

Video is another thing entirely, because video—anything on a screen—impacts us differently than the written word. Anything happening to us from kindergarten through high school is going to be in our heads for the rest of our lives. Every time a grownup says “You can’t,” or “You’re stupid,” or “You suck,” or “You’re a bad boy/girl,” that stuff sticks for a very long time.

I gave a TEDx talk about this: Can you name your first grade teacher? Who you went to prom with? What your first car was? Yes, yes, and yes, because our brains are built to do that, to hold onto information as it develops. Ergo, I do tend to think that policing our kids’ screen time is important, as well as what is on those screens. Instead, cram those brains full of books. No child was ever harmed by the not-watching of a video.

 

Q: YA lit covers lots of territory in terms of genre and maturity level. Is there good and bad YA, or just a lot of variety?

 

There is “bad” YA in terms of quality of writing perhaps, but that is so, so, so objective as to be rendered a meaningless discussion. Some of my books are viscerally hated by some readers, and some readers have re-read those same books until the pages fell out. There’s simply no accounting for taste and opinion. We’ve all read a best-seller or award-winner and thought, “Really? Really, though? This?”

In terms of good and bad for kids? I don’t think so; there really is just that much variety. Dr. James Blasingame at Arizona State University, the Yoda of YA literature, says there is a book for every teenager, and I believe that. This is why we need trained librarians (and, you know, libraries) in our schools and communities. They make a huge, positive difference in the lives of teens.

It’s also important to understand the author’s intent when choosing a book. One of my author friends writes, shall we say, “fluffy” romances, where there will be a kiss at the end between a male and female. Is that wrong? Bad? Nope, it’s what they write, and I love many of those books because they are well written, well plotted, and a lot of fun to read. They are just different from a book like ZERO or RANDOM, where my style is to not pull any punches when it comes to what some teens are going through.

I’m after a different theme than my friend, and our styles reflect that. Neither of us is better or worse than the other, and both have their place in the development of teens into adults. Sometimes you need a fluffy romance, sometimes you need zombies invading your high school.

 

Ready for more? Climb the tree.

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7 Things I’ve Learned Since Publication of my First Novel

I’ve learned approximately 11.6 billion things since my first novel was published. Here instead are the biggies apprentice authors should know.

 

  1. Adore booksellers.

 

Most aspiring novelists don’t grasp how instrumental hand-selling at brick and mortar bookstores is to their career. Booksellers, if they like your book, will push it at checkout. (It’s called “hand selling” and I’ve seen it in action. These folks are uh-mazing.) They are asked their opinions all day by people coming to the store for one purpose: to buy books. Treat booksellers—from district managers to cashiers—like emissaries of the One True God, because as far as your career goes, they just might be. Don’t kiss up or be a boor (or bore); be yourself, but be your best self.

Also–buy from their stores and urge others to do so.

 

This advice applies to trad and indie authors alike. You want bookstores on your side.

 

  1. Make appearances. Free. At first.

 

Hand in hand with publishing YA and MG novels in particular are school and library appearances. Accept every opportunity to present your book or teach a class.

 

For free. Other authors disagree with me on this, and they are right to an extent.

 

The argument goes like this:  Every hour you spend not writing is potentially lost income. Make an English teacher happy, however, and you’ve earned a lifetime fan, with potential “little” fans coming in each year. Word of mouth may be more valuable than an appearance honorarium. My novels have ended up in classroom curricula after school visits, and you know what that means? Book sales.

 

Getting paid for school visits is comes toward the middle part of a career. For a first novel, it’s free advertising and PR. Books two, three, or four may be another story.

 

Local bookstores often can arrange school visits, and have a set amount of books the school must purchase; say, 10 to 25 copies. You may not walk away with cash in hand, but you just sold ten or more copies, and many potential fans—who blog and tweet about books and authors—just met you face to face. You can’t top that.

 

  1. Calm down.

 

Nothing moves more slowly than waiting to hear from an agent or editor. I lost many hours my first year in being overwrought, overdramatic, and overwhelmed by the fact that I controlled next to nothing. My advice:  Suck it up. Move on to the next project. Sooner or later your agent/editor will get back to you.

 

There is nothing wrong, however, with a polite email to ask how things are going. Underscore polite.

 

If they are straight-up not getting back to you…that’s a topic for another post…

 

  1. Push your novel.

 

Wanna sell a million copies of your novel?! Here’s the secret:

 

Tell people it exists.

 

Selling your book comes down to letting people know it’s available. Be your own best cheerleader. Have postcards and business cards on your person at all times. Be ready with an “elevator pitch” to give at a moment’s notice. Answer the question, “What is your book about?” in thirty seconds or less in a compelling way. Go back to your query letter and condense it yet again into a logline: “All X wanted was Y, but Z wouldn’t let her.” That’s a good framework to start with.

 

  1. Network.

 

Publishing is not a game of “who you know.”

 

But it is not bad to Know People.

 

I’ve never gotten a writing or speaking job because I happened to know the CEO of AAA Publishing Company or what-have-you. I have had doors open up because someone who knew me heard about a possible thing and let me know, or made an introduction, or gave someone a recommendation. That’s not that same thing as “My daddy owns Random House!”

 

Get to know your fellow authors, inside and outside of your genre. Go to conferences and conventions and introduce yourself around with an eye toward how you can help others. It pays off.

 

  1. Write more books. No, more.

 

Imagine submitting your opus to Dream Agent, who writes back, “Loved your voice, but this story isn’t for me. Do you have anything else?” This is your shot! Except . . . uh-oh, you don’t have another book to send her? Bummer. (And I don’t mean book two in that series you just sent her.)

 

So on that note: don’t put all your creative eggs in one vampire-urban-fantasy-romance-YA-with-series-potential basket. You are a writer; write. Write novels in other genres. Maybe your first won’t land you an agent, but your second—or fifth—might.

 

  1. Have something to say.

 

We all (hopefully) have something we are passionate about. Have something to say, and be able to say it well in public, like your book signing. Passion is more infectious than a stale reading from your novel, which is like reverse Shakespeare:  it was meant to be read silently, not performed aloud.

 

Consider skipping a reading in favor of talking about something that makes your whole face light up, and tie it to the plot or theme of your novel. More people will pay attention, and the applause may move from polite to thunderous.

 

Want to learn more? Climb this tree.