Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Holi, the Festival of Colors, and My First Shakespearean Moment

Happy Holi! Today, Indians welcome spring by celebrating the Festival of Colors. People gather on the streets, with their friends and neighbors, and engage in the largest paint fight game you can imagine. If you plan to step outside, you'd better wear old clothes you don't care about, because you'll soon get pelted with colored paint or powder.

In fact, one of my earliest memories involves the Holi festival. I was about three or four years old, and my family was staying at my grandparents' apartment in Calcutta. My grandmother and I leaned out their living room window and peered down at the streets below.

“There,” she said, “See those people? They're playing Holi.”

I did indeed see people below, even a few neighbors I recognized, swathed in a riot of dark colors. Their hair, their faces, their clothes, their hands and even their sandaled feet had all been coated in paint. They had been transformed into creatures I didn't recognize, demon-like creatures from the netherworlds.

When my grandparents and my sister cheerfully asked me to come out with them, I refused and hid behind my mother's sari. Why did my family want to venture out into that strange world of monster-like beings? My mother laughed and told me I didn't have to go, and so I stayed in the sunny haven of the apartment.

Not long later, my grandparents and sister returned, their faces too mutated by the colors. They had been taken by the disease! With wide smiles they asked me to join them, stretching out their purple, blue, and red demon fingers toward me.

Never! I shrieked and ran into the master bedroom, slamming the door behind me. My mother knocked and found me skulking behind the large four-poster bed.

“There's nothing to be scared of,” she told me, “It's just paint. It comes off. Don't you want to go out and play with your sister?”

I shook my head and refused to budge from the bedroom.

“Suit yourself.”

I sat there as the afternoon sun climbed higher and higher into the sky, gleaming through the single window. I hid in the safety of the shadows, wondering when this frightful day might end. A long time later, there came another knock on the door. My mother called at me through it. She was the only one I trusted—certainly not my grandparents or sister—so I ventured to open the door.

This was my first truly Shakespearean moment. My mother's lovely, fair skin had disappeared. In its place, a blue smear ran across her forehead. A patch of red grew around her right eye. And her cheeks, mouth, and chin were as green as the face of an evil witch.

Et tu, Brute?

My American elementary school teachers never could understand my strong aversion to finger painting.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Word on the Street is Wrong: Agent Myths Double Time

I'm a huge fan of Billy Blanks' Tae Bo workout videos. He starts each exercise slow so you can figure out what you're supposed to be doing. Then he calls out “Double Time!” and you repeat the motion at an inhuman, calorie devouring pace.

Anyway, I thought I'd end my March Myths on Getting an Agent series in double time. Ready?

Street says: Agents take a long time to respond to queries so you may as well send a few out and then revise.
Me: Some agents take a long time, others respond in literally minutes to a query and in a couple of weeks to a partial. You never know which day an agent may choose to clear out her inbox. Be prepared and don't start querying until your manuscript is so shiny, Gollum calls it Precious.

Street says: Query as many agents as possible, as fast as possible.
Me: Start by querying in batches of 5-10 highly targeted agents. Funny thing, I tended to get requests from agents who represented authors I liked. In other words, we had similar tastes.  Guess the process really is subjective, huh? It's also best to take it slowly in case you have to adjust your query, partial, or even full manuscript. The waiting can be excruciating but you'll be glad if you don't burn through 50 agents in a month and then realize you need to revise. That said, don't be discouraged if your first few batches don't work out. Keep querying as long as you still feel passionate about the project, and you just might find the right somebody.

Street says: Stalk agents on Twitter while you query.
Me: Following agents on Twitter while you're working on your manuscript is useful and elightening. They can give you both great writing tips and great querying tips. But when you've got your polished query and you start sending it out, you might want to stay away because it's a bit of a blow each time they tweet about a new fabulous client that isn't you. Or when they whine that they're not seeing X types of projects when you just sent them that exact thing.

Street says: Keep up with the latest trends.
Me: By the time you finish your WIP, the trend might be over. It can actually hurt to follow trends because the market might get saturated with that type of book. You're best writing something unique and fresh, within the confines of the genre (or not—genre mashups are great, too!). However, you're going to be at a disadvantage if you haven't read widely in your genre within the last 5 years. YA books today are not like the ones from my youth, and it's best to understand what is popular in terms of length, content, voice, etc.

Street says: Attend expensive conferences so you can pitch to agents in person.
Me: Attend conferences that you can afford because you're interested in the workshops and want to learn more about the industry. They're also a fun way to get inspired and meet fellow writers. The pitch portion itself isn't worth hundreds of dollars—ultimately agents care about the book, not about how many jokes you can tell or how fabulous your conference outfit is. Their response will likely be the same as if you'd simply emailed a query letter.

There are so many other things I could touch upon in the querying process, but my list would be endless! So I'm wrapping up agent myths for now and I plan to do a different series in April. Also, watch out for a query critique giveaway!

Monday, March 18, 2013




  • networking and being part of the online writing community
  • getting feedback and encouragement





I hope that helps!

Wednesday, March 13, 2013








Note that:


1. Log Lines







2. Length / Number of Paragraphs



3.  Focus of Pitch


4.  Comparison Titles




Monday, March 4, 2013

Word on the Street is Wrong: Myths on Getting an Agent

I love my fellow writers, and they usually offer all sorts of great advice. But there are a few ill-advised pieces I hear over and over again, and it's all I can do not to not to scream, “No! That's not true!” to my friends' faces. So instead, I will scream it to you, dear reader. No! It's not true!

I will be sharing these myths about landing an agent in a series of posts (in no particular order). Obviously, these are my personal opinion, based on my own experiences and observations.

Myth #1: If you pitch to an agent at a conference, send her your material soon or she'll forget about you!

The above has been said to me, often delivered with an annoyingly perky smile, at every conference I've ever been to. The smile is only annoying because I usually don't have a manuscript in perfect, polished condition at that exact moment, and my instinct is to run away and hide because I am a terrible, not-ready-to-submit writer. It's enough to give a nervous writer hives.

The truth is, you usually plan on attending a conference months ahead of time, and you have no idea if you will have completed your WIP by the date of the conference. Most likely, you'll be in the middle of something, and that's okay.

So here is the low-down. It might sting. You may have to sit down for this. But guess what? She's already forgotten about you, most likely. Agents at big conferences might have 50+ pitches thrown at them. The silver lining: she can use these nifty tools called pen and paper to keep track of her requests. Maybe even a laptop if she's extra savvy.

Most writers I know query far too early, and they feel especially compelled to make this mistake after a conference. An agent wants to see your best material and no, she's not going to think you're an imposter because you send it a few months later.

It's really very simple. As the subject line of your email, write “Requested <Partial or Full> for <TITLE> (from <XYZ Conference>)”. In the body of the email, you can even mention how lovely it was to meet said agent at said conference. No need to apologize for the wait! I promise you, she may not remember you, but she remembers attending the conference. She can simply look back at her notes, and say, “Oh yes. I was excited to see that YA novel about <insert your brilliant idea here>.”

She will appreciate the confidence and professionalism you display by sending the manuscript when it is ready to be seen, even if it is months after the fact. Newsflash: it doesn't matter if she can't recall your fabulous conference shoes, no matter how much you spent on them. It's all about the book.

Dear writer, take your time and get it right. Don't miss out on a great agent because Miss Perky Smile goaded you into freaking out and sending too early.

Check back for more agent myths soon!