Book extras

As I’m sitting here, reclining on the couch, tweaking my book for the billionth time, a random thought pops into my head: How much stuff did the writers of my favorite books scrap during their editing?




For movies, we have director’s cuts and extended scenes so we can see more of our beloved characters, but not for books. Sure, some authors have created Facebook and twitter accounts for their characters so that fans can follow and interact with them, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about the one thing that majority of people want no matter what subject we’re discussing. I’m talking about MORE.
Think about your favorite book...
Are you thinking about it?
Good.
How many more beautifully written scenes about your favorite literary characters exist solely on those author’s computers?
Intrigued yet?
What if they had more action scenes, or went out on more dates, or had more close calls. What if the dialogue was different or their personalities? What if... God forbid... that wasn’t even their original name? Gasp!

Sometimes this is brought up during author interviews, but those aren’t always easy to find. And when you do find them, it’s just the author discussing what they did or didn’t change. I don’t want that. I want to read it. I want to read about them doing something trivial. Or read about them doing something that has absolutely nothing to do with the overall plot, but still was a great scene anyway. And dang it, I want to read a scene that sucked! (If nothing else, it will make the writer me happy that other authors have written them too ;) )

As I write, and re-write, and cut, and so forth, I have saved everything so that one day, if all nine planets line up (Pluto will always be a planet, screw you science) and my book gets published, I can say to some brilliant individual who thinks my books are amazeballs, “Did you know that my MC originally had an older sister?” Their jaw drops to release the gas from their mind exploding.

Maybe someday, with the way technology is going, we can have something like author cuts or extended versions for books, but until that day we are all just left to dream about it.

Hey I just met you, and this is crazy, but here’s my query, so sign me maybe?

Holy cow I haven’t posted since September?!?! My bad. Seriously guys, I’m sorry. Give me just a moment to play catch up and answer a question about my last post that has come up a few times on twitter. My son eventually did stop crying at preschool. I wish I could take credit, but I can’t. Honestly. Three weeks into his school year and my day job changed my schedule so my hubs had to do solo trips to the Y with two toddlers. THAT was interesting...

So what else have I been doing while neglecting this site. Hmmm... Revisions. Revisions. Training for a half marathon. And oh yeah, did I mention revisions?

Moment of truth here peeps, I did a small round of queries last summer (ten all together) and had three requests for fulls. Amazing, I know. But alas, they all passed. Don’t cry for me Argentina because that inspired me to join a writers group, where I found two amazing critique partners, Alisha and Astrid. Then I joined another writers website where I found a third critique partner and beta reader, Mizi and Jennifer. And somewhere along the way I discovered that a friend wanted to get back into being an editor. I didn’t even know she did that previously, but she wanted me to be her first gig. SWEET! You women are fantastic! Thank you for telling me what sucked, and for putting up with all my rewrites. New title, new scenes, and now told in multiple points of view. Basically, it’s a whole new book. To those agents that passed, thank you for giving me the motivation and opportunity to grow as a writer.

Now that we’re all caught up, we can get to the point of this post: I’m submitting again!!! My query, or as I like to call it, “this evil thing designed for the soul purpose of making writers cry” is nearly finished. Same goes for the equally hellish nightmare aka synopsis. Now I’m on the fun task of researching agents. No joke there, I do enjoy this part.

I write YA. According to a website that I absolutely love and wouldn’t be where I am today without it: www.querytracker.net , there are 375 agents listed with them that rep YA. Uhhhh... damn skippy, that’s a lot. So I’m currently researching them, which is a fine line of digging and cyber stalking to find out whom among them is:  

A: Open for submissions.

B: Interested in topics that exist in my book (jeez YA covers a lot)  

C: I can see working with this agent for many years.

I know it’s not a long list, but that is what I look for in regards to the agent, not the agency as a whole. That list is longer ;)

A is a no brainer. Why query someone who is closed?

B stems from a mistake I did last year. After many hours researching and developing an agent-crush (if that is not a thing, it should be) I submitted to an agent and after two weeks of “Oh, was that my email ping?” *opens email* Not him *sigh* I stumbled on an interview he had just recently gave that offered a more in-depth look at what he is/isn’t looking for. Three of the things on his “isn’t looking for list” were in my story. I stopped getting excited for my email reply from him and ate lots of ice cream that day. Now, when I find an agent in that mass of 375 that I have an agent-crush on (I’ve found a few) you bet your sweet cheeks I’m doing everything I can to NOT go through that again. I may even email the top three just to be on the safe-side.

C is because I want an agent I can trust and feel comfortable with and won’t groan when their name comes up on my phone or email. If at any point during my research into your agency, you, your blog, and whatever else I can find, you’ve made me laugh, you’re in my dream team and I will be submitting to you soon.  

So what do you do to decide which agent/agency is right for you? Is there something you think I should be doing that I’m not?

Thanks for reading and remember, If/when you uncover something embarrassing about an agent like photos of their cat’s birthday, good research is when you say, “aww cute” and move on. Cyber-stalking is when you comment on it in the query.

TTFN and I promise not take such a long hiatus,

Laurie

something happened to me on the way to writing my book

I'm not talking about this great revelation or brilliant insight that changed my life forever.  I'm talking about something that happened that, at the time, wasn't funny but, now it is and WHEN my book sells, I want to remember this.
While writing this book I've have my share of, "I hate you so much computer!" and "oh no baby please don't die..." and "what just happened? All I did was press one button and now my 90,000 words are gone!" and my personal favorite because it happens too much "oh my god did I save that?"

My biggest OH NO! moment came while my hubs and I were getting ready for something (don't remember what) and my two toddlers were playing toys in the living room. Suddenly the room got quiet. That... is never a good sign. I went into the living room and screamed "NOOO" so loudly and with such devastation that my husband sprinted to the living room thinking something happened to the kids. Looking back at it, it was a bit overly dramatic but, at the time it was the end of the world.

My writing space is the couch in the living room  and my laptop sits on the table next to it. (I can't sit at a desk. It's boring to me. And well... the couch is comfy.) The image that abruptly ended my world was: my two boys sitting on the couch with the lap top open and ALL THE KEYS WERE MISSING! Yes. That's right. They had somehow popped all the keys off the lap top.

While checking to make sure none of the keys were in their mouth, my head was whirling. I hadn't gotten into the habit of saving on a flash drive and I wasn't sure if the computer would be salvageable. I couldn't possibly start from scratch. There was just too many scenes. Too much detail. Too many emotions. I nearly... called it quits right there on my food stained, toy covered gray rug.

My hubs helped locate all the keys and... some did not survive. Among the casualties were - A T . " and the CTRL key. CTRL I could live without (the key, not actual control. I am a control freak) but A T . and  " are essential!

A new keyboard was ordered but, it would take ten days to arrive. Its an off day when I'm not writing so, I tried to push through it. I still had the clear little cone thing that sits on the back side of the key board but, it either wouldn't work or it would work too much and I would end up with five of the desired key. It was a long ten days.

That was several months ago. The new keyboard is in (it's noisier) and I'm still writing almost everyday. There have been a few other mishaps with my frienemy computer but, that was by far the worst. And the funniest. But, if my boys are ever reading this... I love you but, that was not nice. When I eventually get a gray hair - I will say it was a delayed reaction from this event. Unless you boys do something naughtier... then it will be for that.