Setting the Stage

As I said last time, in the very near future, I will be publishing a short story that is a snarky and sci fi version of "Puss in Boots" that will kick of my new chapter book series, Doomimals. Doomimals is about three children and their animal companions saving the world from the evil Dog of War.  Each book will follow a fairytale, Aesop's fable, folk song, or some other familiar story that most people know.  For instance, the first book in the collection I will publish is called CockadoodleDOOM and will adapt "Chicken Little" into a crazy, funny sci fi/fantasy adventure.  The second book, Cat-a-clysm, will have the three little kittens losing their Mittens of Cataclysm.  The kids have to retrieve them before the Dog and her minions use them to destroy the world.  

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This new "Puss in Boots" tale is called "If You Give a Cat the Boot."  It will be set in medieval England. However, the language reflects modern speech so as to remain readable to young people for whom the series is written.  Characters spend time in the woods and in castles, as you'd expect of a story set in such times. However, the story makes clear there are other amazing places within our world that we've never heard of, namely, a place called Jerf, a high tech paradise for animals, led by the Great Leader, a giant (in the real world, extinct) snake also called a Titanoboa.

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This story will offer a peek into the world I will explore more fully in Doomimals. My son will explore this world in his earlier chapter book series, Just Us Chickens, a zany romp about a super chicken group. He'll revisit it in his chapter book series for older kids, Keylime Python, a series about a snarky, world-traveling and sword-fighting snake.  It all begins with "If You Give a Cat the Boot," which I will publish and make available for free in the next few weeks.  The first volume will include the first several books from Doomimals. As a bonus, it will also offer a few books from Just Us Chickens and a cross-over introduction of Keylime Python. I will publish this collection in the next few months.  Stay tuned for more information. 

Coming Soon

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With an Eye toward Sharing My Stories with You

I have made an award-winning short story available to you.  Here is  a link to my landing page to sign up. 

I have just started two classes on getting published, one about publishing children's books on Amazon and one about publishing short stories and novels.  By the end of the children's books class, I plan to start publishing picture books.  By the end of the other class, I will have a short story published and linked to here.  In the future, I will review these courses for other interested writers.

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See My Website 

In this short story, I retell "Puss in Boots," with a sci fi twist entitled "If You Give a Cat the Boot."  I look forward to sharing this short story for free upon its publication, with anyone who is interested.  As you meet Zara,  who appears to be a cat asking a peasant for boots to help him achieve his dreams, you'll enter the world Doomimals Extended.  This is a place where aliens regularly hide among us as a cat, a bird, or your neighbor, waging a war for control of the galaxy under our very noses.  This short story will set the groundwork for several series and solo stories I plan to write, many of which I've thumbnailed on my new website here.  Some of them will be written by my teenage son, including a series about zany super chickens called Just Us Chickens. 

[1st Draft of CockadoodleDOOM cover, by me]

About the First Series

In the first book of Doomimals, CockadoodleDOOM, based on "Chicken Little," three kids and their animal allies have to warn their mayor that the Dog of War is sending an evil animal army to attack their town.

[1st draft of Cat-a-clysm cover, by me]

In the second book, Cat-a-clysm, based on "Three Kittens," three kittens have lost the Mittens of Cataclysm to the Dog's minions, and the kids must get them back before the Dog uses them to destroy the world.  Both of these are in draft form and are being revised with an eye toward publication as quickly as is possible.  Other projected titles in the series include Cow-lamity, Alpaca-lypse, Arachnageddon, Ragnar-octopus, and DoomsDuck and are similarly inspired by familiar tales and songs.

I am looking forward to bringing all of this to you and will keep you posted right here about how all these things go.  Stay tuned.

Update: This last week, I found a hybrid publisher who will be working with me to release Doomimals in sets of ten as my romance novels.  Watch for future developments.

Updates

Since I last wrote in this blog, I have been busy working toward a writing career without yet breaking into print.  However, I have been ramping up to move in that direction. 

Last summer, I spent several months getting feedback on my short stories (I have roughly 10 or so, many of which have won prizes), so I can start submitting them for publication.  I sent a few of them out, one of them to magazine after magazine with no success, even though it won a first prize from League of Utah Writers and an honorable mention from the Writer's Digest contest.  I've since learned that a fraction of a percent of short stories actually make it into the top publications.  My focus has turned elsewhere, but I'm still determined that they see print. 

I also sent the first of my chapter book series for 7-10-year-olds, Doomimals book 1: CockadoodleDOOM (about kids and their super-powered pets saving the world from the Dog of War), out to a few of the handful of agents who work with this age group and genre, also coming up empty.  I decided at that point to back up and get the feedback of a freelance editor, as I did with my first romance novel.  I am now working through that feedback. 

Just in the last couple of weeks, I started listening to the free webinars that have been sent through various sources to my email.  I figured a free webinar may enlighten me as to something I may be missing.  The first made it clear that I need to do a lot of marketing, myself, no matter how I break into print, self-publishing or otherwise, and gave me some clues about how to do it.  I totally recommend such webinars, even though they all end in a sales pitch. 

Another of these webinars, given by The Write Practice, offered to take me through the process of writing, networking and marketing, and actually publishing a book either through conventional or self-publication.  This seems an offer I could not pass up.  I have just started following its instructions in assembling a webpage, linking to my extant and future writing.  I will forward the link as soon as it's done. 

Another most exciting development in my life is, after struggling with the conventional publication process and balking at the prices companies want to help you get self-published, I may have hit upon something in between, a new kind of publication that features the best of both worlds.  It is in its fledgling stages, but I will write about this in the future as well if it comes to fruition. 

In other words, it finally feels like I'm very close to breaking in print besides local presses and my theses on Amazon.  I'm not sure where, how, and what will come first, but I'll keep you posted as it happens. 

New Plan

I think I've been going about this whole trying-to-get-published thing the wrong way.  I've been taking my one, monumental novel kind of project (first, the LDS romance, then the kids' chapter book), sending it off, and waiting for it to come back only to have it refused again.  Then I'd send it off again or go back to the drawing board and try to send it to an editor for revision ideas.  I'm stalled on revising the romance and getting ideas on my synopsis for my novel. 

In the meantime, I've been sitting on award-winning poetry, short stories, children's stories, and a braided essay for decades.  Years ago, I heard the advice that I ought order a copy of each and every magazine before sending anything off.  It sound so expensive and stressful that I haven't done anything with it.  It's just all been sitting there, gathering dust. 

Well, about a week or two ago, I started formulating a new plan.  My romance novel still needs a serious overhaul (getting some emotional distance preparatory to that).  I'm soon going to send off the chapter book yet again (it's been to one publisher and three agents, all of whom passed with or without an explanation).  But in the meantime, I have also started polishing up my old short stories, one by one, and have started doing research into online resources about each of these magazines.  I already have a refusal for the first of them. 

I have decided I just need to treat this like a business.  I have a chart.  I will write the name of the publisher or agent to whom I send one of these items along with the date it was sent and the time it will take for them to get back with me.  I will then wait for it to come back and then mark the result.  In the meantime, I will be doing that with my ten or so other short stories as well as my kids' stories and poetry.  One of these days, if I'm persistent, something will pan out.  When it does, I will make a blog to celebrate.  In the meantime, I just have to keep at it. 

Bummer

I started the week (well, the day after Christmas) on a bummer note.  I finally heard back from the agent only to be told with no explanation that she would not represent Doomimals, my chapter book series.  Not the news I hoped for, certainly.  I sent a follow-up email asking for an explanation, so I would know what route to take next, whether to an editor or another agent.  I heard nothing back, which is not helpful.  At least the last refusal came with an explanation. 

So I decided to try something entirely different.  I sent it next to a local publisher that publishes everything from adult fiction on down to children's.  Another branch of the publishing company may eventually be able to publish my romantic fiction, so I could see this being productive.  On the other hand, my confidence is sort of shot because I have no idea if I was refused based on the quality of the prose, based on the agent's limitations, or on something else again.  Just as I begin to get my hopes up, they're dashed again.  Someone did remind me the self-publishing route exists as well as the idea that Rowling tried to publish her Harry Potter manuscript several times before it found a home.  It would just be nice to get past no and into at least maybe territory. 

Art Portfolio

The first agent passed on my chapter book, Doomimals Book 1: Cockadoodle-DOOM, because it didn't fall within her scope of expertise, though I submitted it by specific invitation.  I am now sending it to a second agent.  As part of that, I may or may not have an opportunity to illustrate it.  In the past, I have been told that authors are rarely allowed to illustrate their own work.  I have taken years of art classes and would love that opportunity.  I need to upload my art somewhere, so she can see samples.  This is my blog readers' opportunity to see it, too.  Here you go: 

Cats in pen,1993

Self-portrait in colored pencil, 1993

               
  

Family portrait, 1993

Sister, drawn from life in pen, 1993

Liz Taylor, drawn 1994

Mel Gibson, drawn 1993

           

Self-Portrait, 1994

Ruru, 2017

Chapter Book Research

As I said on my last post, I received an invitation at The League of Utah Writers Fall Conference to submit the first installment of my chapter book series to an agent.  That's a big deal because it means I can slide right past the slush pile.  Since then, I've been researching the genre.  When I started Doomimals Book 1: Cock-a-doodle-DOOM, I thought I was writing a middle-grade fiction series.  I thought of it as akin to Animorphs, Spiderwick Chronicles, or anything along those lines.  I had no idea how all of this worked.  First, I did the research and read several comparables (I didn't even know I needed them when I went to talk to the agent in the first place).  Then I got to work on the manuscript.  I have now, after a month's hard labor, turned a rough manuscript into something that may be considered by publishers in the not so distant future.

Let me share something of what I've learned in the last month.  I am no expert, but I have discovered a few things.  One is that there are precise definitions and word counts for books in the children's book realm.  At least for your first book, you must stick to those.  You'll want to do more precise and authoritative research, but the best I can figure, children's books are divided up as follows: there's board book (roughly a sentence per page); picture book (up to 1000 words total, and the story relies heavily on pictures); early readers (around 5000 words, still reliant on pictures for much of the story but with short chapters); chapter books (8000-12,000 words, for slightly more advanced readers of roughly 7-10 years old); middle-grade books (30-55,000 words, though some sources say they can get shorter or longer); then up to young adult fiction, which is usually longer than that.  It turns out there's a whole science to all of this, knowing your readability statistics, comparables, the market, etc.  I'm not kidding.  There is a lot to know.  Oh, and the agent with whom I spoke said that current trend in middle-grade fiction is following young adult fiction into darker areas like suicide, death, and drugs.  If you want to write a fun romp, you may want to research younger age fiction, but then younger age fiction is hard to break into because it isn't much of a money-maker by comparison.  All of it kind of blows my mind.

At this point, I don't know if the agent will want to represent me simply because I found out (after talking to that agent who invited me to submit, different agent) my genre falls outside their agency's area of expertise.  Any which way, I have something publishable that I hope will find a home in the publishing world soon.  And that feels pretty dang good.