For Writers

Adria Goetz – Editor/Agent Spotlight & Giveaway!

By on March 31, 2023   /   Editor / Agent Spotlight, For Writers  

I’ve been a huge fan of agent Adria Goetz since meeting her online years ago. Adria is kind, supportive, and her enthusiasm for great books and her talented clients shines through. After reading this on her Manuscript Wish List, how could an unagented writer resist submitting to her?

A note to writers considering querying me: I hope you do. I love, love, love receiving submissions. It’s an ongoing honor and delight to me that everyday, people scattered all over the world, send me their stories to read. What a privilege! If you’re on the fence about whether you think your project is the right fit for me, but you think we’d make a good team—my vote is you just go for it. Your submission is never an email clogging up my inbox—it’s a gift that I can’t wait to open. I opt to refer to my slush pile as a “treasure trove” because it doesn’t feel like wading through slush to me. It feels more like sifting through gems. I can’t wait to see what you’ve created!

NEW AGENCY UPDATE!

Here are a few additional questions Adria answered after switching to KT Literary:

Congratulations on your move to KT Literary on May 2, 2023. Can you tell us about your new agency? 

Absolutely! KT Literary’s motto is, “Nice people, great books” which I think is a great foundation to build an agency on and feels like the perfect place for me to put down roots. KT is probably most known for their YA authors Maureen Johnson and Stephanie Perkins, but they’ve represented quite a bit of amazing adult and middle grade fiction as well, and they’re actively expanding their presence in the picture book and graphic novel spaces which is exciting to see.

I see that you’re their Illustration Coordinator. Congrats! What does that entail? 

I am! I’ll be the point person for editors and art directors to come to when they’re looking for a talented illustrator for their project. A matchmaker between artists and publishers, basically! Logistically, my first order of business will be assembling a look book of KT’s illustrators. I’m also going to be meeting with art directors in the coming months to hear more about what strategies do and don’t work for them. Do they still like receiving physical postcards? Do they follow art Instagram accounts? Do they open up email blasts highlighting illustrators? Do they comb through the various kid lit art hashtags on social media? There are lots of strategies out there and I’m curious to get a better sense for which are most effective. 
 

After using e-mail all these years, I see you’re using QueryManager. How is it different for you, and do you have any tips for querying writers? Some QueryManager forms ask for detailed info that repeats parts of a typical query…so writers often worry they aren’t sharing what the agent truly wants to see. 

It makes it so much easier for me to send personalized responses which I really like. I tried to make my form as universal and bare bones as possible so that I’m only asking for what I really need. My advice to querying writers is just to write “N/A” for any spots in the form that don’t apply to you, and don’t worry about repeating yourself. If the form is repetitive, that’s not your fault!

And now, back to the original interview questions. Enjoy. 🙂

Here’s Adria’s bio: Adria Goetz represents picture books, middle grade, adult fiction, and graphic novels. She specializes in picture books by author/illustrators. She graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor’s degree in English with a Creative Writing emphasis, as well as the Columbia Publishing Course. In 2019, she was selected as a Publishers Weekly Star Watch Honoree. Adria has eclectic taste but particularly enjoys projects that are tinged with magic, have so much heart you can practically hear their heartbeat, and have a compelling, commercial hook. She was recently proud to represent THE OCEAN CALLS by Tina Cho, THE WHATIFS by Emily Kilgore, THE UGLY DOODLES by Valeria Wicker, NO ORDINARY THING by G.Z. Schmidt, HALAL HOT DOGS by Susannah Aziz, and BATTER ROYALE by Leisl Adams, and dozens of others. Adria lives in an old Victorian farmhouse in Washington state with her husband and their two darling cats, Maple and Mulberry. You can find her detailed manuscript wishlist on her website, her MSWL Pinterest board, and you can find Adria on Twitter and Instagram.

 

Welcome to the Mixed-Up Files, Adria! We’re thrilled to have you here. Can you share how you became an agent…and the best parts of your job?

Sure! I started off with an internship at Martin Literary when I was in college. I interned for two years, then became a part-time assistant there. I attended the Columbia Publishing Course, which is a summer intensive where you learn about all the ins and outs of the publishing industry. When I returned from that, I officially joined the Martin Literary team as an associate literary agent in 2016. I switched over to P.S. Literary in 2022. The best part of my job is the wonderful, creative people I get to work with—so many of my clients feel like kindred spirits to me. I’ll also always love getting to feel like a bookish fairy godmother—becoming an author is often a lifelong dream that people have had since they were kids, so the fact that I get to come alongside people and help make that dream come true is really special and exciting to me.

 

You definitely are a bookish fairy godmother–helping dreams come true. What do you love most about middle-grade novels?

I think the thing I love about middle grade most is how much room there is for whimsy. But it also takes me back to such a special and vivid time of reading for me growing up. I’ll never forget being captivated by A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS and fretting about Count Olaf and the creepy eye tattoo on his ankle, or reading THE DOLLHOUSE MURDERS and having to close the book and take a deep breath because I was so frightened. Or feeling like I was actually traveling through time with THE MAGIC TREEHOUSE chapter books, or actually running around Chicago with Esperanza in THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET. I remember desperately hoping with all my heart that Winnie Foster would drink the water in TUCK EVERLASTING. Those books are all so vivid to me in ways that books I’ve read as an adult or young adult just aren’t for some reason. Can we dial up a lovely neuroscientist to explain why that is? I’m sure they would know!

 

What are some of the top reasons you pass on submissions?

The top reason I pass on things is just because of the volume of submissions I receive. I usually receive somewhere between 4500-5500 submissions per year, and I only sign a couple of clients from that stack. The second most common reason I pass on things is based on the concept of the book, rather than the writing. I’ll read a query and if I don’t feel like it has a strong hook, then I pass at that point. I think when writers receive passes they think, “Oh no! They didn’t like my writing!” But for me it’s usually more about the idea. That’s why whenever I have appointments with writers at conferences, I always like to ask about what other projects they’re working on, so if I hear an idea that sounds particularly interesting, I can say, “Ooh! That’s a good one. Follow that rabbit.”

 

What do you wish people knew about the life of an agent?

I wish people knew how much we hate rejecting people! It’s truly the worst part of the job. Every time I pass on a project I think, “I hope I didn’t ruin this person’s day.” I know how emotional it is to put yourself out there. Querying takes guts.

 

We’d love to hear what your favorite middle-grade novels are…and why you love them so much.

I recently read THE ELEPHANT’S GIRL by Celesta Remington—actually, I don’t think I read it, I think I inhaled it. There’s so much heart in that story, and I loved the magical realism elements. I loved CIRCUS MIRANDUS by Cassie Beasley—it’s magical, and I always love a dual timeline.

I love novels that reflect specific moments in history the way BROWN GIRL DREAMING by Jacqueline Woodson explores the Great Migration or the way SHIP OF DOLLS by Shirley Parenteau highlights the 1926 exchange of Friendship Dolls. I also loved INDIAN NO MORE by Charlene Willing Mcmanis and Traci Sorrell.

Ooh, and I adore anything Brian Selznick creates—especially THE INVENTIONS OF HUGO CABRET and THE MARVELS.

 

What exciting projects have your clients published (or will publish soon)? What drew you to these manuscripts the most?

One of my favorite middle grade novels I’ve had the chance to represent is NO ORDINARY THING by G.Z. Schmidt which is a magical story about a snow globe that travels you through time when you shake it. The mysterious tone of those opening pages was such a love at first read moment for me, I’ll never forget it. G.Z. Schmidt also has THE DREAMWEAVERS which is a fantasy inspired by Chinese mythology and is very atmospheric—it’s about mooncakes whose secret ingredients are dreams. I’m excited for her next novel, THE CURIOUS VANISHING OF BEATRICE WILLOUGHBY, which publishes this fall. I also adore the first middle grade novels I ever sold—a whimsical fantasy trilogy by Jon Etter whose series title is “Those Dreadful Fairy Books” by Jon Etter. It’s a really funny series about a cranky fairy who very reluctantly goes on magical adventures. The books are narrated by Quentin Q. Quacksworth who is a Lemony Snicket-esque narrator of fairytales who actively judges the reader for bothering to read the dreadful books. That cheeky voice instantly drew me in. I loved working on HOUSE WITHOUT WALLS by Ching Yeung Russell which is a beautiful novel-in-verse about the Vietnam Boat People Exodus of 1979—the lyrical writing hooked me and all of the details make you feel like you’re a fly on the wall witnessing a harrowing refugee experience.

I’m also really excited for the middle grade graphic novel-in-verse THE OTHER SIDE OF TOMORROW, written by Tina Cho, which publishes next year with HarperAlley and is being beautifully illustrated by Deborah Lee. It’s about North Koreans leaving the country through a network of safehouses referred to as the Asian Underground Railroad.

Thanks for sharing, Adria. Those sound amazing! I just added so many wonderful books to my must-read list and have a feeling our readers did, too.

What about chapter books? Have you represented anything in that area?

I have! I represented an 8-book chapter book series called HELPER HOUNDS by Caryn Rivadeneira. Each book in the series follows an emotional support dog and shows how they help kids navigate different emotional challenges.

 

That sounds incredible! I love animals and can’t wait to read the HELPER HOUNDS series.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?  

Can I do a quick plug for some events I’ll be at this year? I’m teaching a workshop in Tuscany, Italy this summer called The Art of Picture Book Writing and it’s going to be a really fun week filled with writing, learning, and exploring Tuscany. I’m also going to be on faculty at a writers retreat in the Catskills this fall. Anyone who is interested in either event can visit my website adriagoetz.com for more details!

 

Thank you so much for joining us at the Mixed-Up Files, Adria! It’s been wonderful chatting with you. 😊

Adria generously donated a query critique! 

Enter the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win it.

The winner will be announced here and contacted via e-mail on Saturday, April 8. Good luck!

Edited to add…congrats to the lucky winner…

Julie Hauswirth

I’ll e-mail you about your prize!

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Some thoughts on Writing and RITUALS

By on March 20, 2023   /   Articles, Op-Ed, Writing  

Writers are known to have rituals. Light a candle, sit in your favourite chair, arrange your paperclips at right angles, and only then can/will the the magic at the keyboard begin.

I’m not exactly kidding. Patricia Highsmith apparently started her writing sessions off with a stiff drink; Truman Capote claimed he could only write when horizontal, coffee and a cigarette in hand; Haruki Murakami has said that when he is writing a novel he wakes at 4 am and works for five or six hours straights, runs or swims in the afternoon, and goes to bed by 9 pm. 

 

I do have a Pavlovian response when I hear the opening bars of Mozart’s Sonata for Piano and Violin in G, K.301:2. Allegro

As a mother of four kids running a busy home, however, I can’t really afford to get too picky about a lot of that stuff. Mostly I need to do whatever I can to carve out time, and try and use it to the best of my ability. That includes: not peeking at the myriad tabs open as I compare ballet tights, dog food, birthday gifts, name labels on sale, other items on sale; ignoring pinging from any number of WhatsApp groups re: carpools, playdates, football training; not scheduling doctor/dentist/hairdresser appointments; and not checking something else off the endless to-do list. I do have music that I like to listen to when I write. With Honey and Me I basically listened to a Mozart for Morning Coffee CD I had from my kids until eventually technology advanced but I was still slogging away and I switched to Mozart for Study playlists on Spotify. I don’t actually know anything about classical music, but when I hear the opening bars of Sonata for Piano and Violin in G, K.301:2. Allegro my mind jumps to my characters Milla and Honey and their world. 

But I can also write in cafes, on airplanes and anywhere there’s white noise rather than the mom-specific noise of someone asking me what’s for dinner or have I seen their shin pads. 

There is one ritual I do have though. It’s not exclusive, meaning I can write without it and otherwise go about my day. But it does bring me joy and internal structure—an expectation of what I’m meant to be doing— and there’s something to be said for that. 

My ritual is: mugs.

The first thing to know is that I drink tea all day long. Green tea until 2 pm. And then chamomile, and sometimes rooibos or mint. But that’s not really the important part. The important ritualistic part is which mug I am drinking said tea in. I used to have two. One has Elvis Presley on it. It comes from an Elvis-themed truck stop on the road between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It was purchased for me by a taxi driver who took me from Tel Aviv to the cemetery just outside Jerusalem where my friend had buried her son; waited for me during the service, standing on the outskirts with a kippa from his glove compartment; and then took me back to my children waiting for me at a hotel in Tel Aviv before we returned to London later that day. But first he wanted to show me the Elvis truck stop and bought me a cup of tea with the mug as a souvenir. 

 The Elvis mug

This is the mug I use when it is family time. When I’m using that mug I am not wishing that I could be sitting at my computer. I am counting my blessings for my family and their health— mental and physical. Even when I’m making four different dinners. Even in the depths of lockdown where boundaries in general did not seem to exist. When I take out that mug it’s a choice and a statement that I will try to be in the moment with my family and whatever needs doing for them, and not trying to split my time between my writing and them, giving not enough to either.

The writing mugs (Parts I and II)

My second mug used to be a Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators mug. Purchased by me, for me, at an SCBWI British Isles conference many years ago, this was my work mode mug. When I was using that mug it meant that I did not want to be called by school to come get my sick child. Alas, sometimes that was the case. Because that’s life. But taking out that mug was a choice and a gesture that this writing part of me was important and deserved space. 

 

Unfortunately, a few months ago this mug broke. Don’t ask me how, no one will tell me. My husband glued the handle back on but a chunk was missing. I was going through a Harry Styles thing (I mean, who wasn’t?) and my older daughter, both mortified and milking it for laugh-at-mom value bought me a “You’re So Golden” mug as a replacement work mug. It’s a good one, although it’s a bit more irreverent and less earnest than the SCBWI one. I use it for work, but also sometimes when I need a bit of pep. It should also be said that since my book was published, I have found the definition of work to be different. Rather than just going into my home office to write, I am suddenly running another small business — essentially a marketing and PR firm for my book. It is such different and unexpected work. But perhaps that’s another blog post.

The author mode mug

The point is the lines have been blurred a bit and luckily I now have a THIRD mug which is taking its ritualistic place in my life. Just before Honey and Me was published I got a mystery package in the mail, with handwriting that was extremely familiar but too out of context to place, especially because it had been so long since I’d last seen it. To my shock and utter delight, it was a mug made into the jacket cover of Honey and Me, sent from my oldest best friend Stephanie. I still can’t get over it. It’s hard to say how much this mug means to me. Having the love and support of my friends for one thing. Having a friend who has known me since I was four. Having written a book about friendship and to feel this support from my own friend. Seeing the jacket cover on a mug and feeling OMG this is real, I am about to be a published author. There’s probably more to it that I can’t even harness and pick out the strands of what and how much it means to me, but basically I suspect I have written this whole blog post as an excuse to show off this mug!

So the Honey and Me mug I use when I am in what I think I will call “author mode.” Sometimes I am afraid to take it out lest I drop it and break it. Say what you will about the fragility with which I consider this new mode of being for me: “author.” Other times I sip from it proudly or at least try to own it. The book is published and I am proud of it. I love how people are connecting to it. I love talking to kids who have read it! And it’s been an added surprise and bonus to talk to all the  adults who have read it and related to it, no matter their background.

All I know is, I hope my mugs don’t break. I hope that people everywhere love my book. I hope I have more books in me. I hope my family stays safe. Even without my mugs these are my hopes and fears. 

Ritual shmitual. 

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Author Interview: Dianne Salerni and her latest release, The Carrefour Curse

By on March 15, 2023   /   Author Interviews, books, For Kids, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, For Writers, New Releases  

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Addams Family meets The Westing Game in this exhilarating mystery about a modern magical dynasty trapped in the ruins of their once-grand, now-crumbling ancestral home.

Twelve-year-old Garnet regrets that she doesn’t know her family. Her mother has done her best to keep it that way, living far from the rest of the magical Carrefour clan and their dark, dangerous mansion known as Crossroad House.

But when Garnet finally gets summoned to the estate, it isn’t quite what she hoped for. Her relatives are strange and quarrelsome, each room in Crossroad House is more dilapidated than the last, and she can’t keep straight which dusty hallways and cobwebbed corners are forbidden. 

Then Garnet learns the family secret: their dying patriarch fights to retain his life by stealing power from others. Every accident that isn’t an accident, every unexpected illness and unexplained disappearance grants Jasper Carrefour a little more time. While the Carrefours squabbles over who will inherit his role when (if) he dies, Garnet encounters evidence of an even deeper curse. Was she brought to Crossroad House as part of the curse . . . or is she meant to break it?

Written with loads of creepy atmosphere and an edge-of-your-seat magical mystery, this thrilling story reads like The Haunting of Hill House for preteens. Perfect for late-night reading under the covers.

Introduction

Today, we have the pleasure of hosting a favorite author of mine, Dianne K. Salerni, to talk about her latest release from Holiday House Books called, The Carrefour Curse. Here’s her official introduction:

Dianne K. Salerni has written many books for children, including Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selections Eleanor, Alice, and the Roosevelt Ghosts and Jadie in Five Dimensions. After teaching elementary school for twenty-five years, Dianne now spends her time hanging around creepy cemeteries and climbing 2,000-year-old pyramids for book research. Visit her online at https://diannesalerni.com/

Dianne can also be found online at: 

The Interview

MH: One of my favorite things as a reader and a creator is the author’s story of their story. The journey and brain science behind how a story grew from bits and pieces of an idea to a book on the shelf is fascinating to me. What is the origin story of your latest middle-grade release, The Carrefour Curse?

Dianne: There were two main inspirations for The Carrefour Curse: Dark Shadows, the supernatural soap opera, and The Spook House, a vignette written by Ambrose Bierce. My mother was a fan of Dark Shadows, and I used to watch the show as a young child even though I wasn’t allowed to. I hid behind the sofa and became a lifelong fan of all things gothic. As for the Bierce story, the image of a locked room filled with dead people haunted me for a long time, and I tried for years to build a plot around it. When I got the idea to combine Dark Shadows and The Spook House, the result was The Carrefour Curse.

I wrote the first draft in 2017, and when it was finished, I proclaimed it “a terrible mess,” closed the document, and forgot about it. Fast forward to early 2020, when I devoured the Netflix series, Locke & Key. I loved that show so much, I made a list of all the elements that called to me and thought, I’d like to write a story with these elements. Then I remembered I already had!  For the first time in three years, I opened the document named Crossroad House, read it, and discovered that, although it was messy, it wasn’t terrible. Revising this manuscript soon became my pandemic project.

MH: I’ve always been drawn to your ability to create real and believable fictional worlds within a recognizable “normal” story world. From the magical extra day of The Eighth Day series to the extra dimension worlds of Jadie in Five Dimensions, you build logical worlds that allow the reader to seamlessly move in and out of. I realize my begging at your feet and screaming,  “How do you do this?” is too broad and too unfair of a question to ask, but can you share a few steps of how you create such effective world shifts in your books? 

Dianne: Well, it certainly doesn’t happen in the first draft, that’s for sure! The world-building usually starts with an idea. Like: There’s a secret day hidden between Wednesday and Thursday. Or: Our 3-dimensional universe exists inside a larger 4-dimensional universe. In my first draft, world-building is thin, disjointed, and often contradictory as I try to nail down the plot. After the story is complete, I work on a list of “rules” for my alternate world, with my priority being that the rules have to allow all my events to happen and still make sense. In successive drafts, I work on the inconsistencies and the logic and make sure that the world elements saturate the story, instead of feeling tacked on. In the final drafts, I make a list of the chapters and chart what elements appear in each one. Has it been several chapters since my main character felt like Crossroad House was watching her or influencing events? I’ll work a mention in.

MH: Can you describe your creative process of how an idea becomes a fully-formed story in your hands? 

Dianne: Every book starts with a premise, like the secret day or the nesting universes, or an inspirational source, like Dark Shadows and The Spook House. Next, come the characters. Who are they and what happens to them? What is the main conflict? In rare cases, before I start writing, I’ll outline the entire story on Scrivener. I did that with Eleanor, Alice, & the Roosevelt Ghosts and also with the second and third books in the Eighth Day series. But most of the time, I outline the first third or half and then jump into writing because I don’t know how it all works out until it happens on the page. Sometimes there are surprises. In The Carrefour Curse, a rather important character invented herself in Chapter 23 and inserted herself into the climax, forcing me—in later drafts—to weave her very existence into the first half of the book. Sometimes, the surprise is that the book is a dud. There are many, many unfinished manuscripts on my computer.

MH: Are you a multiple-irons in-the-fire creator or a one-story-at-a-time creator?

Dianne: Usually, I’ll work on only one story at a time. If I’m struggling with it, I might put it aside to revise and polish an old manuscript. (The Carrefour Curse is not the only one of my books to come out of a resurrected manuscript.) Once in a while, publication deadlines require that I work on more than one thing at a time. While I was under contract for the Eighth Day series, I once found myself proofreading the galley of Book 1, making editorial revisions on Book 2, and drafting Book 3. I got so confused about what Jax knew and when he knew it that I had to rearrange my schedule to work on one at a time: first the proofreading, then the revisions, and finally back to drafting.

MH: Can you describe your experience with Holiday House in bringing The Carrefour Curse to its publication date? 

Dianne: Holiday House has been wonderful to work with. My last three books have been published through Holiday House, and I think my editor, Sally Morgridge, is brilliant. I love the covers they’ve commissioned for all three books – they’re all very different but each one perfect in its own way. The publicity department is enthusiastic and very communicative. In the past, I have worked with bigger publishers where I never had any contact with my “official publicist,” so this is a refreshing change!

MH: What’s next?

Dianne: I have a book on submission. Because it’s not recommended that we talk about works on submission, I’ll say only that it’s a comedy-mystery and somewhat different from my other books. While I wait for word on that, I’m drafting a middle grade horror story. We’ll see how that goes because I’m approaching the end of the “index cards” on my Scrivener corkboard and wading into the un-outlined part of the story. For me, this is the scariest part of my horror story!

MH: What are some of your favorite activities, outside of the butt-in-chair life of an author, to recharge your creative battery?

Twice a week, I volunteer at our local animal shelter. I walk dogs and service the cat room – feeding and cleaning up after the cats and assorted critters. (Currently, we have more rabbits than cats in the so-called cat room.) I have three hydroponic gardens in my home. I typically grow lettuce, tomatoes, and baby bok choy, but I’ve also experimented with sweet peas (too much vine and not enough peas), dwarf eggplants (they do better outside), and Swiss chard (nobody at my house would eat it). I also enjoy skiing and scuba diving, and my husband and I LOVE to make homemade pasta.

Conclusion

Thank you, Dianne, for a fantastic insight into your writer’s life and The Carrefour Curse. How can one not want to read a book with a tagline like, The Addams Family meets The Westing Game? The entire MUF family wishes much success for the book and for you. Personally, I can’t wait to read the next one.

For more information on The Carrefour Curse and Holiday House Books, check out the following links.

The Carrefour Curse Book Page @ Holiday House Books

Holiday House Books Socials

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