Posts Tagged adventure

Editor/Agent Spotlight: Agent Ali Herring of Spencerhill Associates

Hi Ali, I’m so excited to welcome you to our Editor/Agent Spotlight here on the Mixed Up Files, thanks so much for joining us!

Ali Herring of Spencerhill Associates Literary Agency

Thank you for having me on the Mixed Up Files blog! I’m excited to have a chat with you and your readers.

What was your path to becoming an agent? Did you always represent children’s books?

My path to becoming an agent started when I won a writing contest in first grade, which gave me that write-and-read bug that sometimes bites us early. I confess to many nights spent reading with a flashlight under my covers where my mom would enter and slowly tiptoe her retreat. After all, if the most terrible thing I was doing was defying bedtime for Little Women, things were going alright. This led me to a journalism degree in college and a job in communications for a small non-profit in Atlanta where I served as a trade magazine editor, among other in-house communications roles. Fast forward to a move to New York, then Connecticut, a set of twins and a third baby later, and I found myself a stay-at-home mom for ten years who read voraciously in her free time and fell in love with a book called The Lightening Thief. This led me to an attempt at writing a book, where I realized I was a better editor than writer. Landing an internship at an agency in CT was the key that opened my door to agenting when I decided to go back to work. And, yes, Rick Riordan’s voicey, funny adventurous worlds made me fall in love with kidlit, so children’s books have always been my passion.

 

What were some of your favourite middle grade books to read when you were growing up? Would you say that has influenced what you look for in terms of representing MG books?

My favorite middle grade books were Hatchet and Box Car Children. I loved the adventure and seeing kids surviving on their own.
Reading these books made me feel a sense of safety, that even in dire circumstances with enough willpower and ingenuity, you could overcome something bad, even young. I also loved Charlotte’s Web and Bridge to Terabithia. Charlotte’s Web, in particular, was the book that taught me that not every story has to end happily or how you want it to for it to mean something. That sometimes the ones that hurt are the ones that stay with you, and mean something more.  Last one, The City of Ember was my descent into dystopian fiction.

  

Would you say there is any common denominator among all the authors and books you represent? Either within children’s books or across all the genres you represent?

I think most of my books are what I’d call “upmarket” though I do have some very commercial or very literary (on the adult side) titles on my list too. Upmarket to me means a very commercial concept, a fairly fast-moving plot, but an emotional heart with something to say. For instance, my client Lora Senf’s The Clackity is a middle grade book in which a pre-teen living in a haunted town with mostly friendly ghosts goes to an otherworld haunted by an evil ghost to save the last adult left in her life, her aunt. But she suffers from anxiety because of the loss of her parents, so the book is a lot about overcoming and finding hope in darkness. I love that horror teaches kids how to be brave! Another client title, is an upcoming YA “toxic friendship” novel called Dead Girls Don’t Say Sorry by Alex Ritany that asks the question, “What does it mean when your best friend dies and your reaction is relief?” It’s told in alternating timelines, unfolding a tale of layered deceptions culminating in her best friend’s death. On first read, it feels a bit like a thriller, but it’s ultimately about finding yourself and loving yourself and others after being subjected to an unhealthy friendship.

 

Do you ever ask authors for a revise and resubmit? If you do, what is the difference for you between offering representation knowing that you’ll want to make editorial changes before going on submission, and asking for a revise and resubmit?

I have offered Revise and Resubmits, though fairly rarely. R&R’s typically require a far more in-depth revision than what would happen editorially before one of my signed authors go on submission. There’s usually something more major wrong, and I need to see if the author can pull off a good solution.

 

Have you seen a difference in what kind of queries and material you are getting since Covid—whether that’s topic, theme, volume, polish…?

I just see a lot more queries flying into my inbox in huge batches as soon as I reopen. I think I had 644 after three weeks this time. Maybe it’s that agents are closing and opening more frequently, and people are waiting and ready when we reopen so it’s an influx. I typically see people following hot trends, so I’m getting way more middle grade horror in my inbox than I used to and far less YA fantasy. As to level of polish across the board, that’s fairly similar to year’s past.

 

How important is the query for you? Is there anything in a query that makes it an automatic “no” for you? Do you generally look at sample pages regardless of the query?

The query is initially far less important to me than the sample pages. Your writing is the most important! If your writing isn’t up to par, then the concept, even a brilliant concept, won’t get you a request. I used to read part of the sample first, and if that was engaging, I’d go back to the query to read. These days, on my Query Manager form, I ask for a high-concept pitch of a few sentences. I read that first now because it’s time-saving for me and it shows me if you understand what a good concept, hook, quick plot summary and stakes are. I’m also better oriented after reading it, so then I read the sample. I’ll go back to the query if the sample is good. You might get an automatic no if you send me something I don’t represent or if your word count is so far outside genre conventions, it will never work.

 

What are some of your current favourite MG novels, either from clients or non-clients?

Client books, you say? I mean, I’m super, super biased, but I think The Clackity is brilliant; it’s Bram-Stoker nominated. But I also happen to have read book two of that series, The Nighthouse Keeper, which comes out in October, and Lora’s pulled some sort of magic move, because her sophomore novel might even be better. We’ll see what the readers think, but I’m just amazed at how much hope she packs into middle grade horror! Also, I’ve got a MG novel called Henry Higgs and the Tangle-Hedge on sub, and that’s more speculative fantasy with an autistic hero, and it’s both hilarious and darkly beautiful and so real, and I can’t wait for that one to find a home. Kurt Kirchmeier’s MG debut The Absence of Sparrows is beautiful and is my Charlotte’s Web in that it stays with you because of how real the ending is. And I’d be remiss not to mention Ally Malinenko’s middle grade horror work as well; Ally’s repped by Rena Rossner.

 

What are some of your current as well as all-time culture faves—TV shows, movies, music etc—that might give querying authors a sense of your overall aesthetic?

Oh gosh! Dateline NBC, The 100, Twilight, Hunger Games, Divergent, Virgin River, Castle, The Rookie. These sort of speak to some of the things I rep – thrillers and suspense, speculative fantasy, scifi, dystopian, romance, women’s fiction, stuff with humor or adventure. Stuff with high stakes. For books, I read a lot of SFF in my downtime. Recent favorites are Project Hail Mary and my most favorite this year, the Murderbot series. I’d love to rep something like Murderbot, humorous, smart scifi that deals with what it means to be human. I love Mainak Dhar’s SFF work. Tau Zero is awesome. Seveneves challenged me but was expansive and fantastic. Erin Craig’s work in YA horror is next-level and ignited something in me. In music, I’m a big fan of Imagine Dragons, REM, Evanescense and the Cranberries. And I have to add Big Bang Theory to the list of TV shows. That’s so random but it does say A LOT about me…

 

 

What are you loving about representing children’s book authors these days?

I love the idea that I might contribute to the canon of literature that touches and changes kid’s lives like those early books did for me.

And finally, where can people find out about what kind of projects you’re looking for and how to query you?

There’s a couple places to try: my agency’s website www.spencerhillassociates.com. Look at my bio and the submissions page for wish list items. And of the submission page, you’ll find the link to my Query Manager page. This is the only way to query me, no emails please. On my personal website, I post a wish list under the #MSWL tab, and my deal announcements under the Deals tab, so authors can see what I’m placing: https://aliherringwrites.wordpress.com. And I post a lot of #MSWLs on twitter. My handle is @HerringAli, where I remain active and uber chatty, so come say hi.

Ali, it’s been an absolute pleasure doing this spotlight with you and I can’t wait to check out some of the books you mention.

Thanks again for having me!

Digging Into Journey Beyond the Burrow

Hi Mixed-Up Filers! We dug into all kinds of nature topics with author Rina Heisel, author of the upcoming Journey Beyond the Burrow.

MUF: Welcome Rina. Thanks for joining us today. I’m really excited to be talking to you about this book.

Rina Heisel: Thanks. I’m excited to be here.

MUF: So, tell us about Journey Beyond the Burrow.

Rina Heisel: Journey Beyond the Burrow is an adventure story about a young mouse, Tobin. He’s the top weather scout in his burrow, and he’s an expert in the Rules of Rodentia. He’s very proud of this, and always follows the Rules, until a big storm introduces a new predator that scuttles off with Tobin’s new baby brother. The Rules say to never pursue a predator, but Tobin goes on a rescue mission, along with his best friend and his little sister.

MUF: Speaking of the new predator, they definitely freaked me out, but not as much as the part where Tobin winds up in a nest of snakes. I had to put the book down at that part. Snakes scare me.

Rina Heisel: I’ve actually heard that from a few reviewers. Some people go into Journey Beyond the Burrow expecting a cute animal story, and it is that. But it’s also got some pretty scary, intense parts. Those are some of my favorites because I always loved those types of books when I was a kid.

MUF: Speaking of books that you enjoyed as a child, can you tell us some of the books that influenced you?

Rina Heisel: I read a lot of animal fantasy: Charlotte’s Web, Watership Down, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. I liked horse books and animal rescue books, but I also loved ghost stories, especially books by Mary Downing Hahn, and the Choose Your Own Adventure books.

MUF: Oh! Those were so good. I saw on your website that you worked on nature shows for South Dakota Public Broadcasting, how did your time there influence Journey Beyond the Burrow?

Rina Heisel: The natural science shows were my favorite projects. I spent a lot of time in the Badlands getting prairie dog footage and observing them and their burrows. It got me thinking about the relationship between predator and prey.

MUF: So, you started with prairie dogs, why is the story about mice?

Rina Heisel: Mice are so expressive, and they have fingers. It’s so helpful in writing animals that an animal is able to hold something because it’s such a human quality.

Also, I had a pet mouse in college that I rescued from a tarantula cage. The owner tried to feed the mouse to the tarantula, but the spider was scared of this little baby mouse and just clung to the top of its cage. I had a very understanding roommate who let me take the mouse back to our room. We named it Lucky, and it lived on cafeteria food.

MUF: Oh! That’s awesome. So, are the Arakni in the story based on that tarantula then?

Huntsman Spider

“Hunstman Spider (Heteropoda sp.)” by GeeC is licensed with CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Rina Heisel: Arakni are based on tarantulas, yes, but also on Hunstman spiders, and A. Eximius spiders, which are spiders that live in colonies. I basically took the most terrifying traits of several spider species and combined them to make the Arakni, much to my agent’s chagrin. She had to go over all of the

different versions of the cover with spiders on them.

MUF: Wait! There’s a spider on the cover? I never noticed.

Rina Heisel: Yes! The mice that Paul Canavan drew are so expressive that they just pull you in, but there’s definitely a spider on the cover if you look for it.

MUF: Oh, I see it now. It’s kind of … menacing. So, tell us about the Rules of Rodentia. How did you come up with them?

Rina Heisel: The Rules come from nature and the relationships that animals have with each other. I got the idea from a biologist who talked about rabbits and the trails that they memorize. I thought about how all animals have these codes that they follow instinctively, and I wondered what that would look like written down.

MUF: Are there more rules that weren’t covered in the book?

Rina Heisel: There’s a little wiggle room in the numbering. So, there may be new rules, but there’s also a gray area. In life, it’s not just black and white. There’s this whole murky gray area.

MUF: That really feels like Tobin’s arc is finding that out. Rules of Rodentia would have made a pretty good title too.

Rina Heisel: It’s funny that you bring that up. Rules of Rodentia was my title, but my editor, Alice Jerman, wanted a title that would convey more of the story. So, my daughter and I brainstormed about 10 titles, and Journey Beyond the Burrow was one of my daughter’s suggestions.

MUF: Ha! That’s awesome. Can you tell us about your writing journey so far?

Rina Heisel: This story has been with me for about 15 years. The idea for the plot came to me in the Black Hills when we were interviewing a biologist about symbiotic relationships between animals, and I wondered “What would make a mouse and a snake team up?” I carried that little kernel of an idea around for a year or so. Then, the spiders came into play, and I wrote a summary. Then, I went to SCBWI classes and conferences to learn about writing for kids. It was around that time that my family moved to Florida, and I met my amazing writing group, The OWLS. I My first meeting with them I brought a 15 page first chapter of this animal fantasy that started out with Tobin just thinking about life. The OWLS were very patient with me, and I learned so much from them.

“Giant Batfish!” by montereydiver is licensed under CC BY 2.0

MUF: So, would that be your advice to new writers? Find a good group?

Rina Heisel: Yes, a supportive group is the biggest blessing, and SCBWI is a good resource. I learned so much by going to conferences, and going to conferences with my writing group was like imagination fuel.

MUF: Speaking of imagination fuel, what are you working on next?

Rina Heisel: I have an idea for a possible sequel to Journey Beyond the Burrow sketched out, but, right now, I’m working on an MG ghost story about siblings who visit a haunted hunting lodge in the North Woods.

MUF: Sounds spooky! Only a few more questions. What is something that readers would be surprised to find out about you?

Rina Heisel: Well, I love nature and being outside, but I’m scared of big fish. I went scuba diving with a friend near the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and we saw a huge batfish. My poor diving partner, when we surfaced, said, “You kn

ow, for a small person, you have the most vice-like grip.” I was terrified!

MUF: That sounds like nightmare fuel. How can readers find you on social media?

Rina 

Heisel: I’m on Twitter: @rinaheisel. Instagram: rina.heisel and my Facebook page is Author Rina Heisel.

MUF: Thank you so much for talking with us today.

Journey Beyond the Burrow comes out July 13th, but one lucky winner will have a chance to win a sneak peek by entering our giveaway below.

 

Journey Beyond the Burrow Prize Pack
a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Novel Approach to Readers’ Advisory

Normally when a middle-grader comes into the library looking for a book, librarians will focus on a title’s genre and subject matter. They’ll try to match these up to the reader’s interests, such as mysteries, sports books, or science fiction. But it can be tough to pin down the exact type of experience that our readers are looking for. Dominique McCafferty, the Childrens’ Collection Management Librarian at Library System & Services, recommends using a different method of finding the right read, using the super genres developed by Neal Wyatt and Joyce Saricks in their book,The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction (3rd ed).

The super genres that Wyatt and Saricks use focus more on the experience of reading. Their genres are: Adrenaline, Intellect, Landscape, and Emotion. Each of these can contain a number of different subjects and interests. In this post, we’ll show you how the traditional genre of mysteries can translate into all of these different super genres. We’ll also give examples of how to broaden your reader’s interests using these same categories.

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.orgBooks in the adrenaline genre are the ones that readers will finish in one-sitting. Adrenaline books are all about speed. Tightly plotted, and fast paced, Thrillers, suspense, and adventure are among the traditional genre types in the adrenaline category. Mysteries like The 39 Clues are a great example of mysteries that fall into the adrenaline genre. They Cahills race around the globe to beat their greedy relatives to the clues. They’re adventurous because the Cahills often face danger from not only their relatives but also the environment and other enemies. Ultimately, The 39 Clues are mysteries because the Cahills work to figure out the clues that were left behind by their grandmother and solve the mystery of their family. But because of their fast pace and the thrilling adventure, the series also fits well within the adrenaline genre.

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.orgMysteries would normally be found in the intellect genre. This is the genre of books that challenge the mind with language, puzzles, and science. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin would be a classic example of mystery in this genre with it’s puzzles and wordplay.  Books in the intellect genre can also have lyrical language. Science fiction also tends to fall into this genre because of the science and technology involved. In The Westing Game, a wealthy businessman leaves his fortune to the tenants of a neighboring apartment complex. But first, they need to solve the mystery that he’s left them. It’s a similar plot to The 39 Clues, but the focus in The Westing Game is not on adventure. In fact, most of the story takes place at the apartment complex. Instead, The Westing Game focuses on the puzzles left to each pair of heirs, making it an ideal selection for the intellect genre.

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.orgIf mysteries are normally at home in the intellect genre, then the world-building genre would be the realm of fantasy. But not always. Books in the landscape genre transport readers to a wholly different realm. For example Kate Milford’s Greenglass House is the rich, spooky setting for her mystery of the same name. Sitting on the edge of a cliff, Greenglass House is an inn that welcomes smugglers. Mysterious guests pour into the inn during the winter months when it is normally quiet, and each has a story. When guests belongings start to go missing, it’s up to Milo, the son of the inns’s owners, and Meddy, the cook’s daughter to figure out the mystery of Greenglass House.

Support Independent Bookstores - Visit IndieBound.orgFinally, the emotion genre brings out strong emotions in its readers. Swoony stories of first crushes, touching family stories, and even horror stories all fall into this genre. Thornhill by Pam Smy is just such a horror story. Part graphic novel, Thornhill is a spine-tingling mystery about the last days of Thornhill Institute, and the new girl in town who is intrigued by its tragedy. In dual narratives, Thornhill tells the story of Mary, one of the last residents of the Institute who is bullied by the other girls, and much later, Ella, a lonely girl who becomes fascinated with Thornhill and the girl she sometimes sees still inside. Mary’s story is told through her diary entries, while Ella’s is told through black and white illustrations. It’s a spooky, atmospheric read, but it’s also a mystery, as Ella discovers the truth about the girl in Thornhill.

These titles would all appeal to mystery lovers, and the super genres help librarians narrow down the type of mystery a reader is looking for. But these categories help readers expand their horizons. For example, a reader interested in the fast-paced adrenaline genre might enjoy the I Survived series by Lauren Tarshis. These historical fiction adventures place kids at the center of real life disasters. Or  they might like Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia. In this fantasy, a seventh-grader plunges into a conflict between gods, heroes, and monsters.

In the intellect genre, readers can be as intrigued by novels in verse like Aida Salazar’s The Moon Within. But they may also enjoy the STEM thriller, Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation by Stuart Gibbs.

These all-encompassing genres are a great tool for librarians to help readers narrow down exactly what they’re looking for. And they also help readers to find new books that might interest them.

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