Holly Bodger Launch Day Winners!!

Hooray and happy launch day to Holly Bodger.  5 to 1, may you fly off the shelves!

Here are the launch celebration winners, chosen randomly from all eligible entries:

WINNERS OF A 500-WORD CRITIQUE FROM HOLLY BODGER:

1.  Silas Champion (@silas_champion)
2.  Mary (@daizylublue)
3.  Cindy McCraw Dircks (@mcdircks)
4.  Kira Budge (@kirabudge)
5.  Jenny Chou (@jennyC2323)

WINNER OF A QUERY CRITIQUE FROM LAUREN MACLEOD:

Sonia Campbell

Congratulations, all!

Winners:  Please email me at facelesswords(at)gmail.com for submission instructions.

Everyone:  Go buy your copy of 5 to 1 today!

May Secret Agent Early Info

Please note: This is NOT the call for submissions! The contest will open next Monday, May 18.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES (please read carefully):

*There are TWO WAYS to enter: a) via email to authoress.submissions(at)gmail.com OR via web form at msfv.thoughbin.org
*THIS WILL BE A LOTTERY: The submission window will be open from NOON to 6:00 PM EDT, after which the bot will randomly select 50 entries.
* 2 alternates will also be accepted, for a total of 52 entries.
* PLEASE NOTE: You are responsible for figuring out your own time zone. "Time Zone differences" are NOT a reason for not getting your entry in.
* Submissions received before the contest opens will be rejected.
* Submissions are for COMPLETED MANUSCRIPTS ONLY. If you wouldn't want an agent to read the entire thing, DON'T SEND IT. If an "entire thing" doesn't exist, you shouldn't even be reading these rules.
* Manuscripts THAT HAVE BEEN IN EITHER OF THE LAST 2 SECRET AGENT CONTESTS (January or March) will not be accepted.
* You may submit A DIFFERENT MANUSCRIPT if you've participated in any previous Secret Agent contests.
* Only ONE ENTRY per person per contest. If you send more than one, your subsequent entry(ies) will be rejected.
* If you WON A CONTEST WITHIN THE PAST 12 MONTHS (i.e., offered any kind of prize from a Secret Agent or were one of the 60 entries in the Baker's Dozen Agent Auction), please DO NOT ENTER THIS CONTEST. (Unless it's a different manuscript.)
* Submissions are for THE FIRST 250 WORDS of your manuscript. Please do not stop in the middle of a

GO HERE to submit via our web form.

If you choose to submit via email, your submission for this contest should be formatted EXACTLY as follows:

SCREEN NAME: Your Screen Name Here
TITLE: Your Title Here
GENRE: Your Genre Here

(Followed by the excerpt here.)

* No "chapter one," chapter titles, etc.
* You will receive a confirmation email with your lottery number.
* Submissions go to authoress.submissions(at)gmail.com. They DO NOT GO to my facelesswords address. Or any other address.
*It doesn't matter what you put in the subject line. The only thing you MUST NOT do is to use "RE:" The bot will think you are attempting to respond to an email, and will reject you.

As always, there is no fee to enter the Secret Agent contest.

This month's contest will include the following genres:

Middle Grade -- all genres
Young Adult -- contemporary, romance, urban fantasy, light SF

Good luck!

Friday Fricassee

So I was standing in line waiting for the doors to open for a local children's theatre show this past weekend.  I was all by myself, so naturally I spent my time eavesdropping.

Okay, not really.  But the gal in front of me was VERY. LOUD.  In fact, she's familiar to me--I've seen her around town before.  And every time I've seen her, she's been VERY. LOUD.  So the eavesdropping sort of came naturally.

Probably it's even a misnomer.

Anyway, to be perfectly honest, I didn't turn down the music in my earbuds (which I had cranked specifically to drown her out) until I heard her say, "....my critique group."  I perked right up, deftly loosening one of my earbuds so that I could eavesdrop listen better.  I caught more phrases like "book release" and "her novel's really good", and I realized that the Very Loud Woman was a writer.  A bonafide, card-carrying, I-foam-at-the-mouth-when-I-talk-about-books writer.

I'm one of those introverts-who-actually-likes-to-talk-to-people.  And normally, at a moment like this, I would have chimed in.  "So, you're a writer?" Or, "What do you write?"  Just sort of worming my way into the conversation, yes?  Because WRITERS LOVE TO TALK ABOUT WRITING.  And it was obvious that the gal this Loud Woman was talking to wasn't one of "us".

I stayed quiet, though.  Stuck my earbud back in and turned away.

I felt ashamed.

Wow, right?  I was pretty bowled over by it, too.  And I'm still processing my emotional response, because I don't like that it happened.

Thing is, I'm in a sort of weird category.  I'm not a newbie, so I'm not coming in from the green-eared, all fresh and confused camp.  I'm not querying agents, so I'm not having that sort of angst.  Truth is, I have a fantastic agent who has been working on selling my stuff, and a lot of time has passed.  A lot.

And I don't feel like explaining that to a stranger.  I don't even feel like saying, "Oh, yes, I'm agented.  We're working on selling that first novel!" *insert socially acceptable smile*

I mean, a couple of years ago, I was fine with saying that sort of thing.  But this journey has turned out to be longer than I ever (ever ever ever) expected.  And as I stood listening to Loud Author last Sunday, I didn't feel compelled to join in.  I felt embarrassed.

Embarrassed that I've been writing so long.  Embarrassed that I've been agented so long.  Embarrassed that I can't say, simply, "Yes, my novel will be released in September," or "Yes, I have several YA novels published."

It's easier to say nothing at all.

On the healthy side of things (I really am fairly emotionally intelligent--I promise!), it's actually not a bad thing that I can set my writing aside.  It makes the waiting easier, makes the pushing-through easier.  Helps me to focus on the rest of my life so that the disappointments in my writing pursuits don't crush me.  So there's that.

But I would feel more at peace with myself if I hadn't felt embarrassed.  If I hadn't stood there thinking, "Well, I'm sort of a living fail right now, so I'd better not say anything."

I'm not a living fail.  I'm not ashamed of my work.  But the raw, deep-gut part of me had a knee-jerk reaction.  And it was a wake-up call, because I absolutely don't want to stay in a shame place.

At the end of the day, I am a writer.  And when I wake up, I'm still a writer.  So there you have it.  Actually, I don't have to talk about it with strangers if I don't want to, and that's okay.  But the shame part?  That needs to die a sudden death.

Each of our journeys is unique.  This one's mine.  I've got to own it when it sucks, own it when it sings, own it until I've walked it all the way to the horizon--and beyond.  And the same goes for you.

Thanks for being in my corner, and have a wonderful weekend!

Holly Bodger: A Very Special Debut

You all know Holly as our resident Logline Guru during our (now-retired) Baker's Dozen Agent Auctions.  She is also one of my valued critique partners, a fabulous writer, and a friend.  And next week her debut YA novel hits the shelves.

The stuff:

In the year 2054, after decades of gender selection, Koyanagar–a country severed from India–now has a ratio of five boys for every girl, and women are an incredibly valuable commodity. Tired of wedding their daughters to the highest bidder and determined to finally make marriage fair, the women of Koyanagar have instituted a series of tests so that every boy has the chance to win a wife. But after fighting so hard for freedom against the old ways of gender selection, these women have become just as deluded as their male predecessors. 

Sudasa Singh doesn’t want to be a wife, and Kiran, a boy competing to be her husband, has other plans as well. Sudasa’s family wants nothing more than for their daughter to do the right thing and pick a husband who will keep her comfortable—and caged. Kiran’s family wants him to escape by failing the tests. As the tests advance, each thwarts the other until they slowly realize that they might want the same thing. This beautiful, unique novel is told from alternating points of view—Sudasa’s in verse and Kiran’s in prose—allowing readers to feel both characters’ pain and grasps at hope. 

Coming May 12, 2015 from Knopf.

I adore this book. I knew in my bones that this was "the one" for Holly. You will be blown away by her ability to create a rich world and well-developed characters through spare and gorgeous verse. And her prose is pretty darn good, too! So, without further ado, and in celebration of 5 to 1's release, I give you this guest post by the lady herself--followed by information on a 5 to 1 contest just for you!

(Holly Bodger in a beautifully appropriate hat)

The Writer’s Life
Holly Bodger

I’m going to let you in on a secret: being a writer is the best job in the world. You get to invent people and do really nice—or really mean—things to them. You get to have long conversations with friends. Okay, these friends are imaginary, but they are the best friends ever! They always remember your birthday and they are always there when you need to kick butt in outer space or when you need to have an ugly cry.

When you sign with an agent, everyone on Twitter and Facebook congratulates you. When you sell your book, everyone on the planet congratulates you. When your work is finally published, all the people in your life say they are SO DAMN PROUD and you get these amazing fans who call you BRILLIANT! But you know what’s the best thing of all? You get to do all of this while wearing pajamas and fuzzy socks!

Now that we’ve covered that, I’m going let you in on another secret: being a writer sucks. Perhaps that wasn’t clear. Let me try again. BEING A WRITER IS THE EPITOME OF SUCKITUDE! There’s a reason why a lot of classical novels are depressing, and it’s because they were written by writers. Seriously, what other career can take years just to start? Can you imagine if you went to get a job at a bank and they handed you a form letter that said, “We may hire you eventually, but please continue to fill out the attached application and bring it here every single day, oh, for the next five years. We’ll probably continue to give you this same rejection, but don’t worry, one day we might let you move to the next step. Oh, and the next step is exactly the same as this one, except it’s a slightly different form. Good luck!” I know I’m preaching to the crowds here when I say that everything about writing is hard. It’s hard to create a story. It’s hard to get it right. It’s hard to get an agent, and a publishing deal, and reviews that don’t drive you to drink Chardonnay. Luckily, there is a bright side. You will never find a community that is more supportive than the writing community. I have lost count of the number of times one of my writer friends has pulled me off the proverbial edge.

This leads me to the last thing I want to say here: a few years ago, I was ready to give up on writing. I’d been doing it for 6 1/2 years, and it felt like it was getting harder and harder, and I was not getting any further ahead. I came up with an idea for a dystopian verse set in India, but I convinced myself it was a waste of time to write it. I asked Authoress and she said DO IT! So I did it. A year later, I realized that the book was not going to sell because it was missing something. Unfortunately, I didn’t know what that something was. I decided that it was time to give up completely, but Authoress encouraged me to take a break instead. So I walked away from everything, including my agent. During my break, I did a lot of not writing. Eventually, I took a new look at my book and finally found a way to fix the problem that had plagued me. I showed the new version to Authoress and she recommended it to an agent. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to re-enter the publishing rat-race, but I took a chance and sent it to that agent. Two hours later, I had representation for my book. A few months after that, I had a book deal with the editor of The Book Thief and Wonder (two of my favorite books of all time.) I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that Authoress is responsible for my having a book coming out on May 12th. It is absolutely because of her!

There are two points to my rambling (neither of which are related to Chardonnay): 1) to remind you how amazing the woman is who runs this blog you are now reading, and 2) to tell you that, although the writing life can be hard, if you surround yourself with wonderfully supportive people like Authoress, you will make it through to the other side, and you will have some great friends when you do!

And now for the contest details!

To celebrate the launch of 5 TO 1 and give back to the writing community, my agent and I are giving away 5 + 1 prizes:

• 5 critiques of your first 500 words from me, Holly Bodger
• 1 critique of your query from my agent, Lauren MacLeod

----

HOW TO ENTER:

1.  Use the hashtag #5to1 on Twitter to tweet ANYTHING that contains at least one of the following words:  KOYANAGAR, INDIA, DYSTOPIA, or HOLLY'S HAT.
2.  Tweet as many times as you'd like between now and midnight EDT on Friday, May 8.  REMEMBER TO USE THE HASHTAG #5to1, or we won't see your tweets!
3.  After you've tweeted, COME BACK TO THIS POST and LEAVE A COMMENT that says, "I've tweeted 5to1!"  (You may do this each time you tweet.)
4.  The 5 winners of the critique from Holly will be randomly selected from the #5to1 tweets.
5.  The query critique from Lauren MacLeod will be randomly selected from the comments here.

The more often you tweet/comment, the better your chances of winning!

I will announce the 5 + 1 winners on Tuesday, May 12 -- 5 to 1's release day.

Aaaaaaand....go!

Editing Services -- Window Open

Hello, all!  I'm reeling from a super-busy week last week, and trying to get back into my writing groove.  Easier said than done (especially since this WIP has been biting my beehive since forever).

Anyway, it's been a while but I've got some room for a couple of PREMIERE CRITIQUES.  First come, first served.  The skinny:

• A detailed line edit of your first 75 pages
• An editorial letter
• A guaranteed 1-week turnaround from the day you send me your manuscript
• $260, payable in 2 installments

Interested?  Email me ASAP at authoress.edits(at)gmail.com.

ALSO AVAILABLE:  My normal, 30-page critiques, as always.  Email me to get your name in the queue.

Happy Tuesday, all!  We'll be celebrating a very special book birthday later this week, so stay tuned!