Answers: June Edition!

Thanks, once again, for the great questions :)

Mel B asks: When Nightshade published in México?

I'm often asked if I made a deal with a universe that somehow ensured Nightshade's success. While I know I didn't, I'm starting to suspect that my agents might have. Thanks Lyndsey and Charlie!!! They've done incredibly job with foreign rights - we're up to 14 territories now and counting. I've listed the foreign publishers and links to their web sites on the left hand side of my blog page.

Nightshade will be published in Latin America by Editora Norma. I don't have a release date yet, but keep an eye on their site for announcements.

LisaDez asks: Where'd you find your awesome critique partner *grins* and when is she going to get her hands on Bloodrose?

I met her at the San Francisco Writers' Conference *winks.* For anyone who doesn't already know my awesome critique partner is LisaDez and her equally awesome book, Personal Demons, will be on shelves this September.

I'm 15 chapters into Bloodrose (Nightshade #3), which is a little under halfway. My crazy my travel schedule but a crimp in my writing speed. You'll be the first to get it, Lisa :)

Jamie asks: When you plan on doing a trilogy or series, how do you query your plot? Do you only query the plot of the first book, or do you query the entire plot - regardless of the number of books you hope to write?

Great question. This answer is one I learned also at the San Francisco Writers' Conference at a panel of agents. It's not a good idea to query a trilogy or series if you're a debut author. Agents and editors need to know if you can work with them, receive edits, and grow as a writer. If you send a fully fleshed out five-book epic fantasy it's unlikely that you have flexibility in that storyline.

The best way to go about it is to write a solid, standalone novel that has potential to be a series. Once you've signed with an agent they can decide if they want to pitch your book as a series when they sub to editors. Those are decisions best left to your agent - agents are professionals, they know what they're doing.

Now that I've said all of that I have to qualify my words. I did it all wrong. I wrote Nightshade knowing it was a series. Fortunately my agent loved it enough that one of the first questions he asked was "is there more?," which was one of the reasons I knew he was the agent for me. (Hugs, Charlie!!!) However, I went into the publishing world as a total noob. I didn't know the score and I got very, very lucky. Prevailing wisdom says, write a great book, query it and work on something else in the meantime - something else that is NOT the sequel to your first book.

Lena asks: If you could set Calla up with any other literary character, who would you choose?

I am so excited to answer this question. I had to think about it a while because I so rarely take Calla out of her world.

What I finally came up with is Gale from Hunger Games. Calla would like that he's honest, a plucky fighter, and knows his way around a forest.

Thanks for the great questions - look forward to more next month. Happy Wednesday!