Diary of a Real Estate Novelist

Okay, let me just say this – my internship rocks! I am 100% sure that I have found a career choice for life.

So with that being said, I have to throw 110% of my creative energies into this internship, because it’s important. It’s everything. It’s my future and come September I will be relying on a good recommendation to help me take the next step. Therefore, I’m taking a temporary break from the blog.

Here are a few old posts that may be of interest

Real life beta experience – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
My experience at a writer’s conference

And I would suggest you also visit my friend EJ’s blog to follow her road to getting published – because I’m sure by the time I get back to blogging in September, she’ll be agented and on the road to her first book deal.

1 Comment | In: About me | tags: About me, Beta, Writing conferences. | #

I have been reading a lot in the last month and something I’ve noticed is the amount of times that people mention eye colour to describe a character. I do it in my own writing, but really, how many times do you notice someone’s eye colour in that first meeting?

One of my part-jobs is to review restaurants as mystery shopper. I have to describe everyone I meet even if I have their name. So, interested in this eye colour phenomenon, I looked back on my last three restaurants reviews. For every description it was – gender/height/hair color and style/ race/body shape/distinguishing features (piercings, scars, tattoos etc.)

Distinguishing features were never ‘beautiful eyes that were as blue as the sky’ , ‘dark amber eyes that swirled when I looked into them’, ‘black eyes that seemed to be a reflection of the soul’ (*disclaimer – these are just examples off the top of my head – not from any unpublished/published work and they are not a reflection of my writing!)

I know that in fiction it’s usually the love interest that has dreamy description of eyes, but it’s been such a long time since I met my other half, I can’t remember if I had a reaction to his eyes. But I’m sure they weren’t the reason I was drawn to him. And it’s not always the love interest that gets an eye colour description, sometimes it’s the villain, the best friend, or even the teacher/Professor.

Apart from my mum, dad and twin brother (biology experiment on genetics and eye colour) I can’t tell you the eye colour of any of the people in my life – not even my best friend or cousins.

Think about the last ten people you met? Can you remember their eye colour?

3 Comments | In: About me, Reading, Writing | tags: About me, Real Estate Novelist, Writing. | #

I had a very strange experience while walking around Borders today. I spotted a section of books by one of my favourite UK authors – Robert Rankin. He’s not really made it out to the US, so you can’t get a lot of his books in New York. I’ve never seen more than the odd one shelved here and these are always the UK covers. These covers are all very familiar to me (I have read/own about 20 of his books) and they are all packaged the same – prominent name in bright colours with a sculpture depicting the title (designed by Rankin).

However, he must have gotten a US publisher because I was in for a shock when I picked up the book – one of my favourites, The Toyminator (sequel to ‘The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse’).

It’s so plain! And the colour is just blah! And doesn’t have a half robot teddy bear on it!

Part of the appeal for me is always the covers. They look amazing all lined up on my bookshelf, so I’m not buying any of these imposters! Even though they had his new one ‘The Da-da-de-de-da-da code’, I resisted.

My reaction surprised me, I just didn’t feel the warmth that I usually have for his books. After reading 20, I can usually pick them up and easily slip into his crazy world, but I found it harder with this new cover and slightly larger paperback. Nope, I’ll have to ship from the UK for anything new!

So, if you are browsing in a US Borders for a funny offbeat fantasy about a boy and his drunken teddy bear private eye – ignore the drab cover and pick this up anyway (get ‘Bunnies’ first though)

2 Comments | In: Writing | | #

THE END (last four chapters) of ‘Butter’ was tough for EJ as this was the biggest part of her revisions. See her blog for her view. I hoped never to pressure her to send me THE END, and the only deadlines that she was under were her own (and she did keep setting them on her blog!) But I was happy when I finally got those last chapters.

As THE END was so important and it was a complete rewrite, we did two rounds on the editing. I suggested rearranging some of the scenes to help with pacing and noted some world-building issues on my first edit. What surprised me was the different effect that the second version had on me. Even though I now knew how ‘Butter’ ended, the changes EJ made and the new beautiful last line, really affected me. I got teary-eyed – in fact, I’m welling up now when I think about it!

Getting to the end of any good book is bittersweet – you feel excited for the climax, then pleased to have your questions answered, but then you feel a little down because the journey is over. EJ and I may have finished this journey, but I’m sure that this is not the end of our relationship. She can’t get rid of me now, even if she wanted to – I’ll stalk her blog to get to see her next project first this time!

Summing up
By no means was my offer to beta ‘Butter’ altruistic. Beta reading is time consuming and takes away from my own writing – I have to be getting something out of it as well to make it worthwhile.

Benefits for me as the beta for Butter

• Improving my own writing skills. EJ is awesome some of the things I struggle with namely pacing and voice.
• Reading a boy book – I’m just finishing a first draft of a contemporary YA boy book where the main character is the same age as Butter
  I got to know the ending!
• Making a new friend with common interests (not just writing)
• My career aspirations are as a literary agent/editor/anything publishing related and I’m currently working as an intern at an awesome NYC agency, so any editing is great practice for my future.

There are bits of Butter that made me cheer, bits that brought a tear to my eye and one bit where my mouth literally fell open. Butter is an amazing character and I feel truly privileged to have got to know him and learnt his story. I know that it is something we will see in print one day and my one hope is that EJ will be kind enough to sign my copy when I buy it!

And so we finish this series looking at a new definition of me as a beta reader – ‘a girl who stalks the writer of an awesome piece of unpublished fiction because she has to know THE END, offers her help without being asked and looks for copy edits and Agent Almost changes – with the ultimate aim to ensure awesome writer gets agented by Agent Almost and a 7 figure book deal! Added bonuses are friendship and knowing I’ll always have someone if I need my own beta!’

Any questions I didn’t answer on the beta reading process, ask them in the comments. And don’t forget to check out EJ’s blog for her perspective.

No Comments | In: Writing | | #

Well, that was hardly a suspenseful ending as this wouldn’t be a mini-series if EJ hadn’t sent me more chapters. The same day as sending over my first three chapter notes, I received chapter 4-17. I was so excited and she was very complimentary about my notes. Phew! Very relived person this end I can tell you.

And so to the middling part of the beta reading process – see EJ’s blog  for the writers perspective.

It’s always great to get over that awkward politeness with a new beta/writer relationship. You initially start emails with ‘I’m sorry’, ‘I hope you don’t mind me mentioning’, ‘I hate to say’ etc. But then you get to the moment when the other person knows you well enough to understand the way you mean the comments and your emails become much more informal.

Comments/notes
For a writer, doing a revise and resubmit often means moving chapters around which can lead to timeline and world building confusions, so this was something I kept a close eye out for as well as looking for the particular points that EJ’s Agent Almost wanted changing. Sometimes my comments would be about character motivations and asking to get inside the character head a little bit more. Sometimes they would be about jarring sentences and bits I didn’t understand. And often times my comments would be ‘OMG, this section is awesome’.

This brings me to a good point. While, it is important to point out in an honest way any negatives, it is also important to comment on the awesome. I described my feelings as a reader when a section made me teary-eyed, or angry, or shocked. I hope that this helped EJ to see which parts really resonated with me – it can be hard to see the emotion with your own work.

EJ was always great at thanking me immediately for comments and saying how helpful I was being. I know from experience that this isn’t always the case as some writers can take things to heart, so it was great to know that she appreciated my time and that I was actually helping.

We really hit our stride once we got to chapters 12-17 and we bounced back and forth over one hundred emails over the whole process – and these weren’t short emails, neither of us can write a sort email! Were they all about ‘Butter’? Of course not. We got to know each other, chatted about vacations, discussed Grey’s Anatomy, celebrated and commiserated the up’s and down’s of publishing and advised each other when one of us had an attack of the crazies (a common writers ailment).

And so we neared the end of Butter’s journey. This was where the major revisions took place. I read up to the climax and then waited patiently for my last few chapters.

Continues tomorrow. Don’t forget to go to see EJ’s blog for the writers perspective.

No Comments | In: Beta Reading | tags: About me, Beta, Beta Series, Butter. | #

Beta reader – ‘a person who reads an unpublished piece of fiction, on request from a writer, to look for grammar mistakes, plot holes, spelling errors, characterisation and general readability – with the ultimate aim to make the manuscript tighter and more marketable.’

So, that’s the definition. But how does it work in practice?

Over the next three days, I hope to answer this question by talking through my recent experience being the beta for the fabulous ‘Butter’. And over on her blog, EJ the author of ‘Butter’, is doing the same but from the writers perspective.

Meeting Butter
I ‘met’ EJ online in the Absolute Write forums in November 2009. She’d posted the first few pages of ‘Butter’ in the Share Your Work section – where members can get feedback on their work. The title made me click on it. The first lines made me carry on reading – see why here (READ THIS NOW!)

I was blown away. To quote some of my comments “I really really want to know what happens next”, “I was completely hooked” and “I felt overwhelming empathy for the main character”. EJ thanked me for my comments and I wished her luck finishing the project.

Now that is usually the end for me on any Share Your Work posts, but as you will see from the teaser, ‘Butter’ is a page-turner. I’d loved page one but page two was empty and I kept asking myself – “how will he get himself out of this situation and what’s going to happen next?” At the time, I was revising my own work, so I had no spare minutes to beta, but I did want to. I resorted to stalking watching EJ’s posts on AW to see how her progress was going.

The ‘watching’ paid off. EJ had a request for revisions from her Agent Almost, and what would be better to help with that than a shiny new beta reader. I emailed her saying an official ‘hi’, explained my stalking and told her that I was a week away from finishing my own revise and resubmit, so could empathise with her situation. My last sentence was my beta offer. I rambled through the actual ask “if you need someone, don’t feel bad to say no, etc etc, grovel grovel”.

EJ was enthusiastic in her response, even laughing that Butter had his first stalker. She said she would love fresh eyes! We exchanged a few polite getting to know you emails and I talked about how I like to beta.

Answer me these
I posted this a while back – the list of questions I ask all writers I beta for. It ensures both parties are clear about what they are looking for meaning no one wastes any time. I find it’s better to be honest upfront as some people just aren’t compatible as beta/writers. EJ and I laughed that the process was a bit like Eharmony!

EJ answered the questions and explained the exact things she wanted me to look out for. Her answers were a perfect match for how I like to beta – blunt, honest feedback with good explanations. We decided to do three chapters as a test to see if it would work.

First Chapters
My beta process is to do two passes of the work – first read like a reader, second read like a writer. I was so excited to get started on the three chapters. ‘Butter’ has an awesome beginning.

I have to admit to being a bit nervous when I sent over my first batch of comments because by this point, I really had to finish ‘Butter’ and if EJ didn’t think we were a good match, that would be the end of it. I re-read my comments a ton of times (after I got over my hangover – reminded to me by EJ!), typed up my email and pressed send. Then I waited.

Story continues tomorrow.

2 Comments | In: Beta Reading | tags: About me, Beta, Beta Series, Butter. | #

‘Four mysterious letters change Miranda’s world forever.
By sixth grade, Miranda and her best friend, Sal, know how to navigate their New York City neighborhood. They know where it’s safe to go, like the local grocery store, and they know whom to avoid, like the crazy guy on the corner.
But things start to unravel. Sal gets punched by a new kid for what seems like no reason, and he shuts Miranda out of his life. The apartment key that Miranda’s mom keeps hidden for emergencies is stolen. And then Miranda finds a mysterious note scrawled on a tiny slip of paper:
I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own.
I must ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter.
The notes keep coming, and Miranda slowly realizes that whoever is leaving them knows all about her, including things that have not even happened yet. Each message brings her closer to believing that only she can prevent a tragic death. Until the final note makes her think she’s too late.’

When You Reach Me is one of those books that the minute you shut, you want to grab the closest person to you and insist they read it immediately so you can talk about it.

I knew very little about the book before I read it. And this was a good thing. In fact, although I want to review it here, I also don’t want to give anything away. Even the genre. Yes, seriously. The less you know, the more you will enjoy it.

All I will say is that if you like mysteries where seeming unconnected threads all converge at the end, read this book.

If you like nostalgic New York stories, read this book.

If you like coming of age stories, read this book.

And if you like brilliant award winning books that you will have to finish in one setting, books that will stay with you, read this book.

Miranda’s voice is fantastic; she just jumps off the page. And her complicated relationships with her friends feel so real. Something else I loved was the positive parental/adult characters, which are so rare in children’s fiction.

This is one of the best books I’ve ever read, it transported me to another place like all books should. Read this book.

No Comments | In: Book Reviews | tags: 52 books 2010, Book Reviews, Reading, When You Reach Me. | #

I can’t believe it’s been six months since I went to my first writers conference – the fantastic Backspace Agent/Author Conference. I attended in November 2009 and the event plus a more standard conference is on again this week in New York City.

Now the great thing about this conference was the set up. One day of query letter critiques and one day of first two-page critiques. There were morning and afternoon sessions in groups of fourteen other writers with two agents in each session – so you get eight agents throughout the two days commenting directly on your work (and wow- you should see the list of rockstar agents that attend these events!)

It was so helpful for the agents to tell you when they would’ve stopped reading, how they would rate the work and where to improve it. Such honest feedback and I learnt so much from listening to comments on my own work and other peoples. I actually got two full requests for my manuscript but this was not the only benefit from the conference, and in fact, while meeting the agents was great, the thing that has had the most impact on my writing was meeting other writers.

Some people say they struggle in a big crowd of unknown people and tend to gravitate into corners – but other people will be in those corners as well. No matter how shy you are, anyone can start a conversation when you have shared connection
“So, what do you write?”
“Tell me about your book?”
“How did your sessions go?”
Even – “I’m nervous and not good at these things.”
Chances are everyone else is feeling the same way and will empathise. Go to the bar after the conference – some agents will be there, but more importantly so will your peers. And nothing makes better drinking talk than how you got torn apart on your query crit!

At Backspace, I found an amazing beta reader/great friend and met some fantastic writers who are now agented. I love hearing about their roads to publication and I have learnt so much.

So, my advice for conferences is mix, mingle and make friends with other writers – any agent interaction is an added bonus (and my other piece of advice is take chocolate bars in your bag – make great bribes!)

1 Comment | In: Writing | tags: Backspace, Beta, Real Estate Novelist, Writing, Writing conferences. | #

Back from vacation. A little burnt. Who know you could get burnt in the shade? Seriously, I was laid out reading under a cabana – not an inch of my body touching the 90 degree noon heat. But when I got back to my room that night, one side of both my legs were burnt. I suppose the sun crept under the cabana when I wasn’t looking – not full power sun but enough to make an impact.

Just when I wasn’t expecting it.

Something else happened when I was on holiday. I got a Shiny New Idea (SNI) for a book. I’m not writing at the moment. Agents in the UK are reading revisions of my previous book and I’ve put new writing on hold for something else that I can’t talk about at the moment. But despite this no writing plan, a new idea crept into my head while I was relaxing.

Just when I wasn’t expecting it.

I was having cocktails with my better half and we were talking about the fact I was scared of the iguanas, geckos and liquids running freely over the resort. He said that it was irrational as they were more scared of me than I was of them, and despite shocking me when they ran out from behind a beach chair or across the pool area, they weren’t going to harm me. I explained that this was the point of irrational fears. I know they aren’t going to hurt me – it’s irrational!

Irrational definition – not consistent with or using reason.

I know why the iguanas shouldn’t scare me, but they do. Knowing this doesn’t make them less scary.

There was a ginger cat on the resort as well. Whereas the iguanas ran away when you walked passed, the cat came up for a cuddle. Hubby said I should’ve been more scared of the cat as it may bite me. But it’s irrational – I’m not using reason to make these decisions, something else is powering my brain and that something is fear.

(I’m also scared of spiders, birds, rats, ventriloquist dolls, clowns, china dolls with freaky human faces and scarecrows – what’s your irrational fears?)


So cocktails, plus iguanas, plus a debate about irrational fears, sparked a SNI. I’ll have to make notes and put it away from now. Exciting few months before any new writing. More to follow on that.

2 Comments | In: About me | tags: About me, irrational fears, Real Estate Novelist, Shiny new idea, Vacation, Writing. | #

I’m on vacation tomorrow, so I thought I’d rub it in by writing about beach reads!

Everyone has a different opinion on what constitutes a beach read.

• An old paperback you don’t mind getting sun cream on
• Chick lit – fun romance where the main character’s love interest looks like that hot lifeguard who keeps walking passed.
• Something with an easy to follow plot that doesn’t require much brainpower.
• War and Peace – okay, not that necessarily, but an epic that you’ve not had time to read in real life.
• Something easy to pick up and put down, for when you want to take a break for a swim or beach yoga (who am I kidding, I mean a break at the bar for cocktails)

My reading habits don’t change for a vacation, but I do like to go out a buy myself treat books – books that I’ve been dying to read but I haven’t had the time. Some people spoil themselves on vacation with a trip to the spa or shopping. I spoil myself with a highly rated book. Plus, if I’m going to pack one less pair of flip-flops or leave behind my straw hat to fit the books in my suitcase, it had better be for books I really want to read.

So, for this vacation:
Will Grayson, Will Grayson – John Green and David Levithan
Going Bovine – Libby Bray
And Another Thing – Eoin Colfer (I’m halfway through this but it got stranded in unsorted work stuff)

What type of beach reader are you?

2 Comments | In: About me, Reading | tags: 52 books 2010, About me, Real Estate Novelist, vacations. | #