Thank you all for such an amazing year :). I feel so blessed to have gotten to know more about each of you, visit your blogs, and hear your comments. YOU GUYS ROCK! This blog wouldn't be possible without you!I'll be taking a break from blogging* until the New Year, so I will see you then (*if I can stay away--no promises!)
May you all be blessed and keep safe and warm. Happy Holidays and have a great New Year!
-Becca
Lisa & Laura!
Agent Rachelle Gardner recently asked her blog followers if anyone would be willing to read and review one of her client's new books. Even though I usually don't read Christian fiction, I thought this might be a great opportunity to branch out.LOST MISSION by Athol Dickson surprised me. I've been reading a lot of faced-paced YA lately, so I'm used to prose being concise and action-packed. LOST MISSION was different. It was contemplative and wasn't afraid to build the characterization and tension layer by layer.
The book is an epic tale taking place over two centuries, chock full of magical realism and cleverly interwoven storylines. It takes place in California, and follows the story of an 18th century Spanish friar on a mission to save the native people, blending together with the modern day story of Lupe, a woman on a mission from God to cross the border illegally in order to save the gringos.
The story is about the testing of faith, the subtle lures of hypocrisy, and the question of when it's okay to break the law to follow a higher calling. The story is challenging to the reader--thought provoking. It took me a while to read it because I kept dropping it down into my lap and staring off into the distance, thinking about the questions it raised about morality. "What would I do? What is right in this situation?"
I think what I appreciated the most (even though I'm a Christian), is that Dickson didn't preach. He told a real story, and let the character's lives and emotions speak for themselves. I actually started dog-earing pages toward the end of the book because the writing was so powerful. Two of my favorite quotes:
"He heaved raw prayers up from his belly like a retching dog."
"We walk upon our past; with every step we drive it deeper."
Needless to say, I loved it.
My one warning is that when I began the book, it was a very slow starter. Dickson jumps through time and from character to character building the story and the world from the ground up. It takes time to get started, and I think if I'd borrowed the book or bought it for myself, I might have put it down in those first 30 pages.
I'm glad I didn't.
I've already recommended this book to two family members, and I recommend it to you. No matter your belief system, if you like your morals challenged, or just love a richly told story, LOST MISSION will not disappoint :).
Has anyone else read this book? Thoughts? Comments?
And now the moment you've all been waiting for (at least since last week's post on Making a Deal With the Universe):(*Okay, I know I originally said I'd pick three to vote on, but there were just so many awesome ones. I couldn't decide. So, I cheated. Hey, it's my contest. Back off, already!)
I have a special treat for you today: An interview with contemporary romance author, Lisa Dale!I recently read her book, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, loved it, and thought I'd ask her to share her journey to publication with us.
She graciously agreed!
Becca: Can you please tell us about your road to publication? How did you meet your agent?
Lisa: I met my agent while I was working at another literary agency; she and I sat on a panel together at a conference in Toronto. At the time, I hadn't really had any ideas about writing books in the near future. Then, later on while I was in school getting my MFA and was working on my first book Simple Wishes, I got to thinking of her again and thought she would like it.
She didn't accept the book right away--she asked for some pretty significant revisions. Her critique was dead on, and I find myself thankful for her excellent editorial advice again and again. Once we sent Simple Wishes out, we got the first offer in less then two weeks and a second offer just a few days after that. I always thought I'd be the type who would take the news with cool aplomb, but instead I screamed like a little kid on the Fourth of July!
Becca: I would definitely have screamed, too :)! Did you ever think about giving up along the way? If so, what kept you going?
Lisa: Oh yes. A hundred times. A thousand. Sometimes I still flirt with the idea (a writer's life is never easy), but the fact is I know I never ever will quit. Writing is a fundamental instinct. I'm ALWAYS writing. So what keeps me going is mostly the fact that there are no other options that will work for me. When there's no plan B, plan A can't be allowed to fail.
Becca: I love that philosophy!
I'm a fan of your blog, and follow you on Twitter as well. Can you tell us about what you did to promote the launch of your book? How much social networking do you do? Any advice for newbie authors on building a readership?
Lisa: Promoting my second book, It Happened One Night, has proven to be a bit easier than promoting the first book, Simple Wishes. I'd say I do middle of the road social networking. Some do more than me, others do much less.
My favorite social networking tool is easily Twitter because it's so easy to meet new people who are into the same things. Twitter-folk are there because they want to talk to and meet new people (strangers), while Facebookers tend to be a bit more private. There are lots of people who tell me "I don't get Twitter," and all I can say is that I didn't either, at first. But there is something special about it as a networking tool, and the advice I would give to people who don't get it is "Start getting it." Read up. Learn. Push yourself. There's a reason everyone is saying how awesome Twitter is.
Becca: That’s so true. I didn’t get Twitter at first, either, but now I’m officially addicted :). Can you tell us what it's like to work with an editor and go through the revisions process? Is there anything that surprised you when you first sold Simple Wishes that you'd wish you'd known as a newbie?
Lisa: Revisions take a lot of patience and humility--when you work with an editor it's no longer about writing to please yourself. It's about writing to meet another person's requests. That's kind of a hurdle to get around. As to the second part of your question--what surprised me--I wasn't prepared for how nervous I would be to learn that the book would come out. I was excited, sure. But I was also scared out of my mind. With the second book the jitters calmed down a bit and I had a lot more fun.
Becca: I’d never thought about being nervous when your book is actually coming out! I’m loving the insight here ;).
That's fascinating that you worked in a literary agency before getting published. Did anything in that experience give you a leg up when you first reached out to your agent? Any query advice for us?
Lisa: Well, I don't want to overstate my role at the agency--I was an intern then a junior agent. Actually, I wasn't really able to write well while I was working at the agency because I was so overwhelmed by technique, rules, marketing, etc. It wasn't until I left that I could "hear" the sound of my own writing voice again.
As for query advice, the best advice I can give is to just be quietly confident in your query letters. If you know your stuff, it will show without your needing to flaunt your knowledge. The biggest mistake I've seen in the eight or ten thousand query letters I've read is "trying too hard."
Becca: Did you find writing It Happened One Night easier or more difficult than your first book? What's it like working under a deadline for a publisher?
Lisa: I have a feeling that every book is going to prove difficult in its own unique way--and that's how I like it. If I started getting too good at what I was doing--if the stories came too easily--I'd probably suspect myself of relying too much on formula and losing my passion for what I'm doing. As for working under deadline, it hasn't proved to be a problem--knock on wood!
Becca: Good point! Sometimes the effort is what makes it fun, as well.
Lastly, if you could go back in time and give Past Lisa any advice, what would it be? Are there any pearls of wisdom you've gained through experience that you'd want to share with yourself?
Lisa: I love that you said "Past Lisa." I say "Past Lisa" and "Future Lisa" to myself all the time. :-) If I could go back and tell myself something, it would be to stay positive and also to go more slowly. To listen harder to the quietest part of my own voice and to hold on to that whisper even when everything else in life gets loud. It's easy to get distracted and sidetracked--but then again, I don't know. Maybe that's part of it, too--all the detours on the way to finding the right path.
So much for my sage wisdom. Obviously, I'm still learning as I go!
A big THANK YOU to Lisa Dale for sharing her insight with us :).
Please go check out her books, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT and SIMPLE WISHES, or visit her at http://www.lisadalebooks.com/.
