12 Questions for MG and YA Author Valerie Thomas

Valerie Thomas is a former member of the Paper Wait critique group whose debut MG novel, Karma Bites, co-written by Stacy Kramer, was recently published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Valerie and Stacy just sold their second book, a YA novel, to Disney/Hyperion (see below). Valerie took time out from working on her latest manuscript to do this Q&A. Thanks, Valerie, and a huge congrats to you and Stacy on sale number 2!!

1. The two books you've sold were co-written by Stacy Kramer. Could you explain the process of creating a manuscript with a partner? What does it take to make the partnership work?

It’s a lot like a marriage in that we try to treat each other with respect and trust. We’ve worked together for a long time now and we have established a great foundation. We start a project by brainstorming together about ideas. Once we’ve hit on an idea that we want to pursue we then talk, a lot, about the structure of the story, and working up an outline together. When we feel we have enough scaffolding to begin writing, one of us begins to write, and then passes that chunk of writing back to the other, who rewrites it. After a while we switch places so that the other person is out front. We pass things back and forth so many times over the course of a book that each chapter is probably rewritten 20 to 30 times before we are ready to hand it in. Then we get notes from our agent and then our editor, and we rewrite again. It’s a long process!

2. How hard was it for you and Stacey to land an agent and sell your first novel?

We were very lucky in that I knew someone who works at WME (William Morris Endeavor). I called her and asked her if I could send her the partial manuscript of our first book and she said yes. She is not a book agent, but she agreed to look at it, and once she did, she liked it enough to pass it on to two book agents at the agency. One of them, Erin Malone, loved it, and signed us. She gave us notes on the partial manuscript and outline that we had, we rewrote it, and then she went out with it to 10 publishers. One of them bit, and we sold it to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

3. After the sale, were you able to make a living as a writer?

No. We received a lot more for our second book, so we are on our way, but it’s still not enough to be entirely sufficient. Obviously, we are hoping that with time, it will be. We always have at least one or two projects in the works so we are never idle; that way if and when we sell a book we can get to work on the next one right away.

4 What have you learned about process of writing and pitching/selling your manuscripts since you started?

I have learned so much from writing these two books. I feel like my instincts for plot and character are much sharper now. I know what’s necessary for character motivation, for example, better than I used to. I know when something is too cliché, or when it’s okay if it’s a little cliché. I also feel like I have a better grip on what’s out there and thus have a better idea of which ideas to pursue. In terms of pitching/selling, our agent does that for us, thank God. It’s one aspect of the business that I am not great at. We do a fair amount of networking and self-promotion on the web, because it’s necessary, but it’s not my favorite activity.

5. How hard was it to switch your voice from MG, in your first book, to YA, in your second book?

It was easy for me. I found the MG voice a little harder. It was easier for me to tap into what it’s like to be a teenager, maybe because I remember it more vividly. The YA voice is also a bit more sophisticated, which is closer to how I think and feel as an adult.

6. Before you turned to writing kidlit, you and Stacy co-wrote a screenplay. Do you think your background as a screenwriter helped you in the kidlit market, both as a writer and in finding an agent and selling your manuscripts? 


I produced Ulee’s Gold, but I did write a screenplay (with Stacy) and I was a development executive and producer in film for ten years before I started writing. I learned a tremendous amount from working with other screenplay writers. I learned how to structure a story, the importance of getting things moving quickly, and the difficult but imperative job of creating a good plot. Movies have propulsive plots, generally, and many books don’t, which can sometimes work, but I find that often books drag because of a lack of plot. Working in film did help me find an agent because the friend I contacted at WME is a woman I got to know during my time in the film industry.

7. What’s your typical writing routine?

I like to write first thing in the morning for a couple of hours. Then I putter around and clean up the house and eat a little something. I write for another couple of hours. Then I go to the gym, my daughter comes home from school and I spend time with her. I usually fit in another hour in the late afternoon and often an hour at night.

8. What do you like most about the way your agent, Erin Malone at WME, represents you?

I like the effectiveness with which she sells our books. I also think her notes are fantastic. She’s very straightforward, and we don’t actually talk with her much unless we are going out with a book or she’s in the process of reading something of ours.

9. What do you love most about writing books for children?



I love the openness of kids’ books. They are far less cynical and mannered, I find. And I love that my audience is made up of teenagers, people I can really have some influence over. They are such passionate readers and really take in what they love, so it’s a real privilege.

10. What's the most challenging aspect of writing books for children?



I think the challenges must be the same for all fiction writers – finding a story that is fresh, creating characters who feel real, finding a natural voice.

11. Do you have any books in the pipeline now?



We just turned in a draft of our second book, From What I Remember, which is a YA novel for Disney/Hyperion. It’s a romantic adventure that takes place mostly in Mexico. It will be coming out in the summer of 2012. And we are currently writing our next novel, a thriller set in Berlin.

12. What's the best piece of advice you ever got as a writer?



Just keep writing, and rewriting, and it will get better.

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Brain Toggle

I am in the midst of selling my house and buying another one. I am also in the midst of writing a novel, on deadline, for a publisher. What that meant today is that I had to toggle back and forth all day long between intense talks with a mortgage broker and real estate agent and chapter sixteen, in which my main character's middle school world begins to seriously fall apart. It's hard enough to write when I have the whole day devoted to my work, with nothing to distract me, just my own imagination. But when I have to mentally multi-task, it's almost impossible. Almost. Today I learned a valuable lesson. If I really have to write, and be creative, and funny, and all the things one has to be to create a piece of good writing, I can do it. So, that leaves me with no excuse for all the times I feel I can't write, because the light's not quite right, or I'm hungry, or tired, or...you fill in the blank. Sometimes it feels good to be tested.

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Careful What You Wish For

The good news first - I wrote half a middle grade novel with my writing partner, we got an agent, and she sold the book for us! It's spectacularly great, everything I'd hoped for, and more.

The bad news - we have to write the second half of the book, on deadline, with the added pressure that this thing will actually become a book on a shelf someday in the not too distant future.

More good news - it hasn't paralyzed me, but it has forced me to look at my writing with a far more critical eye. And writing on deadline is something that I respond to. It takes care of a lot of the game-playing I do with myself.

More bad news - I'm terrified, that I won't finish, that it will be rejected and our wonderful opportunity will be squandered, that I will be revealed as the fraud I suspect I am. The stakes were raised quickly, and I'm having a bit of a hard time adjusting.

I realize I have no right to complain, at all, and for that I apologize, but I think it's worth noting - the self-doubt, the questioning, the pesky blank page that stares right back at you - none of that goes away even if your book is going to be published. At least not for me, yet.

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Good News, Bad News

Much is written in the children's literature blogosphere about how to handle rejection, how to slough off bad news and go on, how to tackle all the negativity that writers get heaped on them year after year. But not much is written about how one handles good news, for obvious reason. Good news, generally, is like Haley's comet - it is ridiculously infrequent and if you blink, you might miss the blaze across the sky.

I actually got good news recently. I signed with an agent, she loves my manuscript, she gave me a few reasonable notes for changes, and she subsequently loved the changes I made. She plans to go out with the book this week. This is all good news, no doubt about it. Of course, I'm happy. But I'm also full of suspicion and disbelief. I've spent lots of time recently crafting the most catastrophic ending to this happy tale. It's kind of embarrassing, to be honest. Why can't I simply enjoy my good fortune? That's where all the bad news comes in. I'm trained to assume the worst at this point, and it's a hard habit to shake. Anybody else out there do the same thing?

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Day One Drama

A few days ago I started a new book. This isn't something I do often, as I write novels for the most part, and I can only juggle a couple at a time. So, day one of a new book is a big day. By which I mean, a bad day. Most writers would agree that rewriting is far easier than writing. But when you're starting a book, there's nothing to build on, nothing to improve, just a blank page.

So, that first line of the book, after all the research has been done and the noodling around with plotlines, and the various windy treatments, how do you do it? For me, it's akin to jumping off a cliff, which I haven't actually done, but I assume it feels the same. You stand on the edge for awhile, terrified, and then, knowing you have to do it, close your eyes and jump. In many ways this sounds easier than writing that first paragraph. Because more often than not what happens is that I dive into the writing, hoping and praying that something worth salvaging will emerge, and nothing does. The first attempts are awful and get erased immediately, leaving me with nothing, once again.

And then the self-flaggelating sets in. But since I've played this game with myself many times, I know somewhere deep inside it's all part of my perverse process, so I go back to the computer and try again. Eventually I craft a tiny foothold, a sentence or two that work, and from there I am able to claw my way forward. I know this all sounds very dramatic, but the truth is, that's the way it feels. I can't imagine I'm alone here.

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Whiplash

I recently heard back from an agent I had submitted a manuscript to, and even though he passed, he wants to send it on to a colleague. That's the good news. The bad news is that he included a few suggestions in his email of ways the work could be improved. I'm not one to ignore a good piece of criticism, especially from an agent, but one tiny line in an email can mean weeks and weeks of work on a manuscript. The manuscript is out to other agents as well, who may have notes of their own. My critique group has also had their shot at it. And, a few friends have read it. They all have notes too.

So...whose notes do I follow? If I followed them all, I'd not only be writing for years, I would rewrite my book into a whiplashed piece of drivel without a heart and soul. If all the notes were consistent, then of course I'd honor them, but they're not. Some are directly opposed to others. Some fall in between. Some are extreme, some are subtle.

Of course, the real danger here is that I will give in to the temptation to ignore them all, since they kind of cancel each other out. Or, conversely, there's the risk of attaching myself too much to an outsider's idea in the hopes that it will miraculously "fix" my work, clean and simple. Every writer has to learn how to take notes and open themselves up to new ways of looking at their work, but knowing which ideas will improve the work while preserving its essence can be a challenge. I'm not always up to it.

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One Foot in Front of the Other

I recently read a book by the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. WHAT I TALK ABOUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT RUNNING is a memoir about the twin forces in his life that matter most to him - writing and running. For Murakami, running and writing share much in common, and to do either, he feels, one needs the same qualities - endurance and focus. I agree. And although Murakami is a prize-winning, internationally acclaimed novelist, and a marathon runner who logs in over 60 miles a week, and I am not an internationally acclaimed author (yet) and I log in around 15 miles a week (and that will likely never go up), I found great inspiration from his book.

I love the idea that the very things that keep me going on a run - will, endurance, mind over matter - can and should keep me going at the computer. I tend to give up on my writing a little too easily, but if I were to treat writing as I do running - not giving up even when I feel like I can't breathe, or my stomach hurts, or I'm beating myself up about how weak I am - I'd get a lot more writing done. I'd log in the number of pages a week that I aspire to, instead of quitting early, when I don't like what I'm doing.

Murakami stresses that while good writing usually doesn't happen without a certain amount of talent, it's really these other qualities that get one to the finish line. I guess Woody Allen said it all a long time ago - success is 1% talent, 99% perspiration. Or was it 99% showing up? In any case, it was refreshing to hear Murakami discuss how hard it is for him to write, and run, despite his tremendous success.

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The Nobel Prize Goes To Who??

When I read today that the Nobel Prize for Literature had gone to a writer I'd never heard of (Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio), I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Is he that obscure, or am I that out of it? It turns out he is obscure (and I'm a bit out of it to boot), to readers of the English language, because, as well regarded as he is in Europe, few of his works have been translated into English. It's a shame. When I did a little research into who he is, and what he writes about, I came across this quote.

“My message will be very clear; it is that I think we have to continue to read novels. Because I think that the novel is a very good means to question the current world without having an answer that is too schematic, too automatic. The novelist, he’s not a philosopher, not a technician of spoken language. He’s someone who writes, above all, and through the novel asks questions.”

In this time of incredible uncertainty and fear, it rejuvenated me and inspired me to both read and write. Good writing matters, even, and especially, when the sky is falling.

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When to keep my mouth shut

Recently I started reading a book to my six year old daughter that I thought was atrocious. She agreed, so we stopped. We even had a good conversation about why it wasn't so good - the story didn't make sense, the characters felt hollow. But there have been many times when we've been in the middle of a book which she loves, but I find lacking. And I will admit a few times I've even said something, unable to bit my tongue. So, the question is, should I keep my mouth shut and read on? Or should I express my opinion, and risk influencing hers, thus censoring what she's exposed to on some small level? I love that already she is forming ideas about what makes a story work, but I concede this may come at a cost.

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What is your book about??.....

For years I worked in the film industry, both as a producer and screenwriter, and I quickly learned how to summarize a film project in industry parlance, what I'll call the "A meets B" method. If I was working on a project about a woman going through a divorce with a man who may or may not be a serial killer, let's say, I would pitch it as KRAMER VS. KRAMER meets CAPE FEAR. A film about baseball and friendship became BULL DURHAM meets BEACHES, and so on. The "A meets B" trope became so ubiquitous in Hollywood that often people conceived of projects based on these crazy combinations - SCHINDLER'S LIST meets CADDYSHACK, or BIG meets COLD MOUNTAIN. The combinations are so ridiculously wacky they become high concept by virtue of their incompatibility, and everybody loves a high concept. But as much as this tool is overused in Hollywood, it remains a punchy and effective way to get the essential idea of a project across in as little time as possible.

Now that I am a writer for children, when someone asks me what my book is about I stumble, and I generally ramble on, trying to impart the full plot and all of the complex themes of my work, all the while boring the person to death no doubt. So, my question is, should the publishing industry, should we writers for children, take a page from the film industry playbook, and describe our stories in this facile and often reductive A meets B way? Since publishers love high concept ideas, should we be conceiving of our stories by mashing together wildly different ideas to create something never before written?

GOODNIGHT MOON meets LEMONY SNICKET?? I think I'd like to read that one.

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Reading to my Daughter

I wrote a picture book several months ago, and then tucked the manuscript into my files to let it languish while I worked on other projects. One day recently it dawned on me that I have my target audience for my picture book living in my house - my 5 year old daughter. Why hadn't I thought of reading her my book earlier?

My daughter has only lately absorbed the idea that Mommy has some work of her own that does not involve her. When she was born, I stopped working to stay home with her, and for the first few years she never heard a peep about Mommy's work, apart from all that I did for hearth and home, because there wasn't much work to speak of. While I am generally at peace with the idea of being a stay-at-home mother, on occasion I've been seized with the fear that my daughter will grow up with no understanding of huge facets of my life, but worse, she herself will not deem work important, modeling herself after me. So, when I returned to writing, little by little I started to mention this part of my life to her, and it felt good to do so. Although my writing still takes a serious sideline to my mothering, I explain to her what I do, and why I love it. My hope is that when she grows up she too will find a way to devote herself to motherhood while fostering a passion for work.

We sat down and I pulled out the manuscript and began to read. There were no pictures, but she didn't seem to mind. I thought, "maybe it's that good...or maybe she's genuinely curious to see what Mom can produce." She laughed a little just when I'd hoped she would. And then, about half way through the story, I could see her attention flag. I read on, trying to deny her fidgeting. About three quarters of the way through she stopped me and said, "Mommy, how long is this book??" Hmmm...not exactly the response I'd hoped for. But guess what? She was right on the money. The story was egregiously long, and I'd been lazy and arrogant in my disregard of what really needed to be done to make it sing. I finished reading her the story, intent on getting right to the revisions.

But a few days later, she brought up the book. She had questions for me about the main character, a few logic points, a few ideas for improvement. But more than anything, I could tell she was just happy to talk to me about a book I'd written. She was proud. And even though I know the book needs work, and may never have a life beyond my own home, seeing my daughter look at me through slightly different eyes is really all the reward I need. Many of us delve into writing children's literature because we've gotten such joy from the books we've read to our children, but there is an additional and singular pleasure in being able to read a story you have written to your own child.

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