Kelly Coon On Success After 106 Rejections

Mindy:             Today's guest is Kelly Coon, author of the YA fantasy Gravemaidens, which recounts the tale of two sisters come on a 16 year old healer's apprentice who wants to save the dying ruler of her city state, and then Nanaea, Kamani's little sister who will be buried alive as the ruler's bride if he dies. Kelly joined me today to talk about how to make a fantasy stand out in the crowded YA market by making her female main character have understated strength.

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Mindy:             Most of my listeners are aspiring writers and a lot of them are in the query trenches themselves. So why don't you talk a little bit about your process of landing an agent.

Kelly:               Okay. It was a process. Indeed. It took me a long time. I might not be the best person to go to for advice. I started writing a novel in 2005 I never sold it. I really thought I was an amazing writer. So I wrote this book it was an Odyssey retelling, YA fiction. And I queried and I was shocked - and this is back when you would send paper copies - and I was shocked when I was getting all the envelopes back and they were all rejections and I'm like, what? This is amazing. I had always been told I was an amazing writer and I was just absolutely not. So I continued along that path of absolutely not having a clue, wrote a total of three books that way, and just queried my brains out and not till I really kind of had a growth mindset and discovered that I might be a good writer but I am not a good novelist and really dove into the process of what writing a book was about and specifically writing a book for teens was about did I have any kind of progress at all.

Kelly:               I went to a conference, I pitched my book, I got some interest, they told me like your writing is great and your pitching is fantastic, but your premise is not what we're looking for. So I rewrote it, completely scrapped my idea, wrote Gravemaidens, sent it out, and then I got 11 requests for the full. I sent out 11 queries, got 11 requests for the full. I had to solidify a good premise that I knew would be marketable, lower my pride and realize that I had a lot to learn. But I had 106 rejections before that cause I kept track on a spreadsheet.

Mindy:             I did too. And so you said you wrote your first novel in 2005 and begin querying. What year was it when you landed your agent for Gravemaidens?

Kelly:               2017 in April. My agent is Kari Sutherland. She's with Bradford literary. She used to be an editor at Harper Teen. She actually was the acquiring agent for a Red Queen and Pretty Little Liars. So when she requested my full, within a couple hours after sending my query, I remember I was sitting in Whole Foods writing in their little cafe, sent my query, and then I got an email back from her requesting the full and I freaked out because the fact that she was an agent at all was blowing my mind and the fact that she wanted it was, I mean, I was speechless. So I sent it back to her and then she offered within a couple of weeks, another agent offered as well. And I went with Kari because we just really connected super well over the phone.

Mindy:             So 12 years, 2005 to 2017 and I actually love it.

Kelly:               I didn't start querying in 2005 I started writing my book in 2005. I finished it in 2007. I had a baby and was like, Holy crap, I'm not getting any younger. If I'm going to do this, I need to finish it. Having my first son kind of motivated me to just finish my novel. So I started querying in 2007 so 10 years total.

Mindy:             You started this story by saying, I'm not the best person to come to for advice, but I disagree because I myself was querying for 10 years. Listeners will know this, I've said this a million times, but I didn't land an agent for 10 years and a lot of the reasons why are so similar to yours. I really thought that I was just amazing and I really wasn't. Like when I read the manuscripts that I was querying then, they were so bad and this is not mock humility. They were awful. They're terrible like I DNF'd them. They were not readable. But you got to realize that. But, and the other thing is that's really important is that in order for you to be able to write and to query for 10 years, you have to believe that you are good or you have to believe that you will make it. Like you can't sit there knocking out stuff and being like, well this is crap. Right? You're like, you're going to stop if you believe it. So there's obviously a pride element and you need to get knocked down a few pegs. But the element of not quitting, of still believing in yourself, believing that you have the ability, but learning that you have to refine it.

Kelly:               At one point I was like, am I completely delusional? I had my undergrad in creative writing and my masters in English. People used to tell me all the time, you're a great writer. I love reading it. Write something else. You can do this, and I was like, are all those people just completely delusional? Am I one of them as well? There was a point when I really did doubt myself, like officially doubt myself. I always doubted myself a little bit and just would, but I was like, you know what? You can keep going. I'm nothing if not persistent. I'm kind of like a bulldog sometimes I don't plan very well, but I will go for it. There was one point I was sitting on the couch next to my husband and I had gotten maybe my 106th rejection probably. It really was. I think just a couple of days before Kari emailed me back telling me she wanted to chat and I was like, you know what, am I completely delusional?

Kelly:               Like have I lost touch with reality? Maybe I'm not meant for this kind of writing. Cause I was doing all sorts of other writing and was really successful doing it and I'm like maybe I'm just not a novelist. And my husband looked at me, he's like, remember that old saying, those guys who went mining for gold and they stopped just a couple of meters away from where there was this giant pile of gold? Like you're there you are in that pit. Just keep digging. His encouragement pushed me just to hold on for a little bit longer. I got the offer of representation from Kari two days later.

Mindy:             But you do have to have those people telling you that you can do it because if people are telling you you can't, that's not, that's not going to help. It's a bizarre little world and it is a small world. And the thing that you find, at least that I found was that if you're querying for that long now, I was querying multiple manuscripts over the course of the 10 years. I think I was querying like five different novels and I had gotten to the point where agents knew who I was. When I queried them they would be like, Oh, I remember you. You've queried me before. And so it's wonderful because then I've even run into them like now as a published author, I run into the agents that rejected me like three or four or five times conferences and stuff. And it's kind of cool because we actually like have a relationship to be able to continue those relationships.

Mindy:             And I always tell people, you know, if you get a rejection on a full or if you get repeated blanket rejections and you react badly, it's like agents remember that. Like they remembered my name even though I was not really interacting with them in any kind of personal way. It was just through the queries. My name was popping up in their inbox enough that they were like, I remember you. And so you know, you're just always being polite and always interacting because it is a very small world and they do talk to each other. So if you misbehave, people will know.

Mindy:             So you mentioned Gravemaidens. It is your debut novel. It is a young adult fantasy, which is a crowded market right now. And just given the dates that you gave me for when you were querying, you got picked up right when fantasy was starting to blow up. So now with it being kind of a more competitive arena, especially in the YA market, how do you find your niche for Gravemaidens as a debut in a crowded marketplace for YA fantasy?

Kelly:               There's a few factors. I think part of it is character development because good characters are always going to be in fashion and be in demand. If you can write a character that is relatable on a wide spectrum, whether you're a fantasy reader or Sci Fi or contemporary, wherever you are, if you write a character that people fall in love with personally, it doesn't matter what the genre is. I read a wide variety and honestly I connect with a character, so I tried really hard to make my characters, people that you could sit in a room with and get to know them. That's part of it. Also, I don't have a princess in a castle. I have a healer. My main character is a healer and she's, she's a Hufflepuff like a lot of fantasy MCs, especially girls are Gryffindors. They're brave or they're Slytherin, you know, they're kind of brave or cunning or they maybe don't like violence, but they are willing to use violence.

Kelly:               And my narrator is a healer in her chief goal is to keep people alive even if those people are not people that she cares about. So she's kind and compassionate and I think that's a little bit of a twist on the YA fantasy market. She's unlike a lot of other characters where she, she wants to save her sister from dying with a Lugal and if that means healing the Lugal, a man who had been notoriously terrible to her in the past, she'll do it and while she does it, she will even have compassion for him. There's a scene in the book where she's kneeling by his pallet after she's just treated him and she's confused about why he's so sick and she grabs his hands and she's kind of, uh, you know, rubbing his knuckles against her face. And really her heart goes out to this man, even though he has been just so terrible to her family, compassion still comes through. And for me, I think I hadn't read anything like that.

Mindy:             I like that. I like that a lot. For a long time, everybody was writing the strong female character when strong was taken, literally it was always about being a fighter and being a fierce woman. That really became the definition of female strength for a long time, especially in YA. And that is not of course an accurate representation of the different many facets of female strength. And I love what you're saying and I think it's a great point. I love the idea of the healing and the compassion, especially given everything that we're dealing with in the real world today. That being a strength and conveying that message.

Kelly:               Yes, absolutely. I am not as compassionate as she is honestly. Like I'm a Ravenclaw through and through for me. Sometimes I'm like, you know, get yourself up, pick yourself up, you got this, shake yourself off. A lot of times I've talked to my kids that way and I have to remind myself to be more compassionate and be more kind. So she is completely different from me. I actually don't have any idea where she came from. I've had friends who have read this and been like, wow, she is so different from you. Like how do you write in first person POV, somebody who is not like you at all.? And I'm like, you know, I have no idea. That is a mystery. I have no idea where she came from, but I admire her like I want to be like her,

Mindy:             You know, I have a theory and why you have written someone that is very different from you. Yeah, absolutely. I think as authors often we write characters who represent something we wish we could be.

Kelly:               You know what, that's probably very true. Like cause I, like I said do admire her and I think she has so many great qualities. Sometimes I'm too hard lined and she has softer edges and that's admirable and it's not often celebrated.

Mindy:             No, not at all. Which is why I think you're right that that is a good angle for your book. I am fascinated by this idea that we do this almost like almost a fantasization of an element of ourselves that we ourselves would like to see encouraged more, are giving, even giving our characters abilities we wish we had. I mean sometimes that's just a great escape for us.

Kelly:               No, she is kind of like nerd girl. So she does like learning and she gets all of those elements from me but she actually admires her sister Nanaea and how she can kind of give into moments of beauty and kind of relax and just enjoy herself. Kammani sometimes is too worried like in the middle of a party Kamanni's worried about her responsibilities and I mean she gets that from me. I really admire people who kind of can give into a moment and just throw all the responsibilities and worries aside and just give in and there are parts of me that are like that but as I've gotten more kids and gotten more responsibility a lot of times it's hard for me to let go and not be the one trying to control a situation or something. I put a little bit of that. My desire is what I would like to be more of in her sister Nanaea as well.

Mindy:             Coming up, how editing and being an ACT test prep writer helped Kelly and her fiction.

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Mindy:             So speaking of Gravemaidens, that is your first novel, but you are no stranger to publishing. You are the editor for Blue Ocean Brain. You're included in the Washington Post talent network. And have also authored two strategy guides to acing the act. So if you could talk a little bit about each of those elements that are different avenues for your work because you already alluded to the fact that you knew you were a good writer. And obviously these things that I'm mentioning are very different type of writing. So if you could talk a little bit about your writing, how your writing skills are challenged in different ways by each of these facets of your professional life.

Kelly:               Oh sure. I'm an editor as you said, and I loved that job. It has taught me so much about cleaning up my writing. I have 13 writers that write for me and every day I'm reading their work and I'm streamlining what they send me. There was a New York Times article and he talked about greening your work. In the old days they would have to physically go through an article and green it out with the green highlighter words that were unnecessary or that were filler. As an editor, I do that with my writers. As a novelist it has really helped me clean up what I'm writing. So if I have this long passage of texts, I can go through and say what are the things that will add to the atmosphere or detract from the atmosphere? Or is it a sentence I just think is beautiful? And if that's the case it probably needs to go.

Kelly:               Like if I'm firing my own work and it's taking away from the story, I should probably just cut it. My editor job really helps me kind of knowing what to keep and knowing what to get rid of. The Washington Post that is just fun. I've been published with two personal essays in the Washington Post and that was about fleeing hurricane Irma and the decision to do that. I live in Florida. It was a terrifying part of my life and I was able to write those essays and kind of talk about what it felt like to have that decision to make: stay and kind of hunker down or go. I mean that kind of really helped me hone into my emotion I think as I'm writing. And then the ACT test prep books, that was all about research. I have never researched more in my life than I did when I was writing my ACT test prep books.

Kelly:               I was a test prep author. I was a test prep specialist for about.com back when it was about.com for seven years. I got approached by the research and education company, asking me if I would like to write an ACT test prep manual for them and because I cannot say no to a challenge. I was like, sure, I'm writing about it every day. It will be easy and reader, it was not easy. It was definitely the most challenging thing I've ever done. I had to get help with math. I was like, I cannot write these questions, and I had a good friend of mine who helped me with science as well. He wrote some of them. I wrote some of them. We ended up selling this book. It was amazing, but I even, I read it now, I flip back through it from time to time and I'm like, how did I do this? I don't even know how I did it.

Mindy:             I understand that feeling. When I look back at some of my papers that I wrote in college, like the critical analysis and things like that and I'm just like, who is this girl? She was so much smarter than I am now. I'm like, who is this 20 year old? What is she talking about? Oh my God, that's hilarious.

Kelly:               It like pushes me and it reminds me that when I want to do something, when I feel like, you know, I get my notes back from my editor on the sequel or something and I'm like, wow, there is no way I can do this. I know what you're asking and I know where you want it to be, but my brain cannot do this, that I remind myself, wait a minute, you can absolutely do this. So it's helpful. It's helpful to know that it's something difficult so that you know you can do it again, like childbirth.

Mindy:             Yeah. Childbirth is a great example. Yeah, I agree completely. I'm actually sitting on an edit letter right now that I am delaying working on, even though it's for, let's see, it'll be my 10th book and I'm just like, I can't do that. You know? I'm just like, I don't know how to do that. I don't know how to edit. I don't know how to revise. This is hard. I don't know how to do this. I'm going to break it this time. I'm going to break it. Right? And you know, I know that's not true. I know that's not true, but I'll tell you something - when I have an edit letter waiting on me, my house is so goddamn clean. Last time I had an edit letter, I defrosted the deep freezer. I was like, you know what that needs to get done. That needs to get done right now. That's next level procrastination right there.

Kelly:               I tend to start organizing, I organize my kitchen and I take out all the Tupperware and put it back in because that's something I can manage. That's easy. But yeah, the edit letter is too difficult. So we avoid that. Well usually I read it and cry and then call my agent and then she calms me down because she's basically my therapist and then we talk about it and she's like, remember you can do this. And I'm like, Oh yeah, I can. I talk with my editor. I'm like, okay, okay, so this is manageable. Then I cry again. Then I edit and then it works out.

Mindy:             I drink. That's mine. Um, I get the edit letter. Yeah, I don't usually have a drink like just at home. Like socially I'll have a drink but I'm just not somebody that winds down with like a glass of wine or whatever. I'm more likely to have some tea or something. But when I get an edit letter I'm like, I'm going to, I'm going to drink. I'm just going to get to that fuzzy stage where you feel like everything's okay. And then I'll read it again when I'm in a fuzzy stage and then I'm like, all right, you know, process that. But I have a friend who actually gets an edit cake when she gets her edit letters. She doesn't read it. She goes down the street to the bakery and buys like a sheet cake and then she like eats cake while she's reading her edit letter.

Kelly:               Listen, she has something because that is a way to manage and maybe, maybe I should try that.

Mindy:             Her husband will see a cake in the fridge and he's like, Oh shit.

Kelly:               Well see my husband knows that you're at edit letter cause I'm like draped across the bed sobbing. He's like, Oh, the edits came in, didn't they?

Mindy:             That's a perfectly normal reaction. Everybody I know they, they either drink too much, eat too much, or cry too much as soon as they get their edit letter. So that's okay that that's a normal part of the process. Absolutely.

Mindy:             Lastly, marketing on your own, the constant hustle and the benefits of having a street team.

Mindy:             I asked you a little bit about how Gravemaidens is going to stand out in the market for readers in the YA fantasy genre, but I want to talk to you about marketing and how you are going about getting word out about Gravemaidens because social media is a crowded place. We're all vying for attention. We're all shouting at the same people all the time. So what are your methods here for your debut book? How are you supporting the marketing efforts of your publisher? Like what are your methods?

Kelly:               This was something that was not entirely new to me because although I don't have a major in marketing or anything like that, I do have a small business. So my husband and I with some business partners, own some condos on the Gulf of Mexico and I for a long time was the person in charge of renting them and marketing them and getting customers. That was my job. So I did know a little bit about sales plus right after college when I graduated with my creative writing degree, I went right into sales because who is going to hire someone with a creative writing degree that did not have a journalism internship? No one. So I went into that was lucrative and then I hated it. So then I went and got my degree in teaching and then I taught for a while. So I did have some experience in sales.

Kelly:               However, marketing for a book is entirely a different beast. And also I thought being a newbie kind of writer at first I thought Hey my publisher is going to handle all of this and they're going to be the ones who do it all. But that is not the case. As I learned. They do a ton and I'm super grateful for everything that Delacorte Press is doing. And I mean cause it's a lot comparatively to some, you know, other books. So what I've been doing personally to try to find my way, I did a couple of things. I joined class of 2k19 which is a marketing group. There's 20 authors that are middle grade and young adult debuts. I joined that group. We all kind of pitch in for money and then we do joint things. So like we've done joint mailers that we've sent out to 800 different librarians and bookstores.

Kelly:               Oh we do chats, we do social media pushes. We have someone in charge of conferences where we're kind of trying to book each other. So that was one kind of arm of my strategy. Another arm was I got a street team together so I could have some more people who actually have ins in this area to help support me. That has been one of the biggest joys of this entire thing is having this group of people. I have a Twitter DM chat for all of us. We get in there and just kinda chat about books. And I asked them sometimes like, Hey, can you do this? And they're like, sure. I think I have an interview coming up with almost everyone in the group. So they're posting it on their blogs. A lot of them are book bloggers or fellow authors or librarians. They're supporting me in that way.

Kelly:               My publicist emailed all of them bookmarks and they are passing them around requesting it at their libraries. So I have this team of people behind me that are extending my reach that I obviously would not have. I also did a preorder campaign myself that was mostly paid for by me. Delacorte press did the bookmarks and the book plates, but I ordered the enamel pin myself. I ordered the laptop sticker. I commissioned, um, a little mocktail card to be made and I've been mailing them all out myself. I decided to take some of the advance that I got and put it back into marketing so that I could try to get my name out there a little. And I know some people can't do that because their advance goes directly to their bills. I recognize that I am privileged in that way, able to do that, that I have another job and I have a husband who also has a good job.

Kelly:               So I'm able to do that, which, and I recognize that it's a privilege. So I'm doing that. And then I'm also trying to be as active as possible on social media and I'm reaching out to conferences, pitching myself, reaching out to bookstores, pitching myself. I set up my entire bookstore tour, myself and my publicist, she supported me in that and has helped me make connections if I didn't have them. But I was like, I'm going to go and pitch myself. Everyone's been really receptive. I have been busting my butt trying to get the word out about this.

Mindy:             Yup. And that's the way to do it. Um, I was a member of the class of 2k13. I am so glad that I made that decision because two of like my closest friends now are from the class and we worked together on multiple projects and also just everyone in that class. We actually, the YA authors anyway, that we are still publishing and we run into each other all the time. We're actually pretty close and honestly it's like bonds were forged and there are people that I talk to literally every day of my life now that I would not have as friends if I didn't do that and I'm so so happy about that. And you were also mentioning just beating the pavement and getting out there and putting yourself in front of people and talking to people and presenting yourself to people.

Mindy:             That is how you do it, especially in your local area. Putting yourself in front of librarians, booksellers, people that are organizing conferences. I'm telling you I did that and it just felt like I was waving my own flag under their noses all the time and just announcing myself and I'm not a salesperson. I have become one now I have become one. I have learned how, especially when you're doing hand selling at a table in like a festival or something like that, you absolutely have to, you've got to learn how to do that and I'm telling you all the efforts that you're putting in right now, they will pay off because I was published in 2013 so here we are six years later and I don't even advertise anymore. People just reach out because I've done enough events and I have put myself in enough places, especially the library circuit, that word of mouth, the organizers and the librarians and the event coordinators, they just email each other and booksellers, same thing.

Mindy:             They're like, Hey, we just had Mindy McGinnis. She gives a great presentation. She's reasonably priced. You should reach out to her for your planning. Like I said, I don't reach out anymore. People come to me and like this month I think I've got about 20 things booked. And that was all just invitation and maybe that's just six years of beating the circuits. It does work. Those little ripples of throwing stones out in the pond, they spread. But the other part is that I will say yes to just about everything. I really will and they recognize that. So if it's a tiny little town, which is where I'm from and they're like, we can only give you this much money. I'm like, that's fine, I'll do it.

Mindy:             I've never regretted it. I love doing it. I love putting myself in front of people. That's how it works. Like that to me is just being physically present, doing a good job when you're there. Word will spread.

Kelly:               Well good. I mean that is really actually good to hear. If there's anything I've got it's hustle. I mean I've always had that and I'm always willing to push hard and I'm not someone who kind of gets beaten down as easily. Sometimes I think like I wonder what my breaking point is? Because I haven't reached it yet, but um, I'm always willing to kind of give it a shot and see what happens. I'm grateful that it's working out for you and I'm hopeful that eventually it will work out for me as well.

Mindy:             It will, it will you reach critical mass. But I will say you talk about a breaking point. I have had in these six years I've had three events where no one showed up, like literally zero people were interested in coming to see me and that's okay.

Kelly:               I hear it's common. I've had friends who are, debuts who were, you know, New York times bestsellers who said, Hey, I did an event and literally no one came or one person showed. And for whatever reason I think maybe my years of teaching, that doesn't frighten me at all. Like not in the least. I know for some people who are more introverts, I am like your typical extrovert. But for people who are introverts, I know that might be horrifying or you know, they just have to muster up their nerve to go there and the rejection might be too much. But I've been rejected so much in my life that I'd kind of be like, ah, you know what? There's just me and you. Let's go have lunch. That doesn't terrify me. Maybe it won't, because I've never experienced that. But maybe it will be horrifying. But for me, I don't know that, I'm not afraid of that.

Mindy:             But even you were talking about debut authors who have events and nobody shows up. I had one of my zeros no-shows two weeks ago. Yeah. And that's okay. I mean it's good. It keeps you humble.

Kelly:               See, I like looking for the opportunities in failing. You know, even if it's not your failure, it's marketing failure or whatever. I like looking for that. Something that you can take away from it. And I, I teach that to my boys too. You fail a test, congratulations. Because you have the opportunity to learn from that and to grow from it. And if anything else, it gives you humility, which humility only can lead to better things. That doesn't scare me away. Not yet. Hasn't yet. Maybe one day it will.

Mindy:             If anything, the organizer, like she was so upset and she was like, I am so sorry. I am so sorry. I'm so sorry. And I was like, honey, it's okay. I was like, trust me, you are not the first person that has stood in front of me saying, I am so sorry that no one showed up. You can't control it. You can't control other people and it's hard to get people to show up, man. Especially when your target audience is teens and they don't have their own transportation. It's fine. As you said. I agree. Humility is a gift. Being humble is so important in this industry and so when zero people show up I'm like, okay, knock me down a peg. That's cool. I probably needed it, you know?

Kelly:               Exactly.

Mindy:             Last question, what are you working on right now and where can listeners find you online?

Kelly:               Since Gravemaidens, I've written three other books. People are asking me questions about Gravemaidens and I actually have to flip back through and reread it because I'm like, did that happen with all the millions of edits that we went through? I cannot remember and my goal is to reread the book before my launch event so I can actually answer questions about it. I wrote the sequel. Gravemaidens is a duology and we haven't announced the title yet, but that's coming soon. But I wrote the sequel. We're actually in line edit for the sequel right now.

Kelly:               I wrote a young adult Sci Fi that's a Scarlet letter retelling that's being considered right now by my publishing house. That's my option. So I'm fingers crossed for that one for me. And then I also wrote a contemporary, uh, I just the first draft of a contemporary with speculative elements. If I have this urge to write and if I have these ideas, I want to go for it while I've got it. Because sometimes I feel like you might have peaks and valleys and in those valleys I want to honor that. And if I'm not feeling like I have it or I don't want to, or there's something else going on where I can't, then I want to take advantage of it. When I do have the opportunities, I felt like I wanted to write these. So I did.

Mindy:             Yes, I agree with you 100% when you have inspiration, never turn your back on it. Go with it. If you feel like writing and you're on fire for an idea, write it. Write it while it's hot.

Kelly:               Exactly. Cause there've been moments where I'm staring at my page. It was really difficult for me to start the sequel to Gravemaidens. I knew what I wanted to do. It had been a long time since I was in that head space. I actually wrote my Sci Fi before I wrote the sequel. So I was in this other person's head space. So getting back into Kammani's point of view was I was like, who wrote this? Like I was looking at Gravemaidens. I'm like, is that me? Like is that my voice? Is that her voice? Because I had switched voices so completely that was tough to get into. So it took a while to start. I had trouble with that and then, but then once I got into it and stuff then I'm like, Oh there she is. It just took awhile. Kind of put her clothes back on. And then you also asked you where people can find me online. Well. My website is Kelly coon.com and then I'm on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook at Kelly Coon106.

Debbie Rigaud On The Value of Light Reads

Mindy:             Today's guest is Debbie Rigaud, author of the YA romcom Truly, Madly, Royally. Debbie joined me today to talk about the rejection journey being similar for scripts, magazine writing and novels, as well as the importance of community, especially that of women in publishing looking out for one another

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Mindy:             Most of my audience is comprised of aspiring authors and they love to hear about how a published author attained their agent. So if you could talk about that, I'm sure that they would love to know your story.

Debbie:            Odd to say, but I didn't have a querying journey. I had more of a pitching journey that lasted decades. Now my secret dream back in the day was to become a TV writer. This was back when most people wanted to be film screenwriters. So my journey was more of a pitching journey. For book publishing it was more of a circuitous one. I've had two literary agents. I started in magazine publishing in New York City, which felt remote, but sort of adjacent to the book publishing world. And so sometimes you can find some overlap. And my first agent, the wonderful Adrian Ingram, she's a full time editor now. She was a colleague of a friend. She was working on an anthology for African American and Latin X teens. That was back when a lot of teens were picking books up because they related to the characters on the cover. They were picking it up, but it wasn't age appropriate.

Debbie:            A lot of times it was a lot of erotica and things like that. So Adrian was working on an anthology with more age appropriate fiction because these readers were grossly underserved. She approached me to work on that. So my agent now is Laura of Laura Dale literary agency. I have Sarah Mylnowski to thank for that. So I'm still pinching myself over this. But Laura Dale heard about me through Sarah and then asked to see my work. She's also Sarah's agent. I know. It's like, when does this ever happen? So I sent Laura A Perfect Shot, which was a romcom I did. It was a Simon Polse romantic comedy back in 2010. And that was when I was still with Adrian Ingram and I also sent her Voila. Open Mic is the name of the anthology that author Mitali Perkins is an editor of. It was about, you know, being an immigrant's kid. I actually was agent-less when there was an open submission for Open Mic. They selected my story, Voila. And so I send those to Laura and she connected with my writing style, my characters. Before that I'd sort of been languishing in limbo land for years. Sarah doing this and you know, just like out of the blue, I didn't even know Sarah was kind of talking to me up around town. It's been amazing ever since. So I've been with Laura since Truly, Madly, Royally.

Mindy:             You had these connections through networking and through a relationship with another author. I'm actually familiar with Sarah's work because I worked in a library, a middle school and high school library for about 14 years and I still go back and I volunteer. So Sarah has just tons and tons of books and I'm familiar with her work. And then I'm also familiar with Open Mic because that's a book that we carry.

Debbie:            Oh really? Oh my gosh, that's amazing!

Mindy:             Yeah. It was a Junior Library Guild selection, correct?

Debbie:            Oh my God, yes. The crazy thing about it, and I like actually cried. My story Voila was republished this past spring in Scope Scholastic, which is in middle school classes. They got an illustrator to create art for it and they brought up a lot of different topics of discussion for students and I was able to do the audio version of it that they asked me to read. So it was, it was just, I felt like it was like winning the lottery. Like they're like, Oh, we dug up your old story and we want to publish it. That came just from me sort of seeing that, you know, they were looking for an additional story to include and so I just took a chance and sent it in.

Mindy:             That's awesome.

Debbie:            Yes. Yeah, I was, you know, hustling. Just trying to keep myself out there and, and that's why it meant so much about Sarah because I really saw it as sort of like women helping women. It's like, when does that happen? Where a woman comes up to you and says, I'd love to sponsor you or I'd love to talk about you. I'd love to like help mentor you, if you have any questions.

Debbie:            It's important that we do that for each other.

Mindy:             Absolutely. Women to women, we have to help each other out. We have to. Even though you weren't necessarily having a query journey, you were certainly on a rejection journey in terms of pitching for 10 years. Talk a little bit if you can about the differences between as a screenwriter doing pitches and querying and yet the similarities in land of rejection.

Debbie:            As a screenwriter I was never in LA, it was always New York based. I did a different route. Like I'm always looking for a different routes. Trying to think outside the box. I was going to sort of the smaller production companies who have sort of had straight to video type of um, stories and and pitching them, looking at, you know, sort of their catalog of material. Just the same as you would do for an agent you're interested in. Like who else does that person represent? How would my story fit in? If not, how can I tweak it? A lot of times they're like, great, this is great that you get a response from them and sometimes a positive response, but then there's a lot of wait and see and the screenwriting world. You might connect with someone but then you might not hear back. It kind of never went anywhere. The rejection, I always related to that, I caught a bus, I caught two city buses to go to school. I would always like be cold and be standing at a bus stop and you'd see a bus in the distance and you're like, yes. And then as it gets closer you realize it's not your bus number.

Debbie:            But the way I saw it was while I was grateful for the time that I thought it was mine. It kept me feeling, you know what? This, you know, sub zero degree weather? I can do this. Yeah, sure you get disappointment when you realize it's not yours/ But, hey for the last few minutes you weren't thinking about it.

Mindy:             That's right.

Debbie:            And then here comes another bus. Those are the tricks that I use with myself. It's wild. When you hear, Oh, it's been X amount of years, you're like, has it been? It doesn't feel like that because you find other things that keep you going. You know, I was always working full time. I was always doing things that interest me on the side. Freelancing and making connections. All the while you're building relationships, those relationships, talking to other people, particularly like women, black people, you know, and just like, Oh Hey, how you holding up? How's it going? What's your next move? I love discussing career moves with people. I think it's so inspiring, I guess, you know, buckle up for the journey, not the destination.

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Mindy:             And those glimmers of hope. Those are the things that keep you going even when it's not your buss. I love the analogy.

Debbie:            Heck yeah.

Mindy:             Because I would get rejections. I was querying for like 10 years and I would get rejections, but they were complimentary rejections and they would say, you're a good writer. You're going to make it. This particular book isn't working for me or the genre has passed for the time and I would just be like, Oh, but that's awesome.

Debbie:            Oh man, you wouldn't believe like how unprepared I was. Even when I did get there. Like I remember being invited to, this is crazy, but I got invited to Penguin, like to come in and sit down and and I was so unprepared. I was invited on the strength of something that I sent in that they're like, this is amazing, but we just contracted with someone on a book very similar to yours. Do come in, let's chat. I was actually in there, like sitting down talking to top editors and I had no clue how tough that was to have that access. I didn't, I didn't even realize. And also I'm from magazine publishing and there's a lot of rejection there. Like there's a lot of pitching that goes on there. Even if you're on staff, you know, I was on staff and I'd pitch something and we'd get rejected. It's just part of this writing life that I've chosen. That's how I chalked it up too.

Mindy:             Absolutely. Rejection forms a callus and you have to have those calluses.

Debbie:            You have to have that resilience.

Mindy:             Yes, absolutely. You have to have the resilience and those little glimmers of hope. They keep you going. And, and other women and other writers. Um, it's, it's interesting you mentioned how much you love just sitting around and talking about the business or talking about your next move or their next move. And it's so funny that you say that because I find that so often, even the writers that are like my really good friends, when we are together physically, we're not talking about our kids or our families. Whatever's going on in our personal lives, like we'll touch on it. But most of the time we're talking about the industry, we're talking about what's going on in the industry. We're talking about what our next moves are, what the hot genre is, what's going on at this imprint.

Debbie:            We don't have a water cooler, do we? We don't, we're not in office spaces. So when we get together, that's how we find each other. And just like, commiserate.

Mindy:             Right. And that's part of the reason I started this podcast because I was thinking one day as I sat speaking with other authors and we were just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talking. And it was all business talk. I was like, man, as an aspiring author, I could have sat in and just listened to this conversation. I would have learned so much. And so that's part of why I started this podcast, just to have those conversations for the purpose of other people learning from them

Mindy:             Coming up. Why a YA romcom might be exactly what some readers need.

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Mindy:             So you mentioned your YA romcom Truly, Madly, Royally that came out this summer. Tell us a little bit about that book, but then also it's a YA romcom and the world that we're in right now just feels so bleak. So talk little bit about that book, what it's about and then tell us what you think the rule is of lighter stories in the world that we're living in today.

Debbie:            Well Truly, Madly, Royally, yes, came out in July. It's a romcom inspired by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. So it happens when a girl meets a Prince, the girl's African American girl and the Prince is the Prince of Lander, a fictional European country. Zora meets Owen at prestigious university. So it's a summer program for high school students and she is taking classes on philanthropy, on grant writing because she has big plans for her organization to help these kids in her community that are very small and they often walk to school alone. And so she has a program called the Walk Me Home program. She just has to navigate her desires the reasons why she's there, versus sort of falling for someone who sort of comes with a circus. It's a bit of a risk there. There's a wedding at the end because his big brother's getting married to a lovely lady and she gets to go to that royal wedding.

Debbie:            That's a romcom. And I hear you in a world where everything does seem bleak, but I can only offer my life as an example. Being hit with never ending depressing news cycles and see it weaving the most negative and scary narrative of the country. This isn't new news for me, like hearing intense debates, divided families and passionate discussions about politics. Isn't new for me. My parents immigrated to Brooklyn from Haiti in the 1960s so I grew up in the eighties and nineties at a time when baby doc exit, AIDS being blamed on Haitians, always boatloads of desperately fleeing Haitians flashed on the news. And of course in school I get asked questions a lot of times they're ignorant. Many times unkind, like deliberately unkind. And through this I begin to see sort of the importance of not only telling stories that are tough to hear, but like enjoyable to hear.

Debbie:            It's important to acknowledge the entirety of a person's experience in terms of using lighthearted stories in tough times. I use my mom as an example. She was a hopeful person who used humor to tell a lot of tough stories the way that she did this, you know, it revealed so much of her layers to me, her emotional intelligence. It kept me hopeful. Truly. Madly, Royally is a light entertaining, but it also touches on tough topics. Self love, racism. I get that from her because that was our coping mechanism. When you're writing for young people, I sort of approach it how a nurse once told me when I went through a tough medical journey, she was like, guard your heart. I was close to letting that harden my heart. When you write for young people, you don't want to harden their hearts. Obviously you want to keep those glimmers of hope that we talked about. And so most stories in YA, middle grade literature, which is why I love it. It's like even if they are heavy reads, we offer those glimmers of hope. We take up that mantle of guarding the hearts of young people.

Mindy:             I love that idea of guarding the hearts and I agree with you completely that we do need lighter stories. We always need them. Like right now, the national cycle of course is just completely bat shit crazy and terrible and it has been for years. But like you're saying, it's always been bad somewhere for someone at all times. There's always someone out there struggling. There's always something terrible happening to someone. Having all of those escapes open for anyone at any time is so important. And those light reads--

Debbie:            It's important. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's important not to judge someone for opting for those reads because you don't know their spirit. Some people like to judge you from the face of things. I'm a smiley girl, you know, I can break out in song, but they don't know what I've been through. It's not that it's irresponsible sometimes when someone just steps away from it. For example, I was talking to my brother-in-law the other day who's like always on top of every new story and he was just like, Oh, I took a break. I was like, wow. But he's allowed that.

Mindy:             You're talking about not shaming people for what they're reading. You're absolutely right about that. Um, I remember when e-readers first came out, how relieved and happy romance readers were because they could read their books in public and no one was looking at the cover and no one was judging that.

Debbie:            Isn't that kind of sad? Doesn't that hurt?

Mindy:             Like, yes. Yes, it is sad. No one should ever be judged by what they're reading. That's ridiculous.

Debbie:            I feel really sad when you just said that. I was like, my gosh.

Mindy:             Yeah, yeah, right. I'll read anything I really enjoy just about anything. I'm honestly not much of a romance reader, but I will read a lighter, like a beach read or, and even the term beach read though is dismissive in itself, right?

Debbie:            It's just like, you know, I'll listen to anything. You would like laugh and stuff that I listen to sometimes I'm in the mood to be, you know, like yo, I mean I listen to anything, you know, depends on what I'm in that mood for at the time and it just feeds me at that time. Everybody is going through a journey and you need that nourishment, however you can get it to get you through. You need to see that bus coming even if it's not your bus. And so if a light read gets you there right now, go for it. You know? Yes.

Mindy:             Every winter I try to read a really heavy book, like a thick book, like a classic. I try to tackle a classic because I just feel that responsibility and most of the time I really do enjoy them. Over the past couple of years, I've read War and Peace. I read Les Mis. I read Moby Dick. That's what I read last year. I read Moby Dick.

Debbie:            And you know, that's a challenge for me. I love a lot of Nigerian literature. That's a good thing to challenge myself with, you know? So I think that's cool that you did it.

Mindy:             I do. I like to have a big heavy book to read in the winter. You know, when the wind is blowing around outside and it's like I'm going to sit down with this big heavy book and my comfy bed and I'm going to read this. My nightstand is always kind of like, I don't know, schizophrenic. There's so many different things sitting there and it's, cause I might just, you know, sometimes you really don't want to pick up War and Peace, you're just not there.

Debbie:            I relate to that so hard and I think that that's just part of the complexity of being human right. My iTunes. You look through it, you got some word War and Peace equivalents in there. Yeah. You've got some Twilight equivalents in there, you know, so as it should be. It's just how it goes.

Mindy:             Lastly, writing tough topics and co-authoring with activist Alyssa Milano.

Mindy:             Well you talked about some of your work that has more of a, a weightier tone because you don't shy away from tough topics. You contributed to the YA anthology Dear Bully and your essay that is about not being a passive bystander. So what led you to that essay and why do you think that message is important?

Debbie:            There was a lot of things spotlighted in the news cycle about young people being victims to being bullied. And so we said, you know, as writers of young people, we want to contribute. I'm still close to my high school bestie. She mentioned something that happened to her that I played a role in like uh, in defending her. And I did not remember. When she told me about it is when I started recalling it, I didn't even remember and I played a part in it and she said that it meant a lot for her that the time, and that's how we became friends is that I spoke up for her. And now with her this, this story deals with issues of colorism. She's a chocolate gorgeous, dark skinned woman at the time in high school, you know, she was called out for being dark skinned and also, um, it also dealt with bias against immigrants.

Debbie:            She's Jamaican and she said that her friends would call and then maybe her mom would pick up back in the day when we had landlines right. And they would say, how come she has an accent and kind of drag her for that. This is stuff that is damaging to spirit. Took her awhile she said she's come to position of self appreciation, self love, she wants more kids to know about this. The challenges that we face, particularly in within the African American community with colorism. As for me, you know, I was like this skinny kid. I just was cool with everyone because I felt like at the time as a kid I was like, okay, you gotta be able to defend yourself. This is East orange, New Jersey. You gotta be able to fight. I'm this skinny girl. I feel like being cool with people. It was my defense mechanism, which is a shame because it's hard to break out of the people pleasing, but it wasn't more so like people pleasing was more so like, like I was just being cool, you know, that was my way of doing things right.

Debbie:            I was not the type of person to like mouth off or anything, but apparently at the time she said that I spoke up for her. It kind of just highlighted how uncool it was to talk about her in school. And hearing that I was like, I did that skinny little me? You know? Um, and so I wrote it to say sort of like you just never know what, what you can do to help another person, particularly when it comes to using your voice against this. If skinny old me, used my defense mechanism by being friendly. If somebody like me who doesn't like to get into a physical skirmishes can speak up on it and use your voice in a way that gets a message across, then maybe more can.

Mindy:             And I love what you're saying too, that for her, this was a life changing moment for her. This opened up a door where she was like, Oh, people shouldn't talk about me this way. Yeah. For you it was just like, Hey, you were just like, Hey, that's not cool man. Right. Like you didn't even remember it. But yeah, I mean it's not like you beat somebody up in her defense or anything. You just spoke up. That's it.

Debbie:            Right. I didn't even have my spinach that day. If someone like me can do it, maybe consider, you know, like speaking up, it just took a voice and someone pointing it out and saying that is not. okay.

Mindy:             So I want to talk about another project of yours. You co-wrote Hope: Project Middle-School with activist Alyssa Milano. So tell me about that co-authoring experience. How did you land that job and what was it like to work with such a high profile coauthor?

Debbie:            It's been a thrilling experience, very fast pace. So Truly, Madly, Royally is a Point Paperbacks book and my editor who's the amazing, um, Amy Friedman is there. So Point is Scholastic. It's a Scholastic imprint and so is Hope. Hope is the Scholastic book they reached out at after Truly, Madly, Royally, approached me from that. So this was thanks to Truly, Madly, Royally being talked about within Scholastic that these editors thought I'd be a great fit for this project. That's how they got me on board. When I came on, the project was already underway and Alyssa Milano, she's just like a skilled storyteller, you know, she's written a kazillion scripts. She's also written books before. She's written about her love of baseball. She's like super intuitive about characters. If I could just say like, Hope has a lot in common with Alyssa. I think she's, she just has this big heart and she leads with it.

Debbie:            We all know about her activism. It was interesting to find out like, you know, her activism started when she herself was a tween. A teen Ryan White, a kid who contracted AIDS, um, through a blood transfusion. Elton John called her and said, Ryan is a fan of yours, so can you just let him give you a kiss on your cheek? And she said, sure. And you know she's been an activist since then. Hope: Project Middle School is, so Hope is a series. It's basically like a mini activist. She's an 11 year old middle schooler. She's passionate about science and she's also navigating entering middle-school, having her friend go a different direction with some of her classes. And so having to sort of stand up on her own. And so the first book in the series is about her finding her voice. And then the next book in the series is just about her helping out a dog shelter that is closing down. It sort of walks readers through the steps of like how to be an activist in a way that a young reader would understand. And then there's Eric Keyes who is the amazing artist, he's the illustrator. And then we're backed by such a cool team at Scholastic, really one of those projects that brings a lot of the joy into writing. We're actually working on the third book. It's going to be a series of four books coming out every six months and the first one comes out mid October and then the next one in April.

Mindy:             Lastly, what are you working on now and where can listeners find you online?

Debbie:            Aside from working on Hope. I'm working on revisions for a YA romcom. This one is closer to home is called An Arranged Prom, working title. It's sort of like my big fat Greek wedding, for prom. It's about, you know, Haitian American girl. Prom season's here. She goes to an all girl school and her parents set out to arrange her prom. This is actually taken from a page in my life where my eldest sister had her prom arranged. It's a lot of fun and I'm hoping that the revision goes well.

Mindy:             And where can listeners find you online?

Debbie:            I am a little bit more active on Instagram. My Instagram is fro and a bow, so that's how I used to have my daughter's hair. I'm also at Debbie Rigaud on Twitter.

Debbie:            And I try to blog once in a while, but...

Mindy:             Yeah, it's tough, man. It's tough. Believe me, I know.

Debbie:            You're talking, your blog is looking good.

Mindy:             Oh, thank you. But it's not easy. I'm like, I spend... Basically, my whole Sunday is for the blog and the podcast, like the whole day is just set aside to do that.

Debbie:            Well, I appreciate your time because it's a great blog, so thank you.

Mindy:             I appreciate that you appreciate it, but sometimes it just feels like you're just throwing stuff out in the void. But if I know people are reading and people are listening, then I'll keep doing it. 

Sherrilyn Kenyon On Letting Characters Drive Story

Mindy:             Today's guest is Sherrilyn Kenyon, best-selling US writer of the Dark Hunter series. Sherilyn has published over 80 novels under her own name and also under the pseudonym Kinley MacGregor who writes historical fiction with paranormal elements.

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Mindy:             One of the things that I really want to talk to you about today is the fact that you didn't have the most auspicious start, really came up out from poverty to achieve everything that you have done. I Would love to hear more about that. Tell my listeners about that struggle and that journey.

Sherrilyn:         My dad was a Sergeant in the Army and, and my mother put herself actually through school very later on. My siblings are 10 and 16 years older than me and I have a sister with cerebral palsy, so everything that my parents made kind of went to my oldest sister, her medication and everything. Once my baby came along, he was in ICU for the first few weeks of his life. It set us back.

Mindy:             I think it's important for writers especially, but also all creatives to hear these kinds of stories because I'm certain that there were moments in your life where you've felt hopelessness and helplessness.

Sherrilyn:         Nope, still do! That doesn't go away. I always looked at it... you know, when my mother was 16 she had my oldest sister with cerebral palsy. Given that, you know, we weren't really allowed to complain to my parents because my kids have autism but, they're mobile, they can speak. We're very fortunate. So I've always focused on what I have. To me, as long as I've got my kids and they're healthy and they're happy, I can deal with anything else. And my mother bred that into us.

Mindy:             I love that mentality. I think it says a lot. I love what you're saying about motherhood. I'd like to talk about that a little bit more when it comes to writing. Most of my listeners are indeed aspiring writers and I'm confident that there are plenty of mothers and fathers out there. And also I'm sure single parents that often feel like it's so difficult to find the time and make that time. We do have to remember that our children are the lights of our lives and the most important thing in our lives. So can you talk about finding that balance between your need for a creative outlet or even you having to hit a deadline for business reasons versus that care and that need that you have for your child and your family?

Sherrilyn:         Oh, absolutely. I mean, I was published before my kids were born. I didn't have to really make time because the work was always there. But unfortunately the writing did not take off immediately. I wasn't JK Rowling where I wrote one book and suddenly hit the big overnight success. You know, I ended up having to work two, three, sometimes four jobs while on deadlines. So the deadlines were nothing new. I mean, I had deadlines since I was a teenager, especially with my writing. I was a latchkey kid. And for people who don't know what that is, I mean my parents couldn't afford a babysitter so we got locked in the house while they were at work. So when I had my kids, I didn't want them to know that feeling of isolation or I didn't want them being raised in afterschool care and all that fun stuff.

Sherrilyn:         Cause I had horror stories from all my friends. the one time I went into one when I was real small it was, like, I'm not a very big person. And I always tend to find that one person who thinks they can steamroll right past me. And unfortunately I'm a Chihuahua who thinks it's a Great Dane. So I'll stand my ground and it's not a good idea, especially on the playground. My oldest was born, like I said, prematurely. So I brought home like a three pounds tiny little thing that would fit in the palm of my hand. To me the kids were always gonna come first no matter what. And in terms of the writing, it was always flexible. So I would wait until they were asleep. Sometimes I would sit there with them, you know, on my chest. One of those little snugglies, or sometimes when I didn't have a snugly or, I couldn't afford one. I'd have them wrapped in a blanket tied to me. They ever needed anything. And even now, I mean they're grown men, but if they need ramen at 2:00 AM they know they can come down here and go... Mom? It's like, okay, I'll go make your ramen for you.

Sherrilyn:         When I did have to work outside the home, that was when it became tricky and I'd have to do things like I worked for Ingram entertainment and I was very fortunate. My boss would let me go in at like three, 4:00 AM I could work while they were at school and then I'd be home when they got off and I'd pick them up, bring them home, make them a snack and then I'd sit with either laptop or... you know, pictures of my house shows that my computer was in a corner of, I had one in the corner of the kitchen, one in the corner of the bedroom and one downstairs where they were. So wherever the kids were playing, I could follow them room to room with my disk and insert it in a new computer and start working while I watched them.

Mindy:             That's wonderful. I like that idea. So when you were in this situation as a child, when you were a latchkey kid, as you were saying, did you always know that you wanted to write? Was that always a goal? For you?

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Sherrilyn:         Oh yeah. I was five years old. I told my mom, I'm going to be a New York times best selling writer, and my mother was putting on her makeup, doing the mascara, and she stopped and looked at me and said, honey, do you even know what that is? No, but it's on all the books you read, so I think it might be a pretty good thing to want to be. Since I wanted to be a writer. Right? My mother just kind of rolled her eyes, like, Oh my God. My Brownie manual has, when I grow up, I want to be a writer and a mother. I did it in that order.

Mindy:             That's amazing. Speaking of doing it in that order, your first book came out while you were still in college, which is very impressive. I wrote a book while I was in college, but it certainly didn't get published and it didn't deserve to be published, but can you talk a little bit --

Sherrilyn:         I don't think mine did either! Oh, I've apologized so many years for that. It's like, I thought it was great. I did. I did, but I was 18 and 24 please forgive me.

Mindy:             I totally understand. I remember when I was writing in college, um, just pecking away at my laptop and, well, it wasn't even a laptop. It was a desktop thinking that I was writing a Pulitzer Prize winning novel. And then of course going back and reading it later and just being like, Oh, this is actually just dreck. Like, this is trash.

Sherrilyn:         Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got quite a few of those. But then others that I read, I'm like, that's salvageable.

Mindy:             I want you to talk a little bit about that experience in college because I remember, and I honestly, let's, let's be truthful. I feel like it is something that most of us still feel, or perhaps even as an adult, struggle with that idea that if I get published, everything will be okay if I get published.

Sherrilyn:         [Laughter]

Mindy:             So, I mean, was that your perspective as a college student? Just talk about learning that lesson that it's quite simply not true.

Sherrilyn:         I never had that perspective of it. I got published for the first time when I was 14. And my life really didn't change. Well I'd get a couple hundred dollars here and there off my writing. Really by and large what I got paid in were just copies. I'm not sure if they still have publications that pay you like that. I was just happy. It's like I've got a byline. What was I? Grade school when I started selling my own? My dad had one of those old um Oh God, what do you call them that-- the ditto machine. So, but dad had one of those so I would roll mine off and I would sell them to my friends for like a nickel. I was so happy to have anybody come up to me and go, do you have the next installment? What's going to happen to these characters next? And really that was all I ever concerned myself with. It wasn't, this was somehow going to solve all problems or just like - people like my characters! And that's cool!

Mindy:             Definitely. So when did that change? When did you hit a point where you were like, I think I would like to try traditional publishing?

Sherrilyn:         That ended as soon as I made my first sale at 14. I mean I saved up my babysitting money when I was 12 to get a subscription to Writer's Digest magazine. But to me it wasn't about making money. It was more, more people will read my characters and like them.

Mindy:             And now you've made this transition to where you've had more than 80 novels on the New York times bestseller lists. So you were right, you told your mom you were going to do it and you did it. Are you ever just set back by your own success?

Sherrilyn: :        Nooooooo. No. And I don't look back on that journey, unless they make me to, because it was really painful. Every time a book comes out, I'm giddy as a school girl to this day. I mean in the back of my mind is the old saying "neither success or failure are ever permanent." That monster stalks me everywhere I go.

Mindy:             Again, I know many aspiring writers and I was one, I was one too who really felt that if I hit that goal, if I got published, that everything would be okay. And obviously that isn't true. I have eight books out and am contracted for two more. Every day is still a struggle and I can't imagine having 10 times that out. Can you talk a little bit about retaining that drive and the energy and the creative spark when you are so prolific?

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Sherrilyn:         It's always the characters. Things will happen in life. Like, you know, most people know, I'm going through a divorce right now. So it, for me right now, it's really hard just because my attention is being drawn to everything but the writing for the first time in my life. I really can't write when I want to be and that, that's the most frustrating thing for me. Yeah, y'all have made it impossible for me to work. But you want to live off my work. And I don't understand this concept that people... I mean you know how hard it is and how time consuming it is. And the man was here for 27 years. Although in 27 years I never could convince the ex that magic fairies don't walk in and write the books at night while I, you know, the two hours while I sleep.

Mindy:             Nope.

Sherrilyn:         You know, really, I'm not goofing off the 22 hours I'm sitting in my chair working. I really am working. But in terms of finding the drive, it's the characters, it's always the characters. There's so many, you know, I write cause I want to find out where it goes. I'm not a plotter, I'm a pantser. I get these amazing people in my head and they start talking. It's like, what's your story? I got to know. And so that drive has never really gone away. But you know, unfortunately life will occasionally grind us to a halt. That's when it gets frustrating.

Mindy:             Definitely. I'm also a pantser and I feel that amount of anxiety is alleviated once I start writing cause I don't have a plot. I don't have a plan. I don't know what's going to happen. But I trust these characters to tell me their story and I just feel like they're kind of guiding everything and they're bright enough and real enough in my head that I believe that the story is there and it will unfold. Is your process similar?

Sherrilyn:         Both of my sons are actually writers. "Mom, am I doing it right? I don't know." And it's like just sit in the chair and do it. You spend so much of your day agonizing over the perfect structure of your sentence. Kid, just get in there and let them go. It may be written in blood but it's not carved in stone. You can always rewrite. My older son finally took him a long time too cause he was angsty about it and he finally got - Oh yeah, I can rewrite! Yeah. I get it now. It's like that only took 24 years. But okay!

Mindy:             It's true. Rewriting is writing. That is where I believe the real work comes in because I feel like a first draft is very much just me solidifying and moving an idea and a concept onto the page, so it's a physical object or at least a Word document that I can manipulate then in order to draw the story out, I think it's interesting you mentioned your son said your son asks you, am I doing it right? And I don't think there's any one right way to write a novel. I'm sure we all have different approaches even though it sounds like you and I are similar, I'm sure we still do things differently. Over the course of writing all of these many, many, many novels, has your process changed at all? Have you tweaked it?

Sherrilyn:         Mine hasn't, but you know, I've, I've been in the business now for almost 40 years of my God. Yes. It really is that long. Thousands of writers... well, tens of thousands of writers I've met over the decades. Yeah. Everybody has their own process and you know, one of the things that I tell when I teach workshops, if you have a beginning, a middle and an end, congratulations, you're a writer. Celebrate. Because you've got to where a lot of writers don't. Yeah, don't ever let anybody tell you how to write your books. I mean, that's... writing advice. It's like a buffet. You go in and you look around and you go, Oh, I like that. I like that, I like that. But if you don't like it, leave it behind cause you don't need it. What works for you works for you.

Mindy:             That's right. And I personally, when I have fellow writers that are friends that are very serious plotters and planners, and when I tell them about my process, they just break out in hives. They think it's crazy.

Sherrilyn:         They're horrified. Yeah. They're like, God, how can you get to the end of the book? You don't know.

Mindy:             Well, yes, exactly. They think I'm crazy. It's funny because I don't actually poke at my process a whole lot. I've been doing it for a while and I don't want to look at it too hard because I don't want to break it by examination.

Sherrilyn:         Exactly. And that's... you know my son, "Mom, explain!". It's like I can't and I don't want to like you said, I, you know when I do workshops and stuff I'll teach people - this is what a plotter will do. We're called pantsers Cause we set our butt in the chair and we go. We just go. But I can tell you all about how to plot one and how to do character stuff that I can tell you the mechanics of it. But I can't tell you what I do when I sit in my chair cause I don't know, I just daydream and type.

Mindy:             I'm so glad you say that because I am similar. I just daydream and type. I love that. Um, I feel often that I'm not even really writing something. I feel like I'm just kind of funneling or channeling something.

Sherrilyn:         Exactly. Yeah. Like I'm a medium. So the spirits are out there and they're whispering to me and they're telling it to me. I'm... All I'm doing is the conduit for it.

Mindy:             Yeah , absolutely. I feel, I feel exactly the same way. It's, it's interesting to know that someone else has that experience.

Sherrilyn:         Oh, there are a lot of us.

Mindy:             So you were saying about your characters and how your characters are, what draw you in and bring you back and keep you moving forward and keep that flame of interest alight. When you are as famous as you are. When you are as prolific as you are and when you are multi published the way you are, your characters are no longer yours alone. They have become the property of the public. So do you ever experience any type of push or pull with that concept when people have strong either positive or negative reactions to your books? Is it always just - hooray! You care! Or do you ever just have this, you know, this used to be just mine.

Sherrilyn:         I guess maybe because I'm from a really big family and we had to share everything. So I don't feel like they were ever just mine, but you know the characters have a life of their own. It's like -- get in there! I told you! What are you doing! Stop! Just Stop!

Sherrilyn:         One of the things I try to do, especially with descriptions is I write the characters so that anybody can relate to them. Criticisms I have taken is that they're like ambiguous when it comes to... I don't describe them usually more than once, maybe twice. And I do that intentionally because I want any reader anywhere to focus on their emotions because at the end of the day, we're all human. And so I want whoever the reader is to feel such a connection with that character. They can slide right into their skin, whoever they are.

Mindy:             Agreed. As a reader when I am reading something, I will put people that I know, especially when I was younger, put people that I know in certain characters skins and if there was too much physical description of the character, then it might actually knock me out of the story because I was picturing my friend or my enemy or whatever, and then they gave me too much info and it took away my mental picture.

Sherrilyn:         Yeah, exactly. It's like, no, I focused on, what the meat of the character is and what matters to that character and you know, their reaction to things more than I weigh this or I weigh that or I'm this tall. Unless it's something where I'm doing it to make a point. Like in the case of Ash, he's 9,000 feet tall and it's problematic for him. When you're unnaturally tall or you're unnaturally short, that that does become an issue. Or in the case of Bride, Bride's not the biggest heroine I've ever written. She's just the one who had the biggest problem with her weight. So, you know, unless it's something like that that I'm writing, you really aren't aware of their, their physical descriptions or limitations or not limitations.

Mindy:             So speaking then about fans identifying so closely with your characters. Do you receive a lot of, um, emails, tweets, DMs, people reaching out to tell you what the books have meant to them, or a character has meant to them?

Sherrilyn:         Oh, God, love them. Yes. Yes, I have. And I love it. Yeah. It's all about that connection.It's what I got into this to do. It's to make people care about my people. Although, you know, some of them... You're allowed to hate Apollo. Apollo, you can hate!

Mindy:             Well, that's why... I had an event last night and there was a girl there who told me, she said, I'm really mad at you about the ending of one of my books. And I said, that's awesome. I'm really glad that you're mad at me because I made you care deeply about something that never happened to a person that doesn't exist. It's a huge compliment.

Sherrilyn:         Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

Mindy:             So tell us a little bit about Hex Life.

Sherrilyn:         Oh, that's the tiny little short story I wrote with my son. There are a lot of short stories in there from other writers. That was fun cause it was a, an idea that my son had and he actually wrote the first draft on it and he's like, I don't know how to finish it. Mom, can you help? And so I got in there, I'm like, okay, I gotta fix your grammar. And then I fixed a couple of other things. He's like okay, fine. It's our story now, Ma. We had a lot of fun with it and I'm like, well, can I put a Hell Chaser character in? And he went, sure, go ahead. Just take it over.

Mindy:             Tell us then about At Death's Door.

Sherilyn:        At Death's Door is also a Hell Chaser, Dark Hunter book. No spoilers cause it just came out. Oh my God. I let one drop real bad at Dragon Con. And I knew I'd done it the minute I said it. And everybody got real quiet. And I went "y'all didn't know that, did you?" No, we didn't. I, Oh God, no I didn't. Yeah, I did. Oh, it's about Belinda who was turned into a voodoo doll, living voodoo doll, really get to go into the Caribbean West Indies, folklore of which I've been wanting to do in the past two books but was trying to hold back so that I could really delve deep into it with the third book. Um, so I, you know, it looks at the loa, um, the hero is one of them. Uh, he's actually a psychopomp so it's, it's really different to me, and it was very cool to write.

Mindy:             And tell me a little bit about some of the research that you did on that. The culture and the, the magical systems and everything involved there.

Sherrilyn:         My mother's best friend was a Gullah woman. There's some hoo-doo involved. My aunt Berta would do a lot of hoo-doo, root work and stuff like that, which not necessarily all of them do, but Berta was a real big on the root work, grew up around it. And so, you know, as a little kid, it's like, one day I'm going to write about these. And she'd always make me little poppet dolls for different gifts and different things. And I've got... they're all over my house. That's what actually got me first interested in all the different kinds of poppets that were made because they're not all African or West Indian. They're also a lot were made in Europe, which most people don't realize that were done. Um, so just kind of been a lifelong interest of mine.

Mindy:             With so many books out there, so many series running. And you were saying that you actually let something slip before when you were on a panel. Do you ever hit a point where someone asks you a question and you don't know the answer? Cause you can't remember what you wrote?

Sherrilyn:         Knock wood. Not yet, but I have had people ask me things that they were mistaken and they'll argue with me and I'm like, no, I'm pretty sure I'm right.

Mindy:             So last question - what are you working on now? What do we have to look forward to here?

Sherrilyn:         Queen Of All Shadows. I don't have a date for it yet. I hope it's going to be out next fall. That's a book that I actually started a billion years ago. It was supposed to come out. Oh, was it after Zarek's? No. Um, it was the book that was supposed to come out instead of Unleash the Night. !hen I first sold Dark Hunter, I had, I don't know, 60 to 70 books that were in partial states of completion from, you know, my teen years. I've been working on Dark Hunter forever. Anyway. And so his was the one I was working on when Ren said hello, you don't want to tell his story, he's a loser. Put that manuscript aside, come talk to me. And so I'm finally getting back to it. It's only been, gosh, what, 15 years? 16 years?

Mindy:             I understand. The first novel I ever wrote, I wrote in college and 15 years later is when it got published and is actually my best selling book. But I do understand returning to something like that.

Sherrilyn:         Yeah. Yeah. And it's very different too because you go back and go, I hope I'm a better writer now.

Mindy:             Oh, for sure. Um, I, I definitely was. There's no doubt. If I weren't then something has gone horribly wrong.

Sherrilyn:         Oh yeah. Yeah. But in the back of your mind, you're like, maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm fooling myself. I don't know.

Mindy:             So what you're saying is that imposter syndrome never stops?

Sherrilyn:         No, never. Never. Never.

Mindy:             That's good to know. And tell my listeners where they can find you online.

Sherrilyn:         I'm at mysherilyn.com Thank you, mom. Let me spell that cause my mother was unkind. I put her through 36 hours of labor supposedly, and that was her curse on me. Um, it's M Y S H E R R I L Y N.com.

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