The Sharing HOPE Contest!

The Sharing Hope Contest!

November 9 – Month’s End

Today is Selling Hope’s official release date! I’m celebrating by giving away a book basket filled to the brim with fantastic new middle grade and YA books to one lucky winner who helps spread a little Selling Hope love this month. Here’s what’s up for grabs (these books ROCK, y’all):

1. King of Ithaka by Tracy Barrett

2. Nice and Mean by Jessica Leader

3. Leaving Gee’s Bend by Irene Latham

4. The Haunting of Charles Dickens by Lewis Buzbee

5. This Means War! by Ellen Wittlinger

6. Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different – in paperback

7. Selling Hope – signed to the winner

Plus, a few boxes of anti-comet pills, of course!

Here’s how the contest works:

1. Do one or more of the following things to help spread a little Hope.

2. Any time before the end of the month, post in the comments section of this post what you did AND your email address.

3. The drawing will be in December; books will be shipped to the winner at that time.

Promotional ideas:

1. Post in your Facebook status, “Halley’s Comet is coming and all I want to do is read Selling Hope!”

2. Include a link to a bookstore with the above

3. Post a picture of the Selling Hope cover on your Facebook wall (you’re welcome to nab the image above! ;-) )

4. Change your Facebook or Twitter profile pic to the Selling Hope cover. And uh, thank you, diehard! ;-)

5. Tweet or retweet about Selling Hope

6. Blog about Selling Hope

7. Write an Amazon.com/Barnes & Noble.com/Goodreads review

8. Any other ideas you might have – and please, share those with us in the comments!

Thank you for your help in spreading some Selling Hope cheer! Don’t forget to report in at the end of the month with what you did to share a little Hope! And remember to spread the love for ALL your favorite books and authors!

THANK YOU, friends!

Addendum, 11/23/10: My FANTABULOUS Editor is sweetening the pot, y'all! There will now be 5 SIGNED copies of Selling Hope given to 5 runners up in the Sharing Hope Contest! Spread some cheer and report back here! :-)

SELLING HOPE gets a STARRED REVIEW from Booklist!

Hi, all! I received some delightful news earlier: Selling Hope received a lovely starred review from the wonderful folks at Booklist! The entire review is below. Thank you so much, Booklist and Ian Chipman! What a thrill and honor. I am filled with gratitude.

P.S. The star isn't coming through in my cut-and-paste action; just imagine a lovely star in the spot in front of the title, instead of the asterisk I've placed there. ;-)

*Selling Hope.

Tubb, Kristin O' Donnell (Author)

Nov 2010. 224 p. Feiwel and Friends, hardcover, $16.99. (9780312611224).

In 1910, Halley’s Comet caused quite a pandemonium. Thirteen-year-old Hope, a smart and smarty-pants

heroine, travels the country on the low-level vaudeville circuit with her magician dad, but she desperately

wants to ditch the show and stay in Chicago. To do that they’ll need money, and in a flash of inspiration,

Hope whips up a side business selling “anti-comet” pills (thinly disguised mints) to hysterical people

convinced the comet will bring any number of horrendous calamities with it. She gets help from another

kid in the show, Buster Keaton, who, aside from being adept at slapstick, is handy at bringing a blush to

Hope’s cheeks. Tubb deftly ingrains a thoughtful ethical question into the story (is Hope really helping

people by assuaging their fears or simply ripping them off?) but never overdoes it in this bouncy tale

populated by a terrific cast of characters. The well-synthesized period flavor extends right down to the

one-liners that punctuate Hope’s earnest, easygoing, and perfectly pitched narration (“This morning’s

gravy was so thick, when I stirred it, the room spun around!”). In the end, though, it’s Hope’s relationship

with her father—a sort of proto-hippy-dippy naturalist who often seems more of a child than Hope—that

steals the spotlight with a gentle and well-earned tug of the heartstrings.

— Ian Chipman

Better than Sherwood Forest: Robyn Hood Black's Blog! And Banned Books!

Hi, all! The fabulous Robyn Hood Black asked me to visit her blog and answer a few questions about Autumn Winifred Oliver and Hope McDaniels. Please pop over and say hello! (There's an excerpt of SELLING HOPE there, too. Hope you enjoy!)

AND: Next week is Banned Books Week (Sept. 25 - Oct. 2). With all the love being poured forth from the kidlit community for Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak (follow the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #speakloudly), I'm feeling inspired to discuss the importance of reading/discussing Banned Books. Who's with me?

According to the American Library Association, here are the Top Ten Banned Books of 2009:

1. ttyl, ttfn, l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs

2. “And Tango Makes Three” by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: Homosexuality

3. “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Anti-Family, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide

4. “To Kill A Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee
Reasons: Racism, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group

6. “Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D. Salinger
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

7. “My Sister’s Keeper,” by Jodi Picoult
Reasons: Sexism, Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide, Violence

8. “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things,” by Carolyn Mackler
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

9. “The Color Purple,” Alice Walker
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

10. “The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

Check them out, read them, make certain they are available to any reader who wants them. ALL OTHER BOOKS, TOO. Support freedom through reading!

I READ BANNED BOOKS!

Ta-Da! The SELLING HOPE Cover!

Isn't it sublime?

*sighs*

*thanks the cover gods for smiling upon her again*

About SELLING HOPE:

It’s May 1910, and Halley’s Comet is due to pass thru the Earth’s atmosphere. And thirteen-year-old Hope McDaniels and her father are due to pass through their hometown of Chicago with their ragtag vaudeville troupe. Hope wants out of vaudeville, and longs for a “normal” life—or as normal as life can be without her mother, who died five years before. Hope sees an opportunity: She invents “anti-comet” pills to sell to the working-class customers desperate for protection. Soon, she’s joined by a fellow troupe member, young Buster Keaton, and the two of them start to make good money. And just when Hope thinks she has all the answers, she has to decide: What is family? Where is home?

November 9, 2010 from Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan

___

What do you think, friends? I think I'm in love....

QueryMania!

Recently, the Guide to Literary Agents posted a query letter crafted by Sydney Salter that successfully landed her an agent. Inspired by the post, I offered to share a few successful query letters with members of the Midsouth SCBWI listserv. The response was so exciting that I decided to post the letters here!

First is a letter that I used to query Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different. In the interest of full disclosure, this query letter was ultimately *not* the path that led to Autumn's publication. (I was lucky/blessed to meet Autumn's SuperEditor at an SCBWI conference.) But this letter did result in a few requests for the full manuscript, so I feel like it might have worked on some level:

Dear Ms. Editor,

Autumn Winifred Oliver has defied death twelve times – “One for each year of my life,” she’d say. But when Gramps has a little brush with death? Mama up and cancels the family’s plans to move to Knoxville to be with Pop. Now they’re stuck in crummy Cade’s Cove - in Gramps’ house! Autumn discovers Gramps is working with some official-type folks up in Washington to bring a national park to the area. His plans will put Pop out of a job. Old Gramps is a real schemer, alright, but he’s no match for a bunch of slick politicians. He and all his neighbors lose their land in the formation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. After Gramps’ death, Autumn sees why this speck of a town has created such a hubbub. The ring of mountains surrounding the Cove doesn’t just keep the “new” out, it keeps the “old” in. It’s a town as perfectly preserved as a pickle. Maybe a national park is the only way to keep it crisp and spicy. “It’s true there’s just one road in and out of Cades Cove,” she writes her pen pal. “But a clever enough person ought know: saying there’s just one road ain’t the same as saying there’s just one way to get here.”

Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different is set in Cades Cove, Tennessee, in 1934 at the birth of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park – the only national park formed from privately owned land. This story tied for fourth place in the middle-grade category in the 2005 SmartWriters.com W.I.N. Competition. Judge Alexandria LaFaye said, “Great title. Great Southern voice. Hilarious…”

My publication credits include Cricket, Spider, Guideposts for Kids, Wee Ones eMagazine, and Highlights for Children (from whom I recently received a Pewter Plate Award for Outstanding Arts Feature of 2005). I have written a number of children’s activity books for licensed characters such as Holly Hobbie, The Powerpuff Girls, Scooby-Doo, Strawberry Shortcake, and the Care Bears. My anthology, Freedom from Cruel and Unusual Punishment, was released by Greenhaven Press last year. I am a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. In 2003, I was selected as one of “Nashville’s Emerging Authors” by the Williamson County Council for the Written Word. For samples of my work, please visit www.creativefreelancewriting.com.

Would you like to see the entire manuscript for Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different? If so, please contact me at (phone number) or (email address). I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Autumn meets your needs!

My best,

Kristin O’Donnell Tubb

I tried to incorporate the voice of the book into this query letter, and I think that helped increase the number of requests I received for Autumn.

Next, here's the e-query I sent to Adams Literary for Selling Hope:

Ms. Tracey Adams

Adams Literary

Dear Ms. Adams,

I attended the SCBWI National Conference in New York in February, and was delighted to hear of your interest in historical fiction. Please find the first three chapters of Selling Hope, a young adult historical fiction novel, attached.

Fifteen-year-old Hope McDaniels wants to break free from the vaudeville circuit, and she sees opportunity blazing toward her in the nighttime sky: Halley’s Comet. On May 19, 1910, Earth will pass through the tail of Halley’s Comet. Many believe this to be the end of days. Hope believes this to be her jackpot. [She and pal Buster Keaton begin to peddle anti-comet pills.]

The passing of Earth through the tail of Halley’s Comet has been described as the world’s first case of mass hysteria. The “abundant” media, combined with the clashing of hold-over Victorian sensibilities with Industrial-age objectivity, created a spark that made May, 1910, one very interesting month. (And yes, there truly was an enterprising young soul who profited from the sale of comet pills!)

My middle grade historical fiction novel, Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different, will be released this October by Delacorte Press. I’ve also penned over a dozen activity books for children, many for licensed characters like Scooby-Doo, Lisa Frank, PowerPuff Girls and Holly Hobbie. I won the Highlights Magazine Pewter Plate award for Outstanding Arts Feature for “They’ll Be Back,” a story that appeared in the June 2005 issue of Highlights. My work has also appeared in Guideposts for Kids and Spider Magazine.

After reviewing your website, I was excited to see that your goal is to represent authors, not books. In that regard, I feel our goals are similar, and hope that we’ll have the opportunity to work together.

If Selling Hope interests you, please contact me at (phone number) or (email address). I will keep my fingers crossed that Selling Hope makes you smile!

All best,

Kristin O'Donnell Tubb

Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different, October 14, 2008 from Delacorte Press

Please visit my website: www.kristintubb.com

Please visit my blog: www.kristintubb.blogspot.com

It's a little embarrassing to see these two queries side-by-side, as they are so similar! But I suppose it worked: I am now represented by Josh Adams of Adams Literary, or as I often refer to him, SuperAgent. And a few things to note: Selling Hope is now a middle-grade novel, with a 13-year-old protagonist. Thank you, Hopeful SuperEditor! Also, the bracketed portion above was edited from the original query letter - it was a bit of a plot spoiler! :-)

Also note: the sale of both Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different and Selling Hope went to editors I met at SCBWI conferences. Too, I queried Adams Literary after seeing Ms. Adams speak at a conference. A definite pattern! :-)

Query letters are an art much more akin to journalism than creative writing: put the most important information first (the lead, or "lede" if you're old-school), which is of course the plot of your book. (In the Selling Hope example above, I felt introducing myself first was appropriate.) Also like journalism: keep it brief, add the "who/what/when/where/why/how" of you and your book, then wrap it up. All in one page. Whew! :-)

If you're interested in getting feedback on your query letter, post it in the comments section and I'll be more than happy to give you my thoughts! Hope this post was helpful!

1910 vs. 2010

Happy New Year! 100 years ago, the talk on New Year's Day 1910 was likely, "Will Halley's Comet be the death of us this year?" Earth was to sail through the tail of the comet on May 18/19, 1910, and no one *really* knew what their fate might be. SELLING HOPE, which comes out this fall from Feiwel & Friends, is set against that backdrop. It sounds like an overreaction now, sure, but was 1910 really all that different from 2010?

1910: afraid that Earth traveling through the tail of Halley's Comet will bring about the end of the world

2010: afraid that the Mayan calendar ending in 2012 will bring about the end of the world

1910: vaudeville actors tap into this fear by writing skits and songs about the comet

2010: Hollywood taps into this fear with movies like 2012

1910: yellow journalists fan a spark of fear into infernos

2010: !!! (see any local newscast or paper to see if this changed)

There are more similarities, I'm certain, but I'm off to build a bomb shelter...

And now, the fun stuff: what are your writing resolutions this year? One of mine: to challenge myself by writing in a new genre. Care to share yours?

Happy 2010, all!

Keeping a To-Do List for Your Novel

When you write - especially, I assume, when you write often - you develop work habits unique to you.  At least, I *thought* that making a to-do list for my novel was my own little neurotic way of making sure all those plot strings got snipped or tied or woven somehow.  But in a recent #kidlit chat via Twitter (find past transcripts here), I discovered that others do this, too. 

It’s a handy revision tool, a to-do list, and it reads like, well, my Saturday afternoon chore list might.  So presented below, part of the to-do concocted when going through the first round of revisions for Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different (there were four rounds total).  What’s interesting to me is that some of this content never made it into the book, and other parts were edited out completely.  For instance, I decided against having Autumn be a “ghost child” – that is, having her brush with death scare everyone.  It detracted too much from the focus of the plot.  But other parts most assuredly made it in, and some of them are my favorite scenes in the book.

Autumn to-do list

-2 new chapters:  both, bridging the gap between pro-park and anti-park. 

-Next chapter:  list (see white notebook sheet) and write Rockefeller. 

-Chapter after that:  town meeting, under schoolhouse.  (See nrw notes)

-beef up ending: 

-but these old mountains aren’t as strong as they used to be.  Airplanes, weathered down

-no panthers, no chestnuts, no Cherokee, no gramps…maybe this place is changing, after all

-perfectly preserved as a pickle (see synopsis here)

-looking at gravesite – knowing right and wrong didn’t seem to take.  Can’t always tell what’s right and what’s wrong. 

-aunt Lydia still mad at me for leaving her in the dog trot

-mention cody’s rock collection at least one more time, and earlier

-after tilly’s proposal – have other widows in crowd mad cause they didn’t think of it first.  Gramps is kinda a big shot around here, being a widower and his dealings on the park.  Will likely be rich someday.  A good catch

-play up autumn being a “ghost child” more – not everyone knows she’s still alive.  Have them pinch her, etc.  when they see her

-look to increase the struggle over the move in with gramps – maybe mama doesn’t want to move to Knoxville…

-play up the food scene with gramps to show more of mama’s relationship with him.  Gramps eats during prayer.  Katie in here, too – show some likeability

-end of star scene – maybe take autumn’s approval of cody out?  She’s quick to judge him.

-hint earlier – park going awry, autumn is only one who knows.  She suspects col. Earlier?

-make col. More evil by having him break one of the superstitions.

-look back at earlier version (chapter 26, then) when cody has fit over gramps’ treatment of peter…add back in? 

-emphasize the chestnut trees disappearing…

-make gramps feel responsible for losing everyone’s homes, though no one blames him.

-double-check that FDR was standing in 1934.

-include picture of pine trees in Gramps’ coffin

-make sure there are markets in nyc on 53rd

-beef up letters chapter – see nrw notes – more scenery, etc. 

-eliminate all mention of “donation” in end notes

-last few chapters – keep her worried about jobs, homes!

-Introduce lawyer – Gramps hires with his own money to fight for everyone.  Spends his entire savings. 

-(chapter 16)HERE:  NEED GRAMPS TO GATHER AND SELL STUFF TO SAVE HIS FAMILY NAME; PAY FOR FANCY LAWYERS, GIVE TO FOLKS TO PAY BILLS, ETC (second part below…).  INTRO LAWYER HERE.   

-be sure and include that they don’t know what’s going to happen, or when.  They might get to stay there forever, or they might get kicked out next week.  The hard part was not knowing. 

Whew!  Looking back, that looks like the whole book! J  Once I completed the item, I crossed it off in my computer using a strike-through over the font – very satisfying!  Every one of those items was crossed off in some manner.  I used this same technique for the upcoming Selling Hope.  I’m starting a new novel now, and looking at the list above reminds me just how much work (and fun!) lies ahead.

So, do *you* keep a to-do list for your works-in-progress?  If so, care to share a snippet or two from it?  

Deciding What to Work on Next

I'm on the second round of edits for SELLING HOPE, and *should* have them back to my editor this week.  But then, what next?  I've been researching two stories simultaneously, one a middle-grade road trip tale, the other a nonfiction picture book.  I've concentrated more on the mg story to this point, because, well, it's what I know - I lurve middle grade historical fiction.  (This one is half contemporary/half historical.)  My heart is in this project, but I'm currently struggling with the plot. Sometimes that can be good - some of my best solutions have come only after wrestling with the plot.  And authors are constantly told that writing 3 or 4 books of a similar type (ie, middle grade historical) is smart in order brand oneself.    

But my head says that the picture book can be researched faster (yes, even though it's nonfiction) and I have a very good feeling about its marketability (in other words, I think publishers will really like the idea.)  And it's not that I'm totally emotionless about this book - far from it.  The idea of it, and how I picture it being executed, gives me that itchy writer's feeling of "Yes! That must be written!"  And, too, maybe it would be nice to change gears for awhile - you know, get the sparks flying from a different piece of flint.     

So - which one to work on next - the heart or the head? The sloppy, messy, heart-driven book, or the practical, marketable change-of-pace?  How do *you* decide what to work on next?  And by all means, voice your opinion on my next project in the comments section!  Please?  ;-)  

SELLING HOPE update!

Hi, all!  I just recently found out that Selling Hope: Or, Gaining Glorious Asylum from Mr. Halley's Fiery Beast has been bumped UP to be a Fall 2010 release!  Woot!  And Hopeful Editor even mentioned starting on the cover art! Cover art! *swoons* I love this crazy publishing biz!  

HOPE!

Okay, I admit it.  I'm a spotty blogger.  

There.  I said it.  I'm inconsistent.  I'm not-at-all CONsistent.  Not in the least.  So I don't really expect you to remember way-back-when, when I was blogging about a character of mine who was giving me FITS!  She was slippery.  She was mysterious.  And most of all, she was sometimes not very nice.

Her name is Hope.  And I'm delighted to let you know that Hope has found a home!  SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!  :-)

My second middle grade novel, Selling Hope: Or, Gaining Glorious Asylum from Mr. Halley's Fiery Beast, will be released by Feiwel & Friends/MacMillan in Fall 2011.  *does hurkey* *laughs at the word "hurkey"*

Want to learn more about this slippery, mysterious girl named Hope?  Please read more about the book here.  

Doubly - no, TRIPLY - exciting is the fact that Feiwel & Friends is releasing my friend Jill S. Alexander's debut, The Sweetheart of Prosper County, this fall.  Folks, this book is geeeee-orgous.  Truly.  More on my love of this book later, when I bribe - erm, ask - Jill to join us for an interview here.  I predict you will hear a lot about this book this year.  Just thinking about it as I type this is making me smile...  

Ah, Hope.  Slippery and mysterious indeed.  :-)