Category: General

Finally, we come to it. What makes the successful break out novel? In order to get here, we’ve played with the concepts of literature and genre. Lines are often arbitrary drawn between the two. We’ve also talked about the issue of popularity and how sales don’t necessarily mean a break out novel, although people do get confused in regard to that point.

Continue reading “The break out novel”

Noting that JABberwocky sent me my rejection yesterday afternoon.

***

On our way to the break out novel so far, we’ve discussed the “good” book, what makes a book good for discussion, and what the heck literature is anyway. I try to keep this discussion very accessible to my college students.

I’ll admit, the genre discussion is one that we don’t have in class. My colleagues at the college and I *do* teach genre books frequently in our classes. Two of us use Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale for example. At its core, another book I teach, Native Son is a murder mystery as well as a social commentary. The separation of literature from genre is often artificial. Speculative fiction, a “new” field of writing, suggests that it is novel to combine genres. I have friends that are currently publishing “forensic fantasy.” Alternative history has been accepted as fantasy, but is really a happy marriage of fantasy and historical. Urban romance combines the fantastic with gritty action-adventure.

Genre divisions are very artificial indeed. How do we decide what a genre is? After all, we can break out of a genre with our break out novel if we don’t know we’re trying to break out of.

Continue reading “What makes a genre?”

Well, there’s always got to be one.

I received a rude return from an agent today. I made the mistake of sending out a query to an agent whose criteria fit my novel’s when I added her to my list, but no longer do. Yup, I should have visited all the sites in regard to the agent, and I shouldn’t have been in a hurry to get my five done this week, and get on with my day job.

Because I didn’t do this, however, I rated a scolding. Visit my site and see how your query doesn’t match my criteria. Implication: you should have known better than to waste my time.

The good news here is that I have learned that this would be an agent I wouldn’t do business with. This afternoon, I had a student in my office try to tell my how unjust and unfair one of my better instructors is. I know he was full of venom because he didn’t get the grade he wanted, and I did essentially what this agent did to me. I walked him through his test. I showed him how she had figured the grade, and where he had gone wrong. With a student like this, well, he’s never going to believe me, sure, but the point is I treated him with respect and heard his complaint.

So. We’re all in business here. It’s about respect. I expect an agent, even if that agent thinks I am the most foolish clod in the universe, to treat me with respect. There’s no reason for a rejection to be negative. Neutral, even, is acceptable.

I am not thin skinned. I’ll admit I wasn’t thorough this time. And sometimes you take the long shot, especially when the agent tells you that they don’t do your genre, but they like good writing. You dare to assume you have good writing. However, just like you shouldn’t take your bad day or frustration with the industry out on the agent, an agent owes you courtesy.

Because I owe even an agent with poor bed side matter courtesy, I’ll not write a name. I want to re-iterate that the other agents I’ve had interaction with have been strongly professional or neutral. I also want to mark the occasion to let you guys know that this can happen, but you shouldn’t let an unprofessional agent take you out of the game, or even bother you…much.

Catherine

Another week, five morning queries!

Cameron McClure of Donald Maass
Anne Boyle of Wylie-Merrick
Whitney Lee of the Fielding Agency
Christi Cardenas of the Lazear Agency
Shawna McCarthy of the McCarthy Agency

I’ll continue the literary series shortly, but today I’ve got to be a good coordinator, and get some things together for the teachers.

Catherine

Donald Maass sends a polite rejection.

I have noticed among some of you a reluctance to be rejected. It is an important part of your growth as a writer. Everyone tells you that you will be rejected much more than you will be published, and it’s true. Please don’t allow it to keep you from sending things out. Every rejection I get for a query I write is someone who will remember my query as professional and sincere. Perhaps the next time I take a manuscript out for a spin, they will remember the promise of this one, or that they were favorably inclined toward me.

You can’t build that kind of coin when you stop sending out queries, or you’re afraid to.

***

The other trap a lot of new writers fall into is “revision unto perfection.” I’m not a seasoned pro, so take this advice for what it’s worth, but you may want to work on something else, sit on the rejected work for a while (I’m thinking a year or two) and circulate something new. Why? Because several agents ask you specifically not to resolicit a work they’ve rejected. I think that you may need substantial time to re-envision your work, so that it is truly something different for them.

This would be the keep writing advice.

Wow. Who put this soap box here, and when did I decide to climb up on it? I’m getting back to making dinner.

Catherine

After yesterday’s initial foray into the world of the break out novel, we were left with the daunting task of trying to figure out what a good book is, or what literature is. Unlike J. Evans Pritchard, PhD (Good for you, if you caught the Dead Poet’s Society reference!), I don’t think literature can be measured on a table. How do we do it then?

When my students and I talk about literature, the first place we start is with the definition of a “good” book. The concept of the good book conjures up a lot of stereotypes for my students: often books that employ artifice the student does not want to read, books that are long, or books written in a stilted or older language. Students enjoy genre books. They suggest these books are not the same as “good” books. I try to challenge their notions that some of them are INDEED good books, so we need to tweak the concept of what we conceive of as good.

Continue reading “What is Literature Anyway?”

Letter this evening:
“We’ll be including ‘Yellow Cat and the Man’ in the FACF chapbook. I’ll be
looking over the accepted pieces closely over the next couple of weeks,
and if I have any editing questions about your story I’ll let you know.”

For those of you in the know, “Yellow Cat and the Man” was my tribute to our Toby, who died over Christmas vacation in 2006. I wrote it first as carthasis for myself and Bryon. When a poetry chapbook for Friends of the Animal Center Foundation asked for submissions, I trimmed it down and sent it off. The chapbook is to raise money for the center, and I’m happy to be part of it. I’d be happy to tell you how to get it, to help out a good cause, once I know. Of course, my work is a donation in this case. Toby was a rescued cat, and it’s only right his story should help others like him.

Closing off the message, I’m noting a rejection from Kirsten Wolf. Just noting. Honestly, most agents write nice rejection letters.

Catherine

Here’s our group’s reading schedule for the upcoming future. I’m pleased. It’s balanced with genres, classics, new authors and established. It pushes all the members of the group, yet everyone chose some favorites as well.

2008
May The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon
June Dead Zone by Stephen King
July The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas (discussion with the author) (can switch to August)
August Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman
September TANYA HUFF NOVEL
October Happy Hour of the Damned by Mark Henry
November The Android’s Dream by John Scalzi
December Goblin Quest by Jim Hines

2009
January Body Bags by Christopher Golden
February Short Story Night
March Ghosts in the Snow by Tamara Siler Jones (discussion with the author)
April Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
May The Princess Bride by William Goldman
June FLEX
July Devices and Desires by K. J. Parker
August The Eyre Affair by Jaspar Fforde
September Mort by Terry Pratchett
October Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
November The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia
December Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

First of all, no from Alexandra Machinist.

For our reading group, I’ve been pouring over the newest Michael Chabon book, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union. The book is a hard hitting detective story in the Raymond Chandler tradition, set in an alternate reality where the Jews, fleeing from Europe’s holocaust, settle in Alaska. The story is based on the slim possibility that the US actually did what it suggested it might do during Roosevelt’s presidency. I’ll talk about the novel in greater detail when I give our reading group’s take on it on May 19th. However, I consider it to be a successful genre jumper and a breakout piece.

A few months ago in January, one of the mid-list authors on my friends’ list said one of her goals this year was to write a breakout novel, the novel that would transcend genre writing and reach out to the public in general. Chabon is clearly a writer who can make this leap, who can write within the confines of genre and win the Nebula, yet capture the imagination of larger than the typical genre audience. What are the characteristics of the breakout novel?

I think about the breakout novel a lot. I am an English professor with a strong interest in the literature of the fantastic. I’ve read good novels and bad novels in lots of genres. What do I think makes a genre book accessible to a wider audience? Is it the fickle finger of fate? Good marketing? I’m about to go all idealistic on you, so for those of you who are nuts-and-bolts, get-the-words-on-the-page kind of people, you may want to skip this next part. I provide a convenient break for you to do so shortly.

Also, I want to clarify. In spite of the direction this essay will go, I don’t believe the purpose of all books is to become “good literature.” Nor do I believe that everything that is taught at our institutions of higher learning is “good literature.” Let’s focus on that genre breaker, shall we? We’ll do this over a series of entries. It’ll be just like sitting in my literature class. Lucky you.

First we need to talk about how the world, and more importantly, the reader, defines what is worth reading.

Continue reading “Professorial Ruminations on Literature and the Break Out Novel”

Melissa Chinchillo says no.

Beautiful Wiscon reading support materials have arrived from Fed-Ex Kinkos. Purdy. Just so you get a feel for the theme, here’s that banner again. 🙂

REALLY getting the itch to write something creative. Not seeing the time right now. May end up breaking down and spending a little time on Hulk Hercules anyway. I can dangle it like a carrot or something.

LAST duty of spring semester at noon. Graduating students. Then, let the summer stuff begin!

Catherine