We Are All Bart the Cat

Okay, so last week I was driving to parent-teacher conferences, and my friend Erin called me. She was all excited about this cat that had clawed his way back from death. I think the conversation went something like this:

Erin: Have you heard about Bart the Cat?

Me: No. I'm driving to work.

Erin: It's this cat that got hit by a car in Florida.

Me: O-kay. Great. One less cat in the world.

Erin: No! Elana! It's a great story.

Me: If you say so. Tell me about it.

Erin: So there's this cat that got hit by a car. And the owner was so upset about it that he couldn't bury the cat. So his neighbor, who was trying to be helpful, buried Bart in a shallow grave.

Me: Great.

Erin: But then five days later, Bart the Cat showed up at his owner's door. He had clawed his way out of the grave and dragged himself home.

Me: The dead cat?

Erin: Yes! The dead cat! Only he wasn't dead! He'd survived for five days in the grave!

Me: Okay.

Erin: Don't you see what we can learn from this?

Me: That we can be buried for five days and claw our way back to the surface?

Erin: Yes!! Just like when I thought my book was dead last fall, remember? It was dead! Buried! And then that agent emailed, and it came back to life!! I'm Bart the Cat!!!

(And if you've ever met Erin, you know that all these exclamation points are warranted.)

Me: You're so right! So when we feel like we've been hit by a car and buried in our neighbor's backyard in a shallow grave, we can drag ourselves back out and try again!

Erin: YES!!

(And if you haven't heard Erin's news yet, you should go over to her blog. We're dual-posting about Bart the Cat today.)

So there you go. We can all be Bart the Cat. We can pull ourselves back from the shallow grave when we feel like quitting, when our eyes have been gouged out, when we think we've had enough of this business.

I'm still not sure if I'm all the way out of the grave, but I'm not dead yet. Just like Bart the Cat.

What do you think? Are you inspired by Bart the Cat's story?

Pre-Order SOMETHING ABOUT LOVE!

Okay, so I am self-publishing another novel! The official release date is September 15, and you can pre-order the book now!

Cover by Erin Summeril Photography

This is my second novel-in-verse, and I loved writing this one as much as my first (Elevated). It's called SOMETHING ABOUT LOVE, and here's what it's about: High school senior Olivia Winging gave up her love of photography when she gave up her boyfriend, Trevor Youngblood, a year and a half ago. She broke things off with Trevor because her mom married his dad, and dating your step-brother? Creepy.

Livvy hasn’t been on good terms with her mother since, and one of her stipulations for staying at the Youngblood’s every other weekend is that Trevor can’t be there. When she gets nominated for the Junior Photography in Excellence award, Trevor insists she enter. She agrees—only if every photo in the portfolio can be of him. Knowing that Livvy can capture a person’s deepest secrets through her lens, Trevor hesitates before accepting the deal.

As Livvy gets behind the lens of her camera again, her love of photography is rekindled. Unfortunately, the time she spends with Trevor also re-ignites the old flame for him she’s kept smothered for so long.

In order for Livvy to finish her portfolio, she’ll have to face her feelings for Trevor as well as deal with the animosity between her and her mother. Livvy’s always been able to capture a person’s soul from behind the camera—but she’s not sure she likes it when the lens is suddenly focused on her. If she can’t find a way to forgive her mother and admit how she feels about Trevor, Livvy may end up losing more than just the photography contest. She could lose her heart.

I started writing this book way last year, when my husband started taking pictures professionally. I'd help him on his shoots, and listen to the language he used when he edited pictures, and watch a lot of YouTube videos with him on apertures, and light settings, and types of cameras, and exposures.

It was a fascinating thing. While I'm not into that line of creative work, I decided to take some of his life and put it into some of mine: a novel. I finished SOMETHING ABOUT LOVE last winter, and I had my husband read it for me to make sure all the photography stuff was accurate.

So yeah. You can pre-order SOMETHING ABOUT LOVE here and get it delivered to your device on Monday, September 15. 

Help spread the word! Enter to win $15 Paypal cash by doing any or all of the items in the Rafflecopter widget.

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If you're a writer, have you ever taken part of someone else's life and put it in a book?

Query Letter Advice: Let Someone Else Write It!

Lime tart to the right of the computer. That may or may not be my gmail...

 Okay, so I spend quite a bit of time at my local library, writing. I copyedited most of ABANDON at the library. I sneak in cherry limeades from Sonic, and baked potatoes, and mini sweet tarts. I wear headphones, I turn off the Internet, and I get so much done!

Erin actually works...

Well, when I have projects to work on. (Don't judge me! I'm between projects.)

For the past several weeks, I've been meeting with a friend of mine, Erin Summerill. She is one of the best photographers I know (she took my author photo!), and you should definitely like her Facebook page so you know about her contests! She's giving away some headshots later this month.

When she's not snapping photos, we meet at the library. She writes while I, uh, answer email and read on my Kindle, and sometimes tweet.

So we were there last week with the Pegster, and I was whining about how I didn't have anything to work on. Erin said, "I know what you can do! You can write my query letter."

I already knew a little bit about her book, but I told her to tell me about it. She starts talking, and I'm typing a few notes here and few details there. She's still talking. I stop typing. I was totally rude, actually, and I said, "I've got it. I don't need to know any more."

It's actually better in pictures. Here you go:

Erin tells me about her book.

"I just can't fit in ALL THE THINGS!"

The most exciting part...

"Stop," I say. "I got it. I can write it."

And that's the thing right there, my friends. The reason you can't write your query letter is because you know ALL THE THINGS.

Today's advice: Don't write your own query letter. Ask a good friend to do it for you. Tell them the basics (or what you think are the basics), and let them craft the letter.

I can pretty much guarantee that what you think are the basics won't all make it into the query. There just isn't room. Really the query is the setup of your novel -- think, "What does someone need to know to understand my main conflict?" -- and the inciting incident that leads to the main conflict. It's what you write in the first 30 - 50 pages of the book.

After that, all the query letter needs is the consequence. Think, "What will happen if my MC can't overcome the main conflict?"

We seriously don't need anything besides that.

So I wrote Erin's query and I sent it to her. Now, it's probably not perfect. The voice might be a bit off. Some details might not be quite right. She might not like the way I crafted a sentence. But at least now she has a starting point. A piece of writing that ONLY HAS THE BASICS of the book and not ALL THE THINGS she has in her head.

This method works because the query letter was written by someone who is free from all the things.

So there you go. Stumped on your query letter? Ask someone else to draft it for you! Then, of course, you'd edit it the same way you edit your manuscript. With love, and care, and possibly a few more sets of eyes on it.

What do you think? Have you ever thought to have someone else write your initial query letter? Do you think it might actually work?