Brian Palmer's Blog: Tripping the Write Fantastic, page 2

I have an Agent!

I’ve been sitting on this news for what feels like forever, but I have finally signed with a literary agent! I am thrilled to announce that Laura Crockett with TriadaUS will be representing me, A SILENCE WORTH BREAKING, and hopefully  other projects down the road. There are several reasons why I chose her, but perhaps the biggest one is this tweet she sent out a couple weeks ago:

OH MY GOD.
THIS THING THAT I AM READING.
WOW.
*heart eyes*
Please keep up the heart eyes through the end! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

— Laura Crockett (@LECrockett) November 19, 2015

Writers dream of having people respond to their books like this, so when a prospective agent is the one having this type of response, it’s hard not to be drawn to that. We want someone who will champion our work, who “gets it,” and who loves it as much as we do. Laura is that person, and TriadaUS is absolutely the perfect fit  for me as a writer.

Big thanks go out to Holly Faur for mentoring SILENCE in this year’s Pitch Wars competition and helping me reach this point, Brenda Drake for putting on Pitch Wars, and Lynnette Labelle and Brighton Walsh for helping make sure Holly saw my submission in the first place.

And an even bigger thanks goes out to my wife, who made sure I never gave up on finding an agent (it’s been a long road!), and that I took some serious time to write this book last year when this idea really started to take root in my mind. Thanks baby!

I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Big news coming…

A new month is nearly upon us, and December will be bringing with it some exciting news from my writing journey. Stay tuned… :)

Pitch Wars Post #9 – The Wrap-Up Edition! (Or, My Experiment in Finding out how Many Times I can Say Wow in One Post)

Wow.

That might be the only applicable word for describing the entire Pitch Wars experience.

Brenda Drake? The woman behind Pitch Wars? Wow.

Holly Faur? The mentor who swooped in and wanted to work with me on A Silence Worth Breaking? Wow.

The willingness of Lynnette Labelle and Brighton Walsh (I’m still not sorry my synopsis made you cry! :D) to scream from the mountaintops during the selection phase until Holly came along because they were so eager for my novel to find a “home?” Wow.

Each and every one of the finalists who were selected? Wow.

The things I have learned about the craft of writing and how they are already helping me write my next novel even better? Wow.

The support I have received from the entire Pitch Wars community–this year’s participants and mentors, as well as anyone who has participated and/or mentored in previous years–these past three months? Wow.

And finally, last week’s agent round? Wow.

As I write this, the agent round has been over for a week and it has been quite the emotional roller coaster for many of us. Some people didn’t receive any requests in the agent round, while two or three received over 20 requests of some sort from agents. TWENTY-PLUS REQUESTS! Holy smokes! Talk about doing something right, eh? I received six requests from agents–five fulls, and one partial, which has been upgraded to a full in the last couple days–and I am ecstatic! I believed I would get one request, but expected to top out at two, or three if everything went really well. So to have six bona fide agents express an interest in my story blows my mind.

Again, wow.

The passion these people have for writing? Wow.

Everyone’s willingness to cheer each other on through the highs and lows of writing, revising, killing our darlings, birthing new ones, banging our heads against the desk in frustration, or celebrating victories of any size for any reason? Wow.

The agents who proved so willing to give of their time to even give us and our work the time of day? Wow.

This has truly proven to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, and regardless of whether or not I end up finding representation from any of these six agents, I know I will find representation somewhere, somehow, because Pitch Wars has made my novel so much better than it was when this all began.

Pitch Wars, as an experience, has exceeded my expectations and wildest dreams by a mile, and I will be one of its biggest proponents for the rest of my life.

Wow.

 

Pitch Wars Post #8 – The Inspiration Behind A Silence Worth Breaking

Here’s a quick introduction to how A Silence Worth Breaking came to be.

In Silence, the main character, Annaliese Emmerick, learns in a dream that she has ten thousand words left to speak before she dies, and she must decide how to navigate her life in light of this news. Though the opening line of the novel and indeed Annaliese’s primary conflict came to mind in–what else?–a dream in August of 2013, shaping her character actually goes back to the spring of 2006. My then-girlfriend, now-wife, was up visiting me for the first time (we met on MySpace of all places!), and at one point during her stay I got sick and basically couldn’t talk for a couple days. I vividly recall one moment where she and I were sitting on the floor of my kitchenette. I wasn’t able to say anything so at one point I started writing her notes. Sometimes she would write back, sometimes she would respond verbally, but my unique and uncomfortable situation forced us to have to find slightly unusual ways of communicating.

This got me thinking about the kind of struggles Annaliese might have as someone who chooses not to talk much. What methods would she use to try to communicate with others? What problems would that pose for her? What problems would that pose for the people around her? Would she go radio silent for the rest of her life and run off all her words when she’s ninety and just wants to end it all? Would she find a way to live her life more intentionally through the careful use of her words? And how on earth would a person handle being given a proclamation like this?

The premise seems so simple and yet so big, and that moment in the kitchenette that feels like it was forever ago gave me the frame of reference I needed as a jumping off point for making this story happen.

So that’s my story, but there are others from my fellow Pitch Wars mentees you should have a look at. Check out these writers’ tales:

Amanda Rawson Hill
K. Kazul Wolf
Vanessa Barger
Michelle Tran
ES Wesley
Cindy Baldwin
Ashley Martin
​Michella Domenici
Tracy Gold
Julie Artz


Joan He


Kyle W. Kerr


Ashley D. MacKenzie


M.C. Vaughan

Pitch Wars Post #7 – The Agent Round is just Around the Corner!

I can’t believe it’s almost here. We mentees have been talking about it, thinking about it, dreaming about it, dreading it, and otherwise stewing over it in one fashion or another since we submitted our entries to Pitch Wars back in the middle of August (and for those who knew about Pitch Wars prior to this, significantly longer!). Yes, I’m talking about the Agent Round.

November 3-5 is when the fabled event will take place, and by this time next week each of the mentees will know whether any of the dozens of participating agents would like to see more of their work or not. Fingernails are being chewed on. Chocolate is being inhaled. Wine (or Writer’s Tears Whiskey, if that’s your speed) is being imbibed. All manner of internal and external emotional chaos is being let loose by the minute among the mentees. Will anyone want to see more of our work? Could one of these agents be The One? What happens if no one makes any requests? The questions, wondering, and emotional roller coaster ride go on and on and on.

But this is part of what we signed up for, so it’s all good. This year’s Pitch Wars finalists have bonded and commiserated, and the community of people we connected with during the submission period in the month or so leading up to when the finalists were selected was priceless. I have met scores of wonderful people who are in the same boat as me–they write because they love it, they have to do it, and they hope to get agented and published some day, even if that day is not today.

That’s one of the risks here: I could get zero requests for materials. I knew this going in, but I wanted to try anyway because if nothing else, I have a much stronger manuscript now than I did when I submitted two and a half months ago, and that’s nothing to be upset about. I know I might find an agent here, or I might find one outside of Pitch Wars once I start querying other agents starting on November 6th. You have no idea what’s going to happen, so you have to plan for the what ifs. So many people from previous Pitch Wars contests have received no interest during the Agent Round, only to land an agent within a matter of weeks or months outside of Pitch Wars, and people have received significant attention during the Agent Round only to end up with no representation in the end. It’s a total crap shoot.

But that’s what we signed up for: a chance to have the agents come to us for once rather than the other way around, and see what happens. That’s all you can ask. It’s exciting, terrifying, and thrilling, and that’s why the majority of us mentees are waiting with bated breath for November 3 so the fun can begin.

Are you ready?

Pitch Wars Post #6 – Name Change!

Short and sweet: In case I haven’t mentioned it yet, the novel formerly known as 10,000 Words is actually going to be called A Silence Worth Breaking. Just so you know!

Pitch Wars Post #5 – Finished at Last (Or, My Love Letter to Pitch Wars and Everyone Associated with it)

As I begin typing this, my excerpt and first 250 words are winding their way through cyberspace and headed for my mentor’s inbox. I can’t believe how simultaneously short and long the past eight weeks have been, and how much better my novel is now than it was (and I had already felt it was the best work  I had ever done when Pitch Wars began in mid-August). I am so excited, and not just for the agent round.

I have found a great little writing community via Pitch Wars, and that is priceless. I have had the privilege of working with an out-of-this-world mentor, Holly Faur, and cannot say enough good things about her insights, creative streak, and ability to show me how to see portions of my novel from perspectives I didn’t even know existed. I have a novel that is absolutely ready to go out for querying next week. In short, Pitch Wars has been everything I hoped it would be, and then some. 

This is not the end–there is still the agent round next week, and extra agent research to do because there’s no guarantee any of the agents in Pitch Wars will be interested in my work–but as of right now, I am happy with how things are going, and content with how things have worked out. If nothing comes of the agent round, I can honestly say I will not feel upset about it because Pitch Wars is not an all-or-nothing proposition. I have Holly to thank for that, all my fellow mentees, all the mentors I’ve connected with, and especially Brenda Drake, who concocted this wild idea several years ago and has turned Pitch Wars into quite the big deal. You all have helped me–and are helping me–in so many ways that I’ve lost track. Thanks a bazillion!

Onward and upward!