Jennifer Caloyeras's Blog, page 18

run your own bookstore....for a week

Airbnb has branched out from apartment, condo and house rentals to.....bookstores!! The Open Book, a small, independent bookstore in Scotland, is up for grabs for weekly management. $312.65 a week will get you the apartment above the bookstore and the position of managing the bookstore, which must be open 40 hours a week. Ideally, it would be amazing to be there during the Wigtown Book Festival, a ten-day annual festival.

Would you do it?? I would, in a heartbeat!!

Read more here. 

Query Help

I like to think of myself as a query queen. That is to say over the course of my time as an author, I have sent out many queries. And I plan on sending many more because that is the first step in getting published (after all that writing and revising, of course.) I use excel to keep track of them all: who I send them to, what I've sent, when I sent it, what kind of response I get and the contact information of the person on the receiving end of my query.

I'm currently pitching my short fiction collection. Four of the stories in this collection have been published in literary magazines (click here to see them.) And I've spent the summer finishing up revisions on my first children's chapter book, which involves a whole new set of people to query as I've never written for elementary age kids before. 

I came across this query primer on Query Shark and thought I'd pass it along as I think there's a lot of useful information here. Remember, the query is the very first bit of writing and agent or a publisher or an editor sees, so it has to sparkle!

Have any other great query resources? Feel free to paste them in the comment section!

Meet Peanut!

Megan Kimble is a writer living in Tucson, Arizona. She is the author of Unprocessed: My City-Dwelling Year of Reclaiming Real Food.

Follow along at megankimble.com.

 

Meet her dog, Phoebe.

 

 

I’m Phoebe. My friends call me Peanut.

 

I was born in a landfill but spent Christmas in a fun foster home after a lovely lady from In the Arms of Angels, a Tucson-based rescue, found my sisters and me and took us home—I moved in with my mom in February. Everyone said I was a lab/shepherd mix, but now people on the street tell me I look like a beagle. Who knows.  

 

My best friend is named Josephine—she’s another rescue pup from In the Arms of Angels. Our moms are friends, too, and they cook together while we jump on counters or wait for vegetables—I eat everything except lettuce.

 

My favorite food is sticks. Stones, too. I lick faces.

 

I don’t mind cats. I really mind large boxes.

 

I love walks. When my mom tries to put on my leash, I hide under the coffee table. Obviously.

 

I’ll say hi to any age dog, but not to teenage humans.

 

I like chewing on thumbtacks. My mom takes all my thumbtacks.

 

I can finish my dinner in ninety seconds, but I’m training for sixty.

 

I go to work with my mom. After seeing my potential, they hired me as a part-time receptionist. They offered me full-time, but I turned it down. Girls gotta nap.

5 Surprising Things About Santa Cruz, California

Today, I'm guest blogging over at Writers & Other Animals. Learn 5 surprising things about Santa Cruz, California - the backdrop to my novel, Strays. 

Read the entire article on Writers & Other Animals. 

California in Literature

As a California girl, I was interested in this article, "California by the Numbers" that explores representations of California in world literature.  It's a fascinating look at how history and literature collide through various bar graphs.

Click here to read the article. 

And happy to add my book to the canon of California literature (Strays takes place in Santa Cruz, California.)

Bark Magazine: book review

Previously, you had to purchase the magazine to read the review of my novel, Strays, in Bark Magazine, but now, the review is online! Click here to read it!

meet Eddie!

B. Lynn Goodwin is the author of You Want Me to do What? and a forthcoming young adult novel, Talent. Learn more about her at www.writeradvice.com 

This is her rescue dog, Eddie:

My mommy had to go to Utah. Her housemate was a pet sitter for Mikko McPuppers, my honorary older brother. At least that’s what Mommy calls him. She says he lives in t-bone heaven now. I am an only dog and I now live in a 2-parent home. I like walks, food, treats, nose-noofing, barking at the UPS man, and being a columnist for a Petfinder newsletter. I think I might be in the same family as your dog-dog. Maybe I’m his (or her) long-lost brother. I think I’m around 6. Maybe 7.

Mommy is typing this note, but every word is mine. Honestly!

Lovies,

Eddie (Eduardo) McPuppers-Goodwin-Brown

literary cakes

It's my birthday month over here (yes, you read that right.)

Here's the cake my husband baked for me on my birthday:

It was Pepto Bismal pink. I tried to think of a famous literary character that takes Pepto Bismal, but I couldn't think of any. Can you? (notice the long matchstick candles. Clever. Very clever.)

I thought I'd celebrate by sharing these scrumptious looking literary cakes from this original post at Flavorwire. 

Here's Where the Wild Things Are

And these adorable cupcakes inspired by various books!

Meet Galen!

Happy Monday, everyone! Today, you get to meet Galen, Jacki Skole's rescue! Jackie is the author of Dogland: a Journey to the Heart of America's Dog Problem (a must read!)

"Meet Galen. She’s one quirky canine. Galen doesn’t pee on walks; she prefers to empty her bladder in our backyard. She loves to play fetch, but only with my husband and only with her volley ball-sized purple ball. And she eats all her meals outside, no matter the weather—her choice, not mine. My husband and I adopted Galen when she was eight weeks old. A New Jersey-based rescue pulled her and her six littermates from a North Carolina animal shelter and brought them to the Garden State, knowing the puppies would find homes quickly. They did. Galen is now four, though if you meet her you might think she's closer to fourteen. Her demeanor is strikingly calm, and her gray fur deceives—I’ve heard parents tell their children to look at that “old, gray dog.” Galen is a Labrador retriever/Australian shepherd mix according to both the rescue and a DNA test. But most importantly, Galen is a beloved member of my family, adored (and spoiled) by me, my husband, and her two human sisters."

You can purchase Dogland: A Journey to the Heart of America's Dog Problem on Amazon, Ashland Creek Press or Barnes and Noble. 

Learn more about Jacki on her website.

And all proceeds will go to the extraordinary animal welfare programs profiled in the book.

what's in it for you at a writing conference?

Each time I peruse the latest edition of Poets and Writers Magazine I see the endless amount of writing conferences offered across the globe, which got me thinking, why should writers attend writing conferences?

I've attended a handful of these conferences, (later this week I'll be at the SCBWI - society of children's book writers and illustrators - annual conference in Los Angeles) and I've compiled a list of benefits these conferences have to offer both seasoned writers as well as those just starting out. 

What you can gain by attending a writing conference:

1. Networking: Conferences boast hundreds to thousands of attendees depending on the type. Either way, you meet tons of people. You'll find writers working in a similar genre, in a similar city, or perhaps you'll meet your next writing group member!

2. Access: Most writing conferences have established speakers that are active members in the publishing world. Writers, agents and publishers are all in attendance. Inevitably, one of the questions that is always asked by someone in the audience is, "can I send you my query?"  And I have to say,  many agents and publishers will give you something specific  to write in the subject line of an email to gain direct access to them so that you can forward them a query letter and they'll connect it to your attendance at a specific conference. 

3. Exposure: Most conferences have a designated time when writers can sell their work to the other conference attendees. If you're a published writer, this is a great time to practice your sales pitch as well as answer questions about the writing process. And if you're just starting out, you can walk around and speak with scores of other writers and ask them questions about their publishing experience and their books. 

4. They're valuable: The speakers at conferences have all prepared something very specific to talk to you about ranging from character development, how to land an agent, how excel can be used to track your submissions, to how to book gigs at your local library. There is always more to learn and there are always new ways to reach out to readers. I keep all my notes from these various conferences and reference them often.

5. They're fun! There's plenty of time to socialize with other writers and lots of conferences will have an evening out where you can leave the notebooks at home and just have a night of fun! 

So, how do you pick a writing conference that's right for you?

Check out the back pages of Poet's and Writers Magazine.

Go to New Pages for a list of upcoming conferences by state.