Sarah Nicolas's Blog, page 10

QQQ: Middle Grade author Laura Segal Stegman and Finding Peace with Your Path

Middle Grade author Laura Segal Stegman joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss dozens of revisions over 28 years, the importance of writing community, deciding to sign with a small press, querying too early, and both the benefit and distraction of Twitter.

L.A.-based arts publicist and author Laura Segal Stegman’s middle grade debut, Summer of L.U.C.K., was released in September 2020 by INtense Publications and will be followed by a sequel in 2021. Her non-fiction credits include the travel book Only in New York. Her feature stories have appeared in Los Angeles Times and Westways Magazine, among others.

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

Search “Queries, Qualms, & Quirks” on your favorite podcast app to listen or listen on YouTube.

View more on Sarah Nicolas's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on July 01, 2021 01:26

QQQ: Young Adult Author Angeline Boulley and a Decades-Long Journey

Young Adult Author Angeline Boulley joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss waiting 28 years to write the book, the most illuminating question to ask offering agents, prioritizing Native talent when negotiating her film rights, ensuring her craft was worthy of the story she wanted to tell, and the single most helpful thing she did for her writing

Questions to Ask a Prospective Agent from Jim McCarthy: https://dystelblogarchive.wordpress.com/2016/01/26/jim-suggests-questions-to-ask-a-prospective-agent/

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

Search “Queries, Qualms, & Quirks” on your favorite podcast app to listen or listen on YouTube.

View more on Sarah Nicolas's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on June 24, 2021 01:23

QQQ: Literary Fiction Author Catherine Adel West and There Is No Morning Dew (Yet)

Literary Fiction Author Catherine Adel West joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss the dangers of pitching your book before it’s complete, the advantages of virtual book tours, the need for publishing to reflect the world around it, advocating for yourself, and letting go of bitterness.

Catherine Adel West was born and raised in Chicago, IL where she currently resides. Her debut Saving Ruby King was published in 2020. Catherine’s short story “Orion’s Star” is featured in the body positive anthology Every Body Shines. Her sophomore novel Becoming Sara King is slated for release in 2022.

Every Body Shines: Bookshop | Amazon

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

Search “Queries, Qualms, & Quirks” on your favorite podcast app to listen or listen on YouTube.

View more on Sarah Nicolas's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on June 17, 2021 00:31

QQQ: Cozy Mystery Author Mia P. Manansala and a Candle for the Ancestors

Cozy Mystery Author Mia P. Manansala joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss how a one-day writing workshop change everything, the pressure to represent your community well, the importance of a writing support network, being jealous of writing friends, and choosing the right agent for you, even if they’re not the biggest agent that offers.

Mia P. Manansala (she/her) is a writer and certified book coach from Chicago who loves books, baking, and bad-ass women. She uses humor (and murder) to explore aspects of the Filipino diaspora, queerness, and her millennial love for pop culture. Her debut novel, ARSENIC AND ADOBO, is out now!

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

Search “Queries, Qualms, & Quirks” on your favorite podcast app to listen or listen on YouTube.

View more on Sarah Nicolas's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on June 10, 2021 01:00

QQQ: Romance Author Mary Ann Marlowe and the Relief of Going Hybrid

Romance novelist Mary Ann Marlowe joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss getting into Pitch Wars but not getting an agent, finally finding and losing an agent, the importance of loving the writing first, imposter syndrome, and the relief in being a hybrid author.

Mary Ann lives in central Virginia where she works as a computer programmer/DBA. She spent ten years as a university-level French professor, and her resume includes stints as an au pair in Calais, a hotel intern in Paris, a German tutor, a college radio disc jockey, and a webmaster for several online musician fandoms. She has lived in twelve states and three countries and loves to travel.

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

Search “Queries, Qualms, & Quirks” on your favorite podcast app to listen or listen on YouTube.

View more on Sarah Nicolas's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on June 03, 2021 01:00

QQQ: Middle Grade Author Alyson Gerber and Taking Up Space

Middle Grade author Alyson Gerber joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss separating the art from the business, gaining confidence as a writer, writing to understand your own truth, being waitlisted for your dream, and the importance of persistence.

Alyson Gerber is the author of the critically acclaimed, own-voices novels Braced and Focused published by Scholastic. Her third novel Taking Up Space will be in stores on May 18, 2021. She has an MFA from The New School in Writing for Children and lives in New York City with her family.

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

Search “Queries, Qualms, & Quirks” on your favorite podcast app to listen or listen on YouTube.

View more on Sarah Nicolas's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on May 27, 2021 01:15

QQQ: YA Author Jenn P. Nguyen and the Publishing Hail Mary

YA Author Jenn P. Nguyen joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss fanfiction as a gateway drug, querying by mail, starting over after separating with your agent, trying for a publishing hail mary (and getting it!), and trying to like coffee.

Jenn P. Nguyen is the author of THE WAY TO GAME THE WALK OF SHAME and FAKE IT TILL YOU BREAK IT. She was born in Mississippi, raised in New Orleans, LA (Go Saints!), where she currently lives with her husband and high school sweetheart along with their two wonderful although slightly crazy kids.

Jenn fell in love with books in third grade and spent the rest of her school years reading through lunchtime and giving up recess to organize the school library. Partially because the weather in New Orleans was always scorching, but mainly because she loved to be surrounded by books. Now Jenn get to spend my days reading, dreaming up YA romances, and binge watching addicting Korean dramas all in the name of ‘research’.

Jenn: Query Text | Website | Twitter | Amazon | Bookshop: Walk of Shame — Fake It Till You Break It

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

Search “Queries, Qualms, & Quirks” on your favorite podcast app to listen or listen on YouTube.

View more on Sarah Nicolas's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on May 20, 2021 01:35

QQQ: Fantasy Author Rebecca Enzor and the Publishing Plot Twist

[image error]

Editor and fantasy author Rebecca Enzor joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss unlearning passive voice, writing nine books before finding success, the importance of critique partners, and the surprising ending to her publishing career.

Rebecca Enzor is an analytical chemist in Vancouver, WA, where she lives with her husband, two dogs, two cats, and sometimes chickens. Her articles on writing science in science fiction can be found in Writer’s Digest “Putting the Science in Fiction”. Obsessed with everything ocean, she studied fisheries biology in college and electrocuted herself collecting fish in a river, which inspired several key scenes in her debut novel, Speak The Ocean, out now with Reuts Publishing. For more about Rebecca’s work, please visit the links in the show notes.

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

Search “Queries, Qualms, & Quirks” on your favorite podcast app to listen or listen on YouTube.

View more on Sarah Nicolas's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on May 13, 2021 01:00

QQQ: Mystery Author Abby L. Vandiver and the Accidental Hybrid Author

Mystery novelist Abby L. Vandiver (aka Abby Collette) joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss the differences in self-publishing and traditional, being a hybrid author, acknowledging you can’t edit yourself, and learning from other authors.

Wall Street Journal and USA Today best selling author, Abby L. Vandiver also writing as Abby Collette, has penned more than thirty novels and short stories. She is a hybrid author, being traditionally and self-published. Abby writes cozy mysteries and has a women’s fiction book, Where Wild Peaches Grow, coming in August 2022. She lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

Search “Queries, Qualms, & Quirks” on your favorite podcast app to listen or listen on YouTube.

View more on Sarah Nicolas's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on May 06, 2021 09:49

QQQ: Middle Grade Author Waka T. Brown and the Hidden Power of Networking

Middle Grade author Waka T. Brown joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss transitioning from screenwriting to book writing, how a single hurtful rejection can almost derail your writing, finding inspiration on runs, and the importance of writing community.

Waka T. Brown is graduate of Stanford University and the first American born in her family. Her debut memoir While I Was Away was published in January 2021, and her second novel Dream, Annie, Dream will be released in 2022, both through HarperCollins / Quill Tree Books.

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

Search “Queries, Qualms, & Quirks” on your favorite podcast app to listen or listen on YouTube.

View more on Sarah Nicolas's website »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on April 29, 2021 00:24