Sarah Nicolas's Blog, page 6

QQQ: Nonfiction Author Jessica P. Pryde and a Dare from Daniel José Older

Queries, Qualms, & Quirks asks published authors to share their successful query letter and discuss their journey from first spark to day of publication.

Nonfiction Author Jessica P. Pryde joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss starting in fanfic, the magic of writing dates, getting an agent without querying, learning how to write a nonfiction proposal, long waiting periods, worrying about the concept matching the reality, narrowing your audience to make your book better, and more.

Jessica P. Pryde is a Contributing Editor for Book Riot and cohost of the When In Romance podcast. Her book, Black Love Matters: Real Talk on Romance, Being Seen, and Happily Ever Afters, is a collection of essays about the consumption of romantic media and the Black experience.

Jessica: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

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

QQQ: Young Adult Author Lauren James and the Ten-Year Gap Year

Queries, Qualms, & Quirks asks published authors to share their successful query letter and discuss their journey from first spark to day of publication.

Young Adult Author Lauren James joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss having a supportive family, thinking every year this will be the year she has to get a real job, the ten year gap year, when your entire America publishing team gets fired, publishing three books during the pandemic, the one course she wish she’d taken, trusting your instincts, and the value in an editor who also teaches as you go.

Lauren James is the twice Carnegie-nominated British author of many Young Adult novels, including Green Rising, The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker and The Loneliest Girl in the Universe. She is a RLF Royal Fellow, freelance editor and screenwriter.

Lauren is the founder of the Climate Fiction Writers League, and on the board of the Authors & Illustrators Sustainability Working Group through the Society of Authors.

Lauren: Query | Website | Twitter | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

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

Middle Grade Author Payal Doshi and the Joy of Writing a Single Scene

Queries, Qualms, & Quirks asks published authors to share their successful query letter and discuss their journey from first spark to day of publication.

Middle Grade Author Payal Doshi joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss writing Captain Planet fanfic at eight years old, putting revisions on hold to have a baby, removing an entire POV, wanting to tell a story different from the dominant narrative, paying attention to the market, having to do your own marketing, the benefits and challenges of working with a small press, knowing which questions to ask, writing with a young child, paying attention to word count 

Payal Doshi has a Master’s in Creative Writing from The New School, NY. Having lived in India, the UK, and US, she noticed a lack of Indian protagonists in global children’s fiction and one day wrote the opening paragraph to her debut middle grade novel, REA AND THE BLOOD OF THE NECTAR. Raised in Mumbai, India, she currently lives in Minneapolis, MN with her family and can be found daydreaming about fantasy realms to send her characters off into.

Payal: Query | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound 

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

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

Middle Grade Author Meera Trehan and Falling Asleep on Page 75

Queries, Qualms, & Quirks asks published authors to share their successful query letter and discuss their journey from first spark to day of publication.

Middle Grade Author Meera Trehan joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss setting a contract with yourself for writing time, the ups and downs of writing conferences, finding friends through writing contests, harsh query rejections, leaving an agent, struggling with titles, how her greatest fear was her greatest strength, and using the waiting time to work on your craft.

Meera Trehan grew up in Virginia where she read as much as she could, memorized poems, and ate enough cookies to earn the nickname “Monster” after the Cookie Monster. After attending the University of Virginia and Stanford Law School, she practiced law for over a decade before turning to writing for children. Her debut, the MG novel THE VIEW FROM THE VERY BEST HOUSE IN TOWN came out from Walker US/Candlewick in February 2022.

Meera: Query | Website | Twitter | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM

Story by Robert McKeeSteering the Craft by Ursula K Le GuinTackling a Multi-POV Query Letter from Kimberly Vale 

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

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

QQQ: Horror Author Cynthia Pelayo and Your Person Versus Your Persona

Queries, Qualms, & Quirks asks published authors to share their successful query letter and discuss their journey from first spark to day of publication.

Horror Author Cynthia Pelayo joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss breaking stereotypes, having an MFA but not knowing how to query, separating your person from your online persona, getting rejected by every major publisher, listening to your guy on edits, taking 4 years off writing, focusing on the writing instead of the drama, and avoiding the comparison game.

Cynthia Pelayo is a three-time Bram Stoker Award nominated author and poet. She lives in Chicago with her family.

Cynthia: Website | Twitter | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

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

Fantasy Author David R. Slayton and the Two Hardest Publishing Decisions

Queries, Qualms, & Quirks asks published authors to share their successful query letter and discuss their journey from first spark to day of publication.

Fantasy Author David R. Slayton joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss leaving your first agent, canceling a book contract, R&R scars, writing in many genres, learning as you write the first couple of books, getting up at 5am to write, the expectation of marginalized authors to perform their trauma, the ritual of writing, and his advice for writers just starting out.

David R. Slayton grew up outside of Guthrie, Oklahoma, where finding fantasy novels was pretty challenging and finding fantasy novels with diverse characters was downright impossible. David’s debut, White Trash Warlock, was published in 2020 by Blackstone Publishing and was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award.

David: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

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

QQQ: Middle Grade Author Shakirah Bourne and the Email That Will Change Your Life

Queries, Qualms, & Quirks asks published authors to share their successful query letter and discuss their journey from first spark to day of publication.

Middle Grade Author Shakirah Bourne joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss the benefit of saying yes to everything, getting distracted from pursuing publication, being 100% confident in a project that doesn’t go anywhere, querying without knowing your genre, googling everything, publishing from outside the US, the unfairness of the publishing process, and how you will always have another dream project.

Shakirah Bourne is a Bajan author and filmmaker born and based in Barbados. She once shot a movie scene in a cave with bats during an earthquake, but is too scared to watch horror movies. Her middle grade fantasy, JOSEPHINE AGAINST THE SEA was published by Scholastic in 2021, received starred reviews in Kirkus and Booklist, and was a School Library Journal Best Book of 2021.

Shakirah: Query | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

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

QQQ: Middle Grade Author Shakirah Bourne and the Email That Will Change Your Life

Queries, Qualms, & Quirks asks published authors to share their successful query letter and discuss their journey from first spark to day of publication.

Middle Grade Author Shakirah Bourne joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss the benefit of saying yes to everything, getting distracted from pursuing publication, being 100% confident in a project that doesn’t go anywhere, querying without knowing your genre, googling everything, publishing from outside the US, the unfairness of the publishing process, and how you will always have another dream project.

Shakirah Bourne is a Bajan author and filmmaker born and based in Barbados. She once shot a movie scene in a cave with bats during an earthquake, but is too scared to watch horror movies. Her middle grade fantasy, JOSEPHINE AGAINST THE SEA was published by Scholastic in 2021, received starred reviews in Kirkus and Booklist, and was a School Library Journal Best Book of 2021.

Shakirah: Query | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

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

QQQ: Middle Grade Author Maria Frazer and Not Quitting Your Day Job

Queries, Qualms, & Quirks asks published authors to share their successful query letter and discuss their journey from first spark to day of publication.

Middle Grade Author Maria Frazer joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss Google and Twitter University, #dvpit, figuring out her category, meeting friends through pitch contests, the importance of calling yourself a writer, the purpose of language, working with an editor who rejected the book, waiting for a book deal to get announced, being rejected by your peers, writing on your phone to trick your brain, and learning about taxes.

Maria Frazer is a middle grade and young adult author with a heart of queso. She was born and raised in Texas, where she still spends her time turning every space into a reading nook. Her debut middle grade audiobook MARGARITA IN THE SPOTLIGHT is available now on Audible.

Maria: Query | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon 

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

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

QQQ: Young Adult Author Derek Milman and the Last Pre-Pandemic Book Tour

Queries, Qualms, & Quirks asks published authors to share their successful query letter and discuss their journey from first spark to day of publication.

Young Adult Author Derek Milman joins Queries, Qualms, & Quirks this week to discuss going from acting to writing, how his brother’s bachelor party launched his writing career, meeting agents for coffee, two atypical experiences at opposite ends of the spectrum, the last book tour before the pandemic, media mail, focusing on the work in the middle of the business, and being careful about choosing a publisher.

Derek Milman is the author of the YA novels SWIPE RIGHT FOR MURDER and SCREAM ALL NIGHT. A classically-trained actor, who worked for years in TV and film, Derek now lives in Brooklyn where he (tries) to write full time.

Derek: Query | Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound | Libro FM

QQQ Home Base | Support on Patreon

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