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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Welcome to the first ever Neverending Stories blog post!

This blog is the place to get information on conferences I'll be attending/events to meet me at and contests I'm judging as well as what I'm currently looking for, and interview/question sessions with my clients. 

I plan on doing the occasional post where I'll cover topics such as querying, finding the right agent, creating engaging first pages, tips on revising, social media presence etc. 

I also will give you the opportunity to ask me questions directly and make suggestions for topics you'd like to see me cover. I'd really like this to be a fun, interactive place for writers!

On the sidelines, is a post with tips on querying Agents. I look forward to sharing that with you soon!

In honor of the first post, I'd love to hear from you: What's a topic within children's publishing you'd like to see me cover?

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13 comments:

  1. Michelle MerrillApril 30, 2013 at 8:12 PM

    I'm excited about your blog! I love your blog name and can't wait to see your upcoming posts :)

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  2. Kristy ShenApril 30, 2013 at 8:21 PM

    I've got your blog bookmarked and can't wait to read more posts!

    Okay, so here's a topic I'd love to see:

    What's the level of violence allowed in MG?

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  3. HILARYHARWELLApril 30, 2013 at 8:23 PM

    Yay! Looking forward to your posts! I'm game for client interviews when the time comes! =)

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    1. RachelApril 30, 2013 at 8:30 PM

      LOL! That's what I was thinking, Hilary. :)

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  4. RachelApril 30, 2013 at 8:28 PM

    Hi! *waves wildly* You like The Neverending Story too? I'll have to send you a pic of my little white dog. She looks VERY much like a mini version of Falcor. ;)

    I'm glad to see your blog up and running, and look forward to reading your posts.

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  5. UnknownApril 30, 2013 at 8:38 PM

    LOVE The Neverending Story! And love that you post not just conferences but pitch contests in which you'll participate!

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  6. UnknownApril 30, 2013 at 11:11 PM

    Hi Christa, I would love to read more about picture books.
    Congrats on the blog.
    Chris Watson

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  7. UnknownMay 1, 2013 at 5:21 AM

    Ooooh... adding to what Kristy asked: How dark can the consequences be for the MC in a MG mystery? More specifically, can there be the threat of death at the hands of a ghost if the MC doesn't triumph? I know JK Rowling goes there in a sense, but she's JK Rowling and that threat is in the later books...

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  8. AnonymousMay 1, 2013 at 8:18 AM

    Funny that your blog is called Neverending Story...my man candy and I were talking about the titles of movies that would best describe our personalities and he named NeverEnding Story for me. Excited about your blog and getting to know your opinions better.

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  9. MJGMay 1, 2013 at 2:28 PM

    Excited to have a new blog to look at.

    As for my suggestion, I'm wondering what the differences in themes and conflicts between MG and YA.

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  10. GKByrneMay 2, 2013 at 11:36 AM

    Thanks for being so involved in the online writing community with all these pitch contests, and now this blog. Along the same lines as allowable darkness/violence in MG, what are your thoughts on MG romance? I think, on a perhaps related topic, there's this developing genre of "Tween" or upper-MG for MCs that are 13-15. What are your thoughts about this as a seperate(or not) group of readers?

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  11. Neverending StoriesMay 8, 2013 at 10:04 AM

    Hi everyone! Thanks for your questions. I'm seeing many of you are asking about MG and the difference between it and YA-both tone-wise and theme-wise.

    Think of YA as a PG-13 movie and MG as a PG movie. For middle-grade there's rarely any swearing, if so it's very minimal, no sex, minimal violence (of course there will be action scenes and people can die, but there wouldn't be any graphic description of the violence or blood/gore). There is darker MG, but it'd perhaps be more creepy or eerie than terrifying/distrubing. MG is generally age 8-11, so these are young children.

    To answer GKByrne, 13-15 is in the YA age range. I wouldn't consider that MG, although something for 12-13 is on the cusp so that could have cross-over appeal. Middle grade romance is usually more "puppy love"--they sit together at lunch or hold hands once, maybe a kiss on the cheek, but it's generally very "tame."

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  12. UnknownMay 29, 2013 at 7:45 AM

    I love the query update! You're more than a month from the query I sent before I chose a pseudonym, so I can look forward to a bit of a wait.
    I linked back to this page from my blog, I hope you don't mind. I wanted to compile a list of resources for writers and I thought your blog was perfect.

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