Editor’s Note:  This is the 50th and final interview of the First Book series.  Thanks to all the writers for participating, and I wish you the best of luck with all your books.  The site will remain online.  For some final thoughts, check out this post on my personal blog.

Title:  I So Don’t Do Mysteries
Author:  Barrie Summy
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Hardcover: 272 pages
ISBN: 978-0385736022

First off, congratulations on the big novel sale!  Give us the elevator pitch.  What’s your book about?

Thank you. And thanks for letting me on your blog. Heeeere’s the pitch: 

Thirteen year old Sherry (short for Sherlock) Holmes Baldwin wants more mall time, less homework and a certain eighth-grade boy. Instead she gets recruited by her mother’s ghost to prevent a rhino heist at San Diego’s Wild Animal Park.

A girl. A guy. A ghost. A heist. Yikes!

Meet reluctant sleuth Sherry Holmes Baldwin! 

2. Most new novelists have an interesting story to tell about their journey to publication. What’s yours? Did you use an agent? Make sure to tell us about the day you found out you’d sold a book.

As a kid, I was a huge Nancy Drew fan. And wanted to write a Nancy Drew when I grew up. So, originally, my goal was to publish a Nancy Drew mystery.  I wrote away for the Nancy Drew guidelines (affectionately called “the Nancy Drew bible”), signed up for a local writing  class and wrote The Mystery at the Wild Animal Park. Which, fortunately, was rejected. I was unwilling to let the story go (I’m bullish that way; just ask my friends and family), and I thought it would be cool to revise the ms with a younger, sassier protagonist who doesn’t even want to solve a mystery. Then I got an agent, Rachel Vater, who had me do even more revisions. When Rachel called to tell me Random House had bought I So Don’t Do Mysteries and an unwritten sequel, I started crying. I cried so long and hard that she ended up crying too. She ended up calling me back (after I’d calmed down) to give me the details of the deal. 

3. Do you have another book in the pipeline? What are you working on now?

The second in the series, I So Don’t Do Spooky, is done. Phew. I should be getting the galleys before Christmas. I have another two books to write for Random House (yay!) One of them will be the third in the series, and one will be another middle-grade book. 

4. What’s your process like? Morning writer, night writer, or something in between?

Night. Night. Night. I’m a big-time night owl. Also, I write mornings after I take the kids to school. 

5. There seems to be an unusually high percentage of writers who own cats. Here at The First Book, we’re doing a study to find out if there’s a direct relationship between writing success and cat ownership. Do you own a cat? If so, tell us about him or her. If not, tell us what you have against cats.

No cats in our house. One of our kids has asthma and a major allergy to cats. But, we have an adorable poodle, Dorothy the Dog. And a veiled chameleon. Surely that counts for something?

Title:  Fresh Kills
Author: Bill Loehfelm
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Hardcover: 336 pages
ISBN: 978-0399155314

1. First off, congratulations on the big novel sale! Give us the elevator pitch. What’s your book about?

FRESH KILLS is a contemporary noir thriller, set in Staten Island, NYC, about an adult son’s violent reaction to his abusive father’s unsolved murder. It’s a character-driven story that follows the killing’s consequences for Junior Sanders, the son, who’s badly screwed up, and his younger sister, Julia, who’s got problems of her own and the two cops investigating the murder – both of whom have a history with the Sanders family. There’s a lot of dark history and tangled relationships. It’s very much about what happens when the ugly things we try our best to hide and forget are brought into the light. A friend of mine told me it was one of the most moving books she ever read about the search for grace, the often tough, ugly struggle to come to terms with life’s dark corners and find a way to live a decent life anyway. I really like that interpretation of the novel. It’s dark, but it’s also about the search for a way out of the darkness.

2. Most new novelists have an interesting story to tell about their journey to publication. What’s yours? Did you use an agent? Make sure to tell us about the day you found out you’d sold a book.

My journey was long, long, long, I’ve been writing my whole life, but I got through the door in a pretty unusual way: I won the first Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, a kind of American Idol for writers that Amazon sponsored along with Penguin Group. The grand prize was a publishing contract and a nice advance. It was like being in a public slush pile of 5000 manuscripts vetted by Publisher’s Weekly and in-house editors at Penguin and then voted on by the public. When I found the contest I saw that Amazon would be featuring contestant excerpts on their website, so having just finished FRESH KILLS, I entered just hoping for some exposure. It worked. So I did it backwards, I got the contract first, with the Putnam imprint, and then went out and got an agent, who has been just awesome to work with these past few months and who I’ve since brought into that contract.

Monday, April 7, 2008. Man, that first day isn’t hard to remember. On the Friday before the announcement, Amazon and Penguin flew the top three finalists from the contest to NYC for the award ceremony. They put up my wife and I and the other contestants in this swanky hotel in Chelsea and treated us like rock stars all weekend. Monday morning we all gathered in the hotel’s rooftop cafe to find out the winner. From the moment I found out I won, it was like dropping off that first hill of a rollercoaster. A Penguin publicist grabbed me by the arm and threw me in front of a couple of journalists. I got a short break, did a bunch of interviews over the phone then had my first editorial meeting with my new editor. Then my wife and I started calling everyone we knew. It was absolutely insane. I woke up Monday just another guy who’d written thousands of unwanted pages then BAM!, I’m in an editorial meeting with a Putnam VP. It was totally falling down the rabbit hole.

3. Do you have another book in the pipeline? What are you working on now?

My second book, BLOODROOT, another thriller set on Staten Island, is with my editor at Putnam right now and I’m waiting to hear what she has to say. As soon as I’ve got her feedback, I’ll go back to work on re-writes. My agent and I made a deal for it last summer. This book is following the more traditional route. We made=2 0the deal, I finished it, got my agent’s blessing on it and sent it off to my editor. My agent’s really high on it so I’ve got my fingers crossed my editor likes it, too. If she does, we’re hoping to put it out in hardback late summer ’09, after we do FRESH KILLS in trade paperback in July.

Right now, I’m taking a break from BLOODROOT and getting the beginning going for my third book, which I hope to have done in about a year or so. This winter, I’m making my acting debut in a short, independent film that’s being shot here in New Orleans. That oughta be interesting. I get the feeling I’ll be sticking with writing. But it’ll be fun.

4. What’s your process like? Morning writer, night writer, or something in between?

On the whole, I’m a night writer. I do most of my work between ten at night and dawn. Very early and very late in a manuscript, I’ll work afternoons and evenings but I do most of my real work in the middle of the night. My wife is a writer and she works in the mornings so our schedules complement each other. I work while she sleeps and vice-versa. I work pretty fast and usually spend at least twice as long with re-writing as I do pushing out the first draft. On a first draft, I’ll spend a lot of time on the first 50-75 pages defining characters and relationships and making notes on plot and at some point the switch will just click over and the story takes off. That’s when it really gets fun. I mostly start with dialog and a central locale and work backwards from there. I’m not one of those writers that likes long breaks. I’m not happy without a project in progress; I start to feel like a bum. Sometimes, though, the hard part is getting myself to back off. I skip meals, lose sleep, live on coffee and cigarettes. I slip into overdrive pretty easily. Finding a balance can be tough; it’s something I’m always struggling to maintain. On average I’ll work four or five days a week, anywhere from ten hours a week, if things are slow, to maybe thirty if I’m rolling.

5. There seems to be an unusually high percentage of writers who own cats. Here at The First Book, we’re doing a study to find out if there’s a direct relationship between writing success and cat ownership. Do you own a cat? If so, tell us about him or her. If not, tell us what you have against cats.

I don’t have a cat. In fact, I have two20dogs, one of whom hates cats. The other I think stops at a hostile curiosity. Cats can’t be trusted. I’m with Dennis Leary on cats. Dogs live to protect you and make you happy and what do most dogs hate more than anything else? Cats. What does that tell you? I can’t love and feed and shelter an animal that only barely tolerates my existence. I’m telling you, if cats had opposable thumbs we’d be living in a different, darker world.

Title:  The Emerald Tablet
Author: P.J. Hoover
Publisher: Blooming Tree Press
Hardcover: 304 pp
ISBN: 9781933767130

1. First off, congratulations on the big novel sale! Give us the elevator pitch. What‘s your book about?

Thanks!

THE EMERALD TABLET is the story of five kids who find out not only are they from a hidden continent under the Pacific Ocean called Lemuria, they aren’t even human. And if that’s not enough, there’s an age-old war going on against Atlantis, and they need to save the world. And summer was supposed to be normal.

THE EMERALD TABLET is aimed at readers of the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson books. It’s a middle grade sci-fi/fantasy, first of a trilogy, and was a total blast to write!

2. Most new novelists have an interesting story to tell about their journey to publication. What‘s yours? Did you use an agent? Make sure to tell us about the day you found out you’d sold a book.

My story involves two main things: networking and the willingness to revise.

I met my editor at the NY SCBWI conference, and because she’s a nice person, she offered to read my manuscript and give me feedback (sidenote: anytime you can get feedback from an editor, take it). After I got her feedback, I performed the major revisions she suggested and asked if I could send it back. She said yes. Long story short. She was amazed at how much I was willing to listen to her suggestions and how quickly I turned it around. This went on a few more times until one day she told be she was ready to acquire it.

3. Do you have another book in the pipeline? What are you working on now?

THE EMERALD TABLET is first of a trilogy. The second book, THE NAVEL OF THE WORLD, is due out in Fall 2009, and the third book, THE NECROPOLIS, in Fall 2010. I’m also working on a MG urban fantasy series with an Egyptian twist along with a YA urban fantasy.

4. What‘s your process like? Morning writer, night writer, or something in between?

Night writer. In fact, until I quit my day job (electrical engineering) back in April, nighttime was the only real time for me to write. I have two young kids, so weekends during the day were out, also. That said, once I did quit the day job, I had time during the day to focus on writing or marketing. I split the time, based mostly on what really needed to get done, but nighttimes are still reserved for writing.

5. There seems to be an unusually high percentage of writers who own cats. Here at The First Book, we‘re doing a study to find out if there’s a direct relationship between writing success and cat ownership. Do you own a cat? If so, tell us about him or her. If not, tell us what you have against cats.

I don’t own a cat. Never have. Probably never will since my husband is allergic to them. Not to mention the claws are a bit intimidating. Small lap dogs seem to be my style. My sister did get a cat once back in college, and they seemed to be cute, likeable animals. The kids would love one, but the husband and the dog would most likely move out. My current dog, a Yorkie, hangs with me in my office all day long. Oh, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my two tortoises who will live to be 180 years old.

Title:  NIGHT FALLS DARKLY
Author: Kim Lenox
Publisher: NAL/Signet Eclipse
Mass Market Paperback: 311 pp
ISBN: 978-0-451-22537-5

1. First off, congratulations on the big novel sale! Give us the elevator pitch. What’s your book about?

Thank you so much for the congratulations! NIGHT FALLS DARKLY is the first book in the Shadow Guard series I am writing for NAL/Signet Eclipse. The books are historical paranormal romances, with a bit of a steampunk edge to them.

The Shadow Guards are a mysterious order of immortals tasked with intervening, as necessary, in the lives and deaths of mortals. Archer, Lord Black, the hero of NIGHT FALLS DARKLY, is a Reclaimer, and is charged with hunting down and eliminating the most morally deteriorated, wicked souls of the earth’s population. At the behest of Queen Victoria he returns to England and immerses himself in the dark, hellish streets of London’s East End. Among the immortal Shadow Guard, he is the most prolific and cunning of the Reclaimers. He revels in the hunt of his current prey: an ill-mannered, reluctant soul reviled in the daily newspapers as Jack the Ripper. Archer has only one weakness … one distraction … the young woman he spared from death two years before.

2. Most new novelists have an interesting story to tell about their journey to publication. What’s yours? Did you use an agent? Make sure to tell us about the day you found out you’d sold a book.

I’m a member of Romance Writers of America, a fantastic writing organization. They have a lot of local subchapters all over the country where you can meet and network with other writers (not just romance writers), and learn more about the craft of writing. Most chapters sponsor a yearly writing contest, and finalist entries usually go to an acquiring editor or an agent for final placement. I was fortunate enough to win or at least final in a number of those contests, and received requests from a handful of NYC editors who wanted to review my full manuscript. Rather than send it to them myself, I listed out my contest wins and the requests in a letter, and queried my short list of agents. That’s how I got my agent Kim Lionetti. So yes, I used an agent.

I had a few days of excitement over selling NIGHT FALLS DARKLY. We had more than one interested party, and I have to say — receiving those “Kim, I have good news” calls was just the best feeling ever.

3. Do you have another book in the pipeline? What are you working on now?

I just turned in copy edits on the second book in the Shadow Guard series, SO STILL THE NIGHT. NIGHT FALLS DARKLY centered around the Jack the Ripper murders. SO STILL THE NIGHT takes place immediately afterward, and is my alternate explanation for the Thames Torso Murders.

4. What’s your process like? Morning writer, night writer, or something in between?

Hmmm. Process. Tangled and complicated. It usually takes me weeks … sometimes months, to finalize a plot, even when I’m writing on deadline. I write a fourteen to fifteen page outline, and work off that. Sometimes I stick to my original plan, and sometimes I change things up. I do my best writing early in the morning, but will also write late at night. I’m a slow writer, and sometimes I have to write scenes or even whole chapters wrong, before I can write it right. I do a lot of revision.

5. There seems to be an unusually high percentage of writers who own cats. Here at The First Book, we’re doing a study to find out if there’s a direct relationship between writing success and cat ownership. Do you own a cat? If so, tell us about him or her. If not, tell us what you have against cats.

I’ve got three cats (and a full size collie who thinks he’s a cat). I’m pretty sure they own me, and not the other way around. There’s Oscar, my enormous ginger Maine Coon. He’s best known for his operatic caterwauling around 4 a.m. every morning. Then there’s Sophie, my shorthaired tuxedo cat. She’s very fretful, and “talks” a lot. She’s also the guardian of my bedroom. Then there’s the new guy, Tango, who is a white and orange Siamese. He’s a ninja cat who runs, bounces and ricochets off walls, furniture and stairs. He’s also responsible for all the tiny claw-prick holes in my new leather sofa, which he likes to use as a springboard for amazing feats of aerial acrobatics. All three of my cats came from the animal shelter.

Oscar and I were featured in the July 2008 issue of CAT FANCY magazine in an article by Christie Craig, titled, “Novelists’ Feline Muses”.