Letting Go

It's funny, but when I started dreaming up the first book in what would become the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, the title came first; Hoosier Dead Guy? I thought it was mildly funny, and it made me smile. That was a year-and-a-half ago. I've turned the first book in (November 30th, 2010) and am about halfway through writing the first draft of the second book, but the process of titling and cover illustration for Book 1 of the Vintage Kitchen Mystery series is about to begin.

My lovely editor warned me that they might want to brainstorm a new title, and it was pointed out to me by my fabulous agent (Hi, Jessica!) that when most folks hear the word 'Hoosier', they think of the college basketball team. (I don't; when I hear 'Hoosier' I think of kitchen cabinets) Or they remember the Gene Hackman movie about the college basketball team.

Basketball? Yikes. The last thing I want is for folks to buy my book thinking they are getting a basketball mystery, though I think one would do very well. But that reader, expecting a sporty mystery with a feisty Indiana basketball team, might not want to end up with a vintage kitchenware collecting, tea drinking, girly girl heroine in a mystery centered around a Hoosier kitchen cabinet.

So, what I'm working up to is this bit of publishing world truth; most writers know that the title of their work is always subject to change. It's difficult sometimes, because if they're like me, they get wedded to their title, and find it hard to break free. But this time I surrendered with grace. I'm proud of myself! I have learned this time around that one must let go and trust the process. Think of your title from all angles, listen to input, take advice. And it truly is best to be a part of the process so you'll end up with something that you like.

After some consideration, and some tweaking of the plot, we brainstormed and found a new working title: A Deadly Grind. I won't tell you yet why that is the perfect title--and no, it's not gross--but it is just right. I can't wait to see my cover, which I still hope will have some rendering of a Hoosier-type kitchen cabinet, much like the one pictured above.

This lovely photo is used with the permission of John Lucas: http://www.johnbob.net/hoosier.html

Visit his wonderful and entertaining page today, if you, like me, are interested in the vintage kitchen!

Good news all around!

I have some great news to share.

First and foremost, I suppose, is that I do have a publication date for the first book of the Vintage Kitchen Mystery series. But it seems so far away!!! May 2012. Sigh.

But the second piece of news will help me while away the time. I am excited to announce that I have been invited to join the group over at Killer Characters, a great blog with posts from all the characters out of cozy mysteries!! Jaymie Leighton, the star of the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries has already had an entry; I guested at Killer Characters. But now I've been invited as a member, and the first post, from Jaymie's older sister, Becca, is on Monday! I'll post the link when it is up.

I'll be back...

Update: Ooooops!!! My face is red... actually, a shade of cerise. I mispoke on the date for my first blog entry as a 'Killer Characters' member. Becca's post will be up on MARCH 21st, not today!

Back to waiting... and writing! No holiday for cozy writers, you know.

Lady in Waiting

Every business has its share of 'hurry up and wait' times, when you have rushed to complete a project by deadline, only to wait in agony while the project is approved or reviewed. Time, compressed until hours feel like seconds in the first instance while frantically working, now elongates until days feel like years as the 'wait' is on.

Such is life as a novelist. While we can (and do, if we're smart) move on to work on other projects, there is still that nagging sense of looming agony or ecstasy. Will the editor like the book? Will they need massive changes, or none at all, or most likely, some changes, which they'll need by - of course - a tight deadline.

I've been in the game long enough to know how it works. But still... I'm so anxious to know if Book One of the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, 'Hoosier Dead Guy?' is to the editor's taste, if she thinks I'm on track. I've gone on to Book Two, 'Bowled Over', but I'd feel a whole lot better if I knew Book One was how the editor envisioned it.

Sigh.

And then I/we could get on to the fun stuff, like cover design and... sheesh... a publication date.

So, to distract myself from the agony of the wait, here is a list of random musings:

• Why do we always capitalize 'I', but not 'we' in writing; aren't 'we' more important than 'I'?
• Why does my desk always end up in the same disgraceful state no matter what resolutions I make to the contrary?
• How can someone as reasonably intelligent as I am (or pretend to be) love reality TV so much?
• If winter comes, can spring be far behind?

And so I wait... my publication date is the proverbial watched pot that never boils. When I fuggedaboutit and just write on, that's the moment I'll find out my fate/publication date.

Until then, picture me counting paperclips and wondering why I have so many when I use, maybe, five a year. At this point, I have enough paperclips to last me until 2075.

The photos for this entry are used courtesy of Photo 8, a site that offers marvelous photos free!

To my Vintage Valentine...

Who knew there was such a place as the Vintage Valentine Museum? Well, there is, at least on the 'net.

Happy Valentine's day, everyone!!

http://www.vintagevalentinemuseum.com/

And so it begins... Part 3

And so it begins... Part 3  - The road to mystery publication, which started so slow and winding, takes a steep new path, and I'm just along for the ride... wheee!

When an agent is working with you on a project, they will sometimes suggest changes, ask you to polish the proposal more, etc., but I had worked for four months, and my proposal was like glass, it was so polished! Jessica suggested the change from 'Vintage Collectibles Mystery Series' to 'Vintage Kitchen Mysteries' and I accepted immediately. In fact, I felt kinda stupid for not thinking about it myself. It was clearly a much better description of the series!

She then put together a list of possible editors at different houses to send it to. I was so excited! The list was impressive, all the best houses. Almost immediately (within days) we got one very interesting rejection from a very good house. The editor said the work was 'too good for a mass market paperback release', but a little too slight for a hardback. I was overwhelmed. That is an extreme compliment, for someone with modest expectations. Too good for paperback?

Writing Tip: In publishing, whether you are approaching

editors or agents, shoot for the very best, first. If you get

rejected there, then go down a notch to smaller

agencies/houses. Give yourself a chance to excel!

I just hoped not everyone felt that way! LOL.

And then... and then... before the other publishers even had a chance to come in with an offer, we heard from Berkley Prime Crime, the creme de la creme, the tiptop, the pinnacle of my ambition. Prime Crime, the home of Kate Collins, Monica Ferris (love her stitching mysteries), Joanna Carl, and Cleo Coyle! Susan Wittig Albert! Laura Childs! I could go on and on. And on.

I won't.

They thought I was the Goldilocks of cozy mystery authors, in other words, Hoosier Dead Guy? was 'just right'! (that wretched Goldilocks metaphor didn't really work, no matter how I wrote it, but oh well!) We accepted the offer (after some negotiation) and so Vintage Kitchen Mysteries was born. Book One-I sure hope they stay with my title, Hoosier Dead Guy?, but there's no guarantee that they will-will come out... well, I don't have a pub date yet, but you'll be the first to know when I do.

And that, my darlings, is the road to publication of Vintage Kitchen Mysteries and 'Hoosier Dead Guy?'.

Have I said the series name and book title enough times to have it ingrained in you, like part of your DNA?? I sure hope so! I'll have more to say about the road to cozy mystery publishing as I go further in the process, of course. Right now, I am done the first book, it is with the editor, and I am about a third of the way into Book 2 - Bowled Over.

So... now for a pop quiz... oh, don't groan! You in the back, put your desk lid down and listen up. No gum! Turn off your cell phone!

I want to know...

• How many of you who read Cozy Mysteries also (secretly, or not) plan/wish/hope to write them, too?
• Is there anything I can tell you about my road that I haven't already? (Can't imagine that, but you never do know.)
• Do you want to know any more about the publishing industry?
• Do any of you read cozy mysteries for the information you get out of them, too? No, I don't mean how to kill people (at least, I hope not) I mean, all the how-tos, sprinkled like confetti through cozy mysteries; do you relish learning how to make glass, crochet a sweater, do crewel work, bake a cupcake, darn a sock, cook fettucine, wax a surfboard?

Drop me a line anytime!

And so it begins... Part 2b

Where did we leave off? Oh, yeah... I had made a list of agents, and begun proposing. Onwards and... upwards?

And so it begins... Part 2b

I sent out proposals to a dozen agents or more, probably, over the course of two months, two or three per week, all solicited queries. But... not all of the Vintage Kitchen series. Though I knew the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries was a solid cozy series idea, I also believed (still do) that the other book/series proposal was/is a good idea. Some of the literary agents were not suitable for a purely 'cozy' proposal, so I sent those agents the other idea. I would, I decided, leave it up to God/fate/destiny what happened.

One or two got back to me fairly quickly with a 'this isn't for me' kind of response. But it was a bad time of year to be proposing to anyone in New York. For those who don't know, the publishing world basically shuts down in December, July and August (in my experience). The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is especially bad, so I knew it would be tough sledding. Most agents and editors are determined to clear their desks of piled up work in that period, and focus on the clients and projects at hand.

One saving grace, in that time, was that I had a finished romance manuscript accepted at a big new start-up, so Christmas 2009 was not terrible. I can say that now. It didn't feel so sunny/rosy/rainbowy all over then. I was distraught and full of doubt. Had I made a mistake? Should I be writing the next big romance novel? After all, it was work, and I like romance novels.

January came, as it inevitably does, in the middle of that long winter, and so, as January progressed, came the 18th, right after the 17th, as usual. Jessica Faust was now... open for queries again!! But me? I let the date pass without leaping onto my computer and sending off the cozy proposal. Wouldn't want to look to anxious, you know. I was like the uber-cool fella who slouches along by the popular girl, but doesn't join the horde of hopeful suitors. I'd wait. A few days. I couldn't stand to wait long, mind you.

I sent my query to Jessica on January 20th or 21st, and sat back to wait. She requested the proposal fairly quickly, I sent it, and then sat back to wait again. And wait I did. She was inundated with queries/proposals, as I knew she would be.

But a few weeks later I got an enthusiastic email saying she read the proposal, couldn't believe she had waited so long, and wanted to talk. We talked, and in that phone call she tried to give me time to think about signing with her. Hah!!! As if I'd let her go that easy. I told her I didn't need any time; I'd done the research, and I knew that she was my 'dream' agent. I didn't need a moment more, not even a millisecond.

'Send me the contract', I said, and sent an email to every other agent who had one of my proposals. I was off the market. It had taken me five or six months, but I got my literary agent, and I was gung ho to go!

And so it begins... Part 3  - The road to mystery publication, which started so slow and winding, takes a steep new ascent, and I'm just along for the ride... wheee!

And so it begins... Part 2a

Where did I leave off? Let's see... reformed romance author finds new agent she wants to work with, and begins to create new mystery series, blah, blah...

And so it begins... Part 2a - Turning an idea into a cozy mystery series, and the bumps along the way. Especially trying to find an agent! 

So, using the advice from the agent I wanted to impress, Jessica Faust of Bookends, I read some of her clients' cozies and conceived an idea for a series based on a vintage cookware/cookbook collector. I began to plan it out, (that, by the way, is a lot of fun; creating a series is like starting life over, inventing where you want to live, building the perfect house and surrounding yourself with all the stuff you like... cool!) worked out the plot, wrote the synopsis and three chapters. Finally, I thought... finally, I am getting close to being ready to present Proposal Number Two to Superagent Jessica Faust. I wasn't quite there, but I wanted to be sure I was on the right track.

Soooo, I went to the Bookends website to brush up on query/proposal FAQ and... OMG!!! Found a note there that Jessica had gone on query/proposal hiatus for FOUR months! Four! Not one, not two, not even three freaking months, but FOUR. Four long, difficult, tiring, anxious... okay, I think you got it. For a starving and anxious writer - I was without a book contract for the first time in ten years - four months is a long, long time. It was September, and she wasn't open to queries again until January 18th, 2010. See, I remember the date! That's how anxious I was.

Writing Tip: When approaching an agent, take time to look over their website and check out their query/proposal preferences. Tailor your proposal to what they like to see, and you'll give yourself a boost in the dicey game of finding an agent.

But... I've been in the business a while. The first rule of publishing for someone who wants to be published is, don't put all your novels in one bookcase. One must be adaptable, flexible, Cirque du Soleil stretchy! I worked and polished and wrote and polished some more until the proposal for 'Hoosier Dead Guy?' and the next two books in the Vintage Kitchen Mystery series (it wasn't called that yet; Jessica - of course - gave me that idea) was shiny-bright 'n ready. And I began, late in 2009, to approach (gasp!) other literary agents. I had to move ahead, and it was the only way I knew how. So I did the research and began with a list of good agents, worthy agents. Respectable and capable agents. Solid agents who I knew would represent me well.

Every single one of them (from whom I heard back,) asked for the proposal from the query. That's very good, in the publishing business, when it's sometimes hard to get beyond the query. But I knew my solid writing background had gotten me thus far. If the work wasn't good enough, it would get me no further. I was still pining after Ms. Faust, but I had steeled myself to look further afield.

And so it begins... Part 2b  - Will one of those agents grab me? Will I be faced with the decision of whether to wait for Jessica (aka Ms. Superagent) to open up to queries again, or will no one else want me? Hint: the time of year was in my favor, in one weird way, and I do believe that fate/destiny smiled on my enterprising little heart!

And so it begins, Part 1b

Here I am again, and as I said in Part 1a, I listened to Jessica's advice to read up some of the books by writers on her list of cozy mystery authors!

Valuable Writing Tip; when an agent you respect gives you advice, listen.

 So, I read a couple, (more than a couple... all of the covers here are of Bookends' client books that I read - Look below in the right hand column for links to these cozy authors' sites and more!) and got the idea that the current crop of cozy mystery series are often centred around hobbies or interests. I read a glass blowing mystery, an apple orchard mystery, a crochet mystery, and so on.

Hmmm. I am a crafty kinda gal; what could I center a series around? I like to cross stitch and cook, I love cats and tea, and nature. Nothing called to me, until... I am a rabid collector of kitcheniana. In my fairly small kitchen I have crammed vintage Pyrex, Corelle, utensils, teacups, vintage cookbooks, vintage linens (tablecloths and napkins), and lots of other stuff. Including a big and beooootiful Hoosier-style kitchen cabinet.

I didn't want to do a series about an antiques dealer, and I am not competent enough to write one about a deeply studied collector. I needed, for a protagonist, someone who, like me, was new to the collecting game, enthusiastic, still learning, and yet someone who knew what she liked. And so Jaymie Leighton, star of the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, was born, as a lover of all things kitcheny and vintagey.

Part 2 - Turning an idea into a cozy mystery series, and the bumps along the way. What to do when the agent you want is not going to be accepting queries for four long months? 

And so it begins... Part 1a

This is all new and exciting for me, creating a mystery series, and if you are a cozy reader, I thought the process might interest you.

I am introducing my new cozy mystery series, the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, starting some month/year in the future with the publication of Hoosier Dead Guy? (that's the working title, anyway... do you know what a Hoosier cabinet is? If not, you soon will!). (Edited May 9th 2011 - New title is A Deadly Grind... so far, anyway. Editor was concerned folks would hear 'Hoosier' and think basketball!!) I thought, in speaking of the series in this blog, that I'd start at the beginning and work forward. Even in Wonderland, this usually works quite nicely. (Remember, the King of Hearts said, "Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end, then stop."

So, the beginning of my achievement of a lifelong goal - a three-book contract with Berkley Prime Crime for a cozy mystery series - is thus; several months ago I achieved my dream of scoring the big score... Jessica Faust of Bookends Literary agreed to represent me. Amazingly. I've spent years thinking I wasn't ready, and maybe I wasn't, or maybe I was holding myself back by writing things that weren't really up my alley. I love and read cozy mysteries, but I wrote several mysteries that could best be described as awkward hybrids, neither fish nor fowl. (Sidebar... where did that phrase come from? Note to self; look it up.)

But wait a minute... that's really not the beginning, is it? What proposal did I show Jessica that convinced her to take it - and me - on? How did I come up with the idea, you ask?

Okay, so we really need to go back further, more than a year ago.

I had a literary agent, and we had worked together for years in my previous incarnation as a romance author. (Aha, says the perspicacious reader, so you did have a hand up in the business! In one sense, I suppose I did. Successfully transitioning from being a romance author to publication in my first love, mystery writing, eluded me for years, though.) But he and I were going in different directions, and that's okay. It took me far too long to recognize it, and we stayed together for too long out of loyalty and mutual appreciation. He was (and is) a really nice guy, and a good agent. For someone else. But I wanted to be a mystery author, and always have, and he didn't have a whole lot of experience in that area.

So, I began to research agents, and it didn't take me long to figure out that Jessica Faust of Bookends Literary was it, the pinnacle, the epitome of everything I wanted. So I brushed up my proposal for a mystery series, and sent it to her.

And got a polite rejection. I could have left it at that, but I didn't. I emailed her, thanking her for the rejection (!! This is generally not advised, but I did it anyway.) and asking if I could do something to the book that would make it more palatable. She said, 'not really'. Then she wrote the key phrase that changed everything for me. She suggested that I was a very good writer - that wasn't the problem - but if I was truly interested in writing a cozy mystery series, I should look at her list of clients, and pick a few books to read.

I listened, and...

Continued in Part 1b!

First Author Interview!!

This is amazing... I have just finished my first manuscript for the Vintage Kitchen Mystery series, which will be published by Berkley Prime Crime. My due date was November 30th, and I made it... yay! Now I can heave a huge sigh of relief, and start to get nervous for the editor reading it, (nail biting time) which she won't be able to do until the new year.

I can also begin some of the fun stuff, like working on this blog! I have been buying up vintage cookbooks lately, and am going to share some recipes from them, and I want to photogrpah some of my vintage cookware, as well as the infamous (or soon to be infamous!) Hoosier cabinet that inspired Hoosier Dead Guy?, the working title for the first book in the Vintage Kitchen Mystery series.

The most fun I've had lately is this wonderful author interview with Dorothy Dreyer of We Do Write, a great blog dedicated to interviews of aspiring and new writers. She made the interview so much fun, and the photo illustrations are wonderful. I collect teacups, too, as well as vintage cookware, and I swear she snuck in to my cupboards and got a few of the teacups out for the stack she has illustrating the blog! Drop in and learn more about me, Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, and Hoosier Dead Guy?.

http://we-do-write.blogspot.com/2010/12/interview-with-victoria-hamilton.html