They will be helping the picks polish up their query letters and first pages. Here's a little something about the mentors. Please do follow them on twitter and buy their books. They work hard to help writers and deserve your thanks. Do read down to the bottom of the post for a special surprise!
And more than just bios, they are also listing their favorite writer snacks and cold weather memory for an added bit of fun. Join in. Leave a comment with your favorite writer snack and/or favorite cold weather memory.
And visit Amy's blog to see the Sun mentors.
SFF mentors:
Vicki L. Weavil turned her early
obsession with reading into a career as a librarian. She has a B.A. in Theatre,
a Masters in Library Science, an M.A. in Liberal Studies, and is currently the Library
Director for a performing and visual arts university.
Vicki’s debut novel, the YA fantasy,
CROWN OF ICE, was published by Month9Books in 2014. Two additional books in the
Snow Queen Saga series will be published – SCEPTER OF FIRE in fall 2016 and ORB
OF LIGHT in 2017. Vicki’s YA scifi,
FACSIMILE, will be published by Month9Books on March 8, 2016, with its sequel,
DERIVATION, scheduled to release in 2017. A new YA Fantasy, THE DIAMOND
THIMBLE, will be published in 2018. She also writes adult science fiction.
An avid reader who appreciates good writing in all genres, Vicki’s been known to read seven books in as many days. When not writing or reading, she likes to spend her time watching films, listening to music, gardening, or traveling. Vicki is a member of SCWBI and is represented by Fran Black of Literary Counsel, NY, NY. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and two very spoiled cats.
My favorite writer snack is also one of my favorite snacks -- popcorn!
Cold weather memory: Back when I was a child, we had a huge blizzard that kept us out of school for 3 weeks! (This was in northern Virginia, at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains). There were 20 foot drifts, and the roads right beyond our house were completely impassable -- they had to drop supplies from helicopters to the people who lived farther up the mountain slopes!
I remember walking done a road that was partially cleared (for foot traffic, anyway) and feeling as if the drifts were great walls rising up on either side of the road. It was like a strange, new world. We had to pull a sled up to the small country store in our rural town to get a few things like milk and flour.
An avid reader who appreciates good writing in all genres, Vicki’s been known to read seven books in as many days. When not writing or reading, she likes to spend her time watching films, listening to music, gardening, or traveling. Vicki is a member of SCWBI and is represented by Fran Black of Literary Counsel, NY, NY. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and two very spoiled cats.
My favorite writer snack is also one of my favorite snacks -- popcorn!
Cold weather memory: Back when I was a child, we had a huge blizzard that kept us out of school for 3 weeks! (This was in northern Virginia, at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains). There were 20 foot drifts, and the roads right beyond our house were completely impassable -- they had to drop supplies from helicopters to the people who lived farther up the mountain slopes!
I remember walking done a road that was partially cleared (for foot traffic, anyway) and feeling as if the drifts were great walls rising up on either side of the road. It was like a strange, new world. We had to pull a sled up to the small country store in our rural town to get a few things like milk and flour.
Website/blog: http://vickilempweavil.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VickiLWeavil
Author Page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VickiLempWeavil?ref=hl
Author Page on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7091425.Vicki_L_Weavil
In 1994 Sarah Remy earned a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from Pomona College in California. Since then she’s been employed as a receptionist at a high-powered brokerage firm in Santa Barbara, managed a boutique bookstore in Virginia, read television scripts for a small production company in LA, and worked as a teacher's aide in Washington State. She writes fantasy for Harper Impulse, and speculative and LGBT fiction for her own imprint: Madison Place Press. She's an equestrian, a Holmesian, a Hobbling, an X Files geek, and a staff member at the Organization for Transformative Works.
You can find Sarah at www.madisonplacepress.com, on Twitter as @sarahremywrites, and on Tumblr if you ask nicely.
Romance and WF mentor:
Laura Heffernan is a California-born women's fiction writer, represented by Michelle Richter at Fuse Literary. One Saturday morning when she was four or five, Laura sat down at the family's Commodore 64 and typed out her first short story. She's written ever since. Laura also works as a freelance editor and interns for a super cool literary agent. She's pro-Oxford comma, anti-unnecessary to be verbs, and believes cookie dough is a key food group, especially when writing or editing.
When she used to have spare time, Laura enjoyed travel, baking, board games, and new experiences. She lives in the northeast, freezing like the true California girl she is, with her amazing husband and two furry little beasts. Although she insists on wearing flip-flops long after any reasonable person would give them up, Laura is pleased to announce that she may have finally found the perfect fuzzy socks.
Favorite writer snack: cookie dough (sounds good to me!)
Cold weather memory: This will come as shocking news to anyone who follows me on Twitter, but my favorite writing and editing snack food is chocolate chip cookie dough. It’s best when made from scratch, but I’m happy to eat the prepackaged stuff from stores, too. When I die of salmonella, no one will be surprised.
When she used to have spare time, Laura enjoyed travel, baking, board games, and new experiences. She lives in the northeast, freezing like the true California girl she is, with her amazing husband and two furry little beasts. Although she insists on wearing flip-flops long after any reasonable person would give them up, Laura is pleased to announce that she may have finally found the perfect fuzzy socks.
Favorite writer snack: cookie dough (sounds good to me!)
Cold weather memory: This will come as shocking news to anyone who follows me on Twitter, but my favorite writing and editing snack food is chocolate chip cookie dough. It’s best when made from scratch, but I’m happy to eat the prepackaged stuff from stores, too. When I die of salmonella, no one will be surprised.
I grew up in a land where cold weather was a fantasy, something experienced in far-away lands like Hoth or Boston. So I don’t have any childhood memories of snow or “cold" temperatures that wouldn’t make me roll my eyes now. But after I graduated college and moved east, I started working in an office full of native New Englanders. One day, I was minding my own business, working at my desk, when I looked up and saw the weirdest thing - giant white blobs hurtling out of the sky toward the ground. “Oh my God! What is that?” I pointed and yelled. All of my co-workers chuckled, because I truly had no idea what falling snow looked like.
MG mentor:
Wade Albert White is the author of the middle grade novel, The Adventurer’s Guide to Successful Escapes, and its sequel, The Adventurer’s Guide to Dragons (and Why They Keep Biting Me), forthcoming from Little Brown Books for Young Readers in 2016 and 2017 respectively. In addition to writing, he teaches part time, runs, and hones the skill of playing video games with his kids and losing every single time (really, it’s an art form). He is represented by Elizabeth Kaplan of the Elizabeth Kaplan Literary Agency.
Favorite writer snack:
Trail Mix
Paragraph:
One of my favorite cold weather memories happened during my first year in university. The entire city was buried under five feet of snow in about a day and a half, bringing everything to a complete standstill (I mean, I know I live in Canada, but Holy Snowfall, Batman!). Local snow removal contractors hired out students in droves to help shovel out people’s homes. And I mean that literally. They would drop us off in the middle of a street, point in the direction of a house (in some cases with little more than the roof showing), and say: “Somewhere around here is a driveway with two cars in it, and over there is the front walkway. Those people are trapped in there until you dig them out.” I spent the next thirty-six hours shoveling. That was twenty-five years ago and my arms are still tired.
Twitter: @wadealbertwhite
Website: wadealbertwhite.ca
Mystery and Thriller Mentor:
Max Wirestone is the rapidly balding author of the Dahlia Moss mystery series, which Charlaine Harris called "a barrel of fun," and was featured in Barnes & Noble's "Best of the Season" book display. His first novel, The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss, is currently available in ebook, audiobook, and hardcover, and the "The Astonishing Mistakes of Dahlia Moss" will follow later this year.
Max is also an alumnus of contest just like these, having sent his on query into Query Kombat not too long ago.
My favorite writing snack is bourbon.
My favorite writing snack is bourbon.
My favorite winter memory:
I grew up in southern Alabama, where winter isn't so much as a season as a cosmic happening, like a comet that crosses path with the earth every five years. I suppose my favorite memory is the time it 'snowed', which meant that the the thinnest possible layer of jack frost kissed the ground and Alabamans panicked like it was Ragnarok. Stay off the roads, everyone! A glaze of jack frost is here! Stay inside! Protect your children! Dress appropriately!
My brothers and I wanted to build a snowman, because like other Alabamans, we really did think the end was coming. This was hard because it wasn't at all the right kind of snow, or, arguably, snow at all. Also there was practically none of it. We drug our little wagon all over our yard and picked up every ounce of 'snow' we could get, despite the fact that our snow mostly consisted of decayed leaves and dirt. When we were done, there wasn't a speck of white in the entire front yard.
Then we built a tiny little snowman, which was mucky and horrifying, and essentially looked like something that belonged in the Blair Witch Project. It was made of dirt and its cold black charcoal eyes seemed to say: "please kill me."
The neighborhood kids were so jealous.
Follow him on twitter at @maxwires (he loves the attention) or gaze into the void of his blog at maxwirestone.com
Contemporary Mentor:
Her young adult sci-fi thriller, PHOENIX RISING, won the 2015 YARWA’s Rosemary Award for speculative fiction.
She’s represented by Jessica Watterson of the Sandra Dijkstra Agency.
My favorite writer snack: Plain goldfish crackers. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
My favorite cold weather memory: We recently lost our chocolate lab due to illness. He was almost twelve. I guess my favorite winter memory is from when he was younger, healthier, zippier. We have a long driveway that gradually slopes toward the road and every year, when the snow is packed down from tires, we go sledding. Tucker (or dog) loved sledding. Or, he loved racing along beside us when we went sledding. He’d bark, jump in front of us and nearly make us dump our sled, and then wait for us at the base, tail wagging, panting, mouth wide in a toothy grin. My favorite memory is of the recent sled ride I took in honor of Tucker. Hope you had a good run, buddy.
Twitter: @marty_mayberry
Website: http://martymayberry.com/
Aren't they the tops!
Now the special surprise!
We will be having a Mentor Chat with two sessions on January 29th at 3:00 pm EST and 9:00 pm EST. You can visit the Mentor Chat on twitter and pick the brains of these experienced writers along with the hosts. Feel free to ask questions about genre and word count or writing in general. Ask about their experience on submission or once they were published.
We will be using the hashtag #svschat. Can't wait to see you all there. And the agent post will be coming Friday!
I'm very excited to be a member of Team Snow. And the first one :)
ReplyDeleteMy favorite writing snack is a bowl (or two) of a nut and soy energy mix. Though in a pinch I'll go for a spoonful of peanut butter.
I grew up in Miami, Florida so there aren't many childhood snow memories. In fact, there is only one. It actually snowed in Miami in 1977. It wasn't enough to stick to the ground so snowballs and snowmen were out of the question, but it was enough to catch a flake or two on your tongue and mesmerize me with it's beauty for the rest of my life.