When you see this image, do you NEED to know more about Lola LeFever? If so, head over to Amazon or Lulu to buy your digital copy of THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING!
Lola LeFever by Stephanie Hans
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Big news this week, as the book Chicks Dig Comics, which I was lucky enough to be a part of, released this week.
You can buy it online at Amazon & B&N and it should be available in some comic book stores as well.
My piece called “I am Sisyphus and I am Happy” is about how I came to comics, how I came to writing about comics, and specifically how She Has No Head! came to be. It’s a deeply personal piece, and I hope you all enjoy it. I am sandwiched in there with SO MANY amazing ladies including Gail Simone, Marjorie Liu, Amanda Conner, Carla Speed McNeil, Jen Van Meter, Colleen Doran, Jill Thompson, Jill Pantozzi, and of course, my partner in crime, SUE. And that’s just the beginning…there are plenty of other great female contributors as well as a few fantastic gents like Greg Rucka, Terry Moore, and Mark Waid.
Huge thanks to Sigrid Ellis and Lynn M. Thomas for letting me part of such a great book
I also have a new piece up at Lit Reactor that is the continued story of my path toward publication. Retweets, likes, and comments are (as always) much appreciated!
Thanks everyone for all the support!
For those of you that have expressed interest in my experience with my novel – the writing of it, the query process, securing an agent, shopping the book to publishers, and beyond – look no further! The first in a series of essays about my experiences with my first novel (once upon a time called Superhero Junkies) is up on Lit Reactor.
The Long & Winding Road: Part 1 – Writing The Novel
I hope you all enjoy it, and for those of you engaged in some phase of novel writing, that it might also be helpful. Enjoy and as always – comments, likes, and retweets are much appreciated!
Tags: iit reactor, novels, shameless self promotion, the long and winding road
Hey Everyone!
Just wanted to give you a heads up that the Womanthology Preview is up on CBR. And since “SuperLess Hero” the story by Stephanie Hans and yours truly, is the first story in the book, you can actually read our story in its entirety in the preview!
Thanks for all the support and positive thoughts that you have all offered and continue to offer! Enjoy!
Tags: comics!, publication, superless hero, things made of awesome
The Womanthology Tumblr is doing some wonderful previews of the book. And today Stephanie Hans and my story, SuperLess Hero went up. Head on over to see the first two pages! And keep going back to see more as pages continue to go up.
Also, I’m pretty sure SuperLess Hero is the first story in the book…which is pretty damn awesome.
Hey kids.
So just wanted to drop a line about a great little book called Chicks Dig Comics from Mad Norwegian Press in which yours truly has an essay. The lovely Sue from DC Women Kicking Ass sent the editors my way, and as a result I’ll have an essay published this spring with a bunch of completely brilliant ladies from Gail Simone and Marjorie Liu to Jen Van Meter and Jill Thompson and so many more. It was a great opportunity and huge thanks to editors Lynne M. Thomas and Sigrid Ellis for giving me a chance.
My essay, titled “I AM SISYPHUS, AND I AM HAPPY”, is a hopefully humorous look at how I came to comics originally as a teenager and also how I got my foot in the door with Comics Should Be Good. More importantly perhaps, it discusses the eternal battle I have blending feminism and comics as the two frequently make terrible bedfellows.
The book comes out in April 2012 and you can pre-order it now from Amazon. Also, though I will not be there, it seems as if the book will get its official launch in Chicago at C2E2 the weekend of April 13th, 2012. So if you’re there, stop by and say hi to these awesome ladies.
You can see it live blogged here. I don’t know how I feel about it. I suppose I can’t afford it right now regardless of how I feel about it. It interests me most as an e-reader, as I think that is the direction publishing is headed (unfortunately in some ways, fortunately in others) and I’m not wild about the Kindle and Sony E-reader that currently exist. This looks like a step up in that regard…it’s kinda big though…
Update: They haven’t gotten to anything specific to e-readers yet…well, they did just show a pretty good looking New York Times…
Okay…here we go…ibooks…looks WAY better than The Kindle
Oooh. You can change the font. That’s a nice feature.
Wow. $499 for the iPad. Honestly…that is…not bad. I was thinking it would be a lot more. I still can’t afford it…but that’s a pretty impressive price point for what seems like a pretty broad spectrum of functionality. Plus it’s pretty.
Update 2: Here’s a link to a video of the iPad in action. At the end it shows the ibook application. Again, a huge step up from Kindle and Sony by the looks of it…but where are the comic books…? Until we get there I think I’m probably an admirer rather than a buyer. Because you know as soon as buy this a new one that works (or works better at least) for comics and trade paper backs will release…
So this is Part Two in a series of posts detailing what I’ve learned about writing and publishing over the past three -ish years on my road to finishing my novel and working with an agent and eventually trying to get published. For Part One, go here, and make sure to read about how I’m totally not an expert and check out all the helpful links that can educate FAR more than I can.
With that out of the way, I’m going to tell you my story, for my novel and what my experience has been. That doesn’t mean it’s everyone’s experience, or that you should expect it to go similarly for you, but it might at least be helpful in reading about how the process has been working for me. This installment is primarily about AGENTS.
I finished the first totally complete draft of my novel in January of 2007. I had been working on it (among other projects) off and on (and while working full time – and picking up my life and moving from Los Angeles to New York) since sometime in late 2004. Many people can do it faster than that. I hope my next one will come faster but that’s how long it took me to get my first novel to “the end”. And to top everything off this draft was short to boot. Clocking in at only 55k words, a length that is “technically” too short for most fiction, even YA (young adult), but there it was. Complete.
So I started the process of having a few people read it. As this was my first time finishing a novel I didn’t have any beta readers. A beta reader can be defined I suppose as someone that doesn’t have a personal investment in you (like your boyfriend, best friend, parents, siblings, etc.) and it’s usually somebody that is also either a writer or an editor, or at a minimum a voracious reader. Though I find you’re better off with the former as their notes tend to be more focused and the critique more intensive. So though I didn’t have beta readers technically, I did have some amazing people in my life that were writers and artists that I hoped would be able to separate their affection for me from their ability to constructively critique the manuscript. This sort of worked and after getting feedback from three or four friends I embarked on revisions.
I finished the revisions in April of 2007 and sat on the new manuscript for nearly four months.
Another rejection. Sigh. These things seem to come in groups, so I’m steeling myself for a few more.
This was an official rejection from the smallish literary agency that had a partial of my book (since January). I was optimistic (until recently) on this one because they’re a small house that seemed to have a lot in common with me, and my work, but alas it is not to be. For the record the rejection was quite nice, though it is likely their form rejection as it doesn’t even have “Dear Ms. Thompson” on it. It’s nice that they have a “nice” form rejection, but after two personal emails to me and keeping my 50 page partial for almost five months it would have been nice to get something at least SLIGHTLY personalized.
Oh well, onto the next. Here’s the summary for those keeping track.
#1. Partial Requested and Rejected. Took about seven weeks from receipt of partial. Door left open to submit future work.
#2. Never heard back on regular mail Query. Over six months ago, considered Rejected.
#3. Never heard back on email Query. Almost six months ago, considered Rejected.
#4. Partial Requested and Rejected. Took five months from receipt of partial.
#5. Full Requested. Full Sent. Manuscript sent four months ago. Emailed three weeks ago as follow up, no response as yet.
#6. No response to email query. Almost five months out, considered a Rejection at this point.
#7. Rejection to regular mail query from huge agency, about a ten week turnaround.
#8. Rejected Query, about a 30 hour turnaround.
So, five rejected queries; two rejected partials; one requested full. And no more queries living in oblivion. Time to slam my nose into the grindstone again it seems. Oy.
I just found out I’ve been awarded “Blog Of The Day” over on Fuel My Blog. Check it out!
Thanks Fuel My Blog!