Sarah E. Holroyd's Blog: Ludicrous News

I entered my short story “Santa’s Got a Brand New App” in a contest and won third place, which came with a cash prize!

Santa’s Got a Brand New App

The post Third place appeared first on Sarah E. Holroyd.

Earlier this week I got my picture book critique back from Jess Carroll. It was very helpful to me in revising the manuscript for Charley Finds Her Family. Jess pointed out areas where I was describing too much in the text, which should be left to the illustrator. She also suggested different ways to reword parts to make them stronger, or to streamline the overall message and content. After reworking it based on her suggestions, it went from 839 words and 34 pages to 691 words and the industry-standard 32 pages. I definitely recommend a manuscript critique for any new author!

With the manuscript revised and streamlined, I sent it off this morning to the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Work-In-Progress Awards. Unfortunately, the winners won’t be announced until September, so I’ll just  have to try to forget about it until then!

The post WIP Award Submission appeared first on Sarah E. Holroyd.

Last week I posted about a weekly contest from Jess Carroll for a free picture book critique. And I won! So I sent Charley Finds Her Family off to her and I’m just waiting (10-14 days) for her feedback. Hopefully she’ll get it back to me before the end of the month, because that’s the deadline for entries to the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Work-In-Progress Awards. I’ve rewritten parts of the story based on other feedback I’ve received, but I want to see Jess’s critique as well (and probably do some more rewriting based on it) before the submission deadline.

Someday, Charley…someday we’ll find a publisher for you!

The post Sarah for the contest win! appeared first on Sarah E. Holroyd.

Enter to win a free picture book manuscript critique from Jess Carroll, a Canadian children’s writer and illustrator! There are four different ways to enter at the link below. A critique can help you to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your story, and improve it overall in preparation for querying agents or publishers.

GIVING BACK

The post Picture book critique raffle! appeared first on Sarah E. Holroyd.

That is the question. Yes, I’ve been querying agents and small publishers for Charley’s book. No, it hasn’t been very long since I began querying. But I’m an impatient person. I want to share Charley with the world! I want to publish this book! Now! So I toy with the idea of self-publishing her story. But that would require hiring an illustrator, and the quotes I’ve been getting from artists with a style I like range from about $1,000 to $6,000 for 15 two-page spreads and a cover. Couple that with production costs (I would want to find an offset printer, probably, rather than Print On Demand), and then warehousing and distribution costs, and it just seems impossible. There’s always the option of a crowdfunding campaign to raise the money, but that comes with a whole other set of costs and management and headaches.

This publishing gig is hard work!

I have recently joined the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators to try to network and maybe hook up with the local chapter, so maybe that will help. Learn from the pros, right?

The post To self-publish or not to self-publish… appeared first on Sarah E. Holroyd.

I’ve queried a few agents and publishers for Charley Finds Her Family, but haven’t had any interest yet. I wonder if part of the problem is that they don’t have any idea who these characters are, what they look like. With that in mind, I commissioned a sample illustration of all four of my characters to include with future submissions. What do you think? From the left, this is Teddy the Bear, Bubbles the Yarn Kitty, Charley Sock-kitty, and Patrick the Pony.

The post Sample illustration appeared first on Sarah E. Holroyd.

Santa finally updates his Naughty List processing. But what happens when a mischievous boy gets his hands on it?

Just in time for the holidays! This short story is available from Amazon, Smashwords, as a PDF, and downloadable .epub or .mobi file for free.

Happy holidays to all!

The post Santa’s Got a Brand New App appeared first on Sarah E. Holroyd.

I just checked the date stamp on my WIP and I haven’t touched the file since 26 October! I’ve gotten caught up in querying both News from Ludicrous and Charley Finds Her Family, and obsessively checking Query Tracker and my email. Bad author!

I just don’t seem to have the motivation to get back into The Other One. Perhaps part of it is the time of year. With the sun going down by 4:30, it’s hard to feel motivated to do much of anything. Part of it is also that I already know how the story ends. This happened to me with Ludicrous as well, which is why it took me more than eight years to finish the first draft (it started as my 2008 NaNoWriMo project). I began the current novel the year before (NaNoWriMo 2007), so it will end up taking much longer than eight years. But it seems that planning out the full plot is the only thing that works for me to actually complete a project, so I’m just going to have to figure out how to re-motivate myself to finish this one.

The post Stalled appeared first on Sarah E. Holroyd.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a good resource to study if you want to write witty, snappy dialogue with really good pacing. Today I want to talk about a resource to study when you want to create complex, very human characters: Garden State, written and directed by Zach Braff (more widely known as JD from Scrubs).

Zach plays Andrew, a struggling actor working as a waiter in LA who is numb to life, to everything, to the point of not having much of a reaction when his father calls with the news that his mother has died. Andrew flies home to New Jersey (the Garden State) for his mother’s funeral. As the main focus of the story, Andrew goes through the most significant change over the course of the movie. Bits of Andrew’s backstory are included where appropriate to explain the large number of pill bottles in his LA apartment bathroom, his emotional detachment from the whole world, and the reason he hadn’t been home in nine years. The viewer gradually begins to see the real Andrew emerge from his pill-induced emotional coma and begin to make connections with those around him.

Sam, played by Natalie Portman, is an epileptic compulsive liar, who lives in a somewhat crazy household. She initially appears to be the exact opposite of Andrew, although perhaps a bit superficial. But like Andrew, she shows more and more depth over the course of the story, and helps Andrew to start rebuilding his emotional life.

Mark, played by Peter Sarsgaard, is one of Andrew’s childhood friends. We first meet him at Andrew’s mother’s funeral, where Mark, a gravedigger, is waiting to finish the job. Mark has a bizarre relationship with his mother (with whom he still lives), who is dating someone the same age as her son. Mark seems to be wandering aimlessly through life. He has all kinds of investment plans (including collecting Desert Storm trading cards), but not much ambition. But like Sam, Mark plays a very important role in helping Andrew to reconnect with those around him, and to discover a lost piece of his childhood.

The post Trouble writing complex, flawed characters? appeared first on Sarah E. Holroyd.

In a Facebook group this morning, a reference to this blog post by Leonard Chang surfaced*. As an editor, I was astonished by the lack of sensitivity shown by this editor. This person actually thinks it’s okay for the author to have his character look in the mirror and “show how she sees her slanted eyes, or how she thinks of her Asianness.” Right. Because as a Caucasian female, I always look in the mirror and comment to myself about how not slanted my eyes are, and what I think about being Caucasian. I mean, who doesn’t, right? Don’t we all constantly think about how we look in terms of describing our own race to someone else?

There are far better ways to indicate this character’s racial identity. How about her culture? How about how she interacts with people of another race? Why would an editor feel justified in telling an Asian author that his characters “just do not seem Asian enough. They act like everyone else.”

I hope that I am never this insensitive when I have my editor hat on, and I hope that I never encounter an editor this insensitive when I have my author hat on.

*Disclaimer: There is some strong language in the post.

The post Astonishingly bad editorial feedback appeared first on Sarah E. Holroyd.