An Interview with Author Heidi Ayarbe by Julie Dillard

Back in grad school at the University of Nevada, Reno, I met Heidi Ayarbe. I lucked into being her roommate--I think there may have been enchiladas verdes involved in some kind of bribe, but the details grow fuzzy. What I'm sure of is that Heidi is through and through one of the kindest, funniest, most thoughtful people you'll meet on campus, in the writing world, or anywhere. It's surprising I didn't go all Single White Female, come to think of it... And Heidi's life grows ever more amazing to me--full of travel adventures, a growing family, more books...

Pick up any one of her novels--Wanted, Compulsion, Compromised, or Freeze Frame, and you'll see that (besides being a particularly nifty human being) she's got imagination and talent to spare.

So, let's pick her brain, shall we?

How did a girl from Carson City, Nevada end up in Colombia?

It was a bit of a crap shoot, really. One weekend, I borrowed YOUR book (if you remember) called WORKING AROUND THE WORLD. And I sent out random resumes to places all over the world. Six months later, I got a call from a bi-national institute in Pereira, Colombia, asking me if I’d like to come work. I looked at a map. I saw mountains and said, “Okay. I’ll be there in January.”

I was only supposed to stay two years (now sixteen years ago), but I met my husband, we now have two beautiful girls, and fifteen years of traveling, backpacking, and crazy stories in us. Hey!  I’m not one to miss out on a great love story! Especially if I get to be part of it.

What do you miss most about your hometown? 

My family!! And the history of growing up in a place where you get all the jokes and nuances. History with people who've known me since I was born. 

What do you appreciate most about Colombia? 

How open the people are – family isn't just a blood-tie. I am grateful for how gracious Colombians are. I've learned a lot about tolerance living down here.

How did you come to be a published author? A lot of work and a smidgen of luck. (I know I’m not supposed to say the second part, but I do believe there’s an element of timing. Never fear … some people’s timing takes years to “happen” … others months. It WILL happen.) Anyway, I suppose you want the nitty gritty.

When I was 27, I was working at a local sporting goods store. The local arts center posted a sign, inviting people to come listen to a children’s author speak. That author was Ellen Hopkins.

I always read. Constantly. From the time I was little. But I never wanted to be a writer because I thought it was impossible. I went to see Ellen. At the time she was writing non fiction novels for the school market. It sounded so possible. She invited me to join a writer’s group called “Writers of the Purple Sage.” I did.

I began writing for local family magazines, subbing articles for Highlights for Children Magazine and wrote ANYTHING anybody asked me. I even wrote “how to” manuals for an Argentinian publishing house: one about how to get kids to sleep (ha! I have two now and just have to say, Ha! That was probably bad karma.) and one on natural hormone replacement therapy for menopause (not there yet, not looking forward to it). In the meantime I was working on my novels. Freeze Frame, my first published, was my third novel. (The other two are too dreadful to even name.) I took about a year and a half to write the first draft, researched the agent market like crazy, and was so fortunate to get an offer from Stephen Barbara to rep me! That was in 2006. It’s been almost seven years, and he’s sold five of my books. I’m so fortunate!

What has surprised you most about being a professional writer?

Well, it never gets any easier. Ever … I have a real tough time with first drafts and I thought that would change. Ha! Doesn't. And the pressure is still there – just different.  
Also, I don’t feel any more “professional” than the “to be published” authors. I know such talented people with ideas that crack your brain. Publishing is in a hard place right now – big houses, medium houses … are up against a “commercial” wall. But great books get published every year. Risks are taken on projects that many turn down. So … it’s surprising what becomes big. It’s always something unexpected!

What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of the writing life?

I love the writing (most of the time … J ). I get excited about revisions. LOVE LOVE revisions. Truly and totally. And I so rarely get to be with readers, that I love doing school visits and launch parties etc. Living in Colombia limits my access to readers. Also, having two kids limits my availability.

I don’t usually tell people I’m a writer because we live in a world where people are valued by numbers (numbers sold, numbers made etc.) and not the actual act of sitting and writing. I hate having to “explain” what I do to people. And I hate the question: What is your book about? That sounds weird, but I feel lame whenever I talk about my books. 

What have you found to be most useful in developing as a writer—I mean, what has helped you make progress with craft?

Working with GREAT editors always helps! J I've worked with Jill Santopolo, Ruta Rimas, Sara Sargent, a touch with Tamra Tuller … it’s like an all-star lineup of great minds. I LOVE when editors push me to my limits.

Outside of the editor realm: reading great books. But not just reading. Paying attention to craft. Even while watching movies and TV shows, it’s super important to watch how the plot unravels, characters reveal themselves. I LOVE that. And, since I've “become” a writer, I rarely am surprised. This last year I read a novel by Ann Patchett, State of Wonder, and the ending just completely blew me away. Totally. I loved that!

Most of all, time. Dedication. BIC (Butt In Chair) inspiration. I have learned I have to give myself the space to write badly. There’s ALWAYS revision, but pushing through and getting a project done is incredibly important.

Have you used the same process for writing and revising your novels, or …?

Writing has changed from the lofty marathon pace I had with Freeze Frame to the wind sprints I've done with my subsequent novels. Why? I’m now a Mom. Wow. When I sit to write, it’s like fire coming out of my keyboard.

Revisions never change. When I get my revision letter, the first thing I do is hit my head against anything really hard until I’m ready to actually get to work. Then I read the revision letter again, and I start to write notes – mad writing, brain storming, stream of consciousness thoughts. I clean that up and after a few days of that, I send the letter back to my editor and wait for the thumbs up. Then … sprints to revise.

Do you have any least favorite writing advice? Any “writing tips” that irk you?

I don’t write every day. I don’t have characters that wake me up and talk to me at night. I don’t have a notebook by my bedside to write down good ideas (Are you KIDDING me? I wake up and TRY to get back to sleep before the baby wakes up). I don’t have files of ideas. I've never kept a diary. I was never broody and never wrote dark poetry while growing up. I had a great childhood. Yeah: I’m a writer!

How? I. Love. Words. I love stories. I love characters.

I think writers have stories to tell. That’s the drive behind what we do. The stories have to come out sometime, so we make time to get them on the page. Everybody’s process is different. Every process is valid. If you’re a new writer, though, remember it’s hard … bloody hard. Just push through and finish a project however you can. If that means setting word count goals. Do it. Time goals. Do it. Just do it.

Speaking of craft, can you give a hint about what you are working on now? 

Yes. I’m invoking Dan Brown inspiration! I’m working on my first thriller with, hopefully, lots of creepy elements. It’s about Cate, whose family’s home burned down in a house fire during a summer when four other homes burned down, too. She’s been badly hurt and can’t dance anymore. She suffers from insomnia. To pass the nights, she begins to go night caching (geocaching is like treasure hunting for adults, using GPS instruments, clues etc.) While caching, somebody starts leaving her clues about the fires from the year before. So she begins her own investigation. Things escalate and … And I have to finish it in the next ten days, so we’ll see what happens!

What is your writing space like? Your schedule?

Pretty cluttered. I’m a bit of a clutter person. I often find interesting things on my desks months after having lost them!

And my schedule depends on how close I am to deadline. Kind of. Three days/week we have a babysitter come in, and I work those days from 9:30ish until 4:00ish (when my oldest gets home from Kindergarten). I sometimes sneak in a Sunday here and there. This last month, we've invoked the help of our babysitter to come a fourth day and I’m sneaking in Sundays. Luckily, my husband works from home, so he’s a pretty great help when things get down to the wire.

I don’t write at night, though. Almost never. I’m just too tired. I’m in bed pretty early, anyway.

What writers/books do you most admire/enjoy?

So many! I’m just going to list my favorite books, though: Going Bovine, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Five Flavors of Dumb, The Book Thief, Feed, Speak and Winter Girls, Burned, Bull Rider, As I Lay Dying, Cannery Row, The Road …

So many to choose from!

Advice to writers on their own journeys?

Follow the stories in your heart and finish them! Then learn about the market (don’t WRITE to the market), but learn everything you can. Stay away from negativity and surround yourself with supportive people. (You’ll go through the ringer enough with critiques and bad reviews later on.) Read. Read. Read. And write. It’s what you've said you want to do, said you’re going to do-- stop saying it, just write it!

Thank you so much, Heidi! Keep those stories coming!

Time to Say Goodbye ... (to an old manuscript)

by Sarah

This year, I said goodbye to a manuscript. 

I worked on The Looking Glass for years. That manuscript taught me how to write. When I wrapped my mind around a new aspect of writing, I applied to it to the whole novel. I rewrote it many times, and every rewrite tackled a specific issue:  made my main character more active, fixed a sagging middle, or built a believable world. 

The Looking Glass was the manuscript I rewrote (again)  while I was in the Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program. I met my Monkeys because of it! My mentor, Harold Underdown, taught me so much as I worked on it.

All the rewrites changed it for the better.

Until they didn't.

By the end of last August, I had a feeling that things still weren’t right. Consultations with agents at two SCBWI conferences confirmed my fears. The worst part was that I didn’t know how to fix my story. The portions I did try to revise didn't show any real improvement. 

Amy wrote a great post about when it’s time to stop revising and send a manuscript out. My manuscript met all those criteria. Except it wasn't time to send it out. It was time to put it away. 

While I dithered about whether to set The Looking Glass aside, I remembered a conversation I had with one of my sisters, a classically trained singer.

During the last year of her degree for vocal performance, she gave a senior recital, singing several difficult arias. After she graduated, she continued to improve, but she told me later that all her growth disappeared when she revisited some of those first arias. Her breathing would change. She’d loose her range. She’d carry more tension in her voice.

She couldn't return to those songs without reverting to the skill she had when she first sang them.

I was doing the same thing with my writing. 

Continuing to work on The Looking Glass limited me to the skill I had when I first began crafting it. I’d built weaknesses into the characters and the plot. All my newbie decisions were so intrinsic to the story that I couldn’t see them, let alone undo them.

I needed a new start. A partial scholarship* to a Highlights Foundation workshop gave me the impetus I needed to dive into a new manuscript. The three-month deadline for a rough draft kept me from looking back.

I was surprised at how much easier the first draft of Valiant was to write.  I knew what needed to be done. I knew the questions I needed to ask about the plot and characters. I knew the mistakes I tended to make and worked to avoid them.

Don’t get me wrong: what I had at the end of three months was rough– really rough. But the bones were good. I used every bit of craft I'd learned over the years ... instead of working around all the mistakes I'd made over the years.

Isaac Newton, speaking of his accomplishments, said, "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." 

Granted, the giants he referred to were the intellectual greats that came before him. But the metaphor holds: I am convinced that a new manuscript stand on the shoulders of all the other stories we've spun. Those old stories give the new one height and depth and wisdom. 

So... if it's time, wave goodbye to your old manuscript. Give yourself permission to write the story all your earlier stories prepared you for. 

And in the meantime, have a Merry Christmas! I pray it brings you warmth and friendship and joy. 



*If you've been considering a Highlights workshop, but can't afford it,  apply for a scholarship! Now is the time of year to do so.

***Next week, the Turbo Monkeys will be on holiday with their tribes, but we've prepared some newsy little posts for you, so be sure to stop by, between the presents and the turkey. Love to you all!

Revision: When to Start & When to Stop

Nano's almost over! Let the fun begin!

You've done it. You've written a book. Your manuscript is complete; your story arc has touched down. The first draft puking has stopped. Next up, my favorite phase...the glorious days/months/years of revision!

I adore revising. I have, in fact, been revising my books for years. And years. And...years, which makes me something of an expert on revision. And the first thing I can tell is...don't start yet. As much as you want to scrub the guck off those fifty-thousand words and let your critique group see them shine, don't. Put it away, for a few weeks at least, until you've forgotten everything you did or were trying to do. Going in cold is one of the best things you can do for a new manuscript. It's easier to see what's working and what's not because you've forgotten about all those darlings you've built in. You know...those super clever things that totally aren't working and detract from your story? Yeah, those.

So give yourself a month away from the infant manuscript. Read some books. Revise something else. Brainstorm new book ideas. Whatever. When you finally get back to it, you'll be a much more objective critic.

Let's skip ahead a few months/years/decades...  You've reread and revised. You've responded to comments from your critique group. You're ready to send it out but shouldn't you go through it one more time, just to make sure?

Obviously, we want our submittals to be the best they can be, but sometimes we writers just don't know when to let go. We put off sending out a manscript because we're being cautious or, possibly, as a subconcious effort to avoid rejection. [I could totally name some Monkeys who are super guilty of this, but I won't because I'm classy like that.]

So, when *is* a manuscript ready? Here are five points to consider...

1) You've changed something back to an earlier version. If you drafted a revision, then decided two weeks later that it worked better in the original, chances are it's time to stop revising. You could go back and forth forever. Better to send it out and see what a professional makes of it than spin your wheels endlessly.

2) The revisions you're working on make the book 'different' but not necessarily 'better'. There are hundreds of little changes that would make our books 'different'. But if you're making a lot of revisions that don't improve the manuscript, it's probably time to stop revising. If an editor or agent loves your book, they're certainly not going to reject it because your main character's name is Bob instead of Bill.

3) Your critique group opens your submittal and groans, "Ugh. Not this again." I usually submit something to the Monkeys once. If they suggest huge revisions to it, I might send it back for feedback on the changes, but that's rare. I never, ever send anything three times. My feeling is, once they sign off on it, it's pretty darn close to editor-ready.

4) Your heart isn't in it. Remember the first-draft days when you jotted down fab lines of dialogue and snazzy plot twists at stop lights?  If you don't feel at least a smidgeon of the same love for your manuscript, it's time to move on to something new. Writers write because it's our passion. If the passion between you and your manuscript is gone, it's because you've turned it into a job instead of a love. Send it out and let someone else fall in love with it.

5) You can't figure out what else to do with it. This seems obvious. If you can't find anything else to fix, it must be ready. Right? Yet so many times, we writers fail to see this. We stare at the words; we make small changes (a la #2); but we just can't believe it's ready. Perhaps we're waiting for a sign from the Almighty. Send out your book now written in the clouds. (FYI, this hardly ever happens.) If you can't figure out what else to do to it, the next step is probably to send it out. The first round of comments you get back will help you determine if there really is something you need to address, or if it just needs to find the right home. Either way, you're making forward progress.

Remember...one-hundred percent of shots not taken, don't score. Your book will never be published if it remains hidden on your hard drive. So take a chance. When it's ready--send it out!

Whole Novel Help

By Kristen Crowley Held

You've finished your novel! Woohoo! Congratulations! Now what?

Maybe you’ve already taken advantage of opportunities at workshops and conferences to have an industry professional critique the first 5-25 pages of your manuscript. You’ve polished those first few pages until they shine, but you’re not sure the rest of your novel is up to snuff.

Is there such a thing as whole novel help?

Absolutely! Let’s take a look at some options.

MANUSCRIPT SWAPPING

Find another writer who's willing to do a manuscript swap. They critique your novel and you critique theirs. Finding a good match isn’t easy, and may take some trial and error. Get to know the other writers in your area by attending local conferences and author events. Your regional SCBWI chapter can also be a great resource. You just might discover the perfect crit partner in your own hometown, but if not, there are several websites where you can find writers who are willing to do a manuscript swap. Here are a few places to look for your perfect match (note that some of these sites require you to register in order to gain access to their boards, but registration is free):

Verla Kay’s Blue Board: Queries and Critique Requests 

Absolute Write Water Cooler: Beta Readers, Mentors, and Writing Buddies 

WriteOnCon: Critique Partner Match-up 

Nathan Bransford: Connect with a Critique Partner 

In addition, several writerly blogs have offered matchmaking services in the past and may do so again. A few to watch:

Maggie Stiefvater's Words on Words Critique Partner Love Connection 

Mary Kole's Kidlit.com Critique Connection

Deana Barnhart's Critique and Beta Connections
Miss Snark's First Victim Authoress's Critique Partner Dating Service 

AUCTIONS

Bid on a whole novel critique and help out a worthy cause! Some annual opportunities to check out:

Crits for Water (examples of critiques up for bid in the 2012 auction) 

Brenda Novak's Annual Auction for the Cure for Diabetes (scheduled to open on May 1, 2013)

Keep your ears open for other auction opportunities that may be one-time events, but just might offer that full manuscript critique you’ve been looking for.

WORKSHOPS

Want to spend a few months working on your novel with an industry professional and have the added bonus of meeting other writers who are doing the same? These programs can be amazing opportunities to improve your craft.

Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program 

(All the fabulous things you’ve heard about this program are TRUE!)

Pacific Coast Children's Writers Whole Novel Workshop

Highlights Foundation Whole Novel Workshops (Middle Grade  and Young Adult)

Many SCBWI regions also offer workshops on novel revision that include the opportunity for feedback on your entire manuscript. Check the SCBWI website under Regional Events to see if there’s an upcoming event that will work for you.

INDEPENDENT EDITORS

You can find oodles of information online about what to look for when choosing an independent editor to work with one-on-one. Here are a few our monkey tribe has had the pleasure of working with:

Emma D. Dryden 

Lorin Oberweger  

Harold Underdown 

Marcy Weydemuller 

Cathy Yardley 

Writers Ink  

Whatever route you choose, keep in mind that what you are seeking is feedback, not a “quick fix.” Be sure to communicate your aspirations and expectations and give yourself time to process the input you receive.  If you approach the experience of soliciting “whole novel help” as an opportunity to learn, you really can’t lose.

And if you've already benefitted from some "whole novel help" I'd love to hear about your experiences!

Revising Our Stories—or How to Knit a Sweater

Hi, Monkeys—Marilyn here. A while ago I saw the most gorgeous teal-colored mohair yarn and decided to knit a sweater with it. Until then I’d only knitted scarves and potholders, I’d never worked from a pattern, and I didn’t have the patience to make a practice piece to test the gauge. You can imagine the result; it was teal mohair and it looked something like a sweater—from very far away and in the dark—but it wasn’t a usable, wearable sweater. The only way to make that sort-of sweater into the beautiful creation I’d envisioned, I had to rip out most of the knitting and do it again—this time, the right way.

I’m now in the middle of revising a novel after having received my editor’s feedback. Although the draft I submitted to her wasn’t nearly as bad as that sweater, it has required some major rethinking, reorganizing, and rewriting. Thankfully, I learned about redo's from the sweater experience and made a solid plan for this revision draft. Here’s what I’ve done: