Giveaway Winner and THE BEST AGENT ADVICE I'VE READ THIS MONTH

Hope you all had a great week! Random.org's number generator has spoken and the winner of a signed copy of Of Witches and Wind, Book 2 in Shelby Bach's Ever After series and a copy of Of Giants and Ice (Book 1) is... 


(first, if you haven't read Shelby's wonderful advice on character development in a middle grade series, her interview is HERE) ...

ROBIN!!! Congratulations, Robin. Please send me an email with your address and I'll ship those lovelies out to you!

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Best Agent Advice I've read this month

I've said it before: if you're not signed up to receive the Nelson Literary Agency monthly newsletter, you're missing out. Click below to sign up. Look for the blue tab at the bottom left of the screen that says Newsletter:

Nelson Literary Agency

The September issue included an article entitled "Why Agents Stop Reading: A Case Study." In addition to pointing out three things that make an agent stop reading your pages (GO SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER to read those), there was a list of three key questions agents may ask themselves while reading. Agent Kristin Nelson suggested that we writers ask ourselves those questions as well:

1) Does each chapter or scene only do one thing (like introduce a 

character), or does it do multiple things, like introduce a character, 

add a new plot element, and also plant a clue that will be referred to 

later? Each chapter or scene needs all three.

2) Is what happens in each chapter or scene interesting all on its 

own? If not, guess what? You probably don’t need it.

3) Could any events be summarized in one sentence instead of 

playing out over a whole chapter or scene? If so, chances are good

your plot pace is off. If you can answer no–this is essential–then the 

chapter or scene is probably okay to keep.

That's all for this week. Remember, it's accomplishing those small steps that prepare us for the big ones!

Tess has started pulling herself up! Walking, here we come...