Kat Kruger

Author Archives: Kat

Sad Panda Moments in the Life of an Aspiring Author

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So, I didn’t make it into the final round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. And the agent I had submitted Book #1 to didn’t care for the voice of my protagonist. Sure, I had a sad panda moment on each occasion but it’s not the end of the world.

Stunning original artwork by Kat Kruger ;)

I’ve been busily rewriting with feedback from a couple of friends who work in the industry to tighten the manuscript. Plus, I’ve just recently returned from Paris, the city where the book takes place. How can I not have a positive outlook? Even when the book is published, not everyone is going to love it. That’s just a simple fact of life. Right now, I just have to focus on finding someone who does.

In any case, I’ll be submitting to another agent I’ve been referred to with the hopes that the voice of my protagonist is compelling to her. Fingers crossed that I’ll turn the temporary sad panda frown upside down.

In the meantime, I’m working on Book #2 of the series which will take place partially in Northern Italy. And I’ve decided to try my hand at book review blogging in the form of short videos. First up (hopefully) later this week: Lauren DeStafano’s Wither (from The Chemical Garden trilogy).

 

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award: Update #1

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At the end of January, I entered my manuscript into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition. I just found out that my entry made it into round two! It’s exciting news even though it doesn’t mean very much at this point. The first round whittled down 2,000 entries in half and was based solely on 300 word pitches. The next round will cut the 1,000 remaining entries in half again but will be based on a 3,000-5,000 word excerpt of the first part of the novels. Here’s hoping I make it through to the next round which will mean the full novel gets read. Regardless of what happens next, I’m doing a little happy dance to celebrate this one small bit of validation.

The Twilight Effect

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Aimee L Salter (a.k.a. @AimeeLSalter) at Seeking the Write Life recently asked writers to contribute to a discussion on The Twilight Effect. My post belongs to the opposition. While I did enjoy book one of the series, I found Bella’s character to be written irresponsibly in terms of being a strong female protagonist and role-model for young girls.

As authors who are specifically targeting a pre-teen to teen demographic, I think there’s an inherit obligation to write responsibly. In a world where anorexic and often shallow women dominate entertainment news, do we really need our books to reinforce these awful conventions?

Read the full post here. And feel free to leave your two cents in the comments section while you’re there.

Best Tweet of 2010: @BookMadam

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Sometimes it’s rough going when you’re a writer trying to push out that first book. The year 2010 marked twelve months of virtual ink, sweat and tears (in varying degrees) but I was able to finish Book One within my set deadline. Releasing it into the wild and into the hands of a couple of friends in the industry has been equally difficult on the nerves. All the questions of the past year have come up, particularly the ones related to ego. Like: is this really as good as I want it to be? I’m still struggling with that question because I have no personal benchmark of a previously published work to compare my work to, just all the success stories of writers who have “made it”—and that’s hardly a fair comparison but the mind wanders from time to time. All that said, the one tweet that made my year is the one I go back to on days when I’m feeling not quite good enough. Props and much love to my friend, Julie Wilson, for making 2010 gold to this one aspiring author. Let’s see what 2011 brings.

  1. Julie Wilson
    BookMadam Reading a friend’s manuscript and liking it = good. Reading a friend’s manuscript and forgetting it’s written by a friend = gold. 15 Nov 2010 from web

— this quote was brought to you by quoteurl

Book Madam: Live to Chat with the Authors of the Caster Chronicles series

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Earlier today I had the pleasure of chatting online at BookMadam.com with Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl who co-wrote the wildly successful Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness. We talked about balancing promotion with writing, threw in a whole bunch of fun multimedia clips and even got in some foodie chat.

Book Madam Book Club Live-to-Chat: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (The Caster Chronicles)

Another Day, Another Playlist

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Recently, I sent off my manuscript to a couple friends in the publishing industry for some feedback. Hearing back from people that you trust will be honest is an important step in this process, I think. So far, so good. Being on the same page about certain concerns and advised of other areas that work really well has already helped me immensely in the “final” revisions.

Today, it’s off in the hands of an agent. That’s all I’m going to say about that for fear of jinxing it. In any case, to celebrate this small yet giant milestone I thought I’d share the playlist I built to inspire each of the chapters in the book. (Dear readers of the future: iMixes are only available for a year so if you’re reading this and it’s November 2011, sorry but you’re out of luck.)

My YA playlist

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Last week I got the opportunity to be a guest DJ for #djbookmadam on Twitter. Since individual playlists can’t be saved forever on Blip.fm I thought I’d try to preserve it here on my blog using Playlist.com. Feel free to leave a list of songs you like listening to with your fave YA books in the comments.

My first three songs weren’t available so I’ve included the videos here:

Long Shadows by Josh Ritter. Nobody needs to be afraid of the dark with a guardian angel like Patch. (Hush Hush & Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick)

The Lament by Mediaeval Baebes. When I think fairies, I think Mediaeval Baebes. (Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston)

Silence by Delirium. This was supposed to be Magic as requested by @lighttan but I can’t find the song anywhere online. (The Darkest Powers series by Kelley Armstrong)

The rest of my YA playlist is here for your listening pleasure with notes below:


Get a playlist! Standalone player Get Ringtones

Unknown Brother by The Black Keys. A song for Clary. (The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare)

Beat the Devil’s Tattoo by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. On my to-read list. (Sisters of the Prophecy by Michelle Zink)

The River by The Tea Party. Rock on! (Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan)

My Immortal by Evanescence. Coincidentally the name of this album coincides with the name of the book. (Fallen by Lauren Kate)

Dead Hearts by Stars. Dead hearts are everywhere. (Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead)

Escarpment Blues by Sarah Harmer. As requested by @clarehitchens. (Earthgirl by Jennifer Cowan)

Lightning Crashes by Live. For Harry Potter. You know why. (Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling)

Eyes by Rogue Wave. How could I not pick this tune for this series? (Wolves of Mercy Falls series by Maggie Stiefvater)

Blackbird by Sarah McLachlan. For Katniss. (The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins)

Killer revisions

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Never look back

William Faulkner once wrote, “In writing, you must kill all your darlings.” I thought I would really start to feel that sentiment when I got down to draft two revisions. Here’s the thing though: after not touching any of draft one since I truly started the manuscript back in January, revisions came easy. Draft one took me straight until September to complete. That’s in no small part due to the fact that I have a full-time job in online community and social media that required me to travel extensively for a project.

That said, it’s mid-October and I’m just a chapter shy of finishing draft two. I even took a two week vacation in between—consider it research for book two in the series should I be lucky enough to land a deal. I’ve been pretty much ruthless when it comes to slashing pages of content. And I think I owe it to having what I’m going to call an Orpheus Rule: never look back. Looking back only causes heartache.

Some scenes were frankly garbage. I just typed through writer’s block to keep the story moving and eventually got to understand my characters and their motivations better. I’m not really one for outlining in the J.K. Rowling way. Writing has always come a bit more organically to me. But, I’m also not looking to write a 7-book series, so keeping all the details in check isn’t so much of a priority. The rest of what I cut has gone into a “futures” doc.

In any case, I’ve found this part of the process to be pretty seamless. Now comes the tricky part: an agent or not an agent? There are a number of big publishing houses that I’d love to sign on with but these are the dreamy places that absolutely require an agent to get through the mail slot. On the other hand, there are some medium sized publishing houses that I’d probably be just as happy with that wouldn’t require an agent. It’s a big question and one that I’m still trying to sort out as I wrap up draft two and send it off to a couple of bookish friends for reader input. I’ll keep you posted on the adventure and hope to update this blog a little more frequently now that I’ve got a bit more free time on my hands.

Oh, in the meantime, you can friend me on Facebook at my new vanity URL. Wait for it…facebook.com/krugerkat!