Two Fabul-Agents

On the second day of Christmas (less that Zombie incident, so really the 3rd day, but never mind) the Book World gave to me...

Two Fabul-Agents
And the notice of a best selling book!

I have a very unusual agent story; I came through a bit of a side door. But what I really want to do here is to throw out a GIANT thank you to Ellen Pepus and Amy Tipton of Signature Literary Agency. They are opposite on many levels, and strangely, that makes them perfectly suited to the very different genres they represent for me.

Ellen is my agent for the Cozy Mystery, where I get license to act like a bit of a nut. My first, due out in June, includes a cross dressing incident, a boxers versus briefs debate, and the exclamation, “I'm naked!” I have a lot of fun writing this series—people who know my online persona think the MC's BFF Annie channels me, and in a lot of ways she does. What is less obvious to those who don't know me in real life is Cam (the MC who is a public relations specialist) and her journalist boyfriend ALSO draw on real life experiences. When I read the description for this series (which they were soliciting author auditions for) it really spoke to me. My first degree was journalism and I know this world. That said, it was a HUGE chance to help me (a green, unknown author) go through the process of auditioning.

Ellen is a lawyer, covering a HUGE part of what I am afraid of in publishing—doing something stupid because of my legalese-aphobia. You see... when I look at anything legal, my mind starts to wander and my eyes cross and I can't absorb ANYTHING—which is pretty darned bad when the consequences can be so huge. She is also calm and meticulous, something that is amazing for me as intermediary between me and my editor (my editor is amazing too, by the way and I luuuurve her... but that doesn't mean I don't want what I send her to be professional). And it is a nice balance for this series that encourages me to be a little nutty, as too nutty might not fly.

Amy is, in many ways, a total opposite. She is moving through the social media with energy and fire and she inspires and pushes at a conceptual level. She read Kahlotus Disposal Site because when I was an Amazon Semi-finalist last year I hoped maybe I'd get agent interest and I wanted to see if Signature was interested first. I felt an immediate connection. She pushed with her ideas on what would fit better in the genre, and sell better with the publishers, and each idea pushed me to use my creativity to problem solve. I feel like I have a lot better book for her insight. She and I communicate in similar ways. She is encouraging and regularly in touch. This submission thing could be terrifying if I got left out of the loop.

And see this fun, energetic, encouraging presence balances the angsty dark part of my work. I know it seems almost counter intuitive, but each of them being them, allows ME to be that side of ME.

So I want to thank them for helping me navigate this strange and changing world!