Sticky Name, Sticky Title: Interview With Author Anna Jarzab

As soon as I saw Anna Jarzab’s name on the Tenner’s site I knew it would get stuck. Do certain names stick with you? And once they're stuck must you say them over and over—silently, of course, using your brainvoice—until you've worn it out? Or is that just me and my mild OCD?

Anyway, the point of all this is that Anna's name got stuck in my head but I've been saying it like Ah-nah Yar-zahb, which is apparently all wrong. I just learned on her shiny new website that it’s Anna with a short A and Jarzab with a solid J. Just wanted to clear that up before it get stuck for any of my fellow compulsive-brainvoice-name-chanters.

Now that we have that out of the way, let me tell you about the person behind the catchy name. Anna is actually a publishing insider. She’s a graduate of the Denver Publishing Institute, has a Master’s degree in literature and creative writing from the University of Chicago, and works in book marketing in New York City. On the side she happens to write the occasional novel and get preemptive offers and two-book deals. Yeah, so what have you done today?

I'm dying to read Anna’s book, All Unquiet Things, because it was pitched as The Secret History meets Looking for Alaska—two of my very favorite books. Class struggle in an elite school with a murder mystery? That's my sweet spot! Count me in Ahnah Yarzahb, I am all over it.

Here's the Publisher's Marketplace deal report for Anna's sale:

Anna Jarzab's ALL UNQUIET THINGS, pitched as The Secret History meets Looking for Alaska, about two unlikely allies from different ends of the social spectrum at a NorCal prep school who band together to solve a friend's murder, to Francoise Bui at Delacorte, in a pre-empt, in a good deal, in a two-book deal, by Joanna MacKenzie at Browne and Miller Literary Associates.

And here is her beautiful-in-a-creepy-way cover:


Welcome, Anna! Can you please tell us how you met your agent?
That's a bit of a long story, but I'll try to condense it here. The summer after graduate school I got an internship at Browne & Miller, a literary agency in Chicago. It was such a great experience, I loved it and learned a ton. Joanna (MacKenzie, my now agent) was just starting to take on her own clients and really wanted to work on YA projects, but for a long time I was afraid to send my manuscript (which I started querying in fall 2007, right about the time I moved to New York) to her because I was afraid if she didn't like it she'd think less of me or something. Writers are neurotic, you heard it here last. Eventually I just sucked it up and sent her an email with a short synopsis of the book, and she offered to represent me about a month later. She's the most awesome agent, I couldn't be luckier.

Can you tell us how your book deal happened?
Joanna and Danielle (Egan-Miller, the president of Browne & Miller) and I worked on ALL UNQUIET THINGS for about six months before Joanna started submitting to editors. She sent the book to six editors the second week of September, and by the end of that week one of them (my now-editor) called to tell us she'd get back to us on Monday with a pre-empt offer. Over the next two days Joanna did a little bit of negotiating on the offer and we accepted it. It went INCREDIBLY fast. I was at work when the deal was done and I remember my friend Doug had to literally drag me up off my chair to give me a hug because I couldn't move.

What was the inspiration for ALL UNQUIET THINGS and how long did it take you to write?
I started writing ALL UNQUIET THINGS my sophomore year in college, which would be 2002, so about seven years at this point, which seems like an awfully long time to be working on one book but it has actually gone through two vastly different versions. The version I wrote in college was a huge melodrama with mysterious elements, and I abandoned it after it was finished for about six months. I went back to it because I actually really love the characters, realizing that to make it work I had to turn it into a full-out mystery, so I started making notes for that. When I went to graduate school the next year I opted to write a creative thesis, and ALL UNQUIET THINGS was it. As for what inspired it, I don't have a great answer for that. It's definitely a conglomeration of influences so thick it's hard to separate them out individually.

What's your publication date and where in the process are you now?
I just found out my pub date (or, I guess I should say "tentative pub date" since it hasn't been confirmed by my editor) through GoodReads, believe it or not. It's January 12, 2010, which is the day before I turn 26. Happy birthday to me! Right now I'm waiting for my manuscript to come back from copy edits. I suspect I will weep bitterly and then get over it. Then come ARCs!

What's the biggest change having a book published has made in your life?
It's funny, but at every stage in the writing process, the book feels a little less like mine, especially the stages that have nothing to do with writing: getting the cover, for instance. Having a face for Carly was truly jarring, because I was like, "That girl is a stranger to me." The cover is so beautiful and I love it, but it was odd for a while to see her come to life (or death, I guess). Recently we've been going back and forth about flap copy, and I started to feel a similar sense of alienation from the book, because someone else was talking about it, not ME. That feeling is only going to increase as time goes on because soon the book won't just belong to me and to my agent and my editor, it'll belong to lots (I hope) of readers. It's not a bad feeling, it's necessary and good because it means other people are investing in something that matters so much to me, but it always catches me off guard.

What are you working on now?
Well, Delacorte bought two books from me. By the time the deal happened, I had finished a second book, and we sent the three-page prologue along with the manuscript when it was submitted to editors, so instead of having "Book 2" on my contract, it actually says the title of my second book: MURDER BURGER. It's another YA mystery, but it's much more humorous and less dark (although I would not say "light"), a little more romantic. My editor has the manuscript now, but I'm not sure how long it'll take her to get to it, since it's coming out in January 2011 (although according to my contract it's due June 1, 2009, which is not that far away, so...) and, you know, priorities. Right now I'm working on a book I'm calling GEORGIA'S RESCUE, which is a quasi-post-apocalyptic pseudo-mystery set in semi-rural California. It's different than anything I've written before, so I'm working really hard on the synopsis and trying to not to talk myself out of it. I'm also working on another YA mystery, off and on, an Agatha Christie homage set in Pebble Beach, CA.

Do you have any words of wisdom for writers trying to get published?
The thing about writing is that the more you do it, the better you get. I've wanted to be a writer since I was in junior high and started writing really seriously in high school, so I've had many years of practice, but I learn something new every day. It's important not to get discouraged in the face of worthwhile critique, and to realize that it's not just going to happen with the flip of a switch: most people don't decide to write and then become instantly good at it. It's a process, so you've got to be in it for the long haul. Always write for writing's sake--not just to be published. If you write to be published, disappointment becomes more bitter than if you're more focused on the work itself. That's kind of my life mantra: "It's about the work, think of the work, focus on the work." My writing is the touchstone of my life. It's really cheesy, but whenever I get frustrated with things, in my personal life or in my writing life, I think of that scene in CENTER STAGE when the instructor tells Zoe Saldana "The smart ones know where to look when things get rough. It isn't there, it's here." And then she touches the barre, continuing, "No matter what happened in class, performance, last week, five minutes ago, if you come back here you'll be home." That's how I feel about my work.

Anna has a freshly hatched website, a blog, and she can be found in the realms of Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.

Thanks for the interview, Anna! I hope I haven't totally freaked you out by admitting that I used to chant your name, albeit incorrectly.

Taking Slacking to a Whole New Level: Interview with Trish Doller

Trish Doller (rhymes with roller) is all about the slacking; she says slacking is her favorite pastime and, of course, her favorite band is The Slackers. But I need to know what brand of slacking allows a person to have seven manuscripts in the works at one time! Yes, people, in addition to having sold a book, Trish has seven projects in various stages of completion! I wanna slack like that.

Tish’s debut book is called My Way or the Highway and it will be published by Delacorte Press/Random House in Summer 2010. Here's the synopsis:

After getting caught cheating on her U.S. History final, seventeen-year-old Jacey Lowell will not be spending three weeks in Europe with her friends. Instead, she's been sentenced to two weeks aboard the eXtreme Teen Tour charter bus, which offers "an unforgettable adventure at some of our nation's greatest historical landmarks". (Or so the brochure says.)

Jacey has no interest in bonding with her eXtreme Teen tour mates and even less interest (yes, it's possible) in seeing historical sites. But when the tour (and her luggage) leaves her behind in New York City, Jacey's boring bus ride turns into a cross-country adventure that takes her places she's never been before.

Trish, can you please tell us how you met your agent?
When I started the query process, I read somewhere that a good place to look for prospective agents is in the acknowledgments of your favorite books. My favorite YA author is Maureen Johnson, so I tracked down the true identity of superagent Daphne Unfeasible (a.k.a. Kate Schafer-Testerman) and sent off a query letter. Although three other agents had the full and one offered representation, I held out for Kate. It was totally worth it because she's awesome!

Did your agent go straight for Delacorte or did your manuscript go out to other houses?
Delacorte was one of four publishers in our first round of submissions. The other three houses ultimately passed, but it only takes one offer, right?!

I read that you started My Way Or The Highway as a NaNoWriMo project. How long did it take you to write from start to finish?
Ooh, this is my favorite "writerly" story! I started My Way or the Highway on November 1, 2006 and about a week into NaNo it was pretty clear I wouldn't be finished by the end of the month. But, I knew this was a story that I WOULD finish.

Fast forward to July 2007. My father-in-law was getting remarried and I was supposed to be getting packed for my flight to Ohio. Except I was about THISCLOSE to finishing the book. So I was packing and brainstorming and printing off a hard copy--as my friend Katy was looking at her watch going, "Trish, if we don't leave soon, you're going to miss your flight." When I got to the airport, I realized I hadn't packed a notebook. (I know!) So I bought a little tablet and wrote the last lines right there in the waiting area.

I took the next couple of months to polish, but my "official" time was about eight months from the first word to the last.

Do you have a firm publication date yet? Where are you in the process of writing/revising?
I am still revising, so I don't have a publication date yet. We're tentatively slated for Summer 2010, but I just got a new editor so that might change after she has a look at what I've been doing. Or not doing, as the case may be.

If you could have any superhero power, what would it be?
I'd have the ability to be two places at once. The "real" me would spend my time writing, goofing off, hanging with the kids, traveling—basically all the fun stuff—while the "clone" me would do the chores and go to work. It's not as exciting as being able to fly or being invisible, but if you had any idea the intensity of my dislike for work and the enormity of my ability to slack...well, it's the perfect power for me.

Do you have any other manuscripts in the works?
I have seven other projects going right now in various stages of incomplete, but Kate and I recently agreed a couple of contemporary YA ideas are the best follow-ups to My Way or the Highway. So my next will probably be a book called Breaking Rule #2.

What are your words of wisdom or nuggets of advice for aspiring writers?
I suspect if I say "read a lot" and "write a lot" I probably will be repeating what other writers have said. And they're not wrong. Everything you read and write adds to your experience and knowledge as a writer.

So my advice is this: Invest in a good dictionary and a style book like Strunk & White. No matter how good your story idea, it's not going to catch anyone's attention if your spelling and grammar aren't as strong as can be. Does it need to be perfect? No. But it's sort of like showing up to NFL tryouts when you've only played pick-up games with your friends behind school. If you want to be taken seriously, you need to bring your A-game.

Excellent advice, Trish! Thanks so much for the interview.

Trish is superwired: she has a blog and a very cool website (check out the forum section for great stuff, including some very good contemporary YA book reviews), plus you can follow her on Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter. (If you become friends on Facebook you get the added bonus of seeing her amazing tattoo.)

Slack on, Trish! It’s definitely working for you.