Necessary preface: this is a true story\u2026and it just happened to me.<\/p>\n
So, about eight weeks ago, my younger sister, Shelley, comes to me and says, \u201cHey, I wrote a book.\u201d<\/p>\n
(You may recognize Shelley\u2019s name if you read The Duke of Shadows<\/em>.\u00a0 The book is dedicated to her for good reason.\u00a0 She found the manuscript under a bed, where I\u2019d abandoned it after numerous literary agents declined to represent it.\u00a0 Having read and liked the book, Shelley convinced me to try again. She is the reason that I\u2019m now a published author.)<\/p>\n I\u2019d always known Shelley was a talented writer and an avid reader, but I had no idea that she\u2019d been writing fiction, much less novel-length fiction. So here\u2019s how our conversation went:<\/p>\n Me: \u201cYou\u2019ve been writing?\u00a0 Hey, that\u2019s awesome!\u00a0 I always said you should give it a go.”<\/p>\n My sister: “In fact, I’ve been writing for some time.\u00a0 This is my…oh, seventh manuscript?”<\/p>\n Me: “What?!?”<\/p>\n My sister: “Yeah, I enjoy it.”<\/p>\n Me: “Um.\u00a0 Okay, that’s awesome. \u00a0A bit…secretive, but purely awesome all the same. \u00a0So, what kind of book is it?\u201d<\/p>\n My sister: \u201cYA, set in the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n Me (thinking myself witty): \u201cHmm, let me guess: it\u2019s about a girl who meets and falls in love with a mysterious and slightly sadistic stranger in her chem\/bio\/gym class.\u201d<\/p>\n My sister: \u201cWrong all around. \u00a0For one thing, the protagonist is a teenage guy.\u201d<\/p>\n Me: \u201cA guy?\u00a0 Huh.\u201d\u00a0 (I think to myself: Bummer.\u00a0 I prefer female protagonists.)\u00a0 \u201cWell, can I read it?\u201d<\/p>\n My sister: \u201cSure!\u00a0 Emailing it now.\u201d<\/p>\n 24 hours later\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n Me (purely astonished): \u201cShel, this book is\u2026amazing.\u00a0 I mean\u2026 I\u2019m kind of speechless.\u00a0 It\u2019s that good.\u00a0 Totally intense, but also amazingly funny in parts.\u00a0 I literally couldn\u2019t put it down until I was finished reading it. It\u2019s just\u2026awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n My sister: \u201cThanks!\u00a0 Good to hear!”<\/p>\n Me: \u201cWhat I\u2019m saying is that this book could be published. You should be querying agents RIGHT NOW.\u00a0 I could give you some tips\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n My sister:\u00a0 \u201cOh, I already have an agent.\u201d<\/p>\n Me:\u00a0 \u201c\u2026What? You already have an agent?\u201d<\/p>\n My sister: \u201cYep.\u00a0 I queried a while back and [big fancy NY agent] liked it a lot.\u00a0 He\u2019s planning on submitting in January.\u201d<\/p>\n Me: \u201cUm.\u00a0 Um.\u00a0 YOU NEVER BREATHED A WORD OF THIS. \u00a0YOU DO REALIZE THAT?\u201d<\/p>\n My sister (no doubt blinking innocently):\u00a0 \u201cWell, I didn\u2019t know if anything would come of it.\u00a0 Still might go nowhere, you know?\u00a0 Maybe just forget you read it.\u201d<\/p>\n Me: \u201cNOT LIKELY.\u201d<\/p>\n My sister: \u201cSeriously, you never know.\u00a0 Maybe nobody will want it.\u201d<\/p>\n Six weeks pass<\/em><\/p>\n Me (unable to play it cool any longer): \u201cShel, any news from your agent?\u201d<\/p>\n My sister: \u201cOh, yeah, nice news!\u201d<\/p>\n Me (dying of excitement): \u201cWhat kind of news?\u201d<\/p>\n My sister:\u00a0 \u201cIt just sold in a pre-empt for [a sum that my brain translates to a gazillion trillion dollars<\/em>].\u201d<\/p>\n Me (collecting jaw off floor): \u201c\u2026This means you\u2019re buying me dinner from now on, right?\u00a0 \u2019Cause I\u2019m a starving student, you know.\u00a0 You owe me dinners.\u00a0 You owe me LOTS of dinners.\u201d<\/p>\n My sister:\u00a0 \u201cDude, WTF?\u00a0 No way.\u00a0 You\u2019re the big sister!\u00a0 You buy the dinners!\u201d<\/p>\n Me: \u201cYou\u2019re the super-secretive 007 writer whose book just got bought AS A PRE-EMPT about ten seconds after I found out that you\u2019d started writing!\u201d<\/p>\n My sister: \u201cOkay, fine.\u00a0 I\u2019ll send you a Cliff bar in the mail.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the text of the Publisher\u2019s Weekly announcement that just appeared<\/em>:<\/p>\n S.J. Kincaid’s INSIGNIA, in which a teenage video gamer becomes a government weapon in a futuristic world at war, to Molly O’Neill at Katherine Tegen Books, in a pre-empt, in a significant deal, in a three-book deal, by David Dunton at Harvey Klinger.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re curious to learn more, go check out her blog (http:\/\/sjkincaid.blogspot.com\/<\/a>)! \u00a0Me, I’ll be over here on the fainting couch, recovering from the vapors. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Necessary preface: this is a true story\u2026and it just happened to me. So, about eight weeks ago, my younger sister, Shelley, comes to me and says, \u201cHey, I wrote a book.\u201d (You may recognize Shelley\u2019s name if you read The Duke of Shadows.\u00a0 The book is dedicated to her for good reason.\u00a0 She found the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30],"tags":[62,13,14],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1264,"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913\/revisions\/1264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sherrythomas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}