Writer Unboxed

Within the last week, I’ve gone to NYC, met my editor and my agent, and sunk back into some serious edits. I’ll give you my NY recap today; in my next post, I’ll tell you about editing notes and how I’ve responded to them–along with some good tips on critiquing.

So, the NYC lowdown…

After an easy three-hour drive in on Monday, and after slipping on my red shoes–because, really, I feel like I’ve landed on a yellow-brick road–I met with my editor, Sarah Knight. She struck me as open and warm and self-assured and extraordinarily competent all at once. She wanted to know about my history as a writer, what I’d studied in school, how the edits were going. She asked about book two as well, and I told her what I could of my infant idea–hopefully not using the phrase “And then something amazing happens–but I don’t know what yet!” too many times.

I asked about publicity: Should I secure a URL? How would that work? She said, yes, do that; and so now ThereseWalsh.com is mine, all mine, even though it’s a vacant plot of land at this point. (I’m unsure of the next steps, but I’ll know more later, once folks from the publicity department return full force to face the coming season.) I should get a head shot ASAP, too, she told me, because that’s something they can use when the book hits the Frankfurt Book Fair in October. She passed along her excitement about that, said Unbounded had already been seeded and read by a few scouts, that there’s been some early interest. Overseas sales can be so important–just ask WU contributor Allison Winn Scotch, who had such success with them that she earned out her advance prior to the October release of her second novel Time of My Life. Sarah encouraged my editing process and asked that I aim to be at the midway point by this Thursday, September 4th. With echoes of Project Runway’s Tim Gunn in my head, I agreed to make it work!

The next day, I met my agent Elisabeth Weed for lunch. Elisabeth proved all I already knew her to be. Lovely. Smart. Positive. (A big public thanks to Allison for setting up the first e-handshake between us.) We talked a little about contracts; she’s reviewing mine right now, and I’ll be seeing it soon. Should I hire a lawyer to review it? She had a lawyer for just that purpose, she assured me. We talked about an option in my contract for a third book–the timeline and the negotiations she intended. She had many of the same questions that Sarah had had about my journey and life, and in retrospect I feel like I talked way too much about myself. Time flew; it does that in Oz, I learned.

In a fitting end to my time in the city, my husband and I took our kids to see the Broadway show Wicked–the story of Elphaba, the witch, and Glinda, the good, first re-imagined in deliciously unboxed ways by author Gregory Maguire. (Elphaba’s name, by the way, is Maguire’s nod to Oz creator, L. Frank Baum–LFB = El-Fa-Ba.) If you don’t think you’d ever want to know the green witch better than you do now, check out this YouTube clip (pop out at minute 5 to avoid a spoiler). Because nothing is ever as it seems in Oz.

Next week, I’ll post about my edits–the good, the bad and the crazy-making.

Write on, all!

Therese Walsh co-founded Writer Unboxed in 2006. Her debut novel, The Last Will of Moira Leahy, sold to Random House in a two-book deal in 2008, was named one of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2009, and was a Target Breakout Book in 2010. She's never been published with a lit magazine, but LOST's Carlton Cuse liked her haiku best on Twitter, and that made her pretty happy.

Therese Walsh

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