Paths to Getting Published

Today I am beginning the rewrites on my book.   It is a bit like visiting an old friend.   I am a little apprehensive but overall thrilled.   Tonight I will work on the story board.   The time off of writing has allowed me to stop being in love with the book as it is.   It is easier to chop it up and move things around now that the story is not fresh in my mind.   I can look at it through new eyes.   Adding and subtracting the bits that will make it a stronger read.     So here I go on day one of a three month schedule for rewrites.   JL Cooper

A character by any other name would not seem so deep, touch us so memorably nor affect us on a level that ripples out into our conscious lives.   Would Harry Potter have been so relatable if he were not given a commoners name?   Or Scarlett O’Hara be as pretty without a fiery adjective for a name? Who would you believe more?   The magic of a medicine man of the American west named Tony or Three Feathers?   If your heroine lives in the city, is young and vivacious don’t name her Edith, Mildrid or after Grandma Betty.   However if your character is not of this earth, try not to bestow him or her with names whose consonant or vowel combinations do not exist on earth.   With the name Uccabrasz or Tskasvalale not only will it be difficult to remember but it will interfere with your readers flow each time that names comes up.   Breaking the illusion your book has worked so diligently to create.    I myself have issues with naming my characte...

Over the past two months I have embraced some much appreciated advice, in regard to my book, from several published authors as well as a couple of well respected editors.     Their advice is that I should shorten the book and change the title.   So I am going to do a rewrite, which is just the next phase in my writing this book.   To prepare for the rewrite I have put my book aside for a few weeks in order to give my mind a rest.   The rewrites will include cutting a third of the book out.   I hope to have it completed and ready for beta reading again in three months.   I am ready to jump back into it!   I miss the story and my characters.   Wish me luck and know that I am excited to get re-started on this book!   And to all of my beta readers I will send you the updated version as soon as it is ready.   JL Cooper

Did you find me here umungst the dusty things that have for so long been hidden away in the attic?   You let such pressious few rays of light in to illumitate my world and light my path.   Throw back the shutters and pull up the blinds so that I may be seen once more in the light of day.   Give me the chance to exsist outside of the confinds of you mind.    JL Cooper

On the occasion when I am trying to get into my character’s head and I just can’t quite find their voice, their age, their mindset or their surroundings.   I turn to music in order to bring out their essence.   A song that sets the mood or just says it all about that moment in the book.   The character’s voice becomes strong, and I can put myself in their shoes. Sometimes it is one radio station, a certain band, artist or song that inspires the scene or showcases the character’s depth.   Other times it is a song I hear that breathes life into a new character or scene.   Music conveys so many layers of information.   The speed, tempo, energy, mood, time period, emotion and gender.   It is another wonderful way to submerge myself into my writing. I do enjoy writing in complete silence too.   It is my favorite way to write.   The complete lack of sound helps me to find those illusive words that hide in the recesses of my mind.   It see...

Writer’s Interesting Information - Summer 2012                                            Hi writers! Here are some tasty tidbits of information I want to share with you.   I hope you find these sites interesting and possibly useful.   Best of luck to us all! Midwest Writers Conference http://www.midwestwriters.org/schedule/   http://www.midwestwriters.org/workshop-details/   Where: Ball State Cost: $250-$350 3-4 day course Dates: Thursday Events – July 26, 2012 I really want to go to this, but I’m pretty sure it is out of my budget for this year.   I love that it is so close to where I live and has interesting and useful lectures. Predators & Editors http://pred-ed.com/   This site I am hoping to get some useful infor...

Where is my novel you have heard so much about?   The reason I began this blog in the first place.   Which was t o follow its path to one day, with any luck, get published. Why thank you for asking.   Right now it is in the final editing process with my completely wonderful, talented and constructively honest beta readers.   A big round applause for my readers!!!   On the other side of my novel’s life I am diligently working on submitting queries to potential literary agents.   Sounds simple does it not?   Believe me when I say, it is a lot of research, hopefulness and critiquing my query email each time I submit it.   Also I cannot begin to tell you how many literary agents there are in the world.    Out of the endless numbers of literary agents there is only a small percentage of agents who work with the genre my novel falls under; Up-Market - Middle School / Young Adult Fantasy Fiction .   Most do not accept unsolici...

In a house with a new baby there is precious little time when I can completely devote myself to concentrating on writing.   I work full time in corporate America.   I have a good, stable position doing work that I enjoy.   It is somewhat creative and free flowing, but for the most part, all of my activities each day are for the benefit of someone else.   My children, coworkers or employer.   Then during my lunch hour and in the evening after the kids have gone to bed, this is my writing time.   I savor it, sitting in the quiet, pulling out a hard copy to edit or typing away on the keyboard.   Creating, writing and editing my story, my heroine’s story.   It is often two of my more favorite and productive hours of the day. Complete freedom is what writing gives me.   The ability to go, think and be anyone or anything I choose.   To let the winds of creation fill my sails and race across a vast ocean of daydreams.   I love it ...

My oldest child is now officially a junior in high school.   Her young life is full of firsts.   This month she is taking her driver’s license test.   She has been studying hard and practicing several times a week.   I hope she passes it the first time, but how many of us can say that we did.   Also she is working more this summer.   With her earnings she is hoping to save up enough for a car and a good camera so that she can continue to follow her artistic dreams in photography and film.   Being sixteen is full of changes.   I am excited and nervous for her all at once.   Rather than wanting to hold her back I am cheering her on with a mixture of motherly advice and trust in her own blossoming wisdom.   I do take comfort in the fact that both she and her best friend are inherently very good young ladies.   It is nice not to have to worry about a long list of things neither of them would do.   Equally as nice is the knowledg...

I have a plethora of talented friends.   A mixture of professional and armature artists in a variety of mediums: painters, photographers, film makers, writers, actors, woodworkers, crafters, chefs, cosmetologists, scrapbookers and seamstresses.   I enjoy their talents.   The work they do is inspiring and it challenges me to expand my own artistic reach.   I love seeing their new art as well as enjoying their older works.   From time to time I catch someones name as it rolls past on the credits after a film or see a familiar shinning face on TV.   This week I was lucky enough to get an offer to view new series of incredible photographs by one of my favorite photographers.   When these types of things happen, my heart jumps and I think ”Yes, my friend is awesome“. Recently I have grown to appreciate the resurgence of a detail oriented art form called scrapbooking.   The time, effort and skill put into each page is exceptional.   Only to ha...

It is difficult to say anything at all through the fresh tears of new loss.   Words cannot express the love he inspired in all of us.   What can I say about such a strong man who is one of the most influential people in my life?   He has seen me though the many stages of my life with love and compassion.   He is a man of solid character, Christian values and a strong family leader.   Through grace he is welcomed with a great celebration into heaven by God and by all who have come before him.   It must be an unbelievably joyous sight.   He is seeing his beloved mother, sister, brother and father again after all of these years.    I know he would rather have stayed here with Grandma until they could have gone on together.   I too would rather keep him here with us.   However I am comforted by the knowledge that he is home with God and the rest of his friends and family who have gone on before him.   I try and picture w...

With the current state of the world is it any wonder that escapism is on the rise.   It is nice to get away from the reality of daily life every now and again.   Whether it is escaping into a good book, a video game or your writing.   Take a mental vacation by diving deeply into the vast ocean of your imagination.   Get lost in the adventure and be surprised hours later to find yourself sitting in your living room when you reappear.   Thinking to yourself ”Oh, how did i get here?   On this couch?“   Eventually reality will begin to seep back into your mind ”Oh yeah, I remember.   There are my bills on the table next to the sink full of dishes“.   Then you will come to the most delectable thought.   Which is reality can wait a little while longer before you have to return.   You pick up your book saying to yourself ”I think I’ll read one more chapter before calling it a night“ and off you go.   JLCooper

I wish I could sign up for an online dating service for my book.   If only there was a match.com or jdate.com for writing.   It could be called Bdate.com or Literary.com.   A dating service that would hooking up a writer and a literary agent with similar interests, outlooks and tastes.   Instead I am wooing literary agents the old fashion way or rather the new old fashion way.   In my search for the perfect literary partnership I find myself filtering through endless supplies of information.   Pages upon pages of lists of literary agents and literary agencies trying to decipher which are even interested in this type of Middle School/YA fantasy novel.   Then which are currently accepting new submission queries.   And don’t even get me started on ”The Internet“.   It is over flowing with blogs, tweets, face book profiles and websites dedicated to writers, literary agents, publishing houses and magazines.   However most of the info...

Harry Potter - the entire series of seven books The Lord of the Rings - trilogy Narnia - the entire series The Bible - minus the "this person begot that person" too difficult to read Mythology stories of - Ancient Greece, Rome, Europe, Japan, China, Australia, Native America and etc. Twilight - series Where the Wild Thing Are Pat the Bunny Wild at Heart JL Cooper

My favorite practice for this was writing poetry. It forced me to stretch and strengthen my mind's ability to come up with just the right word for the meaning I am trying to convey to the reader. When it comes out just right and even though I am the writer, when I read it and it touches my soul in some momentarily profound way. Then I know this s what I love doing, this is what I am - a writer. JL Cooper

1.    Fill up the floor and shelves of all of the closets in your house. 2.     Store them on an external device for so long that the technology is obsoite and you have to hire a data recovery company in order to view it again. 3.     Copyright all of your thousands of poems, dozens of books, endless shortstories, one novel and handfull of screenplays under ”body of work“   so that for $35 you can copyright the whole kit and kaboodle. 4.     When deeply depressed over not being published, use some pages of your rejected work to start a fire in the fireplace.   Then open bottle of wine and don’t share it. 5.     Pull out any of your work you want to critique and edit, edit, edit – this should take up about a third of your life. 6.     Print all of your works out and put them in three ring binders to give yourself the sense of being a published author without the accolades or inc...

     When I started going to school, it was in the days when every teacher was made a special paddle by the school’s wood shop teacher.   I recall being sent to the hall once a week in the first grade for not turning in my assignments.   I hated the sight of the large flat wooden paddle with holes drilled into it swinging from the arm of my teacher as she followed me out into the hallway.   Then as if doing nothing out of the ordinary, the teacher would tell me “You know what to do, grab the bottom of the chair”.   I would bend over, dreading what was coming next then take my three or so paddles.   With tears in my eyes I would return to the class.   Embarrassed for being punished just outside of the door, where they could all hear it.   God forbid I would let my parents know what was going on.   I knew I would just be spanked at home for getting spanked at school.   To this day my mom swears she never knew about it. ...