I’m excited to be mentoring with the Write Mentor program this summer. Write Mentor is a free program that matches agented and/or published kidlit writers with people looking for, well, mentoring.
The application window is April 15th and 16th, with selections announced on April 30th. The mentoring period is May-August, with an agent showcase to cap off the program in September. You can get full details on the program and how to apply HERE.
I’ll be mentoring middle grade, and I’m looking for something magical, speculative, or wondrous. Whether it’s fairies or ghosts or nightmares come to life or aliens, if it veers away from strict realism, I would love to see it.
What I’m Offering as a Mentor:
- An edit letter (probably 3-6 pages) covering overarching things about your characters, stakes, pacing, plot issues, world-building, magic system, any prose issues I notice, and so on.
- In-line notes in your manuscript with things I notice as I read
- poking and nagging to show me revisions
- rereads of target areas with more feedback
(What I’m not offering is any kind of phone or video call – anxiety makes this a no-go for me, so if that’s hugely important to you, I wouldn’t be a good fit!)
Some specifics of what I want:
- Anything and everything with magic. High fantasy. Low fantasy. Portal fantasy. Historical fantasy. Fairies. Angels. Vampires. Ghosts. Werewolves. Mermaids. Elves. Horrifying monsters. Things that go bump in the night!
- Folklore! All the folklore!! (As in ‘stories passed down orally and changed over time’ not as is ‘popular music album’)
- Fairy tale, Arthurian, and mythology reimaginings
- Science fiction! These ARE the droids I’m looking for!
- Lyrical, evocative prose
- Unique or experimental story structure
- A voice that makes me gasp because it’s SO strong
- If you can comp a Studio Ghibli film, PLEASE send your MS to me
- Small towns and rural life
- Things set on the coast
I am not the best choice for:
- Anything with sexual abuse (including any kind of sexual abuse that happened in the past before the story begins)
- Anything with pet suffering or death
- Graphic novels (I wouldn’t know where to begin to help you)
- Novels-in-verse
Examples of Books I have Adored:
Some books I have adored include:
- The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Kelly Barnhill
- The Forest of Stars, by Heather Kassner
- The Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater
- In an Absent Dream, by Seanan McGuire
- Dragons in a Bag, by Zetta Elliott
- The Bone Houses, by Emily Lloyd-Jones
- While I was Away, by Waka T. Brown
- A Properly Unhaunted Place, by William Alexander
- Castle Hangnail, by Ursula Vernon
- Many Points of Me, by Caroline Gertler
If you have specific questions, I’m on Twitter too much and you can reach me there.