This month on The Slam, I have an exciting piece of news to announce! One of our long-time Slammers, Karen Kincy, has persevered through writer's block, rejection slips, and endless revisions to reach the heights of literary fame and fortune.  That's right, folks -- Karen Kincy has published a novel!  OTHER, released this month by Flux, is a paranormal murder mystery, full of werewolves, centaurs, pookas, dryads, fox spirits, and more.  Okay, so Karen hasn't quite reached fame and fortune yet -- but with a second follow-up novel already due out next year, she's well on her way!  Karen agreed to join us on The Slam this month to tell us a little about how her book came to be, and give advice to fellow Slammers on how to bring their own novels into being.  We hope you'll also check out Karen's website at karenkincy.com, and seek out OTHER to read for yourselves.  Congratulations, Karen, from all of us here at The Slam!

When I was maybe thirteen or so, I got it into my head that I wanted to be a novelist. Not just any novelist, though, but one of those teen novelists who soar above other authors like dazzling fireworks and pop to the sound of “wunderkind!” Believe me, I’d seen it happen. So I hunted down every published novel written by a teen, read them all, and thought, “Ha! Mere mortals, I shall create a much finer masterpiece at my tender youthful age.” Was I cocky? Certainly. But it prodded me into cobbling together manuscripts and embarking upon the Great Publishing Quest. Contrary to Hollywood depictions, this did not seem to involve sitting down in an isolated cabin or at a mahogany writing desk and pounding out a flawless novel on a typewriter. I was loath to touch a typewriter, anyway. Since perfect first drafts are about as real as unicorns, I became a believer in this maxim: to write is to revise.

You wouldn’t believe how many drafts I went through with OTHER, my debut. The novel began life as OTHERWORLD: PORTAL DANGER, a spoof of fantasy novels where teens stumble upon secret magical worlds. Too silly, I thought, but I still loved my characters -- a hotheaded, half-pooka shapeshifter, sexy Japanese fox-spirit, and tree-hugger dryad -- so I scrapped the plot and started over in a more serious tone. I knew I wanted to write about conflict between the magical and the mundane, but I didn’t know how to write the novel. Once, my mind got so tangled up in all the plot threads that I bought a pack of one hundred index cards and wrote down each scene on a card, color-coded them according to theme (murders, romance, werewolves, etc.), and shuffled them on my bed until the book made sense again. The result: OTHER went from crappy to snappy.

I couldn’t have done it alone. Since I can’t always pinpoint each and every plot hole in my own writing, critiques are the way to go. Simply gathering the guts to share your writing must be done before you aim for publication -- which is why places like The Slam can be a great motivator and useful tool for any writer. Ages ago, an excerpt from my very first novel (currently entombed on my hard drive) was chosen for The Slam. Just a snippet from a scene where a girl transforms into a wolf, but I loved getting comments and knowing my words were reaching readers across the world. Nowadays, I’m almost over the age limit for The Slam, but I recently submitted some poetry ("obsolete," April 2010), which was accepted, and I rushed back to check the comments with the same breathless anticipation I reserve for reviews of OTHER. Do be careful, of course, and don’t take every single critique to heart; I used to revise in circles and lose sight of my original vision. I lean in favor of a few trusted readers, my editor definitely being one of them.

Guess what: the very first literary agent who read OTHER adored it and -- okay, I got rejected. About ninety times per book (and two novelistic duds preceded OTHER). I probably have enough rejections to wallpaper a small bathroom, so one may sit and contemplate my failures while -- ahem. Nevertheless, I continued writing and revising, learning from my mistakes. Whenever an agent rejected a manuscript with personal comments, I taped up the cracks in my teacup ego and decided whether I should, indeed, work on my pacing or descriptive prowess.

How does this saga end? Since I love to be contrary, I found a publisher who still took unagented submissions and actually loved OTHER. (That’s right, the only editor I queried was my editor. I got lucky!) After my initial jig of glee, I wanted a literary agent to negotiate the tangled business of the book deal. So, going about things backwards, I got one. Fast forward about a year and a half, skipping several eternities of revisions. Now, I've missed the deadline for teen wunderkind. But there really aren’t any deadlines except the goals you set for yourself, and the only real obstacle in your way is how long you wait before setting out on the path to publication. Yes, it may be long and twisty with plenty of dead-ends. But if you, also, dream of your words whispering into imaginations other than your own, then go forth, fellow Slammer, and good luck.