The Waiting Game by Ty Drago

Hi folks, today I have a very special guest: Ty Drago, the editor of Allegory E-zine and author of the Young Adult thriller The Undertakers: Rise of the Corpses (April 2011). Ty is one of the hardest working men I know, holding down a full time job as a business analyst along with his writing and editing endeavors, but he carved some time out of his schedule to visit us here today and impart his wisdom.

So, without further adieu…here is my favorite editor-in-chief talking about something near and dear to all writer’s hearts…

The Waiting Game

Wheels turn slowly in modern publishing. Writing a novel takes time. Editing a novel takes even more time, if you’re serious about it. But at least you’re busy. Once the finished work is out the door — to agents or editors, the waiting begins.

You’d think I’d be used to it by now. I’ve written a dozen novels, all of which have been submitted to various venues. Of them, so far three have been published and a fourth is currently under consideration. So I know all about the Waiting Game.

It’s a game in which the author has few moves, once the book is out the door. An agent, assuming you have one (assuming it’s not, in fact, an agency to which you’ve just submitted), may havesome options. He or she can nudge or nag, trying to pry out of overworked editors some level of feedback. But the results of such efforts, as far as I’ve seen, are mixed at best.

In the Writing Game, almost all moves are on the publisher’s side of the board.

But as a writer, are you completely helpless? Well, maybe not completely.

When my novel PHOBOS was submitted to Tor Books, we heard nothing for six months. Then eight.Then ten. After that, at my (then) agent’s advice, I travelled to WorldCon to attend Tor’s late night party in their hotel suite. I spent the next four hours in a bathroom with my (then) editor, as he played makeshift bartender, serving up beers and wine coolers that were on ice in the bathtub. Yep … it was that kind of party.

And he knew full well why I was there. In fact, he said so: “Ty’s here because he wants to know if he’s book’s going to be published.”

I didn’t deny it. We both knew I was making a move — one of a writer’s few moves — in the Waiting Game.

Well, PHOBOS was published. I received a contract and then waited an additional fifteen months for the editorial changes to come in. Then I waited another year until the hardcover edition hit the shelves. All in all, from first submission to publication took something over two-and-a-half years.

The Waiting Game taxes us. It costs us sleep. It drives us to stare at our phone or email and hope that this morning, or this afternoon, or tomorrow, or next week, or next month, or next season, we’ll hear something — hopefully something positive. But too often the news, when it finally comes, is otherwise. Often a “no” can take as long as a “yes”. And what you’re left with in the grim aspect of shaking off your disappointment, resetting your pieces on the board, and starting the Waiting Game anew with a different publisher.

(Groan)

We didn’t invent the game. We didn’t draft the rules. We can’t even really play it in any solid, active way. Not really. But we can win it.

Winning the Waiting Game means making a sale.

Unfortunately, such wins are few and far between for most of us, while the game itself goes on. The Winning Game ain’t fast and it ain’t fun. Frankly, just playing it demands a level of bravery that many writers are never able to muster. There’s a peculiar dignity in the act of dropping that manuscript in the mail or pressing the send button on that critical email. Because, without that single act of courage, there can be no Waiting Game.

We may not have a lot of moves.

But the first one is always ours.


Folks, you can find out more about Ty Drago and his work at http://www.tydrago.com/.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Ciao,

JET

First Friday - and April Fool's Day to boot!

Happy April Fool’s Day!


April 1st and I’ve survived a month of my daughter’s driving. The weather is poised to warm up this month – or so they say. As I write this blog it is freezing outside and I’m itching for the warmer New England weather. So light a fire and curl up with one of these books until spring shows her warm face…

J.E. Taylor - Hunting Season - Available Now!

When Kyle Winslow escapes from custody and targets everyone Special Agent Steve Williams cares about, a turn of fate brings Steve face to face with Ty Aris – a criminal mastermind topping the FBI’s most wanted list. Torn between justice and vengeance, Steve must make a decision. Join alliances with Ty, or arrest him and lose his best chance to catch the bastard who destroyed his family.


"Unstoppable, breath stealing, and terrifying all at once." - Cat Connor, author of killerbyte, terrorbyte, and exacerbyte.

"Hunting Season goes where few venture, mixing a compelling crime thriller with supernatural forces. The action and drama is thick and fast and I guarantee you will not be able to put this book down." - Poppet, author of Seithe and Darkroom.

Jonathan Maberry – The King of Plagues – March 29, 2011

Saturday 09:11 Hours: A blast rocks a London hospital and thousands are dead or injured… 10:09 Hours: Joe Ledger arrives on scene to investigate. The horror is unlike anything he has ever seen. Compelled by grief and rage, Joe rejoins the DMS and within hours is attacked by a hit-team of assassins and sent on a suicide mission into a viral hot zone during an Ebola outbreak. Soon Joe Ledger and the Department of Military Sciences begin tearing down the veils of deception to uncover a vast and powerful secret society using weaponized versions of the Ten Plagues of Egypt to destabilize world economies and profit from the resulting chaos. Millions will die unless Joe Ledger meets the this powerful new enemy on their own terms as he fights terror with terror.

Ty Drago- The Undertakers – Rise of the Corpses – April 1, 2011

"On a sunny Wednesday morning in October, a day that would mark the end of one life and the beginning of another, I found out my grouchy next door neighbor was the walking dead. When you turn around expecting to see something familiar, and instead see something else altogether, it takes a little while for your brain to catch up with your eyes. I call it the 'Holy Crap Factor.'"

Forced to flee his home and family, twelve-year-old Will Ritter falls in with the Undertakers-a rag-tag army of teenage resistance fighters who've banded together to battle the Corpses.

Brett Battles – The Silenced – April 5, 2011

Professional “cleaner” Jonathan Quinn has a new client and an odd job: find and remove the remains of a body hidden twenty years ago inside the walls of a London building, before the building is demolished.

But Quinn and his team are being watched. Suddenly caught in the cross fire between two dangerous rivals, Quinn must unravel the identity of the body and why it still poses so great a threat even in death. Because a plot stretching from the former Soviet Union to Hong Kong, from Paris to London, from Los Angeles to Maine, is rapidly falling apart. And Quinn hasn’t been hired just to tie up loose ends—he is one.

Jael McHenry – The Kitchen Daughter – April 12, 2011

After the unexpected death of her parents, painfully shy and sheltered 26-year-old Ginny Selvaggio seeks comfort in cooking from family recipes. But the rich, peppery scent of her Nonna’s soup draws an unexpected visitor into the kitchen: the ghost of Nonna herself, dead for twenty years, who appears with a cryptic warning (“do no let her…”) before vanishing like steam from a cooling dish.

A haunted kitchen isn’t Ginny’s only challenge. Her domineering sister, Amanda, (aka “Demanda”) insists on selling their parents’ house, the only home Ginny has ever known. As she packs up her parents’ belongings, Ginny finds evidence of family secrets she isn’t sure how to unravel. She knows how to turn milk into cheese and cream into butter, but she doesn’t know why her mother hid a letter in the bedroom chimney, or the identity of the woman in her father’s photographs. The more she learns, the more she realizes the keys to these riddles lie with the dead, and there’s only one way to get answers: cook from dead people’s recipes, raise their ghosts, and ask them.

Various Artists – With Love – March 22, 2011

A short while ago, when the news and images of the Japanese earthquake found its way into our homes through that same internet and on our TV screens, we watched bodies being recovered. We watched homes being swept away. Some of us shed tears, some were stunned, but we all wanted to do *something*, anything, something....

We wanted to reach out, to help.

But we're not wealthy, we're not trained in search, rescue or other emergency services. We have families and jobs that we can't just leave...

But we can write. We can edit and we can publish.

We are a group of talented writers and some of us have donated our words, someone donated a cover, some have donated time, some have donated editing skills, Ethics Trading has donated the publishing portal, and we have pulled together this ebook of a selection of our work.

While working on this project we realised that although Japan was the trigger and the inspiration, we wanted to establish an ongoing project to aid disaster relief and aid across the globe - so proceeds from sales of this project will be offered to Medecins Sans Frontieres, (Doctors without borders) to support the work they do.

Thank you for your support. It really does mean a lot.
Sarah Barnard
Freelance Author and Publisher.

Sibel Hodge – Be Careful What you Wish For – April 2011

Armed with cool sarcasm and uncontrollable hair, feisty insurance investigator Amber Fox is back in a new mystery combining murder and mayhem with romance and chicklit…

Three deaths.
A safety deposit box robbery.
The boxing heavyweight champion of the world.

Somehow, they’re all related, and Amber has to solve a four year old crime to find out why.

As she stumbles across a trail of dead bodies and a web of lies spanning both sides of the social divide, it’s starting to get personal. Someone thinks Amber’s poking her nose in where it’s not wanted, sparking off a game of fox and mouse – only this time, Amber’s the mouse.

Amber’s forced to take refuge in the home of her ex-fiancé, Brad Beckett, and now it’s not just the case that’s hotting up. So is the bedroom…

All Levi Carter wanted to be was the boxing heavyweight champion of the world, but at what cost?
All Carl Thomas wanted was to be rich, but would his greed be his downfall?
All Brad Beckett wants is to get Amber back, but there’s a reason for the ex word.

Be careful what you wish for…you might just get it.

Georina Young-Ellis - The Time Baroness - April 2011

It started out as such a simple experiment: time-travel to Jane Austen’s England, live a quiet, rural life as a woman of independent means, observe and notate. I never thought I would fall in love or... end up planning a prison break! When did everything go so terribly wrong?

October 24, 1820 - Dr. Cassandra Reilly



 

 

Susanne Dunlap - In the Shadow of the Lamp – April 12, 2011

It's 1854 and sixteen-year-old Molly would give anything to change her circumstances as a lowly servant in a posh London house. So when she hears of an opportunity to join the nurses who will be traveling with Florence Nightingale to the Crimea, she jumps at the chance. The work is grueling, the hospital conditions deplorable, and Miss Nightingale a demanding teacher. Before long, the plight of British soldiers becomes more than just a mission of mercy as Molly finds that she's falling in love with both a dashing young doctor and a soldier who has joined the army to be near her. But with the battle raging ever nearer, can Molly keep the two men she cares for from harm? A love story to savor, and a fascinating behind-the-scenes imagining of the woman who became known as “the lady with the lamp”.

Next week, I have Susan Helene Gottfried here to talk about her latest book.

Until then,

Ciao

JET

Dishing it up with Ty Drago.

Hi folks, today my guest is Ty Drago.

He’s a busy man. For the past eleven years, he's served as an editor/publisher - first of Peridot Books and now Allegory.

On top of that, he's also published two novels. The first, a historical mystery called The Franklin Affair, was released by Regency Press in 2001. The second, a SF mystery entitled Phobos, was published by Tor Books in 2003/2004.

In addition, he's written countless short stories, a number of articles on the craft and business of writing, and frequently speaks at writer’s conferences and SF conventions. A husband and father of two children, Ty travels extensively and - on top of everything else - manages to hold down a full time job as a business analyst. Jeez!

Best of all, he's just received word that his YA thriller: THE UNDERTAKERS will be released by Jabberwocky in Spring of 2011!

JET: You’re very busy these days with your new Middle Grade series the Undertakers as well as your duties as Editor-in-chief of Allegory e-zine AND holding down a full time “day” job - are you able to find a balance between your career(s) and your family?

TY: Well, my uber-supportive wife, Helene, once referred to me a “doer”. I guess that’s the best way to explain it. I’m not one of those people who can easily just sit. I split my life between two full-time jobs: one that I live and breathe for; and the other that pays the bills … for now.


On top of that I have my family, our interests, our trips. We recently bought a shore home that is taking up a lot of energy.


What can I say? I’m a “rolling stone!” 

JET: You’ve written science fiction, fantasy and horror. Which genre is your favorite and why?

TY: Fantasy, hands down. Science Fiction is about taking what’s possible and extending it further. Fantasy is about taking what’s impossible and making it seem possible. Horror is about tapping into deeply rooted fears, finding out what scares you and putting it down on paper. Of the three, Fantasy is the most liberating, the most versatile, and the hardest to easily define. I love it!

JET: Do you think writing speculative fiction was a conscious choice or was it just a natural affinity? Why do you think that is?

TY: I’m a storyteller. A thousand years ago, I’d have been the guy who wandered into the village around sunset and, for the price of a warm bed, a hot meal, a liberal sprinkling of alcohol, would sit by the fire and regale his hosts with tales of faraway places and forgotten lands. In our modern world, that sort of thing simply doesn’t work. So instead I’ve chosen the medium of the written word. But the spirit’s the same.


I’ve never liked the term “speculative fiction”. All fiction is storytelling and all storytelling is speculative. All fiction asks the question “what if”, and starts with some manner of “Once upon a time.” It is the oldest art; the true oldest profession.


Overall, I write what I think I can sell. My first published book was an historical fantasy. The new one is a Middle Grade dark fantasy. But, when given my druthers? Fantasy and SF. I’ve loved it all my life. So the answer to the question would be “both”!

JET: What’s been your most challenging hurdle on the road to publication?

TY: We’re living the single hardest time for a new writer to get established since Gutenberg was putting out nothing but Bibles. I’ve written more than a dozen novels and, so far, have sold three. I’d say that’s probably pretty typical.


The hardest thing for any writer is to get noticed, to get out of the “slush pile”. There’s more competition out there than ever before; the modern computer age has made it less tedious to write a novel than it used to be. After all, rewriting on the typewriter and rewriting with a word processor are two very different things! With so many writers submitting so much work, it’s more important than ever to network, to get to know your market personally, and to get recognized!

JET: What was your favorite moment in the journey?

TY: That’s impossible to say. I love speaking in front of people. If pressed, I’d admit that I especially enjoyed an invite I received to attend the Oklahoma Writers Federation annual conference. They flew me out there, put me up for three nights, and then actually paid me for my time. It was a wonderful experience and I made some great friends that weekend with whom I still stay in touch.

JET: Which authors had the most influence over you growing up?

TY: Stephen King – a master storyteller. He has his hits and his misses, but he still has the best narrative style I’ve ever seen. And Isaac Asimov, the father of modern Science Fiction. I have books signed by both men. Their work was a huge inspiration to me.

JET: When did you know you wanted to take the plunge into the writing world?

TY: Birth. I started writing picture books at the age of four and never stopped. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a writer.

JET: What’s the craziest thing you’ve done in the name of book research? Most interesting fact you uncovered?

TY: I like to visit the locales I’m writing about. I enjoy walking in the footsteps of my characters. I don’t know how “crazy” that is. Doing so is hugely valuable to me, as it gives me insight into details and nuance that might not otherwise get. Once of the things that sold The Undertakers, I think, is that the city of Philadelphia is almost a character is the story.

JET: Of all the novels and stories you’ve written - which one is your favorite? Why?

TY: Jeez! That’s like asking a parent to choose his favorite child! Right now, my fav is The Undertakers, probably because I’m spending so much time thinking about it. I have two unpublished Adult Fantasy novels that I’d love to see in print. Once is called Chivalry, and it’s the story of a Philadelphia prostitute whose life is saved by a mysterious stranger who wields a silver walking stick as if it were a sword and calls her “Milady.” The other is Angelfire, a tale of Heaven and Hell, in which a young angel sneaks to into Hell to rescue his damned wife – kind of a modern Orpheus.

JET: Any advice (from a writer’s standpoint) for the novices out there?

TY: Let’s go to Robert Heinlein to answer that one. Here are his five rules for writing:


1) Write


2) Finish what you write


3) Edit what you write


4) Submit what you write


5) Write something else


I don’t think anyone has ever said it better than that.

JET: Any advice from an editor’s standpoint?

TY: Know your market. Don’t submit to a publication that you haven’t actually read. Be mature. Be professional. Accept rejection and don’t ever take it personally. Keep writing. Never ever give up!

JET: All right - now that I’ve hammered you with the big questions, let’s tackle my favorite (and geeky) quick ten. . . starting with Paper or Plastic?

TY: God (and my eco-sensitive wife) forgive me … Plastic!

JET: Steak or Tofu?

TY: Steak!

JET: Beach or Mountains?

TY: Beach! Just bought a shore home. Hellooooo!

JET: Country or Rock-n-Roll?

TY: Rock and Roll! I’m a Jersey boy!

JET: Classics or Modern?

TY: Both!

JET: Vamps or Wolves?

TY: I’ve always been a wolf guy. Used to dress up as the Wolfman for Halloween. I know some vampire-writer friends who will gasp to hear that!

JET: Zombies or Demons?

TY: Both. I’ve written about both.

JET: Horror or Comedy?

TY: Depends on the Horror and it depends on the Comedy. I love to laugh, but you can’t tear me away from a good scary flick.

JET: Salty or Sweet?

TY: Sigh. I’ve recently had to dial back on my salt, so I’ll say Sweet.

JET: Coffee or Tea?

TY: Tea. Never developed a taste for Coffee.

JET: Thank you for indulging me. Before we wrap this up, can you tell us what you're working on now? What's next?

TY: I’m heavily into the editorial changes for The Undertakers, working with my amazing editor at Jabberwocky. After that, I’ve diving into Book Two of the series, which is entitled “Queen of the Dead”!

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat on my blog. Folks, you can find out more about Ty Drago and his work at www.tydrago.com.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Ciao,

JET