Saturday, January 14, 2012

Day Fourteen - All About Miranda Kenneally ( Catching Jordan)

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Debutante Profile

Name - Miranda Kenneally
Debut - Catching Jordan
Genre - Contemporary
Website - HERE
Facebook - HERE
Twitter - HERE

Miranda Kenneally is the author of CATCHING JORDAN, a contemporary YA novel about football and femininity, coming in December 2011. Other books include PLAYING PARKER (fall 2012) and BAD, BAD THING (spring 2013). Miranda is the co-creator of Dear Teen Me. The Dear Teen Me Anthology will be published by Zest Books (distributed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) in late 2012. She enjoys reading and writing young adult literature, and loves Star Trek, music, sports, Mexican food, Twitter, coffee, and her husband. Follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

Dream Debutante Dress - You know, this dress is so Lady Gaga worthy, very futuristic, I LOVE it!




Notes from a YA Debutante


Miranda’s Road to Publication

I’ve never actually written this entire story down, so I’m excited to do it here at the Debutante Ball. (Isn’t my dress pretty?!)

I’d say my road to publication started back in fourth grade, when every day during free time at school, I would write a story. Usually the story was about a girl who had like ten golden retrievers and eight brothers and sisters. Also, usually the main character was a twin or a triplet. Sometimes, I got crazy and would have quintuplets.

I loved reading, and I remember my teacher asking me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I said, “A writer of stories for kids.” And I never really let go of that dream. I went to college where I tried to study literature and creative writing only to realize that the stuff I like about books and writing is not what professors like. I had one creative writing teacher – Glenn Moomau, who encouraged me to write what I know.

I wrote a bunch of crappy poetry in my early twenties. When I turned 27, I told my husband I want to do this, I really want to write novels. He said okay. I sat down and wrote out the first draft of a sci-fi story. I love sci-fi so bad and I thought my love of it would translate to other people loving it too. I shared the story with some friends and everyone really enjoyed it, but my dad told me I needed a lot of work on my mechanics. I polished the story up, and queried some agents. I didn’t get any bites really. I had something like three requests for fulls out of 100 queries.

It took me a while to figure out what the problem was. It wasn’t the story, it was the hook and the audience. Who was this crazy sci-fi story for? It was a mix of Star Trek and Gilmore Girls and The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Also, it straddled the line between Middle Grade and Young Adult, and that doesn’t work for anybody really. Unless you’re JK Rowling, which I am not.

So taking the lessons I learned from Book One, I sat back down and thought up a hook. Girl football player falling in love for the first time. I wrote out the first draft and then revised it a few times. By this point, I was really down on myself because of what happened with my sci-fi novel. No one wanted to read it, even though I found it hilarious and engaging. I sent out a couple of queries, just to test the waters. Both queries got me full requests. I sent the book to the agents, and I went back and did another edit of the full manuscript. I kept editing, editing, editing. While waiting to hear back from the first two agents, I sent out the query fifteen more times. Of the seventeen, I got nine requests for fulls, and within about two weeks, I had an offer to represent me. I ended up getting a few more offers, but decided to go with my dream agent and agency! Sara Megibow at Nelson Literary.

It was all about the hook!

When it came time to submit the book to publishers, we had a lot of interest from editors, but some editors were concerned about relateability. I did some tweaking to make sure my main character came across as strong, nice and funny, and also relateable to teen girls. After a crazy submissions process, my agent accepted an offer from Sourcebooks, and now they are publishing three of my books!
My road to publication was all about trial and error. If something doesn’t work, I tweak until it does work. If you aren’t getting much traction on something you’re working on, try putting it away and think about hooks and why your first piece didn’t work. It made all the difference for me.

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Bookie's Note : Oh wow, what a long road to publication. You're know I'm actually trying out my creative juice right now and working on a first draft of my SUPER DUPER SECRET Project and by the sound of things I probably won't have anything published until I'm 42 :) BUT, you got there in the end and we're ALL super excited to read Catching Jordan because everyone like swoon-worthy romance novels right? Come back tomorrow for the second half of Jordan's feature!

Badass Bookie xx

37 comments:

  1. totally agree! looks so lady gaga :) it has such a WOW factor :DD

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  2. That dress definitely makes a statement!

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  3. WOW.
    That's soo...unique :P Yes, definitely Lady Gaga worthy!

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  4. As a non-writer I did not realise how complicated it can be getting a book published. Congrats and sticking to it and succeeding and I hope future books will be a lot easier.

    Don't give up on that Sci-Fi though ! Maybe in a yar or so you will be able to re-do it and get secccess with that as well.

    Carol T

    buddytho {at} gmail DOT com

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  5. after a long journey congratulations on getting the book published! Catching Jordan sounds like a good book! =)

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  6. Wow. It IS a long journey, but at least your dream came true! That's the thing that matters! Can't wait to read Catching Jordan!

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  7. Oh, I love the gagaish dress! :) I've always wanted to wear a dress that's gagaish! :) And I'm so happy for you - that you got Catching Jordan published. I hope to read your work soon!

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  8. That is an awesome dress!! I love the insight into publication, I can't get enough of it. It's really interesting, especially to me, as I want to get into publishing and I love seeing the different perspectives!

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  9. Nice story and journey. And yay for girls playing football! Love it.

    And that dress is very Lady Gaga but wearable, I like it :)

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  10. That dress is really Gaga's style, so sparkling xD

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  11. It is always so interesting how these books come to us readers. I have really learned to appreciate all of the hard work and the struggles that authors go through.

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  12. Great publication story. Good to know that hard work and perseverance really can pay off in the end. And great dress choice!

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  13. interesting story, thanks you for sharing with us ( it's not my kind of dress at all^^;;)

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  14. Nice dress pick, Lady Gaga would be proud. :)

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  15. Totally agree. Whoa. The dress is so futuristic :)

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  16. God, the dress is like from different world and really nice.
    It's awesome that M. Kenneally never let her dream go and did everything to realize it:)

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  17. a true gaga dress totally love how fierce that dress it ;) and futuristic you say? definitely!

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  18. Whoa, love the dress! It's awesome!

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  19. Sounds like an awesome time with the twins to quintuplets :) And Catching Jordan sounds like an amazing book, can't wait to read it! Hi author to watch for new novels :)

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  20. Great book for a great book :)

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  21. I can't imagine the road to publication. I am so glad that there are authors out there willing to make that trek. And provide us with great books.

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  22. It gives a very futuristic cut to the dress and the colours are so rich . love it :)

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  23. I think that dress that is a little bit too much for me, but it would be perfect for gaga :)

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  24. OMG! It kind of reminds me of a jelly fish! Cute!

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  25. Pretty dress! That IS a long road to publication, but I'm sure it was worth it! I want to read this so bad!

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  26. wht a long process, but im sure it was all worth it in the enddd :) congrats!

    Diana M.

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  27. wow, that is sue pretty weird and awesome dress!

    - juhina

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  28. What a dress!!

    Congrats to Miranda for sticking with it - just shows what happens when you work hard and stive for your dreams!

    Thanks heaps for sharing!

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  29. That dress looks so weird but then again people out there might also like it who knows. ^^

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  30. Great interview! and that dress is soooo Gaga, which makes me totally want it :P Wow..publishing sounds hard. Glad it worked out in the end!

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  31. That dress is definitely GaGa worthy! I've read worse publishing stories. But you figured it out and this book has been getting rave reviews in the United States! I can't wait to read it. You have an awesome hook!

    Heather

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  32. The dress looks awesome. Something Lady Gaga would wear. :D

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  33. Wow, crazy dress! I like it :)

    I always love reading the publication journeys because they're always so personal and emotional and just... kind of hopeful. Congratulations on everything, Miranda!

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  34. :O that dress is gorgeous, can you imagine wearing that dress in a party and suddenly the lights go out. Just push a button and the party must go on! Niceee! Even if your dreams take some time is very amazing when they come true, all the problems and the editing, everything is worth it. Congrats, Miranda! :)

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  35. I cannot stop staring at this picture! So gorgeous!! There is something about it... it all just flows gorgeously!!

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