Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Welcome to the official website for Saundra Mitchell! I’m the author of SHADOWED SUMMER, THE VESPERTINE, THE SPRINGSWEET, THE ELEMENTALS and MISTWALKER. I’m the editor of the YA anthology DEFY THE DARK. I’m also the author of WHILE YOU’RE AWAY, writing as Jessa Holbrook, and WILD, writing as Alex Mallory.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Fan Fiction: Your Creativity, Other People’s Playgrounds
The Indianapolis Public Library

March 7, 2015 – 2:00 PM
Decatur Branch
5301 Kentucky Avenue,
Indianapolis, IN 46221

March 8, 2015 – 1:00PM
Wayne Branch
198 S Girls School Rd
Indianapolis, IN 46231

March 14, 2015 – 3:00PM
Central Branch
40 East Saint Clair Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204

March 21, 2015 – 11:00AM
Glendale Branch
Glendale Town Center
6101 N Keystone Ave
Indianapolis, IN 46220

March 28, 2015 – 10.30AM
Pike Branch
6525 Zionsville Road
Indianapolis, IN 46268

March 28, 2014 – 2.00PM
Franklin Road Branch
5550 South Franklin Road
Indianapolis, IN 46239

Southern Kentucky Book Festival
April 18, 2015, 9am – 3pm
Knicely Center
2355 Nashville Road
Bowling Green, KY 42101
Panel: Young Adult: Fresh Take on Classics
WithTracy Barrett, Carey Corp, Katherine Howe, Lorie Langdon, and me as Alex Mallory!

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Don’t let the summer end! PenguinTeen is giving away a boatload of awesome YA paperbacks, including WHILE YOU’RE AWAY by my secret identity, Jessa Holbrook. And BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA by April Genevieve Tucholke, which is one of my favorites EVER, IF I STAY by Gayle Forman, and a bunch more nommy reads.

Come see the beautimousness that is a megaton of books just waiting for you to enter and win!

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

 I’m so excited! My secret identity’s books, WHILE YOU’RE AWAY, is a paperback you can hold now! It comes out May 20, 2014 and it’s so beyond incredibly pettable.

It will be available anywhere you love to buy books, so please do check it out!

It’s a great way to revisit Will and Sarah, this time in a bathtub-reading friendly format!

WHILE YOU’RE AWAY
Jessa Holbrook
ISBN-13: 978-1595147325

Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Book Depository | Powell’s |

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

MISTWALKER comes out today, and I wanted to talk about where it came from. This is a special book to m

e. In my head, it’s a sort of companion to SHADOWED SUMMER. I’ve never wanted to write a book more than this one.

While I was drafting it, I disappeared into it. It’s a personal book, one that’s very special to me. But it w

asn’t a thunderbolt book, where it appeared in my head fully-formed and I just had to type fast enough to keep up. Nope.

The idea for MISTWALKER  came in two entirely separate pieces.  The book is written in two POVs, which reflect the dual inspiration:

PART ONE: GREY

So I told you that I write because I still have people to prove wrong. This is exactly where the mythology for this book came from. There was a blog post at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, talking about what the next big thing in YA would be.

This was pr

obably four or five years ago, back when paranormal was still the hugest of the huge. It was also when adult romance sites had just started reviewing YA novels as well. Which, as you can imagine, ticked off some of the romance-only readers. YA had invaded their space!

I was enjoying the comments until about midway through the comments. There, a couple of disgruntled readers started joking about the most ridiculous creatures that could be the next big YA monster. Somebody said leprechauns. Another suggested minotaurs. Then somebody said, far liath. 

I had no idea what that was, but if I was going to be outraged at all these suggestions, I needed to know.

So I looked it up. Far Liath– the Grey Man. He appears as fog, lures ships into the rocks, and unsuspected travelers to their death over cliffs.

Oh. Ohhhh.

Immediately, I could imagine a backstory for a character like that. Something more human than just a spectral, hateful fae.

And because somebody said it was ridiculous and couldn’t– or shouldn’t– be done, I decided I was going to do it. That’s where Grey began, cursed to haunt the lighthouse on Jackson’s Rock until he took a thousand souls or convinced someone else to take on the curse.

PART TWO: WILLA

When I was sixteen, my younger brother took his own life. He was fourteen and it was a tragedy. Everyone agreed, it was unnatural for my parents to have to bury a child. That’s not the order of things. That’s not how the world is supposed to work.

And that, I suppose, is why so many adults said to me, “You have to take care of your parents now.” Or, “You need to be strong for your parents.”

Because to them, this was my parents’ loss, not mine. So many people said it, family members, family friends, adults I trusted, I believed them. I wasn’t supposed to grieve, I was supposed to take care of my parents.

That’s exactly what I did. I sat between them at the funeral, and forced myself not to cry. I stuffed everything down, over and over. I did what I could to be the strong one– this meant holding my mother’s hand while she talked to news reporters about it. Making dinner at my dad’s house while he sat in the back room and cried.

It’s a strange sort of hole to have in your life. When you meet people, there are small talk subjects– but I don’t know the answer to “Do you have any brothers or sisters?” I guess to be absolutely correct, the answer is no. But that feels like a lie, because I once did.

I was shocked, and relieved, and furious to discover that I wasn’t the only one. Apparently that’s just what people say to surviving siblings: take care of your parents. You have to be the strong one now. (So if you’re in that position, friend, please instead say, “I’m so sorry for your loss. Do you need anything? How are you feeling?”)

That’s where Willa’s story comes from: struggling under that hopeless, oppressive, endless sense that you have to take care of everything because your brother or sister died. Her story is all about the way people treat you when you’re the kid who survives.

FINALLY

My best friend and I agree that when we die, we’re going to get on a ferry and go to Maine. We love it there, and I can’t imagine MISTWALKER taking place anywhere else. That’s not really a foundational point; it’s just a little trivia. A little bit more about where the book comes from. You can see why I say MISTWALKER is personal, a book of my heart.

I’m both excited and terrified that it’s out in the world today, but I’m so glad I get to share it with you.

Indiebound | Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Powell’s | iBookstore

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.

Maybe you don’t feel like reading an essay about queries. Why would you? You need to get one written, RIGHT NOW OMFG EMERGENCY NOW NOW NOW. Okay, yo. Cool. I can give you a short n’ dirty query bulletpoint list so that you can skim it real fast and get back to work.

• A query letter is a BUSINESS LETTER. If you’re sending it by postal mail, format it exactly like your standard business letter. That link there will take you to Purdue University’s guide.
• If by e-mail, you’re going to start with the salutation and leave out all contact information with your signature except your name, your e-mail address, and your URL.
• WRITE IT LIKE A BUSINESS LETTER. Don’t print it on sparkly paper, don’t enclose confetti, don’t scent it with your favorite Axe spray, don’t. Don’t enclose food, bugs, hair, MONEY, character family tree– seriously. The only thing that goes in that envelope is the letter and SASE.
• WRITE IT LIKE A BUSINESS LETTER. Do not attach documents, pictures, totally cute cat JPGs, no GIFs, do not doge or lolcat the subject line, do not ask people to follow links to your query letter which is elsewhere, do not ask them to read the book that’s posted on your website.
• WRITE IT LIKE A BUSINESS LETTER. Don’t tell the agent about your aunt Suzie or how much your kids like your book. Nobody cares.
• Do tell them if Oprah Winfrey personally promised to endorse your book and include her assistant’s e-mail address so they can verify that.
• Your characters cannot sign contracts. Do not let them write your query letter.
• Don’t write a query letter that’s longer than a page. If in e-mail, 3 substantial paragraphs should do it.
• Paragraph One: My name is FROG WOBBLER SR, ESQ. I am querying you about my novel SNOT ROCKETS. It is a MIDDLE GRADE novel, complete at 45,000 words. I read in BABBLE DAILY that you’re especially looking for SNOT-RELATED MIDDLE GRADE, so I think this might be a good fit.
• Paragraph Two: Concisely, in ONE paragraph, tell us who the protagonist of SNOT ROCKETS is, their conflict, and the resolution.
• Do not explain your themes, the important lessons children will learn, discuss the symbolism, etcetera.
• Don’t talk smack about other books. SNOT ROCKET may be middle grade for smart, discerning kids who don’t like paranormal garbage like SHADOWED SUMMER, but that’s something you say in your inside voice. You don’t know who the agent represents, or everything they love.
• Only talk about what IS in your book, not what ISN’T.
• Paragraph Three: My work has been published in (name of publication, and not “my mom’s gardening newsletter,” either.)
• If you have REAL, substantial awards, mention them here. I am a PUSHCART PRIZE NOMINEE. Do not include super-local, dinky things. If the agent has to Google the SOCIETY OF LITTLE FREAKY FROGS OF THE MIDWEST to find out if it’s real, it really doesn’t count.
• Paragraph Three (II): If you don’t have publications or real, substantial awards, then wrap this up short and sweet. This manuscript is available for your request. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
• Paragraph Three (III): Even if you do have publications and awards, wrap it up nicely; see above.
• Sincerely,
• FROG WOBBLER SR, ESQ, frog@wobbler.com, www.frogwobbler.com
• And now…
• THE RULE THAT SUPERCEDES ALL RULES FOREVER AND EVER AMEN:
• If the agent’s submission guidelines contradict this, DO WHAT THE AGENT SAYS. It is a test. It’s a test to weed out people who don’t pay attention, aren’t concerned with guidelines, and probably will be a pain in the ass to work with later because they’re just gonna do what they want alllllll the time and have to be wrangled and jeez, they only get 15% for this, and it’s not ENOUGH AND…

That’s it. Nothing else. No bells, no whistles, no foolin’ around, no extraneous detail. It’s a business letter with three paragraphs: about you, about the book, about your gratitude. The end.

(Get back to work, slacker!)

Originally published at making stuff up blog. You can comment here or there.