Chérie Newman responds to an unpublished writer

Dear unpublished Montana writer:

You are correct in stating that there are no agents in Montana. In fact, there are very few agents in the western U.S., except for a predicable crowd in Southern California. A Writer's Market map shows the gory details.

But forget about where the agents are for a moment and consider some basics. Your attempts to attract an agent or publisher must begin with a search for names and contact information. That means research.

Bookstores and libraries are excellent places to find the information you need. Look for books similar to yours. Make a note of the publishers, then go to their Web sites and search for "submission guidelines." Sometimes a list of agents the publisher works with is noted somewhere on their site. You can also find information about publishers and agents in books like The Writer's Market. (And no, I am not affillated with TWM in any way. It just happens to be a resource I'm familiar with.)

Once you have a list of potential publishers and agents, write a riveting query letter. No more than one page. Take a minute to imagine how many such letters agents and publishers receive in any given week (hundreds or thousands), and you'll understand how crucial this letter is. Your query letter must hook the reader (probably an intern) from the first sentence and pull them through to the final sentence. And be sure the letter is addressed to a specific person, not "Dear Editor" or "Dear Agent." Do you enjoy receiving generic letters? Of course not. So don't offend the people whose attention you are trying to attract.

Again, look for a book that contains examples and advice for writing query letters. Or find a reputable online resource.

So, back to your manuscript. If it's fiction, you should have three finished chapters ready to show an agent. Finished means they have been re-written many times and been through a copy-editing process.

For nonfiction, a first-time author might need an entire manuscript—a well-written and well-edited manuscript—unless your proposal is clearly unique or surprising. Or the agent can tell, by reading your query letter, that you are an exceptional writer with an exceptional idea.

You also mentioned the possibility of self-publishing, so here's a bit about that:

The most important thing to remember about self-publishing is that you have no perspective on your own work. So, you'll need to hire a professional editor, which will be a major expense. And don't skimp on the book's layout by choosing narrow margins and a cramped presentation in order to save money on the number of pages. Look at books published by major houses to get layout ideas. Another thing about self-publishing is that once you have boxes of books stacked in your garage, the real, and very time-consuming, work of marketing and selling your book, one copy at a time, begins. Do you enjoy marketing, lugging boxes into the UPS store, cheap motels, and January road trips?

Writing and publishing books is thrilling work when it goes well and depressing when you feel rejected. But keep in mind that making books is like everything else: You have to work at it every day, celebrate small victories, and enjoy the process.

Thanks for sharing my passion for The Write Question.

Wishing you the best in all your writing and publishing endeavors,

Chérie Newman

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Chérie Newman's articles and book reviews have been published in Montana Magazine, High Country News, the University of Montana Alumni Newsletter, the Billings Gazette, the Missoulian, Montana Senior News, Outside Bozeman Magazine, and on numerous Web sites.

Her media portfolio includes radio plays, special audio programs featuring artists, and a weekly literary program for public radio stations — The Write Question — which is distributed through the Public Radio Exchange (PRX.org) and as a podcast through the Montana Public Radio Web site (MTPR.org).

Thomas McIntyre, author of 'The Snow Leopard's Tale'

There are a few creatures left in the world who live still untamed, prowling through the rocks, blinking slowly at the encroaching civilization far below. On China’s Bountiful Black Mountain, a snow leopard hunts alone, artifact of a vanishing age. But hungry, desperate, when he is finally forced away from the cold stones of his mountain home toward the tents and fires of the valley, he encounters an impossible, startling world. And as we follow him on his journey, as the talented pen of Thomas McIntyre shows us how we appear through the leopard’s eyes, it’s a vision that will finally startle us as well.

More than fourteen years in the making, at the intersection of magic realism and artful allegory, with the detail of our best nature writing and a language resonant of poetry as much as fiction, The Snow Leopard’s Tale is a novel for the ages. Like all the best stories, it will change the way you see the world.

Hear Thomas McIntyre talk about and read from the book during this week's broadcast of The Write Question.

There are many ways to listen:

• Thursday, January 10, at 7:30 p.m. on Montana Public Radio
• Thursday, January 10, at 6:30 p.m. on Yellowstone Public Radio
• Sunday, January 13, at 6 p.m. on Spokane Public Radio
• On demand audio.
• Subscribe to the the MTPR podcast

____________________  An award-winning professional writer for more than thirty-five years, Thomas McIntyre has authored thousands of magazine articles and television scripts, and is the author of such critically-acclaimed books as Days Afield, Dreaming the Lion, and Seasons & Days.

Born and raised in California, he moved to northern Wyoming almost twenty years ago with his wife, Elaine, and son, Bryan. The Snow Leopard’s Tale is his first novel.

Isabel Allende writes about why she writes

Hell is January seventh

I start all my books of January eighth. Can you imagine January seventh? It's hell.

Every year on January seventh, I prepare my physical space. I clean up everything from my other books. I just leave my dictionaries, and my first editions, and the research materials for the new one. And then on January eighth I walk seventeen steps from the kitchen to the little pool house that is my office. It's like a journey to another world. It's winter, it's raining usually. I go with my umbrella and the dog following me. From those seventeen steps on, I am in another world and I am another person.

I go there scared. And excited. And disappointed—because I have a sort of idea that isn't really an idea. The first tow, three, for weeks are wasted. I just show up in front of the computer. Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too. If she doesn't show up invited, eventually she just shows up.

— Isabel Allende

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An excerpt from Why We Write: 20 Acclaimed Authors On How and Why They Do What They Do, edited by Meredith Maran. Publication date: January 29

Children's Book Review: 'Señorita Gordita' by Helen Ketteman

Señorita Gordita by Helen Ketteman
illustrated by Will Terry
Albert Whitman & Company , 2012

Señorita Gordita is the third in a series of Southwestern fairy tales, written by Helen Ketteman and illustrated by Will Terry. This book reimagines the tale of the Gingerbread Man with a Gordita as the protagonist. In the glossary at the back of the book it is explained that a “Gordita is a term of endearment meaning ‘little fat one’ in Spanish. It also refers to a thick, fried tortilla...”

The little fat tortilla outruns Araña (spider), Lagarto (lizard), Crótolo (rattlesnake), Escorpión (scorpion), Javelina (which is not translated in the glossary, but appears to be a wild boar), and Coyote, before meeting her match in Búho, the wise old owl. The setting is the desert, and the characters navigate around Saguaros and Arroyos in their adventures.

The illustrations are slightly cartoonish, with an air-brushed quality that accurately conjures the haze of desert heat. There is also a recipe for Gorditas included at the end of the book. One thing missing from the glossary, which would have been helpful to this Anglo reader, is a pronunciation guide for the Spanish terms.

The first graders I read this book to enjoyed the story, commenting on the suspense of the chase and the clever way the owl tricked Señorita Gordita in the end. They also enjoyed the Spanish words and recurrent phrases, e.g. “And with a flip and a skip and a zip-zoom-zip, off she ran.”

Other books in the series include Waynetta and the Cornstalk: A Texas Fairy Tale (2007), which retells the Jack and the Beanstalk story, and The Three Little Gators (2009), a Texas version of the Three Little Pigs.
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Helen Ketteman is the author of more than twenty picture books including Bubba the Cowboy Prince. She is the mother of two grown sons. A longtime resident of Texas, she now lives on Sanibel Island, Florida, with her husband.

Will Terry has illustrated several pictures books, most recently The Three Bully Goats. He teaches illustration part-time at Utah Valley State College, creates e-book apps, and lives in Cedar Hills, Utah, with his wife and three sons.
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Renée Vaillancourt McGrath has worked at Montana Public Radio as a program host since 2002. Her background is in librarianship and she currently works as a freelance editor, blogger, and website developer. Check out more of her book reviews at reneesreads.com.

Monday Poems: "Phabetical" -- by Nico Vassilakis

"In 'phabetical,' [Vassilakis] uses a toy microscope with a built-in video camera to capture highly magnified images of text, often with his hand moving the microscope across the page to capture still text in motion.... In this poem, he has used a software process to band many slips of texts into columns and rows, and he has captured these blocks of text in motion so that we can see all of the middle column but only half of the two columns to either side of it. The result uses Greek letters (an homage to his ancestry) so abstracted that they appear before us almost as concrete images: birds, an arm reaching out, a child kicking a ball. He forces us to see not the common symbols of our alphabet but instead the “phabet”: the pictographs from which all alphabets arose." —Geof Huth 

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Poet, writer and artist Nico Vassilakis creates visual and video poetry made up of parts of letters and phrases. He has published several books of poetry, including Disparate Magnets (2009) and staring@poetics (2011) and has edited poetry collections including Clear-cut: Anthology: A Collection of Seattle Writers (1996) and The Last Vispo Anthology: Visual Poetry 1998-2008 (2012). He also founded the Subtext Reading Series in Seattle, Washington.

Jennifer Finley Greene, Julie Cajune, Antoine Sandoval

Traditionally, the Salish people of the Pacific Northwest followed a seasonal calendar that is reflected in their names for each month. Activities marked the resources and gifts of each season. Many of these traditional activities continue today among families and in various tribal communities.

In Huckleberries, Buttercups, and Celebrations, author and poet Jennifer Greene celebrates the cultural activities of each month through sonnets that share reverence, delight, and joy.

Complementing the monthly sonnets is the extraordinary original art of Antoine Sandoval. To make each month unique, Antoine chose a different style and medium for each separate illustration. The result is magical!

An illustrated glossary at the end of the book provides meaning and explanation.

Hear Jennifer Greene, Antoine Sandoval, and Julie Cajune, project coordinator, talk about the book, the illustrations, and the importance of the Salish culture during this week's broadcast of The Write Question.

There are many ways to listen:

• Thursday, January 3, at 7:30 p.m. on Montana Public Radio
• Thursday, January 3, at 6:30 p.m. on Yellowstone Public Radio
• Sunday, January 6, at 6 p.m. on Spokane Public Radio
• On demand audio.
• Subscribe to the the MTPR podcast

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Jennifer Greene lives on the Flathead Reservation in Montana where she was born and raised. Her book of poetry entitled What I Keep was the winner of the 1998 North American Native Authors Poetry Award. She won first-place awards from the Native American Journalists Association for feature writing Her writing appeared on a CD entitled Heart of the Bitterroot: Voices of Salish and Pend d'Orielle Women, which was nominated for a Native American Music Award in 2008.

In 2010, Jennifer won a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Association of Educational Publishers in the Adult Fiction category for an article that appeared in Teaching Tolerance magazine. Her latest collection of poetry, published by Foothills Publishing, is entitled What Lasts. Jennifer Finley Greene is Salish and Chappewa-Cree and a member of the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes.

Antoine Sandoval was born and raised on the Flathead Indian Reservation. He graduated from Two Eagle River School and Salish Kootenai College. He's been a contract artist, working on projects from pamphlets to road signs. Much of the work he has done has been for Nkwusm, the Salish language revitalization school. In 2008, Npustin Press published The Gift of the Bitterroot, which features illustrations by Antoine Sandoval.

Antoine has worked collaboratively with his brother, Sam, and father, Tony Sandoval, on a book about the Salish people's first meeting with Lewis and Clark. Antoine's native roots are Salish/Pend d'Oreille and Diné (Navajo). He currently resides in Arlee, Montana.

Julie Cajune has been working in education for over 20 years. A former classroom teacher, Julie went on to obtain a Master’s Degree in Education and worked as a curriculum specialist for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. She returned to public education and worked as a school administrator for six years. During her tenure with the Ronan School district, Julie was awarded the Milken National Educator Award.

Ms. Cajune has worked on culturally responsive educational materials for the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Montana Historical Society and numerous other entities. She recently completed a three-year project developing tribal history materials funded by the Montana State Legislature. In 2009 Julie was named as one of “50 visionaries changing your world.” That same year, she was awarded a 1.4 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The Kellogg grant established the Center for American Indian Policy and Applied Research at Salish Kootenai College. Initial center activities are focused on documenting community histories of tribes in Montana and across the country. Julie is a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and a recipient of the 2011Montana Governor’s Humanities Award.

Young Adult Book Review: 'Something to Hold' by Katherine Schlick Noe

Something to Hold by Katherine Schlick Noe

Clarion Books, 2011

Katherine Schlick Noe writes what she knows. Like Kitty, the protagonist of Something to Hold, Noe’s family lived at the Warm Springs Reservation in Central Oregon when she was a child, and she experienced many of the same things that Kitty does as a non-Indian student at a reservation school.

Kitty’s story rings true as she struggles to make friends with children whose culture is unfamiliar to her and is sometimes reviled by the outside community. Her family provides strong support, in spite of their frequent moves, due to her father’s job with the forest service.

Kitty provides a clear perspective on the racism and violence that occur both within the tribal school and in the larger community, and begins to question the injustices that she witnesses. This ingratiates her with some of the Indian students whose lives have been particularly difficult, but also puts her in danger from their abusers.

Noe does a good job of portraying the diversity within the Indian community at Warm Springs and paints a believable Northwestern landscape. The only flaw in the story is when two major crises occur on the same day and the children go from a police confrontation with a violent offender to being trapped in a Forest Service lookout during a major forest fire. This unlikely string of events leaves the reader wondering how the characters are able to emerge from the dual-trauma relatively unscathed.

Otherwise, Something to Hold presents a realistic picture of the complexities of life on an Indian Reservation in the Pacific Northwest, a perspective that is too often absent from most young adult literature.

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Katherine Schlick Noe moved across the country every four years as a child, living on Indian reservations in Washington and Oregon and near Washington, D.C. She teaches in the Master in Teaching program and directs the Literacy for Special Needs graduate program at Seattle University.

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Renée Vaillancourt McGrath has worked at Montana Public Radio as a program host since 2002. Her background is in librarianship and she currently works as a freelance editor, blogger, and website developer. Check out more of her book reviews at reneesreads.com.