Writing Novels in the Pacific Northwest

The Seattle area is peppered with novelists, some superstars in their genre like Cherry Adair, Debbie Macomber, Susan Wiggs, Jane Anne Krentz, Julia Quinn, Alexis Morgan, Jane Porter, Stella Cameron and Yasmine Galenorn. These women are celebrities at romance writing conferences, many having enjoyed The New York Times Bestseller List. Some even have movie deals under their belts.

Then we have the Bob Mayer, Garth Stein, Carol Cassella, Jamie Ford, Bob Dugoni, Stephanie Kallos crowd who write commercial fiction and beyond. (I know I’m leaving out some mega writers). Last year, 36 writers from the Seattle area converged on Hugo House, a writers’ haven and café, to write a novel - live. I tuned in online, during those three days to watch Jamie and Carol write. Fascinating stuff if you’re a writer, or a voyeur. The result is the novel Hotel Angeline.

Our lovely town of Sammamish harbors novelists and screenwriters who slog away at the keyboard, day after day, pounding out various forms of writing (think Microsoft manuals, newspaper articles, real estate text, travel magazines, online blogs).

Thousands of us, (well maybe only six hundred of us in the Seattle area) have novels we hope to see published someday. These books are worthy of publication but for some reason there is an overabundance of writers in this decade who are competing with each other to secure an agent to get a publishing contract. We happen to be a dime a dozen, and because of that, agents are extremely picky about taking on a first-time novelist. To get a literary agent interested, you must have a platform worthy of attention and a book that reaches out to grab the reader by the throat.

When people hear I’ve written three unpublished novels, they usually ask why I haven’t had them published. I could answer that they’re not good enough but I’d like to think the truth is that getting an agent to take your book to a publishing house is like trying to get a starring role in a movie opposite Brad Pitt. Agents love to tell us writers that they get hundreds of queries a day asking for representation. There are hundreds of reputable literary agents all over America, working to find the next breakout novel. You do the math. It’s grim for first time novelists, especially in commercial fiction which is what I write. Romance stories are slightly easier to get published because readers of romance buy an average of three to five books a month, bless their hearts. They are the backbone of the publishing industry.

Regardless of the genre, the process of getting published is the same: First you need an amazingly compelling subject matter - she's human, he's vampire and their love is forbidden. Then you need loads of believable conflict - her best friend is werewolf with a big hatred for vampires.

After that, the story itself must be written succinctly with no typos, properly formatted and the agent must be in the right mood that day to believe it'll sell. If they like the concept and ask for the first three chapters, you cross your fingers they’ll ask for the full manuscript. Now you break open the Veuve to toast your accomplishment. A rejection at this point is devastating, especially if you’ve made loads of revisions to please them.

But if the agent takes the book to their buddies at a publishing house to read, it is hold your breath time. If the novel gets approved by the publishers, the editor steps in and money is spent trying to get your book on the shelves, in both the bookstore and at homes around the world, as well as sold and downloaded to e readers.

I love to read our local authors, support the peeps I meet at writing conferences and be fully entertained at the same time. Here's some good reads by local writers: Healer, Oxygen- Carol Cassella; She's Gone Country - Jane Porter; The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein; Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - Jamie Ford; The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever - Julia Quinn; Undertow - Cherry Adair (check out her awesome website!); Breakup Babe- Rebecca Agiewich; Broken For You- Stephanie Kallos; Night Huntress - Yasmine Galenorn; Lakeside Cottage- Susan Wiggs; Undercover Stranger -Sammamish author Pat White and Sisters - Anne Roth.

In Sammamish, I know a screenwriter whose teen movie script was so close to being sold in Hollywood pre-casting had begun, a writer with a brilliant series set in the Napoleonic era, a published romance writer turned screenwriter, a YA novelist who includes kids’ recipes in the book and another whose book is about female rovers in early Scandinavia. Who knows what else is out there in our little town?

I have three finished novels and am in the Veuve stage this month with a dream agent reading my third book. Needless to say, I have everything crossed that can possibly be crossed and am walking around with a four leaf clover and rabbit’s foot in my pocket.

What have you read from a local author?