The Tara Tracks

Welcome to the third chapter in Road Trip to Publication, a series of interviews with authors at various stages in their careers. You can check out previous interviews here.

The third story features YA and soon-to-be MG author Chelsea Campbell. Chelsea is the grammar guru of my super awesome local critique group–The Bham-Critters (although, I don’t think we have an actual name). On her blog, you’ll see lots of stories about her crazy cat, Tiesel (who deserves a book of his own), and her dedication to writing. This girl has been writing and submitting her stories into the big bad world since she was a kid.

That determination combined with a vivid imagination and a gift for voice landed Chelsea her dream agent, Nancy Gallt. Oh, and the girl has mad query writing skills too! Mad skillz, I say. I met Chelsea late into her journey, but I got to see the best part–all that hard work paying off. On ‘fancy stationary’ no less

Chelsea’s superhero YA novel, THE RISE OF RENEGADE X, is currently seeking a home at a publisher near you.

An Elevator Pitch by Chelsea’s friend: Damien’s set to be a supervillain, just like mom, until he meets superhero dad and gets dragged into suburban hell. Now he has six weeks to prove he’s not a hero, but how can he do that while saving his new family from his mom’s evil plans?

So, in THE RISE OF RENEGADE X, Damien has a little trouble with the big V. Care to elaborate?

Okay, so, in the book, superheroes and villains go through a rite of passage. I won’t get into the details of how it works, but when, say, a villain turns sixteen, their thumbprint rearranges itself to form a V. That’s what’s supposed to happen to Damien, but instead he gets an H. He always knew his mom was ashamed of his mysterious father, but now he knows it’s worse than he ever expected: his father’s a superhero.

Some writers dream of their ideas, others let their characters dictate the plot, and some plan everything out via flash cards beforehand. How did you come up with the idea for THE RISE OF RENEGADE X?

I was in the car, listening to My Chemical Romance, and I think it’s in the first song on Black Parade where they’re screaming “Save me!” and I thought about how much I could relate, about how much everyone probably wants to be saved in some way, even if it’s not obvious and they’re not, like, tied to the train tracks or anything. And then I went home, sat down, and started writing about superheroes. I’d been having a lot of trouble getting any projects to stick, so I wrote nonsensical journal-ish entries in the MC’s POV for about 35k, just exploring the story and the characters. At some point I started making actual notes and putting scene ideas on flash cards and updating them as I went along. The novel was also a secret at the time, so when I got stuck and needed my friends to help me, I had to come up with creative ways to explain the situation without giving away what the book was about. Those were fun times!

A superhero’s day wouldn’t be complete without girl trouble, and Damien has plenty of that. Do you agree with his choice at the end (no spoilers necessary)?

It’s funny because pretty much everyone who’s read the book confronts me with their opinion on the love triangle and why Damien made the right choice, or why he was stupid and shouldn’t have picked her, or that maybe he’ll end up with the other one later. I like that people get so passionate about it! But anyway, I honestly wasn’t sure who Damien would end up with until I was almost done with the book, and then suddenly it was completely obvious who the right choice was and why it had been that way all along. So, yes, ultimately I agree with who he ended up with.

Let’s talk about the road that led you to an agent offer. How long did your agent hunt last? What did you love about it? What drove you nuts?

Oh, geez. Let’s see… ignoring the stupid attempts I made to send my novels out back in, like junior high, I’ve spent the last five years searching for an agent. In the beginning, I’d just send out maybe five or ten queries, get form rejections back, and decide my book sucked and I should give up on it and move on. Then about two or three years ago I was convinced I had The One and sent that book out to more like fifty agents. I was always convinced I had The One, but this time I meant it. I got my first requests with that book—all two of them—and really believed it was going to pan out. It didn’t. It totally broke my heart, but looking back I can see I read WAY too much into getting requests. It’s a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t mean anyone’s in love. To get back to your question, what was great about the agent hunt was the feeling that every time I finished a novel, it could be the one that finally got me somewhere. Getting ready to send something out for the first time, certain that it’s brimming with potential, is an awesome feeling. And then the rejections pour in. I’d say what really drove me nuts was when I’d get bogged down in rejectomancy. My advice is don’t, even if all the cool kids are doing it, because it’ll just make you miserable.

Us writerly types like stats. How long did your agent have the full manuscript before making an offer?

That gets a bit complicated, since there wasn’t ever really a straight out offer. But to keep things simple, she had the full of Reservations for Loserville (then called A Dragon Ate my Butt) for about sixth months, and The Rise of Renegade X for, um, a week? Maybe two?

Now, your version of ‘The Call’ is rather unique. Not every agent picks up the phone to make an offer. Care to share your story?

This story’s kind of long, but hopefully interesting! I’d originally sent Nancy a query and three sample chapters for Reservations for Loserville, and she called me on the phone two months later to ask for the full, and said if the end was as good as the beginning, she thought we could do business. So I sent her the full, confirmed a week or so later that she got it, and then… waited. A lot. At first I’d obsessively check my e-mail or my phone for messages, but that faded out after months went by without hearing anything. I wrote The Rise of Renegade X in the meantime and made the rounds with that. Six months after that first phone call, I sent Nancy a status check. She said she remembered the book and had read it all the way through—which she said was rare for her–and thought it was salable, but wanted another week to think about it. I told her about Renegade X and she said she’d love to see it, because it sounded funny and original, which was what she liked about my other book. (This was important to me because I was kind of afraid I’d end up with someone who only liked superhero books instead of my writing in general.) She liked it better than my other book, and made some revision suggestions, though she was willing to send it out anyway, as is, if I wanted editor feedback. I made the changes and she sent it out. Somewhere in there we talked back and forth about working together, but there was never an official offer. Eventually I worked up the nerve to ask about contracts—in case I wasn’t really her client and she was just, you know, sending my book out and doing all that work for kicks—and we got that squared away. So! I never actually got “The Call,” or if I did, it was from a query and sample chapters of a different book than the one that got me signed.

A lot of writers question whether or not an agent is necessary. What do you really love about having an agent?

Being able to tell people I have an agent! But seriously, I like knowing my book is somewhere I couldn’t have gotten it on my own, like to editors at big name publishing houses. What I really love about having an agent so far is knowing the agent hunt is over—after years of making the rounds with queries, it feels good for my books to have a place to go when I finish them, instead of in the slush pile.

So, you have a great agent and THE RISE OF RENEGADE X is making rounds in the publishing ether. Do you check your email obsessively or are you finding ways to distract yourself?

I always check my e-mail obsessively! There might be very important LJ comments! But, er, yes, I’d say more than usual. I’m not sure if good news will come in the form of a phone call or an e-mail, so I’ll also admit to a bit of obsessively checking for missed calls and hoping they’re not just from my father-in-law. And, uh, maybe at work when the phone’s for me, I kind of get my hopes up that my agent called my house and my husband gave her my work number and something awesome is happening, but so far that hasn’t happened.

Who will be the first person you tell when you get an offer?

Ideally my husband, but probably whoever’s closest, since I won’t be able to hold it in.

Some writers question whether or not the critique group deal is right for them. Others are content with trusted partners. And some actually do the whole thing solo. What’s your preference?

I have a great critique group, as you know ;), but by the time I met them, I’d already worked really hard on my own, with my husband being my main crit partner. The mostly solo route might have been slow, but I have a weird learning curve and I’m big on self-teaching—I like to get a how-to book and memorize it, and that works for me. (That’s how I learned to knit and how I skipped a year in Latin. I have yet to find something a book and the internet can’t teach me. Er, well, unless you count French knots. I watched a lot of videos, I read several versions of the directions. I still can’t do them.) I’d had several really bad experiences in fiction classes in school, where we did workshops, and I knew that didn’t work for me at all (which was why I dropped the creative writing major and picked up Latin). So when I first got invited to join a crit group, I was a little leery.

But my fears were all for nothing because the group is way cool, and everyone’s serious about the business without taking themselves too seriously. It’s important to have that balance. And I think what’s been really important to me about having a crit group isn’t so much the critiquing as the emotional support. So to sum all that up, I don’t think a crit group is a necessary step for getting published, but don’t overlook the importance of how being involved in a positive group of writers can make you feel a lot less crazy.

**Fun author factoids**

Pick a theme song for yourself. Good. Now, what is it and why did you pick it?

The Rainbow Connection, from The Muppet Movie. Both that song and that movie have been a big influence on my life. I have a really crappy recording of The Muppet Movie on VHS I used to watch over and over as a teenager. Because basically something calls to Kermit, something bigger than just sitting in the swamp, and he sets out for Hollywood and picks up other crazy friends along the way. Finding the right career is one of the movie’s themes, especially a career in something creative or risky. And Kermit has doubts that he’s making the right choices, that bringing all his new friends on this quest for fame and fortune in Hollywood isn’t going to pan out, but he keeps at it anyway, because deep down it’s what he wants to do. I really related to that—and still do—because everyone was always telling me you couldn’t be a writer, you could only have it as a hobby, and maybe someday I’d find an interest in something. And I knew you weren’t supposed to be able to make it, but I also knew that wasn’t going to stop me.

Name one thing that hasn’t changed about you since you were a teen. Come on, there’s always something.

Counting Crows is still my favorite band. EVER. Also I still love most of the same movies I did back then, and I still have the same boyfriend, though he’s been promoted along the way.

Okay, so let’s say you get stuck in an elevator. But you get to pick one author to keep you company. Who would it be and why?

Rick Riordan immediately springs to mind, though I’d probably end up gushing at him about how much I love the Percy Jackson books and going, “Der, we have the same agent! And, um, I know Greek and Latin! That makes us BFFs, right?!” So in the interest of not coming off as a crazy stalker, I’ll go for Louise Rennison, author of the Georgia Nicholson books, because she’s hilarious and I’d love to be able to mutter things like, “Ho hum, pig’s bum,” and “I’m a sham of a sham,” and have someone know what I was talking about. Plus she has a British accent, and that makes everything more interesting.

Bonus question: Is there anything else you were dying to answer? If so, go for it!

Fun fact: Damien’s named after Damien Vryce from C. S. Friedman’s The Coldfire Trilogy. When I got around to naming my MC, I decided I wanted a D name that didn’t suck, and that’s what I was reading at the time.

Awesome! Thank you, Chelsea, for your fun answers and insight into Damien’s little problem. Be on the lookout for THE RISE OF RENEGADE X in the next few years!

There are more author interviews to come! Stay tuned Or bookmarked. Or whatever you want to call it.

Tags: chelsea campbell, interview, nancy gallt, rise of renegade x, superhero, ya writer

This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 9:26 pm and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.