Meet The QT Blog Team!

Now that the blog layout is done and we're ready to go, you'll want to subscribe so you can get updates in your favorite blog reader.  We'll be posting several times a week, and we don't want you to miss important industry news (including agent contests and announcements), hot writing and publishing tips, a soon-to-be announced QT Blog contest, and ways to use QueryTracker.net, QueryTracker Forum, and RallyStorm to help you become a better writer, find an agent, and get published!

As the members of the new QT Blog team, we wanted to introduce ourselves!

H. L. Dyer

I am 35-years-old, married, and I work as the Clinical and Academic Director for the Hospitalist Program at a pediatric teaching hospital near Chicago. I love that I can now combine my work as a pediatrician with training future physicians.

I'm also seeking representation for my novel, The Edge of Memory. In addition to all things literary (which includes grilling my legion of test readers), I enjoy experimental cooking and composing impromptu parodies to annoy close friends and family.

Elana Johnson

I wish I could experience my first kiss again, tell the mean girl where to shove it, and have cool superpowers like reading minds and controlling fire. To fulfill my desires, I write young adult science fiction and fantasy.

Using my boring human powers, I graduated from Southern Utah University with Summa Cum Laude honors in Elementary Education with a minor in Mathematics. I started my teaching career as an upper grade music and art specialist. After a four-year stint in 3rd grade, I am currently the technology specialist.

In my world, Oreos and bacon would be the only food groups. Everyone would drive 10 over the speed limit. Winter would be eliminated as a season, and Jeff Probst would be President. As it is, I live with my husband and two kids in central Utah, get cited when I drive too fast and eat Oreos only on special occasions. I blog about what constitutes a special occasion—as well as my writerly journey toward publication—at http://elanajohnson.blogspot.com/.

Carolyn Kaufman (who posts as “Archetype”)

I’m a clinical psychologist. Though I used to do therapy, I currently teach college full-time in Columbus, Ohio. A published nonfiction writer, I also run Archetype Writing: Psychology for Fiction Writers.

I enjoy working with journalists, and I’m often quoted by the media as an expert resource in psychology. I’ve appeared in magazines like Marie Claire and Seventeen, newspapers like The Boston Globe, and books like Andrea Kay’s Work’s a Bitch and Then You Make It Work.

I write science fantasy and urban fantasy, sometimes with romantic elements. I’m currently seeking representation for my novel. My nonfiction book, Nervous Breakdowns and Psychopathic Killers: The Writer’s Guide to Psychology is represented by Kate Epstein of Epstein Literary.

When I’m not writing or teaching, I can usually be found tinkering with websites, taking photographs, or torturing myself at the gym.

Mary Lindsey

I write paranormal fiction and live on the Texas Gulf Coast with my husband, three kids, two dogs, my daughter's pet rats, an Australian Bearded Dragon and dozens of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. (The roaches are long story—don't ask.)

My young adult paranormal romance, SOUL PURPOSE, is represented by the Erin Murphy Literary Agency.

Prior to attending University of Houston Law School, I received a B.A. in English Literature with a minor in Drama from the University of Houston. I’ve taught drama and playwriting in a large public high school and English in a private school. Currently, I teach acting to children and teens at a private studio. I'm a member of The Writer's League of Texas, SCBWI, RWA and WH-RWA.

Suzette Saxton

I am a freelance writer with both fiction and nonfiction publishing credits, and a member of several worldwide critique groups. Prior to starting my writing career, I worked many years for a diverse range of organizations, including Waldenbooks and Marriott International. I left my earlier careers to be an at-home mom and focus on writing.

Most of my books target the very youngest of readers and often stem from time spent playing with my own children. When I’m not writing, I like to build stone walls, make faux flagstone floors, and take long walks up our little canyon to look for our resident wolverine. My prized possession is a first edition Edgar Allen Poe graced with my great great grandfather’s 1907 signature inside the front cover.

My story, The Bone Setter, was published in the Summer 2008 edition of Mindflights ezine and recently re-released in their best-of-the-best Volume 3 print edition.

Our Dancin' Elvish Selves

In the spirit of the holidays (and our sometimes-wacky personalities), we wanted to include a shot of us all together...

RallyStorm Upgrade!

If you've been watching the past few days, you may have noticed that the look of the QT Blog is changing as we get ready to start bringing you articles, updates, and industry news.  Keep an eye on this spot for introductions from the new team members (including me)!

I had to sneak out here before then to remind you to check out RallyStorm if you haven't lately.  Patrick upgraded the site today (what a great Christmas gift to us all!) with a new look and lots of new features.

The community hosts plenty of fantastic forums, including many for writers.  And don't be afraid to join a forum that already exists -- it's a friendly community, and the more the merrier!

New Life For This Blog

Some of you may have noticed that I am the world's worst blogger. A group of dear friends from QueryTracker and RallyStorm have also noticed and have graciously volunteered to help. Each of them is a talented writer with plenty to say and lots of great ideas for making this blog more informative and enjoyable for everyone, so of course I jumped on the chance to have them join in. For me, their offer was a Christmas Miracle.

I'll let them introduce themselves and tell us a little about their writing and their query experiences.

Again I thank them, and wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Essential QT Blog Posts

THE CALL

• Fielding the Call: A List of Questions to Ask by Carolyn Kaufman and Elana Johnson
• You may also be interested in Elana Johnson's e-book, From the Query to the Call

DANGERS

• Writer, Beware the Plagiarist by Carolyn Kaufman
• Safeguarding Your WIP by Suzette Saxton

PITCHES

• The Dreaded Pitch – What to Include in That One Line by Joanna Stampfel-Volpe of Nancy Coffey Literary
• The Oral Pitch by Mary Lindsey

PLATFORM

• Building YOUR Platform by Carolyn Kaufman
• Interview with Get Known Before the Book Deal author Christina Katz on Platform
• Interview with Literary Agent Kate Epstein on Platform

QUERYING

• Cover Letters for Snail Submissions by Elana Johnson
• Writing the Query Letter Part 1 - The Hook by Elana Johnson
• Writing the High-Concept Hook by Elana Johnson
• Writing the Query Letter Part 2 - The Setup by Elana Johnson
• Writing the Query Letter Part 3 - The Conflict by Elana Johnson
• Writing the Query Letter Part 4 - The Consequence by Elana Johnson 
• Writing the Query Letter Part 5 - Everything Else by Elana Johnson

RESEARCH

• Be a Google Ninja: Finding ANYTHING on the Web Part I by Carolyn Kaufman
• Be a Google Ninja: Finding ANYTHING on the Web Part II by Carolyn Kaufman
• Turning Grief into Gold by Suzette Saxton

SYNOPSES

• Quantum of Synopsis - Novel Synopsis Basics by HL Dyer
• In Short: Writing a Novel Synopsis that Rocks by HL Dyer

WRITING WHEN YOU HAVE KIDS

• Writing Under the Influence of Children by Suzette Saxton

The QT Blog Team

H. L. Dyer

H.L. Dyer works as the Clinical and Academic Director for the Hospitalist Program at a pediatric teaching hospital near Chicago. She loves that she can now combine her work as a pediatrician with training future physicians.

Her  novel, THE EDGE OF MEMORY, is represented by Katherine Boyle of Veritas Literary Agency. In addition to all things literary (which includes grilling her legion of test readers), she enjoys experimental cooking and composing impromptu parodies to annoy close friends and family.

Mary Lindsey

Mary Lindsey writes paranormal fiction and lives on the Texas Gulf Coast with her husband, three kids, two dogs, her daughter's pet rats, an Australian Bearded Dragon and dozens of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. (The roaches are long story—don't ask.)

Mary is represented by the Erin Murphy Literary Agency. Her young adult paranormal romance, SHATTERED SOULS (Philomel/Penguin), is scheduled for release Fall 2011.

Prior to attending University of Houston Law School, Mary received a B.A. in English Literature with a minor in Drama from the University of Houston. She's taught drama and playwriting in a large public high school and English in a private school. Currently, she teaches acting to children and teens at a private studio. She's a member of The Writer's League of Texas, SCBWI, RWA and WH-RWA.

Elana Johnson
Elana is the author of FROM THE QUERY TO THE CALL, an ebook that covers everything you need to know about querying and securing a literary agent. She will be speaking at a conference in April 2010, covering the topics of querying the national market and writing a killer query letter.

Elana is represented by Michelle Andelman at Lynn C. Franklin Associates.

She wishes she could experience her first kiss again, tell the mean girl where to shove it, and have cool superpowers like reading minds and controlling fire. To fulfill her desires, she writes young adult science fiction and fantasy.

She runs a personal blog on writing as well as a query critique blog.

Carolyn Kaufman

Carolyn Kaufman has a doctorate in clinical psychology and teaches college full-time in Columbus, Ohio. She is represented by Kate Epstein of the Epstein Literary Agency and her first book, THE WRITER'S GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGY: How to Write Accurately About Psychological Disorders, Clinical Treatment and Human Behavior (Quill Driver Books) is slated for an autumn 2010 release.

In addition to her work on the QueryTracker.net Blog, she runs Archetype: Psychology for Fiction Writers, where writers will find articles about psychology tailored to their needs. They can also ask her their writing/psychology questions and read the answers on the Archetype Writing blog.

She is often quoted by the media as an expert resource and has appeared in magazines such as Marie Claire and Seventeen, newspapers like The Boston Globe and The Plain Dealer, and books like Andrea Kay’s Work’s a Bitch and then You Make It Work.

Suzette Saxton

Suzette Saxton is a stay-home mom of three children, two of them beautiful and one of them a teenager. She writes fiction for children of all ages and is represented by Suzie Townsend of FinePrint Literary Management.

You can find Suzette volunteering at the school library on Wednesdays, mentoring teen writers through the Literati Outreach program on Saturdays, and reading to her own children every day of the week. Though occasionally she can be forced to take a walk in the lovely little canyon in which she lives, at all other times you can find her writing.

The Bone Setter, her short story inspired by a dream, was published in Mindflights Magazine's ezine and later republished in their print edition. She has a special love of dark fairy tales and very old nursery rhymes. You can find Suzette on Twitter, Facebook, her personal blog, or her website.

Last updated: April 3, 2010

RallyStorm

I know I haven't been around much lately, but I have a good excuse. I've been working on a new website and at last it is ready for the public (more or less).

Though not exclusively for writers, I believe that writers can get a lot of use out of it. The site is called RallyStorm.com and it is a kind of social networking site but with a twist. RallyStorm allows users to create and manager their own forums. Invite just the people you want, or make it open to the public. A small group of testers (writers of course) have been using it quite successfully for private critique groups. RallyStorm for Writers.

I hope you will stop by and give it a try. Don't forget to drop by my profile and say hello.

Here is how one of our members (kiddoc) described it.

Basically, RallyStorm is a social networking site, in some ways similar to MySpace or Facebook.

As a Rallystorm member, you have a profile where you can include information about yourself. You can designate other users as “friends”, post comments on their profile pages, and send virtual gifts. But unlike other sites where your profile is the focus, at Rallystorm it’s just a small part of your ways to connect.

Rallystorm allows you to create and manage your own FORUMS. Your forums can be personal or public, open to anyone or invitation only.

Want to create a public forum to discuss Barack Obama or Paris Hilton or Project Runway or Knitting Techniques? Done.

Want a private forum to post pictures of your kids and talk about them with your family and friends? Sure.

Need a private site for easy group discussion by your test readers on your latest work in progress? Rallystorm can do that too.

Create a virtual Book Club. Discuss the latest breaking news. Form a Chocoholics Support Group. Pretty much anything you can think of to discuss, you can find or make a place to do it.

Success!!

It is really great to see so many success stories on the main site at Querytracker.net. The goal when we started this site was to give writers more accurate methods of gaining representation, and after a year on the Web, it is clear that we have done that. Thank you to all of you who plugged in your data and helped the rest of us. You can follow along with some of our successful authors as they travel the road to publication by visiting the Querytracker forum. Jessica Verday is often online giving us updates on her book, "The Hollow," the first in an amazing new series due to be released by Simon and Schuster in 2009. You can also find updates and things about Jess in general on her blog: http://jessicaverday.blogspot.com

Other members on the forum have procured representation, sold short stories, or just celebrated the completion of a new novel. All these things are a measure of success, and your successes are our successes. So as we venture into our second year here at Querytracker.net, we want to say thank you, both for being a part of our first year, and for giving us our own measure of recognition by voting for us as one of Writer's Digest's top 101 websites for writers. We are proud of that recognition, and we are proud of you! Keep writing!!

Patrick and Jason