Interview with Lynelle A. Martin, author of "Zapped, Danger in the Cell"

Wordtryst: We have a very special guest on Wordtryst today: 11 year old Lynelle A. Martin, co-author of Zapped, Danger in the Cell. Welcome, Lynelle, and congrats on your debut release! Can you tell our readers how you got started as a writer?

Lynelle: Telling stories was always a big part of my bedtime ritual. My mom and I would take turns telling each other stories or we would do team storytelling: we would make up a story and take turns adding pieces. When I was five years old I saw my Mom’s book in the book stores for the first time. I thought it was so exciting I asked her if I could write a book with her. She said that I couldn’t because she wrote grown up books. But I kept asking her until she finally gave in and decided to write a children’s book so that we could write together. We started this book when I was 8 years old. 

Wordtryst: How did you come up with the idea for your book? Tell us about the book.

Lynelle: My Mom used to work in a lab and sometimes she would take me to work with her and let me look at cells under the microscope. One time she showed me a movie with some cells dividing and I asked her, “What if someone could go into one of those cells?” I guess that, plus the fact that she was trying to teach me the parts of the cell, gave her the idea for the story.

Zapped! Danger in the cell is about four curious children on a field trip who discovers a strange machine. One of the kids touches a button on the machine and the three others got shrunk and zapped into an animal cell. While trying to escape the cell they go through a lot of exciting and dangerous adventures in different parts of the cell that have them running for their lives.

Wordtryst: When you began writing the story, did you know how it would end?

Lynelle: No. I knew I wanted it to begin with a field trip to the Museum of Natural History, because I had just been to that museum on my third grade field trip. But I had no idea how it would end.

Wordtryst: What kind of research did you do for this book?

Lynelle: We did a lot of research by watching videos on the internet that explained the parts of the cell, but I kind of thought it was boring especially when the models in the videos were labeled with words I could not even read or pronounce right at the time.

Wordtryst: When and where do you write?

Lynelle: I write anytime ideas come to my head and I decide to write them down if I can find paper. For Zapped! I wrote a lot of it during the summer of 2011 because I didn’t want to go to summer camp, so my Mom and I made it my summer project.

Wordtryst: What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Lynelle: The worst part of writing is the research and the part where I sign autographs because as it is my first time having a signature it takes time to get it right.

Co-authors Jewel A. Daniel & Lynelle A. Martin
at the Baltimore Book Fair, Sept. 2014

Wordtryst: What’s the best thing about being an author?

Lynelle: The best thing about being an author is the experience of seeing my book with my name and picture on it and knowing that I wrote that.

Wordtryst: What's the worst part of being an author?

Lynelle: Signing autographs, answering lots of questions, and sitting through book conventions.

Wordtryst: Do you plan to co-author other books with your mom?

Lynelle: Yes. Zapped! is actually part of a series where kids get shrunk and go on adventures that you can only see using a microscope. We wrote the second book in the series over the summer of 2012 and we began the third one in the series this summer (2014).

Lynelle demonstrating how to make a model cell out of
jello and candy, Baltimore Book Fair Sep. 2014

Wordtryst: How do you decide which parts you would write and what your mother would write?

Lynelle: My mom is a scientist so she wrote a lot of the “sciencey” parts. We did a lot of brain storming together about what would happen to the children in each scene. I wrote a lot of the children’s dialog to make sure the children sounded like children. And I did a lot of the editing especially when we were getting ready to publish it.

Wordtryst: How did you come up with the characters?

Lynelle: My characters are based on me, and my little brother and sister. My brother and sister are funny but very mischievous, just like their namesakes in the story.

Wordtryst: Did you and your mom disagree on anything?

Lynelle: How about everything? I wanted to start the story with a field trip, she didn’t agree, but in the end we started with the field trip. She wanted the characters to be nine years old, I wanted them to be around 10 or 11, but she came around. We even disagreed on how the kids got zapped.

Wordtryst: LOL! You must have been very convincing because you got to do some things your way. I understand some disagreement is normal with creative collaborations. So, what advice would you give aspiring writers?

Lynelle: I guess I would tell them to keep writing and let their imagination guide the way.

Lynelle signing copies of Zapped! Danger in the Cell! at the
Baltimore Book Fair

Wordtryst: What are some of your favorite books?

Lynelle: Dork Diaries. I could hardly wait for each new one to come out. When I first started writing the books I was into the Magic Tree House series, but I’ve grown out of them now.

Wordtryst: Tell us three interesting or crazy things about you.

Lynelle: My sister, my brother and my Mom (They are all crazy :) ). I don’t know, let’s see … I play soccer (interesting not crazy), I do gymnastics (interesting not crazy) and I play the clarinet (interesting and crazy: I’m not kidding, it really can get crazy).

Wordtryst: Where can people buy your books?

Zapped! Danger in the Cell can be purchased at Amazon.com and at Barnes and Noble in both paperback and e-book format. It can also be purchased from the publisher’s website www.caribbeanreads.com.

Wordtryst: Lynelle, thank you so much for visiting our blog today and sharing your publishing journey with us. All the best to you, and to your mom and co-author Jewel A. Daniel. We look forward to hearing all about your future collaborations!

Passages: Rosa Guy

Two revered authors passed on in June: Ray Bradbury in California, and Rosa Guy in Manhattan, New York.

Rosa Guy, without ever knowing it, was responsible for one of the great serendipities in my life. When I started the query process for my first novel I discovered a website that listed literary agents who accepted e-mail queries. My current agent, Susan Schulman, was one of those who responded immediately to the first batch of e-queries I sent. I later learned from Susan that my query had stood out initially because I'm from Trinidad, the birthplace of one of her favourite authors - Rosa Guy.

Ms. Guy, who hails not only from my homeland but also my home town, did not hang around Trinidad for long. She went to join her parents in New York at the age of seven, but her mother died shortly after. Within a few years her father also died, and her round of orphanages and foster homes began. Her young adult (YA) books draw heavily on her experience of coming of age in New York without parents, money or family stability.

In her obituary in the NY Times, she is described as "one of the 20th century's most distinguished writers for young adults". Ms. Guy pioneered the exploration of tough, realistic themes in YA fiction - themes such as race, class, poverty, death and sexuality. In one of her books a teenaged character embarks on a lesbian relationship with another girl, a subject which was taboo in children's literature at the time.

She is best known for her trilogy of YA novels, The Friends (1973), Ruby (1976) and Edith Jackson (1978). Her novels for adults include My Love My Love, Measure of Time, and Bird at my Window. She was one of the founders of the Harlem Writers Guild in 1950 and a key figure in the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s. Her gifts to literature and to humanity are immeasurable.

Reason to smile

Two or three weeks ago the production supervisor at Dorchester asked me for author info for my profile. It's three AM now but I'm up and feeling self-satisfied because I just placed my very first Amazon order (Chumplet, The Space Between is in there - finally!). Came to the e-mail to check for the order confirmation and found another Google Alert. (Thank you, Google!)

My author info, the same stuff that's going on the inside back cover of the novel, is now up on the Dorchester Publishing website. It's about time, yanno. I've been checking there off and on for months and wondering just when it would appear.

Yeah. I'm smiling.

Me, Myself & I

With the publication date for my first novel drawing closer, I've been preparing to go into promotions mode, mostly by reading as much as I can on the subject and making notes. I have to be honest here: the idea of going out and promoting myself or my product used to freak me out massively. When I first began this blog it was with trepidation and trembling at the mere idea of putting myself 'out there'. It was so bad that I didn't make the blog public for several weeks while I tried to find the nerve to engage the world wide web. Suppose it was a disaster? Suppose nobody came? Suppose people did come but turned out to be awful purveyors of negativity like I've seen in other places?

Wordtryst is almost a year old and it has been nothing but good. Never, not once, has any visitor been anything but positive and supportive. I now have a sense of community that I didn't have before. The interaction with other bloggers has brightened my days and lifted my spirits. It has entertained and informed me way, way beyond my expectations. I credit this positive experience with the startling realization that I no longer dread the promotion process; on the contrary, I look forward to it. People have been kind. Surely they will continue to be thus, and if I should encounter the dark side it'll be with the knowledge that negativity is the exception rather than the norm.

I found a really helpful page on writer Sheila M. Goss's website that I decided to print out. It's based on a workshop she offers, I gather: Promoting Your Finished Book on a Budget. The budget part caught my attention; 'on a budget' is actually a euphemism for 'with little or no money' where I'm concerned, as it must be for most beginning authors out there. Ms. Goss discusses the following points:

Website
Niche
Contests
Advertisements
Interviews
Reviews
Press releases
Word of mouth
Cross promoting
Newsletters
Blogging
Myspace
Cybertour
Book signings
Promotional items (bookmarks, flyers, postcards, business cards...)
Taglines

She also includes a number of useful links on the page, many related to promoting multicultural/African American books, which is great for me, but others, such as those for sourcing free websites, can be useful to writers of any genre.

Published and about-to-be-published writers who've done their homework will be familiar with all or most of the topics covered. What I like about this page is that it brings all of the bits and pieces I've garnered elsewhere together in one place. Some of the link are to places I'm familiar with, but others aren't, so I've been able to expand my resource base. The page also contains the article How to Do a Website on a Budget, another on blogging, links to examples of author blogs and more.

Sheila M. Goss is the Essence Magazine bestselling author of My Invisible Husband, Roses are Thorns, Violets are True, Paige's Web, and Double Platinum. Her articles and short stories have appeared in national magazines.

Amazon and galleys

Last night I Googled my novel and discovered that it's now up on Amazon.com. I suppose that by the time I've gone through the publishing process several times (I'm an optimist) I won't even be bothered to Google new releases, and I won't feel that spurt of excitement when I first spy the titles online in stores. Since this is my maiden voyage, you'll forgive my enthusing over every little thing, right? So I'm moving on to the other big first that has me grinning like an idiot right now...

Galleys! They arrived today, and when the courier guy put the box into my hands I almost dropped it. Heavy stuff, these galleys, I thought. When I opened the package I understood. In addition to the printed pages I discovered about 150 book covers. Huh? I'm assuming that these are for use in my own promotional forays - but I've e-mailed the production supervisor and asked, just to be sure.

I glanced at the last pages and found that my sexy closing scene has been knifed. What's left is... well, not much of it is left. And my scintillating final sentence? Gone. Vanished. Poof. **sob... wailllll!!!!!!!!** Who knows what other surgery has been performed in the innards of the book? Now I have to brace myself and repeat 100 times: The editor knows best. The editor is always right. The editor knows best. The edit...

Cover art

I just got in from work minutes ago (yes, it's a public holiday here in Trinidad but my employer insisted that there was critical work to be done that couldn't wait, and I ended up working three of the four days of the long holiday weekend). Yup, got in, sat down immediately to check mail. Found that I had another Google alert for Café au Lait in the inbox. Almost discarded it when I realized it was the same link from chapters.indigo.ca, that bookstore in Canada where the novel is already available for preorder. I hesitated, then decided to look anyway because I had notified the editor of errors in the story outline on the page and wanted to see whether they had been corrected.

Oh boy. What I discovered instead is that a book cover image is now up. So, voilà! The cover art for Café au Lait is now out in the store, and this is my first glimpse of it.

Hm. Lots of stuff is turning out contrary to my expectations. Like, I thought I would see the art before it went out to the dealers. But then again, I have no control of this part of the publishing machine. Those guys don't need my approval or anything.

I had no idea what to expect of the cover, so I'm going to try to articulate my first impressions, which I'm forming as I write. I like the colours, as anyone who reads this blog might realize - the pinks and purples and plums. The woman looks kind of sassy, which is fine by me. And where is she sitting? Looks like some kind of concourse. Since an airport features prominently in the story then that's okay. I'm surprised that the cover doesn't feature a couple but I'm rationalizing that everyone knows the story is romance so there's no need to have her entwined with a male.

So what we have here (to me) is an impression of je ne sais quoi - not knowing quite what to expect. And that's fine with me too.

P.S. - My mother just trotted past on her way from the yard; I told her the news and showed her the image. Her response: Is that the name of the book? Why did you call it that? Lady, I asked you about the artwork! And off she went to pour some mysterious elixir over her plants, joking that very soon she'll have to make an appointment to see me.

Hrmmph. What kind of reaction is that? The floor is open. What do you think of the cover? Feel free to love, hate or say 'meh'.

Second sighting

After stumbling across Café au Lait on the Internet about two months ago I set up a Google Alert with my name and novel title. As a result, there's an e-mail from Google in my inbox most days, but always with links to my own blog, the blogs of my online buddies who have linked to me, and to my writers' group, The Novel Racers. Today, however I was surprised and excited to find that the Google Alerts have scored a biggie - the first appearance of the title on a bookstore site.

Here it is: Chapters.indigo.ca. I've never heard of this Canadian store; maybe some of my far-northern visitors have? If I had some alcohol in the house I'd drink to this news. And the book isn't even going to be released until September! You can even pre-order it. Is that cool or what?!? Now I'm going to have to restrain myself from ordering my own book. Am I crazy to even be thinking stuff like that? After all, I'm supposed to get author's copies...

There's no cover photo on the site; I haven't seen the artwork yet and I doubt very much that it's even ready. So what does this tell me? That the wheels are turning behind the scenes without my knowledge, input or trying to play general manager of the universe. The publishers are doing their job. Maybe now I can settle down and finally get those revisions to novel No. 2 done and sent off to the agent. She's been waiting for almost a year and my dilly-dallying is unpardonable.

Tell me, published writers out there: Did you feel this great, fluttery excitement when you first sighted your debut novel in a bookstore? Did you look around your very ordinary life, in your very ordinary world, and think: I wanted to do this extraordinary thing, and I did it? Did you walk, like I did through the streets of Port of Spain today, with a lilt in your steps and an inner smile because goddammit, you were a writer - an author? Did the lady behind the counter at the post office beam back at you when you went to post an ordinary letter, as if she could sense your happiness?

Joy is so episodic, so ephemeral. I'm going to bask in this ray and milk it for all it's worth.

Breaking News! Announcing CAFÉ AU LAIT, the novel!

This is what happens when you Google yourself at 1AM. You stumble across a PDF file with your name, Liane Spicer. Next to it you see the title of your about-to-be-released novel, and it stops you in your tracks. Interesting. You have been careful to never mention the title of said novel online anywhere, since you've heard that publishers can change to a title they consider more marketable. You scratch your head and click on the main link. A blank page comes up. Hmm. There's another link that says View as HTML, so you click there and... presto! It's a page of book titles: January 2008 IPDA book update!

Interestinger and interestinger. You don't have a clue what IPDA is, naturally, but your name is in there somewhere, along with the title of your novel! So you use the 'find' feature on the browser, enter your name, and...

It's official! CAFÉ AU LAIT by Liane Spicer is on a mass market lead titles list for 2008! You have no idea what 'lead titles list' actually means, but it sounds good! It's a Leisure title, and Wikipedia informs you that Leisure is an imprint of Dorchester, your publisher, but it's a horror imprint. Your eyes bug. You skedaddle over to the publisher's website and ascertain that Leisure does, in fact, publish romance. You wipe the sweat off your brow. Had you going for a moment there! Shame on you, Wiki!

The mysterious webpage even gives an On Sale Date: 8/26/08

Finally, it's all beginning to seem real to you. You're a writer!

A few thank-you notes are in order:

• Thank you, M.B., for your gentle urging all those years ago to pursue my writing dream. There's been a lot of water under lots of bridges, but when I think of the beginning it's you I think of.
• Thank you, Vaughn, for telling me (back in Miami when you first read the manuscript) that I was a writer, even though I insisted that I hadn't earned the title since I hadn't published anything. Thank you too for your yeoman service as my first reader and critic.
• Thank you, sis, for believing in me, always, always, always.
• Thank you, D, for being a true friend through all my ups and downs.
• Thank you, Rich, for being the great son that you are - and for all the computer and internet stuff.
• Thank you, blog buddies, for the fellowship over the past six months of this journey to publication.
• And thank you, all you writers, agents and editors out there, for the innumerable websites, blogs and articles where you provide newbie writers with free information on both the craft of writing and the business of publishing. Special thanks to those I've listed on the 'Links' page.
  

Gosh, that sounds like one of those soggy Oscar acceptance speeches. But I mean every word.

UPDATE: According to author Rowan Coleman over at Novel Racers, "...normally a lead title means your publishers are putting it top of their submissions list for which ever months your book is published in. They are telling the trade they consider it a lead title and worth buying in great quantities."

Thanks for the info, Rowan. This doesn't sound like a bad thing at all!

Lucky Me

Sometimes, ignorance helps. I'm in the process of selling a book, my first sale, and it's the first book I wrote. Now I'm seeing everywhere that first books don't sell. Oh? Really? I can't count the blogs and websites where I've read the following:

1. First books don't sell, and
2. Sometimes, if a writer becomes famous and sells tons of subsequent books, she is finally able to brush the dust and cobwebs off her first manuscript, do some major editing and sell the thing, therefore
3. Don't even bother to shop your first book to agents and editors. Box it, stow it under the bed and forget it, then
4. Write several more novels, follow procedure in 3, and hopefully
5. The fourth or fifth book will be worth pimping.

Well, that's not the way it worked for me. And I owe it all to ignorance of the box-under-the-bed rule.

Disclaimer: I did not try to market the book hot off the disc drive. I wrote it, left it to cool off for a long time, came back, tugged and tweaked and polished, then finally got serious about shopping it. But it was the first and only spawn of my fingers at the time.

I still think I'm lucky. And you shouldn't always believe the myths...