Rocky Mountain Shifter Holidays

Sarah A. Hoyt

It is in every tourist book, overspread in glitzy pictures of sparkling-snow mountains, cozy firesides in ski lodges and – for those of a more domestic disposition – the glitzy shopping in some Denver districts.

However, this year, the place to be for the holidays is Goldport, Colorado – a somewhat mysterious mountain town that’s not shown on any map, but which can be found, sometimes, in the mysterious space in bookstores.

Take a turn at science fiction and fantasy, and head straight for the cover with the dragon standing before a background of glowing city lights. Then step in.

At first you might find yourself a trifle bored. Goldport was once a booming gold rush town, but those days are in the past and left nothing behind them but a row of Victorian palaces and smaller, heavily gingerbreaded working- man Victorians.

Nowadays it enjoys a revival as a high tech and university town, bustling with earnest computer workers and not-so-earnest students come from all over the nation. Its downtown is a mix of run-down turn of the century establishments and brand spanking new glitzy shops and eating establishments. Nothing out of the ordinary so far, and you might spend your days strolling around wondering why you chose Goldport Colorado for your holidays.

But if you stay up late at night, you might just wander into a diner – open all night long. It is run by an unusually young couple – a woman with classical features who dyes her hair so that it resembles an earth-tone tapestry and her boyfriend whose long black hair is firmly tied back as he mans the grill, and who might at first seem very young and happy. And then you’ll catch a hint of something in his eyes that betrays unusual life experiences and trials endured and survived. Among the regulars is one of Goldport’s finest – officer Rafiel Trall, of the serious crimes units. He might look like a surfer and quite the most relaxed man in the world, but if you stick around you’ll notice that the mane of blond hair around his head bears more than a passing resemblance to a male lion’s glory.

True, if you are around at Halloween, you might be weirded out by the fact that Tom, the diner’s male proprietor, thinks it a great joke to have doughnuts shaped like body parts and endowed with names like “Bob’s jelly finger.” However, if you listen more closely you’ll find that this gallows humor is not unlike that used by soldiers and rescue workers to soften the edge of their terrible jobs.

These young people, Tom and his girlfriend, Kyrie, and Rafiel and half a dozen others are shape shifters who have another, animal form.

They and others like them are often tempted to act on the impulses and wishes of these, often untameable, animal forms. And when they do, the other shifters have to find a way to punish or neutralize the offenders without either alerting the world at large – who is bound to be afraid of all shifters, good and bad – or losing their own humanity.

Tom, Kyrie and Rafiel walk the knife-edge of this dilemma. And yet they won’t seem happy or sad. You see, they have each other and – for now – hold onto to their humanity and strive to be the best people they can.

Which is why you might feel comfortable and – indeed – uplifted in their company. So much so, in fact, that when you leave you might not mind the soft sounds of growling from an alley, or jump when a lion pads along beside you. And if you hear the noise of wings overhead, you’ll pause only to wave a greeting to Tom.

Thanksgiving is just made for us creatures of the night. Don't believe me? Think the holiday is all about turkey and cranberry sauce, pecan pie and popped buttons? Well, as far as I'm concerned, turkey just gives you gas and puts you to sleep, making it hard to get into the real spirit of Thanksgiving—shopping until you drop.

Not convinced? I have two words for you. Black Friday. Thousands of stores open BEFORE THE CRACK OF DAWN. Prime shopping hours for vamps. We haven't even gone to bed yet, so we have it all over those early-bird shoppers shuffling from store to store, still half asleep while at the same time totally jittery due to the pot of coffee they downed just to get out the door.

And the sales! Don't even get me started. Sure, humans might have to live paycheck to paycheck, but we have to make it last for centuries!

So a word to the wise while you're out browsing the racks at o-dark-thirty in the a.m.: beware the perfectly quaffed woman with the spiked heels and smoky eyes who looks fresh as a daisy. You don't want to get between her and the sales racks. She's out for blood.

(This has been a public service announcement from the Fangs for Fashion coalition. Making the world safe for shopping.)

Today, I'm pleased to host a new Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit interview with Laurie Faria Stolarz, fellow Flux author. Here's her very impressive bio:

Laurie Faria Stolarz is the author of several popular young adult novels, including Deadly Little Secret, Deadly Little Lies, Project 17, Bleed, and the bestselling BLUE IS FOR NIGHTMARES series, which has sold over 500,000 copies worldwide. Stolarz's titles have been part of the Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers list, the Top Ten Teen Pick list, and YALSA's Popular Paperback list, all through the American Library Association. Born and raised in Salem, Massachusetts, Stolarz attended Merrimack College and received an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College in Boston. For more information, visit Laurie's website at www.lauriestolarz.com.

Some of you may have seen the recent articles on Media Bistro's GalleyCat, which I have to assume were written primarily to be controversial (sample here), because regardless of conventional wisdom, sometimes there are silly questions. One is whether agents are necessary. Here are some others: Is the world suddenly going to become a shiny happy place in which advantageous contract language is handed out like free samples at the grocery store? Are contracts going to cease to exist just because works are published electronically or audiovisually or…? Oh wait, we’re all just going to publish our work directly to the web, cutting out the middleman.

Unfortunately, without the middleman, the publishers, there’s no editing, no design, no promotion…unless the authors decide to pay for these things themselves. I’ve read pre and post edited work. I’ve been on the agenting =and= the author side. I can tell you without a doubt that the edited versions are vast improvements. Editors catch so much that the authors, too close to their work, can miss. They challenge and bring out the best in writers. Many authors will tell you that they’re better writers now than when they began because of all they’ve learned from their editors and agents. Clearly, publishers do more than cut into the profits an author can make by selling directly to the consumer (assuming that without distribution they can even reach their audience). In addition to the aforementioned editing, there’s copyediting, cover design, formatting, publicity, marketing, subsidiary rights. The list goes on and on.

And as long as there are publishers, in whatever form they may exist in the future, agents will be needed to deal with contracts, interpret royalty statements, request reconciliations to print, chase payments, argue issues, mediate, critique, cultivate, network…. Our list is also endless.

In a world where, “I follow you on Twitter,” does not indicate a stalker, where agents and editors can be “friended” on Facebook and MySpace and where everyone in the world can be “Googled,” it may seem as though there are no boundaries.  We’re all just one big happy family, and you can dash an e-mail off to the pros just like you can your BFF.  Not so!  There is still an etiquette, there are still boundaries and procedures, and while doing your research means you’ll be targeting the right people with your work, it should not get to the point where you feel you know them so well you can bypass those procedures.  Remember, they don’t necessarily know you.  Just as you wouldn’t send a resume to a potential employer’s personal e-mail address or home, you shouldn’t send a query to an agent or editor’s non-business account or even their direct business account if their guidelines say there’s a separate address that should be used for queries.  It’s very possible that contact made in the wrong way is deleted unread or even automatically by the pro’s spam filter.

You wouldn’t say to a potential employer, “You dude, I’m a hard worker.  Pick me!”  Likewise, your query letter shouldn’t be so informal.  (No, I’m not suggesting that agents or editors are employers, but you are trying to establish a business relationship and should be professional in your approach.)  I’ve posted dos and don’ts on my blog before (here), but here are a few more:

-don’t call the agent or editor by his or her first name unless you’re truly on a first name basis

-spend at least as much time on your query letter as you would on a cover letter to go along with your resume

-spell check and proof read

-make sure you’re following guidelines and do not direct the pros to a separate website to view your work; everything we need to make a decision should be included with your query

-be sure the pro can respond to the e-mail address you’ve used if sending an electronic query (Note: this seems obvious, but I’ve had responses bounce because the address is no reply or because there’s an anti-spam process I’m not going to take the time to complete.)

There’s been a lot of good advice given this week (discovered via Twitter).  Here are some of the links:

Lauren Dane – how authors should respond to rejection 

Jennifer Jackson (arcaedia ) – on queries 

Richelle Gardner – how not to get an agent

Two more chances to get a signed copy of Vamped by the end of the year.  Just remember, the holidays are coming up and books are one size fits all!

Saturday, November 7th from 2:00-5:00pm
Romancing the Holidays: Multi-author Charity Book Signing
Altamonte Mall - Center Court Fountain
451 E. Altamonte Drive, Altamonte Springs, FL
Tel: (407) 261-0213
Participating authors:
Blair Bancroft, Nancy J. Cohen, Lucienne Diver, Dara Edmondson, Louise M. Gouge, Maria Geraci, Traci Hall, Shauna Hart, Rachel Hauck, Catherine Kean, Pamela Labud, Gennita Low, Aleka Nakis, Connie Mann, Terry Odell, Linnea Sinclair, Liane Gentry Skye, Nancy R. Thompson, Maggie Toussaint, Bonnie Vanak, Michelle Young
 

Saturday, November 21st from 2:00–3:00p.m.
Borders Books
12500 N. Dale Mabry Hwy Tampa, FL 33618
Tel: ( 813) 265-8455 www.borders.com