Free Fall Friday – Kudos & First Page Critiques

Lynnor Bontigao sent in this illustration titled “Wish on a Fish.” It is done in gouache and will be part of an exhibit at Casano Gallery in Roselle Park from April to Mid-June. She has just finished a book cover for Peace Comes to Ajani 2 by Keith Kelly published by Victory Hall Press. Here is her website link: www.lynnorbontigao.com.

Jennifer Reinharz was named a 2015 BlogHer Voice of the Year Honoree for my essay, “A Letter to my Palestinian-American Muslim Friend.” Jennifer along with 99 other people will be recognized at a reception in NYC this summer that kicks off BlogHer’s annual conference.

http://www.blogher.com/announcing-blogher15-experts-among-us-voices-year-honorees?utm_source=twitter

At Balzer + Bray, Kristin Rens has been promoted to executive editor.

At Running Press, Jordana Tusman has been promoted to senior editor.

At Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s, Candace Finn has been promoted to senior manager, subsidiary rights with responsibility for the children’s and YA lists.

Liz Stein has joined Mira Books as editor. Previously she was an associate editor at Putnam. Dina Davis is now at Harlequin as assistant editor/editorial assistant working on Harlequin Historical and Love Inspired Suspense.

Mark Gottlieb has been promoted to full-time agent at Trident Media Group.

At Simon & Schuster Children’s, Katherine Devendorf has been promoted to senior managing editor for Aladdin, Simon Pulse, Little Simon, and Simon Spotlight. In addition, Christina Solazzo moves up to associate managing editor of Little Simon.

Courtney Carbone is being promoted to associate editor at the Random House Children’s/Golden Books imprint.

Malin von Euler-Hogan has been promoted to associate editor at Little, Brown and Nikki Garcia moves up to assistant editor at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Alix Reid has been named executive editor, Carolrhoda Books and Carolrhoda Lab, overseeing the newly acquired list of titles previously published by Egmont USA.

At Random House, Denise Cronin has been promoted to svp, senior director of subsidiary rights.

Eric Smith has joined P.S. Literary Agency as an associate agent.

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Linda Camacho agent at the Prospect Agency has agreed to critique the winning four first pages this month. She also will be attending the NJSCBWI conference in June.

Linda Camacho joined Prospect Agency in 2015 after nearly a decade in publishing. After graduating from Cornell University, Linda interned at Simon & Schuster and Writers House literary agency, and worked at Penguin before happily settling into children’s marketing at Random House. She has an MFA in creative writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Linda is currently seeking: Adult, middle grade, and young adult fiction across all genres (romance, horror, fantasy, realistic, light sci-fi, and graphic novels). Select literary fiction (preferably with commercial bent) and picture books (both writers and illustrators welcome). Select narrative nonfiction and memoir. Diversity of all types (ethnicity, disability, sexuality, etc.). Linda is NOT seeking: Early readers/chapter books, screenplays, poetry, and short stories.

Unofficially, Linda loves chocolate, travel, and far too much TV. In terms of submissions, she’s pretty omnivorous. She enjoys a variety of categories and genres, ranging from picture book to adult, from clean and lighthearted contemporary to edgy and dark fantasy.

Follow Linda on Twitter: @LindaRandom

Here are the guideline for submitting a first page for critique:

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES For FIRST PAGE CRITIQUES:

In the subject line, please write “April 2015 First Page Critique” and paste the text in the email, then attached a Word document of your first page to the email. Please make sure you include your name, the title of the piece, and whether it is as picture book, middle grade, or young adult, etc. at the top on both the email and the Word document.

Your First Page Word document should be formatted using one inch margins and 12 point New Times Roman font – double space – no more than 23 lines – only one page. Send to: kathy(dot)temean(at)gmail(dot)com.

PLEASE FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES: Your submission will be skipped over if you do not follow the directions for both the pasted email and the attached Word doc. This is where most people mess up.

DEADLINE: April 23rd.

RESULTS: May 1st.

Please only submit one first page a month. Thanks!

Talk tomorrow

Kathy