Look, I’ll admit it, sometimes it gets hard. Too hard. Sometimes it seems like your dreams are never going to come true, and that it almost doesn’t matter. Then you meet “the Sirenz” and you reconsider giving in to gray hopeless thoughts.
At least that’s what happened to me last month at the New Jersey SCBWI conference.
The Sirenz are: Natalie Zaman and Charlotte Bennardo, two co-authors of well, “Sirenz,” a story about
two teenage fashionistas who end up having to serve Hades, the world of the underworld. The book, released by Flux just last month is a total riot, as I expected it to be.
But then, so are the authors.
Natalie and Charlotte are two Jersey moms of same-age kids and neighbors, who read Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” and said, “We can do that.” Quickly, they brainstormed about what else they could write about, besides vampires, and came up with Greek mythology. The two couldn’t agree on a point of view character, so they created two. They started writing the story at the end of 2007, taking them on a crazy journey that brought them to publication.
“It hasn’t been an easy road,” Charlotte told the conference participants. “We were in your shoes.”
The two talked about one rewrite after another, close calls, one hour-long telephone call with an excited agent that went nowhere. It’s been revising, revising, revising, until finally, an editor said “yes.”
“I wish Stephenie’s success on anybody,” Charlotte told writers. “But our story is more typical, I think.”
If you are a published author, have you ever been discouraged? Has your road been hard sometimes? Share some war stories to inspire, and possibly win a signed copy of “The Sirenz!”
As an additional gift, and a thank you for hanging around these humble pages, I am throwing in another prize: another just-released fabulous read published by Flux. This one is called “The Bestest. Ramadan. Ever.” and it’s by my virtual friend and this blog’s faithful follower Medeial Sharif. I loved your book, Medeia — you really capture an authentic teen voice and experience through the eyes of Almira, a girl torn in between her Muslim and her American identities.
Writers, if you are still in the middle of the road, what keeps you going? Tell me, and be entered into the contest!
Katiaesque 
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