Buzz Time—YA author Leah Clifford and A TOUCH MORTAL

Well it's that time again when I shamelessly plug another writer pal (and her fabulous mega-agent Rosemary Stimola whose semi-accurate likeness you will find on this blog about two posts back).

I *met* Leah Clifford online almost three years on the Querytracker forum when there were maybe about fifteen of us originals. Back in those days, I knew her as Gypsygurl. (actually, she' ll always be Gypsygurl to me. Its her brand name). I've been familiar with this manuscript from its earliest days, and right from the start it was clear to me Leah was a brilliant writer with a big future. If she was a stock, I would have invested for sure!

Ever since Leah told us QT-ers back in December that her book had sold, we've been sitting on this fabulous news-so now it's time to shout to the world about Leah's book A TOUCH MORTAL, due from Greenwillow in Winter 2011. I love typing that title. As a self-proclaimed title freak I think it rates a perfect 10.

Anyway, here's the blurb about Leah's sale in Publisher's Marketplace.

YA Rebels vlogger Leah Clifford's A TOUCH MORTAL, the first in a planned trilogy in which a seventeen-year old doesn't remember the details of her final hours, but now, she's a Sider, a lost soul trapped between the living and the dead; endowed with a special power no Sider ever had, she is pulled into a feud between Fallen and Bound Angels which will reveal the truth of her death and alter heaven and hell and everything in-between, to Virginia Duncan at Greenwillow, in a good deal, in a pre-empt, in a three-book deal, the for publication in Winter 2011, by Rosemary Stimola at Stimola Literary Studio.
rosemary@stimolaliterarystudio.com

Okay. Now I hand the mic over to Leah. If you'd like to really meet Leah, you can check her out on her vlog, YA Rebels http://www.youtube.com/user/YARebels or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/leahclifford.

Leah, aka, Gypsygurl, can you tell us a bit about your background?
Sure! I'm an Ohio girl born and raised, with a few great escapes in there. I lived in Colorado for a few years and worked as a flight attendant for a few more, so I went through a period where I was constantly on the move. Before that, I attended a community college where I took some creative writing classes, but other than that I have no "formal" training in writing.

How long have you been writing? Is A TOUCH MORTAL your first book?
I've been writing since I was very young, but only writing for publication for the last few years. A TOUCH MORTAL is not my first book though. I have a trunked novel that is an adult paranormal, but it's pretty awful. When it was finished I queried a bit, but knew I could do better, so I pulled the manuscript and started on the YA novel that grew into A TOUCH MORTAL.

Tell us a bit about the main characters in A TOUCH MORTAL.
My main character, Eden, is so much fun to write! She's snarky and sarcastic, a girl who can hold her own against the boys for sure. She lives in NYC and runs the Manhattan crew of Siders (see PM announcement for what they are). There are also the Angels. One of them, Az, is Eden's ex-boyfriend, who she's on the outs with...though he's determined to change that.

Are any of the characters based on actual individuals?
No, they're all fiction.

What inspired your book?
So, remember that stint at community college I mentioned above? Well, in one of those creative writing classes, I had a story due. Actually, it was late. And I had NO IDEAS. I ended up writing a short story about teens watching a jumper on a building ledge. It wasn't like anything I'd ever written before, and for years I wondered why they were so cavalier about the whole thing. The novel grew from that original short story.

Can you tell us a bit about your road to publication? What obstacles did you face? I started officially querying in January of 2009 and by February I had received four offers of representation. I'll be the first to tell you I had NO idea that was gonna happen. After a period of freaking out, I had a phone call with each agent and went with Rosemary Stimola. We went out on submission, but the responses we received seemed confused in the first pages with the world building. I'd never written YA, and never fantasy, so my world building skills weren't the best then. REVISION TIME!!! I took a few months, added another 100 pages and 20,000 words and we were ready to go out again. The offer came two weeks later.

Tell us something about Leah Clifford we'd never think to ask about?
One of my favorite things is the antique Royal typewriter I own. It still works but needs a new ribbon. Someday, I want to type a rough draft on it (probably for a short story lol). You can see it behind me in most of the Rebels vlogs (I'm Thursday).

Thanks for the interview, Lisa! And thanks for being there every step of the way!
The QT crew rocks!
(yep, they do!)

Conference Notes

You thought I WROTE notes? Okay.. I did.
But they weren't that interesting. The sketch above was at the beginning of the Friday writer's intensive. We were seated at tables of about eight other writers and an agent or editor. The idea was for each writer to read 500 words of their work and then get feedback from the professional at their table and the other writers. In the afternoon we switched writers and pros. At the morning session I had Michael Bourret who is a very nice, funny, and no airs guy. He gave great advice to all of us. The other writers at the table were quite insightful and accomplished in their own right (Hi Jeff! Hi Kipp!). Same goes for the afternoon. I was very pleased with the advice I received. It drove me to really assess the way I began my WIP and took me even deeper to adjust a few key plot points.

The second sketch is super agent, Rosemary Stimola. Not sure I captured her likeness very well except for her outstanding hairdo! She is one cool lady and I wished she talked longer. Sadly I cannot post the sketch of the gentleman who preceded her on the grounds it might incriminate me. I plead the fifth. Anyone who was there will know exactly what I mean.

It was a very useful weekend. Allyn Johnston, whose breakout session was on picture books, should get a prize for "most prepared". This woman put together about 250 hand-stapled dummy books so we could "turn the page" with her. Her joy and love for what she does was evident in every word.

Oh ..and how can I forget! I MET LIBBA BRAY!!! Okay. For two seconds; but I love that woman! She is very down to earth and lots of fun. And an awesome writer as some of you may already know. She is a rock star.

So all that aside, the high point for me was when me and my other two critmates (aka Team Munchkin Cudas) found a cozy corner in the Hyatt and tore the throats out of our WIPs and stitched them back together in the space of two hours. Cath and Dhonielle—you guys are AWESOME!

For my new followers, Cudas is one of my online crit groups. Kate Milford and Lindsay Eland are Cudas. Then there's my other crit group The Wordslingers, of which Heidi Ayarbe and Christine Johnson, (whose books I will be featuring in the upcoming months) are members.

Okay. That's all. Would love to hear from others who were there, too.