Heidi Ayarbe WANTED release Blog Snog---interview with Stephen Barbara

I'm going to link here to the blog of YA author Cindy Thomas who has an interview with super-agent Stephen Barbara about Heidi and why he signed her. And I have to laugh about his mention of being surprised how nice she was after reading her gritty writing style. I was too! But now that I know her for seven years, I'm kind of used to the snarl of her hard-edged writing as contrasted to the super sweet caring person she actually is. Haha--we are not necessarily what we write, thank goodness!

Okay--you know--I actually met Stephen a number of years ago. Great guy. And I have the distinct honor of being rejected by him four times (in typical flash response Barbara style)! But it's okay--Stephen is the kind of agent you want--someone who only signs people he believes in 300%. And that is how he felt about Heidi. And I know why. I critted that first book he signed her for, FREEZE FRAME. And it blew me away. Back then, Stephen himself was a new agent--but he was a new agent with vision. He recognized a good thing when he saw it. He recognized genius.

So, even though he rejected me umpteen times, I still love the guy. How can you not?

So here is the link to Cindy's blog and Heidi's.

And don't forget to read WANTED.

Heidi's blog
Cindi's blog

In honor of Happy Agent Day and reaching 60 followers...an Ode to Sarah Davies

I figured I'd weigh in.
Nope. I don't currently have an agent, though I did have an amazing agent once who I hold in the highest esteem.

It's simple. We NEED agents. We WANT agents. And agents have to deal with lots of whining from the writing community. But I am not going to whine. As a design professor who is in the position to judge the merits of other's work, I can sympathize with agents and their plight.

So instead of praising agents wholesale as a group, I am going to single out ONE AGENT who is not my agent or even close to becoming my agent. But this particular agent has treated me with absolute kindness and fairness and given me amazing advice. She has a blog where she treats other striving authors with the same kindness.

That would be the wonderful Sarah Davies of Greenhouse Literary.

SO this post is for you, Sara, in celebration and appreciation of your awesomeness. I don't know if I'll ever be lucky enough to become your client, but even still, just knowing there are agents like you out there gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

I raise my coffee cup to you, Sara Davies, agent extraordinaire!

here's the link to her blog:

http://www.greenhouseliterary.com/index.php/site/sarahs_blog