Six agents at Liza Dawson Associates seek books for adults and younger people and all sorts of fiction and nonfiction

Editor Valerie Gray, author Robyn Carr,
and agent Liza Dawson

Liza Dawson Associates
350 Seventh Avenue, Suite 2003
New York, NY 10001

http://www.lizadawsonassociates.com/

Liza Dawson Associates has six literary agents all accepting new clients and interested in a broad range of books. They’re looking for both fiction and nonfiction, literary fiction and genre fiction, adult fiction, picture books, Middle Grade, Young Adult and New Adult fiction.

Liza Dawson (president of the agency) specializes in plot-driven literary fiction and thrillers of all sorts, historicals, suspense, history, psychology, politics, parenting, narrative nonfiction and memoirs.

Query Liza at: queryliza@LizaDawsonAssociates.com

Query letter only; if she likes your query, she’ll ask for a partial manuscript

Caitlin Blasdell specializes in quality commercial fiction including science fiction & fantasy (adult, young adult, and middle grade), urban fantasy, historical, mysteries, thrillers, and women's fiction.

Query Caitlin at: queryCaitlin@LizaDawsonAssociates.com

Query letter only; if she likes your query, she’ll ask for a partial manuscript and a plot synopsis.

Anna Olswanger specializes in children's illustrated books and adult nonfiction, Judaica, some middle grade and young adult fiction and nonfiction. Anna is particularly interested in working with author-illustrators.

Query Anna at: queryanna@LizaDawsonAssociates.com

Paste the first five pages of your manuscript into your email. No attachments

Havis Dawson specializes in military memoirs, southern fiction, fantasy, thrillers, business and practical books, as well as spiritual and self-help books.

Query Havis at: queryhavis@LizaDawsonAssociates.com

Attach the first 5 – 10 pages as a Word of PDF document

Hannah Bowman specializes in commercial fiction, especially science fiction and fantasy, women’s fiction, cozy mysteries, romance and young adult...also nonfiction in the areas of mathematics, science and spirituality.

Query Hannah at: queryHannah@LizaDawsonAssociates.com

Query letter only; if she likes your query, she’ll ask for more

Monica Odom specializes in literary fiction, compelling speculative fiction and magic realism, women’s fiction and voice-driven memoir, as well as nonfiction in the areas of pop culture, food and cooking, history, politics, and current affairs. Monica is especially interested in writers with strong social media platforms.

Query Monica at: querymonica@LizaDawsonAssociates.com

Attach the first 10 pages of your manuscript

Scoop: Catie Flum works as the assistant at Liz Dawson and her duties include “slush pile patrol,” that is, reading submissions from unknown authors like you.  According to the agencies Twitter feed, Catie is looking for;

-        -  New Adult romance with geeks/nerds and non-abusive relationships. Think Cath and Levi in a new adult book

-       -  A mystery/thriller with a young female journalist uncovering a scandal: think Rory Gilmore in her dream job!

     -  Adult fiction with characters with disabilities – no fantasy/science fiction.

    - And she’d love historical fic from new perspectives: e.g. stenographer at the Continental Congress or servant in Tudor courts.

Check out Liza Dawson Associates twitter feed here.

See the agency’s full submission guidelines here.

Kelley Armstrong, a New York Times
bestselling author and former student
of Brian's, will be the guest speaker at
"How to Write a Bestseller" 

Brian Henry will lead “How to Get Published" workshops in Oakville on Saturday, Sept 27, with literary agent Carolyn Forde (see here) and in Niagara on the Lake on Sunday, March 1, with literary agent Olga Filina (see here).

He has a “Writing for Children & for Young Adults" workshop Saturday, Nov 8, in Guelph (see here).

Other upcoming workshops, include: “How to Make Yourself Write,” Saturday, Sept 13 in Brampton (see (see here),  “Writing & Revising,” Saturday, Sept 20, in Toronto (see here), and “How to Write a Bestseller" with New York Times #1 bestselling author Kelley Armstrong, Saturday, Nov 22, in Burlington (see here) and Saturday, Dec 6, in London (see here). See Brian's full schedule here.

But the best way to get your manuscript ready for publication is with a weekly course. Fall courses are starting soon. There are still lots of spaces in “Welcome to Creative Writing" on Tuesday mornings in Burlington (see here) and “Writing Your Life & Other Personal Stories” on Tuesday afternoons in Burlington (here).

But other courses are full or filling up fast, so if you’re interested, register soon. Here’s what’s on offer: “The Next Step in Creative Writing” Wednesday evenings in Burlington (here), Thursday afternoons in Mississauga (here) and Thursday evenings in Georgetown (here), and “Intensive Creative Writing” Wednesday afternoons in Burlington (here).

See details of all six courses starting in September here.

To register or for more details of any course or workshop, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

See Brian's full schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Toronto, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

Blue Nights by Joan Didion, reviewed by Charlene Jones

Alfred A. Knopf, 188 pages, available in paperback or kindle from Amazon

In Tibetan Buddhism understanding, our world contains six realms. One of these they call “the God Realm.” Here the Gods live in total contentment, all needs satisfied, with little required of them. At their death they suddenly grow aware of all they are losing, of what they may have accomplished had they understood more clearly the impermanent nature of this dimension.

Didion lived a life of great ease, graduating Berkley, winning an essay contest that landed her upon graduation a job with Vogue magazine, married into an artistic and wealthy family, traveled  and enjoyed friendship with the gods of Hollywood, fulfilled her career as a world renowned writer, partnered on several movie projects including The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean starring Paul Newman, and was the recipient of many awards including  Doctor of Letters from both Harvard and Yale, and the National Medal of Arts and Humanities presented by President Barack Obama.

Joan Didion and her daughter

In Blue Nights, she writes of her talent in the past “...how comfortable I used to be when I wrote, how easily I did it, how little thought I gave to what I was saying until I had already said it.” She then compares this place of ease and comfort, an activity spilling from her like breath, reaping rewards and awards in every direction, with her present status “...what it was I was doing...no longer comes easily to me.”

This insight about what had been the most intimate activity of her life, writing, and how time pulled this from her, winds around other insights resulting in questions raked through a heart that has been plundered of persona, leaving only the raw human behind.

 About being a mother she recalls with characteristic bluntness that a friend of hers had to suggest she get a bassinette. She states, “I had not considered the need for a layette.” What woman, contemplating motherhood, remains unconscious to such a basic need? What kind of mother rises from such oblivion?

Didion takes it further, digging more into the possibility every parent hates to have to, but does consider, “Was I the problem? Was I always the problem?”

The book, studded with such remorseless questions, manages a profound tenderness if only in the echo of such honesty.

Conscious of the unravelling of her life force, as she writes from the middle of her seventies Didion carefully unwraps tragedy, the sudden death of her husband John at their dinner table, as a subtext, and focuses on sorrow, her own ongoing and present grief over the early death of her only child, Quintana Roo, of pancreatitis, arguably attributable to alcoholism.

Nowhere does Didion completely explain Quintana’s early death, although this is the motivation behind and central theme of Blue Nights. Instead, Didion exposes her own process, her profoundly honest questions about herself as a mother, and in this shares her path of grief.

Tibetan Buddhists suggest that some of us live as Gods, and certainly, up to a certain point, Didion lived in that realm. However, as her touching observation of toasts at Quintana’s wedding, “We still counted happiness and health and love and luck and beautiful children as “...ordinary blessings,” shows, she grew to understand loss, and learned to regret perhaps more powerfully than most of us. Certainly her description of these life companions – regret, remorse and loss – rings more powerfully than what most may muster.

Blue Nights is a masterpiece, acclaimed by many. More importantly it offers glimpses into the humanity we all share and reminds us both that memories are illusions and that everything becomes memory. But as the great Tibetan Buddhist teacher of Illusion, Marpa, exclaimed upon hearing the news of the death of his son: “Some illusions are greater than others.”

Didion provides this insight, even as she approaches the end of the illusion of Joan Didion.

*

Quick Brown Fox wants your book reviews. Details here. Read how to write a book review here.

Charlene Jones’ poetry has most recently appeared on Commuterlit. She also writes for her radio program Off the Top with Whistle Radio, 102.7 fm, aired every second Tuesday from 3:00 to 3:30 p.m. (Note: Whistle Radio and CommuterLit have recently teamed up to run a monthly contest. Details here.) You can see Charlene perform her poetry and prose at Linda Stitt's inimitable monthly salon at Portobello Restaurant and Bar the first Saturday every month in Toronto.Charlene blogs at www.Charlenediane.com. Her first novel, The Stain, will be released this fall.  

See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Collingwood, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Oakville, Orillia, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Toronto, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond. 

How to write a book review by Brian Henry

Moon at Nine by Deborah Ellis
from Pajama Press (2014),
reviewed by Susan Thomas here

Most journals prefer relatively short book reviews. For Quick Brown Fox, I like reviews under 700 words. But I'm flexible, so shorter is fine and if you've written a great review that happens to be 1,000 words, that's wonderful – as long as you really need all those words.

A standard review – and the kind of review I want for Quick Brown Fox – is meant to be interesting to read for its own sake, whether or not the reader is interested in the book itself.

A good review does the following:

First, a review includes publishing information. For Quick Brown Fox, I also like to include information on where to buy the book on-line. For example: 

Pajama Press (2014), 223 pages, paperback $12.24 from Amazon

Fields of Exile by Nora Gold
reviewed by Brian Henry here.

Second, a review briefly tells what a book is about, without giving a whole synopsis or listing the content and without revealing spoilers.

Third, a review judges a book’s overall quality and where it's strongest and weakest and may suggest which readers will like the work (and which won't).

Fourth, a review gives the book some context. For Quick Brown Fox, writers often place a book a personal context; for example:

As a child I remember being stunned into silence by even the simplest sleight of hand or familiar illusion.  It wasn’t the trick per se, or even the enticing exuberance of the trickster, as much as it was my desperate hope that magic was real and that one day I too might master the mystical ways of the enchanter.  I had forgotten that delicious sense of wonder until I recently came across the novel Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. 

- From Sandra Ziemniak’s review of Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (see here).

To give another example:

Approximately three percent of all live births are twins. My own fascination with twins began in grade one when I encountered Tyler and Kyle, identical boys who spoke their own language which neither the teacher nor any of us were able to comprehend. In order to communicate with them, we resorted to body language. It was somewhat effective, but we knew that we singles were really outsiders, and frequently the butt of Tyler and Kyle’s private jokes. We called them by one name: the twins. Though individuals, they functioned as two halves of one person; simply put, they were, intriguing.     I was reminded of Tyler and Kyle while reading Cutting for Stone...

 - From Bonnie Bouwman’s review of Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (see here)

I like that factoid about 3% of births being twins. In general, literature is meant to instruct and delight, so feel free to instruct.

Alternatively, the context may compare the book to others. For example:

The story of a young woman’s coming to maturity through trials of love, kinship, economic deprivation and a struggle with faith rings through classics such as George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Like those other great writers, Buchanan includes the natural world, Niagara Falls, as a background and symbol for her protagonist’s personal crisis. 

- From Charlene Jones’ review of The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan (see here)

Or you may put the book in the context of current events. For an example, see my review of Fields of Exile by Nora Gold. I place Nora’s book in the context of current events and do so partly with a personal anecdote. See here.

Or you can put a book in any sort of context at all. Often this aspect of the review is where the reviewer makes his review a work that's worth reading for itself, regardless of whether the reader is interested in the book being reviewed.

A review may leave out context, but still be a good review if the author can engage the reader with her distinctive voice and entertaining phrasing. For example:

If you were to cross Marie Curie with Nancy Drew, the result would be Flavia de Luce; a precocious child in the post-WWII English countryside with a passion for poison and a propensity for mischief.

- From Michelle Greenwood’s review of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

Fifth, a review ends with a brief About the Author (i.e., the author of the review), which you use to promote yourself.

If you want to submit to a particular publication, read a few of their reviews to get a feel for what they want. I’m always looking for book reviews for Quick Brown Fox and the brand new Ottawa Review of Books is looking for reviews, too. For information about submitting, see here.

See my schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Collingwood, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Oakville, Orillia, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Toronto, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond. 

QBF and the brand new Ottawa Review of Books want your book reviews

Quick Brown Fox welcomes your book reviews. I also welcome other book related pieces and reviews of plays, movies, restaurants and anything else that catches your fancy, particularly if your (non-book) review is tongue in cheek.

You might review restaurants you can’t afford, based on what you can see peering through the window. Or you might review the patrons of some event, rather than the event itself. Or you might review something that doesn’t usually get reviewed, such as your former lovers or other people's kids (no names please), or you might review the baristas at your favourite and least favourite coffee shops. Or otherwise use your imagination to get up to some mischief. 

See a good example of a film review here or of a quirky film review here. And see many examples of book reviews published on Quick Brown Fox here. If you're curious about how to write a book review, see here.

Please keep reviews short and as free of long paragraphs and clumsy prose as you can manage.

Email your review to me (Brian Henry) at: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

The Ottawa Review of Books (ORB) is a brand new Canadian on-line journal, and it's also looking for your book reviews.

Read the ORB's review of

Sex and Samosas by Jasmine Aziz here

In the inaugural issue, ORB reviewed Sean Haldane's The Devil's Making, the winner of the 2014 Arthur Ellis Award; Palawan Story by Montreal novelist Caroline Vu; Sex and Samosas by Ottawa's Jasmine Aziz; Humanity's Saving Grace by Ottawa journalist Alex Binkley; and The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen by Susin Nielsen, one of Canada's leading scriptwriters (Degrassi Junior High).

ORB will review new works of fiction by established and emerging Canadian authors on a monthly basis. It will start modestly with 4-5 reviews, with a goal of reaching eight professionally written reviews per issue within 12 months. While a small core group of reviewers will write some of the reviews, independent reviewers are invited to submit reviews for possible publication.

Publishers are welcome to request reviews of new releases before or after publications. The ORB will respond to to these requests based on capacity.

While authors of the reviewed works of fiction must be either Canadian fiction writers or non-Canadians living in Canada, there are no nationality or residence criteria for the reviewers or publishers. ORB will consider reviews of self-published works of fiction provided that there is a clear demonstration of high quality. All reviews must be original. After publication on the ORB website, ORB will promote the reviews through re-posting to other social media pages and sites in order to optimize readership. ORB reviews may also be re-published (with acknowledgement of ORB) on an unrestricted basis.

If you are a book reviewer looking for a home for a professionally written review or a publisher seeking to increase your authors' exposure, don't hesitate to contact the Ottawa Review of Books at: ottawareviewbooks@gmail.com

See Brian Henry's schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Collingwood, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Oakville, Orillia, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Toronto, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond. 

You’re invited to read your writing to an audience at CJ’s Café ~ or just come and listen!

But Tonight, poetry by our hostess,
CJ Martin

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

6:30 – 9:00 p.m.
CJ’s Cafe, 2416 Lakeshore Rd W, Oakville
(On the south side of Lakeshore, just east of Bronte Road, across from a big grocery store. Lots of parking around the back. Map here.)

If you’ve never read your writing aloud to an audience, this is your chance to try it. But be warned! Writers find the experience addictive. If you’re interested, send me an email to get on the reading list, at: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Then choose a short piece that can be read in less than eight minutes. It doesn’t have to be an entire piece; stopping in the middle and saying, “Dot, dot, dot,” works fine. Indeed, about the only way to lose your audience is to go on too long.  

Don’t delay or you may lose your chance; many spots on the schedule are already filled by graduates of the summer’s “Next Step,” and “Intensive” creative writing classes.

Whether you want to read or not, you’re invited to come and listen. It’s a great evening!

Meanwhile, be sure to check out all the other great stuff going on at CJ’s, home of the best lattes in North America here.

Note: Fall courses are starting soon!  We still have lots of space in the "Welcome" and "Writing Your Life" classes. But other classes are filled or filling up fast. So if you're interested, email me right away – Brian

Here's the line up:

 "Welcome to Creative Writing," Tues mornings, Sept 23 – Nov 18, in Burlington. Details here.

"Writing Your Life & Other Personal Stories," Tues afternoons, Sept 23 – Nov 18.

 Details here.

"Intermediate Creative Writing," Wed evenings, Sept 17 – Dec 10, in Burlington. Details here.

"Next Step in Creative Writing," Thurs afternoons, Sept 18 – Dec 11, in Mississauga. Details here.

"Intermediate Creative Writing," Thurs evenings, Sept 18 – Dec 10, in Georgetown. Details here.

"Intensive Creative Writing," Wed afternoons, Sept 17 – Dec 10, in Burlington. Details here.

You can see the details of all six class starting this September here. 

To register, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

See my full schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Collingwood, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Oakville, Orillia, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Toronto, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.