Two agents at Wolfson Literary seek young adult and adult fiction and narrative nonfiction

Bright We Burn by Kiersten White,
represented by Wolfson Literary

Wolfson Literary Agency

P.O. Box 266

New York, NY  10276

https://wolfsonliterary.com/

Note: Don't ever miss a post on Quick Brown Fox. Fill in your email in the Follow Brian by Email box to the right under my bio, and get each post delivered to your Inbox. ~ Brian

Wolfson Literary Agency was founded in December 2007 by Michelle Wolfson who has recently been joined by Amy Strapp. Like all new agents, they need authors.

Michelle Wolfson is actively seeking authors of commercial fiction in the following categories: young adult, mainstream, women’s fiction, romance, suspense, and thrillers. She is drawn to well-written material with strong, interesting characters.

Michelle holds a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from New York University. Prior to forming her own agency, Michelle spent four years working at other literary agencies. Before that, she spent several years working outside of publishing, in non-profit and then finance, and she brings the skills she learned there plus a lifetime love of reading to the table as an agent. She Tweets here.

Query Michelle at: query@wolfsonliterary.com

Put Query: Your Title in the subject line and paste the first five pages into the body of your email. No attachments. Full submission guidelines here.

Amy Stapp received her BA from Samford University and MA from Georgia State University before beginning her publishing career at Macmillan, where she was an editor for seven years and had the privilege of working with bestselling authors such as Katie McGarry, Shelley Noble, and Amber Lynn Natusch, among others.

Amy joined Wolfson Literary in November 2018 and is actively building her list. She’s looking for women’s fiction, mystery, suspense, historical fiction, young adult, and select narrative nonfiction.  She is particularly drawn to well-paced prose and smart, multidimensional characters.

Query Amy at: amy@wolfsonliterary.com

Put Query and Your Title in the subject line and paste the first five pages into the body of your email. No attachments. Full submission guidelines here.

Author Hannah Mry McKinnon will be
the guest speaker at How to Build Your Story

If you’re interested in writing for children or for young adults, Brian will lead a Writing Kid Lit weekly course on Thursday evenings, Jan 24 – March 28, at the Oakville Central Library (see here). 

For updated listings of Writing for Children & for Young adult workshops and for weekly Kid lit classes, see here (and scroll down). 

Also coming soon: How to Build Your Story: Plotting novels & Writing short stories with guest author Hannah Mary McKinnon, Saturday, Jan 19 in Oakville (see here) and Writing and Revising, Sat, Jan 26 in Caledon at the Bolton Library (see here).

 A weekend writing retreat:

Algonquin Writing Retreat, Friday, May 31 – Monday, June 3, 2019: four days in the luxurious isolation of Arowhon Pines Resort to get down to some real creative growth. Sign up soon to get the 2018 rates! Details here.

But the best way to get your work in shape is probably with a weekly course. There are 5 courses on offer in the new year (Details of all 5 classes here):

Exploring Creative Writing, Thursday afternoons, Jan 24 – April 5 (no class March 14), in Burlington. Details here.

Writing Kid Lit, Thursday evenings, Jan 24 – March 28 (no class March 14), in Oakville. Details here.

Intensive Creative Writing, Tuesday afternoons, Jan 22 – April 2 (no class March 12); first readings emailed Jan 15, in Burlington. Details here.

Intensive Creative Writing, Wednesday evenings Jan 23 – April 3 (no class March 13); first readings emailed Jan 16, in Burlington. Details here.

Intensive Creative Writing, Friday mornings Jan 25 – April 5 / 12 (10 or 11 weeks, no class March 13); first readings emailed Jan 16, in Toronto. Details here.

            Details of all 5 classes here.

Read reviews of Brian’s courses, retreats, and workshops here.

 See Brian’s complete current schedule here, including Saturday writing workshops, weekly writing classes, and weekend retreats in Algonquin Park, Alliston, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Georgetown, Georgina, Guelph, Hamilton, Jackson’s Point, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Midland, Mississauga, New Tecumseth, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Sudbury, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

Navigation tips: Always check out the Labels underneath a post; they’ll lead you to various distinct collections of postings. If you're searching for more interviews with literary agents or a literary agent who represents a particular type of book, check out this post.

Intensive Creative Writing course, Wednesday evenings, Jan 23 – April 3, in Burlington

Intensive Creative Writing
Ten weeks towards becoming a better writer

Wednesday evenings, 6:45 – 9:00 p.m.

January 23 – April 3, 2019 (no class March 13)

First readings emailed Jan 16

St. Elizabeth's Anglican Church, 5324 Bromley Rd, Burlington, Ontario (Map here.)

Note: Intensive Creative Writing is also offered Tuesday afternoons in Burlington and Friday mornings in Toronto (see here). An Introductory course is offered Thursday afternoons in Burlington (see here) and Writing Kid Lit is offered Thursday evenings in Oakville (see here).

Intensive Creative Writing isn't for beginners; it's for people who have been writing for a while or who have done a course or two before and are working on their own projects. Over the ten weeks of classes, you’ll be asked to bring in five pieces of your writing for detailed feedback. All your pieces may be from the same work, such as a novel in progress, or they may be stand alone pieces. You bring whatever you want to work on. 

Besides critiquing pieces, the instructor will give short lectures addressing the needs of the group, and in addition to learning how to critique your own work and receiving constructive suggestions about your writing, you’ll discover that the greatest benefits come from seeing how your classmates approach and critique a piece of writing and how they write and re-write. This is a challenging course, but extremely rewarding.

Fee: $184.96 + 13% hst = $209

To reserve your spot, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Instructor Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada's most popular blog for writers, teaches creative writing at Ryerson University and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to Saint John. But his proudest boast is that he’s has helped many of his students get published. 

Read reviews of Brian's Intensive course here and here and of his various weekly courses, Saturday workshops and weekend retreats here (and scroll down).

See Brian’s complete current schedule here, including Saturday writing workshops, weekly writing classes, and weekend retreats in Algonquin Park, Alliston, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Georgetown, Georgina, Guelph, Hamilton, Jackson’s Point, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Midland, Mississauga, New Tecumseth, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Sudbury, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

You’re invited to a book launch for Full of Grace by Elizabeth Crocket

You’re invited to a book launch for

Full of Grace

by Elizabeth Crocket

Sunday, January 6, 2019

1:30 p.m.

A Different Drummer Books

513 Locust Street, Burlington, Ontario (Map here)

Everyone welcome!

Cupcakes and Bookmarks!

Wine and Chocolates Door Prize!

Full of Grace by Elizabeth Crocket

Angela keeps a roof over her head, albeit a leaking one, by writing romance novels. But Angela’s never really believed in the traditional happily ever after ending. So she begins writing the story of Grace, who has recently been diagnosed with cancer shortly after finding out her husband Rick is having an affair. Again. 

As she writes the story to dispel the myth of happily ever after, Angela begins a relationship with Mark, the contractor who comes to fix her leaking roof, and ironically, it looks like she may be on the way to her own happy ending. But Angela’s had a difficult past and has a cynical outlook, while Mark’s life has just gotten messy.

If you can’t make it to the book launch, Full of Grace is available through Amazon, here.

About the author

Elizabeth Crocket has previously published a novel, A Path to the Lake, and her short form Japanese poetry has been translated into several languages and published internationally. Elizabeth is also the author of A Daughter’s Diary, and of two chapbooks: Extra Candles and Not Like Fred and Ginger, which was shortlisted for the prestigious Haiku Foundation Touchstone Distinguished Book Award. Elizabeth’s short fiction and poetry has been widely published online (including on Quick Brown Fox).

Visit Liz at her blog here.

See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including writing workshops, weekly writing classes, and weekend retreats in Algonquin Park, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Georgetown, Georgina, Guelph, Hamilton, Jackson’s Point, Kingston, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Midland, Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Saint John, NB, Sudbury, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

“A Wedding Surprise” by Vanessa Green

My father arrived at our house promptly at noon, as requested. I, however, was running behind. My hair was only half done, and my make-up was being applied as he knocked on the door.

“Hi Dad,” I said as I let him in and gave him a big hug.

He looked confused.

A few weeks earlier, I’d invited him to this get together to meet Tom, my partner Tim’s father, who was visiting from the UK. Although Tim and I had been together almost eight years, our parents had never met.

But the details of the day were kept a secret – the only thing I told my dad was to arrive at noon and wear “something fancy”. And my father, ever the clotheshorse, looked just the part. He had on a beige suit, a multi-coloured, pin-strip shirt, a sunny, golden tie topped off with his signature panama hat.

I handed him an envelope.

“Open it,” I told him.

The front of the card read: Happily Ever After

Inside it said:  

You are invited to the wedding of Vanessa Green & Timothy BurnettThursday the Twenty-Sixth of July Two Thousand and EighteenTwo o’clock in the AfternoonAt Whitehern Historic House & GardensDinner to follow

He looked up at me in complete shock. “But that’s today!”

“I know, Dad.”

“You’re joking?”

“We’re not,” I said.

“I only found out about it last night!” said Tom. He had been as shocked as my father. But also overwhelmed with happiness. 

A year earlier, Wendy, Tim’s mom and Tom’s wife of 55 years, had died suddenly – her cause of death is still unknown. Twenty-two years before that, my mother had died from cancer. Tim and I were both motherless, and a wedding with our fathers felt appropriate, if not a bit symbolic.

Neither of us had ever cared about a big wedding – we had recently relocated from the UK and purchased a house and we had no money and no desire for a lavish affair. We had discussed eloping in London but found out we couldn’t get married in England unless we were residents. Other popular eloping  destinations, like Scotland or Hawaii, didn’t hold any significance for us. We had discussed City Hall in Toronto, but it felt strange doing it so close to where our friends and family lived without them there.

When we realized our fathers would be together for the first - and possibly last - time in just a few months – it felt like the perfect solution.  

After my hair and makeup was done – the four of us popped some bubbly, clinked our glasses and chatted about what a surreal experience this all was. And then the rain started –a torrential downpour fell from the skies. But the show had to go on – and so we all piled into our Nissan Rogue and drove a whole 6 minutes to the venue.

Luckily the gods were smiling down on us, and as we arrived, the rain stopped, and the sun started shining on the historic terraced gardens of Whitehern.

My father walked me down the aisle and the four of us congregated at the stone archway for the ceremony. Our officiant projected a calm, baritone voice to an empty audience as if it was a full house. Tim and I read the vows we’d written ourselves, shed some tears and walked hand and hand together down the aisle as man and wife, while the soothing sound of Neil Young’s Harvest Moon played us out.

But our wedding dinner might have been the most memorable part of the day. As we arrived at Edgewater Manor – an upscale steak and seafood restaurant located on the shores of Lake Ontario – the four of us were seated at our table and I headed off to the bathroom. When I returned, I could sense something was amiss. My dad walked up to me, looking panicked.

“There’s been an incident,” he said.  

“We’ve literally been here for five minutes,” I said. “How has there already been an incident?”

As I sat down, I noticed the people around us were staring at my dad.

I looked at Tim, who was shaking his head, and at Tom, who was giggling quietly to himself.

“Well,” my dad began, “I couldn’t find anywhere to put my hat. I mean really, what kind of establishment doesn’t take your hat when you arrive? Anyway, I thought I would rest it on this decorative candle holder,” he said, pointing to a monstrous, 3-armed silver candelabra sitting next to our table. After a few seconds, the man at the table next to us comes over and says, 'Excuse me sir, but your hat’s on fire.’

“I turn around and my hat’s in flames! Turns out, there were actually candles in there. I manage to put out the fire with a few shakes of my hat. Then the waitress comes over and says, ‘Who would be silly enough to put their hat on a candle?’ And I said ‘Me, because you refused to take my hat when I came into your restaurant!’ She’s upset with me now, so the service might not be great.”

Dinner ended up being wonderful, and as the day drew to a close, I looked back on our secretive wedding plan that had finally come to fruition. We hadn’t told anyone we were getting married – I had kept it a secret from everyone I knew for almost five months.

And once news had broken, there were definitely some hurt feelings from friends and family that they hadn’t been invited. While there is a part of me that is remorseful about upsetting those I love – I have no regrets about how we chose to get married. Sometimes in life, you’ve just got to do things your own way.  

Vanessa Green is a former journalist who now works as a director at a global marketing agency. She recently relocated to Canada after spending seven years in the UK. She lives in Hamilton with her husband, Tim, and their dog, Indy.

See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including writing workshops, weekly writing classes, and weekend retreats in Algonquin Park, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Georgetown, Georgina, Guelph, Hamilton, Jackson’s Point, Kingston, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Midland, Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Saint John, NB, Sudbury, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

How to Write a Bestseller Workshop, with NYT #1 bestselling author Kelley Armstrong, Saturday, March 2, in London

How to Write a Bestseller

 With book editor Brian Henry

  & New York Times #1 bestselling author 

   Kelley Armstrong 

Saturday, March 2, 2019
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
London Public Library Byron Branch, 1295 Commissioners Rd W, London, Ontario (Map here)

This workshop will give you the inside scoop on what gives a novel best-selling potential. You’ll learn how to get readers emotionally involved in your story, how to raise tension, control your pacing and keep your readers turning the pages. But you won't just hear about some of the best secrets of the trade; you'll learn how to apply them to give your own writing a sharp new edge.

Workshop leader Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing teacher for more than 25 years. He publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada’s most popular blog for writers, teaches creative writing at Ryerson University and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia, Ontario, to Saint John, New Brunswick. He has helped many of his students get published, including guest speaker Kelley Armstrong...

Kelley Armstrong lives in Aylmer, south of London, Ontario, with her husband and three children. She used to program computers and attend Brian Henry workshops. Now she writes international bestsellers. Kelley has hit the New York Times bestseller list with both her supernatural thrillers for adults and her urban fantasy for teens. 

Kelley's principal publishers are Random House in Canada, St. Martins and HarperCollins in the U.S. and Doubleday and Little Brown in Britain. To date, she's published more than 32 books, most recently Portents, gothic tales for adults, Aftermath, a mystery-thriller for young adults, and coming in February, Watcher in the Woods, a thriller for adults.  

Bitten, a TV series based on Kelley’s first 13 novels, has been broadcasting since January 2014.

Fee: 43.36 + 13% hst = 49 paid in advance by mail or Interac

or 46.90 + 13% hst = 53 if you wait to pay at the door

To reserve a spot now, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

See Brian’s complete current schedule here, including writing workshops, weekly writing classes, and weekend retreats in, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Cambridge, Georgetown, Georgina, Guelph, Hamilton, Jackson’s Point, Kingston, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Midland, Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Saint John, NB, Sudbury, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

Congratulations to Mary for getting nominated for a Pushcart, to Sohan for landing a book deal, and to Deborah who gets a much-deserved cameo on the CBC

Note: If you’ve gotten yourself an agent, had a story (or a book!) published or you’ve placed in a writing contest or have any other news, send me an email so I can share your success and we can all encourage each other. And be sure to let know if you have something for "Writer to Writer" (if you're looking for a writers' group or beta readers, for examples). Email me at: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Brian!

I just learned from the editor of The Ocotillo Review that he has nominated my short story The Yarnabomber for Pushcart!

Just had to share the exciting news – this has been a dream of mine for forever! Now if only my story gets into the Pushcart anthology....

:o) Mary
https://marysteer.com/

Yay, Mary!! The Pushcart Prize is an extremely prestigious prize awarded by Pushcart Press. It recognizes the best "poetry, short stories, essays, memoirs, or stand-alone excerpts from novels” published in little magazines and small presses from around the world over the previous year. The winners and top nominees are published in an annual anthology. Even being nominated is a huge honor.

For information on submitting to The Ocotillo Review (plus 21 other great markets for your essays, short fiction and whatnot), see here.

 

A scene from Still Standing – Cobalt

Hi, Brian.

Here is the link for the CBC show Still Standing featuring the town my book store is in: Cobalt. The program is about 21 minutes long, and great fun. Also, I make brief appearances in it!

Link: Still Standing-Cobalt

Hope all is well.

Deborah Ranchuk

http://wmpub.ca/01-store.html

Hello, Brian.

New Land, Same Sky by C Fong Hsiung,
published by Mawenzi House

I am so happy to tell you that my novel was acquired by Mawenzi House of Toronto in October and will be published under the title The Paper Lions on July 1, 2009. Sam Hiyate {of The Rights Factory} handled the deal.

Speaking Tiger, an Indian Publisher acquired English rights for India on November 3. They plan to publish it in the fall of 2019. Kanishka Gupte brokered the deal in association with The Rights Factory.

I want to thank you for all that I learned in your seminars that made me a better writer and recommend other writers to attend your seminars and begin to follow your blog The Quick Brown Fox.

Hoping to meet you soon.

Best regards,

Sohan Koonar

See submission information for Mawenzi House here. For information about The Rights Factory, see here.

See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including writing workshops, weekly writing classes, and weekend retreats in Algonquin Park, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Georgetown, Georgina, Guelph, Hamilton, Jackson’s Point, Kingston, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Midland, Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Saint John, NB, Sudbury, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.