Shannon Dittemore is the author of the Angel Eyes trilogy. She has an overactive imagination and a passion for truth. Her lifelong journey to combine the two is responsible for a stint at Portland Bible College, performances with local theater companies, and a love of all things literary. When she isn’t writing, she spends her days with her husband, Matt, imagining things unseen and chasing their two children around their home in Northern California. To connect with Shan, check out her website, FB, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest.
It’s been eye-opening for me to read Jill’s and Steph’s journeys to publication. Whenever I hear someone’s story, I’m floored by all the different roads we took to end up on the same shelves.
Growing up, I wanted to be an actor. I wanted to be a missionary. I wanted to be an astronaut. I don’t know that I ever said, “I want to be a writer” but I do know that I’ve always been a storyteller.
I won writing awards as a kid, but I was very social and writing is such a solitary endeavor. Throughout much of my high school career, I didn’t do much more than journal. I wrote things here and there, but aside from a few poems, I didn’t pursue publication.
College was much the same. I stayed busy, moved around, did some theatre. It wasn’t until I was married and my priorities had shifted that I considered writing as a career.
Telling Stories at Home
My journey to publication began on a dark and stormy night (well, maybe). It was November of 2008, and my baby girl was just shy of three months old. She was a beautiful little thing, but she wasn’t nearly as good a sleeper as her big brother. I had stumbled into a work-from-home job that was a fantastic stroke of luck, but it was all numbers and accounting and though it helped pay the bills, it was not doing a thing for that creative heart inside my chest.
I really wanted to go back to theatre, but I was apprehensive about the time commitment–away from my husband, away from my kids. We were leading the youth group at our church and the thought of missing out on all of that was enough to make me sob. Remember, I’d just had a kid. I was a ball of goo.
So, as I wandered the house with my tiny insomniac, singing and rocking, I actually said the words, “God, why can’t I tell stories from home?”
And then I realized: I can tell stories from home.
I’d started writing a few novels over the years–they’re unfinished and around here somewhere, I’m sure–but there was something different about this moment. Somewhere along the way, I had picked up an immeasurably valuable nugget: I was learning to be patient with myself.
Maybe it was the gauntlet of parenting, or the sheer lack of sleep, but whatever it was, I knew I had the ability to be patient through the brainstorming process.
That night, I walked and I walked, and I sang a bit, but mostly I thought and thought and thought. Before the night was over, I had a handful of characters and a fairly good idea of just what I wanted to say and where I wanted my characters to go. I had a mental outline and that was enough.
So, I sat down to write–and yes, that’s how I do it. I’m not a big plotter and sometimes that works against me, but I’m learning. Still, by February of 2009, I had a first draft. It was awful, of course, but I was proud of it.
That Time Twitter Really Was The Answer
2009 was full of parenting and editing whenever I could. I enlisted the services of an editor–not to edit, but to read and give me his honest opinion on what he read. He was fabulous and encouraged me on my road to publication.
I found a group of writerly souls to bond with, Inspire Christian Writers, and I committed to attending Mt. Hermon Writers Conference the following year. I even queried a few agents. I got a big round of chirping crickets though, and decided to hold off until after Mt. Hermon.
I continued editing, continued reading about the craft, keeping the conference ahead of me like a crunchy carrot. The time rolled around, and I was devastated when I had to pull out. My gorgeous cherub still wasn’t sleeping and things had actually gotten worse. Leaving her just wasn’t realistic.
So, now it’s spring, 2010. I’m several drafts into my novel and no real goal in sight, except landing an agent. But, the idea of sending out query letters and getting only silence in return was gut-wrenching.
And then Twitter! Yup, I said it. Twitter happened to me.
Agents were tweeting. Oh, yes they were. They were tweeting their likes and dislikes, their rants and raves. They were giving the world–and more specifically, writers–an idea of what they were looking for.
I started to pay attention and I got more specific about who I queried. And, I branched out a bit. I started looking for agencies that didn’t specialize in Christian Fiction. The reason for this is simple: the agents I was attracted to most on Twitter weren’t with Christian agencies. Maybe those guys weren’t tweeting? I don’t know, but after just two mainstream queries, I got a bite.
Agents and Submission and My Dream Publisher
In August of 2010, Jason Pinter of The Waxman Agency in NYC (gasp!) requested my full manuscript. Of course, we had just moved and our internet wasn’t even fully operational, and I really wanted to rewrite my Afterword, but it didn’t matter. I had gotten a request! So, I scrambled and got it to him the next day. The day after that, he offered representation.
Voila! I had an agent.
We made a few tweaks to my manuscript, re-titled it, and started the submission process that fall. We queried a handful of mainstream houses and one Christian house. We had some great feedback, and some interest, but it wasn’t until we submitted to Thomas Nelson that we had a hit.
I had always been partial to Nelson. One of my heroes, Ted Dekker, was on their roster, and they had a reputation for knowing how to do Christian Fiction that was outside the box. And my book definitely felt different than most of the books on the Christian fiction shelves.
And then, THEN!
I heart you Jason Pinter, but then, my agent left The Waxman Agency. So, here I am, on submission with my dream publisher and I’m left in a lurch. My agency was great and kept me on, but I was in limbo as to which agent I’d be assigned and whether or not they’d even like my manuscript. It was an agonizing few weeks but the speed bump led to one of the most important professional introductions I’d ever have.
I was paired with super-agent Holly Root, and in the spring of 2011, Thomas Nelson made an offer. FOR THREE BOOKS! That’s right. My night wandering the house, babe in arms, was the start of my dream publisher acquiring a YA trilogy from ME. A mom. A wife. A youth pastor. A really bad bookkeeper and an actor without an audience.
Angel Eyes hit shelves in May of 2012. Three and a half years after a dark and stormy November night when I decided to write a book.
Learning To Be An Author
One of the things you’ll notice about my journey, is that the first book I’d ever completed was the one that got me on the shelf. It’s an exciting thing, you guys–I won’t lie. But I want you to know that because of that, I did a lot of my learning AFTER I was officially a published author.
See, I had very little experience with the book community. Outside of my local writers group, I hadn’t attended a conference or entered many contests. I was new to the whole criticism and review side of the industry and I had zero friends who wrote YA. Not one.
And while certain things came very naturally to me–I’m a rock star at edits–I struggled with the emotional ups and downs of an industry constantly in flux and a Christian market that had no idea how to handle young adult fiction. Even now, five years after my first book hit the shelf, Christian bookstores aren’t sure what to do with it. And while my experience with Thomas Nelson was fantastic, they were going through a massive acquisition process that I understood little about but has entirely changed the landscape of Christian fiction.
It was a lot for a new author to process, especially one who’d just agreed to release a book every six months. Something I survived, something that forced me to grow, but something I absolutely won’t do again.
If you take away anything from my story, I hope it’s this: Deciding to write a book was the easy part. Learning the craft was and continues to be a process–some of which comes naturally to me and is a task I enjoy immensely. The career side of the whole thing takes a different skill set, and when you get impatient and you get frustrated and you think you’ll never see your books on the shelf, remember that timing is everything. While you wait, do what you can to prepare.
If I could go back and do it over again, I’d hit more conferences. I’d make more writing friends. I’d practice taking feedback. For reals, there’s nothing like learning as you go. It was a hard way to do it, but it certainly accelerated the process and I have very few regrets. I’ll learn from my mistakes and I’ll grow. I hope you’ll do the same.
It will be different for you than it was for me and for Jill and for Steph. We all have different journeys and I hope our stories have encouraged you and have given you a glimpse into a vitally important and constantly shifting career that is both rewarding and challenging.
Keep writing, friends.
Your stories matter.