Three Kisses update

Three Kisses: Update

The manuscript forThree Kisses, One Midnight is due in May, so Roshani Chokshi, Sandhya Menon, and I are hard at work. The book is about three best friends on Halloween, who mess around with love potions (which may or may not work), and their spirited adventures as each tries to find true love's kiss before midnight.

Each author is writing 1/3 of the book, told from their character's perspective, but the stories interweave, both plot-wise and time-wise. Because this requires coordination among us, we've come up with an internal schedule to make sure we can go through multiple rounds of revision before we send the manuscript to our editor.

The first internal deadline was Jan 29th, when we all sent first drafts of our sections to each other. Which means I currently have Roshani and Sandhya's brand new stories on my desk, and they have mine.

This early stage of sharing work is always a little nerve-wracking for writers--(what if it's terrible? what if they hate it?)--but in this case, at least I get to distract myself with reading my talented friends' work. And even better is that this will all eventually come together into one coherent story full of heart, laughter, and Halloween magic.

I am already madly in love with these characters and this book, and I can't wait to share more of it with you!

~evelyn

P.S. Make sure to scroll to the bottom of this newsletter for Reader Q&As, including answers to Will The Crown's Game ever become a movie? and How did you get your literary agent?

Do you have questions for me? Reply to this email and ask! I'll feature some of your Qs in future newsletters.

Book Updates:

Three Kisses, One Midnight (YA) by me, Roshani Chokshi & Sandhya Menon
coming 2022 - I'm reading Rosh and Sandhya's 1st drafts! They are sooooo good!!

Works-in-Progress:

Project Sun (MG) - still hoping to have a zero draft finished by end of February. Looking good so far.

Project RJ (adult) - 2nd draft done; sent to agent

Project Whimsy (adult) - revision outlined, started complete overhaul (4th draft)

February Obsession

This adorable purse is part of a new handbag line by a writer friend. She's such an inspiration: on top of authoring books and launching this new fashion business, she's also got a full-time job in the tech industry and is a mom of two little ones and an incredible wife. I don't know how she finds the time or energy!

Anyway, if you feel like splurging on yourself for Valentine's (or Galentine's) Day, as well as supporting a Black-owned business, I highly recommend Brysie Lane's handbags. I think I'm going to get myself the Napa bag in blue...

(I don't get commissions or anything on this. Just want to share what I love with you!)

READER Q&A
  Q: Will The Crown's Game ever become a movie?
-Yana J.

A: I never got to publicly announce it, but The Crown's Game was actually optioned for film/TV back in 2016, even before the book was published.

For a couple years, the producers and screenwriter worked on a Game of Thrones-style version of The Crown's Game. There was an amazing pilot script with an Oscar-winning director at the helm, and they'd mapped out FIVE seasons of the show... but sadly, the project stalled and the option eventually lapsed.

However, I am optimistic that The Crown's Game will get picked up again at some point by a new team. Keep your fingers crossed!


Q: Giancarlo A., Elizabeth C., Victor M., and Rashmi D. all asked questions about how I got my literary agent and the process of querying.

A: This is going to be a pretty long answer, so I'll break it up into a multi-part series.

Believe it or not, I'm actually on my third agent! I'll go into details in the next newsletters about how I decided which agents to reach out to, how I wrote a good query letter, etc. For now, though, I'll just summarize who my past agents were and how I found them.

For reference, I began writing on Christmas Eve of 2009, but I was unagented for a while as I improved as a writer.
1st agent: Steven Chudney at the Chudney Agency. No connections, just regular query letter. We worked together from 2011-2014. I wrote several promising manuscripts during this time, but none sold to publishers.

2nd agent: Brianne Johnson at Writers House.
No connections, just regular query letter. Bri was my agent from 2014-early 2020, which includes The Crown's Game and Circle of Shadows duologies.

Current agent: Thao Le at Sandra Dijkstra & Associates.
Referral from Roshani Chokshi, followed by my query letter and a writing sample. I signed with Thao in spring of 2020. The first book Thao sold for me was Three Kisses, One Midnight.

Each of these agents was great for specific stages in my career. I'll talk about that in future newsletters, too. Hope this was helpful to all of you who are writers!

About me:

Evelyn Skye is the New York Times bestselling author of The Crown's Game and other books.

She has a B.A. from Stanford and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Evelyn was once offered a job by the C.I.A., she not-so-secretly wishes she was good enough to be on “World of Dance,” and if you challenge her to a pizza-eating contest, she guarantees she'll win. Evelyn lives in the
San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, daughter, and a dog who sheds more hair than he weighs.

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