The most Evelyn book ever written

On Being Humble

I've been taking online Spanish classes recently, and it's been both fun and interesting to look at language through a different lens. Here I am, a well known novelist in the English language, but then I get to Spanish class, and I'm... a toddler.

Teacher: How are you? What did you do today?

Me: I write much.

Teacher: That's wonderful. What are you writing?

Me: I write book. 

Teacher: I like books very much. What else did you do today?

Me: I eat food. Strawberries good.

Learning another language has been a humbling experience. I've done it before (Russian in college, and I speak basic Taiwanese), but it's always a great reminder that there are lots of things in the world that I'm a novice at, and there is joyous discovery in starting from the very beginning.

The lesson is directly applicable to my writing, too-- Be humble. Be willing to trip and make mistakes and keep going. No matter how much you know, there's always more to learn.

Have you learned anything new or interesting lately?

~evelyn

Book Updates:

Three Kisses, One Midnight (YA) by me, Roshani Chokshi & Sandhya Menon
coming 2022 - Draft of the full manuscript sent to our agent for her feedback! (Thao Le represents all three of us).

Works-in-Progress:

Project RJ (adult) - Revision almost finished, then will send to my critique partner for a beta read.

Project Sun (MG) - zero draft complete. Currently letting it rest a while before I revise it.

Project Whimsy (adult) - on hold while I work on Project RJ.

April Obsession

As a writer, I'm always trying to improve my craft, which is a good thing. Even though I'm proud of everything I've published, I also hope that every book I write is better than the last, in some way or another. 

So when I first heard about A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders, I actually screamed out loud. It's a masterclass on writing, with lessons based on short stories by 19th century Russian authors.

In summary: the most Evelyn book ever written.

I will also tell you that when I exclaimed to my husband, "It's like this book was written just for me!" He laughed and said, "Yes, honey. That book was written just for you, because no one else will ever find it interesting."

Har har har.

But also, I get it. Not everyone flips out over reading literature written in the 1800s... 

Still, if you need me, I'll be happily working my way through these writing exercises, and maybe snacking on some blini while I do it.

READER Q&A

  Q: What book are you currently obsessed with? - Jenn V.
A: I am currently obsessed with the Little Brother trilogy by Cory Doctorow. I'm usually not a cyber-thriller reader, but these books really hooked me. The technology depicted in them is incredibly accurate, and they'll really make you think about privacy in our hyper-connected age. (The first two books in the trilogy are YA/crossover adult; the third book, Attack Surface, is adult).


  ~~Since so many of you asked about finding literary agents,
I'm answering your Qs in a multi-part series~~
(this is Part 3)
Q: How do I write a killer query letter that will hook an agent?

A: The trick is to pretend you're writing the jacket flap for your story. Think about what hooks you when you're browsing through books at a store or the library. This is your goal for your query letter.

First, you want to narrow down your story to only the main character's story (i.e., don't try to describe the subplots, because it'll make your jacket copy less focused).

Hit the reader (in this case, agent) with your hook early. Then you have a couple paragraphs to explain the story (keep it exciting, making the stakes clear).

Finally, wrap up with a cliffhanger, just like how jacket flaps take the reader to that point where they have to buy the book.

Interesting fact: my query letter for The Crown's Game actually became the basis for the jacket flap, when the book got published.

Here's what the pitch portion of my original query letter looked like (the book was originally called The Tsar's Game) when I was looking for a new literary agent:

Sixteen-year-old Vika Andreyev can summon the snow and turn ash into gold. Eighteen-year-old Nikolai Karimov can see through walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. They are enchanters, the only two in Russia, and with the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakh hordes threatening Russia, the Tsar wants an enchanter by his side.
 
In the past, however, two enchanters have posed a problem. Too much ego, too much power, too much potential for betrayal of the Tsar. So the Tsar’s Game was invented, a duel of magical skill. The victor becomes the Royal Enchanter and the Tsar’s most respected advisor. The defeated is sentenced to death.
 
The Tsar’s Game is not one to lose.
 
Of course, they both want to win. Until now, Vika’s magic has been confined to her tiny island home, and she’s eager to showcase her skill in the capital city of St. Petersburg. It also doesn’t hurt that the competition allows her to express her mischievous streak. Nikolai, on the other hand, is a study in seriousness. As an orphan with not a drop of noble blood in his veins, becoming the Royal Enchanter is an opportunity he could, until now, only dream of. But when Vika and Nikolai begin to fall for each other, the stakes change.
 
And then, the stakes change again, as secrets from both their pasts threaten to upset the balance of the Tsar’s—and the Russian Empire’s—power.
 
The Game is so much more complicated than it looks.

If you're curious about the final jacket copy on the published book, you can compare it here.

I'm not going to go into the other required parts of a query letter--like your bio, the number of words in your manuscript, etc.--since you can easily find that stuff online. But for those of you who are on the hunt for literary agents, I hope this was helpful!

Next month:  How did you get your agent?

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.