It’s time for the monthly First Impressions critique.  If you’d like the opportunity to have your first page receive feedback, be sure to follow the submission guidelines below.  Everyone should feel free to add their constructive thoughts

in the comments section.

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Reposted from Lucienne Diver’s Blog:
The Knight Agency has started up a very exciting program to

facilitate e-book

publication for those of our authors who want to take advantage. To be clear, we’re NOT becoming a digital publisher. We’re not taking a publishers’ cut or submissions or doing anything but working collaboratively with our authors who want to take advantage of the program. We’re doing all the legwork in getting books scanned, putting together a database of copyeditors and arranging for cover art, ISBNs, new cover copy, etc., much of it at the agency’s expense and for only the agency’s regular commission. And ONLY for our authors.

We are NOT giving up on traditional publishing. Rather, this program is for backlist which is no longer available or had never been digitized to

begin with or for projects that have not found a home with publishing houses but which the authors and agents agree should absolutely be in the hands of readers who will adore them as much as we do. We’re not telling anyone they have to go through us. Rather, we’re providing a whole lot of really exciting incentives, like marketing and promotion.

Our first titles will launch in September. We’ve got an incredible line-up, with backlist from bestsellers like Stephanie Rowe, Rachel Caine, writing as Roxanne Conrad, Cecil Murphy, Susan Sizemore, Christie Golden and others. You’ll definitely be hearing more about this as the launch approaches.

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Have burning questions about how to get an agent? Wondering whether your manuscript is ready

to submit? Feeling a little overwhelmed by the process? Well, ask your questions and I will attempt to answer.

Agent Q&A works like this: Post your questions on this thread, and I will come back later today or early tomorrow and provide some responses. I can’t promise to answer all the questions–the thread can get a little long sometimes–but I will answer at least three and I’ll do my best to get a good range of answers out there for you.

So? What would you like to know?

~Nephele

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Hey there, everyone. I’m a bit late today thanks to a busy morning, but I have not forgotten that today is Agent Q&A Day! For those of you new to this TKA feature, I drop by once a month and ask you to post all of your burning questions about pub

lishing, writing, getting an agent and so on. Just ask away in the comments section of this thread. Then I’ll come back and provide some answers. I’ll be sure to answer a minimum of three questions, more if I have time. (Last month I think I answered pretty much everything.)

So, what would you like to know? Post away! I’ll probably answer tomorrow morning to give everyone a chance to get their questions up this evening.

~Nephele

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Well, it’s time for another First Impressions review.  For those of you who are new to this, every month we post the first page of a submission and I offer a critique.  Everyone is invited to offer their constructive com

ments as well.  My notes/edits are in red. 

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Hey there, everyone. Apologies for the lateness today. My schedule has been a bit on the insane side recently. However, I’m here and ready to answer whatever questions you feel like throwing my way.

For those of you who have not participated before, it’s very simple. Post your questions about publishing, getting an agent, the agency and so on in the comments section below. I’ll come back later this evening or early tomorrow and answer at least three of them–more if time allows.

So, what would you like to know? Go ahead and ask.

~Nephele

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Whoops, running a little (read: lot) late with the winner of HEXBOUND by Chloe Neill. The winner is — Jamie, I’m a guy, btw. Love the name, LOL. Please email your physical addy to contests(AT)knightagency.net.

This week we’ve been prepping for Speed Date 2, our big talent search contest with Deidre Knight and Pamela Harty that commences on Monday. If you haven’t checked it out, just take a peek at the post below this one for all the rules and such. Hope to see many of you competing for a spot!

Now for our super official and serious Report from Cyberspace…

CLIENT NEWS: N.K. Jemisin’s THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINGDOMS was nominated for a Nebula Award in the novel category.

It’s National Grammar Day! (Please, do me a favor and don’t look for mistakes in this post. I’m sure there are many…) Head on over to the National Grammar Day website for fun facts and quizzes - National Grammar Day 

Librarians (and many readers) are in an uproar over HarperCollins recent move to restrict ebook licenses to a limit of 26 checkouts, after which the library would have to purchase another ebook license. Apparently 26 is the magic number when print books fall apart. Who knew?  - GalleyCat

Random House titles are finally available via Apple’s iBookstore. The publisher was the last holdout of the “Big Six” to accept the agency pricing model for ebooks necessary to have their releases sold through Apple – Huffington Post

Former Curtis Brown agent Nathan Bransford posted some excellent tips earlier this week on how authors can make the most of their Facebook account – Nathan Bransford Blog
 ____________________________________________________

Leave a comment to win a copy of HEXBOUND by Chloe Neill. The winner will be annouced on Monday.

The 411 on HEXBOUND: Lily Parker is new to St. Sophia’s School for Girls, but she’s already learned that magic can be your best friend…or your worst enemy.

They say absolute power corrupts absolutely. Turns out, even a little magic can turn you to the dark side. That’s why Lily has to learn how to control her newly discovered paranormal abilities, on top of avoiding the snobs who think they run her school, nursing a crush on a cute sophomore with a big, werewolf-y secret, and fighting the good fight with her best friend Scout as they take on Chicago’s nastiest nightlife—including the tainted magic users known as Reapers.

Then Lily’s invited to a private meeting with Sebastian. He’s hot, powerful, and offering to help her harness the magic flowing in her veins in a way no one else can. He’s also a Reaper. Lily can’t hide her suspicions. But she’ll soon find out that the line between good and evil isn’t always clear…

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Hello everyone! My name is Whitney, and I am a new intern at The Knight Agency. This will be my first season working with TKA. This is also my first time formally blogging about myself, and I would like to take this opportunity to tell you more of who I am and how I ended up at this agency.

I am a junior (one more year left!) at the University of Georgia in Athens. I am an English major, and have known I wanted to pursue a career in the publishing industry since I began college. I could tell you why this career path “called” to me, but everyone in this industry began for the same reason, a passion to read, which I no doubt possess. While growing up in Atlanta, Ga, my family called me Belle (from Beauty and the Beast) because I would walk around the house with my nose in a book. Reading is something I have always loved, but I never considered this path as a career until I started applying to colleges. I had this gut feeling that English would bring me to do something I love. I never before thought of reading as a potential career path, but English was placed on all of my applications. Looking back, I have to say I am happy I made that decision.

After a “major” crisis my freshman year I realized, regardless of career choice, I would need to gain experience and build a resume in order to gain a basic understanding of publishing since there were no classes offered at UGA to teach me about this business. As an English major you learn to read and write A LOT, which is helpful, but it doesn’t teach you what publishing industry jobs are, or what professionals within the business actually do. So I started to research and apply potential opportunities to help further my understanding of the field. I am in a sorority at the UGA, and I quickly realized what great networking opportunities it provides, and it was a great place to start my internship hunt.

Through our list serve I found a position as a blogger for an international Greek magazine. In all honesty, I was simply eager to add something to my resume, and I took the opportunity to apply. This internship was the perfect position to ease me into the world of interning. I simply wrote every few days about the sorority events that were occurring on campus and how they turned out. It was done on my own time and there was no one checking up on me. I realize now how leisurely this program was compared to my more recent internships. This internship became tedious VERY quickly. I understood that blogging was not teaching me anything about the industry I craved to learn about. There was no editor making comments and really no communication with the magazine itself. It was kind of just a volunteer status, and taught me nothing whatsoever. I didn’t even receive feed back to improve my writing. It was a start though, and this seemingly unhelpful internship opened up my next opportunity.

If I have learned one thing in the competitive field of interning, it is to take what you can get. The magazine internship seemed unhelpful in reaching my aspirations, but that simple position on my resume landed me an AMAZING internship with The Global Text Project (an organization on the UGA campus). The internship coordinator was interested in me simply because that magazine, which I had been writing for, held an international audience. It is surprising how one thing will lead you to the next. This unexpected and positive transition taught me to appreciate every opportunity I am given to improve myself because you never know how you will find the next one. I truly believe that life always leads you to where you need to be, and that simple addition to my resume allowed me to work at a much more educational program. The Global Text Project dealt with solely with college textbooks. We reformatted, edited and internationalized each individual text in order to upload those books to our website for free access across the world. It is a non for profit organization trying to give 3rd world countries equal access to education. I worked there for a year and headed acquisitions, which gave me some insight into speaking and communication with authors of the textbooks. This job title made me realize how much I enjoyed this type of work. I have always considered myself a “people person” and communicating with authors was something that naturally appealed to me. This role within GTP gave me what I needed most—practices an area I would potentially consider as a career. It made me realize all the possibilities that were available in this area, and helped me realize how much I enjoyed communicating with authors. The program was amazing, and the small group allowed us to become close quickly and work as an intimate team. I learned that I love that type of working environment because of the casual yet motivated atmosphere.
As I began to understand more of what appealed to me, I decided I should immerse myself in the publishing industry itself. My desire to see the publishing process firsthand was satisfied through a short, but sweet summer internship at Peachtree Publishing, a children’s book publishing company. After a hardworking year, I finally made it inside the publishing industry. This internship really opened my eyes because it showed me how a publishing company functions. There are lots of tedious, but important, jobs that I never even thought of all wrapped up in the business.

JUST SO YOU KNOW: interns read slush. I knew this was part of the process, but I guess I imagined there were so many books being published that the slush was not a priority. I quickly realized there was a lot more work to finding a book to publish then I initially realized. Authors do not come and place a perfectly edited piece on your desk. I was just really shocked by how much there was. I will not lie and say everything I read was interesting. There were a lot of unusual stories, and it was almost like looking for a needle in a haystack for a publishable query. Slush was not all I did while interning though! When I needed a break I would go to the warehouse and fold book jackets to put on the hardback books that needed to be shipped. You would think someone created a machine to do that, but every book with a jacket was folded by hand. Weird, huh? But before all you aspiring interns sigh in annoyance, let me tell you this: EVERYONE there was doing the same thing. No matter what your position at the company, you would fold jackets and read slush. It is just a part of the business, and I never really thought about the importance of such seemingly small jobs. You have to read queries to find books to publish, and the covers of the books have to be put on for the bookstores to sell. Just being in a publishing company helped me learn how it functions and the process in acquiring books. This introduction helped me tremendously and showed me the reality of the business I was striving to enter.

During that summer, I was talking with my uncle about my publishing internship and what I was learning. He gave me a contact of an old friend who used to work at WW & Norton and is now retired. I spoke with him about the industry and he gave me helpful advice, but one thing that caught my attention was when he mentioned his wife used to be a literary agent. A what? I had no idea what that even was. When I got back to school, I emailed one of the women I worked with at Peachtree Publishing and asked them if they worked with literary agents (at this point I was still hazy on how they exactly fit between author and publisher). She told me they did, but did not go into great of detail about how they worked together.

My curiosity, as always, was piqued and like any good researcher I Googled “literary agency”. I found many agencies through my search and began to look at their websites to try and find a better idea of what this division of publishing did. To my surprise , I stumbled upon one in my own backyard, The Knight Agency…located in Madison, GA…30 minutes from Athens. Wow. Call it fate or luck or anything else, but I immediately knew I needed to jump at this opportunity. This brings me to my current position, two months working at The Knight Agency. I am now here as an intern learning LOTS of new stuff. Each of my previous internships has helped me come closer to finding a career I love. So far, The Knight Agency has been the most educational internship in which I have participated. After taking all those internship had to offer, I realized I wanted more. The more I learned the more I realized how much more there was to know. Here I am working directly with authors and aiding in the publication of books. My two favorite things have come together through the Knight Agency. My goal is to learn as much as I can, and from there find somewhere I am successful and happy. I think that loving what you do is the most important thing, and so far I am loving it.

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Happy hump day, everyone! Aside from being Wednesday, it’s also the second Wednesday of the month, which means it’s time for me to answer a few of your burning questions.

For those of you who haven’t played along before, you all post your questions about getting an agent, publishing, writing and so on in the comments of this thread. Then I’ll come back some time later tonight or early tomorrow morning and answer a few of them–at least three, more if I can. If you’re new to this, you might also like to check the blog archives for the last couple of Q&As, since your question might already have been answered.

So, let me have them? What would you like to me to chat about to kick off this brand new year? (And don’t forget to check back for answers!)

~Nephele

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Update: Allison B. Is the winner of DARKSHIP THEIVES by Sarah A. Hoyt. Please send your physical addy to contests(at)knightagency.net.

Sarah A. Hoyt is stepping up to the plate today in our Holiday Extravaganza countdown to Christmas with a story inspired by “The Little Match Girl.” Sarah writes fantasy, science fiction, mystery and historical fiction. “Three Matches” is set in the world of her Shifter series. Her latest releases are DARKSHIP THIEVES, NO WILL BUT HIS and FRENCH POLISHED MURDER (writing as Elise Hyatt).

Sarah is giving away a signed copy of DARKSHIP THIEVES to one lucky winner. Leave a comment to enter. The winner will be announced tomorrow morning. Also, don’t forget that our annual Knight Agency holiday chat is happening today @ 12:30pm ET. TKA Santa has a bag filled to the brim with books and goodies to giveaway throughout the hour. So check out Sarah’s story to get yourself in the holiday mood, and then come on over and see us at lunchtime. Click here for more info on the holiday chat.
 

You shouldn’t cry when it’s snowing. Besides, crying wasn’t going to do me a bit of good. Not on New Year’s Night with a blizzard blowing in low and tight over the city of Goldport, Colorado and turning everything further than two inches from my nose into vague shapes that I no more than suspected might exist.


I abandoned my car on Fairfax Avenue. People say Fairfax is the longest straight street in the western states. Perhaps it is, since it runs from one end of Goldport to the other and clean out of town on the other side. Which makes it a very easy street to follow, even in pitch dark night and under the snow. But not when your car was low on gas and the street was coated in ice.


As I got out of the car, pulling my gloves on and wishing I were wearing my snowboots and not the tennis shoes, I thought mom might have been right at that, when she said dad hadn’t left her so much as he’d left Colorado. You see, my father was a meteorologist, and mom said the Colorado weather had driven him insane being completely unpredictable. You could start the day with eighty degrees and bright sunshine and end up at noon in a hard frost and subzero temperatures. I’d always suspected dad had other reasons for leaving, but now I wasn’t so sure.


I’d left Denver, three hours ago, in eighty degree weather and bright sunshine and look at me now.


Blinking, because it felt like my eyes would be frozen in their sockets, I walked carefully along the street, heading for the sidewalk. There should be a space near the buildings where it was relatively warmer and perhaps not quite so icy. Also there was a chance – okay, a chance in Hades – that a coffee shop or restaurant or something had left its door unlocked. And that would be good, even if no one where there, because then there was the chance I wouldn’t die.


The thought surprised me, because I had been thinking of it in terms of stupidity and annoyance. Stupid, stupid Rya had left home without her snow boots, or her emergency kit in the car. Stupid, stupid Rya had blown past the small towns on the way here without thinking to get her tank filled up. Now the thought came, stark and naked. Stupid, stupid Rya is going to die.


Which stopped my mind from spinning on the track it had been playing since I’d left Denver – how to tell one’s mom and step dad about one’s little embarrassing problem. Particularly when said embarrassing problem is of a bizarre enough nature they’ll consider having one committed?


In the sudden blankness of thought, I patted my pockets, suddenly wondering if I had what it took to survive this, if perhaps there would be a reprieve from my fatal idiocy. This was when I realized my stupidity was greater than it seemed. I’d brought my mom’s jacket instead of my own. Which meant I didn’t have my cell phone, or my lip balm – so I’d die with cracked lips – or the mini candy bar I’d put there after grandma’s holiday party. On the other hand, I had a matchbook, that mom must have picked up somewhere and put in there. I brought the matchbook out, wondering why people even gave them out considering that there was no smoking in bars or restaurants in Colorado anymore. It was black, with a name and address printed on it.
 I blinked. The George. On Fairfax Avenue. In Goldport. That didn’t even make any sense. I’d come to Goldport to University, but I didn’t think my mom had even bothered to visit since the first weekend of my freshman year. It was all “Rya, won’t you come home.” And “Rya, darling, grandma is having a party.”


Grandma wasn’t really. She was my stepdad’s mom. Not that there was anything wrong with her. Or with Mark, my stepdad, except I always got the impression that they were more interested in having me there so they could show what a great family we were than in me, as such.


How long had mom been carting this around? On the one hand the matchbook looked barely creased. On the other hand, there were only three matches in it. Right. Three matches.


I found the edge of the sidewalk next to the buildings. I was right there was less ice there, except for little patches there the water had melted and run or perhaps run before it froze. I could watch for those, as I moved along, looking at the numbers. From the numbers, the George was about eighteen blocks that way which, of course, gave me plenty of time to freeze to death.


But hey, I had three matches. I flashed on my favorite holiday story as a kid, The Little Match Girl. My dad had read it to me on Christmas every year, with a bunch of others – which was kind of odd since The Little Match Girl takes place on New Years. Even odder since – as far as I knew – my dad didn’t have anything against little girls, and a holiday story where the happy ending is that she froze to death while dreaming of her grandma seemed kind of strange.


I patted the pocket of my jeans, on the off chance I had anything useful there. This was Colorado. We read about people who survived blizzards on three cough drops and snow melt all the time. Not that my big issue was hunger – even if I hadn’t eaten since breakfast – but more cold. And that… well… I’d just have to keep walking.


I stomped my feet, to make sure I could still feel my toes.


As though in answer to my stomping, there was a weird sound to the right, like a muffled hiss/growl.


“Who? Who– ” I said, sounding exactly like a very enthusiastic owl. The hiss/growl came again. All I could think was that someone’s dog must have got out of their yard, but if that was a dog, then it had laryngitis problems. Scare it away with something flashed through my mind which, unfortunately neglected to tell me what I should scare it away with? My keys? The way my lanky brown hair must be all messy and now getting crusted with snow? The matches?


As the hiss/growl came again, I figured what the heck I might as well try, right? I mean, what was the worst that could happen? I’d use up the match and that would seriously cut down my possibilities of smoking three cigarette…which I didn’t have. Right.


And besides, maybe if I lit a match I would see angels or get a great dinner. Right now an hallucinatory dinner seemed preferable to dying out here knowing how cold and how alone I was. I lit the match as the hiss/growl, followed by a slithery noise, dragged closer. And there, in the middle of the snow stood… I blinked. Okay, I was hallucinating, but this was no angel known to man. It was an alligator. A very old alligator, its hide scarred and marked by past fights.


The thing is that, though it was walking through the snow, straight at me – and were alligators supposed to even be alive in the snow? Weren’t they cold-blooded? Shouldn’t it be comatose or dead or something – clacking its teeth, it didn’t look dangerous. It looked like a happy alligator, out for a jaunt. Like… something out of a live animation movie about animals who move to the city, or perhaps what happens to discarded pets.


I blinked, but he didn’t suddenly sport a little jacket or a jaunty bowler hat, so I was at least not that far gone. Or perhaps he – for some reason I was sure it was a he – was real.


The idea had me backing up, feeling tentatively with my feet, till my back hit a street lamp and I stopped. “Please don’t hurt me,” I said, as the match burned down towards my fingers. “Please don’t… I’m not… I’m only out here because I couldn’t explain to mom I was a shape shifter. I kept trying to tell her, and she kept asking me if I was gay.” My fingers burned, and I dropped the match, and it was all dark again, except for the snow swirling around. I snorted, a snort half laughter-half panic. “As if that would be such a big deal today. But how do you say Dear mom, I thought I was dreaming of turning into a fox, but my roommate told me she’d seen a fox, and dear Lord, it was running in the gardens, where I’d dreamed of being. And then I started following footprints in the snow, and I think I am a were fox. My mom would have me committed.” From the darkness came a clack-clack that could be the alligator’s mouth opening and closing. “And then I had to storm out, with nothing and without filling the gas tank. Because I didn’t know how to talk to my mom. I am so stupid.”


The clacking of teeth somehow seemed like someone saying tut-tut, and then the alligator’s nose was so near I could see it, despite the darkness and the snow. He… sniffed delicately at my jeans and my shoes, and then looked up, his eyes contriving to look very amused and strangely human. Right. Now I was going nuts.


Fine if it was going to bite me, it could bite me as I was walking towards the more populated areas of town. I thought around that address on the matchbox there were apartments. Someone was bound to find me, right?


The alligator didn’t try to follow me, as I walked on, which was good but also, inexplicably, felt really lonely. Yeah, because you know, a girl and her gator was infinitely better than being alone.


I walked another three blocks, and it felt like my head was going to freeze solid by then, when I heard a weird flapping ahead and a little to the left of me. It sounded like someone was flapping sheets in a really high wind. And while the wind was there all right, the only thing blowing around in it were snow flakes. I tried to see ahead and could see nothing, and reached for my matchbox, because maybe these were magic matches, since they could scare away gators. if I hadn’t dreamed up the whole thing.


I paused, and tried to light my match, then realized there was a parking lot to my left – leaving a space without buildings, but somewhat sheltered, since the parking lot was bordered in warehouse walls on all three sides. I lit my match, then looked up.


The snow was less thick here, and the match did give a good amount of light.


None of which explained what I saw. I’d almost have preferred angels.


Right in front of me, looking like it had just alighted on the parking lot was a dragon. Not just any dragon, no. It was a red Chinese dragon, cute lion face and all.


Okay, I thought as I blinked at it in the light of my match. I’ve gone completely around a bend.


I registered that it was holding something in its right paw. And then it started coughing. I couldn’t move if I wanted to. The match burned towards my fingers, as it coughed and spasmed. it looked like what it felt like when I transformed into the fox. But… a dragon? Dragons didn’t exist, did they?


Of course, neither did shape shifters.


As I dropped the match, I could barely see the naked young man in front of me. Which was probably good, as he seemed to be trying – simultaneously – to cover his privates and put his clothes on.


I had glimpsed enough to see he looked Chinese and about my age. He had a red dragon tattoo on his arm.


“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice an unexpected surprise as not only did he lack any foreign accent, but he had a southern drawl thick as corn bread and slow and molasses. “Did I scare you? I didn’t mean to. Only old Joe called and said you were one of us and you were lost in the snow.”


“One of… one of … us?”


“Yeah, a shape shifter,” he said.


“I’m not a dragon!”


He smiled. He was now dressed and very close, and he had a sweet smile. “No,” he said. “Dragons rarely get caught like this in storms. We fly. But Old Joe said you needed help. Where do you need to go? I’ll shift again and give you a ride.” The smile again. It was impossible not to trust him when he smiled like that.


I thought about it. My dorm would be good, but it was in the middle of campus, and someone would see me arrive on dragon back. I took the matchbox out, “I wonder,” I said, speaking as much to myself as to him, “If the George has a parking lot where no one would see you land.”


He blinked. “The… Why the George?”


“I don’t know. My mom had this matchbook with the address. I just found it in her jacket pocket.”


He gave me a half-evaluating half-puzzled look, then smiled. “The George it is, then. If you’ll just let me change…”


Modestly, he stepped just far enough away from me that he could shape shift without my seeing him naked, which was reassuring. Then the coughing started, and the sort of odd sound that suggested flesh being compressed and twisted and… a red dragon walked through the snow towards me. When it scrunched its face and let down its wing, it looked exactly like the young man’s expression when he smiled. I climbed the wing, carefully, hoping not to hurt him, and sat astride him then, because he seemed to be waiting for something, and because dragons – apparently – don’t come equipped with seatbelts, I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around his neck.


It was oddly intimate, but also very warm. Blessedly warm. I had to fight to keep awake, it was so… cozy and also because the relief of being rescued hit me.


In almost no time, we were flying over a diner. I could see even through the snow, a neon dragon flipping pancakes, and neon letters proclaiming The George.


My dragon friend flew over the dragon, to a parking lot at the back and let me down. I went around the front door which – surprisingly – was open. And the George was lighted and filled with groups of people. A young man with long dark hair, tied back, was at the grill. He turned and gave me a curious look as I came in, but I didn’t care. I was so exhausted. Of course, I didn’t have any money, but perhaps they’d just let me sit down and make a phone call.


I collapsed into a seat and closed my eyes and next thing I knew, I heard the southern drawn, “Kyrie this is the young woman that Old Joe called about.” I opened my eyes to look into the familiar face. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I never even asked your name.”


“Rya Stevens,” I said.


“Ah. I’m Conan Lung,” and then as though he feared I’d laugh, “My parents used comic books to study English. They thought it was a good American name.”


“Sounds like a lovely name. And you were a hero. I mean, you rescued me.”


I swear he blushed bright red. “Oh, it was nothing.”


The young woman he had introduced me to – Kyrie – grinned at me. “You poor thing must be frozen. Relax and I’ll get you coffee. Do you want a clam chowder?”


“I don’t have any money on me. I–”


“Oh, never mind that, we’ll just get you warmed up. You can pay some other time.”


She bustled away and Conan said, “that’s Kyrie. She and her boyfriend Tom own the diner.” I felt ridiculously relieved she wasn’t Conan’s girlfriend. Like I had some claim on him, or something.


“You said Old Joe told you about me?” I said.


“Yeah.” And at my look. “Alligator shifter. He said you were nice.” The blush came again. It was fascinating. I’d never met a man who blushed like that.


To stop staring at him, I looked around the diner. So many people, and none of them seemed very interested in us. In the next table over, there was a man scribbling in a notebook. He was probably fifty and he had… I stopped. He had hair exactly the color of mine. And I knew him. Oh, I hadn’t seen him since I was five, but a girl knows her own father.


“Dad,” I said.


He turned around, and he was dad. His mouth dropped open. “Rya!”


“Dad.”


“You… did your mom tell you where to find me?”


I shook my head. “My mom knew where to find you?” She’d told me he’d left the state. She’d told me he never wrote.


He nodded and frowned at me a little, then squinted. “Are you… the one they called about?”


I nodded.


“So you’re one of us?”


“Us?” That again.


“Most people who come to the diner, and all here today are shape shifters. This is our safe place. The owners are shape shifters too. You… shift?”


I nodded.


“Fox?” he asked.


I nodded.


“Your mom was afraid… she wanted me to leave. She made me leave and she told me never to contact you or she would… She has pictures. I didn’t…”


“Oh, dad,” I said.


Later on I said a lot more, as we talked over the sixteen years of my life he’d missed. He’d been living in Goldport all along, but mom hadn’t told him I’d gone to college there. Now I understood why she’d tried to convince me to go to UC Boulder – because Dad was living in Goldport, retired and writing a novel. She’d been trying to convince him to move. She’d met him at the George just last week.


“Well,” I said. “She won’t want to ruin me and herself by implication. I mean, she’s my mother.” Though she might cut me off completely now she knew I too was a shape shifter. But I didn’t care. It wasn’t like I’d be left without any family now.


When the chowder came, I noticed there was an unlit candle on the table, and I struck my last match and lit the candle from it.


This time, the story of the little match girl did have a happy ending.

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Happy Hump Day everyone! And question day, as well. I’m back to answer your burning questions about getting an agent, publishing and so on. For those of you who didn’t play along last month, here’s how it works:

Post your question to me in the comments section below. I will come back later this evening/early tomorrow and answer three of them at random. (Could be more, but probably not because it’s insanely busy around here right now.)

That’s all there is to it! So, whatcha want to know?

~Nephele

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As we mentioned earlier, eight (8) people would be randomly drawn who were NOT one of the Speed Dating winners and posted at or before 8:30am. They will receive a response to a query letter by the end of business tomorrow.

The queries can be sent up to 2pm ET tomorrow, Wednesday, December 1st, in order to allow time for same day turnaround. The response will be a quick yay or nay — no aditional feedback will be given. Send to Contests@KnightAgency.net. 

Here are the query winners:

1–Dawn Brazil
2–Earl Staggs
3–L.K. Below
4–Phyllis Middleton
5–Robert Courtland
6–Qwillia Rain
7–Jennifer Bray-Weber
8–Linda Brewer-Wilt

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