Space City Scribes

  By Margaret Lea If you had met Deeba Zargarpur ten years ago, she would have been working in the medical field. Now, she’s a senior editor at a Big Five publishing house, finding herself in surreal conversations with the likes of Christopher Paolini (Eragon) or Malala Yousafzai (I Am Malala). What caused this dramatic shift? After growing up in Virginia, Deeba earned her psychology degree from Drexel University and began applying her knowledge to that field. But her passion for books—long kindled through avid reading, fan fiction writing, and even finishing a novel—eventually pushed her to pursue a career in publishing. Her family's protests of, “Are you crazy?” calmed when she got an editorial assistant job with a company they’d heard of—Disney Publishing Worldwide. She then spent several years working for a book packager, generating ideas for their projects. In March 2020, Simon & Schuster hired her, where she works as an editor for their Books for Young Readers imprint and...

  Interview by Margaret Lea Vicky Weber is a former elementary school teacher turned bestselling children’s book author and literary agent at Creative Media Agency. She represents commercial fiction—from board books to adult—but specializes in children’s literature. In every manuscript she represents, Vicky seeks intensity in the writing. She wants to be fully immersed in the moment, experiencing the story alongside the characters. If your book is high-concept, commercial fiction with beautiful, literary-leaning prose, it’s probably up her alley. We’re thrilled to welcome Vicky as our guest speaker for our February 3rd meeting ! To help you get to know her better, she answered a few questions we’ve shared below. Vicky, which of your roles do you most enjoy and why? Honestly, it’s hard to pick just one because all my roles—author, agent, coach, and entrepreneur—are so connected. They feed into each other in ways that make every day feel fresh and exciting. That said, my own writing ...

By Margaret Lea Sheila Fernley joined Storm Literary Agency in March 2024 as an Associate Literary Agent, and is an agented picture book author herself, as well as a former editor and special education teacher. If you are reading this before November 2024, and would like to hear her speak, register for our free Zoom meeting .  Here are her answers to some of querying authors’ most common questions. 1) Do you prefer a query salutation to be Dear Ms. Fernley, Dear Sheila Fernley, or Dear Sheila? I prefer query letter salutations to be personal – Dear Sheila, or even Hi Sheila.    2) How far do you read of each genre (PB/MG/YA) before you usually know it’s a pass? Do you represent all three categories?       I represent authors who write PB, MG, and YA subgenres, requesting a full manuscript for picture books and the first three chapters of a MG or YA. I also represent author/illustrators. I can usually tell by the end of the first page if the project wil...

By Margaret Lea        “Embrace your weirdness, take calculated risks, and interact with as many people as possible,” urges two-time NY Times bestselling illustrator Marissa Valdez.      Marissa has been drawing for as long as she can remember and loves illustrating everything, especially when she gets to convey expression and emotion. She grew up in Los Fresnos, a small town near Brownsville, TX, then got a degree in animation from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She had simply followed other’s advice, though, and didn’t enjoy animation.            After college graduation, she moved to the Houston area and got a job teaching preschool at a fine arts school in Fulshear. She loved this, especially reading picture books to the kids, but there was no opportunity for advancement, so she took a job as a graphic designer, where she worked for three years while pursuing h...

 By Margaret Lea The longest work meeting in the history of the world (at least it felt that way to Kacy Ritter) was when, as a behavioral health professional, she glanced at her phone and saw “Deal Memo” from her literary agent. When the meeting finally ended, she opened the email and confirmed— Yes, she got a book deal... from HarperCollins!  This debut Middle Grade, THE GREAT TEXAS DRAGON RACE, was not her first novel. Previously, she worked three years on a not-to-be-named-here, self-proclaimed “horrible” YA work. After crickets querying the first novel, she attended a conference put on by Andrea Brown Literary Agency. There she discovered flaws in her first novel— the biggest being that it was not unique but too similar to other published works. She decided to start over with a new project. When finished, she queried this new novel for only three months before receiving two offers of representation. One agent loved the book as is. The other gave many editorial comments, ...

 By Margaret Lea You probably know that Varsha Bajaj is the New York Times bestselling author of the middle grade book THIRST. But did you know that she found career inspiration watching American Idol in 2008?  She realized how easy it was to see which singers would advance through the audition rounds, but as the competition progressed it was extremely subjective, as all were so talented. This helped Varsha not get discouraged by the many rejections coming in for her writing. She did not, however, take this realization and wait. Instead, she studied, attended classes, went to critique groups, and constantly worked to improve, putting in the 10,000 hours of practice she’d read about in Malcolm Gladwell’s book OUTLIERS. Some of Varsha’s mentors were Gary Schmidt, Matt de la Peña, Jacqueline Woodson, Doreen Cronin, Kate DiCamillo, Mem Fox, and Laurie Halse Anderson. No, not one-on-one but through their books. She underlined sentences, analyzed structure and deconstructed scenes f...