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, the biggest being to change it to Middle Grade from YA. This resonated with Kacy so, despite the work involved, she signed with the second agent and rewrote the manuscript. This obviously paid off, even leading to an appearance on The Today Show for a segment featuring books set in different states.
Though her first agent left the business, Kacy is very happy with her current agent, Emily van Beek, also at Folio Jr. agency. Her second MG novel, ELVIRA VANCE AND THE MARFA MONSTER MYSTERY, will be out soon. (In case you’re wondering, there’s no reference to the famous “Marfa lights.”)
As a writer, Kacy loves fantasy for many reasons. Although dragons top the list, she also loves that she can world-build with as much (or as little) magic as she wants. In THE GREAT TEXAS DRAGON RACE she chose to have the presence of dragons be the only magical element.
Kacy’s parents also helped her writing journey. Her dad’s oil and gas job meant living in various European cities during her childhood, which gave her insight into other cultures. And her mom, an English teacher and huge fantasy-book fan, hooked Kacy on both reading and the fantasy genre. Kacy currently resides in Houston and has lived in Texas since age 12.
Aside from life experiences and writing a lot, what else has helped Kacy in her craft? Well, on top of being an avid reader of both genre and craft books, she uses online resources. A Reddit community called PubTips offers, among other things, query critiques by fellow members. This is not for the faint of heart, she warns, as the critiques are brutally honest. She also upped her query game by studying the Query Shark blog. Though she wrote her first novel as a pantser, she now believes that plotting works much better for her. She continues her day job as a behavioral health administrator but would love to transition eventually to full-time writing. A brief stint working as a counselor also gave her more insight into human behavior.
If you check out her website, kcritter.com, you will find that “Most of her friends are fictional characters.” I think many authors would agree— those are some of the best friends to have!
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