Tara Tyler and Pop Travel

In my writerly travels, I've discovered some of the best people on Earth. What other profession gives time, expertise, and virtual encouragement like writers do? 

Tara Tyler, author of Pop Travel is one of those folks so willing to help. Truly, she is amazing.

Published by CuriosityQuills, here is Tara.

Tell us about yourself. That's a loaded statement! How far back should I go? I'm a short girl with glasses and I love imagining stories. I'm also very organized, like to make lists, and have to write things down or I will forget, largely due to the fact that my three sons and husband drive me crazy! Love those boys!

Tell us about your book. Pop Travel is set in the near future where teleportation has replaced flying. Due to irresponsible corner-cutting, it has a deadly flaw the company is desperately trying to fix without causing a worldwide panic. Cooper is determined to expose the coverup, despite being chased and threatened, to keep his brother from becoming the next victim.

If you could only have one superpower what would it be? It’s a tie between making time stand still and snapping things clean, either would be wonderful!

Who is your favorite character from one of your books and why? Stephanie Plum – she's completely messed up and completely okay with it and never gives up, despite the odds.

What are you working on now? Simulation, the next techno-thriller book after Pop Travel.

What’s your favorite movie? How to Train Your Dragon

What’s your favorite quote? Anything by Mark Twain. Here's one: "Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please." and here's another: "Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life."

What genre do you write and why? Sci Fi, Fantasy, Thriller, Chick Lit, whatever strikes my fancy and sounds like a good story… all with adventure, humor, and a touch of romance. Pieces of reality, but more fun to read about.

Name five things that are on your desk right now? glass of water, pencils, journals, stack of ideas, and

post its.

Chocolate cake, strawberry shortcake, apple pie, or pecan pie? none of the above – chocolate chip cookies!!

How can readers find you? They can't, I'm a blur! But I leave trails of cookie crumbs at: my blog, on twitter @taratylertalks, and on facebook

Blurb: Pop Travel by Tara Tyler

A tale of deception and teleportation.

When a distraught client enters J.L. Cooper's small town detective agency ranting about a pop travel teleportation cover up, Cooper takes the case. He blames pop travel indirectly for his wife's death and would love to expose a glitch in it.

But the glitch turns out to be disintegrating travelers. And now, his client is dead, his secretary is missing, and a hitman is stalking him. Plus there's all the webcams watching his every move. So, Cooper has to find a way to expose the deadly flaw, while using pop travel to escape the maniacs covering it up, not to mention save a couple of tag-alongs he's not sure he can trust. No problem.

Interview with Guest Judge Krystal Wade

Here's a reminder of what she's looking for in a manuscript at this time.

I love older mc's (18+)! I'd like to see some good dystopian, more male mc's too, and then of course anything scifi/fantasy/paranormal with something new and unusual.

1. How did you decide to get into editing/publishing?

Curiosity Quills' owner, Alisa Gus, and I became really good friends over the last year. She wanted me to publish with them, and I turned her down for another company who ended up treating me as if I was a barnacle on the bottom of a ship. Alisa and I knew we'd work together one day, but at the time we didn't realize in what capacity. When she told me she and her husband were expecting, an idea formed in my head, and I offered to help read subs for CQ. Thank God for that! Because I wound up leaving my former publishing company--more like fleeing than leaving--and CQP published my first title, Wilde's Fire.

2. Why did you choose the publisher you are working with now?

Would you laugh if I say I'm pretty sure fate put us together and the choice had little to do with me?

3. What's your favorite part of the job?

I love new authors and the excitement they bring. Telling a person CQP is going to publish their work is probably the most exciting thing ever.

4. What is your current favorite book that you could read over and over?

A year ago, I would have said The Hunger Games. Right now, I'm pretty sure Divergent is something I'd read a million times over.

And a little more to help you get to know Krystal:

She's happily married to the love of herlife and raising three beautiful children in Virginia. They live just outside Washington, D.C. and every day she wakes up to find herself stuck in traffic trying to get there. The silver lining in that commute? It gives her the time to think about her characters in full detail.

If you get a chance, ask her about organized hitchhiking.

“There is no pain in this death, only peace, knowing I am going to die with the one I love the most.” -- Katriona Wilde

Read more about this and her second book, HERE.

Update on School's In Query Judges

Life is funny. In preparation for this contest, we sent out many queries in search of judges for you. And you know how we like to complain about no response from agents and such? Well, we now have a new appreciation for the issues they have to deal with email on a daily basis.

We missed an email from one of our judges! We've rectified the situation and wanted to take this time to remind you who our wonderful judges are and what they are hoping to find. 

Krystal Wade from Curiosity Quills
Andrew Buckley from Curiosity Quills
Nancy Bell from MuseItUp Publishing
Amy Lichtenhan from SapphireStar Publishing
Donna O'Brien from Crescent Moon Press


Krystal--I love older mc's (18+)! I'd like to see some good dystopian, more male mc's too, and then of course anything scifi/fantasy/paranormal with something new and unusual.

Andrew--I’m looking for adult fiction be it paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy, urban fantasy and/or anything quirky or humorous. No YA or NA please. I like strong protagonists with a unique voice and wonderfully evil antagonists. Please, please, please, no in-your-face sword and sorcery type pieces. They’ve been known to cause sharp pains in my posterior. I’m also looking for cookies. Oatmeal raisin are my favorite.

Nancy--MuseItUp is looking for more dark fiction, horror, as we are light in that department. However, romance, historical romance, YA/MG from a male POV that will entice that sector. Of course, we are open to anything that is well written and crafted. We don't publish literary fiction or poetry.

Amy--We're especially interested in contemporary romance and paranormal romance at this time, although we are accepting submissions in all fiction categories.

Donna--Currently, we are looking for voice rather than specific genre requirements, though we
are primarily a boutique publisher of high quality fantasy, futuristic, and paranormal fiction. We are interested in urban fantasy, dystopian, futuristic science fiction, steampunk, mind-bending time travel, space operas, mythological as well as historical retellings with a twist, epic high fantasy, and the paranormal. We are also interested in paranormal categories of suspense, thrillers, gothica, and mystery. CMP also accepting submissions in the YA and New Adult categories of the above mentioned genres.

Calling All Followers With Completed Manuscripts

We've been sitting on something here at UB.

Well, yeah, that too, but I'm talking about something new for our little blog.

Something we've been dreaming of doing.

Something with YOU in mind.

The time has finally arrived to fill you in on our plan to take over the world!

*cough* *cough*

Sorry, not that plan.
What plan? We aren't plotting to take over the world so just stop already.
Now, where were we?
Oh yes. The plan to help you wonderful followers get some quality feedback on your work.

We are excited to announce the School's In Query Contest!

We are devoting most of August to queries: how to's, examples, workshops and the query process in general. The last week of August we will have three wonderful guest judges reading all polished queries for FINISHED manuscripts.

Krystal Wade from Curiosity Quills
Andrew Buckley from Curiosity Quills
Nancy Bell from MuseItUp Publishing
Amy Lichtenhan from SapphireStar Publishing
Donna O'Brien from Crescent Moon Press

If they like what they see, they may request pages and who knows where that may lead you?

There will be more info coming over the next few weeks, but we wanted to give you time to comb through that MS one more time. Maybe even get one more beta reader? Here's what these ladies said they are looking for right now.

Krystal--I love older mc's (18+)! I'd like to see some good dystopian, more male mc's too, and then of course anything scifi/fantasy/paranormal with something new and unusual.

Andrew--I’m looking for adult fiction be it paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy, urban fantasy and/or anything quirky or humorous. No YA or NA please. I like strong protagonists with a unique voice and wonderfully evil antagonists. Please, please, please, no in-your-face sword and sorcery type pieces. They’ve been known to cause sharp pains in my posterior. I’m also looking for cookies. Oatmeal raisin are my favorite.

Nancy--MuseItUp is looking for more dark fiction, horror, as we are light in that department. However, romance, historical romance, YA/MG from a male POV that will entice that sector. Of course, we are open to anything that is well written and crafted. We don't publish literary fiction or poetry.

Amy--We're especially interested in contemporary romance and paranormal romance at this time, although we are accepting submissions in all fiction categories.

Donna--Currently, we are looking for voice rather than specific genre requirements, though we
are primarily a boutique publisher of high quality fantasy, futuristic, and paranormal fiction. We are interested in urban fantasy, dystopian, futuristic science fiction, steampunk, mind-bending time travel, space operas, mythological as well as historical retellings with a twist, epic high fantasy, and the paranormal. We are also interested in paranormal categories of suspense, thrillers, gothica, and mystery. CMP also accepting submissions in the YA and New Adult categories of the above mentioned genres.

If you are interested in playing, what questions do you have about the contest? 
Please email them to unicornbellsubmissions@gmail.com and I'll post and answer all of them for our Friday post. 


...And for anyone who might be interested, look what I found on Google.

Literary Agents and 8-Track Tapes

An interesting post from The Passive Voice titled You Must Have an Agent…Or Not appeared in the blogosphere. 

Actually it is only another in a long line of musings about this industry.

I spoke with one famous fantasy author who believes agents are not the influence they once were in this business. Note yesterday’s post about Fifty Shades and the agents who moan how their philosophy was shot to hell by just one book.

But it isn’t just one book. There is Amanda Hocking who self-published herself into fame. Or John Locke, the first to sell one million Ebooks on Amazon.

Indie Publishing. For another eye-opener, go to Jeff Bennington’s blog The Writing Bomb. Essentially, he is a writer who chose not to wait on an agent but made his own way into self-pub. His blog is chock-full of info.

“But you must have an agent,” the ‘experts’ cry to us unwashed masses. “Write a good book and we’ll accept you as our client,” agents say.

Um, no. They won’t. Because:

The project you describe does not suit our list at this time.
This project doesn't seem quite right for us.
This project doesn’t sound right for me.
I am not the right agent for this work.

My fave is the ‘no response means no’ response and leaving the writer with hours of wasted research into an agent who blows them off without acknowledgment.

So you’ve polished your manuscript to a shiny new penny, educated yourself about adverbs and dangling participles, read every word regarding queries. Now what? Are the agents ignoring your baby? Does the prospect of self-publishing leave you cold?

Pick the in-between route, the publisher.

Apply directly to small pubs like WiDo Publishing, Curiosity Quills, MusaPress, MuseItUp Publishing, Sapphire Star, and Baen Books. Or publishers that tower over the industry, Del Rey, DAW, and Tor/Forge.

So what is your flavor? Are you determined to go the traditional route? Or ready to explore small publishers or even self-pub?