Secret Agent Man

For some time I’ve been trying to figure out how to transition myself from your friendly everyday blogger to a friendly everyday kind of writer.  I like my blog very much, but my blog does not have covers.  It does not impress my grandmothers.  It does not get bashed by Kirkus reviewers (that I know of).  And while I can place many fictional things within a blog posting, I try to avoid doing so when I can.  So writing has been my secret desire and I’ve been planning surreptitiously my entry into that mysterious world.  The authors are having a lot of fun.  Ipso facto, I want to be one.

The first step in that process (aside from, y’know, writing) is to find an agent.  Now I know a lot of agents in this town and the problem is that they’re all pretty spectacular but in entirely different ways.  I’ve toyed with the notion of signing with one or another, but so far it was all for naught.  This was through no fault of their own.  I just wasn’t ready.  And then there was Mr. Stephen Barbara.

Stephen is a regular attendee at my Kidlit Drink Nights.  He recently joined the Foundry literary and media agency, a fact that cropped up all over the online press.  He is smart.  He is young.  He is impeccably dressed.  He goes the extra mile.  And he recently acquired Newbery medalist Laura Amy Schlitz as one of his clients.  In such esteemed company, I am delighted to tell you, I have gained entry.  At last Friday’s post-SCBWI Kidlit Drink Night Stephen and I (shown up above, displaying various degrees of villainy) made a blood pact, wherein he would represent me.  Actually the only blood shed was entirely on my part due to a faulty lock on one of the bathroom doors, but the principle remains.

So that’s a step in the right direction, I think.  As a client of Stephen’s I will also be placed in the fine company of not only Ms. Schlitz but also authors Lisa Graff, Lynne Jonell, P.J. Bracegirdle, and many many others.  A glass lifted to Stephen then!