Ask Andy McGuire - free teleseminar June 18th

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Literary agent and author Terry Whalin is hosting a free live teleseminar with Moody's fiction editor, Andy McGuire Wednesday, June 18th at 7:00 pm EST. But here's the thing ... YOU get to ask Andy the questions.

Visit the website AskAndyMcGuire and ask your question while registering for the seminar (it's free and easy). When you ask you'll have the chance to download Andy's 47 page novel writing curriculum which looks to be full of great insights (I'm printing my copy out as we speak!)

If you aren't able to attend the conference by phone, it'll be available for download later, but you must register.

Sounds like a great opportunity!

Andy McGuire (Advice for Novelists, Part 9)

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Here's the next installment of our series in which editors, agents, publicists and authors answer the question:

"If you could say one thing to aspiring novelists, what would you say?"

Surprise me. Think of an opening line that sounds like nothing you've heard before. Then follow that up with another. Then the next one. And the next. Come up with unique ways to introduce characters and plot elements. Find fresh metaphors and new insights. Avoid everything that

sounds like you've heard it before. If your manuscript continues to surprise me, I'll continue to read it. Guaranteed. Novels are a reader's way of vacationing in someone else's mind for awhile. If it feels familiar, what's the point?

Practice being creative. It's not easy, but it can be done. Daydream about outlandish things. Look at something familiar and try to come up with a bizarre metaphor to describe it. Forget the mechanics of writing for awhile and try to concentrate on saying new things in new ways.

--Andy McGuire, Fiction Acquisitions Editor, Moody Publishers