Tag: agent

  • Notes from New York

    Way back in March, I spent a weekend in New York City with a dear friend for her birthday. Since I was in town, I also met up with my agent Tina Dubois for the first time in person. It was magical. Her delicate beauty is almost as captivating as her passion and intellect, the…

  • “There’s a lot to be said for the long game”

    My college friend Michael Szczerban is now an editor, and he also contributes interviews to Poets & Writers magazine. From his latest, a roundtable with 4 young agents: Ballard: I often take people on and then work with them for a very long time. The first novel I sold this year was something I had worked with the…

  • Venice, Bologna, and oh yeah, MY AGENT

    Venice was a dream come true. The canals, like veins, coursing through the living breathing city. The motorboats and gondolas and vaporettos, gliding through the water, criss-crossing each other’s wakes. The sun rising over the islands of Burano and Murano, where ladies stitch lace and artisans meld glass. The sun setting over St. Mark’s Square and the…

  • Florence (aka hillsides, mosquito bites, and the second agent)

    After receiving my first offer of representation (!!!) I promptly notified the other agents who had my materials. With some, I withdrew my manuscript from consideration. With others, I requested that they finish reading and make a decision within 10 days (which included 2 full weekends). That meant the rest of my vacation would be…

  • Rome (aka jet lag, historic ruins, and The Call)

    First stop: Rome. We landed fairly early in the morning and hit the ground running, pausing only briefly at our hotel to stow our bags and freshen up. Then it was off to Vatican City for a stroll through the museum and a tour of the archaeological excavations under the Basilica. (Our guide “spoke English”…