Library News
Author Panel on "From Rough Draft to Book Deal" Tonight
Join authors Melanie Conklin, Val Emmich, Holly Schindler and Chelle Martin who will discuss the challenging road to publication on Tuesday, November 29th at 7PM.
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The writing process, critique groups, query letters, agents, and self-publishing vs. traditional publishing will be among the topics discussed. Attend if you are writing a book, have written a book, or simply interested in learning about how to go from the proverbial slush pile to published author.
This panel is moderated by local award-winning author Jennifer Salvato Doktorksi, and is free and open to the public. Raffle prizes, light refreshments, and a book signing will follow the program.
Melanie Conklin is a writer, reader, and life-long lover of books. She lives in South Orange, New Jersey with her husband and two small maniacs, who are thankfully booklovers, too. Melanie spent a decade as a product designer and approaches her writing with the same three-dimensional thinking and fastidious attention to detail. Counting Thyme (Penguin, April 2016) is her debut middle grade novel.
Jennifer Salvato Doktorski is the author of the YA novels, How My Summer Went Up in Flames (Simon Pulse), Famous Last Words (Henry Holt and Co.), a Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year, The Summer After You & Me (Sourcebooks Fire), which was nominated for a YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Award, and the forthcoming August & Everything After (Sourcebooks Fire 2018). She lives with her family in East Brunswick, New Jersey and her summers are spent “down the shore,” where she dreams of taking surfing lessons and observes sea life while keeping her toes in the sand.
Dubbed a “Renaissance Man” by the New York Post, Val Emmich is a writer, a singer-songwriter, and an actor. He’s had recurring roles on HBO’s Vinyl and ABC’s Ugly Betty, as well as a memorable guest role as Tina Fey’s coffee-boy fling, Jamie, on NBC’s 30 Rock. Emmich lives in Jersey City, New Jersey, with his wife and their two children. The Reminders is his first novel.
Chelle Martin is a member of MWA, RWA, and SinC, serving as the current president of the SinC Central Jersey chapter. Her short mysteries have been published by various small presses and in numerous issues of Princeton's US 1 Summer Fiction. While Chelle considers herself a short story writer, she is working on the first novel of her proposed Dog Mom Mysteries series which she describes as Seinfeld meets Mary Higgins Clark.
Holly Schindler’s award-winning traditionally published books have received starred reviews in PW and Booklist; The Junction of Sunshine and Lucky is nominated for this year’s Sequoyah and Mark Twain Awards. She’s been an Amazon bestseller with her independently published work, and has experience in all aspects of the publishing process—formatting, copyediting, cover creation, even illustration and interior book design. Latest releases include Spark (YA / HarperCollins) and the magical, independently published Forever Finley series.
