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Contest for autographed book, Nefertiti. Just comment to have a chance to win! Visit her website to win a 14k gold Nefertiti Pendant!!
Michelle Moran is so passionate about writing and you will see that when reading her interview, she is offering a hard back edition of her book Nefertiti to a lucky commenter, but if you visit her website you can also have a chance at winning a 14k gold Nefertiti pendant…so read on my lovelies!!
Author Pen Name: Michelle Moran:
CA: Why do you write the stories that you write? What genre(s) do you write?
MM: My travels to archaeological sites around the world have been enormously influential in my writing career. In fact, my inspiration to write on the Egyptian queen Nefertiti happened while I was on an archaeological dig in Israel. During my sophomore year in college, I found myself sitting in Anthropology 101, and when the professor mentioned that she was looking for volunteers who would like to join a dig in Israel, I was one of the first students to sign up. When I got to Israel, however, all of my archaeological dreams were dashed (probably because they centered around Indiana Jones). There were no fedora wearing men, no cities carved into rock, and certainly no Ark of the Covenant waiting to be discovered. I was very disappointed. Not only would a fedora have seemed out of place, but I couldn’t even use the tiny brushes I had packed. Apparently, archaeology is more about digging big ditches with pickaxes rather than dusting off artifacts. And it had never occurred to me until then that in order to get to those artifacts, one had to dig deep into the earth. Volunteering on an archaeological dig was hot, it was sweaty, it was incredibly dirty, and when I look back on the experience through the rose-tinged glasses of time, I think, Wow, was it fantastic! Especially when our team discovered an Egyptian scarab that proved the ancient Israelites had once traded with the Egyptians. Looking at that scarab in the dirt, I began to wonder who had owned it, and what had possessed them to undertake the long journey from their homeland to the fledgling country of Israel.
On my flight back to America I stopped in Berlin, and with a newfound appreciation for Egyptology, I visited the museum where Nefertiti’s limestone bust was being housed. The graceful curve of Nefertiti’s neck, her arched brows, and the faintest hint of a smile were captivating to me. Who was this woman with her self-possessed gaze and stunning features? I wanted to know more about Nefertiti’s story, but when I began the research into her life, it proved incredibly difficult. She’d been a woman who’d inspired powerful emotions when she lived over three thousand years ago, and those who had despised her had attempted to erase her name from history. Yet even in the face of such ancient vengeance, some clues remained.
As a young girl Nefertiti had married a Pharaoh who was determined to erase the gods of Egypt and replace them with a sun-god he called Aten. It seemed that Nefertiti’s family allowed her to marry this impetuous king in the hopes that she would tame his wild ambitions. What happened instead, however, was that Nefertiti joined him in building his own capital of Amarna where they ruled together as god and goddess. But the alluring Nefertiti had a sister who seemed to keep her grounded, and in an image of her found in Amarna, the sister is standing off to one side, her arms down while everyone else is enthusiastically praising the royal couple. From this image, and a wealth of other evidence, I tried to recreate the epic life of an Egyptian queen whose husband was to become known as the Heretic King.
So given how far I’ve come since that day our team first found an Egyptian scarab in the dirt, I would say that my time in Israel has had the biggest impact on my writing. If not for that experience, it may have taken me years to discover that what I wanted to write was historical fiction.
CA: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? Who or what was your inspiration for writing?
MM: My first attempt at getting published was in seventh grade, when I was twelve. I had written a full length book that was certainly pathetic but everyone praised it, and my father even hailed it as the next Great American Novel. My father was very good at ego-boosting. But no one knew how to go about getting published, so I went to my local Barnes and Nobles and asked them how. And instead of laughing, the bookseller took me to the writing section and I purchased the current edition of Writer's Market. From then on, no agent or publishing house was safe. I learned how to write query letters and regaled them all. And some of them sent personal letters back too, probably because I had included my age in the query letter and they either thought a) this kid has potential or b) this is sad and deserves at least a kind note.
Then, in my second year of college, I changed my genre from literary to historical fiction and found my calling. That summer I wrote a novel called Jezebel, and signed with a prominent agent in NY. His foreign rights department sold it successfully to Bertelsmann in Germany, and I had my first publishing credit with the company that owns Random House. But my agent in NY had a difficult time selling the novel, and when it was clear that he had done what he could for Jezebel and that there would be no sale in the US, I saw the writing on the wall. I would have to write another book.
So I began my research, and over the next few years I came to a slow and eye-opening realization. No matter how many times or how nicely I wrote, my agent never answered my emails. Even after I had finished the book on the subject that he’d suggested, he never took my phone calls. Did this mean I didn’t have an agent? Had I been dumped because Jezebel hadn’t sold? Did agents do that without telling their clients? Apparently, he did, and apparently, some do. So I took the high road and wrote a letter thanking him for what he had done for me (he did get my foot in the door), and I asked to be released from our contract. I sent the letter by certified mail and promptly never heard from him again.
But publishing isn’t personal, and neither is rejection, so I began sending query letters out the next month, mentioning that my agent and I had recently parted ways and that I was searching for new representation. It was a matter of weeks before I had a new agent, the wonderful Anna Ghosh at Scovil Chichak Galen, and she took on the task of submitting the novel that my precious agent had suggested I write. But my heart hadn’t been in the book. It was set in the 20th century, and my specialty – what I studied in college and what I’ve since become an amateur historian on – is ancient Egypt and the Middle Ages. We had quite a few near misses with the novel, where editors wanted to purchase the book but were told no by the acquisitions committee, since all sales have to be approved by a committee. After Anna sent the novel to all the major houses, I began to panic that I’d be dropped as a client for a second time, and that is when I started Nefertiti, a project I was extremely passionate about. Anna waited for two years while I wrote, and eventually she sold the book and its stand-alone sequel for six-figures to Crown. After that, her foreign rights agent Danny Baror (who happened to be the same foreign rights agent who sold Jezebel) sold Nefertiti and The Heretic Queen to seventeen countries.
I do believe there is a moral to this story, which is to be persistent and not to be afraid of starting a new project. I have thirteen books that I’ve written, and just because they’re not published doesn’t mean I didn’t learn from them, or that I can’t publish them in the future (although I probably won’t). I think what aspiring writers need to understand is that if something isn’t right for the current market, that doesn’t mean they should simply give up.
CA: What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
MM: I wake up, check email for half an hour, attend to my blog for twenty minutes, spend another half hour surfing other people’s blogs, and then at about 10 am I get down to business. I open a diet coke (my mother says that when I’m fifty and have no teeth I’ll know why), check my outline for the day, and begin to write. Writing sessions are punctuated by visits to my hotmail account more frequently than I’d like to admit. But I don’t stop until I get my five single-spaced, even if that’s at nine o’clock at night.
CA: Your book is about to be sent into the reader world, what is one word that describes how you feel?
MM: Elated!
CA: What do you like to do when you're not writing?
MM: Because I don’t watch a lot of TV, my day-to-day entertainment comes from reading, researching, and talking with people who are as passionate about history as I am (most often my husband). I have a gym in my house, so I work out when I have the time, although I’m not sure I would consider that entertainment. But I read while I work out, which makes the activity slightly more palatable.
CA: How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?
MM: Technically, thirteen. How many books have I written that have been published? Only one, so far. But the sequel to Nefertiti, entitled The Heretic Queen, will be coming out August 5 with Random House, and will be followed within the year by Cleopatra’s Daughter, which will bring my published books total to three, a much more respectable number ;] I’m not sure that I can choose a favorite between them, but since I’m currently working on Cleopatra’s Daughter and loving every minute of it, I might be tempted to say book number three.
CA: Do you tend to base your characters on real people or are they totally from your imagination?
MM: As a writer of historical fiction, all of my characters are based on people who really lived.
CA: How can a reader contact you or purchase your books?
MM: Readers can purchase the hardcover of Nefertiti online or at any bookstore in the US or the
Michelle Moran is so passionate about writing and you will see that when reading her interview, she is offering a hard back edition of her book Nefertiti to a lucky commenter, but if you visit her website you can also have a chance at winning a 14k gold Nefertiti pendant…so read on my lovelies!!
Author Pen Name: Michelle Moran:
CA: Why do you write the stories that you write? What genre(s) do you write?
MM: My travels to archaeological sites around the world have been enormously influential in my writing career. In fact, my inspiration to write on the Egyptian queen Nefertiti happened while I was on an archaeological dig in Israel. During my sophomore year in college, I found myself sitting in Anthropology 101, and when the professor mentioned that she was looking for volunteers who would like to join a dig in Israel, I was one of the first students to sign up. When I got to Israel, however, all of my archaeological dreams were dashed (probably because they centered around Indiana Jones). There were no fedora wearing men, no cities carved into rock, and certainly no Ark of the Covenant waiting to be discovered. I was very disappointed. Not only would a fedora have seemed out of place, but I couldn’t even use the tiny brushes I had packed. Apparently, archaeology is more about digging big ditches with pickaxes rather than dusting off artifacts. And it had never occurred to me until then that in order to get to those artifacts, one had to dig deep into the earth. Volunteering on an archaeological dig was hot, it was sweaty, it was incredibly dirty, and when I look back on the experience through the rose-tinged glasses of time, I think, Wow, was it fantastic! Especially when our team discovered an Egyptian scarab that proved the ancient Israelites had once traded with the Egyptians. Looking at that scarab in the dirt, I began to wonder who had owned it, and what had possessed them to undertake the long journey from their homeland to the fledgling country of Israel.
On my flight back to America I stopped in Berlin, and with a newfound appreciation for Egyptology, I visited the museum where Nefertiti’s limestone bust was being housed. The graceful curve of Nefertiti’s neck, her arched brows, and the faintest hint of a smile were captivating to me. Who was this woman with her self-possessed gaze and stunning features? I wanted to know more about Nefertiti’s story, but when I began the research into her life, it proved incredibly difficult. She’d been a woman who’d inspired powerful emotions when she lived over three thousand years ago, and those who had despised her had attempted to erase her name from history. Yet even in the face of such ancient vengeance, some clues remained.
As a young girl Nefertiti had married a Pharaoh who was determined to erase the gods of Egypt and replace them with a sun-god he called Aten. It seemed that Nefertiti’s family allowed her to marry this impetuous king in the hopes that she would tame his wild ambitions. What happened instead, however, was that Nefertiti joined him in building his own capital of Amarna where they ruled together as god and goddess. But the alluring Nefertiti had a sister who seemed to keep her grounded, and in an image of her found in Amarna, the sister is standing off to one side, her arms down while everyone else is enthusiastically praising the royal couple. From this image, and a wealth of other evidence, I tried to recreate the epic life of an Egyptian queen whose husband was to become known as the Heretic King.
So given how far I’ve come since that day our team first found an Egyptian scarab in the dirt, I would say that my time in Israel has had the biggest impact on my writing. If not for that experience, it may have taken me years to discover that what I wanted to write was historical fiction.
CA: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer? Who or what was your inspiration for writing?
MM: My first attempt at getting published was in seventh grade, when I was twelve. I had written a full length book that was certainly pathetic but everyone praised it, and my father even hailed it as the next Great American Novel. My father was very good at ego-boosting. But no one knew how to go about getting published, so I went to my local Barnes and Nobles and asked them how. And instead of laughing, the bookseller took me to the writing section and I purchased the current edition of Writer's Market. From then on, no agent or publishing house was safe. I learned how to write query letters and regaled them all. And some of them sent personal letters back too, probably because I had included my age in the query letter and they either thought a) this kid has potential or b) this is sad and deserves at least a kind note.
Then, in my second year of college, I changed my genre from literary to historical fiction and found my calling. That summer I wrote a novel called Jezebel, and signed with a prominent agent in NY. His foreign rights department sold it successfully to Bertelsmann in Germany, and I had my first publishing credit with the company that owns Random House. But my agent in NY had a difficult time selling the novel, and when it was clear that he had done what he could for Jezebel and that there would be no sale in the US, I saw the writing on the wall. I would have to write another book.
So I began my research, and over the next few years I came to a slow and eye-opening realization. No matter how many times or how nicely I wrote, my agent never answered my emails. Even after I had finished the book on the subject that he’d suggested, he never took my phone calls. Did this mean I didn’t have an agent? Had I been dumped because Jezebel hadn’t sold? Did agents do that without telling their clients? Apparently, he did, and apparently, some do. So I took the high road and wrote a letter thanking him for what he had done for me (he did get my foot in the door), and I asked to be released from our contract. I sent the letter by certified mail and promptly never heard from him again.
But publishing isn’t personal, and neither is rejection, so I began sending query letters out the next month, mentioning that my agent and I had recently parted ways and that I was searching for new representation. It was a matter of weeks before I had a new agent, the wonderful Anna Ghosh at Scovil Chichak Galen, and she took on the task of submitting the novel that my precious agent had suggested I write. But my heart hadn’t been in the book. It was set in the 20th century, and my specialty – what I studied in college and what I’ve since become an amateur historian on – is ancient Egypt and the Middle Ages. We had quite a few near misses with the novel, where editors wanted to purchase the book but were told no by the acquisitions committee, since all sales have to be approved by a committee. After Anna sent the novel to all the major houses, I began to panic that I’d be dropped as a client for a second time, and that is when I started Nefertiti, a project I was extremely passionate about. Anna waited for two years while I wrote, and eventually she sold the book and its stand-alone sequel for six-figures to Crown. After that, her foreign rights agent Danny Baror (who happened to be the same foreign rights agent who sold Jezebel) sold Nefertiti and The Heretic Queen to seventeen countries.
I do believe there is a moral to this story, which is to be persistent and not to be afraid of starting a new project. I have thirteen books that I’ve written, and just because they’re not published doesn’t mean I didn’t learn from them, or that I can’t publish them in the future (although I probably won’t). I think what aspiring writers need to understand is that if something isn’t right for the current market, that doesn’t mean they should simply give up.
CA: What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
MM: I wake up, check email for half an hour, attend to my blog for twenty minutes, spend another half hour surfing other people’s blogs, and then at about 10 am I get down to business. I open a diet coke (my mother says that when I’m fifty and have no teeth I’ll know why), check my outline for the day, and begin to write. Writing sessions are punctuated by visits to my hotmail account more frequently than I’d like to admit. But I don’t stop until I get my five single-spaced, even if that’s at nine o’clock at night.
CA: Your book is about to be sent into the reader world, what is one word that describes how you feel?
MM: Elated!
CA: What do you like to do when you're not writing?
MM: Because I don’t watch a lot of TV, my day-to-day entertainment comes from reading, researching, and talking with people who are as passionate about history as I am (most often my husband). I have a gym in my house, so I work out when I have the time, although I’m not sure I would consider that entertainment. But I read while I work out, which makes the activity slightly more palatable.
CA: How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?
MM: Technically, thirteen. How many books have I written that have been published? Only one, so far. But the sequel to Nefertiti, entitled The Heretic Queen, will be coming out August 5 with Random House, and will be followed within the year by Cleopatra’s Daughter, which will bring my published books total to three, a much more respectable number ;] I’m not sure that I can choose a favorite between them, but since I’m currently working on Cleopatra’s Daughter and loving every minute of it, I might be tempted to say book number three.
CA: Do you tend to base your characters on real people or are they totally from your imagination?
MM: As a writer of historical fiction, all of my characters are based on people who really lived.
CA: How can a reader contact you or purchase your books?
MM: Readers can purchase the hardcover of Nefertiti online or at any bookstore in the US or the
UK. On May 28, the paperback of Nefertiti will debut, and the same applies! And if any reader would like to contact me, they certainly may at authormichellemoran@hotmail.com. They can also enter a Nefertiti contest on my website at http://www.michellemoran.com/, and I believe this month’s prize is a 14kt gold Nefertiti pendant!
CA: Michelle, you’re so passionate about your writing and I can not wait to review Nefertiti, I love reading about the Egyptians and this would only be my 4th book I think to have read! Thank you for offering a hard back copy of your book Nefertiti to one lucky poster!
CA: Michelle, you’re so passionate about your writing and I can not wait to review Nefertiti, I love reading about the Egyptians and this would only be my 4th book I think to have read! Thank you for offering a hard back copy of your book Nefertiti to one lucky poster!
9 comments:
You've certainly led a fascinating life, Michelle. Best of luck with the book. Great interview with Crystal, as always.
I am utterly fascinated by the Egyptians. I look forward to reading your book.
Michelle,
I will definetely pick up your book. I love the seven year old queries. How cute? That says a lot about the little writer you. My father was the same, always encouraging, I think that is why I never gave up because I never wanted to let him down.
I wish you all the best though I know you will do well. Your expericence says it all.
With all my love,
Besa Kosova
Thank you Alan, Tarotbyarwen and Besa!
It sounds like you are a writer as well, Besa, which is wonderful. Good luck!!
You are living proof that one should never give up on the dream. It is the light at the end of that dark tunnel. The star just on the other side of the moon. The belief that the will is greater than we believe.
Never let your dream slide into obscurity live it every day. Love it and nurture it.
Michelle you are very well educated I would love your book! Reading is fun
Thank you, Yvonne, and ReadingIsFun! All those clichéd sayings about never giving up are absolutely true! It may take five books, it may take ten, but eventually, as long as a writer keeps honing her craft and reading, something will happen for her!
Congratulations and all the best on your success. Your interview was wonderful and I look forward to enjoying thie book.
AND the winner is.... Reading is fun!! Just get me your address and I'll get Michelle's book right out to you!!
Thanks Michelle for being here and thanks to everyone that commented!!
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