It’s Pitch Day at Agent Shop with Weronika Janczuk!

UPDATE: STOP SENDING PITCHES! WE’VE MET OUR NEEDS. CHECK BACK TOMORROW TO SEE IF YOUR PITCH MADE IT IN THE TOP THIRTY. AND OF COURSE, SEE IF YOU WON THE TOP SLOT OR A COPY OF TERESA’S NOVEL!

Good Morning everyone.

It’s Agent Shop PITCH Day! Yay.

We have the awesome Weronika Janczuk (@weronikajanczuk on Twitter) coming tomorrow to look at thirty lucky pitches, and we’re so happy to have one of her clients here today for the author spotlight.

Please welcome Teresa Frohock with her soon to be released novel

MISERERE: AN AUTUMN TALE

How ridiculously awesome is THAT cover?!?

Miserere: An Autumn Tale

(Night Shade Books www.nightshadebooks.com / July 1, 2011)

Exiled exorcist Lucian Negru deserted his lover in Hell in exchange for saving his sister Catarina’s soul, but Catarina doesn’t want salvation. She wants Lucian to help her fulfill her dark covenant with the Fallen Angels by using his power to open the Hell Gates. Catarina intends to lead the Fallen’s hordes out of Hell and into the parallel dimension of Woerld, Heaven’s frontline of defense between Earth and Hell.

When Lucian refuses to help his sister, she imprisons and cripples him, but Lucian learns that Rachael, the lover he betrayed and abandoned in Hell, is dying from a demonic possession. Determined to rescue Rachael from the demon he unleashed on her soul, Lucian flees his sister, but Catarina’s wrath isn’t so easy to escape. In the end, she will force him once more to choose between losing Rachael or opening the Hell Gates so the Fallen’s hordes may overrun Earth, their last obstacle before reaching Heaven’s Gates.

Read the first four chapters of Miserere FREE here:

And check out this trailer!!!

(BTW – At  the bottom of the interview with Teresa, I’m going to post some information that you NEED to read.)

Blurbs for MISERERE:

“MISERERE is about redemption, and the triumph of our best impulses over our worst. It’s also about swords, monsters, chases, ghosts, magic, court intrigues and battles to the death. It’s also (and this is the important part) really, really good.”

–Alex Bledsoe, author of DARK JENNY and THE SWORD-EDGED BLONDE

“In her debut novel, MISERERE: AN AUTUMN TALE, Teresa Frohock has succeeded at creating that all-too-rare phenomenon among first-time story-tellers: a mature prose style combined with a fully realized vision. Her ‘woerld’ will completely immerse the reader with its compelling and striking visuals, fascinating details and thrilling plot turns. The book is almost impossible to put down and it’s harder yet not to actually believe that what Ms. Frohock imagined isn’t terribly real—even if some of us haven’t found an entrée into the parallel existences she’s meticulously crafted. Studded with magic, demons, and terror run amok, dark fantasy and horror fans alike will walk away from MISERERE feeling they’ve found a writer they not only admire, but are anxious to revisit soon in her future works.”

— Lisa Mannetti, Bram Stoker Award-Winning author of THE GENTLING BOX and DEATHWATCH

When and Where can we find it?

MISERERE will release from Night Shade Books on July 1, 2011

You can follow http://www.teresafrohock.com for updates on the blog tour, which started June 24^th and will go through the end of August.

http://www.teresafrohock.com/novels/ has links to Amazon, B&N, IndieBound, and more. The book will be available at bookstores everywhere.

Awesome information Teresa!

How about a bio? We love getting to know authors.

Raised in a small town, Teresa Frohock learned to escape to other worlds through the fiction collection of her local library. She eventually moved away from Reidsville and lived in Virginia and South Carolina before returning to North Carolina, where she currently resides with her husband and daughter.

Teresa has long been accused of telling stories, which is a southern colloquialism for lying. Miserere: An Autumn Tale is her debut novel.

Teresa can be found most often at her blog and web site (www.teresafrohock.com). Every now and then, she heads over to Tumblr and sends out Dark Thoughts, links to movies and reviews that catch her eye. You can also follow Teresa on Twitter and join her author page on Facebook

Can you tell us where the idea for MISERERE came from?

The idea for MISERERE started with Lucian’s character. I’m not the kind of writer who thinks in terms of plot; I tend to begin with a character and formulate the story about him or her.

The concept for Lucian began when I dreamed of a powerful sorcerer, speaking to a young boy dressed in twenty-first century clothing. They were at the edge of a dark forest where there was a hand painted sign nailed to a tree that read: “Jesus Saves.” (If you live in the southeastern United States, you see these scattered around.) Beside the tree was a rusting bumper from a pickup truck with a sticker that read: “Nobody Saves You More Than Winn Dixie.”

The whole dream stayed with me long after I woke, so I started building a story around the man and the boy and the strange world they inhabited where time overlapped from one period to another. I loved the idea of mixing the religious with the secular, my interpretation of the sign/bumper sticker symbolism, to see what kind of world I could build. It wasn’t until I took a college course in the introduction of the Old Testament that the final piece fell into place with the Crimson Veil.

Constructing the actual story was the hardest part. During my research, I read a quote from Toni Morrison’s novel LOVE: “Love is the weather. Betrayal is the lightning that cleaves and reveals it.” When I read that line, I knew I had the crux of Lucian’s conflict for MISERERE.

Care to share your ‘call’ experience? Either from when you were offered representation or when you got the call saying MISERERE: AN AUTUMN TALE had sold?

I met Weronika through Backspace.org before she became a literary agent and I followed her blog and tweets for several months. She impressed me with her many accomplishments and her love of literature. I enjoyed her writing and the way she expressed herself to her blog readers.

So when I saw through one of her tweets that she was striking out as a literary agent, I knew I had to submit MISERERE to her. I thought there wasn’t a chance she would remember me, but she did, and she immediately requested the full manuscript. When she emailed me and told me that she wanted to discuss representation, I was thrilled.

I had a list of questions and concerns I wanted to go over with her, but as we talked, she addressed each of my questions before I had a chance to ask them. I wanted an editing agent, someone who loved not just this particular book but my writing, and someone who would be honest enough with me to tell me when I was off track.

I got all three things with Weronika. The more she talked about MISERERE, the more enthusiastic I became until I was ready to buy my own book! That is salesmanship, and that is what a good agent does. Sure enough, she managed to sell MISERERE after only being on submission for six weeks and she’s really helped me navigate through the process, especially what happens AFTER you sell a book.

That’s a very encouraging way to find your agent. I love that you weren’t scared (well maybe you were at the time) to ask the questions you knew you needed to, to find the right agent for both yourself and your work. I love even more that Weronika answered them before you had to ask. Can you tell us what else you have in the works?

Right now, I’m fleshing out a synopsis for DOLOROSA, this is the second novel in the Katharoi series, and will be more in line with fantasy readers’ expectations in terms of world-building and magic. DOLOROSA will be Rachael’s story and will also give a broader view of Woerld and how the bastions work together to hold back the Fallen.

I’m also working on a novel in a new series that begins in Spain in 1348. Right now, it’s tentatively entitled THE GARDEN and it is the story of Guillermo Ramírez, a blacksmith conscripted into the King’s army. THE GARDEN is turning out much darker than MISERERE, but I’m thoroughly enjoying the characters and the story.

Busy woman! What’s one piece of advice you would pass on to other aspiring authors?

I try to share something different each time I answer this, but one thing remains constant—remain teachable. Always be willing to learn new techniques and experiment with different styles, but at the same time, don’t become so rigid that you stifle your voice. Take time to write whatever pops into your head without paying any attention to grammar or structure. Just write.

There you will find your true voice and once you’ve found your voice, modulate it with the rules of grammar and structure. It is through that critical editing process that my works always begin to take their true form. My rough drafts are little more than stage direction, but the edits are where I refine and groom the novel into a story with depth.

Brilliant. And so very true!

It’s so wonderful to have you here. We wish you the best with your writing, and huge congratulations on your release! Thank you so much for coming to Musetracks. After looking at your blog tour, I can only imagine how super busy ( and super excited) you must be!

As promised, I have some awesome info to share.

Teresa will be giving away a copy of MISERERE to one lucky person who comments using the words AUTUMN and TALE (or TAIL).

We’ll also be awarding the Top Pitch slot to a comment that uses those words.

And if you didn’t already know, Teresa has begun her blog tour and she’s doing a super contest with winner packages including a copy of MISERERE, query, synopsis, and even page critiques from Teresa’s agent, Weronika Janczuk! Check it out here!

Okay, now on to business.

You know the drill. Leave a comment using the words AUTUMN and TALE (or TAIL) to be entered to win the copy of MISERERE or the Top Pitch Slot for tomorrow. Send me your pitch at candi_agent_shop at yahoo.com And yes, replace the word at with the @ symbol) and come back tomorrow to see if you made it in the top thirty.

Good luck to everyone.

GO!