Marcy & Kitty's Excellent Adventure - Part 2

by Marcy Collier & Kitty Griffin

If you’ve ever been to New York City, you’ve learned NEVER to cross the walk if the red hand of death is flashing. A tour bus came inches from hitting Miss Kitty, but I pulled her to safety.

We visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral and thanked St. Christopher for our safe travels. We were greeted by the Naked Cowboy in Times Square.

Then we met Kitty’s author friend, Mingmei Yip for lunch in China Town. She shared her new book, Song of the Silk Road with us. She’ll be doing another book about Chinese folk tales and told us about her fascinating plot for a work in progress.

After lunch we headed uptown to Simon and Schuster and met with Vice President and Publisher Justin Chanda. We talked about the conference and market trends. Justin confirmed that there is editorial interest in middle grade fiction, an upturn in picture books but was slightly skeptical about Sci-Fi being the next big thing in YA, unless it’s light Sci-Fi. He believes that both commercial and literary fiction have a place and that authors shouldn’t necessarily think one is better than the other. He is excited about the release of many new S&S books, including Kenneth Oppee’s, This Dark Endeavor.

Marcy, Emma & Kitty

We had a lovely dinner with Emma Dryden. She is doing well with her consulting business (http://www.drydenbks.com/). We talked technology with Emma. She stated that the money is not there yet for apps and not all publishers are embracing this new technology. She also stressed the importance of going to go to conferences. Emma agreed that honing your craft and learning to take criticism will make you a better writer.

We are headed home tomorrow. Kitty’s dogs are fine. My older son broke his finger in a school kickball game, but other than that, all is well. And I will make sure we only cross streets when the man appears.