Amanda Morgan signs with Andrea Brown

A couple of months ago, it was my pleasure to read some of Amanda's writing. I had just started the blog at that time, and decided to host a query contest. Amanda entered. We started out with our own critiques. After that, I sent everyone to Query Letter Hell at Absolute Write for further assistance and suggestions for improvement. Meanwhile, I was busily trying to find a literary agent to judge the entries. It was my good fortune to link up with Chris Richman at Upstart Crow, who generously offered to act as judge.

Amanda's entry, ZOMBIE IS AN INFLAMMATORY WORD (AND I RESENT THAT), was a winner, which resulted in a request for a full from Chris. As sometimes happens, the manuscript wasn't quite what he was looking for, but Amanda didn't let that stop her. I'll let her tell the rest of the story in her own words...

"About a week and a half after the contest, I queried Mary Kole of the Andrea Brown Agency.  One of my good writing friends, Ryan Gebhart, had recently signed with her and loved her, so I was excited to see what she thought of ZOMBIE.  I actually broke a rule and queried two manuscripts at once, focusing mainly on ZOMBIE and a little on a sex, drugs, and roll and roll manuscript Mary had on her wish list at kidlit.com.

"Mary asked to discuss representation the very next day.  Her vision and revision plans were absolutely in line with mine, so I signed with her pretty quickly, and I'm so glad I did.  Mary's great!

So, there you have the rest of the story. Congratulations to Amanda, and I'll speak for all of us when I say that we wish you the best of luck as your journey continues and look forward to reading Zombies!

And since we're talking about queries and agents and all that stuff, don't forget about tomorrow. You've had the weekend to get your query in a stupendously polished condition. At 9 am Central Time, the window for entries opens. In case you need to review the rules and mechanics of how it works, click HERE!