As an agent, what types of stories are you looking for at this time? –

I am always looking for a story that captivates me and “sweeps me away”.  When you get that sense where you have lost track of time because you are completely caught up in a story, is an absolutely thrilling feeling!   Commercial women’s fiction and women’s romance are my areas of focus – and I am looking for all types of stories that fall under that description.  The only exception to that are stories that fall into the sci-fi, fantasy and Christian/Inspirational categories, those genres are not for me.

I also am looking for non-fiction that touches on issues that impact women and families, are areas that interest me.  Examples include, pets, environment, parenting, memoir, etc.

What have you seen too much of lately, if anything?

Nothing in particular comes to mind.  

What is your favorite part of being an agent? Least favorite?

My favorite moments are when we successfully sell an author’s book, and they realize their dream of being published.  Another favorite moment is finding that “gem” of a submission where you are completely caught up in the story and can’t wait to see more of the book!

My least favorite moment is when we are not successful selling an author’s book, after trying every possible avenue.  The other least favorite moment of course is sending a rejection letter, knowing that no matter how it is phrased it brings great disappointment to a writer.

Describe your dream author? And of course....the author from Hades? 

My dream author is an author who is passionate about their work, but open to feedback and suggested edits and revisions.  An author who is interested in the submission process but not overbearing.  An author who appreciates the many hours that go into preparing a work for submission on our end.  An author who is optimistic and realistic about today’s challenging publishing environment.  

I honestly don’t have an “author from Hades” – but have heard stories!  I guess an author “from Hades” might be one who doesn’t appreciate the hard work of an agent, or is difficult to communicate with,  and is not open to accepting editorial feedback.

 What do you read for pleasure? Name three of your all time favorite books or authors. 

I love historical fiction and non-fiction.  I am currently reading Alison Weir’s new fiction The Life of Elizabeth I. And also love Diane Haeger, Tracy Chevalier, David Starkey, Margaret George, Sharon Kay Penman  All  time favorite book is a tough one….I do love Diana Gabaldon’s books and other women’s fiction by Ann Patchett and Louise Erdrich to name a few!  My tastes are a bit eclectic!

Tell us about a few titles you have coming out you are excited about.

 See below!!!!

How does one submit to you and do you accept equeries? (for newbies obviously!!) 

As a general rule we don’t accept e-queries, but prefer that authors send the first 50 pages or so of their manuscript directly to our office along with a query letter and an SASE.  Check our web site for submission guidelines, and a bio of each of us so that you can direct your submission to the agent best suited for your work.  www.dijkstraagency.com

And our new question section- an absolute take off of inside the actors studio-adapted for books (how's that for a switch)

INSIDE THE Agents STUDIO

Tell us your favorite movie – Tough question! Gone With the Wind, Out of Africa,…????

Tell us your favorite protagonist-hero or heroine, your choice.

What is your favorite word or phrase?  We LOVE this book and would like to make an offer!

least favorite word or phrase?  “I am going to pass on this…”

If you werent an agent, you would be an editor or publisher!  (Definitely something in the book business…).

Also...agents talk of voice. What kind of voice hooks your attention? One that makes you laugh, cry--in your own words. 

A voice that feels “real” to me, but not overdone.  A voice that is not overly dramatic, but still imparts the drama of the moment.  

IT SOUNDS LIKE CRAZY

Shana Mahaffey                                                                                            

September 2009                                 

New American Library                                                                                                             “Author Shana Mahaffey emerges as a talent with a voice all her own in her remarkable debut novel.  Holly is an Emmy-winning voiceover actress who walks around with voices in her head…and they're not following the script! It's an inventive, eccentric and ultimately healing tale of what happens when we keep secrets too close.” – Kemble scott, author of the bestselling novel SoMa

     It’s Holly Miller’s thirtieth birthday, and her older sister Sarah has flown across the country to encourage her to have more of a life – meaning more than just a barely-there boyfriend and two cats. The question is, can she?  Holly has a secret she’s kept from the rest of the world for decades, one that makes having a life nearly impossible: she has a committee of five people living inside her head. The one called Ruffles is so large her bulk makes Holly’s head tilt permanently to the left. Another, Betty Jane, is a mean modern-day Scarlett O’Hara. And each of them occasionally takes control of Holly. When Holly is offered the chance to become a voiceover artist for an animated television show, her sister warns her against it – the job would require ceding complete control to the voices in her head.  As Holly reaches the pinnacle of success in her new career and then crashes to the depths of humiliation, she slowly and painfully discovers that the committee is not her deepest secret after all.  Debut novelist Shana Mahaffey’s It Sounds Like Crazy is a mesmerizing story of one unique woman’s funny and heartbreaking journey to find understanding and peace of mind.

STONES OF FIRE

Chloe Palov                                                                                                      

December 2009

Berkley                                                                                                                         

     On a quiet December afternoon, photographer Edie Miller’s placid existence is shattered when she witnesses a brutal murder and the theft of an ancient Hebrew relic, the Stones of Fire. With the Washington, D.C. Police complicit in the crime, Edie has nowhere to turn and is fast running out of places to hide. In a desperate gamble, she contacts Caedmon Aisquith, an acquaintance of the murder victim. An Oxford-trained historian in ancient civilizations and a former MI-5 intelligence officer, at first Caedmon doesn’t know what to make of Edie’s improbable tale – until he is marked for execution himself. Together Edie and Caedmon find themselves running from both the killers and the law.  From Washington to Oxford University, to the medieval glories of Canterbury Cathedral and finally to the island of Malta, Edie and Caedmon must solve a series of puzzles embedded in verse, stained glass, and cyberspace as they attempt to stop a global conflagration. Chloe Palov’s debut novel Stones of Fire is a fast-paced, erudite, and sexy thriller featuring an engaging, complex woman on the chase of a lifetime. Meticulously researched and full of ancient Egyptian, Hebrew and Christian mysticism and esoterica, it’s a smart, suspenseful blend of Dan Brown and Sandra Brown. The sequel, The Heretic’s Tale will be published by Berkley in 2010.

HAUNTING JORDAN

PJ Alderman

Fall 2009

Bantam

Critics rave about Alderman’s 2007 RITA finalist for Best First Book, A Killing Tide:

“Alderman’s debut novel is a quick-paced, heart-thumping tale…with an intricate plot, a complicated love story, and strong characters, this book possesses the winning formula…”—Romantic Times

After reading in the LA Times that her husband has been bedding his celebrity patients, then enduring the scrutiny of the police as the prime suspect in his sensational murder, Jordan Marsh escapes to a tranquil Pacific Northwest backwater, moving into a run down but oh so charming Victorian, which comes complete with its own, lovable mutt. But her plans for a rest and remodel therapy will be disrupted by a handsome tavern owner and a pair of meddling ghosts who ask her to solve a century-old murder—a gruesome crime that just happened to occur in her new master bedroom. In Haunting Jordan, the first book of the Port Chatham Mystery Series, P.J. Alderman weaves 19^th century intrigue with present-day suspense in a fascinating tale that is sure to have fans coming back for more.

* ROMANCE *

WHISPER OF WARNING     

Laura Griffin

April 2009

Pocket Books

Next in the series by Laura Griffin, WHISPER OF WARNING delivers another gripping suspense.  Courtney Glass has been in trouble all her life, but nothing tops being an up-close witness to a brutal murder – until she’s accused of the crime. Now she has two choices: run or trust the brooding, sexy detective who has made it clear that she’s his prime suspect.

HER LADYSHIP’S COMPANION

Evangeline Collins                                                                                                       

May 2009

Berkley

In the Scottish countryside of Selkirk, Lady Isabella Stirling resides at Bowhill Park, serving penance for a sin that nearly ruined her family. For five years she has been condemned to a loveless marriage and confined to the estate where she does little more than tend her rose garden. With her husband absent for months at a time and few visitors, Bella lives a lonely existence, denying the passions that burn within her very soul—passions that need release.

Despite her need, Bella would never think of paying for a man’s attention and affection—which is why her cousin goes to one of London’s best known brothels to make the arrangement on her behalf. Now, Mr. Gideon Rosedale, in the guise of a distant relative, is Bella’s guest. Indulging in what she intends to be merely a harmless flirtation, Bella finds herself overcome by Gideon’s intoxicating presence. And when she at last permits him to satisfy her every desire, knowing his purpose and profession, she realizes that she has fallen in love with him…

Knight’s Desire

Margaret Mallory

July 2009

Grand Central Publishing

Catherine risks her life to spy on her traitorous and abusive husband for Prince Harry, her childhood friend.  When armed men arrive at her castle gates the day her husband is captured and killed, she learns how the King intends to reward her loyalty.  He has declared her lands forfeit and will imprison her for her husband’s treachery—unless she agrees to marry the man he has chosen to hold her strategic castle on the Welsh border.  William FitzAlan arrives at Ross Castle, his surcoat still bloody from battle, to claim the traitor’s lands.  But there is one last price he must pay for them:  he must marry the traitor’s widow.  He cannot help desiring the lovely Catherine, but can he ever trust her?  What kind of woman could share a man’s bed for years and yet betray him to his enemies?    Set against the historical backdrop of the last great Welsh rebellion and Henry IV’s struggle to hold onto the crown he usurped (1400 – 1405), The Prince’s Spy is a novel of romance and adventure filled with wily royals, charismatic rebels and unlikely spies.

Knight’s Pleasure

Margaret Mallory

December 2009

Grand Central Publishing

Isobel’s childhood comes to an abrupt end when the father she adores arranges her marriage to a loathsome old man, in a bid to rescue the family's failing fortunes.   Eight long years later, her husband is dead and his lands are stolen out from under her. Refusing to marry the traitor who stole her inheritance, she takes a chance and agrees to make a political marriage at the request of the young King Henry.  Isobel travels to war-torn Normandy to wed a French nobleman, in a move the King hopes will strengthen the bonds between England and his newly re-conquered lands.  As she waits for her intended to arrive to claim her, she finds herself drawn to the dashing Stephen Carleton, a reputed ladies' man who charms all he meets, but harbors his own dark secrets.   The arrival of the dark and mysterious man Isobel will marry sends her world down a dangerous path she never could have imagined.   She soon learns that neither of these men, the one she loves, nor the one she comes to fear, are what they seem.

*Young Adult*

ALTERNATIVE ED.

LouAnne Johnson                                                                                            

September 2009

Knopf                                                                                                                            

"The poignancy of her stories sneaks up on you and grabs hold of your heart." – Booklist
"Remarkable...Johnson proves that unorthodox methods can turn a problem kid into an 'A' student." – Vogue on DANGEROUS MINDS by LouAnne Johnson

   In Alternative Ed., LouAnne Johnson, author of the international bestseller Dangerous Minds, tells the coming-of-age story of Eddie Corazon, a 16-year-old juvenile delinquent and “closet reader,” who attends an alternative high school in Rosablanca, New Mexico. A former straight-A student, Eddie (like many modern teens) walks the thin line between tragedy and glory as he searches for his place in today’s confusing world. Eddie is already leaning towards tragedy when he enrolls in a ballroom dance class and meets college-bound beauty Lupe Garcia and is “struck down by love.” Desperate to impress Lupe, Eddie takes off his bandana, tucks in his shirt, shaves his three chin hairs, and starts calling himself Eduardo.  When Eddie makes a serious mistake and risks losing everything, he finally understands that his life is, indeed, up to him to navigate. In Eddie’s words, “I finally got it and the light inside my brain turned on so bright I could just see my old loser thoughts sitting in there with a dumb expression on their face.” The film version of Alternative Ed. will premiere at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival in January 2009.

SISTER WIFE

Michele Greene

Simon Pulse

Spring 2010

Alva Jane Merrill’s world is turned on end after she is discovered giving her childhood sweetheart an innocent, chaste kiss.  The full wrath of the Mormon fundamentalist community of Pineridge is brought down on her for daring to defy the rules.  As the daughter of one of the prominent polygamist families in Pineridge, Alva is initially content with the demanding routine of domestic duties, religious ceremonies and strict rules of dress and behavior that define her life. It is the only world she has ever known. She has no idea how girls her age live on the “outside.”  But now, with the stark reality of her punishment facing her, marriage to Wade Barton, the violent, fifty-year old brother of the prophet, Alva knows she must escape.   Sister Wife is part thriller and part coming of age story about a young woman who faces a terrifying future and must define a new identity for herself leaving everything she has known and trusted in order to survive. Alva’s journey from a young girl indoctrinated in the FLDS belief system to an independent, fearless survivor is one fraught with anxiety, dangerous missteps and terrifying consequences.

Non-Fiction

When I Married My Mother: A Daughter’s Search for What Really Matters—and How She Found It Caring for Mama Jo Jo Maeder

Da Capo Press

May 2009

Jo Maeder gave up her glamorous, youth-obsessed, ambitious, single life as a New York City DJ and did the unthinkable: moved to the Bible Belt to care for her frail, estranged mother in the throes of angry, senile dementia. “Magical” is hardly a word you would think of to describe this ordeal. Maeder’s roller-coaster ride with “Mama Jo,” her bizarre doll collection, and a few drag queens, was just that. In the process she fell madly in love with her mother, her born-again brother, the South – and when her mother passed, she met a great guy she traveled the world with.