{BOOK TRAILER RELEASE}: The Curse of Iswardel

We have something exciting today! Author Richard Schall has a sparkly, super awesome book trailer for his upcoming book, THE CURSE OF ISWARDEL! But before we show you, owner, editor & publisher, Carrie White-Parrish has a few things to say about this unique book....


I started working with Richard on his MG high-fantasy project about a year and a half ago. The funny thing is, when we first started working together, it was labeled a YA and had a fantastic world and a set of characters that was going to knock everyone’s socks off—but wasn’t really finished.

In fact, the reason we started working together was because Richard told me that the story felt incomplete. He wanted to flesh it out. Make it big. Build it to its full potential.

Well. It wasn’t long before we started making some big changes. As editor, I was asking ‘why is this happening? Who is this person? What if they did this instead?’ The names of the characters changed. The pacing got more intense. The world began to get even bigger, and the characters started to flesh themselves out…

And before we knew it, we started having conversations that went a lot like this: “The manuscript is at 500 pages. Is that too long?” “The word count is over 100,000—do you think anyone will want to read something that big?” “Do we need to tighten this up? How can we make it more manageable.”

Now, as anyone who knows GH books realizes, I’m not an editor that believes in the idea of page or word counts. I like to tell people that a story should be as long as it should be—and if that’s longer than the average book, we’ll figure out how to deal with it. No short cuts here. No cutting out characters or plot lines if we need them. But when the manuscript starts reaching toward 1000 pages—in one book—it becomes obvious that something needs to be done.

In this case, we’ve come up with something that I think is really quite brilliant. We have a story that is one continuous plot line, and can’t REALLY be broken into different books. Believe me, we thought about it. We really did. But it just wasn’t going to work. And we certainly can’t publish it in one piece, b/c though it might be a really great door stop, a 1,000-page MG high fantasy really isn’t going to see that much action. So what are we doing instead? Simple: we’re publishing it in episodes. We’re breaking the manuscript up into bite-sized pieces, each with a big part of the full adventure, and publishing the pieces on their own. That means this one book is going to become three … or four … or possibly NINE separate pieces, each published within three months of the last, until we get the whole story out there into the world and into the hands of our readers.

At which point we might—MIGHT—publish the entire thing in one piece. But that’s something we’ll have to talk about later.

In the meantime, I hope everyone out there is ready to experience a fast-paced, intense, and incredibly fantastical story about a boy, his sister, and how they’re out to save their nation from the curse of an evil sorcerer—before it’s too late, and their world is torn to pieces. I’m SUPER excited about it, and can’t wait to start publishing our episodes! Until next time--#BreakTheCurse #CurseofIswardel

And now, without further ado.....

New Author Interview: Richard Schall

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, Glass House has some new faces! Today is the third of several upcoming New Author Interviews where you, our lovely readers, get to know our new authors! Up next... Richard Schall!

Tell us a bit about yourself. 

My name is Richard Schall. I’m a special education teacher in Brooklyn New York, and I’m also an award-winning filmmaker. I specialize in short films that are family friendly. I’ve been a part of over twenty different film festivals and have won fifteen awards.
I’m also a fan of all forms of entertainment, from Dr. Suess to Steven King to Steven Spielberg to Quintin Terintino to Lambchop to Emminem. If it entertains I will enjoy it!

Along with being an entertainer, I also manage my sister’s stand-up comedy career. She was named “Top 5 Comics to Watch in NYC” by CBS.com, and together we’ve been producing the show “Ladies Night” at Carolines on Broadway in Times Square.

Personally, I recently lost almost 100lbs, which has been my biggest accomplishment to date. Next up: writing a book! I can’t wait to tackle this new project. I’ve always been a storyteller, so being able to tell a story on the pages of a book is new and very exciting for me.

Tell us a bit about your book. What’s it about? Where did you get the idea to write this? 
This story was originally a simple fairy tale that came from a conversation in my dining room fifteen years ago. It has blossomed into an epic adventure over the past several years.

The book, The Curse of Iswardel, is a middle grade high fantasy. It follows Gem, a thirteen-year-old boy, his sister Pepper, a fisherman named Bran, and the town crier, Josephus Biddlebug, on their quest to lift a curse that has driven their kingdom into ruins. To do this, they have to bring back an ancient tournament that will put the (lost and presumed dead) princess on the throne, where she belongs. There’s an evil sorcerer, some henchmen, a couple of assassins, and a world that hasn’t laughed in nearly twenty years. So it’s a big story, but it all comes down to our characters coming of age and … well, saving the world!

What’s your writing process like? Do you plot out every point or do you prefer to wing it?
For me, the stories come into my head like a movie, and I write them as if I have a multi-million-dollar budget—which would never happen in real life! Most times I know where the story has to go, but then there are some times when the story has a life of its own. And of course once you get to the end you realize that you got there the wrong way about, or the characters had something else in mind, or …

You know really, outlining might be a good idea.

How did you find Glass House Press, and what made you ultimately decide to sign with them?
Originally, I was just looking for a talented editor. I teamed up with Carrie and we really hit it off. I was very excited when she offered me a proposal for editing, and jumped at the opportunity to work with her. Then, over the next year, we decided that we wanted to take it a step further, and she offered me a contract with her house. I’m over the moon to work with such an influential publishing house.

Have you started the editing process yet? If so, what’s it been like for you? If not, are you looking forward to it or are you dreading it? What’s your biggest editing fear?
As a cinematographer I understand how important the editing process is. And it’s not much different then editing for a book. Things change and I understand that sometimes you have to “cut the fat” out of the story. What I’m enjoying during editing with Glass House is that Carrie talks to me like I’m editing a movie, so it goes very smoothly.

It might take a few days, but in the end the story looks great. Biggest fear? Computer dying before I’ve saved or backed up my work. Ha!

What advice do you have for new authors? 
Write. Write. Write. Even if you think it’s garbage, eventually it will turn into gold. But you have to keep at it. If you give up, you’ll never know what might have been.

Unfortunately, rejection plays a large part in an author’s path to publication. Tell us a bit about your journey and how you overcame rejection to get where you are today. 
This story had gone through the wringer of rejection, just like many others. Every six months I would tweak the manuscript and then send it out in hopes that someone would see what I saw. After several years (yep—years!) I was told that I was mislabeling my manuscript. I was pitching it as a YA when in actuality it was an MG—and then BAM! Everything fell into place.

Just like in any field or in life, you must take rejection with a grain of salt and move on. What’s great about this business is that all you need is one “yes” for everything to change.

What other projects do you have planned for the future?
I am currently working on a novella, which is a prequel to The Curse of Iswardel, along with a new middle grade space opera. Also, a film I wrote and directed will be released on iTunes this spring. I’m also excited to be filming a children’s feature that I wrote and will be directing this summer. So when you ask what I have planned for the future … A LOT. But I never like to sit still—I always like to be moving and challenging myself. That means there’s always something going on!

Where can we find you on the internet? 
Website -- www.richardschall.com
Facebook -- https://www.facebook.com/RichardSchallEntertainer
Twitter - @RichieSchall
Periscope - @RichardSchall

Okay, so let’s have a little bit of fun and really let our readers get to know you better with our Favorite Fifteen! Keep your answers short. 
1. Favorite book or series: The Monster at the End of This Book starring LOVABLE, FURRY OLD GROVER
2. Favorite movie: The Goonies
3. Favorite TV show: Red Dwarf, The Walking Dead, Dr. Who
4. Favorite author: Dr. Suess
5. Favorite actor: Robin Williams
6. Favorite actress: Robyn Schall (Check her out!)
7. Favorite color: Green
8. Favorite snack food: Peanut Butter Cups
9. Favorite animal: Monkey
10. Favorite hobby: Rubik's Cube
11. Favorite vacation spot: I live in my favorite vacation spot - NYC!
12. Favorite type of drink: Diet Mountain Dew
13. Favorite meal: PIZZA!
14. Favorite season:  Summer…or Winter…or Spring…oh! I also like Fall!
15. Favorite holiday: Passover – We have an amazing musical Seder!

Big & Exciting Changes at GH

It’s a whole new month, and we have some updates!

Staffing Changes:
SO. First of all, have to do the inevitable apology for being so quiet on the blog for the last month or so. Our social media coordinator (who we still stalk obsessively and love to death) took a break, and our NEW social media coordinator (who we also stalk obsessively and love to death) had Things To Do before she could start here.

I can’t really complain, because … well first off, I love them both to death. Also, I’m ridiculously lucky to have them at all, and complaining would just be super ungrateful.

BUT now that Kara has started as our new Blog Coordinator, she has a terrific lineup of blogs coming down the pipe, so get ready for some action! The first blog, of course, falls to me (and as an editor, I’m CONSTANTLY complaining about the need to –actually– write things. It just seems so unfair.).

That being said. It’s update time. So here’s the happenings for right now.

New Faces and New Books:
We took part in several pitch parties over the last couple of months, which means we have NEW AUTHORS TO ANNOUNCE. Some submissions are still coming in, so this certainly isn’t a complete list (I’m looking at you, Shanna), but here are the newbies for now:

• Shawna Railey, who some of you might have seen us talking to on Twitter. She writes urban sci fi/fantasy. 
• Sonya Craig, who writes space opera/dystopian
• Richie Schall, who writes MG high fantasy 

I have no doubt that there will be a LOT more coming from them as we get to know each other. I’m super excited to welcome these lovelies into the GH family, and hope you’ll watch out for novellas from them in the upcoming StoryTime events.

Pitch Events from a Publisher's Perspective:
We took part in several pitch parties over the last couple of months, which means man-oh-man do I have stories. And not all of them are good. But since pitch parties are becoming de rigueur, and happening more and more often, I think those stories—good and bad—or things I’m going to have to get used to. Because let’s be honest—IS there anything more fun and efficient than authors being able to contact publishers and agents directly through a hashtag event?

I think not.

Just in case you’re thinking about getting involved in a pitch party, though, here are some tips that we learned the hard way. First off, these things are COMPLETELY OVERWHELMING. As an author, you probably only get to pitch a specific number of times an hour, or a specific number of times during the event. As publishers and editors and agents, we can check as often as we want. And man-oh-man does that kill efficiency in the office. The easiest and best thing to do, we found, was to browse the thread once every two hours or so—that way we know we’re seeing what there is to see, and we’re still doing that thing called work. I would say it will work the same for authors—checking obsessively isn’t going to make anyone respond more quickly, and it’s going to kill your work flow!

Next: follow the rules in these things. Most publishers and agents are looking for specific things, and tweeting to them about something that falls outside of their interest list is just like submitting something that doesn’t work for their catalog. It’s going to lead to disappointment. Which isn’t fun for anyone.

DO, though, communicate with people if they’ve liked one of your pitches! One of my favorite things was carrying on conversations with people I’d asked to pitch us, and getting to know them a little bit. And as an acquisitions editor, I can tell you that the people who responded to me personally were the people I looked for in the submissions box.

Do also understand that 140-character elevator pitches can be extremely misleading, though, and that’s no one’s fault. There’s only so much you can put into that small word count! So a lot of the pitches we liked and received turned out to be something very different from what we thought they were. And that happens. It’s not the end of the world. But it’s good for everyone involved to go in with that in mind—a like and request doesn’t mean it’s all going to work out in the end. This is also true on both ends! Half of the pitches I liked never even bothered to respond to me. So a pitch party means getting a shot at a great contract, but it doesn’t necessarily mean anything more than that.

GH Flash Fiction Contest:
Final thing on the List of Things Carrie was Told to Talk About: our flash fiction writing contest. We’re SUPER excited to announce that we’re going to be hosting a number of flash-fiction pieces from our authors in upcoming blogs, and these aren’t just any flash fiction pieces. Our editorial team chooses a number of random (and fancy—one of our first words is palimpsest!) words, and hands them to the chosen author, who is then responsible for writing a 2500-word story using those words. We’re going to host all of our authors in this contest, and at the end of the year hold a vote for who wins. The winner will receive … not a pony. Yes, a pony was suggested, and yes, I’ve refused that as a prize. We haven’t really decided on the prize yet BUT that doesn’t change the fact that this will be a contest. Our first author is Mary Fan, so keep your eyes open for her story at the end of the month, and get ready to vote for your favorite at the end of the year!

I believe that’s all the updates for now, and it better be, because I have SO MUCH EDITING TO TAKE CARE OF. Keep your eyes open for cover reveals of our May StoryTime authors next month, along with interviews of new authors this month and announcements about upcoming A Rebel’s Stone and Flynn Nightsider and the Edge of Evil releases! Until next time, lovelies!