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Tracy C. Gold

AUTHOR, EDITOR, TEACHER

Live Copyediting Webinar Video + Transcript

Ever wanted to see inside the mind of a professional copyeditor as they improve a piece of writing? Check out the webinar I did last week with my friend and fellow copyeditor Julie Artz! Julie and I walked through viewer-submitted excerpts and explained our copyediting process.

Reedsy, a database of freelance publishing professionals, hosted the webinar, and over 500 people tuned in live.

You can access a written recap of the webinar on Reedsy’s site.

Want to book an edit with me? Simply contact me at tracycgold@gmail.com.

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2016 Pitch Wars Potential Mentee Bio

Hey, Pitch Warriors! Some of you know me from last year, when I was mentored by the amazing Rachel Lynn Solomon. I’m still unagented, and I have a new manuscript, so I’m back, with a vengeance. Not really about that last part, except my book’s title is VERA WITH A VENGEANCE, and I love making punny (or not-so-punny) jokes.

For real, I loved partipating in Pitch Wars last year. I had a great experience working with Rachel and found a lovely community in a group of my fellow mentees in Facebook (I’m still on there every day!). It’s a little weird to be back this year, and I wasn’t sure that I was going to do it, at first. Then the mentor wish lists came out and I swooned about all of the amazing mentors. Still unsure, I did what I always do, when I have a writing quandary: I posted about it in the 2015 Pitch Wars Mentee Facebook Group, and asked Rachel. They encouraged me to enter again, so here I am!

 

THE BOOK

Vera with a Vengeance

Here’s the deal about this year’s book, a 78,000 word young adult contemporary novel: 

VERONICA MARS meets Courtney Summers when a seventeen-year-old girl starts a business to sell revenge. 

Vera Davis grew up overshadowed by her basketball-superstar brother. When a car accident paralyzes him and kills her parents, she’s suddenly in charge of his medical bills, the mortgage, and her own anger and helplessness. Vera’s always been good at getting back at people who hurt her, from ex-boyfriends to jerk bosses to cheating classmates. But she can’t exactly get revenge on the curve in the road where her father lost control of the car.

Meager insurance payouts leave Vera desperate for money, so she starts a business to help other people get revenge. Word spreads, and she’s soon busy wreaking havoc on cheats, liars, and thieves of all stripes. The only snag is that Vera’s mega crush thinks her style of vengeance is morally wrong. He’s her brother’s best friend and totally off-limits, so she doesn’t let him stop her. Even if he might be right that fighting nude picture with nude picture makes the whole world naked on the internet. 

 In the course of investigating a case for a client, Vera finds new evidence about her family’s accident. Turns out there is someone for Vera to blame, but the perpetrator had her own reason to seek revenge. Now that Vera can finally get vengeance, she must decide whether she still wants it. 

[Mad thanks to Alana Saltz. I met her when we both entered Pitch Wars last year. I think we emailed about that pitch eleven-and-a-half million times? Also, the picture of the basketball players in my collage? That’s Jon Scheyer and Gerald Henderson, who inspired the male characters in VERA. I had huge crushes on them when I was an undergrad at Duke!]

THE PROCESS

Of all things, I came up with the idea for VERA after I asked a guy to stop smoking (hate it!) at the dog park. He wasn’t so happy about my request, and blew smoke in my face. In real life, I left the dog park. In my imagination, I fantasized about how I could get back at him. Then, I realized that he was probably having a crappy day, and really needed that cigarette. If I got revenge on him, I would be a jerk, too. Vera’s business, and its potential for moral complications, came into my mind as I walked my dog home.

I had to wait a long time to start writing VERA—extensive revisions for Pitch Wars last year came during my final year of grad school. I taught college classes for the first time, and wrote, designed, and self-published a collection of short stories for my MFA thesis. As soon as that book was at the printer and out of my hands, I started writing VERA. I wish I had started earlier—it’s true what everyone says, that writing a new book is the best therapy for the stress and emotional roller coaster that comes with querying. Writing VERA was better than chocolate therapy, retail therapy, and therapy therapy. Okay, maybe I lied about the chocolate.

I only finished VERA this month, so it is still an early draft. Right now, I’d call it draft 1.5, since I already cut two characters, and fixed some obvious editing and consistency problems. My critique partners have read several chunks of it, and I just got some AMAZING feedback on the full from a sensitivity beta reader. By the time the submission window rolls around, I’ll be on a solid draft 2. While I’m nervous about submitting such an early draft, I’m excited to have energy and relatively fresh eyes to revise during Pitch Wars, if I am chosen.

VERA is my third novel. The second was my Pitch Wars book from last year, which is still searching for a home with an agent and/or publisher. The first will forever be in a drawer (or maybe, one day, completely rewritten). I’ve learned a lot about writing from my experiences drafting those novels, in my M.F.A. program, and working with Rachel and other critique partners. I hope that learning shows through in VERA and I’m looking for help making it my strongest book yet.

WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR IN A MENTOR/MENTEE RELATIONSHIP

I hit the jackpot last year with Rachel, who has become a trusted critique partner and friend. I would love to be so lucky again. VERA is more twisty and turny than anything I have written before, so I would love to work with a mentor who is awesome at figuring out when to reveal which information for maximum suspense. VERA also deals with a lot of very sensitive issues: disability, the morality of revenge, sexual assault, race, religion. The number of ways I can offend readers is scary. I have sought/am still seeking sensitivity readers, but I would love a mentor to help me check my privilege and write about those issues with the sensitivity and complexity they deserve.

I haven’t spent as much time as I like polishing VERA yet, because I don’t want to spend hours agonizing over a sentence when I might delete the whole scene. I’d love a mentor who understands that and points out patterns of weaknesses that I can work on when it’s time for me to obsess about every word. Don’t worry—I LOVE obsessing about every word. But sometimes I waste time by doing that too early!

ABOUT ME

I wrote a lot about my revision style (and my life) in my mentee bio last year, and that’s all still true! Except lots of wonderful things have happened since then. I’m engaged to my then-boyfriend (for some reason he stuck around despite being completely neglected during Pitch Wars), and I have my Masters of Fine Arts degree (though still no full-time teaching job). I’m loving teaching writing at the University of Baltimore, freelance editing, and dreaming up writing classes for my business, Sounding Sea Writers’ Workshop. I also get to read amazing books and help authors with marketing in my internship with literary agent Carrie Pestritto, of Prospect Agency.

I’d love to chat books, feminism, wedding planning (so! much! work!), self-publishing (also so! much! work!). Hit me up on Twitter, @tracycgold, and to my fellow potential mentees, good luck!

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News: Interning for Literary Agent Carrie Pestritto

For a while, I’ve been hoping to intern with a literary agent to learn what the publishing industry looks like from an agent’s perspective. I linked up with Carrie Pestritto at Prospect Agency through meeting her wonderful colleague, Linda Camacho, at my regional SCBWI conference. Carrie needed help, I had just graduated from my Master of Fine Arts program at UB, and it was a great match!

So far, I’ve been reading manuscripts, helping authors with marketing, and helping with submissions. I’m excited to learn more about what makes a great book, as well as how books go from drafts, to publishers, to readers.

Here’s Carrie’s post about the internship.

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Recent Publications: Opinion on Public Housing Corruption, Two Stories, and Craft Article

I have been busy this fall with Pitch Wars, teaching college composition, and working on my MFA thesis. Somewhere in there, a few of my pieces have been published, and I’m tardy about posting them here. Without further ado, here they are, in reverse chronological order!

“Sextortion as Institutionalized Oppression”: My rant in What Weekly about the disturbing allegations that two Baltimore Public Housing maintenance men forced women into sexual acts in order to receive basic maintenance, and how conditions in Public Housing projects tie into other problems in Baltimore.

“Accident” published in THE FEMALE COMPLAINT: The story that inspired my Pitch Wars novel is now available in a feminist anthology from Shade Mountain Press.

“Parker” published in The Stoneslide Corrective: Honorable mention in The Stoneslide Story Contest, “Parker” is about a woman who must confront her grief for her late father in order to handle an emergency on her horse farm.

“43 Words and Phrases to Search for While Polishing Your Novel” published in Adventures in YA Publishing: This craft article covers words to kill in order to make your prose sing.

 

That’s it, for now! I hope you enjoy any of the works you choose to dive into!

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Writing Classes in Baltimore: Sounding Sea Writers’ Workshop Launches

Sounding Sea Writers' WorkshopIf you want to become a better writer, check out Sounding Sea Writers’ Workshop’s first classes. I started Sounding Sea with three classmates from The University of Baltimore back in January, and we have been working hard to nail down the details and bring these classes to reality.

Here are the first four classes we are offering. I am so excited about these professors! If you can’t make these dates, or don’t live in Baltimore, Sounding Sea also provides personal writing tutors. Email tutoring@soundingsea.com to inquire.

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A Big Move, and What’s Next for Me

Yesterday was my last day of working full time for Right Source Marketing. No, I don’t have another job lined up.

And I’m not looking for one.

Instead, I’m taking action on every “live each day like it’s your last” cliché. I’m pursuing my dream of writing, editing, and teaching fiction and poetry.

For the foreseeable future, I’ll be:

  • Writing an adventure novel, first draft to be completed by Labor Day.
  • Contracting as a marketer, writer, and editor.
  • Updating this blog with the same quality of marketing and writing advice you saw from me on Marketing Trenches, with some personal stories and creative tips thrown in.
  • Speaking about social media networking and marketing, from a corporate and personal standpoint.
  • Volunteering for a few non-profits and reviving my commitment to community service.
  • Designing a lifestyle that focuses on working smart, not working hard.
  • Reading books that enrich and amaze me.
  • Marching to my own beat, running, biking, riding horses, and traveling the world.

Deciding to take this leap was both terrifying and exciting. Right Source does great work, I learned a ton as an employee there, and I will be sad to lose the day-to-day support of a wonderful team. Yet, at least for now, this is the right choice. I know that a traditional career in the business world is not for me.

Have a book to recommend? A marketing, writing, or editing project you need a creative, strategic contractor for? Interested in social media training for your employees? Simply want to get in touch? Shoot me a note at tracyc@tracycgold.com, and don’t be surprised if I suggest we go for a hike or bike ride instead of a coffee!

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