Mark Fenger (Drachen on QT) has recently signed with agent Regina Brooks of Serendipity Literary Agency. Mark, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Congratulations and good luck.



QueryTracker: QT: Can you tell us a little bit about the book for which you’ve found representation? What inspired you to write it?

Mark Fenger: Aetherstorm is a YA steampunk adventure, set in a world where natural humans live in flying cities and the offshoot branches of humanity have taken over most of the Earth.

The initial inspiration came from a bottle of nasal spray. In Canada, all labels are in English and French, the English side read 'Full Stream', but the French side read, 'Jet Fort'. Somehow in my mind Jet Fort became flying city and I gradually developed an obsession with writing a story about flying cities. I hadn't read much steampunk at the time, but I was well aware of the genre and it seemed to be a perfect fit.

QT: How long have you been writing?

MF: I started to take writing seriously about two years ago. I wrote a middle-grade contemporary fantasy which bombed with agents at first, but after many revisions netted me a fair number of requests, but no offers.

QT: How long have you been working on this book?

MF: I started to conceptualise Aetherstorm a little over a year ago, but didn't begin writing until December 2010.

QT: Was there ever a time you felt like giving up, and what helped you to stay on course?

MF: No, there was never a time when I actually wanted to give it up. Many times I questioned my own work and I thought everything I'd written was terrible, but that just seems to be a part of the process for me. I suspect I'll still have moments where I hate my own work, no matter what level of success I achieve. Everyone says you have to love your work to succeed, but I think you have to hate it at times too, otherwise you're not open to making necessary changes.

QT: Is this your first book?

MF: Second.

QT: Do you have any formal writing training?

MF: I took a creative writing course in college many years ago, and I took a two-week summer course with Nancy Lee (author of the short-story collection 'Dead Girls') last summer.

QT: Do you follow a writing "routine" or schedule?

MF: Yes, as soon as everything is cleared up and I have the time I sit down and write at least one page to get things started. Coffee, everything else must wait. I also obsessively track my daily output and try not to fall below a set number without a very good excuse. If my output is too low (even with excuses) I make it up in the next day's writing. I'm not allowed to quit writing for the day until it's done.

QT: How many times did you re-write/edit your book?

MF: Five or six edits, only two of them 'full' edits, for the others I was looking at specific aspects. The lead character's emotional journey is a good example, where I went from scene to scene thinking, "How does he feel about that? Does it come through on the page?" During that edit Konrad went from fairly normal and balanced by the end of the book to suffering badly from PTSD with a moderate case of alcoholism. Much darker, but I figured considering what he'd been through, he'd have to be made of stone to come out completely fine.

QT: Did you have beta readers for your book?

MF: Two beta readers, both of whom helped immensely.

QT: Did you outline your book, or do you write from the hip?

MF: Outline, with about 1 page of notes per 10,000 words.

QT: How long have you been querying for this book? Other books?

MF: About a year and a half.

QT: What advice would you give other writers seeking agents?

MF: When you think your manuscript is ready, it's probably not. Find a good beta reader or two, take the extra two or three months and make it the best it can be before sending it out. One or two edits is probably not enough. There was a comment I got a lot of in my earlier work and I've seen other authors complain about not understanding what it means, "I did not connect with the main character." Many writers blow this comment off, but it DOES mean something, it means you need to put more of what's happening in your MC's head on the page. For me I think that was the biggest improvement in my writing that brought me from rejection-city to offerville.

QT: Would you be willing to share your query with us?

MF:

A steam-powered Earth, where civilised men live in the skies and the land is a battleground, is facing annihilation. The only one who can save it is a disaffected young man who would rather watch it all burn.

The dystopian society aboard the flying city of Himmelberg has robbed eighteen-year-old Konrad Adler of his parents, his home, even his right to exist as a member of society. All he wants now is to find a place where he can live in peace, but that will be a long road for Konrad. Lord Dragomir, who conducts gruesome experiments on people, has a special interest in acquiring Konrad as his next subject.

Desperate to avoid landing on the Lord's operating table, Konrad stows away on a salvage gyrocopter. When the gyro crashes in the wilderness, Konrad finds himself hunted by both Dragomir and the savage synari whose martial prowess forced normal humans into the skies. As peace eludes Konrad, he finds himself at a crossroads--turn and fight Dragomir or simply save himself.

The journey will take Konrad across the Atlantic, battling sky-pirates alongside the alluring, yet aloof Zylphia, to the trenches of battle in the Carribean and back again.

Aetherstorm is a young-adult steampunk adventure at 80,000 words.

I am an army veteran and a member of the SCBWI. Please visit my blog at www.brassbolts.blogspot.com if you're interested in learning more. Thank you for your consideration.