14
community
march16
2017
Where Are They Now? Tricia Levenseller
after I started working on that fi rst book
I discovered for the fi rst time that I really
enjoyed writing.”
Levenseller’s fi rst published
book, The Daughter of the Pirate King,
was just released by Macmillan Publish-
ing through their Feiwel and Friends
children’s division on February 28. The
historical fi ction novel is for teens, (“...
and adults who are still in denial,” says
Levenseller on her website) features a
17 year old female pirate captain, Alosa,
who gets herself kidnapped by enemy
pirates on purpose, so she can steal a
treasure map.
“I saw the Pirates of the Carib-
bean movies and just loved them, and
when I would go to a book store I would
look at the Young Adult shelves for sto-
ries about pirates and I was so sad to
fi nd that there really weren’t any,” says
Levenseller about her inspiration. “And,
of the few I found, none of them were
about female pirates. And I thought that
I wanted to see girls represented.”
Levenseller’s book can be found
at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and other
book stores, including many indepen-
dent book stores. It has received great
reviews and was selected for the Ameri-
can Booksellers Association’s (ABA)
Indies Introduce Winter/Spring 2017, a
list of the top ten books for children and
teens. “It was really an honor and amaz-
ing to be nominated for that,” she says.
Because she made that list she was invit-
ed to appear at the ABA book conference
in Minnesota this winter, where she had
the opportunity to meet other authors,
interact with book sellers, sign books
for fans, and sit on several panels to dis-
cuss her book and her writing process.
“It was a really great opportunity for me,
and since my publisher sent me and paid
for everything, it was really amazing and
fun!”
A 2009 graduate of VHS, Lev-
enseller played volleyball and basket-
ball, played clarinet in the band, and was
a member of the National Honor Soci-
ety. Levenseller says she never fi nished
the fi rst novel she started for her Senior
Project, even though she ended up com-
mitting about 60 hours to writing it, “...
because I was having so much fun with
it and I didn’t want to stop!” says Lev-
enseller.
“My fi rst love has always been
fantasy books, but someone gave me
some writing advice, to write what you
know, so I started writing about a girl in
high school trying to fi gure things out,
because that’s what I knew. I didn’t
know about dragons or magic or any-
thing else. If I was to give it a genre,
it would be Young Adult Contemporary
Romance. But eventually I got bored
with that Senior Project and I never did
fi nish it. But the Senior Project was
what got me started and what made me
realize that I loved writing. So, Yay for
the Senior Project!”
After graduation Levenseller
headed off to Brigham Young University
in Utah, where she graduated in 2013
with a degree in English Language and
a minor in Editing.
“Studying English Language
is different than studying English Lit-
erature,” says Levenseller. “It is more
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continued from front page
focused on sentence structure, grammar,
and puncuation.”
Even so, her interest in writing
novels remained. “After I went to col-
lege I wrote my very fi rst fantasy book
from start to fi nish during the summer
following my freshman year,” says Lev-
enseller.
The process of writing a novel
and getting it published has been a learn-
ing process for Levenseller, full of ups
and downs, and many stops and starts
that required patience and resilience.
After completing that draft of
her fi rst book, which was an urban fan-
tasy, Levenseller sent it out to friends
and family for feedback and then spent
the fi rst semester of her sophomore year
getting up one hour before her classes
and working on editing and revising the
story. She also began researching how
to get her book published. “All signs
pointed to getting an agent,” says Lev-
enseller.
Levenseller began sending out
one page “query letters” to prospective
agents, noting that the only way to get
a book traditionally published by one of
the big fi ve publishing houses is to go
through an agent, who acts as a middle
man in the process. “You can’t submit a
manuscript to the publisher directly, you
have to have an agent submit your work
on your behalf,” says Levenseller. “The
query letter is a way to explain what
your book is about and pique an agent’s
interest and if anyone is interested they
will request a copy of your manuscript
to read.”
Levenseller says that most peo-
ple don’t realize that an agent does not
get paid until they sell your manuscript,
so they don’t agree to represent you or
your work unless they think they can sell
it.
Almost immediately, Lev-
enseller received a request for her manu-
script and two weeks later she received a
phone call, saying the agent would love
to represent her. So her fi rst book was
sent out to editors at the various publish-
ing houses, which was very exciting.
“And then a year went by and
nobody wanted to buy the book,” says
Levenseller. “And I was very distraught
of course, and sad, because I had put so
much work into this and nobody wanted
it. So I called my agent and said, ‘OK,
that didn’t work out, is it OK if I write
you another book?’ And he said yes.”
Levenseller’s next attempt was
a historical fantasy, which she learned
she really enjoyed writing, and that was
drafted, edited and revised and sent off
to the publishing houses. Again, after a
year, no one wanted to buy her second
story.
“But I was not to be deterred,
because I knew I wanted to write, so I
asked the agent if I could write him a
third book, and he said yes,” says Lev-
enseller.
Levenseller’s agent rejected her
third book, so she wrote a fourth book,
which involved pirates and her agent
told her he didn’t like pirates. “At this
point I had to break up with my agent,”
says Levenseller with a laugh, “and start
all over again and fi nd a new agent.”
Levenseller found a new agent
and eight months later she sold Daugh-
ter of the Pirate King to Macmillan. “It
took me four books, two agents, and a
ton of rejections, but I fi nally made it,”
she says.
Levenseller explained that once
the book sold, getting it released and on
the shelves is still a long process. She
says her book sold in July of 2015 and
was fi nally released over 18 months lat-
er.
Macmillan did give Levenseller
a contract for two books, and says she
is currently working on edits to a sequel
about her pirate character Alosa, which
continued on page 17
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