Introducing Scott Reintgen!
[box type="note"]Hello, Pub(lishing) Crawl readers! Today, I am pleased to announce that we have added a new contributor to our ranks: Scott Reintgen! We are all very excited to have him on the team. Please give him a warm welcome![/box]
Scott Reintgen is the author of the Nyxia Triad series. As a former teacher, he always writes with his students in mind. Every story is a chance for those students to see themselves as heroes on the pages of a book. His focus is on writing young adult and middle grade literature. You can follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and on Twitter at @Scott_Thought.
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Welcome to PubCrawl, Scott! We are thrilled to have you join us. Can you tell us a little bit more about yourself: what do you write? What do you like to read most?
It is such an honor to join the crew. PubCrawl saved me a lot of headaches at the start of my career and I can’t wait to add my voice to one of our industry’s best resources. I am a speculative fiction author through and through. I’ve tried writing normal things and somehow a dragon always shows up. I write science fiction and fantasy for all ages, but my first series was for young adult and the next one is middle grade. I’ll read anything. My current obsession is N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth series which continues to change the game for me.
Many of our readers and podcast listeners are writers hoping to break into publishing. Can you share a bit about your publishing journey with us?
I am a slush pile success story. My first two books earned me about 120 rejections across three years. My third story—Nyxia—snagged me eight offers of representation from agents. I joined forces with Kristin Nelson and we sold the series to Random House. Also, as a testament to how fickle our industry can be, the second “rejected” book I mentioned above sold to the same editor about 6 months later. Never give up!
Any words of encouragement or advice for people who are embarking on their own publishing paths?
The best piece of advice I’ve received is to just keep writing and working hard. I have watched myself get better with each logged hour, every new chapter. Oftentimes, that’s the only thing in our control, and so I spend most of my time focused on what I can see in the headlights, to quote Doctorow.
Your debut, NYXIA, came out last year. What has been the most exciting part about the whole debut process? Anything fun or unexpected about the experience you'd like to share?
Interaction with young readers has been far and away the best part of this experience. The sixth graders who try to stump me with hard questions. High schoolers who ship certain characters. It’s such an honor to know my book is a part of the canon they grew up reading.
You're about to go on a pub crawl, and you need a posse to come with! Which fictional characters would you invite and why?
I’m going to cheat here and invite the entire group of hobbits from The Lord of the Rings in the hopes that they’ll take me to The Green Dragon. Wouldn’t hate it if Gandalf made an appearance.
Your pub crawl turns into a pub BRAWL. What is your fictional weapon of choice?
I am too much of a nerd to skip out on the chance to wield a lightsaber. Forest green, please.
A forest green lightsaber it is! Congratulations and welcome to the team, Scott!