Naseem Jamnia

Query Stats

Sat, 02 Jun 2018 10:36:26 -0700

I thought it would be helpful for people if they saw the stats for the two books I queried! So I hope these encourage people to keep writing and querying. You can also read a more narrative form of my querying journey. There are some brief summaries for context here.

I wrote two ~novels~ (YA fantasies) before I turned 18. I rewrote and revised them for 9 years, but I think the longest they ever were were ~35k. Then, the summer after my senior year, I wrote my first 55k-length novel, called AMANDA, OR FINE LINES AND AMBIGUITIES (yeah, I know). It was a YA contemporary that was deeply problematic! Anyway, I had no idea that agents were a thing, so I just worked on it, submitted it to a contest or two, thought maybe I'd publish it one day.

I didn't write much more than a few nonfiction pieces during college, until I started taking creative writing workshops. I wrote a couple of short stories, then the summer after my third year, I began a new novel. It was called NEVERLAND'S CHILDREN, and I finished it by the end of my fourth year. I didn't query it right away, apparently—I thought I did, but I was wrong! The queries started the next summer, summer of 2014.

I queried this book until the end of 2017, through NUMEROUS revisions. I re-sent revisions to some of the agents who read the full. So here are the stats:

Queried: 61
No response: 23
Initial passes: 26
Initial partials: 3
Partials that turned into fulls: 0
Total fulls: 9
DvPit 1: 7 likes
DvPit 2: 0 likes
DvPit 3: 9 likes
PitMad 1: 2 likes
PitMad 2: 0 likes
PitDark 1: 0 likes
PitDark 2: 6 likes
Total Twitter contest requests: 24
PitchWars '17 Requests: 0
Positive response: 19.67%

Needless to say, I was devastated that NEVERLAND'S CHILDREN wasn't getting picked up. One problem was that...Read More

How I Got My Agent

Sat, 19 May 2018 13:57:14 -0700

Like many writers, I first put pen to page for the purpose of storytelling when I was a kid. My earliest recollection is age nine: We were given AlphaSmarts in class and had an assignment for a short story. I wrote about a girl (possibly princess) named Golden who was rescued (probably from the evil Spencerasaurus) by a prince named James and his magic guitar (who probably put the Spencerasaurus to sleep). This might have been handwritten. I just remember the AlphaSmart because my brother had one.

I still have early drafts of the manuscripts that resulted from this short story; not the first draft, but ones as far back as 2004 or '5. I have two printed out copies with handwritten scribbles in the margins from me, my friends, my dad; I carry those with me from home to home as a reminder of what this series did for me. A ripped manilla folder, with the name of the five supposed books on it; my friend's drawing of weapons; timelines that spanned decades. This was an epic fantasy in the making that involved wars, god-like creatures, betrayal. I was going to be the next Christopher Paolini, published at eighteen, a bestseller at nineteen. Except younger, because a thirteen-year-old with a 35,000-word book was going to be an author.I'm not disparaging my younger self; I think it's important to have these dreams, to want something so badly it's all you can think about. I look back on these moments and see the roots of the person I would become, see the truth in what I denied for so many years. I've always called myself a writer, but I didn't realize that that's what I am, at my core—that the scientist who took over for so long was only delaying the inevitable. I watch my husband read geology books for fun, keep up in his field because he's actually interested in it, and I can't help but laugh. That's something I never did for neuroscience, something I was never driven to do. But reading? And reading constantly and widely? It's in the fabric of who I am.While I...Read More

Selves

Wed, 11 Apr 2018 17:34:31 -0700

Content note for emotional abuse, eating disorder, depression, suicide, self harm, and trauma.

A few weeks ago, one of the writers I follow on Twitter put out a call for participants in a study she's doing. Her PhD thesis work is on anorexia and skin hunger, the phenomenon of craving sensual (but not sexual) touch, from cuddling to hand-holding. I signed up for it, and we set our time to talk for today.

I knew, going into this, that I was going to be talking about my college abuser. Even now, I hesitate to write his name—even though I said it dozens of times during the interview! Even now, I hesitate to write about him at all, even though I published a piece in The Washington Post about him. Even though I've been open about my story.

But to talk about my eating disorder is, necessarily, to talk about him. He was at the root of it, a poisoned well that buried the veins of self-hatred deeper into me. That's not to say that he's to blame, of course. Once, I would have said that I'm to blame for it. Now, I believe that it's not a matter of blame: it just was.I dreamt about him last night. He usually comes to me in dreams on nights where I haven't been thinking about him, or about our past, times when I haven't tried to recount the memories that elude me. I don't know what triggered his slip into my dream last night; perhaps it was in preparation for the interview this morning. When I woke, I could still feel the glare of his gaze burnt into me. Now, I don't remember why.When 10:30 rolled around, I had my headphones in. I was sweeping the floor, a sure way to keep myself busy but also engaged. I need to do things with my hands for long conversations. In classes, I used to play with little round magnets called BuckeyBalls. Doing something physical removes me from my head and into my body.And I needed to be in my body if I was going to talk about it. I needed to remember my cracked lips, the way my skin stretches over my knuckles,...Read More

#PimpMyBio for #PitchWars 2017!

Sun, 30 Jul 2017 10:55:21 -0700

If you've found this post, it is possibly through my Twitter, Facebook, or maybe even Tuesday Telegrams. Regardless, I'm happy you're here!

This is a (very late) post for Pimp My Bio, a way for Pitch Wars contestants to read about others' stuff! I'm so psyched to be participating!! I found out about this because of Rosie's entry. It is SO GOOD!! I can't wait to read her manuscript!!

Anyway. I'm Naseem, and I'm very Persian, very queer, very trans, and very happy to tell you about my manuscript, Neverland's Children. CN here for mental illness (including depression), eating disorders, and abusive relationships.

Neverland's Children is the coming of age story of Leon, who lives in a boarding school called the A.L. Phillips Centre of Excellence. Set in Silsoe, England, in the late 1950s, Leon is surrounded by his foster siblings, the Boardies, all of whom are orphans like him. When a new student, Mikhail, arrives, he suddenly has to question everything he's ever know.

Why? Every Boardie has some kind of mental illness. For Leon, it's the presence of his voices and his (psychological) mutism.

At its heart, Neverland's Children is a sibling narrative. It chronicles not only Leon's relationships with his foster siblings, but his connection to Aoibhell, the oldest Boardie and the closest person Leon has to a mother. He watches Aoibhell struggle through her anorexia, chronicles Mikhail's desperate—and abusive—love for her.

In the second half of the book, Leon awakes...Read More

Fat

Tue, 27 Jun 2017 18:24:04 -0700

CN for fat antagonism/phobia, intentional weight loss, eating disorders. Note that I am NOT the person to talk to about body stuff. I am still sorting through a host of my own. I chose to write about this for a Telegram—rather than an article to put out in the world for pay—because I want to show how one works through oppressive behaviors and thoughts and how we can still be caught in them.

Using the suffix phobia to describe what is really antagonism hides the truth of the matter. When we say people are Islamophobic, we mean that they display aggressive behaviors towards Muslims. When we say someone is transphobic, we mean that they alienate and reject trans individuals.

If I say I'm fatphobic, that would mean, usually, that I find fat individuals disgusting, or believe their worth is tied to their weight, and pile on judgments because of their bodies. But I want to use fatphobia to mean what it actually says: fear of fat.

I am afraid of being fat.

I've been fat my whole life. Many people prefer the term "fat" to "overweight," because fat is a statement, while overweight is a judgment. Someone once made the comparison to saying "short" instead of "undertall." (I'm also on the short side of average in terms of height, and "undertall" makes me giggle.)Like most of us, I have been conditioned to hate and fear the fat on my body. When I was eight, I struck the 98 pound mark, ready to break triple digits. When I was 12, I hit 136. By the time I graduated high school, when I was no longer on the crew time, I was 176. Before my eating disorder, when I was 18, I hit 183. In the first year of my MS program, I went up to 196.

I find it a bitter sort of irony that of all the memories I don't have—the childhood that comes to me in stories, the high school years I see in pictures, the times in college that my mind...Read More

Chat with Juana Garcia

Sat, 24 Jun 2017 13:11:12 -0700

It's been a while since my last writerly chat! I'm so excited to introduce you to Juana Garcia with this next one.

Juana is a freelance writer typically covering social justice topics such as rape trauma and racism. She also writes reviews, fiction, and parenting pieces on occasion. She’s currently working on several books, among them a book of essays and a dystopian novel. When she’s not writing, she’s usually cooking, baking, or reading to her two littles. You can read her stuff on her blog, like her Facebook page, and follow her on Twitter and Instagram. The best way to support her is to donate to her Patreon.

Juana and I met through a Facebook group for writers when I asked if anyone lives in the Reno area. We've hung out a few times, and I'm pleased to call her my friend. I hope you love this interview as much as I did! We talk about trauma, poverty, and motherhood.

Tell me your story. How did you start writing? Why? What makes you write what you do? And what is it that you write?

I think a lot of us starting writing poetry when we were teens. That's a hard period in life—you're becoming cognizant of so many things and also realizing how much or how little autonomy you have.

It sounds like healing is the ultimate goal of your writing, whether it's healing yourself or someone else. Why do you think you gravitate towards writing (and specifically, writing prose) being that outlet instead of, say, painting or music?

Do you feel like growing up in poverty impacts the work you produce today? How?

I know you've told me about that before, and I'm really in awe of you pulling...Read More

Worth

Wed, 12 Apr 2017 14:22:02 -0700

I somehow went through UChicago without reading Adam Smith (or The Republic, for that matter), but I once-upon-a-time read parts of the Marx-Engles Reader. But trying to understand the costs and worth of labor for eighteen-year-old me, fresh in college, with only a single summer job under my belt, was fruitless. Hell, I don't think I really understood the complexity of it until after I was paying all my own bills without any help from my parents. When I got my first paycheck, knowing I had rent, utilities, internet, and cell phone to pay, my jaw dropped at the amount that went out in taxes. In that moment, I understood why there are fiscally conservative people who believes that if you work hard, you should be paid appropriately.

Then I remembered that I'm actually a democratic socialist and accepted my contribution to the rest of the country.

I think about this experience of taking on fiscal responsibility for myself. I thought I'd done so when I entered my master's program, on my measly $11,000/year stipend, but I still had a credit card tied to my name, and my mother wrote me frequent checks. But I didn't really understand the burden of money until my dad cut me off from the family phone line. I'd been on it since I was thirteen and a half, and now I found myself paying for it from my own paycheck. On top of the credit card debt I'd gotten myself into, on top of rent and utilities.

I finally understood, then, two things: one, something Gabe had said from the beginning, "Things fall into perspective when you're working full-time and paying everything yourself," and two, how many people in this economy are perpetually stuck in poverty.

At the time, I lived in Pilsen, an "up-and-coming" neighborhood in Chicago, where Gabe and I split a 1.5-bedroom, 1-bath apartment for $1200/month. (We were paying way too much, but Gabe loved the high ceilings and the light that spilt into our living room, and we were literally next to...Read More

Chat with Awanthi Vardaraj

Wed, 22 Feb 2017 12:38:24 -0800

I am so beyond THRILLED to bring you the first in my "writers you should know" series. (I haven't come up with a name yet.) Every few weeks, I'll bring you an interview with an amazing writer friend, hopefully someone who has marginalized identities. I'm deeply honored to open this chat with Awanthi Vardaraj.

Awanthi is located in Chennai and writes on food, feminism, poverty, erotica, and other topics. She is a columnist in The Indian Express, the South Asian Voices columnist for Wear Your Voice, the Letters from India columnist for ROAR, and a contributing blogger for TomatoInk. Awanthi and I met because of a Facebook writers group last year and became fast and close friends. In the past several months, her success has skyrocketed, and I couldn't think of a better person with whom to open this series. She's also an avid reader of my Tuesday Telegrams.

I chatted with Awanthi about her beginnings, about writing, about the patronage of the arts, and her dreams. I hope you enjoy!

So I'm curious: what's your roadmap? Where are you now, and what got you here? Tell me about you, what makes you tick, and why you write.

I adore you too, for the record. That's a really incredible story! I think it's really encouraging to hear when people finally follow their calling and everything falls into place with them. It sounds like these intense experiences are the fodder for your work.

Your work doesn't focus on just your own experiences, though. You've written everything from fiction to reported pieces. What made you decide to branch into the more journalistic side of...Read More

March

Wed, 25 Jan 2017 17:44:22 -0800

On Friday night, while Gabe was reading and I was dicking around on my phone, I felt my first real sense of doubt since leaving Philadelphia. I had a sort of intellectual discussion with myself post-seeing Hidden Figures, where I wondered, but I didn't really doubt what I've done in that same way. Without looking at him, I said, "What changed?"

When I was at my first BinderCon, I explained to him, I was in a session about fitting in writing when you have so many other commitments. I remember raising my hand and asking about other things we enjoy. "Many people have a day job to support their writing, or art," I told Gabe. "But I wanted to know what happens when you love the other thing you do."

When it's just as much a part of you.

That was November 2015. I had finished my master's in August, had been at a new job for about three and a half months. The four hour commute hadn't gotten to me yet; the lack of experiments hadn't driven me passed bored. I was in the midst of applying for PhD programs, and I knew what I wanted.

"What happened between then and now?" I asked Gabe, and I realized then--really felt it, even though I knew it intellectually--that I was in deep grief about my decision. I've accepted that it's the choice I made, finally, but am still sad. Because even though Naseem the writer has been me far longer than Naseem the scientist, Naseem the scientist had seen a lot.

Science helped shape who I am, the decisions I've made for reproductive care, mental health; it literally nearly cost me my life. Science was how I connected with my abuser, even how I justified our relationship. Science was what made me worth something at a school where it wasn't survival of the fittest, it was just survival. And science gave me a purpose again when I didn't know what else to do with myself.

"What changed?" I asked Gabe, clutching my phone. "What changed?"

"Talk to me about the Woman's March," I posted on my...Read More

Inauguration Day

Tue, 17 Jan 2017 19:54:27 -0800

In three days, a man who has proven himself to be a racist, mysoginist, xenophobic, Muslim- and queer-antagonistic bigot is taking the highest ranking office in the United States. Before the election, Slate compiled a list of 230 reasons why he was unfit to be the president. Welp.

Of course, since the election took place, many Republicans have been calling protests about the results anti-democratic, saying that people are being sore losers and disrespecting the office of the president. Ironically, of course, the same thing happened on their end when Obama won in 2008. None of that is new, of course. What I find interesting is the congressional stance since then. At least fifty congressmen have decided to not attend the inauguration, including at least one Republican. I've been looking for information on previous mass-inaugurational skippings, but everything is clogged up by He Who Must Not Be Named. I did find an article from Obama's second inauguration that a bunch of Republicans skipped out, but I'm taking this article with a grain of salt. Anyway, skipping out because you don't like someone's policies and skipping out because the person is literally threatening the life and liberties of millions of people are two different things.

Skipping the inauguration is a symbol of resistance, but does little else. That doesn't mean that it's useless--if anything, his narcissism will be triggered by not having people watching it, and he'll throw one of his famous temper tantrums. But in the end, he'll still become President 45, and we're...Read More