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5 Q’s with Wendy Tokunaga

by Susan Johnston @ Urban Muse Writer

5 Q’s with Wendy Tokunaga

Continuing our series of interviews with other writers, Wendy Tokunaga’s novel, Midori by Moonlight, debuted last September. Here, Wendy shares her thoughts on writing, publishing, and choosing an MFA program…

Urban Muse: Any tips for first-time novelists?

Wendy: I would make sure that you have trusted readers for your novel so you’ll get useful, constructive feedback. You want critique partners who know what they’re talking about and will be honest in a helpful way. It can sometimes be illuminating to get advice from a manuscript consultant. This could be a writing teacher or published author who offers this type of service. You should also expect to revise your manuscript a number of times and to put it aside for a while so you can look at it with fresh eyes.

UM: What was harder–finding an agent or finding a publisher? Why?

W: I never approached publishers directly. I knew that the best way to reach my goal was to find an agent, but getting an agent was difficult for me. MIDORI BY MOONLIGHT, my debut novel, is actually the fifth novel I have written. One other (NO KIDDING) I self published through iUniverse in 2000 after being rejected by many agents. I did get an agent for my third novel through a connection from a writer friend, but he could not sell the book and we parted ways. With MIDORI I finally found my wonderful current agent, Marly Rusoff. After I signed with her, it only took about six weeks before I had a two-book deal with St. Martin’s.

UM: How do you deal with rejection?

W: Rejection is hard and I don’t think anyone ever gets used to it. When I kept sending out my manuscripts to agents and continued to get rejected the only thing that kept me going was that I eventually saw progress as I got more positive comments from agents. I could tell I was getting closer. I kept writing, kept trying to improve my craft. The important thing is that I didn’t give up. It took a while, but it finally happened. But you really have to love to write, be passionate about your work, and you have to be open to criticism and to improving.

UM: You are currently in an MFA program in writing. What are the pros and cons of pursuing this path?

W: Yes, I am currently in the MFA in Writing program at University of San Francisco and I will graduate in the summer of 2008. I am really enjoying this program a lot and feel privileged to be able to study the techniques and styles of great authors and workshop my own writing with some very talented professors. However, this path may not before everyone and it certainly isn’t a prerequisite for getting published. An agent seeing in a query letter that a writer has an MFA may get you out of the slush pile, but most programs are quite expensive so that shouldn’t be the sole reason for applying. I applied to the program before I had an agent or book deal because I finally had the opportunity and it was a way I felt that I could keep seriously pursuing writing. Right after I started I signed with my agent so it was kind of an unusual situation.

UM: Any advice on choosing such a program?

W: There are many different types of programs out there – even ones where you are only on campus for a few weeks out of the year. These are called “low-residency” programs and they work well for people who have full-time jobs and who want to attend schools that are far from where they live. Since I’d spent the past eight years doing freelance writing from home, the USF program appealed to me because I would be on campus interacting with students and teachers face to face full time. I suggest that those interested in perhaps pursuing an MFA pick up a copy of Poets & Writers magazine, which has many ads and info on MFA programs all over the country.