2013 - 07/2013 Meeting

Page Created: 03/14/13. Last Updated: 03/14/13.

A J COLUCCI

Official Site: http://ajcolucci.com/

BOOKS:

The Colony

Meeting Date: July 13, 2013.

Meeting Site: Barnes & Noble. Hackensack, New Jersey.

Official Attendance: 26.

Meeting Program: Talk / Q & A with Science Thriller Author.

Newsletter Account

The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County held its July 13, 2013 General Meeting at Barnes & Noble in Hackensack, New Jersey. Science thriller (and club member) A JU Colucci was our speaker. The author had just returned fro Thriller Fest, a convention for people interested in science-, techno-, and other varieties of thrillers,

Our guest decided to become an author while a teen. She had been writing horror stories for some time (she could never get enough horror movies and tv shows as a child, with Raul Dahl and Alfred Hitchcock anthologies being seminal literary influences), but one particular story blew away a sister she detested. Allison reasoned that if she was b=able to bowl over someone who hated her, this was what she should do with her life.

Ms Colucci held a variety of jobs as a journalist, magazine editor, and public relations writer for corporate America after graduating college. Her interest in science in general, and insects in particular, led her to consider writing a science thriller based around super ants. It did not come easy. THE COLONY went through over 60 rewrites before publication by St Martins Press.

St Martins, like most large publishers, does not look at unagented manuscripts. A J rewrote and polished the manuscript until she judged it commercially publishable. She then attended the Thriller Fest and interested high-profile literary agent peter Miller in the work at a pitch session. He asked to see it.

Our speaker sent it out the next day and waited. And waited. And waited. When she asked Mr Miller about it at the following year's Thriller Fest, he had no recollection of the conversation. Fortunately, one of his assistants was with him who said. "She's the lady with the ant book. We all love it." Mr Miller pulled out his phone and told his office to make it happen. And it did.

Although there were some additional bumps along the way--such as a cover proof using a termite instead of an ant (this was corrected)--Ms Colucci never considered self-publishing. She believes that a new author is particularly well-served going the route of traditional publishing as it allows one to focus on the writing of the book and not having to learn to be an art director, a publicist, a copy editor, a marketing director and so on. A traditional publisher is also very good at getting books into bookstores like Barnes & Noble.

Plants are the menace in SEEDERS, A J's current project. This led to a number of digressions about zombie fungus and other unusual or dangerous flora. Commonplace flora, too. She talked about Clive Baxter who hooked up polygraphs to plants in the 60s and to more current research suggesting plants communicate, compete, and cooperate in ways we are only beginning to understand. More information about the meeting will be posted at sfabc,.org under 07/2014 Meeting.