Page Created: 08/10/25. Last Updated: 08/27/25.
HENRY H NEFF
ONLINE
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Meeting Date: August 9, 2025.
Meeting Site: Barnes & Noble. Paramus, New Jersey.
Attendance: 18 + 19.
Meeting Program: Talk / Q & A w/fantasy writer.
Notes:
Eight people attended the post-meeting Stateline Diner gathering.
Newsletter Account:
The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2025 Philip J De Parto:
Meeting Notes:
Grew up north of Chicago
Parents are historians
History Major at Cornell University
Took LSATs
Friend conned him into Management Consulting
Lots of travel. Lots of big companies.
Life changed at his 10 year high school reunion. What do you do? Disappointing, I thought you would be doing something artistic.
Lost friends on 9/11. What am I doing with my life?
Brother: If you had lots of many and could do anything you want, what would you do? Henry: Teach high school & write childrens books.
He was unmarried at the time
Got a job teaching at a private school
Started his first book during school break. It clicked.
Sold it to Random House
Didn't know how to plan out a novel
Had read lots of books on myth and particularly Irish myth, which is little explored
Also liked Where the Wild Things Are
First book took 18 months
He writes good first drafts because he has worked it through in his head
Sent to slush pile at Scholastic because they published Harry Potter
Author David Levithan is a Scholastic Editor. He said the book was being considered.
Checked his email every 2 - 3 minutes for three months hoping to get an acceptance
Scholastic ultimately passed on it as being too close to the Harry Potter niche they already covered.
An editor left Scholastic for Random House and asked for the book
The Tapestry series, based on Irish myth, was planned as a trilogy but grew to 5 books
Luck plays a big role in getting published
Writing and art use different mental muscles
Would do art whenever he hit writers block
Showed pencil drawings of an unwritten book
Editor at HarperCollins: Toni Marti?
Cancer survivor: ocular cancer & skin cancer
After the Tapestry series, he signed a big deal with Harper Collins for the Impyrium series. Entertainment Weekly called it the Middle Grade Novel of the Year
Then he got sick
After several extensions, HarperCollins canceled the contract. He had to repay the advance.
Writing is a rejection-based business
He realized that the Imperium books were getting longer and longer, which is not ideal for Middle Grade
Half of his original MG readers are now adults, so having the last two volumes will be a real challenge
Editor asked him over lunch - Have you ever thought of writing for adults?
Witchstone nominated for Alex Award by Young Adult Library Services Association
It's an adult novel which appeals to a YA readership
His books tend to resist being categorized
Writes commercial fiction for smart people
Not trendy, not written for lowest common denominator
Has a detailed outline for a possible sequel
These days he does looser outlines that when he started
Likes to leave room for new ideas during the writing
Has never written a book that was too short and needed to be reworked to make it longer
100,000 words = 400 pages
Publishing trend is to make books shorter - shorter attention spans, shorter chapters, get things moving more quickly
Romance & mystery readers know what they want and want you to get their directly, not wander about
Sees lots of requests for shorter books
Slow writer. Will never do another multi-book deal again
Witchstone was written as a standalone but had a hook for a possible sequel
Hound of Rowan, his first book, came out when he lived in California
Remet his wife while at NYC party connected to book tour. He had casually known her since 6th grade. She was the mysterious girl who had transferred. They did not travel in same social circles. 1000 kids in his grade? school?
She had moved to New York to work in the fashion industry
He was more mobile, so he moved to the East Coast
Tapestry has a magic school based on Irish myth
Irish myth - rich in beauty, poetry, savagery
The Book of Toth is the unpublished sequel to Impyrim. Has macguffin
Protagonist Max is a demi-god
The Impyrium books were in the same world as the Tapestry books, but 3000 years later
Hierarchy of witch's vs non-witches
The Witchstone is a baby of the pandemic. Curse Keepers are supposed to manage the curses, but this devil has been a slacker. He has one week to get 100 years of Ill fortune crammed into the mortal. Imagine The Amazing Race to acquire items to break the curse
Devil Lazlo was born during the Dark Ages