Chris Billingsley

Twitter: @Billingsley29

Website: chrisbillingsley.com

Agents: Marisa Corvisiero, and Justin Wells of Corvisiero Literary Agency.

Published Books: Currently on Submission with my upper MG fantasy entitled,
The Ravens Watch. MG Contemporary, Snedly Higgins: Middle Grade Ninja,
is just about ready to go out as well.

GENRE: MG/YA Sci-fi, fantasy, contemporary.

Bio: I am currently represented by Marisa Corvisiero and Justin wells of Corvisiero Lit. My first novel, a contemporary fantasy titled, THE RAVENS WATCH is currently on submission. My second novel, a humorous contemporary story titled, SNEDLY HIGGINS: MIDDLE GRADE NINJA is soon to be on submission as well. In the meantime, I am writing a futuristic YA underwater fantasy.
As a young Canadian kid growing up, my dreams were of playing in the NHL, soaring across a galaxy far, far away aboard the Millennium Falcon, dueling Darth Vader, and saving the universe.
That Star Wars would be the one to ultimately lead me to a career is as unexpected as it is amazing. Yet, it was through these kinds of worlds – where the impossible is not only possible, but expected, where absurd powers or ancient magic spells are never called in to question – that the passion for writing was born.
A love of the visual arts led me to the University of Guelph where upon completion of a degree in Art History and Studio Art, I received a Bachelor of Education from the University of Western Ontario.
Now, as a middle grade teacher, I am constantly surrounded by inspiration for my Middle Grade and Young Adult stories. I live in London, Ontario, Canada, with my beautiful wife Elektra, and my three kids, Charlie, Kristina and Helena.
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EXPERIENCE: When I created the, “Novelist Assignment” for my class, I never thought it would lead me on the path to becoming an author. But after coming up with a story hook as an example to present to my students, their excitement and enthusiasm to know, “what happens next!” pushed me to not only write the story, but see it all through to becoming a published novel.
After a year of agent rejections, I was offered representation by Marisa Corvisiero. A year later, Justin Wells, who read my story and fell in love with it, was brought in to help with prepping it for submission. Currently we are out on submission with our fingers crossed!
I am an avid golfer, and have created my own golf blog at thirteenundergolf.com , and have been a featured writer on GOLFWRX, where I wrote an article on, “How Trackman can help you feel more, and think less.”
Most recently, I mentored a teen writer I found on TUMBLR who was looking for feedback as he prepared his Manuscript for submission.
As a member of the SCBWI, I attended the New York conference this past winter, work-shopping with editors, Jill Santopolo on ‘Voice’, Tiffany Liao on “Writing Diverse Characters”, and Sara Sargent on “Plotting your Novel”
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Mentoring Style: As a teacher / writer / author, I feel my mentoring style will be to guide my mentee into making authentic revisions to their story that fit within their goals for their characters and overall story. I love making suggestions to pacing, style, sentence structure. My favorite part of working with a MS, is really bringing out each characters unique voice, and getting rid of as much “telling” as we can
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Mentee Style: I’d love to work with a mentee who is passionate about their work, is committed to putting in the work and is open minded. We will work together, bouncing ideas back and forth to make sure their manuscript is as polished and ready to be sent out to the world.

I’d really love to see a novel that tackles the growing up blues, but doesn’t hit us over the head with it. I am also a sucker for a little dystopia (even though it is a tough sell right now, they are still my favorite stories and I think the market will come around again.) Own voices and diverse characters. I’d love to see something unique, like Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone.

Favourite Novels: Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, GONE series by Michael Grant, Children of Blood and BONE by Tomi Adeyemi, Percy Jackson series – well anything Rick Riordian, PANIC by Lauren Oliver, STEELHEART by Brandon Sanderson, 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, BLOOD RED ROAD by Moira Young.

MENTORING PACKAGE: I am interested in the Query package, but having said that, I’m not opposed to working with the author past the 1st 3 chapters if we are a good fit.

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