Most of us are starving for success, but there are some people who take their obsessions to a whole other level. Training a carefully-honed eye on the secret world of eating disorders, author Lisa deNikolits delves into the sensitive topic of beauty in her well-received novel, THE HUNGRY MIRROR.

WordHustler sat down with deNikolits to talk fame, fashion, and being famished. This savvy South-African-turned-Canadian author has done an amazing job of churning out many projects while still maintaining her other career as an art director for top fashion magazines. Read on to find out how this talented writer is taking the fashion world- and the world at large- by storm!

WordHustler: You have an amazing and eclectic background from growing up in multiple countries, working as a writer and an art director in the fashion magazine world…what do you consider your first big break, writing-wise?

Lisa deNikolits: My first big break came, oddly enough, in the form of a rejection letter from Carolyn Jackson, the managing editor of a publishing house in Toronto. With characteristic generosity of spirit, she pointed me in the direction of Inanna, and The Hungry Mirror came to be as a result. My second big break would of course be the offer by Luciana Ricciutelli and Inanna to publish the book.

WH: You’ve written a few short story collections and some other novels- what made you decide you HAD to write this book in particular?

LD: If anything, it was The Hungry Mirror who made the decision for me! The Hungry Mirror wanted to be written and it was insistent. There were times when I wished it hadn’t “chosen” me as its conduit, because it was a tough book to write and the writing spanned a very long time. But I feel the book explores a number of important and controversial social and mental  health issues, and I am very pleased to be the author.

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Life is all about taking chances: meeting the right person, landing the right job, etc. For Brendan Deneen, a series of strategic maneuvers and a few lucky moves have paid off. He’s now an editor at Thomas Dunne Books and is in the enviable position of not only acquiring fantastic books, but also developing book ideas that are destined for the big screen (as well as a bookshelf near you)!

WordHustler had the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Deneen in his offices in New York’s famous Flatiron Building. How did this talented, savvy Hollywood-turned-publishing industry insider get so lucky? Read on to find out!

WordHustler: Thanks for sitting down with us, Brendan! How did you get your start in the industry?

Brendan Deneen: I moved to New York to be a writer and an actor circa 1997. I did that for 3 years while working a day job at an investment bank. Then I produced a couple of short films that I wrote and directed. Eventually, I started temping. The temp agency was looking to place people in permanent jobs and asked if I’d be interested in interviewing to work at a literary agency. I thought maybe I could get an agent out of it. They didn’t tell me the name of the company but gave me an address and said I’d be interviewing to be the assistant of a literary agent. It turned out to be the William Morris Agency. I got hired and was older than your average assistant since I was 28. I worked there for a year but then the department changed after WMA bought another agency out and I eventually left.

I went on Mediabistro.com in 2001 and saw an ad for a film company hiring in NY and again, no specific company was named but they wanted someone who was interested in books. I faxed my resume over and was Number 19 of 20 people who was interviewed at Scott Rudin Productions for a Story Editor position. I had to write coverage overnight. It was interesting because it was a manuscript that two executives at Rudin’s liked but Scott himself didn’t like it. I didn’t like the book either and said that. They liked the fact that I had an opinion so they hired me.

I worked there for 2 years as a Story Editor. It was an awesome job. I was a book-to-film guy, which meant I was tracking the book world, doing notes on books and scripts, etc.

WH: And this was the beginning of the book-to-film craze, or at least when it started to really blossom, right?

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Remember in the olden days, when movies were based on nothing more than a screenwriter’s brainchildren? Now movies are based on novels, childrens’ books, even theme park rides. And which superhero is helping bridge the publishing world with the glittering stardust of Hollywood? That’s right, a hard-working, bookstore-scouring, voracious reader like one Ms. Sarah Self, literary agent at The Gersh Agency and champion of writers everywhere.

WordHustler sat down with Ms. Self to get the skinny on the convergence of Hollywood and the publishing industry, the kind of queries that hook her, and the lure of a good, old-fashioned zombie story. Read on to fill your cup with the elixir of publishing (and Hollywood) SUCCESS!

WordHustler: How did you get your start in the industry?

Sarah Self: I went to school at Northwestern University and got my start in the industry by working/interning for Lynda Obst, Jodie Foster, and Stacy Sher and Michael Shamberg at Jersey Films. In college I knew that this was the business I wanted to work in, so every summer I would come to LA and do internships. I did a lot of coverage and started building my resume.

Then when I graduated everyone told me I should get agency experience but didn’t think that I wanted to be an agent. I wasn’t totally sure what I wanted to do- maybe more in line with being a producer- I definitely knew I wanted to create. But agency experience really helps, despite what some may think. Agencies put it all together. Of course the project starts with the writer, but the agency is really the link that connects everybody. That’s where you have directors, writers, talent and they all come to an agency as the center point. It’s the perfect place to start if you’re not sure what you want to do, because you work with all the elements. So I started working at CAA for Bob Bookman, who’s the head of CAA’s Film Department and still my mentor today. He’s at the top of his game.

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That’s right- the votes have been tallied, our esteemed judge Danielle Chiotti has made her selections, and it’s time to announce the Top Three Winners as well as the Top Ten Finalists of WordHustler’s Literary Storm Novel Contest! We combed through almost 1,000 entries to find the best and the brightest.

Drum roll please!

The Winners:

Grand Prize Winner: Tatiana Blackington for THE SANCTUARY

Second Place Winner: Scott Thomas for KILL CREEK

Third Place Winner: JoAnn Chaney for HEAVEN SENT

Tatiana wins a free manuscript critique from Joyce Sweeney, while Scott and JoAnn win Barnes & Noble gift certificates!

Here is the complete list of Top Ten Winners, all of whom are being considered for publishing by indie publisher Flatmancrooked.

Top Ten Winners:

Susanna Fantich for A CAT’S TALE

Ann Gimpel for ECHO OF HOPE

Dennis Frohlich for HAVINA VIVANT

Joseph Carey for BANQUO’S BANQUET

Kathleen Murphy for THE LAND OF LEVAN

Meghna Pant for ONE AND A HALF WIFE

Chris Nunley for NOWHERE, AZ

Tatiana Blackington for THE SANCTUARY

Scott Thomas for KILL CREEK

JoAnn Chaney for HEAVEN SENT

Honorable Mentions:

Ann Eskridge for THE RAVEN

Donald O’Donovan for NIGHT TRAIN

Mickey Marie Dodson for NICARAGUA IS MINE

John White for PRODIGIOUS SAVANT

Remi Oyedele for GOAL DREAMS

Congrats to each of our winners and a huge thank you to all of you talented writers who entered. This contest was more of a success than we ever imagined, due largely to the huge flood of fantastic entries. You made this contest a smash hit! Keep on writing!

3.15.10 UPDATE: Because of the insanely fantastic amount of entries flooding in, we need to extend our judging period so our readers and Grand Prize Judge can get through all of the thousands of submissions we’ve received.

We will now be announcing the three Prize Winners as well as the Top Ten Finalists on April 15th, 2010. Sure, it may be tax day for everyone but for ten talented writers, it will also be a winning day!

Thanks so much to all who entered- we’re overwhelmed by the amazing writing out there!

Alright- the entries are in and the judges are hard at work determining the Top Ten finalists. These ten manuscripts will not only be judged by literary agent Danielle Chiotti but also submitted to Flatmancrooked for publishing consideration!

Final winners will be announced by April 15th but we want to say a huge THANK YOU to the thousands of writers who have submitted their fantastic manuscripts. You’ve really made this competition special and we can’t wait to see which novels rise to the top. Everyone who has submitted is already a winner in our book.

We’ll keep you updated!

By Shya Scanlon

On September 24th, 2005, a long-overdue one-way ticket landed me in New York City where I’d pledged to seriously pursue a writing career. I found a tiny hole in the Lower East Side, and an email I sent on October 10th reads, “I’m sitting alone in a dark apartment in the middle of one of the most intense and social cities in the world. What the hell is wrong with me?”

My schedule those days involved coming home from my job—working as a copywriter in an office on Broad Street in front of which bomb-sniffing dogs and policemen wearing bulletproof vests and carrying automatic rifles paraded all day—pouring myself a glass of single malt whiskey, and standing, not sitting, in the kitchen and typing furiously at what eventually became the collection of prose poetry called In This Alone Impulse.

The night I sent that email, like most nights that winter, I was terribly alone, I was half drunk, and I was suffering from an overwhelming mixture of both over and under exposure—close enough to my dreams to be truly frightened by them. I was, in other words, living something closely resembling the idealized image I’d half-consciously carried in my mind about the life of a writer since first wanting to become one.

When you think of the writing life, many things come to mind, both good and bad: isolation, frustration, intensity, investigation, exploration, imagination… booze. If you’re lucky, of course, these things are accompanied by publication, recognition, accolades, and the like. But I would be very surprised if many aspiring authors put things like networking or community building, or—dare I say it here?—hustling on the list. Even near the bottom. That spot is reserved for “dying of syphilis.”

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