7 Questions For: Literary Agent Jaida Temperly

Prior to joining New Leaf Literary, Jaida grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm, studied classical ballet, and briefly attended medical school. She loves art history, traveling, logic puzzles, horticulture, and numerous other topics that come in handy for Trivia Night and crossword puzzles.

For all fiction (both Adult and Children's) she has an affinity for magical realism, historical fiction, and literary/upmarket fiction, as well as stories with a strong mystery, art history, and/or anthropological, undertones (The Westing Game, A Discovery of Witches, The DaVinci Code, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, etc.). She also has a particular love for all things Middle Grade, especially those that are a bit quirky, strange, and fantastical (a la The Mysterious Benedict Society, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library, Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, etc.).

You can find Jaida's Pinterest #mswl here or follow her on Twitter!

And now Jaida Temperly faces the 7 Questions:

Question Seven: What are your top three favorite books?

THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY series by Trenton Lee Stewart

MR. PENUMBRA’S 24-HOUR BOOKSTORE by Robin Sloan
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE by Agatha Christie

Question Six: What are your top three favorite movies and television shows?

Television:

GILMORE GIRLS

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER

REAL HOUSEWIVES

Movies:

THE LOBSTER

BEDNKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS

THE DANISH GIRL

Question Five: What are the qualities of your ideal client?

Creativity

Patience

Persistence

Question Four: What sort of project(s) would you most like to receive a query for?

- For Children’s, I would love to find a MG title, similar to THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY or ESCAPE FROM MR. LEMONCELLO’S LIBRARY -- i.e., whimsical, smart, friendship stories!

- For Adult, I would love to find a title similar to THE DINNER – i.e., a beautiful, literary title with dark undertones and a smart plot.

Question Three: What is your favorite thing about being an agent? What is your least favorite thing?

- I love how every day feels like A Grand Opportunity – an opportunity to read an amazing manuscript, to sign a new client, to make a new connection. It’s always different, and that makes it exciting!

- One of the toughest parts is when you take on amazing project that you’re super passionate about -- and it doesn’t sell or perform in the way you had hoped. It’s disappointing but I’m a firm believer of “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Question Two: What one bit of wisdom would you impart to an aspiring writer? (feel free to include as many other bits of wisdom as you like)

“Never, ever, ever give up.” (Thank you Mr. Winston Churchill)

Question One: If you could have lunch with any writer, living or dead, who would it be? Why?

Agatha Christie. Her writing and plotting are GENIUS. (Although, perhaps I should be worried that she’d poison my tea…?) 

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