From Romance to Middle Grade

In case you weren't interested in hopping over to the Twisted Sisters blog the other day, here is my blog--for those of you who wondered about the how and why I started writing about goblins, gnomes, faeries and trolls.

Actually, it was less of a jump than a gradual merge into the slow lane. Yanno, like when the white-top old person has his signal on for ½ mile before he slowly merges into you because you thought he just forgot to turn it off. Yeah, like that.

The how and why I switched was part logical and part serendipity.

I had been writing for eight years, completing four manuscripts of every sub-genre around, including mixing a few of them together. I loved reading romance, but I couldn’t write one if my life depended on it. My last story was a 110,000 word romantic fantasy with a dash of high fantasy (elves and their realm), otherworldly (actually a new world), a missing child heir to the throne and the evil one who wants to control it all titled, THE LEPRECHAUN CONNECTION.

Yep, all that was missing was the kitchen sink . . . ‘cause I added that to ANOTHER story.

Believe it or not, I did get a request by the great Deb Dixon who ultimately refused it. But her input and request a different story spurred me on—to write another convoluted and confusing mess I titled, THE DEMON CONNECTION—uhm, I never finished this one. There’s some good stuff in there, but I’m not ready to write it yet.

Anyhoo, fast forward to May 2008, as I walked my kidlet to school, we made up a story about Peter the fly called, PETER’S MESSY ROOM.  I wrote 580 words in 15 minutes after I got home. And then I started writing short picture book type stories. I really, really loved writing these stories. They were short. They had a beginning, middle and end. They were fun. And most important of all, they made me happy.

During this time, I discovered my writing voice.

Then I started thinking. *scary, huh?* My writing voice didn’t lend itself well to romance. It was too snarky for most ‘normal’ romances, but not snarky enough for many paranormal, chick-lit (I know the term is a no-no, but it’s a TONE that conveys the style) type of story.

So what to do?

I really, really loved the main character in THE LEPRECHAUN CONNECTION, what if I wrote her backstory? Yep, you heard correctly—BACKSTORY. How did this character become who she ended up being?

The first story I wrote was called, MISSING: ONE GARDEN GNOME, which explained how Kyte Webber became the kid who saw Mythicals. During this time, I received over 100 rejections, changed the title, changed the character’s name five or six times, and cut over 10,000 words—twice. No, this was NOT an easy book to write. The title soon became TO GNOME ME IS TO LOVE ME, and my character became Kyte—an old friend allowed me to use her old Dungeons and Dragons persona.  Eerie part is they have similar personalities.

Three of the books are available on Amazon:

TO GNOME ME IS TO LOVE ME, book one of The Goblin’s Apprentice series

THE FAST AND THE FAERIEOUS, book two of The Goblin’s Apprentice series

LOST LEPRECHAUN LOOT, a Kyte Webber short adventure story, honoring St. Patrick’s Day 

I plan to publish three more stories this year:

A MAZE OF MONSTER MIX-UPS, a Halloween prequel to book three of The Goblin’s Apprentice, featuring Kyte Webber

FOR WHOM THE BELL TROLLS, book three of The Goblin’s Apprentice series

SUGAR PLUM DISASTER, a Christmas inspired short story, featuring Kyte Webber

Traveling the Road

Every writer has to journey along her own path toward publication. Some paths are short and straight, while other paths meander, change direction, or simply dead end. Many writers have had help along the way in the form of encouragement, critique groups, or simply someone believing in them. The encouragement from someone who has traveled the road shouldn't be taken lightly, and many of us receive validation throughout much of the process--even if it doesn't feel like it.

Last Thursday, Erica Orloff wrote a blog about beta readers, and I whined in the comments about my lack of CP's and betas since I switched to writing middle grade novels. None of my romance buddies wanted to tackle it, which is understandable if they don't read or know anything about the genre. I belong to SCBWI, the Verla Kay blueboards, and I've visited my local SCBWI group, but I never really hooked up with anyone.

I was alone in a new genre that I thought was my true writing voice, but I didn't really know if I was on track with this genre. I had finished one MG manuscript and queried the snot out of it. I had a few bites, but no takers. I thought TO GNOME ME IS TO LOVE ME (title change from MISSING: ONE GARDEN GNOME) was ready to shove under the bed, until Authoress's Secret Agent contest when an agent wanted to see the first three chapters. (Keep your eyes open, she does Secret Agent contests all the time! Different genres!) I read the first three chapters of Gnome, and thought, "Well, that's a load of crap!" and promptly cut chapters two and three. Oh, I got a rejection two days later, but it opened my eyes about Gnome. Since I had spent the time rewriting the first three chapters of Gnome, I decided to do a last ditch effort by snail mailing about seven agents--packets going out on Monday.

Fast forward back to Erica. Erica offered to beta read two chapters.
WOW! I. AM. SO. STOKED!
Erica Orloff is published in adult fiction (Freudian Slip), but she is also published in middle grade fiction under the pseudo, Erica Kirov (Magickeepers series). Finally someone who writes MG will actually look at my story!
--and I wasn't going to send her Gnome. I had started #2 in the series, THE FAST AND THE FAERIEOUS and sent her the first two chapters. I was 10000K words into this story (1/3 of the way for MG). Plus, Mary Kole, children's agent with Andrea Brown Literary Agency was holding a contest on her Kidlit blog, and she'd already rejected Gnome so I wanted something new to submit.

Would I receive the validation I so desperately needed about writing in this genre?
Would she soft-soap me, telling me I was good when I truly sucked?

I didn't know what to expect, but knowing Erica--albeit only through her blog--I knew I would get straight forward honesty. And I think if I didn't have a MG voice, she would have told me.
Good stuff:
I DID nail the voice of a MG novel/character!
I DID get the MG one-liners and the 'one-off' comments down pat.
I DID have mini-cliff hangers at the end of the two chapters she read.
Bad stuff:
I DID manage to confuse her. :-) She thought the story sounded like the second in a series (it is), but I didn't leave enough clues to make THIS story readable for a new reader.
I DID have too much 'meanness'--I discovered this meanness in Gnome and it's one of the parts I changed.
I DID make the teacher too extreme and full of adult snark--not appropriate for MG--easy to tone her down.

But to me, Erica's best comment was, "Again . . . you have a great voice . . . and voice can’t be taught, I don’t think. It feels very natural."

I might not be published yet, but I'm back on the path.

Write On!

I would love to thank the CP's I've had over the years (Marilyn, Susan, Linda, Cyndi, and many others who have given of your time and talents) Many times I didn't truly appreciate your tough love, but now I do.
Thank you.