My Writing Process Blog Hop

I've been tagged for a blog hop by my critique partner the dynamic, funny, super talented Dana Edwards. She hangs out here http://momslifeponderings.wordpress.com/ with a whole lot of mean dessert recipes

I have the feeling if we lived in the same city we'd get into a whole lot of trouble. So let's keep it safe and stick with the My Writing Process Blog Hop.


What am I working on?

Following agent interest I'm revising my middle grade novel HOW TO LOSE A FORTUNE AND SAVE A FAMILY. When his family goes bankrupt and his chances at a scholarship are all but lost, intrepid money-maker, twelve-year-old Anthony Wish 'borrows' the key to the local manor and puts his business tips into practise...with disastrous consequences.

I am also working on MISCHIEF, a middle grade magical realism story set in a theme park town and based on the real town of Celebration in Florida.



How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I love any middle grade story that sets kids in crazy adult situations and lets them loose. That’s why the movie Home Alone is one of my favourites, why I love the idea of Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald and why I can’t wait to get my hands on Tara Dairman’s All Four Stars. 

But I tend to think big and swashbuckling too so when my twelve-year-old wannabe businessman gets his hands on an entire manor and turns it into a money-maker…there’s going to be fireworks. 

                                                 ........................ LOTS of fireworks.

Similarly in MISCHIEF  two boys turn a whole well-to-do Florida town upside-down when they free the mischievous Little People and face the consequences.

Why do I write what I do?

It may be that growing up, typewriters continuously tapped away in our house and now I can’t live without the sound. My mother produced poetry and articles. My father, in post dinner spurts, created several child detective books featuring his seven kids. He self-published. A man before his time?

I guess I’m looking to entertain and give a laugh to middle grade readers. It’s a moment in life rife with pranks and giggles. I remember laughing so hard the top of my head nearly came off. I want to buy into that joy.

Laughter is the common thread in my writing life. I may have to blame it on the Queen. As a cub newspaper reporter who wasn’t very good at news, I was assigned ‘colour’ pieces, interviews, features. One day I got sent to the Governor General’s house where I accidentally breached security and surprised the Queen coming out of the bathroom in scuffed shoes and a crooked hat. Now if that won’t turn you into a laughing fiction writer, what will?

How does your writing process work?

At the very beginning of this fiction writing adventure, a well-known New Zealand children’s writer Joy Cowley told me she had the feeling I leapt into my stories bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and with absolutely no planning.

 “Who me?” I said. “Joy, that’s a terrible thing to say.”

Of course she was right.

Today I am law-abiding and in control. Or pretend to be. I haul in the idea, think, plan, cook dinner with one hand, write notes with the other, use Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat - I so love that man – and then when I can’t stand the suspense any longer I throw it all up on the screen at 1k a day and see if it looks like Bradley Cooper.

When it doesn’t I start all over again. Oh, and then there are screeds and screeds of revisions.

A New York Times bestseller said it took her seven years to write her book. It did me good to know that. These days I allow myself to breathe deeply and think I too can face the eternity of getting a book published. But I’m really hoping that it won’t.

****** I've tagged  reader, writer, critiquer and editor extraordinaire Pernille Hughes for next week's blog hop. She's a contributor to a travel column in the Sunday Times (UK) and she's published in the Sunlounger anthology.She's on twitter https://twitter.com/pernillehughes Check her out on http://www.writingfromtheedgeofdistraction.blogspot.com/

                                              That's where the party is next Monday.See you there.