Middle Grade and The Doctor Who Connection

I’d like to think that every post I write can link back to Doctor Who in some small way. Like seven degrees of Keven Bacon except with a Tardis.

And David Tennant.

Okay, let’s give it a try. The Doctor travels all of space and time, right? 

Well, MG writers travel too. But not just through time and space...and here’s where, I believe, we have one up on the good Doctor—cybermost apologies #10.

So, what could be better than traveling through all of time and space?

Traveling through memories.

MG writers travel deeper than any TARDIS (as fab as she is) can go.

Memories through taste, touch, sound, and even scents (sorry, Big T, not even you can do that).

Cafeteria pizza.

Warm eraser crumbs after you’ve deleted a whole line of words on a test.

A fresh pack of loose leaf paper.

The broken seal of a brand new box of crayons (the big one with the sharpener in the back).

We get into all kid-senses. Into their hearts and minds with associated connections from our own memories.

Sure, the Doctor can go back and forth to the future or the past, but we know that the future is the past.

Our pasts.

Writers travel through memories, imaginations, experiences, newly discovered abilities, and personality traits still waiting to be cultivated.

We navigate new friendships, go back inside ourselves to when we first sort of meet and say, “Hey, who are you?” or “Who do you wanna be?”

And maybe, during our travels, we write stories that tweak a few things we wished were done differently the first time around—either to ourselves or to others, giving kids alternate routes through words. We use our experiences and creativity to fuel our inner Tardis.

  

Maybe there'll be a Tardis upgrade one day. In the meantime, keep traveling, MG writers. Because just like the Doctor:

The future depends on us!

Author Interview: Shari Green, Author of Root Beer Candy and Other Miracles

I have to get this off my chest straight away: I adored this book.

Before we get to the interview, here's a little background information:


The Author:

Shari Green writes Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction. She's in love with stories and the sea, and can often be found curled up with a good book and a cup of tea, or wandering the beaches near her home on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada.



The Description:

Eleven-year-old Bailey believes in miracles. She had to; it will take a miracle to keep her warring parents together. This summer they are at a Marriage Counselling camp, leaving Bailey and her little brother Kevin with their estranged grandmother in the island town of Felicity Bay. There, an eccentric deposed minister makes a prophecy that a stranger from the sea will change everything. When Bailey discovers a mermaid-shaped piece of driftwood, she begins to believe that the mermaid is the stranger from the sea. Then, when a dolphin becomes stranded on the beach, Bailey forgets her own troubles and rouses the reluctant locals into action.

My take on the book:

This book, written in free verse, is a glorious portrait painted in words and images!  This is a beautifully written book, one that acutely and compassionately addresses the powerlessness children feel when the adults in their lives make decisions that have profound impacts on them. I loved this book so much and I believe children will love Bailey and her story, too!

Now: On to the Interview!!!!

via GIPHY

I loved Root Beer Candy and Other Miracles!  Can you tell me about the genesis of the story?

I’d been thinking a lot about the extraordinary in the ordinary—Frederick Buechner said “all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace”, and that quote kept tumbling around in my thoughts. Meanwhile, I knew someday I wanted to write a “beachy book” in which I could indulge my love of the sea. And then this driftwood mermaid showed up in my imagination… ;-)

So much of the book involves Bailey looking for signs, looking for someone to help her. Can you talk a bit about why you wanted to address that feeling of powerlessness that children so often feel?

I think we all feel it, but maybe never as sharply as when we’re kids. Aren’t we all still looking for signs? for those moments that nourish faith, for things that help us keep hoping, keep believing that we’ll be okay, that life will turn out all right? Or maybe, that’s just me…heh.

There is a strong element of Spirituality, of faith, in your book. Spirituality is such an important aspect of all our lives and yet it is often not touched on in contemporary children’s literature. Why was that important for you to include and was there any push back from your publisher?

No push back at all from the publisher—my editor and everyone at Pajama Press have all been completely supportive of Bailey’s story. I wanted to include faith partly because it felt like the most honest way for me to tell this particular story, and partly because, as you said, it isn’t often addressed in books. Kids think about this stuff, just as adults do, so let’s talk about it.

I loved the character of Jasper and his prophecies (either real or perceived). Bailey wants to believe so much, and the rest of the town doesn't. Jasper was a real embodiment of seeing the world differently and a flash of supernatural in the book.  It was such an amazing device in the story and such a lightning rod character. Can you speak to that?

I’m glad you loved Jasper! I think in real life we occasionally encounter people like Jasper—people who see things from a strikingly different vantage point—or we have an experience that gives us a glimpse of something that just might be supernatural. These encounters and experiences challenge us deeply. They shake up our beliefs and our worldview, and so we tend to respond strongly—be it in a positive or negative way.

One of the things I loved best about your book is that nothing is absolute. We are left with questions throughout the book, and wondering about motives. Was that a conscious decision while you were writing?

Semi-conscious? Haha. I like a little ambiguity in stories. I like leaving room for people to interpret things in their own way and draw their own conclusions. That said, I think when writing about faith or spirituality, there’s not a lot of room for absolutes. Life is full of questions.

The ocean is such a beautiful and vital force in this book – living where you live, I can’t help but assume that it is for you, too?

Absolutely! The ocean inspires me, humbles me, calms me, energizes me. I love it! ☺

This isn't your first book. What has been the most surprising thing for about becoming a published author?

That I can be creative on demand?? Haha! Deadlines and working on contract taught me a lot about process and persistence and priorities.

A lot of our readers are aspiring writers. What piece of advice would you give to other aspiring writers?

May I give three bits of advice? 1. Create something, put it out in the world, create something else. 2. Trust your gut, and believe that the stories you need to tell are worth telling. 3. Find your tribe.

What’s next? Will we see more of Bailey or are you working on something completely different?

Bailey’s story is done for now, unless she starts whispering in my ear again. For now, I’m working on a new middle-grade novel, due out in 2017.

And finally: is root beer candy your favorite???

Actually, no! I like it, though, and I’ve definitely eaten more of it since I started writing this book—and I’ll be raising a celebratory root beer on launch day. ☺


Thanks Shari!  

Root Beer Candy and Other Miracles is out OCTOBER 12th.  I can't recommend it enough!

You can get your copies here:

Amazon.com
Chapters.ca
IndieBound
Barnes and Noble

And to keep up with other news about Shari, and to learn more about her other books, visit her website: https://sharigreen.com/

First Look: Covers for Middle Grade Novels RULES for THIEVES, HOLLY FARB AND THE PRINCESS OF THE GALAXY, and A DASH OF DRAGON

We love sharing upcoming Middle Grade books here are Middle Grade Minded, so we are thrilled to provide you with the first look at three gorgeous books that will be released in 2017!


First up: RULES FOR THIEVES by Alexandra Ott (June 6, 2017)

I mean seriously - how evocative is that cover?

About the book: 

After twelve-year-old orphan Alli Rosco is cursed with a deadly spell, she must join the legendary Thieves Guild in order to try and save herself in this high-stakes debut.

Twelve-year-old Alli Rosco is smart, resourceful, and totally incapable of keeping her mouth shut. Some of these traits have served her well during her nine years in Azeland’s orphanage, and others have proved more troublesome…but now that she’s escaped to try her luck on the streets, she has bigger problems than extra chores to contend with. Surviving would be hard enough, but after a run-in with one of the city’s Protectors, she’s marked by a curse that’s slowly working its way to her heart. There is a cure, but the cost is astronomical—and seems well out of her reach.

Enter Beck, a boy with a gift for theft and a touch of magic, who seems almost too good to be true. He tells Alli that the legendary Thieves Guild, long thought to be a myth, is real. Even better, Beck is a member and thinks she could be, too. All she has to do is pass the trial that the King of Thieves will assign to her. Join the Guild, collect her yearly reward and buy a cure. Plus, Alli hopes the Guild will be the home—the family—that Alli has always wanted. But when their trial goes wrong, innocent lives are put in danger, and Alli has to decide how much she can sacrifice in order to survive.

Author Bio:

Alexandra Ott holds a B.A. in English from the University of Tulsa. She currently lives in Oklahoma with her tiny canine overlord. Rules for Thieves is her debut novel. Visit her online at www.alexandraott.com and on Twitter at @Alexandra_Ott.

Fun fact about this book:

As a child, Alexandra Ott loved to invent stories and games to entertain herself and her younger sister. One of those early games, which featured a group of orphans living in hidden ice caves, inspired parts of Rules for Thieves.

Pre-order link (Amazon):

https://www.amazon.com/Rules-Thieves-Alexandra-Ott/dp/1481472747

Cover illustrator: Eric Deschamps

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Ready to go into Space?  It's time for:


HOLLY FARB AND THE PRINCESS OF THE GALAXY by Gareth Wronski (June 6, 2017)

There is nothing I don't love about this cover!  I want to climb into this world!

About the book:

Holly Farb is not the Princess of the Galaxy. She may be top of the class in every subject, but she can’t even win a school election, never mind rule the Milky Way. The aliens who kidnapped her have gotten it all wrong.

Unfortunately Holly’s alien pirate kidnappers believe that she’s the princess they’ve been looking for, and so she finds herself hurtling through space on an alien pirate ship together with her teacher, Mr. Mendez, and Chester, the most annoying boy in her class. Now all she has to do is escape the pirates, find the missing princess, and get back to Earth in time for her big test on Friday.

But it turns out that space is a pretty big place, and before they can go home, Holly, Chester, and Mr. Mendez must face down space cruise liners, bounty hunters, giant worms, perky holograms, cosmic board games, sinister insectoid librarians, and a robot who is learning how to lie. Between running from space pirates, defying the President of the Universe, and meeting a host of rather unusual new friends, Holly starts to wonder if there might be more to life than being top of the class after all.

Author bio:

Gareth Wronski was born and raised in Toronto. After watching Star Wars as a child on his grandparents’ VCR, he decided he wanted to tell science fiction and fantasy stories of his own. He currently resides in an old house by the Avon River in Stratford, Ontario, where he lives in constant terror of roaming swans. Visit him online on Twitter at @garethwronski.

Fun fact about this book:

Holly Farb once caused an intergalactic revolution by throwing a ball.

Pre-order link (Amazon):

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1481471775?tag=simonsayscom

Cover illustrator: Karin Paprocki

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Now it's time for a a few monster cooking lessons...

A DASH OF DRAGON by Heidi Lang & Kati Bartkowski (July 11, 2017) 

You just know that Lailu has something up her sleeve (and in her pot!)

About the book:

A thirteen-year-old master chef has a lot to prove as she tries to run a five-star restaurant, cook the perfect dragon cuisine, repay a greedy loan shark, and outsmart the Elven mafia in this entertaining novel that combines all of the best ingredients—fantasy, humor, adventure, action, cute boys, and a feisty heroine!

Lailu Loganberry is an expert at hunting dangerous beasts. And she’s even better at cooking them.

For years Lailu has trained to be the best chef in the city. Her specialty? Monster cuisine. When her mentor agrees to open a new restaurant with Lailu as the head chef, she’s never been more excited. But her celebration is cut short when she discovers that her mentor borrowed money from Mr. Boss, a vicious loan shark. If they can’t pay him back, Lailu will not only lose her restaurant—she’ll have to cook for Mr. Boss for the rest of her life.

As Lailu scrambles to raise the money in time, she becomes trapped in a deadly conflict between the king’s cold-blooded assassin, the terrifying elf mafia, and Mr. Boss’ ruthless crew. Worst of all, her only hope in outsmarting Mr. Boss lies with the one person she hates—Greg, the most obnoxious boy in school and her rival in the restaurant business.

But like Lailu always says, if you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen. And she’s determined to succeed, no matter the cost!

Author bio:

Heidi Lang and Kati Bartowski are a writing team of two sisters with twenty years of experience in Judo. Heidi likes to fling food across her stove while attempting to cook new dishes, and Kati enjoys trying new cuisine at fancy restaurants. Between the two of them, they love creating characters that kick butt both inside and outside the kitchen. You can find them on Twitter at @hidlang and @ktbartkowski.

Fun fact about this book:

Lailu Loganberry is a master at hunting and cooking ferocious beasts, but she's deathly afraid of chickens.

Pre-order link (Amazon):

https://www.amazon.com/Dash-Dragon-Heidi-Lang/dp/1481477935/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1476221347&sr=1-1&keywords=dash+of+dragon


Cover illustrator: Angela Li


All of these books can be pre-ordered and I highly recommend that you do so!  Pre-ordering helps authors by creating buzz and interest, and these books are all buzz-worthy!


Congratulations Alexandra Ott, Gareth Wronski, Heidi Lang and Kati Bartowski!  We can't wait to read your books and we are thrilled to share them with our blog readers!!!!

Cover Reveal - THE COUNTDOWN CONSPIRACY

Today on Middle Grade Minded we have the awesome cover reveal for Katie Slivensky's upcoming THE COUNTDOWN CONSPIRACY which releases from HarperCollins Children's on August 1, 2017.

Before the big reveal, here's a little bit about THE COUNTDOWN CONSPIRACY!

13 year-old, robotics-savvy Miranda Regent is chosen for an exclusive Mars training mission, only to discover that she has become the target of an assassination plot. With explosions following her at every turn, and tensions with her classmates on the rise, Miranda is determined to find out who is after her, and why. But when she and her fellow astronaut cadets are thrust into a situation far more dire and deadly than Miranda could have ever imagined, time has run out. The young cadets must put their intelligence, bravery, and (admittedly shaky) teamwork to the test as they race to stop a conspiracy that threatens not only their lives, but the future of space travel itself.

Sounds pretty awesome right?

Now check out the awesome cover!

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How gorgeous is that cover?

Make sure you add THE COUNTDOWN CONSPIRACY on Goodreads!

Katie Slivensky is an educator at the Museum of Science in Boston, where she coordinates school visits, does presentations with alligators and liquid nitrogen (not usually at the same time), and runs the rooftop observatory program. Katie lives in a suburb of Boston with her two completely absurd cats, Galileo and Darwin, and is represented by Ammi-Joan Paquette of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency. Find her online at www.katieslivensky.com, and follow her on Twitter at @paleopaws.

Protecting Time

We had a bad news/good news moment at Middle Grade Minded this week. The bad news was when our longtime contributor Jason told us he was going to have to step aside from writing for the blog. The good news is he’s leaving because other opportunities are coming up in his life, and he has to devote his time to that. And, like he said, “I'm having to scrape together 15 minute blocks here and there every day to squeeze in work on my current manuscript.” Of course we’ll miss having him around, but we wish him well on whatever he’s got coming next.

The more I thought about his news, the more I admired the move. I kept reflecting back to what he had said about finding the time to write. The truth is that a large bunch of us in the writing community have some other job or career we rely on to pay the bills, and only a lucky handful of people will ever reach the point of being able to work as full-time writers. 

I just came off a week where I related to the idea of feeling over-extended all too well. Not only was it a typically busy autumn week at the school where I work, but we had our first two nights of parent-teacher conferences, which made for some extra-long and tiring work days. After I had to keep my Teacher Brain engaged for thirteen hours, I was much more ready to park down on the couch and fall asleep in front of the TV than I was to work on a manuscript synopsis, or character biographies, or setting descriptions, much less any drafting work. Unfortunately writing is like any other endeavor that requires sustained effort to make progress, like developing an exercise habit or learning to play a musical instrument. You lose momentum if you don’t keep at it regularly, and once that happens it doesn’t take long before the project you’re working on gets away from you.

Protecting your writing time, as long as you decide it’s important to have that time available, is worth the sacrifice. Did I get a lot done at the end of those two thirteen-hour days I endured this week? I sure didn’t. But I got something done. Maybe it was just rewording a few paragraphs or getting half a page of ideas down, but I still did some work. I knew it wasn’t a lot and right away I felt lazy and guilty about taking something of a pass, but a few steps forward was better than standing still. Once I gave myself permission to be okay with that, I was proud of what little work I managed to get done.

Those of us who still have day jobs and careers know all too well what that struggle is like. But sometimes it helps to remember that jobs and careers, while they can be bigger parts of our lives than just how we earn money, are more about what we do than who we are. I tend to think that something like writing, which gives so many of us such gratification regardless of how difficult and frustrating the work can be and how far away our personal dreams and goals surrounding it can seem, might be a better window into what we decide is important to us. If Jason knows that pulling back from blogging is going to help him find the time for his manuscript, more power to him. And the same to everyone out there looking for those brief time windows when you get to pursue your work. 

Like I said so many times during conferences this past week, continue to challenge yourself. The effort you're putting into your work can make all the difference, so keep it up. 

The Charming LIfe of Izzy Malone Author Interview and ARC Giveaway

Today I’m thrilled to have the chance to interview Jenny Lundquist, author of Seeing Cinderella, Plastic Polly, The Princess In the Opal Mask, The Opal Crown, and her newest book, The Charming Life of Izzy Malone, which comes out November, 2016 from Simon & Schuster/Aladdin M!x. I had a chance to read an ARC of The Charming Life of Izzy Malone, and I absolutely fell in love with the adorably flawed main character. Here’s an overview of this fast-paced middle grade:

Izzy Malone isn’t your typical middle schooler. The stars are her only friends, and she’s set a new record for trips to the principal’s office. The only place Izzy feels at home is on the open water. She dreams of rowing for the Dandelion Paddlers, a middle school rowing club. When Izzy’s antics land her in hot water, her parents enroll her in Mrs. Whippie’s Earn Your Charm School, where she receives a letter, a charm bracelet, and instructions for earning charms by performing a series of tasks.  Soon Izzy is adding charms to her bracelet. But when a task goes seriously wrong, she must make things right with the help of some unexpected friends. Can Izzy fix her mistake, become a Paddler, and Earn Her Charm?

Jenny Lundquist has generously donated an ARC to one lucky reader of this blog! (Keep reading for a chance to win!) She also was kind enough to answer the following questions about writing her latest book: 

1.      What was your inspiration for Izzy, your main character?  Is she based on any of your own middle school experiences?

Izzy definitely wasn’t based on any particular experiences I’ve had. I’ve always had a thing for charm bracelets (I have two of my own!) and I love how we use them to tell the story of our life: where we’ve been, our interests, things we’ve done, etc. While I was reflecting on this one day I thought about how great it would be if I wrote a story about a girl who used the charms on her bracelet to start building the story of her life.

I also have a thing for fall, and giant pumpkins.

 

(I mean, seriously, how can you look at a picture like this and not be inspired?)

So, a couple years ago I attended the Elk Grove Pumpkin Festival and watched their Great Pumpkin Regatta. I can’t tell you how much fun it was to watch people racing these ginormous pumpkins across the pond. I decided I wanted to figure out a way to add a giant pumpkin race into my charm bracelet story. Putting those two concepts together seemed kind of odd, but then it occurred to me: What if my main character was considered a little odd? I started brainstorming the plot from there, and eventually, The Charming Life of Izzy Malone was born.

In addition to all that, I use Pinterest boards to help me brainstorm. I keep a collection of images for each book I write and I refer to them when I need a little bit of inspiration. You can find Izzy’s board here.

 

2.     Studying the stars, rowing a giant pumpkin in a regatta, collecting charms for a charm bracelet…your book is chock-full of interesting plot twists that will definitely keep middle grade readers turning pages. Are you a plotter or a pantster? Where do you get your plot ideas?

I’m definitely a mix of both. I try really hard to outline a book before I’ve written it; but inevitably it falls flat when I actually start to write the first draft. While I can discover some major plot points just through the brainstorming process, a lot of it I have to figure out along the way. I had the hardest time plotting out Izzy’s story. By the time I finally sent in a synopsis and sample chapters to my editor I’d already written (and discarded) hundreds of pages. Really hoping all my next books won’t be so difficult!    
 

3.      Izzy shows great emotional growth in this novel, changing from a girl with only the stars for her friends, to someone with three good friends at her side. I loved this line: “Because maybe the best kind of friends are like stars: bright and beautiful, appearing in the darkness just when you need them, giving you a little bit of light on a dark night.”
 

Do you plot an emotional arc for your main character before drafting? Or does this arc develop over the course of several drafts?

That is one of my favorite lines, too! My emotional arcs develop over the course of several drafts. I seriously envy writers who are able to produce really strong first drafts. But for me, I don’t feel like I create a story so much as I “discover” it, sort of like how an archeologist digs for artifacts. I feel like I am unearthing a book, and merely telling a story that already exists.

Unfortunately, that means I need to write several terrible drafts before I can really start getting to know my characters and understand the emotional journeys my main characters need to take. By the time my editor sees my completed “first” draft, really it’s closer to my twentieth draft. I really wish I wasn’t such a messy, slow writer, but honestly, that’s the only way I know how to do it.

 

4.     The Charming Life Of Izzy Malone ends with Izzy and her friends Daisy, Violet, and Sophia starting a Charm Girls club. It feels like the girls will keep meeting and having adventures! Any chance readers will have a chance to meet these girls in a sequel?

Yes! Right now I’m working on a sequel to Izzy, which will be told from Violet’s point of view. It’s slated for Fall of 2017 and will be titled The Wondrous World of Violet Barnaby. I can’t say a whole lot about the plot right now, but the details should be released in a few months here on Goodreads.

Thank you, Jenny!
If you'd like a chance to win an ARC of The Charming Life of Izzy Malone, enter a comment below. A winner will be drawn at random.