Lil’ Post

Hiya.

Not much new and exciting here today.

Okay, that’s not entirely true.

I got a request for a full read of my old baby Travis & the Magic Sandbox. Pretty exciting. I decided to see if I had any new luck and lo and behold…BAM! An agent I have much, much respect for decided it sounded fun and wants to give it a whirl. This is despite the fact:

– That it’s a Middle Grade Book that clocks in at 82,000 words!
– That it’s set up as a series. (I plan to write ten of them!)
– That the 2nd book is already written!
– That it’s (gulp!) a ‘portal’ book*
– That she decided to pass on my other book I submitted to her.

So, that’s kind of cool, eh? In other news, I just wrote a very rough draft for what I believe will be my first picture book submission. It’s called Mine! and it chronicles the ground rules a boy has for a ‘visitor’ in his house. I’m hoping to get this thing in tip-top shape to start sending out soon.

Funny thing: While asking for advice on formatting Mine! I gave a kind of goofy example of the style my book is written in. I really quickly wrote 4 lines (again, as an example). Here they are:

They’re eating the picnic baskets and making a mess! Oh, those bears!
They’re climbing on the cars and knocking down trees! Oh, those bears!
I can see one swimming in the lake, scaring the ducks! Oh, those bears!
One is tearing down the laundry and wearing my hat! Oh, those bears!

Wouldn’t you know it? A couple people thought it was kind of catchy. Just because I don’t have enough to do, I’m going to attempt to write a picture book called…you guessed it: Oh, Those Bears!

What is it about the ‘fake’ ideas I have? They seem to generate more interest than my ‘real’ ones.

* What’s a portal book? It’s a book where the main character journeys to another world and/or time through a doorway or ‘portal’ of some sort. Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, His Dark Materials, etc… They’re deemed (in the eyes of some agents) as hackneyed and amateur-ish. Discovering I’d written a ‘portal’ book was what prompted me to shelve Book 3 in the series until things changed. We’ll see if things have changed, fair readers!!!