Hi
folks,
I’ve
got a new novel coming out shortly from StoneGate Ink both as an ebook and as a
paperback, and it may be a surprise to some of y’all as it’s in a genre I haven’t
published before. It’s a YA.
And,
it’s clean. No cursing, no vampires, no explicit sex. I wrote it at a time when those
things weren’t around. Well, I guess sex was around, but not like it is today.
At least not the “in your face” variety we seem to encounter these days for
kids’ books.
That
may doom it… or it may not. We’ll see.
I
wrote MIRROR, MIRROR without any view to getting it published. I just wrote it
for my daughter Britney who was nine at the time. Just a labor of love. I
wanted to give her something I thought she’d enjoy. And, she did.
At
the time, I briefly considered trying to get it published and sent out the mss
to two publishers, Scholastic and Hyperion. Hyperion had just started up, which
tells you how long ago it was! I was new to publishing then, even though I had
a few books out, but didn’t really understand the industry well as evidenced by
what happened next.
I
got back lengthy letters from the chief editors at both places. One was five
pages long and the other, eight. Single-spaced and typed. That also tells how long ago this was... One wanted me to change the title as they had
one in the hopper with the same title. The other wanted me to recast it in
third person (it was--and still is--in first). She also sent me five of their paperbacks to
read so I’d know their “style.” Now, I know this is hard to believe—especially today,
when there’s so much knowledge about publishing—but I didn’t see either of
these responses as a “yes,” but rather, as really nice rejections. I put ‘em
both in the proverbial drawer, along with the manuscript, and forgot about
them.
Kind
of dumb, wasn’t it!
Guilty…
It
saw there for a long time, and then my daughter Britney and I were talking one
day about stuff, and suddenly, out of the blue, she said, “Dad, you remember
that book you wrote for me when I was a kid? Mirror, Mirror?” Well, yes, I said. “Well,” she
said, “it was four years before I could look into a mirror for longer than ten
seconds at a time. It scared the crap out of me!”
When
she said that, it dawned on me that perhaps it really was publishable. Britney
was (and is) a really smart person and from the time she was five read
voraciously. If she found it scary, then I figured it really might have some
legs.
And,
that’s when I hooked up with Aaron Patterson, the publisher of StoneGate Ink
and he agreed.
That’s
its little history. When Britney’s little sister, Sienna, came along, I had her
read it at about the same age Britney was when she first read it and her
reaction was pretty much the same as Britney’s. Scared the crap out of her.
I’ll
let you folks who pick it up be the judge. Look for it—it’s coming out pretty
soon and I’ll be sure to announce it here.
Hope
it keeps kids up at night and makes ‘em avoid mirrors…
Spoiler:
No vampires, no zombies, no explicit sex, no cursing.
Here's the synopsis of MIRROR, MIRROR:
Elizabeth
Mary Downing is a typical American teenager...almost. When she peers into a
mirror, she sees someone else staring back--an image identical to herself in
every detail save one--the mirror image has blue eyes. Elizabeth's eyes are brown!
She is told by her mirror counterpart, "Liz,” that she can enter any
mirror she wants through "trans-starence,” and when curiosity prevails
over fear she enters the mirror, trading places with Liz. The horror begins as
Liz wreaks havoc with what was a normal life. Elizabeth's attempts to trick Liz
into going back into the mirror reflect both suspense and humor, and just when
all hope seems lost, she succeeds...only to discover she has to return to the
mirror to reverse events and get her life back to where it was. She succeeds, but
she leaves part of herself forever in the mirror.
Blue
skies,
Les
Posts
