Something happened this week, which made me incredibly happy.
As you’re aware, if you have been following this blog for any length of time – the first draft of my Middle-Grade book is now finished.
This week, I received the comments back from my Editor and…
There is still much to be done – but she thinks the story is really strong. Cue a little happy dance at this end!
I so easily could have set aside six weeks of my life to write it and the first person who read it think it wasn’t up to scratch.
I can’t even begin to tell you how happy it made me feel.
Now I don’t know why or even how but as I’ve mentioned before, there’s something about this book that’s special.
And as soon as I started going through the comments, I found myself being sucked back into the world of my main character.
I can honestly say it’s one of my favourite places to be. That and spending time with my two boys of course :-).
The really special thing about this book is that one of the main characters was dreamt up for me by my dad.
He used to tell me stories about him when I was just nine years-old.
And I begged him to write them down. I even sketched out in my limited artistic ability back then, what he would look like.
That drawing stayed, taped to the wall of our garage at our old home for years until we moved.
I can still see it now but sadly can’t remember exactly what the stories were about – other than they were magical and had this character and one other at their heart.
Sadly, my dad was very creative but never got around to writing that book.
And I guess this is the reason for this post.
It was a missed opportunity, and if you have something you are thinking about doing – don’t just let it pass you by until it’s too late.
Thankfully becoming a mum made me realise how precious every single moment is.
It’s made me want to set an example to my son so that he grows up knowing that you can follow your dreams and you should never give up.
I have however chosen to look on this missed opportunity as something else.
I see it as my dad’s gift to me because, without the name of that character, I never would have started writing the story.
And once it’s re-drafted and is in as good a shape as it can be, I hope that a literary agent will see it for what it is.
A special story and a tribute to someone who I loved very much.
Happy weekend all whatever you’re up to and never stop believing in yourself… x
ps the image above is where I wrote most of the book so I thought it the most apt to accompany this post x
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