My Next Project

I now begin work on, Cecilia and the Yucky Muckys. It’s a middle grade novel. The idea for this originally began as a Picture Book about a little girl that planted toy items covered with chocolate syrup and candy bits. She then waited to see what would grow. The boys living next door taunted her for being so ridiculously silly. But when candy in the shapes of the toys bloomed, Cecilia had a tea party and invited the boys and her friends to eat the yummy candies. 

Though the story made me slightly nauseous, I took it to my then writer’s group. The reception was lukewarm which, for them, meant... the story sucked. I then asked my sister to read it. She flat out told me the story sucked.  Not to be daunted, I got back to work.

There was just one problem. The story was syrupy sweet. It made me sick inside. The story sucked. Lesson learned; listen to your critique group, your sister and mostly, trust your gut.

On the upside, when I let go the fantasy, sticky-icky candy elements, another story came forward. Last year I got out, in no particular order, about 4 chapters in rough for Cecilia and the Yucky Muckys. After a break, (breaks consist of working on other projects and some day dreaming about Cecilia’s story), I’m ready to get back to it. Today I begin with what I believe to be Chapter One of what I believe to be a Middle Grade Novel. My target is to have this completed by end of October. I hope when I’m done, I don’t realize it really should be a Picture Book.