Category: middle grade

The Eye of Midnight
by Andrew Brumbach (Author)

Booktalk: The BIG Picture

On a stormy May day in 1929, William and Maxine arrive on the doorstep of Battersea Manor to spend the summer with a grandfather they barely remember. Whatever the cousins expected, Colonel Battersea isn’t it.

Soon after they settle in, Grandpa receives a cryptic telegram and promptly whisks the cousins off to New York City so that he can meet an unknown courier and collect a very important package. Before he can do so, however, Grandpa vanishes without a trace.

When the cousins stumble upon Nura, a tenacious girl from Turkey, she promises to help them track down the parcel and rescue Colonel Battersea. But with cold-blooded gangsters and a secret society of assassins all clamoring for the same mysterious object, the children soon find themselves in a desperate struggle just to escape the city’s dark streets alive.

#kidlit Writing Lesson: the small details

Grandpa isn’t home when the two cousins arrive, so they go looking for him. Soon they end up in the cluttered basement:

And one detail in particular was impossible to ignore: in shape, the crate was very much like a coffin. As the cousins’ eyes met, there was no doubt they shared the same impression.

“What’s Grandpa got in there?” asked William uneasily.

The lid was pasted with several shipping labels and a conspicuous yellowed tag, which Maxine dusted off with her shirtsleeve.

“Noli me tangere,” she read.

“Is that Greek?” asked William.

“Latin, I think,” she replied. “I’ve seen it before in a book at school.”

“What does it mean?

Maxine traced the words with her finger, racking her brain, and the translation came to her suddenly from the depths of her memory.

“Touch me not.”

Notice the action / reaction pattern. The cousins see the crate:

And one detail in particular was impossible to ignore: in shape, the crate was very much like a coffin.

And then readers see their reaction:

As the cousins’ eyes met, there was no doubt they shared the same impression.

Dialogue is next:

“What’s Grandpa got in there?” asked William uneasily.

The dialogue is followed by description and a new action:

The lid was pasted with several shipping labels and a conspicuous yellowed tag, which Maxine dusted off with her shirtsleeve.

“Noli me tangere,” she read.

That leads to a new question:

“Is that Greek?” asked William.

And a new answer:

“Latin, I think,” she replied. “I’ve seen it before in a book at school.”

Which leads to another question:

“What does it mean?

And the search for an answer:

Maxine traced the words with her finger, racking her brain, and the translation came to her suddenly from the depths of her memory.

The chapter ends with an answer that leads to even more questions:

“Touch me not.”

Copyright © 2016 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Cynthia Reeg (one of my former students) asked me to do a “cover reveal” for her forthcoming book, FROM THE GRAVE, the first book in the MONSTER OR DIE trilogy. (The book comes out on October 18, 2016, just in time for Halloween!)

Booktalk: The BIG Picture

Monster is as monster does, but Frankenstein Frightface Gordon is totally the wrong shade of ghastly green—pale, baby blue, in fact—and he’s more concerned with keeping his pants neat and tidy than scaring the pants off his victims. But when a new law is passed to rid Uggarland of misfits such as Frank, he must decide if he will become the monster his parents can be proud of or be the monster he can be proud of. Trusting the most monsterly monster he knows, Frank looks to the grave and his dead grandmother to make his choice, entering into an adventure that most likely will seal his doom.

Or prove he is truly monster enough.

#kidlit Writing Lesson: the small details

Q. When did you start writing, Cynthia?

A. Really, I hardly remember a time when I didn’t write. As soon as I learned to read, I started thinking of my own stories and poems. Throughout my schooling from elementary to college, I enjoyed literature and writing classes. I went on to earn a Masters in Library Science, so as a librarian I was surrounded by books every day. After working in school and public libraries, I decided to take some specific classes on writing children’s literature because I loved igniting a literary fire in students. Anastasia’s online classes were especially helpful to me at this time. I also joined SCBWI and made it to as many conferences and courses as I could.

Q. Describe your writing process.

A. When an idea comes to me, I like to let it ferment a bit. I might start exploring the characters, fleshing them out on paper. But in my first draft, I don’t like to study my characters too much before throwing them into motion. I love to have them come to life on the page, see them play off each other in dialogue and action. This is how I get to know them better, when I let my subconscious mind take over. New characters and subplots show up for me when I allow the story to happen. In Anastasia’s chapter book writing class, I first learned about breaking down a scene. This was an eye-opening exercise for me, examining the beats and the plus and negative emotions in a scene.

I also like to have a very simple outline—1 or 2 sentences highlighting what will happen in a chapter. This helps prevent writer’s block. Often though in subsequent revisions, many scenes/even sometimes chapters will be deleted, but I find there is less major revising if I make a simple outline. And I really do love revising. The fine-tuning for me is like creating a symphony—trying to make all the different elements work together throughout the entirety of the piece. As you may have guessed by this last analogy, I always have classical music playing in the background while I work.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that there is also research involved in pre-writing. Even with my fantasies, I research various elements and personalities. For me, this research provides invaluable building blocks for the story, as well as impetus for new ideas.

Q. Tell us about your latest book.

A. I wanted to make a fun, engaging fantasy that would appeal to both boys and girls. Plus, I wanted the book to explore the concepts of bullying and prejudice in a surprising setting—a world of monsters. I enjoyed combining humor, horror, and action in a relevant literary work for middle grade readers. And I hope that even with its share of silliness, that FROM THE GRAVE will provide an avenue for discussion in the classroom about these issues—and it’s sequel as well. INTO THE SHADOWLANDS is slated for release in 2017!

Copyright © 2016 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.