This week I have been working on a rewrite of my first attempt at a kids’ book. JOHNNY B. WEEYERD AND THE COSMIC ANNIHILATOR was written just over a year ago, whereupon I printed it off, stuffed it in a drawer, and never looked at it again.
Recently, my agent read the manuscript and thought it would be worth sending out to publishers, and so who am I to argue? Particularly as my agent is a woman, and it never pays to argue with a woman.
Anyway, before it goes out we decided it needed lengthened a bit. The original draft was a mere 23,000 words. This would make it long for a 7-9 year old book, and short for a 9-12, and that would likely put most publishers off. As a result I’m adding another subplot – involving the Prime Minister of Great Britain – and some other bits and bobs which should take the draft over 30,000 words or so. It’s still not long, but as the book is a fast-paced, comedy sci-fi, I think it’s probably long enough.
Since I’ve been busy with that, I haven’t had any time to read the books I picked up for World Book Day last week. My five-year-old picked a Captain Underpants book, and I took ODD AND THE FROST GIANTS by Neil Gaiman, and CHERUB: DARK SUN by Robert Muchamore.
I’m a bit of a fan of Gaiman through his SANDMAN comics, so I’m looking forward to reading OatFG. I haven’t got any knowledge or experience of the Cherub series, but as the book was only a quid, it seemed as good a time as any to start.
Also, this week, my girlfriend and I have been looking into moving to the Republic of Ireland. More on that soon . . .
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Leave a Reply