Today I have finished my first children’s book, entitled The Blue Mirror. It has taken three months to write and it now has 12 chapters and over 17,000 words. It is aimed at 7 to12 year olds.
I knew the story because I invented it over 30 years ago and told it to my children at their bedtime over a period of weeks. It is a tale of an old silver hand mirror that, whenever it is asked a question by the person who owns it, always shows – but not tells – the truth. For the duration of my story the mirror comes into the hands of a boy and a girl who have many adventures and insights with it. My children very much enjoyed it, and so I decided earlier this year to pull it out of my memory bank and retell it for my four grandchildren, who live in Africa.
Every week I would write one chapter, record it myself and send it to them by WhatsApp. My grandchildren range in age from 8 to 2, and the story was pitched for the two older ones although I understand that the younger two loved listening to it as well. I have had lots of interesting feedback and I have thoroughly enjoyed this writing and recording project.
I must now return to writing adult fiction and continue with a collection of short stories which has been half finished for some time. My first book was a collection of short stories and since then I have written 3 novels, but I love the short story form and I have a number already planned out in my head and on paper. I hope to get this collection finished by the end of the year.
But I might also carry out some PEP’s on the children’s book. PEP is my shorthand for ‘pruning, editing and polishing’. When I have done that I might submit it for publication. Who knows?