Well, now that I’ve finished the Seven Tales, I was seriously reluctant to leave that world. I wanted to write another fairy tale book immediately. But I’ve got other literary children that have been sitting patiently by the wayside waiting for me to get back to them and I couldn’t put them off any longer.
I have a kids’ humorous science fiction novel called Kana and the Red Pilot that I am dying to get out into the world. I have done test readings with junior high kids. I’ve let my family read it. I’ve even read excerpts in schools to grade six kids. Everyone wants to know when they can get a copy of it. Well, the big plan is to get the next illustrated book, Pretty Ballerina done. Then I’ll get Seven Talesout and then Kana . As far as a timeline goes, I’m hoping to get the three done before the end of the year, or not long after.
So that leaves me free to work on the sequel to Kana. Right now, it has a very lame title, so I’m not sure it’s going to stay. I’m currently reading over the book and making notes, then I’ll give it another serious edit. The first 80% is nearly perfect. The last bit just needs a little more work. But I can tell you, the first book was my ten-year-old brain’s dream book. That is, if I were ten years old, I would be hard-pressed to find a book that was more fun or exciting. And the sequel is better. I had to take breaks in reading it because I was afraid my little brain was going to explode. (Writers get to be the first readers and it’s awesome.)
So now the big plan is to spiff up Kana 2 and write Kana 3, which will finish up the series. I hope to do that by the end of the year, too. 2013, here I come!
(The image, BTW, is from Project Gutenberg eBook of Punch, Vol. 153, November 7, 1917)