Talking to Kevin last night about the new book, he asked me what Kavi would think of it. And I told him that she was too young — my protagonist is 18, and Kavi is only 10; kids read up, but the likely reader for this book would be 15-ish. If I wanted to write something for Kavi to read soon, I’d be writing something starting at the beginning of high school, not college. And I didn’t really have anything interesting to say about high school…
Of course, once I said that, I couldn’t help thinking a little about what I would say in a high school book, if I wrote one. And actually, it wouldn’t be too hard to construct an interesting book out of my high school experience. I’m not certain what the center of it would be, or the plot, but there are all sorts of vivid scenes and details that would be fun to put in. Maybe something about desperate desire to fit in / how much you’re willing to compromise yourself in the effort.
A little brown girl at an all-girls’ prep school in Connecticut — not a completely overdone story yet, I think, and perhaps of interest to Kavi, although also very far from her own likely experience. Well, we’ll see.
Today I woke up, made tea, got kids off to the school, wrote for an hour and have a new 1200 words in the YA novel. LOVE starting the day this way. Lots of things to get through next, so onwards…