Every author has a novel that never sees the light of day--either it's too terrible to show, or it simply doesn't "take".
My first novel was definitely in the first category. Can you blame me? I was only ten years old.
It was a MG Science Fantasy. I was a voracious reader. Perhaps I read too much, because I ended up with a story of my own inside me that just Had To Get Out. But that's a first novel for you. Everyone who writes a first novel does so because it Has To Get Out.
Here's mine:
Ten-year-old Katie never fit in at school. After a particularly bad day, she runs away, only to find herself caught up in a nuclear accident. When she wakes up, she discovers she's got powers. Cool powers.
But her new-found telekinetic abilities do not endear her to her fellow students. The bullying doesn't stop. It simply changes its nature, fueled by a new reaction--fear.
For the first time in her life, adults are taking notice, but not in a good way. Katie's drawn the disapproving attention of teachers, the students' parents and some scary-looking outsiders in suits, who don't tell her who they are.
Except for one. "My name is Marianne," she says. "We need to talk."
Katie's never had an ally before--certainly never a friend. Is Marianne the one person who's on her side, or is there something far more sinister going on?
Over the next few years, I rewrote it several times. Eventually, I got it all out of me and could safely abandon it to the trunk.
This novel will probably never see the light of day, but it served its purpose--to get the story out of me. If I ever do choose to give it a chance, it will need some serious overhaul. Really serious overhaul.
After I finished "The Atomic Girl", I went on to write another novel, as you do.
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Her Grace has known for a Very Long Time that she is a novelist. Before writing her first novel, she had penned several short stories and poems, to local acclaim. But there's something about novels that sings to her heart.
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