A little embarrassing - But Definitely Flattering

Following on from my last post...



One of my Year 6 test readers, read part of my book 'Paper Magic' out loud to his little sister in Year 2. Then he gave it back before she found out how it ended.



Over the last week or so, Mr Peter's Year 2 class has been doing writing. He reads sections from classic children's literature then as a class have disected the writing to help the children improve their own writing and comprehension skills.



While Mr. Peter's was reading from the Hobbit, the above mentioned student commented, "You should read Mr. Doherty's book. It's better than this!" She then continued to bother him enough that he finally asked me if I would read my book to his class.



So I spent the afternoon talking about writing, and rewriting and how when you finally have a book you are happy with, how you go about trying to get it published. That's when the fun started. I read the first half of the book, did some magic along the way and helped the kids make paper frogs.



I have been booked for a return engagement tomorrow afternoon to finish the story. The first part of the story went down really well. Even some of the wriggly boys sat listening for a good forty-five minutes. I was impressed. I have a little bit of magic tucked up my sleeve for tomorrows reading. (When I finally get published, school visits are going to be my favourite part of the job).



I was a little embarrassed about being held up above Tolkien (certainly not my claim - but it made my day all the same).



I thought, to make my book just a little bit more like a 'proper' book, I'd throw together a sample book cover. It definitely needs work - doesn't capture the tone of the story yet - but here it is.

PAPER MAGIC - Test Readers

It has been a long process writing Paper Magic.

That might seem strange for an 8000 word children’s chapter book, but Paper Magic started life as a picture book text called Marina Mack and the Magic Paper. Granted, it was a commercially unviable-long picture book text. After fourteen drafts I could only hone it down to 1600 words. That is where it sat, filed away for a couple of years while I worked on other projects.
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Last year, I redrafted Marina from a picture book text into a short story version for the Charlotte Duncan Award. Surprisingly to me - as some of my favourite children’s authors had also entered - the story was shortlisted.
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When Sandy Fussell suggested turning Paper Magic into a chapter book and offered to help with the editing process I couldn’t believe it. She is such a brilliant writer and generous person. Her help with the rewriting process has been invaluable. Each chapter of Paper Magic has gone through at least four new drafts. The last few chapters still have some minor polishing to complete them but I thought it was time to find some test readers to get a little audience feedback.
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Most of the children from the Year Six class I work with knew I was almost finished writing a children’s book. Five of them asked me almost every day, ‘Have you finished your book yet?’ or ‘Can I read your book when it’s finished?’ So I printed off a copy each for them to read.

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Thank you Hannah, Bethany, Jess, Lucas and Kyle from 6J. The verbal feedback so far has been very positive. Lucas’ mother told me he got home from school, sat down and didn’t move or speak until he had finished reading the book. It has now been read by her and her younger son Noah.
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The surprising thing has been a number of other children from the class, ones I wouldn’t have expected, have asked for copies to read. Again, thanks to Tom H. Maree, Mekaela and Kaitlin. One of the girls complained today that she had only read two chapters because her mum had stolen the book and won’t give it back until she has finished reading it herself.
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I know you can’t really judge a manuscript from the feedback of children that know you personally. Their comments are skewed in your favour because they do know you. Still, I’m more than happy with the test reader results. All the readers are all going to give me their –hopefully - honest opinions of Paper Magic after the holidays.

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I can't wait.

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