I’ve been looking for First Readers for a while for my adult work with little success but I really haven’t bothered with my young fiction.  I think part of the reason for that is I’ve been focusing too much on adult fiction.  I’m not sure why that is; I enjoy writing stories for a younger audience so why don’t I do more of it?

That’s about to change.

I had a couple of story ideas that really reached out and grabbed me by the collar.  Both ideas were for younger readers, one for age 9 – 12 and the other for young adults.  As soon as they hit me I jotted them down as I usually do and got on with my day.  But, as I worked, I couldn’t shake them.  I kept thinking about them.

I decided to pitch the ideas to my kids since they were the intended audience for both stories.  I told my son the story for his age group as far as I had imagined it.  When I finished he asked “Keep going Dad.  What happens next?”.

Very cool!

I had to admit that I didn’t have the entire story quite worked out yet.  He assured me that it was a story he would read.  My daughter agreed.  I was on a roll so I told them the other story idea.  My daughter was skeptical at first because she thought it sounded like something she had read before.  When I further explained the idea, both kids were on board for that one too.

A day later, my son came home from school to announce that he had told his buddies about the first story and they wanted to read it too.

I think my First Reader problems for my younger fiction are over.  It also appears that I have some built in marketing machines in my family too.

I’m really excited about both stories.  I’ve decided to write the Young Adult story for Nano this year.  I already have a pretty solid premise that I’m going to build on and have outlined for November.

Why am I waiting so long?

Well, I started writing the story for ages 9 – 12 yesterday.  I’m going to try and bang that one out in a month.  My goal is to have it finished, edited and polished before fall so I can start sending it out.  I’m also reworking my adult fantasy (to be done by October).  There’s also a few of my short stories that I’m going to edit for submission.  Ideally, that will mean that I have three books and a hand-full of short stories making the rounds before Nano starts.

Oh yeah, and it’s summertime so I will be trying to get a couple things done around the house too.

That ought to be enough to keep me busy for a little while.