Interview with Jo Michaels, author of The Abigale Chronicles

Jo Michaels is a  friend of mine. We met during the Author Blog Challenge. I loved reading her blog during the challenge, and she is one of those naturally generous writers who commented on everyone else's blogs during the challenge and was willing to spend her time helping others. I asked her if she's be willing to do an interview for the Chapter Book Challenge and she graciously agreed.

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I can’t remember the exact day/time that I decided I wanted to be a writer. It’s always been a part of me for as long as I can remember. I learned to read because I remember being little and staring at the words typed across the page and thinking: There is some great mystery in this because all the adults do it. What are they hiding from me? I have to learn! But writing just came naturally. If you’re asking when I decided to write full-time, that was last year. I decided to grab my proverbial bull by the horns and live the life I wanted, rather than the life I was told I should live.


What inspired you to write your chapter book series The Abigale Chronicles?
Simple answer: my daughter. Not so simple answer: I was making notes in my idea book while thinking of something my daughter might like to read and came up with the idea for a series about a little girl who loses herself in her stories – literally. I thought how great it would be if I threw in a twist about the girl not knowing if she was dreaming or really taking her little trips. There are clues in the books that will tell you the answer if you’re a good detective.


You have both a historical fiction book, Yassa, and a nonfiction book, The Indie Author's Guide to: Building a Great Book out.  How was writing your chapter books different from writing your historical fiction and your nonfiction books?
There are so many differences with all three. Yassa required a ton of research because it’s based on actual events, The Indie Author’s Guide to: Building a Great Book didn’t because the content stemmed from my own knowledge as a designer and indie publisher, and The Abigale Chronicles series allows me to use my imagination along with a little research. For book two, I used a lot of references I found around the web about cat breeds. You won’t find a ton of description about the cats in the book because I want kids to be inspired to look things up.


What made you decide to self-publish your chapter books?
Truth be told, I never even sought a publisher for that series. I’d like to keep as much of my profits as possible, and with my design knowledge I can put out quality material with little effort on the design end.


Would you recommend self-publishing to other chapter book authors?
Absolutely. But I will also issue a warning to anyone wishing to write and publish juvenile fiction: There are a ton of us out there and your competition is heady. Two of the most published types of books are juvenile fiction and how-to books. Know your market.


What would you do differently now if you could start over (if anything)?
I would have taken more risks in the publishing world sooner and done more research about what I was getting into before I dove in. There just wasn’t a book like The Indie Author’s Guide out there anywhere. It was disheartening and I flailed around trying. My personal experiences with distributors are outlined in the book, and I hope that tidbit of information helps others avoid the same mistakes I made.


Any tips for aspiring chapter book authors?Don’t stop writing if your first book doesn’t sell well. You have to have a lot of books out there before you can hope to be discovered easily. A good example is The Abigale Chronicles – Book One. When it went up for free, I only garnered about 25 downloads. My thought was: Gee, I can’t even give this book away. Why bother continuing? But then I got a couple of really great reviews and sales picked up! When book two launched, my first giveaway garnered over 50 downloads. My hopes are that people will become fans of the series by reading the first few and come back for more. I plan to write until Abigale is 18 years old (she’ll age by one year every three or four books) so there will be a lot of them before a definite end is reached. That’s another tip! Have the end in mind if you’re planning a series.

Do you have any books in the works?Yes. I have three. A series for Young Adults called Mystic (due out in October, 2012), a romance novel titled Player (December, 2012), and The Abigale Chronicles – Book Three (due out in September, 2012).

Abigale Book One Synopsis:
Abigale Fontenot is a 12 year old girl living in West Bluff, Louisiana, who believes she is perfectly ordinary. When she is threatened by a bully on her way to school one day, what happens causes Abigale to begin a new journey; she has to ask herself: "Is it real or is it all just a dream?"As Abigale learns in Book One, things are rarely exactly as they seem. Friendships are formed with unlikely people: a wizened old woman and Abigale's arch nemesis, Emmett, and with their help Abigale learns she is far from ordinary. Book One of The Abigale Chronicles will leave readers itching for more to find out for themselves just what in the World is happening to Abigale.

Abigale Book Two Synopsis:
Twelve-year-old Abigale Fontenot is struggling to figure out whether her adventures are real or imagined. After an adventure with Amazonian women in book one, Abigale and Emmett have formed a bond through mutual trust and secrets, but Kristy has turned against Abigale because of it. Now, Abigale again finds herself in a precarious situation with a city full of talking cats. Emmett is once more by her side as she faces down a vicious cat queen in an attempt to avoid certain death and restore the leadership of the city to its rightful owner. Will they succeed, or will they be roasted alive? What will happen when Kristy overhears the discussions about the adventures with Ada?

Abigale Book Three Synopsis:
Abigale Fontenot is turning thirteen. Just when she thinks her birthday couldn't possibly get any worse, a new adventure takes hold. Abigale and Emmett are whisked away to a world of fantasy where knights, dragons, and princesses are the order of the day. Abigale is kidnapped by an evil prince in a nearby kingdom, and it's up to Emmett to rescue her. But Abigale finds that escape is not the most important thing; restoring the evil prince's kindness that has been locked away in a magical book by a wicked sorceress must come first. While Emmett is trying to rescue Abigale, she is trying to free the prince from his curse. Will she succeed in her quest before the evil prince kills Emmett, or will she fail and lose her new best friend? Will death matter if the whole thing is a dream, or are the adventures real and truly dangerous?

You can find Jo on her blog or via Twitter. All books are linked on the top of the blog.

Bio:

Jo Michaels was born in 1977 in Tennessee. She moved to Louisiana when she was four, then to Georgia in 2010. Her first book, The Abigale Chronicles - Book One, has received many accolades for its original and inspiring protagonist, Abigale Fontenot. The children's chapter book was written for Jo's daughter and is about the power of imagination helping someone become extraordinary. Michaels holds a degree in Graphic Design and all artwork associated with her material is original and done by her.

Chapter Book Challenge 2012 - Final Day Progress Reports

2012

Well, the month of March is officially over now, and we have all either completed our chapter books or or further along in writing them than we were at the beginning of March. For those of you who didn't get the chance to read yesterday's post, I have given an extension to the challenge, only because this is the first year of the challenge. Everyone who hasn't quite completed their chapter book now has one extra week to do so. The extra week will not be given in future challenges, only this year's challenge.

For a while, I thought I was going to need the extension to complete my chapter book, but I managed to finish my chapter book yesterday.  It's only a rough draft. It's 11 chapters and around 10,000 words long. I think, as I edit it, it might grow a bit as I can think of a few things that I meant to add into the story and forgot about while writing it. When I say it is a rough draft, I mean it is a VERY rough draft and it is going to need some serious and extensive editing before it is ready for the next stage of critiquing.

How did everyone else do? I really want to know, so please let me know in the comments. Don't worry if you didn't finish as you still have the extra week to try and complete your manuscript.

You might ask why I am giving an extra week when the challenge is self-monitored anyway. The reason is that I will be sending out winner magnets to everyone who completed the challenge on time, and I want to make sure everyone has the chance to complete the challenge. Naturally, I need mailing addresses in order to send the magnets out, so if you have completed the challenge (and you are officially signed up to the challenge), then let me know where to send your winner magnet. Private message me through Facebook or send me an e-mail through the "contact me" link in the sidebar.

Using the random number generator at Random.org, I now have a winner to announce for last week's prize of the Chapter Book Challenge 2012 official mug.




The winner is Alison K Hertz! Alison, I need a mailing address to send your prize to you.

I have a surprise though. One person was remarkably helpful and active (and very positive) in the Facebook group. Louise Nottingham has also won a Chapter Book Challenge 2012 official mug for her helpfulness and for being so active in the group. (Melissa Gijsbers Khalinsky, you were a close second behind her, so you will have tiny little surprise in the mail to you as a thank you.)

The point of the Chapter Book Challenge is to help inspire us as authors and writers, to give us the additional help of a community who are working on a similar form of book and to give us all the kick up the backside that we need to keep us writing. We have all been learning through this (I hope), and I plan on continuing to learn about the process of writing chapter books and to share what I've learned. The official challenge is over until March 2013, but that doesn't mean that I will just neglect this blog or the Facebook group. The group will be staying open, and I will continue looking for published chapter book authors and agents and publishers of chapter books to guest post here and share some of their knowledge with us.

We are all in this writing business together, so the more we help one another, the more we learn and grow in our own writing.

(I will post another update post next week to see what the final tally is for participants.)

Need Some Extra Days to Write for the Chapter Book Challenge?

2012Technically, today is the last day of the Chapter Book Challenge. By midnight tonight, if you haven't finished your chapter book, you have not succeeded at the challenge. HOWEVER, I am never so strict as that and the whole point of this challenge is to inspire and give members the needed push to finish writing a chapter book. So, I am, for one time only, in honor of the fact that this is the first EVER Chapter Book Challenge, extending the time everyone has to finish their chapter book. I'm giving everyone one more week.

I will still be posting my progress tomorrow to let everyone know if I have finished my chapter book. (I have a lot of writing to do today!) and I will be announcing the winner of last week's prize too.


Within the four weeks of March, I managed to find us four published chapter book authors to guest post, one for every week. I have arranged for four prizes (one for every week) to be won and sent out, and even arranged a prize of a first chapter critique from one of the published authors which was won from week two.

The weekly prizes (and their shipping costs) came out of my own pocket, so I have learned that I need to plan ahead for next year's prizes. Next March, I will try and have some editors and publishers of chapter books guest posting as well. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions for the 2013 Chapter Book Challenge, I am happy to hear them. I want this challenge to grow and improve each year that we do it.

There is another prize still to be won (possibly two), but that one has a different criteria from the others so I will announce it tomorrow.

I hope everyone has been enjoying this challenge and has found it helpful in getting them to finish their chapter books, or at least to write more of their chapter books than they otherwise would have.

And one more thing, if you are officially signed up for this year's Chapter Book Challenge and you have a blog of your own, check the right sidebar of this blog and see if your blog is included in the "Chapter Book Challenge members' blogs." If not, then let me know the name and url of your blog in the comments below and I will add yours to the list.
Until tomorrow...

Writing for Children in Today's Society & Keeping Them Hooked! - guest post by published chapter book author Martin King

There’s been a big hoo-hah in the press just recently over violent video games having a damaging effect on primary school children. It’s been claimed that many are staying up beyond midnight whilst playing games unsupervised by their parents.

Now while I’m not here to express my opinion on what is, or is not right for children of that age, one fact is clear, books are fast in danger of becoming a thing of the past. They simply cannot compete. Not only are games pushing the boundaries of adrenalin fuelled action, but everything else available to a child is raising the bar.

Mobile phones that have metamorphosis into smart phones (now known as mobile devices), use of internet, and handy tablets like iPad’s are just a few of those items. Then there’s 24 hour TV with 100’s of channels, catch up on demand and memory hard drives to store all your favourites on. Not to mention HDTV, 3D, Blu ray, bigger and more spectacular special effects in movies. Dare I go on...?

And what have publishers done with books in all of this time? Absolutely nothing!

But have no fear because schools are fighting back with reading schemes. Children are encouraged to take nominated books home, read them and write a review. But what happens if a child is given a book they don’t like? They still have to read it because it is part of their lesson. One forced book that a child does not want to read can destroy a life time of reading.

This post is not about the rights and wrongs of what should or should not be undertaken. It is merely pointing out the challenges facing young readers today. As an author, I felt it was my duty to do everything within my writing power to bring back the readability factor into a story, the fun into the novel, the excitement into the adventure.

So that is exactly what I set out to achieve. I asked myself as I put some of the finishing touches to the first Jack Hunter novel, if I was a child today, would I want to sacrifice many of the above time wasting activities for my book? As well as a child friendly story with villains and clues, twists and mystery, I wove a game into the pages. Not only that, but I made the book interactive with the internet. What I tried to do was give a young modern-day reader a fighting chance of living their adventure in the pages of a book just like I did when I was young.

Who should you write for?

When writing your book, try and look at life through the eyes when you were a child. Every word and sentence you craft should steal away a child’s imagination. When you walk along the pavement, you walk with a purpose, serious and determined – you have a deadline.

Now picture yourself walking that same journey as a child? You jump up and run along the wall, swing around the lamppost, skip up and down the kerb and weave in and out of passengers. You may even pluck leaves and flower heads off a shrub overhanging from a garden, or pick up a stick and rattle it along a fence. That is how you should write...

Why write?

Not to be rich...wrong answer, now go to the back of the class! For the audience, for the passion and for fun!

When to write?

Write every single day!

Martin King is a UK-based author of Jack Hunter - Secret of the King and has a website for children.

Martin King's website
Martin King's blog
Martin King on Twitter
Martin King on Facebook

Fourth & Final Week of the Chapter Book Challenge Starts Now!

Just days left to go until our chapter books are supposed to be finished. We should be almost ready to wrap up the writing on our first draft, so that we can turn to editing and cleaning our manuscripts up after this month ends.

How are you doing with the challenge? Have you, as I have, fallen behind? Are you planning to fit in a lot of writing time in this last week? Or are you almost finshed and planning to begin your editing in this last week? Wherever you are in the process, let us know in the comments.


There is now a selection of products with the challenges logo on them. I still need to go in and clean up some of the products by making sure that the logo fits correctly, and I will have it all looking good a few days from now, but the mugs and t-shirts should all be looking good already.


Melissa Gijsbers Khalinsky from the Chapter Book Challenge Facebook group mentioned her 10 year old son giggling as he read her manuscript, and it got me to thinking about my own manuscript. I don't know why I haven't had my 9 year old read it yet. I am working on three different stories and dividing my time between them because I can't decide which one I want to work on more. Melissa gave me the idea that I should have my daughter read them and tell me which one she enjoys the most of the three. Then I could focus on that one first.
The prize for this week is an official Chapter Book Challenge 2012 mug. All you need to do to be entered into the drawing to win this book is to be officially signed up to the Chapter Book Challenge and to comment on this post, letting me know how you are doing in the challenge so far. The winner will be chosen by a random drawing.



It's time to announce the winner of last week's prize, selected by random drawing. Last week's prize was the "The Everything Guide to Writing Children's Books: How to Write, Publish, and Promote Books for Children of All Ages!" by Peter Abrahams.




And the winner of last week's prize is: Rena J. Traxel! Rena e-mail me your mailing address so I can send this out to you.

When is a Chapter Book Not a Chapter Book? - guest post by published chapter book author Jonathan Gould

Published chapter book author Jonathan Gould has kindly offered a guest post her for us all on a topic many of us have questioned throughout the course of this challenge.


When is a chapter book not a chapter book?

First of all, I just wanted to say how pleased I was to be invited to participate in this fantastic event.

When I was first invited, I put a bit of thought into how I could best contribute. Over the years I’ve written a large number of what could be considered chapter books (or junior novels as I believe they’re often referred to here in Australia). With most of them, I was pretty certain that they would fall under this definition. After all, they’re quite short, they’re divided into self-contained chapters, they’re illustrated (at least the ones that have been published are) and they’re clearly aimed at younger readers.

But in addition to the ones described above, I have a number of other stories as well. In some ways, they could be thought of as chapter books, but in other ways, I’m not sure. While they’re definitely split into chapters, they’re possibly a bit longer than your average chapter book – closer to 20,000 words - which is probably at the upper end, although maybe not quite out of range. Also, they’re not illustrated, although again it’s possible that they could be – the reasons for the lack of illustrations were mostly financial.

But the main reason for my ambivalence is because I’m not quite sure what age group they’re primarily for. Unlike most of the chapter books (or prospective chapter books) I’ve written, with these stories I didn’t have a clear idea of the age of the readership in mind. I just wanted to write something I would enjoy reading. And as I’m a bit of a big kid at heart, they kind of came out looking a bit like kid’s books, but there’s a lot there that adults can (and do) appreciate as well.

Which I guess leads to the fundamental question behind this post. How easy is it to define exactly what a chapter book is? Does it have to be a certain length? Does it need pictures? Is it something that was written with a clearly defined age-range in mind or can it cover a broader range of stories that can have appeal to readers beyond a specific age group?

I don’t know the answers to these questions. Maybe if I provide some evidence, the jury out there can come to a decision.

Exhibit A: A Right Royal Day

Published by Macmillan Education in Australia as part of their Breakers Series. Distributed to schools only.

Length: ~2,200 words

Age range: 7.5-8.5 years

King Richard is a rather short king who has trouble getting the people in his palace to pay attention to him. His wife just talks on her mobile phone and his servants never follow his instructions. But when he goes outside to play, he meets a couple of lads. They play toss the crown, pretend to have sword fights, and use his gown as a swing. All in all, it is one right royal day.

My verdict: Almost certainly a chapter book

Exhibit B: Madoop and the Mountain Mower

Published by Macmillan Education in Australia as part of their Breakers Series. Distributed to schools only.

Length: ~4,600 words

Age range: 8.5-10.5 years

Madoop is a young boy living in the kingdom of Oopsalonia, famed for its majestic mountains. Unfortunately, King Oopsbert who is rather short (are you detecting a theme here?) is offended by the height of the mountains and wishes them to be cut down. He forces his royal inventor, McGroody, to invent a series of machines designed to cut down mountains. Poor Madoop, who loves the mountains, is forced to come up with a clever plan to save the day.

My verdict: Almost certainly a chapter book

Exhibit C: Doodling

Published on Amazon as an ebook

Length: ~17,000 words

Age range: 10-100

Neville Lansdowne has fallen off the world (because it’s moving too fast). He finds himself marooned in the middle of an asteroid field in outer space. He begins to explore the asteroid field, meeting some rather peculiar people and experiencing some most unexpected adventures.

My verdict: I’m really not sure.

Exhibit D: Flidderbugs

Published on Amazon as an ebook

Length: ~17,000 words

Age range: 10-100

As Kriffle the Flidderbug investigates why his fellow 'bugs find it impossible to agree on the pressing issue of how many points there are on the leaves of the tree on which they live, he finds that the truth is more complicated, and ultimately more terrifying, than he ever could have imagined.

My verdict: I’m really not sure

That concludes my evidence. I’d be interested in what other readers, both young and old, think about the question. How clearly can we define exactly what a chapter book is? And when is a chapter book not a chapter book?

Three tips I would give for anyone wanting to write a chapter book (and get published):

1. Focus on the story idea - try to write something fresh and new and enthralling for readers of the age you're aiming at.

2. Structure is important - use the chapter structure to keep readers interested - end chapters with questions, mysteries and cliff-hangers.

3. Character makes story. Bring in strong characters and use them to drive the story forward, rather than having to plot out by guessing what might happen next.

Thanks for having me.

About Jonathan Gould

Jonathan Gould is a Melbourne-based writer and doodler.

He calls his stories "dag-lit" because they're the sort of stories that don't easily fit into the standard genres. Some might think of them as comic fantasies, or modern fairytales for the young and the young-at-heart.

Over the years, his writing has been compared to Douglas Adams, Monty Python, A.A. Milne, Lewis Carroll, the Goons, Dr Seuss and even Enid Blyton (in a good way).

You can be in touch with him via:

His blog
Twitter: @jonno_go
Facebook
Goodreads

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I know I don't even have to say this as you are all pretty good about letting the authors who guest post here know that you appreciate the time they have given to do so, but please leave a comment to let Jonathan know you appreciate his post.

Onwards to Week 3 of the Chapter Book Challenge!

We are about to begin week 3 of the Chapter Book Challenge. Hopefully, we have all achieved a lot in the first two weeks and are progressing at a good pace into our third week. I confess that I am a little bit behind where I thought I would be right now with my writing, but no so far behind that I can't catch up.

The prize for this week is "The Everything Guide to Writing Children's Books: How to Write, Publish, and Promote Books for Children of All Ages!" by Peter Abrahams. All you need to do to be entered into the drawing to win this book is to be officially signed up to the Chapter Book Challenge and to comment on this post, letting me know how you are doing in the challenge so far. The winner will be chosen by a random drawing.



And now for the fun part. I get to announce the winners of last week's challenge. The prize was a "Novel under Construction" journal.



And the winner is Kelly McDonald! Contact me when you can with a mailing address for your journal.


I hope you all enjoyed the guest post by published chapter book author Adam Wallace. And here comes another fun part; I get to anounce the winner of his giveaway too! The winner of a brief first chapter critique of their chapter book by Adam Wallace is, again, Kelly McDonald! The drawings are done through the random number generator at Random.org, and Kelly commented on both posts. This appears to have been a very lucky day for Kelly!


Let me know how your progressing in the challenge. And as always, if you need any help, feel free to contact me.