I’ve been working lately on getting SHAKEN ready to pitch to agents and editors at the Mount Hermon Christian Writer’s Conference in April. I have discovered that publicizing, pitching and selling your writing is so much more intense than the writing itself. There are so many hoops you have to jump through. No longer does a writer sit down and write a story, send it off to a publisher and then sit back and wait for the checks to roll in. Perhaps that never was the case, I don’t know. But now, the writer must meet and impress the editors in person, cajole them to read their work, package it into deliverable sound-bites that can be “pitched in an elevator” and all of this while designing business cards, websites, blogs and arranging school visits and other publicity events. It’s all a bit overwhelming!
But I have learned quickly that this process of streamlining your work and your mission into “soundbites easily delivered in an elevator” can be extremely beneficial for me, the writer. I have been forced to ask myself these questions:
Why do I write for this age group (9-14 year old girls)?
Who is my audience?
What other books is my audience reading?
What types of things does my audience wish to read?
The first question has truly intrigued me this week. Why am I writing to this age group? I am not a “youth leader” at my church, I do not have kids this age (my son is nine, my daughter is 6), I am not a teacher… What is it about this age group that interests me? How am I qualified to speak to them?
My answer is fairly simple. First of all, I am writing the story God has called me to write. It is a step of obedience.
Secondly, I am writing the story for myself. No, I am no longer 9-14 years old, but that is the age when I was inhaling books like air. Just ask my mom. She would send me outside to play, “Go get some fresh air and exercise!” I would stick a book under my sweatshirt, climb up the cherry tree in our backyard and continue reading. I guess I got fresh air, but not very much exercise.
This is an exciting age to be. You are no longer a small child who accepts everything you are taught by your parents and your teachers. Kids are beginning to question things and make their own decisions. In terms of faith, it is the age when kids raised in a Christian home are beginning to decide whether this is something that they truly believe, or is it just what they were taught. Evangelist Luis Palau once said, “God has no grandchildren.” We are not Christians by birth. We are Christians by choice. Eventually kids need to make their faith their own.
When I look around the bookshelves in the children/young adult section in the Christian bookstores, I do find some good historical fiction for this age group. But I have noticed that it is mainly written to teach history or values. SHAKEN is not this type of book. SHAKEN is about a crisis of faith. With the death of her sister and her family’s sudden move, Wanda’s life has fallen down around her. In the depths of grief and misery, she knows the only one to blame is God. She soon discovers that God isn’t done shaking her life as she finds herself immersed in one of our nation’s worst natural disasters, the great San Francisco earthquake and fires of 1906.
Is God good? Can He be trusted? If He exists, does He really care about me? These are the questions kids are asking. SHAKEN doesn’t presume to answer these questions for readers, but it will lead them through one girl’s journey from grief and anger into trust and joy. I am praying that a publisher will agree to work with me to help bring this story to future readers. If you would like to read a sample chapter, there is a link in the sidebar to the right.
I write for this age group because they are asking questions. I hope to point them to the One who can provide the answers.