Go to Your Room!

For those authors who write middle grade or YA, how much thought do you put into the character's bedroom? If the story doesn't need to focus on that part of the house, probably very little. But even then, do you, as an exercise, visualize what that room might be like?

A child's or teen's bedroom, as the only room in the house that they can be thought to 'own', usually has indicators of his or her personality. Is it messy? Very organized, with everything in its place? Totally chaotic with only a few clear spots that a parent dare step in?.

Are there bookshelves with actual books? Or are the shelves only places to put toys or trophies? What types of posters or pictures are on the walls? Are they the parents' choices (usual for children's rooms) or the teen's?

Being sent to one's room used to be a punishment, but not if the child's room also contains a tv and dvd player or computer or game system.

My youngest sister and I shared a dormer room. She was the super-neat child, with everything in its place. My bookcase was always spilling over with books, while her bookcase had some books, but more stuffed animals and dolls. The top of my dresser was where the statues of horses and my rock collection were displayed. Hers had her brush and comb, barrettes and rubber bands for her hair. The shared closet floor was tidy on her side, cluttered on mine. The room was so small we had to do our homework downstairs at the kitchen table. Our play area was down in the basement. Until our two older sisters moved out of the house and I was able to move downstairs into what had been my oldest sister's room, I felt that I wasn't able to put any personal touches into my 'space'. And yet I see that we each did.

If the story is set in a boarding school, there's probably very few options for expressions of personal taste. Dorm rooms in college used to be the same, usually containing two beds, two desks and, if you were lucky, two closets and/or chests of drawers (sometimes the chest of drawers was inside the closet). Then students were able to bring mini-fridges, microwaves and tvs. Now, with laptops and smart phones, the tv is no longer taking up space in a college dorm room, but other items are.

There would probably be even less space on a spaceship. Perhaps the bed might fold into the wall when not in use. Ditto a desk or clothespress.

How much do you plan ahead? Or do you just list each item in the room as you need to? As readers, how much do you recall of a character's room? Does it add to your understanding of the character?

Writing Against Borders

A guest post by my friend Trisha J. Wooldridge on the release of her new middle grade fantasy The Earl's Childe.

###

My books in The MacArthur Family Chronicles, the second, The Earl's Childe, having just came out this Tuesday, takes place in the Borders region of Scotland — right where England and Scotland meet. It's a location of cultural difference and blending, and the two countries have had a bloody and rough history. Beneath the ground, there is geological evidence of Scotland slamming into the UK; the land area of Scotland isn't naturally part of what we know of the British Isles.

Borders are an important theme of this series, too.

The main character, Heather MacArthur, is eleven years old. Right on the border of being a child and being a teen. When she wants to have some alone-time with her mother to discuss a terrible, fairly grown-up situation with her best friend and his family, it ends up being a trip to buy new clothes and — of all horrors — bras because Heather hasn't any clothes that properly fit anymore thanks to a recent growth spurt. In one of her less-than-mature moments, Heather pitches a fit. The moment between her mother and her, however, addresses both the child-self Heather still wants to cling to and the adult-becoming Heather who has to think about real world consequences that decisions that have no clear right answer: If you have only one magickal creature at your disposal, do you send him away to rescue a friend or keep him around to protect the people near you? And what if his safety and will in regard to the situation?

While Heather declares she is too young to even want to like-like someone (upon finding out an older boy might kind of like her), she finds herself stuck worried about her parents' marriage and the stress she's brought to it in her position as faery liaison. And watching your older sister get the boys who like her to do things is both awe-inspiring and freaking annoying.

Being liaison between Faerie and her family's land in the human realm also puts her on a physical border — a hotly disputed one as yet another daoine síth lord tries to wrest the land from both Heather’s family and the existing fey. It's been a battle for a few hundred years, in fact!

One of the best things about writing for young audiences is working in that mysterious grey space of transition. It's never a clean thing to change from one thing to another, to find the lines between two sides or two realms of existence. It's not for adults; but if you're in the middle of a change yourself, you have an even deeper perspective of how many shades of grey there are.

As a writer, also, I'm writing in the borders. The MacArthur series falls right on the border of middle grade and YA with Heather's age and the complexity of issues in her family alone — not even including dealing with the supernatural! Her father, Michael, has bipolar disorder, and with that comes some problematic decisions from him when his medicine fails, which affects Heather and her relationship with him. What do you do when you still need your parents, but you know you can't entirely trust the judgment of at least one of them? As an adult, Michael can make some pretty serious mistakes that Heather sees. And while I, the author, think it's important for readers to share some of these experiences with Heather — children do go through these things, and seeing heroes like themselves in books help — not all the teachers, parents, and librarians who might read this book agree.

Also, I don't write only for children. I write horror for adults under my full name. And while both my husband and I were watching horror at an early age, it's easy to forget that we were not necessarily the norm. Fortunately, I have wonderful editors that kept me within the safer borders of description when some of Heather's adventures get quite dark.

I'm also glad they understand that I also think kids can take some levels of darkness better than adults.

After all, the kids I'm writing this for live on the edge of a lot of borders.

#

Like with my first book, The Kelpie, I want to continue supporting the Bay State Equine Rescue through my writing, so a percentage of every sale of The Earl's Childe will be donated to the BSER, a 501(c)3 organization in Massachusetts.

#

The Earl's Childe is available through all online and brick & mortar bookstores, big box or your favorite independent store.

About the Book:

Available on Amazon
Available at Barnes & Noble
ISBN: 9781939392435
Price: $9.95
Appropriate for ages 11 and up

Meet the Author:

T.J. Wooldridge is the child-friendly persona of Trisha J. Wooldridge, who reviews dining establishments in Faerie for her local Worcester-area paper (much to all the natives' confusion) and writes grown-up horror short stories that occasionally win awards (EPIC 2008, 2009 for anthologies Bad-A$$ Faeries 2 and Bad-A$$ Faeries 3). Her novels include The Kelpie (December 2013) and The Earl's Childe (2015) in the MacArthur Family Chronicles series, and Silent Starsong (July 2014) in the Adventures of Kyra Starbard series. Find out more at www.anovelfriend.com.

Conversations With Horses

Introducing a guest post by my friend Trisha Wooldridge, who has a great new Middle Grade book out.

Conversations with Horses and other Adventures
By Trisha J. Wooldridge

I'm not sure which of my many equine-related injuries prompted my mom to send me a scan of this old photo with an email saying how I was always "horse crazy."

In any case, it's not terribly surprising to most who know me that my first published novel included a lot of equine content. Nor that it was entitled after a faerie horse known for eating children and being destructive. I mean, even my chiropractors consider the weird horse-related adjustments as norm, now.

Before I even started writing The Kelpie, I was a volunteer for the Bay State Equine Rescue, a non-profit that helps abused, neglected, and abandoned horses through education and direct intervention.

While the title character in the novel can "talk," the non-magickal horses who populate the world of my heroine, Heather MacArthur, also get their points across, too. Because horses do communicate. They're always communicating...they understand each other very well, and most of them do their best to learn ways to communicate with the humans who populate their world.

My experience with the rescue helped me craft the "conversations" with the equines in my stories. When I was regularly volunteering and doing barn chores, part of the responsibility was to work and handle the horses. That included all grooming and exercising. I couldn't ride the horses for a number of reasons, but I could do "ground work" with them. I hadn't even realized "ground work" was a thing. And it was awesome! Whether I was teaching them basic manners ("No, you do not walk OVER the human on the other end of the rope!"), exercising them to help build lost muscle, or even learning a few tricks from them ("Silly human, this is how you play tag!"), we were learning to communicate.

I also turned to a lot of research (a writer researching? Never!) from books, clinics, and online videos and lessons. One particular bit of research, from Monty Roberts's book, From My Hands to Yours, I learned about the unusual--and very creepy!--posture that stallions take when they threaten each other.

All of that experience funneled into my writing, right from page one, when the horse Heather and her best friend, Joe, are riding starts acting up. And the two get caught in the middle of a fight with their horse and the kelpie.

So, while my goal in working with Bay State Equine Rescue was to help horses and satisfy my own need to be around the amazing animals, they ended up helping me beyond measure. But that's the nature of a good relationship. Especially horses. Both humans and horses give, and both human and horse receives exponentially more from the relationship. Whether it was a horse I only knew for a few weeks or the wonderful horse I decided to adopt and care for the rest of her years, we teach each other well and forever change each others' lives.

While I'm spending more time with my own Calico Silver in her barn than out at the BSER barn, I want to continue supporting the rescue through my writing, so a percentage of every sale of The Kelpie will be donated to the Bay State Equine Rescue.

#

The Kelpie is available through all online and brick & mortar bookstores, big box or your favorite independent store.

About the Book:

The Kelpie on Amazon
The Kelpie at Barnes & Noble
ISBN: 978-1-937053-78-9
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-937053-79-6

Appropriate for ages 11 and up
Price: $7.95

About the Author:

T. J. Wooldridge is a professional writing geek who adores research into myth, folklore, legend, and the English language. Before delving full-time into wordsmithing, she has been a tutor, a teacher, an educational course designer, a video game proofreader, a financial customer service representative, a wine salesperson, a food reviewer, an editing consultant, a retail sales manager, and a nanny. While infrequent, there are times she does occasionally not research, write, or help others write. During those rare moments, she enjoys the following activities: spending time with her Husband-of-Awesome, a silly tabby cat, and two Giant Baby Bunnies in their Massachusetts home hidden in a pocket of woods in the middle of suburbia, reading, riding her horse in the nearby country stables and trails (not very well), reading Tarot (very well), drawing (also not very well), making jewelry (pretty well), making lists, and adding parenthetical commentary during random conversations. She also enjoys dressing up as fey creatures, zombies, or other such nonsense at science fiction, fantasy, and horror conventions.