The Whispering Ferns is a story about an eleven year old boy named Smith that is sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the tiny fishing village of Moonstone Bay, Washington while his mom heads to South America to look for his missing father. Smith is nervous about spending time in this closed off little town, but thanks to his rambunctious cousins, he makes friends quickly. Soon, he's off hunting ghosts and stealing through neighbor's backyards. Then one of his new friends goes missing and with everyone else following the wrong leads, its up to Smith to rescue her.
I started writing my book on April 26th, just for fun. I'd always wanted to write, and had a good idea, and off I went. About a month later, I stumbled across the Delacorte/Yearling contest and decided that it would be the perfect impetus to finish my book. A deadline for me. I made it, cranking out a book that I was quite proud of, with ghosts and misadventure, mystery and friendship. I fired it off to the contest and waited.
And Waited.
And waited...
Then, I got a letter.
Dear Writer, it started... Uh-Oh...
Well, not only did I not win the contest, but no one did. And what's more, they were never holding the contest again! I'd broken it!
So I sat on the book for a while, tinkering with a few things, still in love with the characters and world I'd created. It was a throwback to the classic children's novels of my childhood; John Bellairs and Encyclopedia Brown, with ghosts and fairies, treasure maps and secret passages. Would modern audiences be interested in my new friend Smith?
I decided to try submitting it to an agent. I'd been approached by one when I first started talking about Moonstone Bay, an agent of sterling credentials, one I would be honored to even have her read the first line of my book. She was very polite and great, but not into the book. She loved the idea and the setting, but felt my prose was too old fashioned for today's readers. The same thing I'd been afraid of, but man, it was so cool to have an actual agent tell me that. (and soul crushing, of course. hahaha)
I thought about re-writing it. Heck, I'm still thinking about re-writing the book. I do think modern readers would be more involved if I wrote The Whispering Ferns from Smith's perspective, if I got into his head, but I still really liked the version I'd written too.
So I sat on it for a year.
In the meantime, things changed in the publishing world. Little changes that had been rearing their heads started bucking wildly across the landscape - eBooks, the Kindle, Self-Pubbing, The death of modern publishing as we know it today!
Suddenly, there was a way to get my original story into the hands of readers hungry for a wholesome, old-fashioned ghost story - as an eBook!
I'll probably still write the different version of The Whispering Ferns, depending on the reception this original one gets, or maybe I'll just move on to the second book in the series (It has pirates in it!) But either way, I have a way to share my new friends with everyone in the world, and that's super exciting!
So on April 26th, two years to the day since I decided to write it,
The Whispering Ferns, A Moonstone Bay Mystery
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| There's that cover again! |
will be released for sale on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Borders.com and all fine eBook sellers! It'll be a steal at $2.99, and I hope you'll check it out, review it and spread the word. And most importantly, I hope you enjoy the book!
The ROUS FAMILY -
