Write On Wednesday

This week's Write On Wednesday asks the questions:

"Or- to put it another way - what would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail? Go skydiving? Become a doctor? Take up ballroom dancing or acting…hockey or figure skating?

What’s your wildest writing dream? Penning the biggest blockbuster since The DaVinci Code? or winning the Pulitzer Prize for a finely crafted work of fiction? And what’s stopping you from going after it?"

I think my biggest dream is to write a young adult book series. As I've gotten older, I realize that I love young adult books. When I was a child, this was a no-brainer, but as I got older, I tried to distance myself from such childish books, thinking that I was above them.

I have come to understand that children/young adult books play a vital role in the education and upbringing of a child. Books are one of the first forays into the imagination a child has - from having a parent read them a bedtime story to picking up that first independent reader. A child's imagination can be sparked with just the right character or setting.

In recent weeks, I have been revisiting my childhood friend, Trixie Belden. When I was 8 years old, at the urging of my babysitter, I read my first Trixie Belden Mystery and became totally hooked. This babysitter had a daughter who was 5 or 6 years older than me, and she had several of the books I was allowed to borrow. I read these books over and over again, relishing each word and page. When my mother realized how much I enjoyed reading these books, she started buying them for me.

All through my childhood and teenage years, I cherished these books and proudly displayed them in a prominent place on my bookshelves. As I had children of my own, I tried reading Trixie to them, but because the stories were somewhat dated, my girls didn't have much interest. They also had no interest in Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, the Three Investigators, or Betsy. However, my girls did find new interests in the Sweet Valley High, the Babysitter's Club and the Goosebumps books.

As I have already mentioned, I have been re-reading the Trixie Belden Mysteries for a special Way Back Wednesday posts on my book blog. Just reading and writing about these books again has opened my eyes to the thrill and enjoyment I once had as a child. I want to be able to give that same kind of thrill and joy to a new generation of children.

I already have rough drafts of two children's books I have worked on in the past, but I never followed through with the editing process. I believe now is the time to re-examine these pages and make a concerted effort to edit them into a proper book. Who knows? Maybe I will have the next great thing that children will read and cherish.