I wrote pages today.

I'm a unicorn!

Another New Title Alert!

First, it was... Finders Keepers.

Then, it was Unplugged.

Presenting the new and improved title for the soon-to-be award winning New York Times best selling book for children in the middle grades...

The Do-Nothings

by

Rachel Delovino

 

 

 



I REALLY need an editor.  Stop the madness!!!!!

If I'm Not Flawed... Neither Are My Characters

“You see, when weaving a blanket,

an Indian woman leaves a flaw in the weaving of that blanket

to let the soul out.”

- Martha Graham

 

 

Rejection sucks.  I'll be honest.  Every time I receive a rejection letter, or I don't receive a letter at all, it feels like a victory for every single person who has told me I suck throughout the years.  I'm waking up, with a very bad headache from a very long and gratuitous pity party I threw myself when Ballet for Bullies was turned down for publication.  Dang.  I'm not perfect.

 

I'm flawed.  I tried and I failed.  A decision needs to be made.  Will I try again?  Will I?  I'm in the middle of a dilemma.  And my mettle is being tested.  Just like I aim to test the mettle of my characters in the stories I write. 

 

My soul is out. 

 

And I'm writing.

 



Unplugged

New title alert!

Finders Keepers by Rachel Delovino is now... drumroll please... Oops!  You already know!  It's the title of this blog post. 

Unplugged

by

Rachel Delovino

 

 

I can picture the front cover something like this:  A girl with long hair pulled back into a braid.  She is holding her braid in one hand and shrugging her shoulders.  With a WTF look on her face.  That's "What the Foreclosure?" for those of you who don't know :) And at the bottom of her braid, her hair has turned into a plug.  She is unplugged.  And none too happy about it. 

 

Here is a blurb:

 

When a popular ten-year-old, Amber Hart, is forced to quit using electronics she turns her attention to the woods outside of her home.   Her imagination fuels hours of play, and she makes an unlikely friend... Sam, a boy whose family are "Doomsday Preppers."  They build a bunker, or a hut made out of sticks and fir tree branches, and plot to spend one night sleeping in the woods.  But just before they've finished building the fort, Amber's parents forbid her playing outside.  They won't say why.  When the parents are distracted, however, Amber and Sam pack up and head to the bunker... to find it is already occupied.  And a night of "survival" becomes just that. 

 

Happy writing,

Rachel



My Hero Writers

The characters from the Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum were rewarded for achieving their goal.  My goal, of course, is to write lots of books!  If I could choose... I would have:

The heart of Linda Urban's books.  Her stories are like a warm hug.  A whisper of, "I understand.  I am just like you.  And it will be ok."

The delicious humor of Roald Dahl.  It is a stream of consciousness type of laughing at the odd and quirky and sometimes dark side of life.  A giddiness in observation. 

The expert storytelling of Gary Paulson.  Perfect form without formula.  An element of danger... the sense that the stakes couldn't be higher. 

There are more, but that's a lofty start.  If my books have a tiny measure of what those three authors have, I will say I've reached the end of the yellow brick road.

Happy writing,
Rachel

Search for the Throughline

I'm on the hunt.

This is always the way my stories evolve.  I have a nebulous throughline.  As the characters become real people with real lives and real decisions to make, the throughline changes.  It's like "Alice" from the Twilight series.  Her visions are subjective; they change.  Oh dear, now you know I've read Twilight.  Well, it is a crossover book, you know!  Anyway, the throughline for Amber is fuzzy. 

When I write a throughline, I begin very simply.  A character wants something and has trouble getting it.  What does Amber want?  She wants her best friend back.  Madison.  They've been together forever.  Their moms went to college together.  They have lived across the street from each other since birth.  Until now.  Until the "F" bomb was dropped in Amber's family's living room.  Foreclosure.

Is that enough to keep the action going?  I don't think so.  That is a secondary throughline.  So, what is the main storyline?  What does Amber want?  I was also thinking perhaps she wants to go to Camp Seymour.  It's a common destination for 5th graders in Western Washington.  A trip to camp happens in October (or sometime in the beginning of the school year.)  It is a celebration for making it to the top class of elementary school.  Or something like that.  Really, it's an excuse to play outdoors for a week.  But Amber can't go.  Her family is cutting back.  But they make too much money for the scholarship.  And her dad won't take charity.  So, perhaps the "desire" for Amber is to attend Camp Seymour.  But since she can't, she decides to make her own Camp Seymour?  On Rattlesnake Ridge.

Now some scenes are forming.  Now there is a reason for her to be in the woods.  But... there's the but. 

Amber WANTS to camp outside in the woods, but her parents forbid it.  Will they notice she's gone, though?  With their money problems and Daddy's work review coming up and the three-year-old twins, Bailey and Brady, adjusting to apartment life? 

What if Amber suspects her parents are making up the "thing in the woods" story just to scare her and her friend, Jack, out of sleeping in the woods overnight?  She wouldn't hesitate to do what she wants.  She is that kind of person.  Close a door.  She'll climb through a window. 

One night in the woods. 
It won't kill her. 
Or will it?

:-)

Happy Writing,
Rachel

Let's Pretend...

My 6-year-old daughter is always playing pretend.  I can't tell you the number of leggings she has worn holes in by scooting around the house pretending to be a horse, dog, kitten, or you-fill-in-the-blank.  Sometimes she asks me to play with her.  Her games always begin with, "Pretend _________!" 

Pretend this picture was printed in the Meadow Creek Reporter, the local newspaper circulated in the fictional town in my new book, Finders Keepers. 

Would you want your child playing in the woods? 

Happy Reading,
Rachel