TRY HARDER, WRITE BETTER

I learned so much from Claudia Mills as she mentored me through my middle grade novel, DON'T LOOK BACK, that I asked her if she'd consider mentoring me on a revision of my tween novel, SEASHELL SECRETS. Both of these manuscripts are "completed," and both have won awards in the Pikes Peak Writers contest. But I knew in my heart that both manuscripts had problems I couldn't identify. And both had been reviewed by my wonderful critique group. I believed in the stories in each book and didn't want to give up on them. The SCBWI Mentor Program offered the perfect vehicle for me to move forward. I'm excited about the revised manuscript and have begun sending it out. Meanwhile, I'm delving into revisions to SEASHELL SECRETS with the hopeful attitude that working with Claudia gave me with DLB. In our very first meeting on SS, she made a suggestion that completely transformed the approach I'm taking at the beginning of the novel, and I'm loving it, and hope my reader will, too. It's amazing to be excited about a book you've already revised a number of times, but I am. SEASHELL SECRETS is a story about racial prejudice and racial identity during the turbulant times surrounding the Civil Rights Movement. I first wrote this book about four years ago, set it on the shelf for a while, but am ready to revise and polish it now. I recently read THE HELP and was humbled by the depth of the story and the beauty of the writing. I've heard some writers say that reading such magnificent books makes them question their own ability. It makes me want to try harder, to write better.