This is it!

I took a writing vacation this week and now find myself in the throws of final edits for the Forbidden Sea sequel. It's a big job and will take some time--but it is exciting to get to that final stretch. It has been so much fun to revisit the magical world of Windwaithe Island once again and find out what has happened to all the character since I last visited there. It has especially been fun to finally get to know the younger Sea Prince better. He is, of course, one of the stars of the sequel. I wanted so bad to do more with him in Forbidden Sea, but there was just too much to get it all into one story. The sequel is the Sea Prince's place to shine. I can hardly wait for you to all finally meet him. Talk about swoon-worthy! You're going to just ADORE him.

 Trust me.

And then there is his mother--the Sea Queen.  If you thought Jendayi was scary--think again. The Sea Queen is a merwoman you do not want to mess with.

Well, time to get back to writing. Wish me luck.

Forbidden Sea Sequel?

My most recent manuscript is DONE! Completed. It has been sent off to my agent. Now the waiting game begins. I hate that part of being an author. Waiting and waiting to hear back from publishers--sometimes for years. *big sigh*

While I wait, I've begun work on two new projects. One is a new book, an alternate universe fantasy that I've started writing. The other is a project that I've been secretly working on for quite some time.

What is this secret project, you ask? Only the SEQUEL to Forbidden Sea. Yes, you read that right. The sequel has been written (as in, all done and completed)--and is now going through the extensive editing process that always comes before a book can be published. I've been dying to let you all know about this project  as I worked on it, but knew I needed to wait until it was far enough along in the process to announce it. The best part about the sequel is that you get to finally meet the Sea Prince himself! Trust me, you are all going to swoon.

The sequel is not being published by Scholastic (the publishing house that did Forbidden Sea), so this is all new territory for me. I'm hoping the sequel will be published sometime early next year--but an official release date is still up in the air at this point. So keep checking back on this page to get more information as it becomes available!

Everyone *squee* with me in delight and share your excitement and love in comments below.

Fictional Retribution

It's a good thing that fictional characters don't know anything about the authors that create them. Jayne,  the main character in my current book, seems so real to me that there are times I feel a little guilty putting her through all the horrible stuff in my manuscript. Jayne is a big, tough chic that I would NOT want to mess with in real life. If she knew I was the one responsible for all her troubles--she'd come after me, big time.

I think Adrianne, my main character from Forbidden Sea, would be willing to forgive me in time for all I did to her--but Jayne would just beat the crud out of me first and ask questions later. But that's what makes her such a fun character to write.

The Life and Times of a Writer

I just wrote on my official author blog a post updating all that has been going on in my writing for the past year.  Ever wonder what an author has to go through to get published? This is your chance to get an inside look. Click the link below to read the full post.

http://sheilanielson.blogspot.com/2013/05/how-it-all-works.html

How Would you Like a Career as a Real Life Mermaid?

Here is a story about a woman who loved mermaids so much that she gave up her day job in order to start a career as a full time mermaid. I kid you not. There is also a video interview with a woman  who shares her experience while trying out one of these mermaid tails in the pool. Check it all out at the link below!

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/linden-wolbert-on-what-it-s-like-to-be-a-real-life-mermaid-183853163.html

I bought a golden mermaid tail that you can actually swim in while making the trailer for Forbidden Sea. Do you think I should use it to quit my day job? : )

Why You Can’t Judge a Book--by Its Cover or Otherwise.

 

If there is one thing being an author has taught me it’s that each reader brings something different to a story. It’s not something I as an author can control.  No amount of editing, rewriting, and polishing on my part will ever change this. That is why one reviewer will praise a book as “the best thing since sliced bread” and another person will review the exact same book as “a morbid mess of a plot that even a zombie uprising couldn’t breathe life into”. So which reviewer is right? 

They both are.

Each of these people read the same words and the same story—but they did not have the same experience.  Isn’t that what we love so much about books? Every story shares with us a new world that we get to interact with on a deeply personal level. 

For example: A friend of mine who read Forbidden Sea later told me that she had a really hard time making it through the story.  After questioning her a little further, I discovered that she had a member of her family who was uncomfortably like the character of Auntie Minnah. Every time Auntie Minnah appeared in the story, my friend felt like throwing the book across the room. This had nothing to do with whether or not my book was well written or not—and everything to do with how my friend’s personal life experiences made her perceive a story.  On the other hand, I also visited with a book club of middle grade girls who told me Adrianne’s complicated relationship with Auntie Minnah was their favorite part of the book. That is why reviewing books can be such a ticklish thing.

 

As a librarian I am often called upon to match up the right book with the right reader. Fifteen years of on-the-job experience has taught me that often the perfect book for a certain reader is one I didn’t like. Take sports books for example—not my favorite genre—but then, I’m not a preteen boy (or girl for that matter) whose whole world revolves around basketball.  For some kids these books speak to them and get their heart pumping. These are the books that make them want to be readers. Just because sports books don’t do anything for me, doesn’t mean that sports books don’t have any value. It just means I was not the right audience. 

One of my coworkers once noticed a boy just sitting at a table sobbing his little heart out as he read his book. The librarian asked him if he was all right. He explained through his tears that one of his favorite characters from the series he was reading had just died. Touched by this boy’s devotion to his fictional friend, my coworker gently asked what book he was reading. She was amazed to discover that the book that had managed to move this boy to tears was one of the books in the Bionicles TV show series. One of his robot friends had died and he was beside himself with grief.

Laugh all you want.

 The Bionicles story and its characters had become real to that boy. They gave him a new experience, one that had emotionally bound him to the characters he came to love so much! Who is to say that his experience reading Bionicles was any less profound for him than mine was while reading To Kill a Mocking Bird for the first time? Who am I to deny him the beauty of that experience just because Bionicles seems a little silly and predictable to me?

Understanding this has helped me not to take the bad reviews of my book to heart quite so much. All books get bad reviews from time to time. That’s because the world is full of different kinds of people with lots of different tastes.  This is a good thing. That’s something I now try to remember when writing my own reviews of other authors’ books. For example, I recently read a book that wasn’t really my cup of tea. The whole time I was reading it, though, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the kids I knew at the library who would just LOVE to get their hands on that particular book. Even though it wasn't my favorite, I always give that book a rave review when trying to hand sell it to a young reader—because I know they will like it, even if I didn’t. Isn’t that what is most important?

I think so too.

Lovely Fan Made Mermaid Doll

Here is an amazing mermaid doll made by a fellow mermaid lover, Karen Hawkins. Isn't she beautiful? I love to see the creations of talented fans. If you have some fan made mermaid artwork you would like me to share here on my blog, feel free to email me a copy at:

 sheilanielsonauthor@gmail.com

Thanks for sharing her with me, Karen! I can't wait to see more of your work in the future!