One of a Writer's Great Joys

I started a writers' group 17 years ago. Over the years, members have come and gone, but the fact is, every other Tuesday, you will find me Skyping in to my crit group. I would say the "proof" of its value is 20+ novels sold. But the real proof is these people mean so much to me. And so it is so absolutely incredible to me to be able to blog about my friend Jon Van Zile's first middle grade novel, and to tell you I have read it, love it, worked on him with it, and think it is one of the best middle grade debuts I have ever had the honor of reading. So here's a little interview with Jon about this book. Load it on your KINDLE, today!

1. All right . . . 75 words or less. What is the book about?

Twelve-year-old Zig Zephyr inherits his family’s fortune, along with his grandfather’s final journal and its scribbled plea: “Build the machine! Save the family!” Grandpa Zephyr died escaping from prison after he was convicted of stealing the Forever Diamond. Zig decodes the journal and discovers plans for a time machine. Soon, Zig and his friends are following Grandpa Zephyr’s trail through American history, trying to solve the riddle of what happened to the Forever Diamond.

2. Because you are in my crit group, I know there is a long story to this wonderful book. So condensing it a little, give us the scoop.

A story indeed … I have the classic “almost but not quite” story. This was the kind of book that came to me all at once—at least the basic story. I still have my original one-page outline, and the final shape of the story is remarkably unchanged from that early draft. I wrote that first draft very quickly, rewrote it a few times (thank you!), and it went out on submission. It was a very exciting period, as the first large publisher to look at it called my agent immediately and said, “I love this. Give me two weeks exclusivity.” They ended up passing, so we sent it to two more big publishers. One of them passed right away, but the other one (my dream publisher) loved it and just wanted some revisions. I spent the next year working closely with a very senior editor there on rewrites—it was very nerve-wracking to work this hard without a contract, but I learned a tremendous amount. Ultimately, they passed too, in the single hardest rejection I’ve ever received. This one really stung. I shelved the book after that because I had another one ready for submission and because I was just worn out at this point.

Zig spent the last two years in a drawer while I worked on other projects. In the meantime, the e-book explosion happened and I watched the e-book market for MG books closely. It’s only been recently that I felt like there was enough of an e-book market for MG books to justify publishing this myself. It also weighed on my mind that Zig was kind of withering away. I’ve always had a tremendous fondness for this book and for my little billionaire time traveler. I felt like he deserved a chance to find his own audience.

3. The book has a Roald Dahl feel to it. You're pretty subversive for a middle-grade writer. And I think kids love that. What do you say to people about the world of middle graders?

That it’s much more subversive than parent’s worst nightmares.

Sort of.

I think everybody knows the middle-grade years are tough ones. At one point in the book, Zig’s grandmother remarks that, “Becoming is hard work.” And I really believe that … middle grade is the period of becoming. It’s when people begin to change from the children they were to the young adults and adults they will soon be. It’s a period when differences are ground away and the peer group enforces a rigid social orthodoxy. It’s also the time when most kids discover that the grade school world they inhabited is so much more complicated than they realized … you’re so much less protected. Remote adult concepts suddenly become real, and you try out all these new “grown up” things for the first time (if you want to hear creative cursing, eavesdrop on a group of eighth-grade boys). In many ways, these years are when you get your first real power—and that power is to choose who you want to become. It’s awesome and terrifying.

4. Do you think this book will have special appeal to "reluctant readers"?

That’s a tricky one. “Reluctant readers” is usually a code for “boys,” and I think there’s some interesting research there. Little boys and girls all love books, but then there’s good research showing that boys begin to drop off the reading radar screen in middle school (girls do too, but not in as great a numbers). Many of them come back as adults.

Right now, though, I think we’re in a great renaissance of reading for kids in general, and it’s not just Harry Potter (although that certainly helped). There are so many great series out there for kids this age (including a certain Magickeepers series) and kids are reading more than ever. Maybe with all these options, fewer kids will drop out of reading than in past years.

Ultimately, though, I didn’t write the book with so-called reluctant readers in mind. I mainly wrote the kind of story I would have liked back then … fast-paced, adventurous, funny. If boys like it, then I’ll be thrilled.

5. What does your hero discover about himself in this book?

Zig discovers that being in a family is much complicated than he expected. He starts the story basically as an orphan, alone in his big estate with his bed-ridden grandmother and his man-servant. All he really wants is a family. By the end, he’s learned that families are messy and complicated, and sometimes you can even be surprised by yourself.

6. How do you make the time travel work in this novel?

Good question, because time travel is a lot trickier than I thought. I had a few thoughts going in. First, there must be at least a shred of legitimacy with the central theory of time travel (hence Dr. Finepickle’s Plate of Spaghetti Theory of the Multiverse). So I found myself doing all this reading about modern theories on the nature of time and reality and time travel. It was actually interesting.

But this directly contradicted with my second goal: that it not be too complicated and weigh down the story. Ultimately, time travel is a plot device to get Zig and his friends where I wanted them to be. I didn’t want to get too wrapped up in theory.

In the end, the time travel is simple, but I did sneak in a few potential complications that will feature prominently in future books, if I decide to write them.

7. How are you finding the publishing climate right now as far as you pubbing the book this way?

Hmm. Well, given the history of this book, I find the climate to be … challenging and a little bit wonderful and a little bit awful. Like so many writers, it was my dream to sell a book to a traditional publisher, buy my own island, and spend the rest of my life writing in glorious, frazzled obscurity. And I still might get there—either traditionally or not—but I think I’m finally beginning to fully recognize that my path is going to look different than I used to dream. It already does.

Part of me notes the date this book got rejected—November 2008. That was the month all of publishing ground to a halt and the US economy basically collapsed. I can’t help but to wonder if, in a better economic climate, the story might have ended differently and you and I would currently be sipping pina coladas on my island. I’ll never know (unless I invent my own time machine and travel to an alternate universe).

But of course, the story doesn’t end there, and I think this is also one of the most exciting times to be a writer. I’ve been around publishing for a long time, in a lot of different capacities, and the game has always been rigged against writers, except for the very few who could bend the industry to their whims. Self-publishing, too, was always a joke. Expensive and rigged—without distribution, there was virtually nil chance of selling a self-pubbed title. Today, though, with e-books, the cost of self-publishing is negligible (it cost me a total of $125 in e-book formatting … thanks Natasha Fondren!) and the barrier to distribution is gone. My book receives exactly the same distribution online as Harry Potter. There’s no co-op, no initial orders, no table placement. I’m literally on equal footing as Scholastic. That’s revolutionary and amazing, and I don’t know how long it will last, but I still have a hard time wrapping my brain around it.

Now, of course, the trick is to find an audience of MG readers online, and I suspect that will take longer. But when it happens, I hope to be there, waiting.

8. Tell us about yourself as writer/editor/reader.

I like long walks on the beach, microbrews and detest PDA. Oh wait …

From a resume point of view, I’m a full-time editor and writer. I’ve written thousands of articles for national media outlets and edited hundreds of books for various publishers. I’m also in your crit group. :-)

But you know what’s kind of funny? This book has been on sale for a grand total of one day, and I think I’ve sold one copy to a friend. And that $2 is not only literally the first money I’ve ever made from fiction—which I’ve been writing obsessively since grade school—it was also the sweetest $2 I’ve ever made. Now I can only hope that everyone who trusts me enough to buy the book enjoys it, because that’s been my goal all along. To write something silly, funny, entertaining, and maybe a teensy bit moving.

Folks . . . I can tell you, this book has a warm place in my heart. I don't think the MG reader in your life will be disappointed! Announcing this book is one of my great joys!