Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Angela Ruth Strong | Not Your Normal Children’s Novel
Author Guest / August 8, 2014

In 2007, I sold my first novel for children. This month it got published. This is not normal. No, it’s normal for a first book to take seven years to sell, but it’s not normal to have to wait seven years for the book you sold to be released. I’m going to tell you about that wait. Because it was worth it. Rewind to 2006. My short story THE WATER FIGHT PROFESSIONAL came out in an anthology. I met the publisher. She was interested in a novel based on the book. So I wrote one. She bought it. I jumped around the house like a cheerleader. Then nothing happened. The publishing company went under. Which was pretty sad. But by that time, I’d also sold a romance novel. So I figured I’d focus on writing romance. (Cue angels with harps.) Except that didn’t work out for me either. (Angels fly away to play cupid for someone else.) The romance sold well, but the second publishing company went under, as well. So where did that leave me? Back at square one. Where to next? This is where the story started to get exciting. See, I received an unexpected email from a…

Angela Ruth Strong | Stories to Entertain Your Inner Child
Author Guest / April 25, 2014

“Kid appeal” is a term primarily used in the children’s market for books that kids can’t get enough of. There’s a kind of magic that makes them memorable. I’d like to suggest the same thing happens in the adult market. It’s the reason I have a manuscript being held for consideration with a publisher who isn’t crazy about my writing. She said the story offers “a fresh and engaging idea… though the writing is not as strong as I would like.” Ouch, right? I’ve obviously got some work to do. But hey, my kid appeal is influential enough that this editor just might take a risk on me anyway. I’d say it was kid appeal that made Nora Roberts and Debbie Macomber stand out back when they were published alongside all the other Harlequin authors. Nora Roberts had a character who joked about naming her unborn child “Butch,” and Debbie Macomber had her character cry in the neighbor’s arms because she couldn’t bake cookies. These are the books I can’t forget, and neither could their millions of fans. They are the reason I have my personal trainer in LIGHTEN UP gain weight and bust a seam in her pants when…