There's a lovely book coming out in December for middle grade readers from two very dear writer friends of mine. Not only did I get the chance to have a sneak peek at this wonderful adventure, but they even agreed to stop by and answer a few questions!
JUST BETWEEN SAM AND ME
by Cat Michaels
and
Rosie Russell
Middle Grade Fiction
ages 8 to 12
COMING...
DECEMBER 2nd!!!
Instead of heading into the usual book description, I'm just going to let these two tell you all about the book themselves!
INTERVIEW
Congratulations, Cat and Rosie and your upcoming release, and thanks so much for be willing to stop by here on Bookworm for Kids today. I'm just going to jump right in with the very first question which pops to mind. Well, my mind.
As some of my readers might know, I live on a small farm in Missouri. So, image how surprised and delighted I was to find this one placed in a very similar situation! How did you two decide to set a story here?
Rosie: Cat posted an image on her Facebook page
nearly 5 years ago, which started it all. She shared a photo of young girl
carrying a lantern in the snow heading toward a barn. She asked her readers to
come up with a story of who this girl was and where she was going. Each fan of
Cat’s added some sentences. I really enjoyed coming up with different angles of
the story, and Cat asked me to “go for it,” so I created a story just for fun. I
worked on it over the course of a few years. Once I was done, I shared it with
Cat. (That story, by the way, is much different than what we finally wrote, but
the girl, the love for her horse and the Midwestern rural setting stayed the same.) Lastly, I asked Cat
if she would like to be expand the story and co-write it with me. She said, “Yes”
and here we are.
Why of my favorite things about Missouri is the season change, and I noticed that you broke down your book into the different seasons. With October...one of my favorites...now here, are there any fun fall activities you'd like to share with us?
Rosie: Oh, yes! Cat and I both love the fall weather,
so this was a fun season to include in our story. With Olivia’s family living
on a farm, they have an apple orchard that is brought up often in the book.
Also, Olivia and her best friend, Isabella, have a fun event they attend call “Fall
Fest.” Olivia gets entangled in a dangerous mishap at Fall Fest, but we will
leave that part for the readers to find out.
While you've placed this tale in Missouri, only one of you lives in the state. Cat lives quite a distance from here...out 'East'. But I understand you two were able to meet each other about three years ago.
Rosie: Yes, we did! My family and I were vacationing at Wilmington, N.C and I knew
Cat did not live too far from there. We drove an hour their way and they drove
two hours their way to meet up with us! We had the best time visiting. We had
no idea we’d be writing a story together someday.
Stories aren't born over night, and you have been working on this one for a long time. Considering the distance between both of you, how was it to write this together during the last 16 months?
Cat: To be honest, Tonja, co-writing from 1,500
miles apart is not a walk in the park. You can’t meet up at the local coffee
shop for a merry chat! While there’s joy in sharing ideas, it takes longer to reach
consensus and make things happen. Three components were crucial to our success:
1. Contract: We
focused on the business side and drew up a Statement of Work before we did
anything. I’ve been on too many teams that skipped contracting, and they
failed.
We hashed identified exactly
how we’d work together – time frame, milestones, work to be done, lead roles for
each part of the project, budget, royalty distribution and taxes, etc. It
wasn’t creative or fun, and it gave me headaches. However, we started slow with
business nitty-gritty to diminish any writing or publishing kinks later.
2. Technology:
I facilitated virtual teams in another life, so I knew about setting up stuff we
needed to be productive (shared cloud drive; virtual brainstorming boards, file
exchanges, video chats, etc.).
3. Communication:
As Rosie will tell you, the other crucial component was communication. She is
also a champ at being patient and flexible with me as I sometimes have a high
need to charge ahead -:D.
Rosie: Let’s just say how thankful we are for the
internet and working on everything through Google Docs. It made our job so much
easier.
We were good to touch
base with each other almost daily, even it was to catch up on small details. I
think the key to co-writing is to communicate consistently and be very specific
with how things are discussed. Having a
plan and keeping organized has also been very helpful. Cat is the guru of
folders, lists, and charts which saved us. She even made sure our monthly phone
calls, which we called “Call Memories,” were documented and put in a special
folder.
I don't know if it's fate or pure luck, but October just happens to be National Bullying Prevention Month—exactly the same theme, which plays an important role in your tale. What made you decide to have a main character, who faces bullying?
Cat:
From the years we
worked in the classroom, both Rosie and I have witnessed what children
experience whey they’re excluded and mocked at school. But this issue of social
bullying smacked me over the head recently, when my sweet fourth-grade friend
was the target of a mean girl clique in her class, who taunted her. Fourth
grade! I couldn’t believe kids so young would engage in bullying behaviors!
My
little friend was devastated. Fortunately, her parents and teachers immediately
picked up on the bullying behaviors and stopped them. Yet, my sweet girl
remains anxious about entering any new school experience.
When
we started plotting our narrative around that time, Rosie and I brainstormed
obstacles to throw at our 11 year-old protagonist, Olivia. We wanted action to
keep middle graders engaged while we stirred in discreet social messages to
help them grow. Shy Olivia’s story arc quickly became her struggle to speak up
for herself and overcome the behaviors of a trio of mean girls. In fact,
several of the bullying incidents in our book, and especially the seminal event
that causes Olivia’s greatest heartbreak, are based on encounters that actually
happened to my young friend.
Our
main character, Olivia went through what is called, “Social Bullying.”
Here are just three examples
of what social bullying might look like:
- Telling other children not to
be friends with someone
- Spreading rumors about someone
- Embarrassing someone in public
For more information on bullying, Cat
and I have included a link in the back of our book for those that may want to read
more about it. They can go to www.stopbullying.gov
Another
thing readers can do for Bullying Prevention Month is wear a blue shirt on
Monday, October 05, 2020. They can read more about that here.
Thanks so much for all of that! I'm sure this will be helpful to several readers, and it's definitely a topic, which many kids, unfortunately, face.
I'm so glad you two took the time to stop by! And I wish both of you the best... Not to mention that I can't wait until Just Between Sam and Me comes out in December!
If you want to find out more about Cat and Rosie, head on over to the following sites:
Cat
Michaels – www.catmichaelswriter.com
She can also be found on Twitter,
Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram and Pinterest.
Rosie Russell – www.booksbyrose.com
Website/Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Instagram | Pinterest
