Tasha K. Rookswater

One of the things that's hard for a kids' author is replicating the way kids talk to each other. Not so much the actual vocabulary level, grammar, speaking style, etc. of individual kids (though that's tricky too!), but the way they interact when more than two of them are having a conversation. For once thing, kids haven't always learned the rules of conversational give-and-take yet. By the time we reach adulthood, we've figured out what our local culture feels is the "right" length of pause to indicate you're done speaking, the non-verbal sounds that indicate you're interested, what counts as a rude interruption versus "taking your turn". Kids are still working this out. You get a lot more interruptions, where one child was definitely not done talking and the other breaks in with something that may or may not be related. One of the friends of my favourite eight-year-old pretty consistently responds to this by repeating what he was sa...

The temperature plummeted overnight, and the morning was bright and clear with a Severe Cold Warning on the weather report. Caden perked up when his dad mentioned it at breakfast, but Ruth, who had her phone out in defiance of the house rule about devices at the table, promptly dashed his hopes of a school closure. “They specifically sent an email saying school is open ,” she grumbled. “Just to rub it in.” “I don’t think that’s why,” Mr. Keller said mildly. “They probably don’t want parents to worry about childcare if they don’t have to. Not everyone’s as lucky as your old dad.” He did bookkeeping for various clients from his home office, as well as the accounts for the store, which Mrs. Keller had left early to open, as she usually did on Tuesdays. “Can our old dad drive us to school?” Ruth asked with a wheedling smile. “So we don’t get frostbite?” “Or eaten by polar bears?” Caden put in. “I think you’ll survive,” their dad said. “I’ll lend you my muffler if that floppy thing you ...

I do a lot of my writing longhand, which is always a bit tricky when it comes to writing scenes out of order. I'm working on this book mostly in order, but every so often I get a vivid flash of a scene from later in the story that demands to be written down now . I may not end up using it in exactly the same form when I get to it, since it'll probably need to be sanded down a bit to fit smoothly into the narrative, but I do like to write it when I get it, since it tends to lose some freshness if I try to keep it in my head until it's needed. My usual method (since writing these scenes on separate scraps of paper just invites losing them) is to turn the notebook upside down and start writing from the other end, so they're in the same place as the main story but not interfering with it. This works great for bits that are only a few sentences or paragraphs long, or things like future chapter titles or vague ideas ("chapter 7 good place for cryptoads reference??...

Oh, my heart. One of my young fans drew this picture , of the moment when Ruth gets hairsprayed: This is the joy of being a kids' author, right here.

Headlights glared in Caden’s face. A horn blasted. He shrieked and leapt backwards, wedging himself into the corner between the dresser and the wall, eyes scrunched shut. “Back it up, back it up!” someone was shouting. After a moment, Caden realized he hadn’t been crushed, and cautiously opened his eyes, squinting against the bright light. Someone was standing in front of him, only visible as a silhouette, shouting “Back it up, I said! There’s no room! You’ll have to go around!” Someone else yelled back, indistinguishable, and Caden heard the piercing beep, beep, beep of a truck reversing. The headlights faded. Caden stared at the undamaged wallpaper on the far wall of his room, with his Tanker Man poster and Library Club certificate. There was nothing to show that a truck had just burst through and nearly run him over. “You okay, kid?” the person standing before him asked. Caden looked at him (it?). Neon vest, work boots, square glasses in olive-green frames, bookshelf for a head....

What an incredible ride this week has been! I am so so happy. It really looked like it could go either way, right down to the last few minutes, and I'm just so delighted that the Nouns community has decided to support my weird book. Just brushing up the formatting on chapter 3 and I'll post it here in about half an hour. To all the people who voted against it with reasons, please be assured that I did read your comments and am taking them seriously. As I said on Twitter, I am concentrating on finishing the book first, and I'll be working out distribution as I do so, but I will absolutely be exploring every avenue to get the book into as many hands as possible and spread the Nounish joy. To the folks who voted in favour: gosh, you're amazing. Thank you so much. I am looking forward to taking you on this journey with Caden and his family and friends, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I am.