First Posting!

Exciting day for me! My first posting!

OFF THE MAP started with a trip to the library with my then seven year old son. He is a middle child and a voracious reader. But at seven, he was done with the easy readers, had plowed through the Magic Tree House series in a month, but really could not handle the books that his older brother told him were cool (an eleven year old can process violence and intensity better than a seven year old who spent several nights wide awake after reading a book that his brother called awesome).

We hunted for low-violence, high adventure books that were not too sappy, too short, or full of fairies. He wanted a good mystery, a fast pace and action, but not the frightening factor. The idea popped in my head of a spy-based geography series (originally planned for 13 books covering each region in the U.S. and its territories), with a reality show element thrown in for fun and to help the kids move around the country. Each book was going to have a trouble, move the series plot forward, and cover interesting geographical and historical tidbits along the way (I love travel and trivia!).

After I started outlining the series, I found that I wanted to ramp up the story and the adventure and needed to make it more intricate than a short, early reader chapter book. It was too much fun to stop planning and writing it.

So I wrote and wrote, and then edited, and edited, and edited (did I say edited? Teachers never tell you that one edit is just the beginning of good writing). And now, OFF THE MAP is ready for readers and representation! But, I already have my biggest fan. My son loved the story and still talks about the action scenes. It is worth everything to know that he enjoyed it.