~ by Amanda Smith

​​24 Carrot Writing celebrates with
Kristine Asselin
as her new Young Adult novel, 
Falling for Wonder Boy 
hits shelves today! 

Kristine shares the inspiration behind the novel, as well as her path to publishing:

​Falling for Wonder Boy has truly been a labor of love for me. When I started writing in 2006, I was drafting mostly picture book texts for my toddler—they were okay, but not great. I got some nice feedback, but nothing more. When a friend reminded me of an anecdote from our teen years, I had an epiphany. It would make a great YA short story.

My parents managed a golf course in the 1980s. They bought it when I was in the 6th grade. For my entire teen years, we lived, worked, and played golf. When I was in high school, I was the only girl in my four years to go out for the golf team. It just wasn’t a sport girls played in my world.

After I wrote the short story, I shared it with a few trusted friends. And the overwhelming response was that people needed to know more about the characters. That short story ended up being published in Golfer Girl Magazine in 2008 as “The Knight in Tan Khakis” and is more or less Chapters 9 and 10 in the book—where Scott tosses Kate a sweatshirt to cover up a see-through wet t-shirt. 

Since 2008, that short story has evolved. For a long time, the title of the novel was The Sweet Spot. It’s been through a dozen revisions, it landed me my agent (more than once). It was acquired by a publishing company and then rejected after the decision was made that golf wasn’t something that would sell to teens. I’ve written other things, including a ton of nonfiction and two published novels (Any Way You Slice It and co-written The Art of the Swap). In fact, Any Way You Slice It was a direct result of that failed acquisition.

The Sweet Spot was shelved for years, but in late 2018, after ten years of close calls, I decided to work with K.R. Conway at Wicked Whale Publishing to independently publish the book. I changed the title to Falling for Wonder Boy and I haven’t looked back.

I’ll be honest, in some ways it’s scarier than anything else I’ve ever published. There are pieces of my heart on display for all to see—it’s mostly fictionalized, but there are moments that really happened (like the sweatshirt toss). Emotions that were real.

This book is truly the book of my heart. Not only is it firmly grounded in my own history, it’s also been the backbone of my writing career. Working on this book taught me how to write. It opened doors for me professionally. It deserves to be out in the world.
​
I’m grateful to K.R. Conway for her support, guidance, and amazing design skills. I could not have imagined a better skin for Kate and Scott to live inside. I’d love to engage with readers. Please let me know what you think!  

Bio
​Kristine is the author of sixteen works of children’s nonfiction as well as the YA novel Any Way You Slice It and co-author of the middle grade novel The Art of the Swap.
 
She loves being a Girl Scout leader and a Library Trustee, and volunteering with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Her alter-ego is The Query Godmother and she loves critiquing queries and helping people with submission packages. She lives on the outskirts of Boston with her teen daughter and husband, and is represented by Kathleen Rushall of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency.​
​
Visit her at ​ www.kristineasselin.com/

FALLING FOR WONDER BOY is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and other online vendors.

​To celebrate October, and to whip our writing efforts into a productive fourth quarter frenzy, you are cordially invited to join us on
the 24 Carrot Writing Facebook page for our :

3rd Annual 24 Carrot
Writing Trick or Book Treat Party

Join the Writing Trick or Book Treat Party by sharing your favorite writing trick or tip, or treating your fellow writers to a book recommendation. Share your writing tip, or a recent children’s book that you have loved and/or used as a mentor text on our Facebook page.

By Kelly J. Carey

Thank you to all those who joined our 2nd Annual 24 Carrot Writing Trick or Treat Party.

We shared some writing tricks like opening a Goodreads account (I’m a big fan of this tip!), to committing to 10 minutes of writing every day (Francine’s an advocate of a timed daily writing goal!). Amanda suggested flipping your protagonist and antagonist as a writing exercise, and we were encouraged to read in our genre so we would have the wisdom of mentor texts in our brain.  

Treats were shared like the YA novels Calvin by Martine Leavitt and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, the MG novel Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk, and PBs Applesauce Day by Lisa Amstutz and Grandmother Thorn by Katey Howes.

I love that our 24 Carrot Writing community shared Tricks that included both craft and writing goals, and that our book Treats featured PB, MG and YA!

Our 24 Carrot Trick or Treat Party Winners of signed books are:
Kristi Liberty Mahoney – the A.C. Gaughen YA novel Scarlet
Meg Lysaght Thacher – the Molly B. Burnham MG novel Teddy Mars Almost an Outlaw
Brenda Maier – the Sue Lowell Gallion PB Pug & Pig Trick or Treat

If you are a party winner – please PM us with your address.

Thanks for joining the 24 Carrot Writing Trick or Treat Party!

To celebrate October, and to whip our writing efforts into a productive fourth quarter frenzy, you are cordially invited to join us on
the 24 Carrot Writing Facebook page for our :
2nd Annual 24 Carrot
Writing Trick or Book Treat Party

Join the Writing Trick or Book Treat Party by sharing your favorite writing trick or tip, or treating your fellow writers to a book recommendation. Share your writing tip, or a recent children’s book that you have loved and/or used as a mentor text on our Facebook page.

When you share, we will enter you in our October 31 drawing for signed copies of children's literature.  We are keeping the middle grade and young adult titles masked! But our picture book prize is a signed copy of Sue Lowell Gallion's newest picture book Pug & Pig Trick-or-Treat. And stay tuned for a guest blog by Sue later this month!

You don’t need a costume, but you do need to be a part of our 24 Carrot Facebook group. If you haven't joined yet, what are you waiting for? You'll get a weekly Facebook update every time we post a new blog or book pick! To join, just click the green "Join Our Facebook Group" button on your right. Or you can find us on Facebook at 24 Carrot Writing.

Come join our Writing Trick or Book Treat Party!