Wednesday, March 16, 2022

A smashing middle-grade mystery: Michael Beil's The Swallowtail Legacy

 HALLIE EPHRON: Three years ago, in the "before times," I taught a workshop for Yale Summer Writers. It was a truly memorable group. The participants were serious about their writing, some of them already published and trying out something new or working to climb to a new level. They'd each brought an excerpt from their work-in-progress, and early in the week, we read and critiqued them.

I vividly remember hearing Michael Beil read a scene from his work in progress, one which he said was his attempt at an *adult* novel after he'd published seven middle grade novels. (His Red Blazer Girls Mystery #1 (there are 4) was nominated for an Edgar and was published by Knopf. VERY impressive.)

I'll let him tell you what happened next.

PS: He's now celebrating the publication of The Swallowtail Legacy: Wreck at Ada’s Reef and basking in the glow of STARRED reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, AND Shelf Awareness.

MICHAEL BEIL: First, thank you, Hallie, for inviting me to guest post on the Jungle Red Writers blog. I’m excited to follow in the digital footprints of so many great writers, and I’ll do my best to keep up with them.

When I started writing the book that eventually became The Swallowtail Legacy: Wreck at Ada’s Reef, I was a writer in search of a new challenge. After publishing my first book at 50, I wrote six more (all middle grade mysteries) in a little over six years. I was in the process of outlining a sequel to my last book when my longtime editor left the publishing world and a few weeks later, I received the equivalent of a break-up text from my old publisher.

So, no sequel, and for the first time in seven or eight years, I didn’t have a contract. On top of that, my wife and I had left Manhattan for the wilds of Connecticut and I had given up full time teaching. (I had taught English at a girls’ school in the city for 16 years.)

It was time to regroup. And, maybe, time to think about writing a book for someone other than middle school aged kids. Long ago, I had written a (never published) novel for adults and after a few weeks of feeling sorry for myself, I started sketching ideas for a mystery about a young woman who returns to Swallowtail Island, where she had grown up but left under tragic circumstances.

Pretty soon I had a good outline and a few chapters under my belt and was rolling right along. I was even feeling pretty good about it (maybe not loving it, but not wanting to throw my laptop out the window after reading what I’ve written, which is not an uncommon urge for me).

After seven middle grade books, I felt like I had a decent idea of what worked and what didn’t in that world, but this was my first attempt at writing for adults in a long time, so, in June 2018, I signed up for Hallie Ephron’s mystery writing class at the Yale Writer’s Workshop, thinking that it would be a good thing to get some feedback on my pages. As my protagonist Lark might say, the GHT (God’s Honest Truth) is that I fully expected everyone to love it. I thought they would be begging me to hurry up and finish it so they could read the whole thing.

Boy, was I wrong.

It’s not entirely accurate to say that they hated it, but it’s not that far off the mark. They seemed especially harsh when it came to the structure of the story, which relied heavily on flashbacks to Lark’s unhappy, tragic childhood on the island. The consensus was that it was unnecessarily complicated and detracted from the plot.

I remember going back to my dorm room that night feeling dejected, even angry. I considered deleting the entire file and just starting over, but then I replayed some of my classmates’ comments in my head. In the midst of all the criticism there were two things about the story that people liked: the 12-year-old version of Lark and Swallowtail Island. Maybe it isn’t ready for the dumpster, I thought. Maybe this is the universe telling me that my style and my voice are best suited for middle grade. And I’m okay with that.

I am also nothing if not stubborn, so without telling anyone what I was doing, I spent the next few nights completely rewriting the first two chapters. They had been written in third person, but I realized that it was Lark’s story, and she had to be the one to tell it.

Gone were the flashbacks, gone was the older, damaged, cynical Lark. And more importantly, Lark’s family—her sister, stepfather, and three stepbrothers—and her relationships with all of them became as important as the missing will at the center of the mystery.

On the last day of the workshop, we all had a chance to read what we’d been working on during the week. When I read the first chapter in its new form, the reaction was completely different—people like it!— and I knew then that I was on the right track.

HALLIE: Michael is remarkly agile and resilient, not to mention SO talented... it's no mean fete to take brutally honest criticism from strangers and use it to feed a roaring success. I am SO THRILLED with an outcome is as glorious as this one. Just for instance, here's what Kirkus Reviews had to say about Michael's Swallowtail Legacy:
"Each character, historic and contemporary, sparks with life. Lark’s process and the reveals are perfectly paced. . . . Most heartwarming, Lark develops feelings of loyalty toward her blended family and uncovers a surprising link to their property. Readers will be hooked—more, please!"—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
So, anyone out there with middle graders to nourish with a corker of a mystery? What do you think makes a novel with a young main character appeal to middle graders, and what book(s) "sang" for you at that age?

And Michael, will there be the Kirkus-requested "more"?

58 comments:

  1. Congratulations, Michael, on your newest book . . . . Lark sounds like a character I would enjoy meeting.

    I think a relatable main character and an exciting story are the major thing that appeal to middle graders . . . aside from Nancy Drew, I read mostly science fiction at that age . . . Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” and Ray Bradbury’s “The Martian Chronicles” were particular favorites . . . .

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    1. Thank you! I read a lot of Nancy Drew and Encyclopedia Brown and Phyllis Whitney when I was that age. I think you have the order right to make a book appealing to middle graders: relatable,believable characters first, then a plot to keep them interested.

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    2. I read a lot of science fiction in high school (Vonnegut, Asimov, L'Engle...) But I think the "middle grade" category wasn't nearly as defined then as it is now. I read many of what had been my parents' favorites. Books by Booth Tarkington, Owen Johnson, Louise May Alcott, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Maud Hart Lovelace. Noticing that the lady authors all had middle names...

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  2. Ola and Bom Dia from Matosinhos, Portugal! So excited to be with the Jungle Red Writers today -- and thank you, Hallie, for the lovely intro!

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    1. Thrilled to have you, Michael - Do you actually speak Portuguese? It's always seemed to me like a particular unscrutable language. In print it looks somewhat like Spanish but 'on the hoof' I find it really hard to hear... a lot of sounds we English speakers don't make.

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  3. And to answer Hallie's question . . . I'm happy to report that two more Swallowtail Legacy books are in the works. I'm done with the first draft of Number Two (spoiler: the mystery revolves around "Swallowtales," a writers' conference on the island) which should publish next February, with the third a year later.

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    1. How lovely to have books "in the chute" as it were... a very different place than where you were at the writing conference 3 years ago.

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  4. Bom dia e parabens, Michael! (I love Portugal...) Good for you for listening to that critique and writing the story that needed to be written. Many years ago I took a weekend workshop from Hallie and Roberta. I worked hard on listening and rewriting, and when I read my revision that last day, Hallie was delighted. High praise!

    I read Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, the Borrowers, the Oz books, the Laura Ingalls Wilder series, but also Jules Verne and Alcott and the stories of Sherlock Holmes.

    My friend Elizabeth Atkinson has written a half dozen award-winning middle grade novels that I have loved. She really knows how to capture what kids that age go through. Alas, she's decided to retire from writing.

    I don't have an middle schoolers in my life right now - but that won't stop me from picking up your books!

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    1. I like the way you put that: writing the story that needed to be written. Sometimes you have to listen to your characters and trust them to lead you in the right direction. Clearly, I had been ignoring Lark!
      Oh! Jules Verne! I love his books (and enjoyed the BBC/PBS adaptation of "Around the World in 80 Days" that aired recently. And "Little Women" and "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" when I wasn't reading mysteries.

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  5. MICHAEL: Congratulations on your new book and the starred review!
    I agree with Hallie that it's so hard to take criticism well. Kudos to you for pivoting so quickly and producing the revised first chapter at her workshop.

    Growing up, I remember reading Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew and Laura Ingalls Wilder, and then moving on to Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie by age 11. The only YA author I remember reading was Judy Blume.

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    1. Thank you! The hardest part about teaching high school English was trying to get kids to revise -- to really dig back in and brutally cut out the bad stuff. So I try to listen to my own advice! It's really, really hard to be objective about your own writing.

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    2. MICHAEL: I do understand your point about objectivity. I wrote dozens of technical reports, journal articles and book chapters in my (former) day job. Manuscripts for the latter two went through rigorous (anonymous) peer-review processes. It was hard to accept the suggested changes, especially when the two reviewers gave contradictory advice(!) but the final products were published.

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    3. I've encountered many capable writers who were just as talented as they needed to be but could not hear criticism and revise. Understandable when you're in high school, but for a grownup/serious writer, being able think about and act on criticism is essential. I still remember when Lucy and I taught a workshop and Edith was there and read her revised scene, I think I applauded.

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  6. Welcome to JRW, Michael, and congratulations on your new series! In the middle school grades, I remember reading coming of age books like Angel on Skis by Betty Cavanna, and books about animals like Big Red. I'd read Nancy Drew and loved those mysteries! I also had a shelf full of All About books which sounds pretty tame right now. But I also read Exodus by Leon Uris during that time and the Lamb's Shakespeare, which was a wonderful way to learn about The Bard.

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    1. I remember reaching up for grownup books then, too... Does Peyton Place count? I read most of Shakespeare, too. And Sherlock Holmes.

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  7. Thank you! Your story about Exodus reminds me of tackling Ben Hur in the sixth grade because I had heard about the chariot race and didn't have a way of seeing the movie. I think that every serious reader I know has a story about taking on a huge, challenging book in middle school. My wife's choice was War and Peace!

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    1. WAR AND PEACE?!? Yikes. I dropped out of an 'advanced' English class in middle school because they had us reading Plato. I had no idea what he was going on about.

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  8. Not book related, but it's been a strange couple of days here in Portugal. A huge duststorm in the Sahara has filled the air and covered everything with a layer of red dust. Fitting that I'm on the Jungle RED Writers site today!

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    1. Yikes. Red dust storm? Sounds apocalyptic. And oh boy, could that ever go in a book. Take pictures. Take notes.

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    2. Apparently, it's even worse in Spain. They're urging people to stay inside or to . . . wait for it . . . wear a mask.

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    3. We lived in Tucson for about 10 months when I was 3-4. I remember a dust storm so strong that the sand came into the house through an in-wall fan next to the kitchen table.

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    4. Several times a year we get a cloud of Saharan dust or sand that crosses the Atlantic and settles here in Houston among places.

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  9. Michael welcome! We're so happy to hear this kind of story (and isn't Hallie a fabulous teacher?) If you're still in CT part of the year, I hope you'll join the brand new CT Sisters in Crime chapter. I'll see you there!

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    1. Thanks! Happy to be joining you all today. We're settled in Portugal, but thanks for the invite to Sisters in Crime. If I'm ever back . . .

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  10. Welcome and congrats, Michael! I did a short stint with Nancy Drew and Encyclopedia Brown at that age, but I remember very quickly moving on to Agatha Christie, Robert Ludlum, and Frederick Forsyth (I read way above my age level).

    My middle-schoolers are all grown up and my nephews too young (3 and 0), but the books sound great!

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    1. Ludlum and Forsyth in middle school! Serious stuff.
      I will say that for today's kids, there's SO much more to choose from than when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s. At some point, I just ran out of kids' mysteries to read and turned to Agatha Christie and Sherlock, because they were everywhere.

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    2. Liz, I read the Galsworthy in middle school--the entire nine books of the Forsyte saga. And everything by Winston Graham, and Delderfied. And Ludlum and Forsyth!

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  11. Rewriting in response to feedback is the test for every writer, and not every writer will rise to the challenge effectively. Kudos to you, Michael, for rising so well to the critique offered in the workshop. Congrats on your success!

    I have no middle graders in my life, but I, myself, love a good "children's book" when the characters, story and plot all combine for a rip snorting good read. I'm off to find your books, Michael.

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    1. Me, too - great books written for kids have been my go-to books this last year.

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    2. Thank you! Hope you love the book!

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    3. “A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.” - C.S. Lewis

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  12. Congratulations, Michael! I love reading books that are written for children of all ages, although I do have a sweet spot for middle graders. So - if you write it, I will read it and by the sounds of it, that's a book I will enjoy!

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    1. Thanks! Hope you enjoy spending a little time on Swallowtail Island!

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  13. Welcome, Michael, and congratulations. What a great origin story for your new book. I'd read it, definitely--a ripping good tale is a ripping good tale!

    The only middle-grade stories I can remember reading as a kid in the 1960s were the Beany Malone books. She was so strong and independent, and that really appealed to me, but there weren't really any mysteries in those books.

    I have to applaud your reading of the Nancy Drew and Phyllis Whitney tales, Michael, because they are more girl-centric. My grandson, at some point, stopped being willing to read books that even appeared to center around a girl. He loved the Percy Jackson books, though, which sneakily had a few girls in the cast of characters, and of course Harry Potter. Sounds like you mostly taught girls; did that influence your choice to right around a female protagonist?

    In the last few years we have had two friends move permanently to Portugal. It sounds like a wonderful place to retire to.

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    1. oops! Sorry, I wrote the reply to your comments below!

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  14. Michael, congratulations! If great writing doesn't grab middle-schoolers, where will the readers of 'adult' literature come from? I never could understand this idea that one must publish adult fiction to be a 'real' writer. I love reading middle-grade and YA books (books for any age, really). Currently, I work part-time at our local library--it's great to be able to recommend books to our middle school readers. Two very timely stories that I've read recently were PAX and its sequel, PAX, JOURNEY HOME by Sara Pennypacker--about a fox, a little boy, and a land torn by war. I'll be making sure we stock all of Lark's stories for our readers. P.S., love Portugal--whereabouts have you settled?

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    1. We're in Matosinhos, a few miles north of downtown Porto -- it's famous for its seafood restaurants and the beach.
      You're absolutely right about the importance of middle grade books. Studies have shown that fifth and sixth grades are turning points for lots of kids. Some kids continue to read for pleasure, but far too many get distracted by all of the other choices and lose the habit. Getting the right book in the right hands at the right moment is the key -- and librarians play a HUGE part in that. So, thank you for doing your part!

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  15. Thanks, Karen!(I'm from Ohio, too, by the way. I grew up in Andover, in Ashtabula County, the northeast corner of the state.) It's funny, as a reader, I never really cared about the girl v. boy protagonist. If it was a good story, I didn't care. My favorite book in high school was Jane Eyre (still a favorite), because I really cared about what happened to Jane, just like I had about Francie Nolan and Jo March.
    Yes, sixteen years of teaching freshman English at a girls' school definitely pushed me in the direction of writing a female protagonist. The Red Blazer Girls books are loosely based on the school and the girls in my classes.
    Portugal is great! We've been here about 18 months, and are settled in Matosinhos, which is just north of Porto, and on the metro line.

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    1. One of our friends also lives outside Porto. Small world!

      I'm in Cincinnati, cattycorner from Andover.

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    2. I loved Porto when I was there!

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  16. congratulations on your new release! I remember telling my daughter's fifth grade teacher that the girls were very tired of reading books about boys in Appalachia during the Depression. With a dog.

    Her response: Boys don't enjoy reading about female protagonists, so in order to encourage them to read more, we focus on boy-oriented books.

    Hermione Granger, Harrie the Spy, Meg Murry, and Lark, please stand and take a bow.

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    1. Thank you! I'm sure there are some boys who don't want to read books with female protagonists, but I honestly believe that it's a pretty small percentage. If it's a good book, it just doesn't matter!

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  17. When I teach writing, I emphasis how important it is to let go of your preconceived notions and listen to criticism. Which isn't to say that all critics have a point - but when you have three or more readers saying the same thing, a wise writer knows they have a problem. I've got to say, Michael, that turning on a dime and rewriting that fast seems extraordinary to me, and I'm definitely going to mention your story when I next teach!

    Also, as someone who thought she was going to write science fiction and who got a whodunnit instead, I'm a great believer in the idea that the genre chooses the writer, and not the other way around. I've known too many people who started out to write one thing and had the ground turn beneath their feet to think we actually have much control over what field we plow.

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  18. Hi, Michael. I was in that class at Yale with you, and I was blown away by the revisions you made over the course of the class. I was so impressed that I went home and sent all your books to my (then middle-grade) granddaughter, and she loved them. Congratulations on getting this new one published, and on the stellar reviews. I'll have to pick it up and read it myself, since I don't have any more middle grade grandkids.
    And weren't we lucky to have had the fantastic, amazing, unbelievably good HALLIE EPHRON as our instructor? I still consider that class the most valuable experience of my writing life.

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    1. Hi Sharon! So nice to hear from you, and Thanks for the kind words! Yes, indeed, we were very lucky to be in Hallie's class. It was a great experience on so many levels. Hope you like the rest of Swallowtail!

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  19. Congrats on getting the new book published! It sounds like the feedback was spot on, as hard as it was to receive.

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    1. Thanks! Yeah, it's never easy to hear what you don't want to hear, but that's part of the deal.

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  20. I can't remember specific books I read in junior high (a loooong time ago). I know I read some adventure-based books about smokejumpers, and whitewater rafters, and aviators. I read a lot of classics during that time period: Dickens, Fenimore Cooper, Hawthorne, etc. and my mom's books: Helen MacInnes, Victoria Holt, Phyllis Whitney, Mary Stewart, et al. Congratulations! I've read a few YA books in the past few years, and a good book is a good book, regardless of its intended audience.

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    1. Ah, you said the magic word: Dickens! I didn't discover him until much later, but he's my favorite now. I remember reading the Helen MacInnes and Victoria Holt books that my mom brought home from the library. Agreed, the intended audience has nothing to do with whether a book is good or not. It's the writing!

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  21. What a great story, Michael, and congratulations on your success--and your perseverance!

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  22. Congratulations on the new book. Did being a teacher make it easier to take the criticism?

    I went through Little Women and the Little Princess at my Mother's knee when I was young. Too young probably because I never really believed that Beth died and couldn't get past the casual cruelty in the Little Princess. By the time I was picking stuff off the shelf for myself my preferences were pretty eclectic, including Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Jane Austen, James Michener and for all my sins, Georgette Heyer and Ayn Rand. I have successfully recovered from the last one, I promise. Also, Leon Uris and Alvin Toffler and Dr. David Reuben.

    I've read more YA in my adult years if you count Harry Potter and The Hunger Games books. I think they are good because the characters are multi-dimensional, they grow over time and they are full members of the world they inhabit.

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    1. Ha! I went through the obligatory college-years Ayn Rand phase, too; happily, it didn't last long!

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  23. Congratulations, Michael! Stubbornness will take you far in this biz, as you know. Personally, I love middle school aged novels - it's that sweet spot where you're not a kid but you're not a grown up either and kids view the world through a wonderfully fresh lens that I enjoy being in their heads. Can't wait to pick it up!

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    1. Thanks! Oh yeah, stubbornness, perseverance, competitiveness -- call it what you will, it's definitely important. Even after finishing Wreck at Ada's Reef, I heard a lot of no's from publishers who thought it wasn't "edgy" enough for today's kids.
      Hope you enjoy your time on Swallowtail Island!

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  24. Oh I am so behind! (I wrote this in my head, and then it felt like I had posted it. But then of course, I hadn’t.) Anyway, congratulations! And this sweet and wonderful story, of how you tried to be something else and then it turned out you already knew who you were, reminds me of an old movie called Stars and Stripes Forever, the bio of John Philip Sousa (with Clifton Webb.)? Anyway, at some point, after he was called the march king, he decided he wanted to expand and write something else. Even though he was brilliant at marches. Even though he was unparalleled at marches.
    So to prove he could write something else just as well, he wrote a piece, a waltz, called "My love's like a weeping willow."
    It was beautiful, and musical, and lovely.
    But as it turned out, much much better if played in march time, and when he did that, they renamed it Semper Fidelis.

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  25. Sorry I am a day late! I meant to comment yesterday.

    March is also Middle Grade Month so this post is perfect! Michael, welcome to Jungle Reds and your books sound wonderful! I am adding them to my reading list.

    Thank you everyone for introducing some authors that I never heard of!

    When I was in middle school, I loved Nancy Drew AND the Babysitter's Club. Quite a wide variety! I also started reading Agatha Christie the summer between elementary and middle school. Agatha Christie was very challenging because there were no pictures in the books.LOL. I remember reading Barbara Cartland romances. History novels by Antonia Fraser.

    Yes, I loved James Michener's historical novels. A classmate, who got straight A's, recommended Danielle Steel and I read a few of her books. Anne of Green Gables was another favorite. I read Little Women because my school play was LITTLE WOMEN and I needed the gist of the story so I could follow the dialogue (no Sign Language interpreters and the actors did not speak clearly, unfortunately).

    Even as an adult now, I still like novels meant for middle school graders.

    Diana

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  26. Sorry -- I missed this last night. I love the Sousa analogy (not that I'd put myself in the same league as JPS!). My wife insists that after teaching at a girls' school for so long, I'm able to channel their thoughts. I'm not sure; I think I'm just a good listener with a decent memory! But I still haven't given up on the idea of writing outside the realm of middle grade. Someday . . .
    Since it looks like you're the last to comment, THANK YOU and all of the Jungle Red Writers for letting me spend some time with you! Hope to come back again.

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