MJ Allaire
I began writing young adult fantasy in 2005 with the intent of writing a book about dragons for my oldest son, who was 15 at the time. As I began writing my first book, "Dragon's Blood", I had only a vague idea of where I was going with the story. After a time I realized I had ventured from my intentional literary path of delving into a fantastical world of dragons instead into an adventure about four children who found themselves lost in a cave literally fighting for their lives. Book two in the Denicalis Dragon Chronicle series is titled "The Prisoner", book three is titled "Dragon's Tear", and book four is titled "Dragon's Breath". I've been working on book five now for two years and am having a hard time with it - not in the ideas for the stories, but in being able to focus and WRITE. There will be at least 6 books in my series, maybe more, depending on how sidetracked I get between here and the grand finale!
In 2012, in an effort to start focusing again, I tried something different and wrote and published a young adult mystery titled "Dead Reckoning". It's the story of a 12-year old girl named Llyssaer who loses her beloved dog (a German Shepard named Jiminy Cricket) in a home invasion at the house next door. After she moves to a new state and while going to a new school where she's struggling to make friends, she's on her way to school one day when a blonde girl follows her and eventually says, "You need to come with me. Jiminy wants me to show you something." The end of the book, although happy, has a curving twist that I'm really proud of.
In 2009 I released "My Blissful Life As a Submariner's Wife", which is a women's non-fiction/memoir about my life as a military dependent. In it, I tell both funny and sad stories about things I had to deal with when my husband was constantly deployed on submarines, and how I eventually became an author. It's meant to be an inspirational book for military wives or women going through (or having gone through) a divorce, or just a good book for anyone to read!
I've learned a lot during my personal writing journey, along with one very important fact. Initially I wrote for my son in hopes of publishing a book he would be interested in reading. Now, although I still write for my children to show them that you can do anything you put your mind to, I've found that I write for all young adults. Having one of my three children barely interested in reading, I decided I want to make a difference. I go to schools and talk about the joys of writing AND editing, and encourage young adults to read for the rest of their lives. With my husband I also co-teach a writing class to young adults where, at the end of the class, we publish an anthology of short stories they've written that semester. Can you imagine being a published author at the age of 9 years old? Caitlyn, a young girl in one of our classes, now carries such a title.
So, in a nutshell, I'm writing in hopes of providing children with interesting reading material, something that will possibly lead them down the wonderful and enlightening path to a lifetime of reading...
I'm writing for children like (then) 11-year old Emily, who came to one of my book signings at Borders in Simsbury, carrying a ragged and tattered copy of Dragon's Blood, dancing with excitement because she got to meet me, especially when I signed the book she so loved that day. When I told her I had the newly released Book Two "The Prisoner" with me, she danced even more in a poor attempt to control her happiness.
To Mikayla, a young reader and fan in Wallingford, CT, who, in her grandfather's words, "loved Dragon's Blood moreso than Harry Potter". Mikayla, I hope you've enjoying The Prisoner and Dragon's Tear even moreso than Dragon's Blood!
Examples like this are why I'm writing.
As adults, we understand we will learn many lessons as we journey from childhood to adulthood, and reading by far should be one of the most important ones. If one