Walking the Tree

I am now holding Walking the Tree. It’s here, it’s done and it is absolutely gorgeous.

Ican now let on the secret about this book.

I wrote it twice. Once from the point of view of Lillah, the teacher and main character. Once again from the point of view of Morace, the student and other main character. You can read why over at the Angry Robot Blog. Basically, I felt Morace’s voice so strongly I wanted to tell his story as well. I also loved the idea of publishing an adult and children’s version of the same book at the same time.

Writing Walking the Tree from a second point of view helped me write the final draft of the adult version. Interesting to see things from a different perspective. It helped me see logical flaws, character inconsistencies and parts which didn’t fit. It also helped me understand both the characters better and to build Morace’s character into someone you will hopefully care about.

My son has read Morace’s Story. He was nervous at first, because I’ve told him about the sorts of things I write and he was worried it would give him nightmares.  There is some stark imagery and some frightening things, but he says he is nightmare free!