Mermaids are such a fabulous topic, and
so different from your other books. Did
you have to approach these much differently than the monster books?
Will the Mermaid Tales books all be from
the same character’s point-of-view or a different one for each book?
Each of the first four books comes from
a different character’s viewpoint, just like in the Adventures of the Bailey
School Kids. I hope if I get to write
more in the series, I can continue to tell more about each character. Before I began writing, I made character
sketches of all the merpeople in the stories and that was quite helpful.
When writing a new series, how many book
ideas do you start with? Do you outline
the whole series or a few books at a time?
This is my twelfth series and each one
is a little different. Usually, a
publisher wants to see synopses for at least four books, so I usually do six or
more to give some options. This is just a paragraph or so telling the main idea
of the story. The proposal will also include sample chapters or the entire
first book, character sketches, and the outline for the first book if the whole
book is not included. With the new
Mermaid Tales series, I added a Travel Guide to Trident City, a map of the
city, and information about the school.
Some of that is now on my website, www.debbiedadey.com
on the new Mermaid Tales pages.
What are you most proud of in your
writing career so far?
Whenever I meet a student or parent (or
receive a letter or email) and they tell me that my books made them or their
child love reading it makes me so happy!
It makes all the rejections worth it!
What’s next for you? Anything new that you’d like to try with your
writing?
Every
new story is scary for me because it’s the unknown. My daughter and I have been working on a
story for about five years. We finally
threw everything out and started a new story from the original idea. It’s quite scary for me because it’s a true
battle of good and evil and we share our faith.
It is with my agent at Writer’s House right now so I’m keeping my
fingers crossed that it works out. I
wrote two books with oldest son, Nathan.
They were Slime Wars and Slime Time.
It would be very special if Becky and I could get a book published as
well.Thanks so much for chatting with me. It was great seeing you again and I’ll always remember my wonderful Naperville/Aurora area critique group!
You can visit Debbie at http://debbiedadey.com or stop by her Facebook fan page (Facebook.com/debbiedadey)for
the latest news and happenings.
