A Mother's Day Post

I may not be a mother of human children, but I am a mother of three wonderful cats, two mostly charming terriers, and thirteen magical novels. Today, I'd like to talk about one specific novel: Kick It One More Time.

Kick It may not have been the first book I published, but it was the first book I ever wrote... and I wrote it several times. Despite that, there are certainly things I would now go back and edit if I could. In particular, I'd tweak the structure of some sentences and the usage of some words. (Plot-wise, I'm still fully satisfied.)

The reason I'm talking about Kick It today is because that massive novel is possibly my favorite nonliving child. I just finished listening to the audio version for the second time, and while I loved revisiting with young Bas, Bert, and Lucy (and little Magnolia!), I also found myself constantly thinking, I should've used a different adjective there; I already described it that way earlier in the book. Or, That was repetitive, using the same word twice in the same sentence. Bad decision, Hannah.

On the other hand, it was kind of cool to see how my writing has improved since the creation of Kick It -- and how the characters have continued to evolve. They've grown up so much! They've gone on to accomplish so many things!

I was talking to my mom about Kick It on Friday night and she said something that I rather liked. My mom pointed out that Kick It is both the beginning and the middle. It's the beginning in that it was the first book I ever wrote (and upon its completion, I was able to write everything that followed with relative ease); it's the middle because it's the center of the Hannah Rae Literary Universe and every other novel ties into it somehow.

Anyway... on a day when mothers of human children are looking at their kids and thinking, I created that, I am looking at my original novel and thinking the very same thing.

If you've never read Kick It One More Time because you're intimidated by its length, the audio version is a great alternative. Rob Connolly has a soothing voice that I think you'll enjoy. And I can guarantee once you have the secrets of Kick It under your belt, you will discover soooooo many additional Easter eggs in my other novels.