Harry the Pirate Captain

I was able to read the first five chapters of the next book, “Harry Breaks a Jail”, to my grandson, over Thanksgiving weekend.

For the weekend, I brought copies of the first book, “Harry and the Kraken”, with a cover that was his artwork on the front, as well a the first five chapters of “Harry Breaks a Jail.” For the first few days, he would bring me the first book, not saying a word. He would settle in next to me and expect me to start reading. I read the twenty chapters of the first book in three days. After the first book, he started handing me the printout of the next book. I thought I had missed the mark on the second book when he said he needed a break after halfway through chapter five, he said he needed a break. The next day, he handed me the printout again and had me finish reading the next book. In the end, he gave me a review of the second book, ‘It’s Good.’ That made me feel good. I feel that I missed the mark on some parts but only by a little. One part is a story introducing a new character connected to the quartermaster. I think the story, in general, raises the age of the content by a year or two and should be rewritten. The plan now is to remove most of that chapter and create a novella (authored by my wife more to come on that hopefully).

I was so happy to continue the tradition of creating a story for my grandsons for Thanksgiving. He did say, “I want to make this a tradition.” No pressure, I need to write a book a year for the foreseeable future. There was a funny line in the series “Castle” with Nathan Fillion, where the other authors criticized Castle that one book a year was underperforming. That was a line written by the showwriters, but it’s still something to consider that maybe one book a year is an amateur level of writing.

The joy of a child listening to a story I made/created/wrote is wonderful. He is my audience, and to be accepted by my audience is incredible.