Children’s author C.W. Allen is here today and we’re chatting about her new middle grade fantasy adventure, The Secret Benefits of Invisibility.
During her virtual book tour, C.W. will be giving away a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!
Bio:
C.W. Allen is a Nebraskan by birth, a Texan by experience, a Hoosier by marriage, and a Utahn by geography. She knew she wanted to be a writer the moment she read The Westing Game at age twelve, but took a few detours along the way as a veterinary nurse, an appliance repair secretary, and a homeschool parent.
She recently settled in the high desert of rural Utah with her husband, their three children, and a noisy flock of orphaned ideas. Someday she will create literary homes for all of them. (The ideas, not her family.)
Her debut novel Relatively Normal Secrets, a middle grade speculative mystery, was published by Cinnabar Moth Publishing in 2021. The Falinnheim Chronicles series will continue with The Secret Benefits of Invisibility (June 7, 2022) and Tales of the Forgotten Founders (2023). She also has shorter work published in numerous anthologies. Keep up with her latest projects at cwallenbooks.com.
Welcome, C.W. Please tell us about your current release.
The Secret Benefits of Invisibility is the sequel to Relatively Normal Secrets. In the previous book, tween siblings Tuesday and Zed got stuck in a hidden “pocket” of Earth’s geography that doesn’t appear on any map and has a unique medieval-meets-futuristic flair. Now, they’re trying to find their place in their newfound family structure and help overthrow the murderous dictator who wants their parents dead. Usually the adult Resistance agents take responsibility for that sort of thing, but when all the adults get captured, it’s up to the kids and their friends to come to the rescue!
What inspired you to write this book?
I so vividly remember what it felt like to be my readers’ age. Being a tween is equally frustrating (too young for teen privileges, but old enough that adults have more expectations of you) and magical (capable enough to do things independently, but still young enough to have a sense of wonder, creativity, and idealism). I think this creates a lot of interesting opportunities for characters to have independent adventures while still seeing the world differently than adults do. It also presents some unique challenges. An adult character is in charge of their own money, schedule, and transportation. They don’t need permission to do things. Even if their decisions might have negative consequences, doing what they want is still a matter of simply choosing to. Kids have a lot more restrictions, which creates more interesting plot hurdles for the characters to get over.
I have a mantra I try to apply to all my writing: I want to create stories where kids succeed because they’re kids, not in spite of it. I want my characters to show off the superpowers kids have, the skills adults forget about, rather than pulling off their successes “okay for a kid, I guess”. This is a major focus in The Secret Benefits of Invisibility, where the kids find out that being ignored and underestimated makes them ideal candidates for spy missions!
Excerpt from The Secret Benefits of Invisibility:
Snowflakes the size of baseballs were falling outside, which was ironic, since baseball didn’t exist anymore.
Zed had never cared much for organized sports, so the loss of baseball wasn’t so horrible, in his opinion. He cared a great deal about snow, however. In his last house, he’d had a favorite windowsill in the upstairs hallway that was deep enough to sit in and read while looking out the window. Cloudy fall afternoons made for excellent reading weather, but an early morning snowfall was even better, because school might get canceled, and then he’d get to stay home and read as long as he liked. That was before the move, though. His new home had school too, of course, but no windowsills. You don’t need windowsills in a place with no windows.
His older sister Tuesday was not such a fan of the “organized” aspect of baseball—she’d had some unusual barriers to making friends in her last town, not least among them her name, and it’s tough to play baseball by yourself—but she did enjoy sports, because sports are something you can win. You can’t win at reading a book in a windowsill. And anyway, she reminded Zed, baseball technically still existed, somewhere. It’s just that no one else in Falinnheim had ever heard of it.
What exciting story are you working on next?
The Secret Benefits of Invisibility is the second book in the Falinnheim Chronicles series. I’m hard at work right now on the third book in the series, Tales of the Forgotten Founders, which is scheduled for publication in 2023. I also have a humorous science fiction story coming out in an anthology later this year (probably November) and I will be teaching classes for writers at the Quills Conference in August.
I have several more middle grade novels in the works, but I’m not able to give details about them yet. Sometimes publishing likes to keep its secrets! I keep my website updated with links to all my publicly-announced work: https://www.cwallenbooks.com/books and I make all announcements about new projects in my newsletter: https://www.cwallenbooks.com/contact , so those are the best ways to keep up with my writing news.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I considered myself a writer when I decided to make a study of writing as a craft and publishing as a business; it was my focus that mattered, not my achievements. I’m a big proponent of this mental framework for all writers. If you write, you are a writer! No writing degree or professional publication credits necessary.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I homeschool my three children, so I definitely need to structure my time to get everything done! I usually write for three or four hours in the morning before turning my focus to the kids’ needs (and making dinner, and folding laundry, and all the other stuff that needs to happen) after lunch. Then I’m back in author mode in the evenings working on marketing, social media, answering emails, etc. I also volunteer my time as a board member for the League of Utah Writers, so that gets my attention on weekends. It’s a lot, but I make it work!
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I absolutely cannot sleep with my ears uncovered. Not my face, just my ears. One ear is down in the pillow, of course, but I have to carefully pull the sheet up over the exposed ear. It’s not about dampening sounds, I just need to feel… tucked in, I guess? I dunno. Quirks don’t have to make sense.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I always wanted to be a writer, but for some reason I grew up thinking that authors were magical people who were naturally good at writing, and that the stories they told would just come out on the page perfectly formed when they sat down to write. I knew that didn’t happen to me, so I didn’t think I could make it as an author. I didn’t realize how much time and work went into writing a book. Once I learned that even my favorite writers had to study and struggle and go through lots of drafts to work their way to a finished book, the process felt more attainable for me. I realized I didn’t need some magical, perfect talent—just an idea and the willingness to work with it. It didn’t matter how long it took, or how rough it looked in the beginning.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Thank you for sharing this adventure with me! Writing a story that doesn’t get read is like wrapping a present that never gets opened. Without my readers, there is no story. I hope you’ll love my imaginary friends and their adventures just as much as I do.
Links:
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Thanks for hosting!
Sounds great, thank you.
I LOVED your answer to the “What inspired you to write this book?” question.
Thanks Kim! There is a Middle Grade renaissance going on right now, with so many different genres and flavors being published for this age group. I recommend all adults give Middle Grade reading a try!
I enjoyed the post the book sounds really good.
Thank you for hosting Lisa! You had such interesting interview questions.