Project Update: Picket Town Blurb

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

So I'm closing in on 40K words of the first draft of my middle-grade science fiction book currently titled Picket Town. I probably mentioned this before, but it's going to be a short one. I would be surprised if it got to 45K words, though we'll see. I'm past the "climax" of the story and into the "aftermath," so it won't be long until I wrap up the draft. Then it's time for...[dun dun dun]...the dreaded revisions. Er, revisions, I mean.

But yeah, after writing such a long book before this one (that one clocked in at around 80K words - a long one for me!), it's refreshing to write a short one. Not to mention one that's both of a totally different tone and age category than the last one (which was a humorous superhero fantasy). I do find that I miss the whimsical humorous nature of the last book, though that's probably partly because it was of the polar opposite nature. Some of us writers like to hop around from one type of story to another. I was so revved up for a more serious, sci-fi adventure (like Picket Town) after I wrote my last book, after all.

In any case, for those interested, below is a working blurb of Picket Town. It's more of the back-cover copy variety rather than query pitch, since I find it more fun to write that type (I tend to enjoy a little mystery in a book description versus it being more fact-based, so to speak). Anyway, without further adieu, here's the [current] blurb:

Amanda lives in the most boring town in the world—New Pines. She calls it Picket Town, though, because every single house is identical with the same dull, white picket fence. The only thing remotely interesting—and kind of creepy—about New Pines is the never-before-seen bacterium that broke out in it a month ago. The mysterious disease only infects kids, and apparently nobody who’s come down with it has recovered from it yet.

But after an inspiring Social Studies lesson on famous explorers, Amanda investigates the forbidden woods by her house, yanking her friend Sam along for the mission. Much to their surprise, they discover what appears to be a giant spaceship in the forest’s clearing. But what they secretly witness fly out of the ship is the last thing they could possibly expect, and is a million times more terrifying. And it’s something that poses a major threat to not only New Pines, but the entire world.