When I started writing my forthcoming middle-grade novel, I thought I was so clever to write “ahead” a bit, so it wouldn’t be out of date when it was published.
Leaving the pandemic out of your novel was absolutely the right choice, Carol, just like focusing on the aftermath of the pandemic was absolutely the right choice in my forthcoming MG novel, The Fairy Cottage. Although, as an associate of mine said to me recently, for some of us "the pandemic never stopped," most people, especially kids, need to move on. There is absolutely no reason that every book written for kids in the post-pandemic era needs to mention it. Did every author published in the years after 1918 mention the flu? Of course not, unless the flu was central to their story. Each author has to decide whether they want their work to be topical in the moment or "evergreen." Having read an advance copy, I will tell you that I didn't even notice the missing pandemic. I was too much on the edge of my seat wondering how they were going to get home!
Leaving the pandemic out of your novel was absolutely the right choice, Carol, just like focusing on the aftermath of the pandemic was absolutely the right choice in my forthcoming MG novel, The Fairy Cottage. Although, as an associate of mine said to me recently, for some of us "the pandemic never stopped," most people, especially kids, need to move on. There is absolutely no reason that every book written for kids in the post-pandemic era needs to mention it. Did every author published in the years after 1918 mention the flu? Of course not, unless the flu was central to their story. Each author has to decide whether they want their work to be topical in the moment or "evergreen." Having read an advance copy, I will tell you that I didn't even notice the missing pandemic. I was too much on the edge of my seat wondering how they were going to get home!
Wonderful! I agree completely. And I can't wait to read The Fairy Cottage!