Daniel The Camp-er Blog Tour
I'm thrilled to be hosting S.J. Henderson on this Friday the 13th. Her book is excellent. I totally loved it, from start to finish, and give it five big fat stars! I even gave it to my oldest daughter who is a teacher to read! So take it away S.J. Henderson ...
First thing’s first,
thanks for having me, Sonia. I love visiting with my writing friends, so I’m
beyond grateful for the invite. And a big congrats on the release of THE LAST
STORED. So excited for you!
Now to the questions…
How long have you been writing?
Gosh, it feels like
forever. I can’t think of a magic age when I said, “Yes, this is what I want to
do with my life.” On the contrary, as a kid, I remember mostly the feeling of
not having what it takes to be a writer. Writers needed to have connections and
know the secret knock to open the door of publishing houses. I was a shy kid
whose closest friend was a pony, and I didn’t know anything about a special
knock.
But I still wrote
because I loved creating worlds, even if they existed only for me and my
friends. My crowning kid achievement was a story series I wrote in the sixth
and seventh grades. In this story, my main character befriended, among other
odd things, what amounted to a disembodied pair of Groucho Marx glasses. It was
horrible, horrible stuff, but no one else I knew was writing books about
anything, no less phantoms with a superb sense of humor.
About four-ish years
ago, I had a particularly trying week at my day job as a birth doula. That’s
when I remembered a friend talking about a college class on novel writing she had
taken. I called this friend and said, “It’s time. I need to write.” She
directed me to the book they used for her course, NO PLOT? NO PROBLEM! by Chris
Baty, founder of National Novel Writing Month. Within a day or two of devouring
that book, I was elbow-deep within my first novel. I’ve been writing ever
since.
Do you write full-time?
I wish! My goal is to
write full time, but I’m not quite there yet. Someday.
Where did you draw your
inspiration for Daniel the Camp-er?
Draw? I see what you
did there, you witty thing, you.
DANIEL THE CAMP-ER is
the second book in the DANIEL THE DRAW-ER series. The original concept--a boy
with a magic pencil that brings his drawings to life—came from my four boys. My
second-oldest son loves to draw. For a long time, my son only had one friend,
much like Daniel. The third-oldest boy sat next to me while I wrote and laughed
at all the funny parts, so I kept writing funny parts. It was the most fun I’ll
ever have writing a book.
I wrote the initial
story, which is now the first chapter of the first book, as my assignment for a
writing course I was in at the time. When I shared it with the group, my
classmates urged me to write more about this goofy kid. I’m glad I listened.
My own fifth-grade
camp experience inspired a big chunk of the story for the second book. I’m not
sure I want to say specifically what parts were based on real life, but I bet
you can guess.
Plotter or panster?
Plantser. I detest
outlines. Detest them. If I plan a
story like DANIEL out too much, it kills my creativity. However, I tend to go
into a scene knowing roughly what needs to happen and where things are headed.
I leave the rest up to the characters. Most of the time it works.
What does your writing process look like?
This question stumps
me every time because I’m not sure if people want to know what I do when I sit
down to write or what the big picture is. In either case my answers are pretty
boring because, well, I’m boring.
I write. Usually in my
pajamas, surrounded by a beverage of choice and something to snack on so my
eyes stay open. If it’s noisy around me—and it’s always noisy around me—I
listen to music (something mellow or familiar like Bon Iver. Upbeat or brand
new music distracts me). If the house is quiet, I like that, too. Quiet is
rare.
For some reason, I
always seem to write my first drafts while my kids are home on extended breaks
(summer or winter break). I don’t know why, but I suspect it’s because I hate
myself. Either that or I need to go to my happy place because they’re driving
me crazy. Haha. In case you wondered, it’s super hard to write a novel with a
house full of boys. With DANIEL THE CAMP-ER, which I wrote during the summer and
fall of 2014, I settled on a goal of 400 words per day. It kept me writing and
making slow progress but didn’t feel impossible to reach on even those packed
summer days.
Once a draft is
completed, I usually send it out to a few people to see if I’m on the right
track. Then I take their feedback on what works and what doesn’t and revise. I
usually repeat this process a few times until the story feels right and it’s
ready for the next step.
Favorite writing snack?
Cinnamon Fire Jolly
Ranchers. They’ve ruined my life and discontinued them. Now you’re forced to
buy them on Amazon for waaaaaay too much if you gotta have your fix. I’m trying
to find a suitable alternative, but no luck so far.
What is your favorite genre to write in and
why?
I love writing Young
Adult because it’s really the sweet spot of writing. So many things fly in YA
because that time of life is about learning who you are and pushing boundaries.
There’s a sort of endless vitality and discovery you can’t find anywhere else.
That said, writing for
Middle Grade readers has been amazing and so unexpected. Their enthusiasm for
my stories and me, as a writer, can’t be duplicated. They are the best
audience.
What are you currently working on? Do you have
a release date yet?
My next project is a
Young Adult paranormal novel, a story I love to pieces. It needs a bit of
rewriting and a ton of editing, but I’m hoping it’ll be ready for release this
summer. Fingers crossed!
What do you want your readers to know?
I want my readers to
know that I love hearing from them. E-mails, Facebook posts, Tweets,
reviews—whatever! Nothing makes my day like hearing from someone who enjoyed my
book.
Which song would work best for the soundtrack
of Daniel the Camp-er?
Ooo. This is tough. Probably
“The Best Day of My Life” by American Authors.
And just for fun:
Summer or Winter? Summer.
Salty or sweet? Sweet.
Cat or dog? Horse (that’s a choice, right?). Okay, then I pick dog.
Morning or night? Night.
Chick flick or Action movie? Chick flick, fo sho.
Blurb:
There
are a few simple rules Daniel follows.
Rule One:
never let an adult see your weakness. Daniel made that mistake and look where
he ended up—summer camp.
Rule Two:
never make fun of the person who feeds you, unless you like Miss Gunderson’s
peppery pancakes and green hamburgers.
Rule
Three: stay away from girls who love Glitter
Ponies. They have cooties, after all.
And
Rule Four: never, ever lose your magic pencil.
But Daniel
has broken all of his own rules. Now he’s stuck and starving at Camp Bigfoot
with the school bully as his bunkmate and an ooey-gooey girl who won’t leave
him alone. If all of that wasn’t bad enough, his prized possession, a pencil
that brings his drawings to life, has gone missing and wacky creatures are
popping up all over camp.
Can
Daniel survive Camp Bigfoot and find his magic pencil before it’s too late?
About
the Series:
DANIEL
THE CAMP-ER is the second book in the DANIEL THE DRAW-ER series. The first book
in the series, DANIEL THE DRAW-ER, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble,
and as an audiobook on Audible and iTunes.
Although
Daniel’s adventures were written for boys and girls between 6 and 12, readers
of all ages have found themselves swept up in these silly and imaginative
stories. Fans of Captain Underpants and
Diary of a Wimpy Kid will appreciate the humor in the DANIEL THE DRAW-ER books,
and parents and teachers will appreciate the lack of potty humor and themes of
friendship and loyalty. And fun. Can’t forget fun.
Book Links:
Excerpt
A girl with a short
red braid sits down in the grass next to me and stares at the picture as I
work. She’s wearing a bright pink Glitter
Ponies shirt. Glitter Ponies is a
girl cartoon, and it’s nowhere near as cool as Bionic Aardvarks of Underworld Z. I can’t believe she can wear that
shirt without being embarrassed.
“What’s your name?”
She twirls the end of her braid between her fingers.
I stop drawing, not
sure who she’s talking to.
“What’s your name?”
She repeats.
Wait. Is she
talking to me? I glance over my shoulder, but no one else is around.
“What. Is. Your.
Name?” she asks again. I try to ignore her, but she’s looking at me and
fluttering her eyelashes. Yeah, like that’ll magically make me pay attention to
her.
“I asked you a
question.” She touches me on the arm and I pull away from her as fast as I can.
It’s a proven fact that girls are the number one carrier of cooties, and no one
likes cooties. I’ve never seen a real-live cootie up close before, so I don’t know
what they look like, but I’m not about to find out at Camp Bigfoot when I’m so
far away from Mom and her special cootie shampoo. Besides, if anyone’s gonna
have them crawling around on their clothes or hiding in their ears, it’s this
girl.
“My mom told me
it’s not good to talk to strangers,” I say.
“You’re
funny.” She grins, and her mouth lights up like a disco ball. Glitter Pony Girl
has braces with pink rubber bands that match her cootie-infested shirt. “Wanna
go to the dance with me?”
Author Bio:
S. J. Henderson is the author of the DANIEL THE DRAW-ER
series, as well as several not-yet-published Young Adult novels.
S. J. lives in Michigan with her husband and four wild boys. When she is not
writing about talking cats and magic pencils, S. J. can usually be found riding
one of her family’s horses or drinking a little bit of coffee with her creamer.
Author Social Media
Links:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Time for lunch, literally a brown-bag
with fresh fruit, and a huge turkey club, surprisingly delicious. They
hand each of us a yellow folder containing critiqued pages. I scan the papers.
Red and green mark the page. On one sheet there’s a long note comparing my
writing style to Ray Bradbury, Rod Serling, and The Giver. I'll take that. Yes, I'll take
that. I breathe, and let my 
