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It’s a Little Haywire by Elle Strauss – the story behind the story!

Elle Stauss, the author of YA time travel Clockwise, brings us her first middle grade, It’s a Little Haywire. I loved it and immediately thought of Because of Winn-Dixie as a comparison title. It’s that good.

Owen True is eleven and eleven twelfths and has been “exiled” to the small crazy town of Hayward, WA, aka, Haywire, while his mother is on her honeymoon. All he has to whittle away the time is the company of Gramps, his black lab Daisy, and his Haywire friends, Mason and Mikala Sweet. They don’t look so hot this year, in fact, the whole town has gone to pot since the mill shut down.

Owen has his first encounter with a real life homeless man who ends up needing Owen’s help in more ways than one. But how does a rich city kid help the small town’s suffering citizens?

And what is Owen to make of the fog train and its scary, otherworldy occupants that appears out of thin air on the old tracks behind Gramps’ house? Do they have the answer Owen is looking for?

And now I’ll hand over the blog to Elle!

The Story Behind the Story

It’s a Little Haywire is actually a major re-write of one of the first stories I’d ever written, way back in the day when I thought I’d like to try my hand at writing. The execution of the story was terrible, but the main idea had potential.

It came to me one night as I was falling asleep. I’d heard a train whistle, much like I had when I was child visiting the small town where my grandparents lived. I must’ve dipped into a slight dream state, because we didn’t live near train tracks at that time.

But that was the seed of the idea for the mystery train.

My oldest son was ten when our family spent some time in Germany and he wrote my parents emails about his adventures. I came across the letters last year and discovered the voice of my main character, Owen, in the voice of my son. My parents were visiting during this time, and my dad’s the guy who has a song for every situation. Suddenly, I had the two main characters and the story just clicked together. (So, yeah, that part at the beginning where I say characters resembling real people is just a coincidence–not really true in this case J.)

Both sets of my grandparents came from the same small town in Saskatchewan, Canada. I visited there every summer and clearly remember how long and stretched out the days felt and I spent a lot of time helping out in massive gardens.

You never know what life experiences will trigger creativity!

Of course, people having to deal with hardship due to tough economical times is something many people can relate to right now. I imagined how a recession situation would effect a small town like my fictional Hayward, WA, and combined with the above, turned it into IT’S A LITTLE HAYWIRE.

And right now it’s FREE on Amazon. Just for today and tomorrow!

Links:

www.ellestraussbookscom

Twitter: @elle_strauss

Facebook : Elle Strauss – Author

Thanks Elle for stopping by with It’s A Little Haywire!

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What does a tween angel and a fog train have in common?

Both are supernatural and both appear in two new terrific middle grade books by fellow Indelible authors!

If you enjoyed Kate DiCamillo’s, BECAUSE OF WINN DIXIE, then you’ll enjoy IT’S A LITTLE HAYWIRE by Elle Strauss. Owen True is stuck with his Grandpa but everything has changed since the mill closed. But if the mill closed why does Owen hear train whistles?  And what’s that chuggin’ down the tracks? Fog? A ghost train? And what does it mean for Owen?

Buy it Amazon (And did I mention this one is free today? That’s right! FREE!)

If you are a bit tired of the whole angel/demon thing in YA and want something a bit on the brighter, I mean, lighter side, then read ON THE BRIGHT SIDE by S.R. Johannes. You’ll find an angel who must protect her frenemy but not everything is at it seems and Gabby has some hard lessons to learn.

Buy it Amazon (Only 99 cents!)

Buy it Barnes and Noble

Enjoy them both!

Comments { 15 }