HERE ARE JUST SIX OF THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OR SERIES CONCEPTS THAT FAILED TO MAKE IT BEYOND MY DESK.
Curious to see what they're like? Click the covers to look inside.
WORDYSOD : Michael Lawrence www.wordysod.com
A Writer's Website
Orson Quirk is a boy who, after falling down a Green Hole in the ground while clutching a bunch of superhero comics, emerges with every super power ever dreamed up by comic writers and illustrators - powers that take him over at the most inconvenient times and aren't always easy to control.
The first of several proposed adventures of a human boy (a weenie) adopted as a baby by Giant Sunkenditch and his wife April-May and brought up as one of their own, but smaller. The Sunkenditches call him Snottridge, an old family name, though this is soon shortened (given his size) to Snott.
Young Ebenezer Scrooge is the only boy still at his boarding school during the summer holiday as his father doesn't want him at home. Very lonely, he is visited by three Spirits who warn him of three more to come; three who will tell him of the dreadful future that's in store for him if he doesn't watch out.
Delius Gripe is a gelf. Gelves were around long before humans, which they call 'hominids'. Gelves possess the ability to change into almost anything by scratching their bums. Delius scratches his bum more than most and his shapeshifting ability has got him out of many a scrape, though he does make the occasional poor choice. For instance: 'I once made the mistake of turning myself into a toilet. Never again. I was very ill-used.'
Michigan-born Demelza lives in England with her English mother, who learns that she's inherited a deregulated railway station from a relative she barely knew. When they move to the very rundown place, Demelza discovers things that aren't quite ordinary, not least an ancient suit of armour with a young man inside it. A young man who, each time he lifts his visor, is a bit older, with a bit more history.
A proposed series for younger children about Lewis Carroll's Alice before she goes to Wonderland and through the looking glass. While not echoing Carroll's Victorian usage, the tone would have been light and humorous - ideal for reading aloud - the character and settings fairly timeless, the stories as unpredictable and rich in oddball characters and situations as LC's.
Writers of fiction are generally known for the books they have published, not the ones they have not. I don't know how it is for others, but I've always had more ideas than I've managed to sell - a surplus which tumbrels of agents and editors decided against, often to my bafflement or chagrin.
Time has passed since I sent out all those things and rather than dispose of them I have brought together extracts from a number of them in this book - extracts interpolated with comments from me and snatches of correspondence from some of the literary gatekeepers who turned them down. If curious to read of one agent's responses to one of these offerings, click the cover on the left.
The book is available as an ebook from Amazon. See here: Amazon.
