The first book in The Mapmaker Chronicles series turns 10 today. Double figures. A Big Kid by anyone’s standards.
Ten years ago today, Race To The End Of The World was published – my first experience of the joy and confounding ambivalence of publication day as a children’s author.
Sending your debut novel out into the world is simultaneously thrilling, terrifying and – incredibly uneventful. I expected parades and instead dropped my two boys at school, picked them up and (probably) had spag bol for dinner.
But, as I prepare for the publication of my tenth middle-grade novel in 2025, I can honestly say that the many hours I put into dreaming up and writing Race To The End Of The World were some of the best hours of my life.
The product of one million words
Before I wrote my first children’s novel, I had written three full adult novels of 90,000+ words each. I had been lucky enough to have two non-fiction books published, along with three ghost-written books. I had completed thousands and thousands of articles for magazines and newspapers, along with everything from advertising campaigns and annual reports.
Conservatively, I had written one million words.
I knew that I knew how to write sentences – sentences that were funny, compelling, engaging and beautiful, all at different times, sometimes at the same time.
What Quinn, Ash, Zain and the other characters in Race To The End Of The World taught me was how to write a story.
The first book I’d ever written for children and the first book I’d ever written that had me so absorbed in what happened next that I forgot to overthink, forgot to be a perfectionist, forgot to try to be a Writer, and instead just wrote down the story.
A story that filled every nook and cranny of my brain for six weeks (except for the bits required to keep the family alive). Where the actual writing mostly took place between 10pm and midnight.
Six weeks. That’s how long the first draft took me.
Then, of course, the editing began.
It took almost a year from the day that Suzanne O’Sullivan at Hachette Australia said ‘yes’ to publishing the book for it to appear on shelves. By then, I’d written Prisoner of The Black Hawk and drafted Breath Of The Dragon as well.
(I needed the full first trilogy written before I went out to talk about Race To The End Of The World – when you write like I do, it’s essential.)
It takes a village (or two) to keep a book in print
My oldest son was nine years old when we first had the two conversations that inspired this epic fantasy adventure story. (You can see my first ever video interview about the series here, where I talk about those conversations and what happened after that.)
I am enormously proud of the fact that The Mapmaker Chronicles is still available today, and published in several territories. I still get regular emails from readers who have discovered the series and want to tell me how much they love it (and asking where book 5 is, but that’s a different story…).
Thank you to everyone who has read the books and shared it with others. If you haven’t read them yet, there’s more information here.
Books do not last ten years without a lot of help and I cherish the support of readers and my various communities, from The Pink Fibro (IYKYK) to Your Kid’s Next Read, who have been with me on this mighty journey and helped me navigate my career as a children’s author.
I think Quinn would be very proud.
Find out more
The Mapmaker Chronicles series
The original book announcement post
Curriculum information about the book
Are you new here? Welcome to my blog! I’m Allison Tait, aka A.L. Tait, and I’m the author of middle-grade series, The Mapmaker Chronicles, The Ateban Cipher, and the Maven & Reeve Mysteries. My latest novel THE FIRST SUMMER OF CALLIE McGEE is out now. You can find out more about me here, and more about my books here.
If you’re looking for book recommendations for young readers, join the Your Kid’s Next Read Facebook community, tune in to the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast and sign up for the Your Kid’s Next Read newsletter.
0 Comments