That’s right. A
ten year old. A couple of years ago, I was selling my first three books at a
local festival when a little girl came running up to my booth. Her whole face
lit up when she saw my Malone mysteries. I felt kind of bad because I figured
she thought the books were for kids. But, when her mother arrived a few minutes
later and I explained they weren’t, I got a surprising response. “My daughter
has been reading novels since she was five years old. She knows what parts to
skip over.” And she bought all three!
But my books are
primarily intended to appeal to adult women. The main character is a female in
her thirties and, although I keep the language clean, the subjects in my books
are more suitable for adults. A serial killer, a child abduction, a murder and
(spoiler alert) a stalker.
So, although most
of my readers are adult women, my books include both male and female characters and they span the
generations. The youngest is six-year-old, Davey, and the oldest is
seventy-nine year old, Olivia. But that’s just in the first three books. In Mistaken Identity, I have another
senior, Clara, and in my WIP (work in progress), Marnie Malone, yet another, Tallulah (Lu) Grover.
So why the wide
age range in my characters? I think the best explanation is the fact that, in real life, I’ve learned (and continued
to learn) so much from people of all ages.
They say the elderly possess wisdom, which is often true, but everyone we meet
can give us a new perspective, some helpful hints and/or story ideas - no
matter how old or young they are. If we listen.
