Poetical and Charming - Writing for a Less Lyrical Age

A licked finger pointing at the sky; a cool breeze tempting a cloud into an Indian Summer. To go indoors or stay outside a little longer and catch a cold? A Puzzle.

I have always thought that age, like the wind, is a continuum, with ebbs and flows, that eventually peters out. The reality of publishing is that age comes in marketable chunks, like the National Curriculum, and there are little gaps in between, or at least murky grey areas of fog where books might become lost.

It is lovely to be associated with lyricism & charm. And the poetical.  (The words of a well-known publisher about my book.) But it would be nice to be lashed to the rough mast of teenage fiction or dream in the lazy hammock of the 10-12's. At the moment I am at the end of the plank... staring into the fog.

Or maybe not.

The story is the thing and it should be able to slide up and down a continuum of age, if it is good enough. Having just been rejected with charm and grace by that well-known publisher I talked about earlier, I need to reflect on whether my story is bright enough to illuminate the dark gaps that lie between twelve and thirteen, and penetrate the fog that is fifteen.

A puzzle.